bjwestner

Good question....I noticed this recently too and decided that I wanted to keep my PW, AW, and LW consistent as I occasionally change the iron set I'm using. Thus all my wedges will not change and that's one less club that changes if my irons change. I ordered a 46 degree 588 rtx cb Cleveland PW that was to my specs. I have a 52 degree gap wedge and a 58 Cleveland smart sole wedge. I also have a 42 degree Chipper/utility club that rounds out my wedges. Those four stay in my bag regardless of what irons I'm playing. I think that this is what happens to tour players as the better irons (like my Bridgestone J40's) only are available up to a PW. Personally I find wedges that I have purchased oustide of the iron set to be of better quality than the ones that are part of the iron set.

I've gone from never hitting a golf ball to currently a 6.4 handicap in 2 years, 2 months, and 17 days. I did it without lessons so far. When I first started playing golf, I did research and it seems like most people were telling me to get lessons. After reading a few books and thinking about things logically, I realized that until my hand/eye coordination improved so that I could hit the back of the ball consistently that I would probably not gain much from lessons since it was just going to take practice and my coordination getting better. I continued to read books, watch videos, play as much as possible, and only just recently have I been able to shape the ball. I've been making tweeks here and there to my swing throughout that time though. To the op: I hope you find something that works for you that helps you improve. Unfortunately as I'm sure you know, there is no one right way to hit a golf ball and people are different. So while the instructor you had did not make you better, maybe they made others better. I'm told that Bubba Watson never had lessons yet he has two majors, yet Tiger has had a swing coach for a long time. It's just a matter of figuring out what works for you. Personally I'm leary of hearing about how coaches want to completely change someone's swing. Depending on the level they are at, my opinion is that it's usually not necessary and better to work with what you've got already and maximize the talent from what you have already. In other words, unless you've gotten all you can from your swing and improvement is not going to come unless major changes are made, my opinion is to focus on the smaller things that can make an improvement with what you have. I see it a lot where major swing changes are done and the person is not even a bogey golfer. They do not even know their own swing, how are they going to implement a major swing change? This is just my own two cents. I've only been playing for a short time so it may not so good, however, I have reached all my personal golf goals so far by making informed decisions and not listening to what everyone else says automatically.

After a round on Saturday and then a round on Sunday, both at my country club, my hc is officially at 6.4 and trending at 6.4L. I shot 79 both rounds this past weekend. I also made some changes to what is in the bag. In an effort to better space out my wedges, I bought a 46 degree Cleveland 588 cb pitching wedge and a 52 degree too. I then have a 58 degree Cleveland smart sole wedge and a 42 degree one that I really don't use that much but have kept in the bag for the one or two times per round I need to use it's versatility. Those RTX wedges are awesome. The spin that they put on the ball is the best of any wedge I've seen. I've been going back and forth between using the Bridgestone J40 irons and the Speedblades. On Sat I used the J40's and yesterday I used the Speedblades. On Saturday I did not have a birdie all day long but had 11 pars and just 7 bogeys. Sunday was a more up and down type of round but ultimately the same score. I had 1 double, 3 birdies, 8 bogeys, and 6 pars. My putter has been on fire lately and this was especially the case yesterday where I had 17 putts on the front and just 13 on the back including 5 one putts on the back nine. The putter is still the "Snedeker" putter, the Bridgestone True Balance TD-02. The first birdie I had yesterday was under one foot out from the hole due to such a great shot with that new PW. The other two birdies, on 13 and 14 were both 20 plus footers that I drained. I made several other clutch putts with the putter yesterday on #11, a par 3 where I lost a ball (we all agreed it landed clearly in bounds but could not be found). I took a penalty and hit my third shot to 15+ feet out where I drained the putt to save a bogey that could have been easily back to back double bogeys. I don't play matches often but agreed to play a fellow club member yesterday for breakfast. I gave him 7 strokes (he's about a 13 hc and I'm a 6.4). I ended up having to buy breakfast but did not mind as he played well, shooting an 84 while I shot 79. I continue to work on short game and it's improving but I still have a long way to go. My scrambling percentage over the last 20 rounds is only at ~30% and my up and down percentage is only marginally higher than that. I've been making more birdies which is good as that was a concern that I had not too long ago. I'm still improving, although the handicap is dropping at a much slower rate than it was before but this was somewhat expected. I wish I could decide and stick with one set of irons instead of going back and forth like I am doing now between the J40's and the Speedblades. I will get to a point where I'm confident with the J40's and then lose confidence that I am not good enough to play them consistently and go back to the SB's, only to eventually want more accuracy and go back to the J40's. It does not seem to be affecting my scores at all so I guess that's good, but I'm sure it would be better to pick one set and just play that. My bag now looks like this: driver: Titleist 910 D2 - this club has been in my bag the longest and is not going anywhere anytime soon, unless it's because I buy a 913 3 wood: Taylormade SLDR S Mini Driver, 16 degree loft Hybrid: 3 hybrid, Taylormade R11, 18 degrees Irons: keep going back and forth between 4-9 with either Taylormade Speedblades or Bridgestone J40 combo dpc/cavity back with Project X 5.0 flighted shafts PW: Cleveland 588 rtx cb, 46 degree UW: Cleveland 42 degree smart sole (C) GW: Cleveland 588 rtx cb, 52 degree LW: Cleveland 58 degree smart sole (S) putter: Bridgestone True Balance TD-02 ball: Bridgestone B330 RXS bag: Silver Bridgestone Mini-Staff

I've always wondered why most irons sets include a pitching wedge and some include a gap wedge/sand wedge? I prefer all my wedges to be the same not just for looks sake but also because it makes all the wedges the same just with different lofts/bounces. I'd imagine that especially for higher handicappers that this would help and be much more consistent? I've noticed that while many people change their irons, their wedges change less frequently usually because if it is not broken, then why fix it? This makes sense to me as I've found wedges that I like a lot and have kept in the bag for a while. So it got me to thinking if I have these wedges that I like, why do I have a PW that matches my irons? If I like the wedges and add a PW that is the same as my GW, SW, and LW, then this could stay consistent throughout time and would be one less club I need to buy/replace when I get a new set of irons. So I've added a 46 degree pitching wedge (Cleveland, all my wedges are, they just work for me well). I'm guessing that it's a marketing thing for iron sets to come with a PW and some with either a GW or SW as the manufacturer does this hopefully so the consumer will purchase the additional wedges from the same manufacturer? I've seen some wedge sets out there for purchase but not as many as I thought. It seems there is an opportunity for a manufacturer to come out and sell a complete wedge set that includes a PW and then adds a combination of GW, SW, and LW so all wedges would be uniform?

Update - played twice this past weekend, once on Sat and once on Sunday morning, both rounds at my country club. I also made an appointment coming up this Thursday to meet with a former PGA golfer who works at a local golf park so I can get my Bridgestone irons bent/set to my optimal specs. I do not know what those specs are but I guess we'll find out on Thursday night. The greens at my club which are usually very well kept and fast had been a bit on the slow side for the last few weeks. The Maryland Mid-Amateur is being held today and tomorrow at my country club so we could tell on Saturday that the greens were being sped back up to normal if not quicker for the tournament. My putting has been very good lately especially with this new Bridgestone True Balance TD-02 putter with the steel shaft. Over the last 5 rounds I've averaged under 31 putts per round. I did not play that great nor that poor this weekend. I shot 80 on Saturday and tied my best effort yesterday with a 77. I was lucky though on the last hole a par 5, 18th I pitched in from about 30 yards out and under a tree with my 4th shot for birdie. It was a lucky shot and as much as I'd like to try to say that it's because of my work on my short game which I have been working on a lot this year, it was mostly probably just a lucky shot. I'm hoping to figure out soon which irons will be in my bag moving forward. Although the Bridgestones are harder to hit as a whole, the 7-PW which are cavity backs are not much harder at all. I am thinking that I probably should have got the whole set in cavity backs instead of getting the 4-6 in dual pocket cavity backs because I think the cb's are easier to hit due to the wider sole even though they are supposed to be less forgiving. I'm not that pleased with the 4-6 shot shape of the Bridgestones but am pleased with the 7-PW trajectory and accuracy over the speedblades. On Saturday there was a prime example of the lack of consistency that I've noticed sometimes with the SB's. I was 115 out and was shooting from the fairway uphill to a green with a back flag. I planned to fly the ball 120 uphill with a PW, not a problem for me with the SB's. I took a 3/4 swing and the ball was an uphill hook lie. My partners were near the green which is important because the ball ended up 30 yards past the back of the green. I thought I must have hit a sprinkler but they confirmed that was not the case at all. When I got to the range on Saturday morning the 9 iron on the range was flying 150 which was too much. Part of it I'm sure was the contrast from hitting the SB's again where I had not done so in a while and part of it may be that I am hitting it further because I went from hitting a harder club to hit to an easier club to hit. I noticed that the additional offset caused me to pull the ball a bit more and I had to make an adjustment Saturday morning but I was able to fix that before I tee'd off. I've flattened out my swing a bit this year and part of this was from my set up which has my spine angle away from the target and my left shoulder higher than my right. This has caused me to not take heavy divits and become more of a picker of the ball. I'm wondering if this is the issue I'm having with the longer Bridgestone irons? I'm excited to go to this guy later in the week as I'll know for sure that the clubs will be at the best possible specs for my swing

Interesting...after reading your post I realized that my scrambling percentage is actually higher than I think it is. That's because I count any stroke with my putter as a putt, even if it's not an official putt that is on the green. I know that usually at least once per round I am putting from the fringe or just off the green and get par which is technically a successful scramble. The reason I do this is so I can tell how I'm doing with my ball striking and how I'm doing with my putting because as you know, some stats are not what they seem and I wanted the truth so I knew what to work on....

So how is that argument any different than using that argument for the assault/rape of women? I'm sure your not going to say that you agree and that it's the same thing, so how do you justify there is negligence on the homeowner but not the female?

So if the house is negligent for being in the wrong spot, are women that dress in a way that attracts attention partially negligent if they are assaulted/raped? You could use the same argument in theory, "they knew they were going to have windows broken and damage as the house is right next to the course"....."if the developer did not put the house so close to the out of bounds line then their house would not have gotten hit"

I don't think that there's a single instance in this entire thread where anyone has talked about what the homeowner should or should not "expect". In fact, if you read my very first post I said that whether the homeowner should accept an offer of payment is an entirely different discussion......and it is. The discussion here is the about what the golfer should, or should not do. It depends on the specifics of the house and it's location. If it's a house that is on the left side of the nearest tee box then as a homeowner I'd expect the same risks that any other homeowner in the same city/area would have. If it's on the right side of the nearest tee box then I'd probably expect a broken window here or there and there are plenty of coverage options available in those circumstances.

Golfindad, I like the idea but it will never happen. That is asking a golf course to take responsibility for the shots that it's players hit. I work in insurance and actually some of our clients are golf courses. They do have liability insurance and are occasionally dragged in to some odd losses. Many courses already pay sky high insurance premiums just for the risks that they are responsible for (various injuries, slips/falls, golf cart dangers, food/hospitality risks, etc.). Furthermore, I cannot see any insurer taking on that kind of risk (insuring the shots of golfers that they do not know and cannot underwrite considering all the potential consequences). There are rare circumstances where the courses insurance will step up but those are increasingly rare which is why you see at just about every course signs making it clear to the golfers that they are responsible for any damage they cause.

You may get it and I may get it, but clearly not everyone here does based on the comments from the high school student. Don't you believe that as a golfer you have a responsibility to educate younger golfers when you have the chance about doing the right thing? Just because a house is built in an area that is not optimal as your example indicates, does not mean that the owners of the home necessarily should be at fault if you were to for example hit their house with your golf shot. Accidents happen but it sounds like you believe that it absolves you of any responsibility if you knowing the risks, hit a shot and caused damage/injury. What if for example, there was a small child in that house in your example and it's head was at the window. Would you still hit that shot and risk damage/injury that you may not be legally liable for just because you thought someone put a house in a bad spot? It seems buildings are getting closer and closer on some courses and it's not a great idea, I agree with that 100%. You are still the one hitting the golf ball by choice, so regardless of the scenario any potential damages are ultimately the PROXIMATE cause. There may be contributory factors but the damage/injury would not have occurred had the golfer not hit the errant/shank shot.....

It's my understanding that it varies by state, but generally the plaintiff would only be able to proceed under traditional negligence. I used the example in the previous post that the excuse of age/wealth and also intention does not always absolve one from liability and more important, moral liability. Many people do not intend to rear end the vehicle in front of them, they are almost always found negligent. The OP was asking if he did the right thing which I took to mean morally, not legally. Regarding the manslaughter example, that is completely different and you are adding in criminal to something that without intent is clearly a civil matter. At the edge of my country club driving range, there is a large/tall net. Immediately to the other side is private property that is not related to the golf course at all. Years ago I'm told, before I joined, someone hit a shot and broke a windshield of a tractor or similar type vehicle. Apparently the owner of the vehicle sued or threatened suit to the person that hit the ball as the golf course made it clear that they were not liable. Ultimately the damage was paid for by the guy's insurance that hit the ball I am told. I have an example although not identical, similar from my childhood.....playing baseball in an open field with houses around a ball was struck that broke a window on the house. I was 14 at the time. I mowed the homeowners lawn several times as payment for the window. They were thankful that I came forward and I knew I did the right thing even though I did not have any money. My parents also indicated I did right as they said that had I not said anything and they found out they would have walked me over to that house themselves. I think that in most cases many homeowners would work with a minor if an incident like the OP posted about happened. Especially considering the details/size of house/etc.

You probably have not learned about it yet in school but the law in general does not specifically outline every thing that you pay for if you broke it. You committed a tort as but not for your negligence (hitting the ball into someone's window and breaking it) this would not have happened. I do hope at some point in your schooling that you learn about this so that you are not exposed to the free world thinking that age or wealth excuses you from your actions legally. As a minor your parents would be responsible for your actions in this event. You say you will notify the owner indicating that you have not as of now. You continue to give excuses (age/high school) to your actions. It is exactly this lack of responsibility/sense of entitlement (I'm allowed to play golf but not allowed to be held accountable) that permeates the youth of this country that has me very worried about the future. It's not your fault though, I blame my generation (the same as your parents probably) for this failure raising their children to think that just because someone is rich or because they are under 18 that actions do not have consequences.

So you want to play a gentlemens game but not be held responsible for your actions? I hope you are aware that most things in the world do not work this way, i.e. if you rear end someone, you are responsible for the damage to their vehicle and their injuries. Just because other vehicles are on the road does not give absolve responsibility and neither does a house on a course make it okay for someone to cause property damage and not be responsible. I'm actually in shock after reading so many posts from people that actually think it's okay for the OP to not have to pay for the damage that he/she caused. Most if not all golf courses have signs that let each golfer know that the course is not responsible for damage that the individual golfer does and that it's their (the golfer's) responsibility. The perceived wealth of the owner of the house is high or low has nothing to do with this. You say you are too poor to pay for the damage you caused, I really hope that you do not have any children. Also, please answer me this question.....Sergio Garcia recently hit a woman that was a spectator at a tournament. Being that close in the crowd like that at a tournament is a risk and that's communicated as there is chance for bodily injury or death. Under your guidelines, the lady's insurance should have paid for the diamond that Sergio knocked out (assuming if it was never found) versus him offering to pay for it? Why did he offer that then? It does not surprise me that you fudged your score and did not hole out. If you read the rules then you would know that you post your score as it is and ESC applies only after you enter the real score.

In my opinion short game is moot unless/until you can get around just about every green in regulation. Not necessarily on every one, but near almost all of them. In 2013 at the start of the golf season (march in MD), I was a 15.5 hc and had been playing less than a year. I ended the 2013 season (November) at an 8.3 hc. No lessons and I had been playing for less than a year and a half by the time the handicap season ended. How did I do it? I increased my average GIR to more than 7 per round and I was consistently around almost every GIR. Everyone has a bad hole here and there but I was consistently getting on or around 16 or more greens in regulation per round. Thus my focus for all of 2013 was to improve my ball striking which would in turn yield higher GIR results which it did. Now, for 2014 that my ball striking was at a decent level (it's still improving btw), my focus was on the short game for this year. Ball striking is still improving but not at the same rate. So now I'm averaging 50% GIR per round. This is great but there was a huge opportunity for me because my scrambling percentage is/was so low. My short game has improved quite a bit but there is a long way to go. I am only at about 33% scrambling but although that seems low, it has made a huge difference for me in getting a few extra pars per round versus when my scrambling percentage was barely double digits. A great short game can save you from a lot but only if you are around the green in regulation. Last Sunday I had one of the worst ball striking days of the year. I did not feel good and was just "off". I hit only 5 GIR, the lowest total I've hit all year but I was able to shoot 7 over 79 because I got up and down for par 6 out of the 13 GIR I missed. That was the best scrambling % I ever had in a round and showed me that the work on my short game has been paying off. Like yourself, I was also curious at how I stacked up versus other golfers statistics wise throughout my journey so far. It's hard sometimes because not everyone keeps their stats but there are some good examples out there. From what you wrote it sounds like you are right where you should be based on your scores.

Update - the last 20 rounds have easily been the best stretch of golf that I have every played. From 6/8/14 through 8/3/14 I played those 20 rounds. Currently my hc is officially 6.6 and is trending at 6.6L. There was a point in time earlier in the season when I thought that I should be making more birdies than I was. My friends told me that they would come as the weather improved and they were right. Over the last 20 rounds I have had 14 birdies and 1 eagle while having 8 double bogeys. I am getting par or better 56.4% of the time over that stretch. I continue to work on my short game and it is improving. Yesterday was the best example of it. I had an off day with my ball striking in weather that was wet/rainy and hit just 5 GIR....I still ended up shooting 79 though because my scrambling % was 46.2%, a new record for me. I recently realized that to improve on my scores in addition to continuous improvement on my short game, I needed to get closer to the hole with my approach shots. I did not/do not think that the speedblade irons are getting me as close as I could be. I wanted clubs that I had more control with as well since I am getting better and better at shaping shots. So I obtained a set of Bridgestone J40 irons, the 4-6 are the dual pocket cavity while the 7-PW are cavity backs. The lofts on the new irons are much weaker so I was/am losing distance but believe that I am much more accurate. I find that the Speedblades tend to balloon a bit on me and I do not seem to have that problem with the new irons. I only have 3 rounds with the new irons though and had trouble this past weekend getting out of the wet rough with the new irons. They do not have as much forgiveness as the Speedblades and definitely do not have as much distance. I am about a club shorter with the new irons. I talked to the PGA pro at my country club and he is going to make adjustments to them to give me a bit more distance. So I was kind of disappointed with my ball striking with the new irons this past weekend but still managed to shoot 79 both days and it was because my short game compensated. Yesterday I set a new record for myself with just 28 putts. I'm sure that part of my struggles was that I am not used to the new irons yet. Specifically I just had issues getting the ball out of the wet rough where as I did not have that problem with the speedblades. When I played my first round with the new irons last Thursday it was in the afternoon and not wet out, thus there were no issues with the rough. I never had so many birdie chances under 15 feet in a round then I did last Thursday afternoon. The control was so much better with the new irons. I've reached out to friends to get their opinion on whether I should make the iron change or not? It was about a 50/50 split. Some said I was stupid for switching to an iron that is harder to hit. Some said that I would need to make that change at some point anyway and why not now? I decided that I needed to at least try to change because I could tell that I hit the Bridgestones more accurately than the Speedblades. I had much more control despite the fact that there was not as much forgiveness built in. After playing with forged irons for a few rounds now it feels so much better. I am hoping that strengthening the loft on the new irons a couple of degrees will make the loss of distance not quite as severe and hopefully I will get better and better at hitting them. The way I see it is that I will likely have to make a change at some point so why not now? I am told that the irons are made for single digit handicappers and I am in the mid single digits. Finally I was getting to a point where I could not hit that many more greens than I was. That's not to say I cannot improve my ball strinking, I can and hope to, it's just that I looked at it as I needed to be in closer proximity, have better control, better accuracy, and have options to shape shots that I did not have with the Speedblades. Yes it sucks losing distance but I'm willing to do that if I can be closer and it seems that it is the case as while my GIR are a bit down over the three rounds I've played with the J40's (7.3 GIR per round), my birdies are over one per round as I have 4 in the three rounds with the J40's and if not for playing on such a crappy course last Thursday with poor greens, may have had many more.

Sorry I have not posted in almost 5 weeks, have been busy at work. My golf game is still progressing and I continue to improve. Currently my official hc is 7.0 and it's 6.9L. Over the last 20 rounds I have averaged 50% GIR which has been great, I continue to hit balls at least once during the week and as I continue to do that along with playing at least two rounds per week, ball striking is continuing to improve. My priority in 2014 was short game and I have come a long way since the start of the year. I still have a long way to go though. My scrambling percentage is around 25% and my up/down percentage is only marginally better at about 30-35%. I know this is very low and that's why I am working on it as much as I can. Amazingly I've already improved quite a bit in 2014 with my short game which is testament to how bad it was coming into the year. I'm at a point now where I am around virtually every green in regulation with a few expections here and there. I'm hitting about 50% of the GIR so the other 50% of the time I am usually around the green in regulation but I'm only coverting a fourth of those as per my scrambling numbers. All of this tells me that I have a lot of room to improve still and believe that I can. It's just a matter of practice and repitition and to get the feel of certain shots down. The area that has been the slowest area of my game to improve has been those shots that you cannot really practice on the range and can only do during a round. Odd lies, downhill, side-hill, things like that. I've played 53 rounds of golf to date and that would be much higher but because of the terrible weather this winter, I was not able to play much at all at the beginning of the year. Last year I got in 92 rounds and played probably closer to 100 when you include the various scrambles and things like those that I played in but did not count as a score for me. I'm not sure if I will get to play quite as many this year because of last winter but we are getting to "peak season" so I may try to play an extra round during the week.

As stupid as it sounds, I find that I do not always end up setting up correctly. By this I mean that I do not match the face of the club to exactly where I want to go with it. I have lately started taking more time and making sure that the swing path and the face of my club is set up where I want it to be instead of just the "general direction". I know this sounds really dumb but I guess I play really fast as do my regular playing partners and over time I've realized that I should take some more time before the shot to make sure that things are aligned the way I want. Too many times myself and my regular playing partners get into a rhythm and get too quick and not put enough time and focus into set up before the shot. I guess for a while this was not an issue with me because I was not precise enough for this to be that much of an issue, especially when factoring what kind of lie I had and how I wanted to shape the ball......now that I have more control than I did before and am able to shape some shots and such, just quickly lining things up and hoping to hit it straight is not good enough, I need to take just a bit more time to make sure that I can execute on the shot I want to hit. In other news, I purchased a new golf club. I ordered the TM Mini Driver and it arrived last night. I plan to replace my current 3 wood with the mini. Previously I was hitting my 3W okay but not as good as I probably should off the tee as I only hit a few tee shots per round with it. I also don't use it that much off the deck. I liked the sound of having a 260cc wood instead of my 3W which was only like 170cc or something. Anyways, it arrived yesterday and I went to the range last night. I've purchased many golf clubs in my day and this mini driver was by far and away the best club I've ever first hit with. I had immediate control and could shape shots right, left, and straight. What amazed me the most was the distance that I was getting. It was almost as long as my driver. I did not do measurements but I'd say that on average there is maybe a 10-15 yard difference if that and sometimes I was hitting the mini just as far as my driver (my average drive is between 240-250). While the mini is not adjustable, I am not upset by this at all. As long as I continue to hit the way I did last night then I'm very pleased with it as it is so much easier to control versus my driver. I drive the ball pretty well too, as my FIR for the YTD is almost 66.7%. It's just that sometimes I end up in situations where I HAD to be in the fairway and instead I was just in the rough and that totally changes the hole. It's too early for me to do a review of the mini but I will do one after I get a few rounds in.

Thanks. Unfortunately I do not have any updated videos of my swing but I will try to have one of my friends take one during one of my rounds this weekend so I can upload it. Something that has really helped my ball striking lately and has really helped my accuracy of my iron shots have been an adjustment I make at setup. That change has been to make sure that my spine angle is straight with my butt out and most importantly that my spine angle is angled slightly away from the target. What this does is makes my left shoulder a little higher than my right shoulder and in turn this allows me to stay much more connected in my swing and keeps my right arm tight up against my side instead of having a flying right elbow. I have found that the ball goes much further and higher when I do this. This has also stopped pretty much any casting at all as well. I just make sure to swing slowly and make a full turn on the backswing and everything flows so much better. Keeping a smooth tempo is key though as if you rush things like this then it's easy to mishit the ball. It's amazing that when I properly set up and keep a smooth tempo, I am able to hit the ball longer, higher, and more accurately while swinging with much less power than I was say a year ago or so. I'm no expert but doing this has really helped me improve my ball striking.

Thank you. By the numbers, I just enjoyed the best weekend of golf I've had so far. On Saturday at my club I shot a 79...there was more to the story than just shooting 79 though, as I've done that several times now. I started out terrible shooting 42 on the front 9 and then on the back nine I played arguably the best stretch of golf I ever have. I was left with a 15 foot birdie putt on number 18 that would have been an even par 36 on the back 9 if I had made it. Of course I did not but it was still the best 9 holes I ever had shooting just one over 37 on the back that included 2 birdies on the back nine. Sunday I decided to play a round at a local municipal golf course that I used to play alot when I first started playing golf. I wanted to go back just to gauge my progress as I had went back there once last year around this time and figured that I would make it a yearly thing. The course is only a par 70 and is short (5900 yards from the tees I play). On the second hole, a par 5 which is about 450 yards or so, I hit a monster drive and then a 5 iron that put me in the rough, hole high to the right. I was playing with two friends. I had to hit over a bunker to be on the green in regulation since I was laying two. I hit a great pitch shot and it went in for the second eagle of my life! I added one more birdie in the round but actually did not play that well overall in my opinion. The pace was very slow (almost 5 hour round) and we had to wait several minutes on every hole. The greens were much slower than what I was used to at my country club as well. I had fun though and the eagle made my day for sure. I shot a 7 over 77 which was only a 9.3 index for the round. That 9.3 index is equal to me shooting an 81 on my home country club course. It was a fun weekend where I played really good golf and was very close to shooting even par for the back nine on Saturday. I know I have a long way to go but it showed me that it can be done.....officially the hc is at 7.9 and is trending 7.7L.

Um, I believe what you created was a counter balanced putter. Bridgestone markets their line of new putters as counter counter balanced putters. Update on the Bridgestone putter: I could not stand that yellow grip that was way too big for my hands. It was also going to get filthy and disgusting because it was yellow foam. I cut it off and put a regular winn putter grip on it and I've used it in a few rounds recently and it's a great putter to use on greens that are very fast.

I have this thread on this and golfwrx and that's it. If that's all over the internet then you must stay on these two sites and nothing else. Don't like it? then don't read it.....I've gotten positive feedback and requests to keep updating from people on both sites. I put it on two sites with the hopes that I could learn and get better/improve, especially at the beginning. If you notice both threads are almost two years old.

Today is two years to the day from the first time I played golf/hit golf balls. Hard to believe that two years has gone by so fast! This past weekend was pretty solid as I shot a personal record-tying score of 78 on Saturday. Because the HC revision was that night, my new HC as of Sunday June 1, is 7.9. This past Saturday's round was probably the best round I've played to date. I had no birdies but I ended up with 12 pars (the most for me in a single round) and just 6 bogeys. Three of those bogeys were three putt bogeys though, so there was room for an even better score. All the short game work that I have been putting in really paid off though as I got up and down to save par 4 times out of 8 for a 50% scrambling percentage in Saturday's round, by far and away my best yet. The three three-putt bogeys was the most that I've had in a round in a while. I usually average under 1 of these per round but the greens at my club were rolled and were super fast on Sat morning, faster than their usual already fast pace. Thus I had 18 putts on the front 9, however, I adjusted well with just 15 putts on the back 9. I just keep plugging away. I know I have not posted in three weeks but not much has been going on over that time. I've been playing pretty well, shooting a 79 the week before and I've been consistently playing in the high 70's to low 80's at my club. I hit balls once or twice during the week and I work on my short game on Friday evenings. My hc has been coming down slowly but surely and was officially 8.7 (trending 8.4L) when I posted three weeks ago and is now down to 7.9 (trending 7.9L) currently. I shot a lot of 80's and 81's with a 79 and two 78's thrown in there and it's now finally below 8 for the first time. I'm still a bit confused as to why I am not scoring more birdies? Over the last 20 rounds of golf I've played, all at my country club, I've had just 8 birdies, or one birdie every 45 holes. Year to date I am averaging just one birdie every 51 holes where as in 2013 for the year I was making a birdie every 43.9 holes. I'm not sure why this is? Clearly I am a much better player and I am getting many more pars per round than I did last year. I am averaging just over 8 pars per round in 2014 and recently am getting par or better more than 50% of the time which is a big improvement from last year when I averaged just over 6 pars per round. Anyways, I'm quite pleased with how I am progressing. I knew that 2014 would be a year in which I would obviously not be able to keep up the crazy pace of improvement that I did in 2013. It's simply not possible to drop my hc as quick as I did last year but the overall trend is still going down and I know that I have a lot more room for improvement. My ball striking is slowly but surely still getting better all the time and my short game is improving quickly now that I have started working on it in 2014. I'm also playing much smarter golf and doing a pretty good job I think in avoiding double bogeys. Actually, I am averaging just slightly more birdies than I am double bogeys. Here are my stats to date: Frequency of Score per 18 holes Year Rnds Double Eagles Eagles Birdies Pars Bogies Doubles Triples Others 2014 38 0.00 0.00 0.34 8.11 9.24 0.32 0.00 0.00 2013 92 0.00 0.00 0.42 6.00 10.11 1.43 0.03 0.00 2012 48 0.00 0.02 0.10 3.31 10.31 3.56 0.69 0.00 Average Strokes Over / Under Par Year ** Rounds With Details Par 3 Par 4 Par 5 Par 6 All Holes Total Rounds Avg Score All Rnds Avg Index All Rnds 2014 38 0.52 0.62 0.29 9.53 38 81.45 9.47 2013 92 0.64 0.77 0.60 12.65 92 84.58 12.55 2012 48 1.03 1.11 1.02 19.35 57 93.33 22.41 ** NOTE: Only rounds with hole by hole scores are included in statistics. If you use the quick entry the round won't count in your stats. Stats Averages Year Avg Fairways Avg Greens Avg Putts 2014 9.29 (38) 7.90 (38) 34.00 (38) 2013 6.52 (92) 6.46 (91) 34.76 (92) 2012 4.24 (42) 3.73 (40) 34.98 (42) Numbers in parens are rounds with details where that stat was tracked

Update: Things have been going well lately and I continue to improve. The lowest that I have went was 79 and I shot that several different times. I happy that I finally went below 79 as I shot a 78 this past Saturday. It was by the far the best golf I have ever played and this included 2 three putt bogeys to boot. I had 11 GIR, 9 FIR, 34 putts and 44 strokes other than putts. My short game is a work in progress but I am improving slowly but surely. My hc is 8.7 but trending at 8.4L. I continue to hit balls at least once during the week. This is obviously a huge help and I also work on chipping/pitching which has helped my short game too. My scrambling percentage is now getting close to 25%, which while is still terrible is an improvement from the ~10% or so that it was coming into this year. I have improved my up and down percentage to close to 33% which is up from ~15% or so from last year too (note: up and down and scrambling is not same as scrambling % only is for par while I count a made up and down if I got up and down or not even if it's for a bogey - I do this to track if/how much my short game is improving). It's hard to believe that on June 2, in just a few weeks, that I will have been playing golf for 2 years. The time has really flown by! I am very pleased with the progress that I have made. Remembering back to when I first started I would lose sleeves (yes that's plural as in multiple sleeves) of balls every round. I had no idea what I was doing and was basically just slapping at the ball and my coordination was so bad that on many of the holes I would just dribble the ball off the tee. To go from that to shooting just 6 over par, 78 like I did on Saturday really makes me astounded at what practice can do. I have invested a colossal amount of time and money but it's nice to look back and see the statistical improvement, here is a snapshot of my stats per round since I started: Frequency of Score per 18 holes Year Rnds Double Eagles Eagles Birdies Pars Bogies Doubles Triples Others 2014 31 0.00 0.00 0.29 7.97 9.39 0.35 0.00 0.00 2013 92 0.00 0.00 0.42 6.00 10.11 1.43 0.03 0.00 2012 48 0.00 0.02 0.10 3.31 10.31 3.56 0.69 0.00 Average Strokes Over / Under Par Year ** Rounds With Details Par 3 Par 4 Par 5 Par 6 All Holes Total Rounds Avg Score All Rnds Avg Index All Rnds 2014 31 0.53 0.63 0.34 9.81 31 81.71 9.65 2013 92 0.64 0.77 0.60 12.65 92 84.58 12.55 2012 48 1.03 1.11 1.02 19.35 57 93.33 22.41 ** NOTE: Only rounds with hole by hole scores are included in statistics. If you use the quick entry the round won't count in your stats. Stats Averages Year Avg Fairways Avg Greens Avg Putts 2014 9.23 (31) 7.90 (31) 34.16 (31) 2013 6.52 (92) 6.46 (91) 34.76 (92) 2012 4.24 (42) 3.73 (40) 34.98 (42) Numbers in parens are rounds with details where that stat was tracked

Another very solid weekend of golf and the weather was very nice. I played Sat and Sun at my country club. The club had just aerated the greens in the middle of last week. While this is annoying I understand that it was completely necessary in fact it may have been a bit over-due. I noticed in the last few weeks that despite near record levels of precipitation that the greens were very hard and I was told that this was due to them needing to be aerated. Thus this made putting challenging over the weekend but I was still able to shoot an 81 on Saturday and my first official sub 80 round of the year on Sunday with a 79. Sunday was probably the best round of golf that I have played. Although it contained one stupid double bogey, I was very solid for the most part even getting up and down to save several pars. I ended up with 11 pars, 1 birdie, 1 double, and 6 bogeys on my way to 79 and I only had 33 putts with 9 GIR and 9 FIR. The Cleveland smart wedge 58 degree wedge is simply awesome and on consecutive holes I was able to get up and down to save par first from out of a tough lie in a sand trap and then on the next hole I almost pitched in for birdie but it missed just barely for me to save my par. The club is so great that my Uncle who I was playing with both rounds this weekend has already ordered himself a 58 degree. Last week I ordered the older version (which is actually called the Niblick) and is a 49 degree version. I have the 42 degree and 58 currently but found that I rarely use the 42 and preferred something with a bit more loft for chipping and bump and run shots which is why I ordered the 49. It arrived yesterday and I'm eager to put it in play this coming weekend. My handicap is currently at 8.6 and is trending at 8.6L even after the 79. The rating at my course actually got a bit easier but this is only temporary because one of the par 3's is getting a new teebox and the hole is currently much easier while it's temporarily being played from a mat. Thus the rating has come down from 70.6 to 70.4 and thus my 79 was a 7.7 index instead of a 7.5. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the Speedblade irons. I like them a lot. What I've found is that it's taken some time to figure out what club to hit and when based on what distance and other conditions. Far from being perfect I am getting better and found myself with shots that were closer to the pin than they had been before because I am picking the right club more often. I have been playing with Bridgestone B330-RXS balls. I've read online numerous people that say the Wilson Staff DUO ball is very underated and is just $20 per dozen but is still very soft. I ordered a box of them and they also arrived yesterday. Not that I'm unhappy with the Bridgestones but for $20 I figure I'll give them a try. I have not hit them yet but I was pleasantly surprised at how they felt with the putter as they seemed actually softer than the RXS. I plan to at least give them a try this weekend.