mkrolewski

Go to Thailand. The caddies are generally very pretty young Thai women. They are clothed in long sleaved pants and tops with bonnets - for sun protection, each course has its own colors. Most speak English - some Japanense, German and a few other languages. Friendly, very personable, your driver on the course, skilled at assisting you at golf, though my impression was none actually play golf. And a personal cheering section. And they keep the greens and course immaculate. It is really an experience. There is a limit on most courses to 3 caddies per person. Not sure what they are all for. In Thai heat, one to hold an umbrella for shade and one to assist with the golf. A lot of people hire lots of caddies as a show of wealth. A lot of the course allow 6-somes, so you could see 24 people in the group in front of you!!!!

To a large extent, part of the diet issue centers on the fact that there is very little dietary science. If one looks at your biochemistry classes, there is a large amount of science on various metabolic pathways. However, there is very much less ( is this English?) science when the whole organism is concerned. What drives fat uptake/release, etc. The "Everyone is different" is an just a simple why of saying "I do not know how it works". My personal observations has been most people eat too many calories and too many carbohydrates. Which ever side of the fence you sit on this particular position, there is much to be said for reducing one's weight. A lot of the issues with golf and life can be directly equated to those extra pounds. If you are already at a good weight ( a good solid middle of the road BMI for normal weight), great. Working on strength or cardio health is a great thing to do. If you are like the rest of us, losing 10-40 pounds may be your best way to better golf. My observation is dieting is really your only choice. Again, many people believe that the way to get there is exercise. Yes, I have seen the infomercials and "Biggest Loser". All of these programs have diets as a serious component. There are lots of people and studies which basically say exercise alone will not work. Until you get into the hours per day, you really cannot change your caloric output enough with exercise. Giving up that bag of chips a day, you really change your calorie intake. In addition, your body can compensate for any exercise by "resting" more in between your exercise sessions. I am not against exercise. It is great for what it can do. Cardio health is very important. There are lots of programs out there. Basically you need to change your food intake. Personally I have drunk the cool-aid and am following the Atkins system. It is pretty simple . I often refer to it as the "men's diet" due to the high levels of fat and meat/protein. ( It is more complex that that ). As to the comment you cannot exercise on a low carb (LC) diet -- that is not true. Many people work out and do very well while on a LC diet. In fact, people notice they have better endurance as you are not switching from glycogen to fat, but burning fat all the time. There is a period when starting the diet when exercising is more difficult. But that goes away as your body adjusts. Good luck on your training for the new golf season.

Years ago, I watched a guy methodically snap the shafts off his entire bag and throw them into the pond on the 18th. Obviously, he had not completely given up as he saved the heads.But quite amusing.

I have never golfed there. That could be really fun. My only comment is that the travel time by car is slower that you might expect. So give yourself lots of time to travel. Especially if you hit a country road (most roads). Almost 2 lanes between stone walls is hard to drive at speed. It is scaring driving on the "wrong" side of the road, with your mirrors in the ivy on the walls so the car coming the other way can pass. The locals do it well. Get a gps. The signage is poor, mostly at major intersections which can be spaced 10-50 miles apart. Another thing is that the cars are small -- watch out of lack of luggage space especially club space. The people there are quite nice. Visit a local pub or two for sure.

You could use one of those excess baggage services. They can pick up at home, ship and deliver it to the hotel. Comparable to the $100 that you are likely to pay one way for excess baggage at the airport. Less things to pick up, carry to the airport. They want to pick up earlier, but less overhead. And although I never did this, hotels might hold your clubs for pickup after you left. This allows you to board quicker, etc.

The ball nets generally are designed to absorb the damage of a ball hitting them. Many other materials will degrade quickly under the impacts. In addition, cold makes many materials more fragile. The ball is hitting the net at really high velocity ( 100+ mph for the slowest drivers). Golf nets have smaller spacing than a general purpose sports nets as the ball is much smaller. Many of the nets can be found for cheap -- as low as $40, more typically $100-150. You can buy and build a large cube for hitting via the DIY route for a higher end solution. Another issue is the map to drive/hit from. For a good one ( 3x4 or 4x5), they are $150+, more typically $300-500. It is really nice to be standing a firm non-skid surface at the same level as the ball. In addition it is nice for the surface to allow a strike into the surface ( a good golf swing ). A source is used ones from a driving range. The other issue with a swing area is that you need a fairly tall space. Ten feet is most typical. My personal issue with most driving/full swing systems is you cannot really tell if you are perfecting your swing or perfecting a bad swing (practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent). That requires more equipment. There are metering systems which estimate ball trajectory, speed, spin, club path, face angle, etc. Obviously these are expensive. The best are in the $20,000 range. The other idea and something that is doable indoors is putting. There are lots of systems for improving your putting. Even using synthetic carpet, your putting game can improve. That is 2 shots on every hole. Similarly, you can set up a chipping area and/or a sand trap with little effort. You do not need to see the run outs, just the initial flight. Good luck.

To the OP, the usual etiquette is to wait until the people in front of you are out of range. On par 3, you should not hit/start setting up until everyone has cleared the back of the green. If they left bags or carts in front of the green (bad form), you still need to wait. If you tend to hit through the green, wait until they are out of sight/range. Of course on a long par 3 where you cannot reach the green, you can hit while they are on the green. On longer holes, you want to wait until they are beyond where you typically hit. If you are erratic on distance, use your max distance. If you are in a foursome, you can/should have the shorter hitters hit first, rather than wait on honors for the longest hitter. Etiquette says if you accidentally hit into the group in front, yell fore and apologize when you get close again. It will happen. To play through, generally you need to get to the next tee before the party in front finishes teeing off. On many courses, the distance between holes make this pretty hard especially if you are walking. Unless there is a whole open hole, most people do not want you to pass. Executive courses one should play 9 holes in about 1 hour when empty (my experience with 7AM starts). It slows considerably when full to more like 2 hours. These courses are considered training/practice areas. People are teaching others. People are attempting to learn to play. Generally, their ability is lower, etc. Some hit multiple balls per shot and putt and re-putt. Personally, if no one is behind me (in the tee box), I will hit additional balls and practice more on the greens. Courses are designed to be played in 4-4:15. If the distance between holes is long -- it may take longer. Most munis play in the 4:30-5 hour range. There is an interesting article on this http://www.popeofslope.com/paceofplay/ The high points are: It takes about an hour to play 18 the rest of the time is "logistic positioning" or getting to the next shot with the right equipment Restricting carts to the paths adds 30 minutes to round time Tee times less than 10 minutes apart and you will have backups. Another key point: Don't let players tee off on the first hole as soon as the golfers in the fairway hit their second shots. On a par 4, make them wait until the group ahead reaches the green. You will be amazed at how much the pace on the course will improve. Your goal as a golfer is be ready to hit. Move to your ball quickly. Determine your distance and club selection quickly. Be ready to play when it is your turn. Good luck.

I am on the Atkins diet. Lost 45 pounds (20% of my starting weight) in 6 months. I have added back most foods except for starches eg bread, potatoes, rice, noodles. I still want to lose 45 more pounds but I have stopped losing weight at the moment. To be quite honest, it is a pretty easy diet to follow. I call it the "man diet" due to all the meat. I eat a reasonable amount of calories (2000-2500), mostly unprocessed foods and lots of cheese/nuts/fruit/vegetables and of course egs, meat, and fat. Very healthy. As to some of the other comments, ketosis is not necessarily bad. It just is indicating that you are burning fat. For most of us, that is a good thing. And you can do just about anything on a high fat/low carb diet. After the initial induction period, your energy reserves are relatively limitless. Atkins is a Way Of Eating (WOE) that you can do for the rest of your life. If you are interested you should read the latest book. Yes, it looks like I have drunk the cool-aid. But then again, a lot of it makes sense.

I use the golfguru -- original black and white model. ( www.gpsgolfguru.com ) In general, the gps is really great for determining position on the course. It eliminates those bad estimates. I recall playing a course for the first time. Stood next to the 100 yard marker. GPS said 75 yards to the center. My partner tied to hit 100 and flew the green. My 75 yd shot was pin high. Obviously, the marker was wrong. Pro: Small, light weight. Slightly bigger than most cell phones. Very clean, readable screen -- Fast gps satellite acquisition Never lost the signal on the course (in 5 years) -- even when in the woods. Battery last over 2 rounds. Good lifetime -- over 5 yrs for me. Free course downloads for all courses I believe courses are mapped via satellite images. No positive. I have found the courses to be extremely accurate. Measures distance all the way up onto the green -- useful for chipping and pitching over greenside bunkers. Gives distance from your location to across the perimeter of the green thru the hole. So, you get a better measure of the distances to the green, no matter the angle from the hole. Has ability to map any course. Useful if the course is reworked. For example, I used the existing course and modified 3 holes that were changed. Tracks shots -- tracks distance, club and lie. Once you "mark" your position, it continuously displays the distance traveled. Really great for walking the fairway to about where you think you should be. Has score tracking Auto advance, etc. Cons: satellite mapping -- the maps have been very accurate. Need to walk course in advance to create layup positions. Can be done, quick on the gps, a lot of walking and planning over the course. The golfguru's most advanced gps has this feature. Button and screen positioning takes some getting used to.

I might suggest that your good hitting on the range is also a bit of an illusion. I occasionally watch the other hitting at the range. Every once in a great while, one can see a great hitter. I am not talking about power or distance but very consistent ball flights to the same spot over and over. Most people have very inconsistent ball strikes. Next time you go to the range. Take a piece of paper and pencil and track each ball. Pick a club, a target and record what happens. Record every ball, how far wide (left and right) of center and distance.If you want to simulate the course, switch club after every ball. Now compare this to details on the course. Pen and paper would be good here too. Track where you wanted to be versus where you ended up. The facts are quite surprising.

The title says it all. If you lost weight -- something significant 20+ lbs, has your swing changed -- or did you have to adjust your swing because your body is now shaped differently?

I am 56 Weight: 265 at the first of April. Goal: 175 I am looking to lose 90 lbs. Too old to be so frumpy. Started the Atkins diet which for those who don't know is a very low carb diet. During the first phase you are at 20gram ( less than an ounce) of carbs per day. The major idea is eat as much protein and fat to feel full, 4 meals a day. No calorie counting needed. No chips, pretzels, cookies, cake, rolls, breads, donuts or even Gatorade. So lots of steaks, shrimp, salmon, pork chops, chicken (with the skin) and eggs. I have lost 20 lbs in 1 month. So only 70 to go. I am expecting most of the loss to take about 5 more months. I am exercising also. This is to strengthen my endurance and muscle tone, not to lose weight.

They are setup and adjusted to take into consideration the surroundings, etc. It is possible for them to be adjusted to be "hotter". It is highly unlikely for someone to change the performance setting between swings or between clubs. I cannot recall exactly what this one is measuring, but I believe it is actually looking at the ball, and it's spin. It calculates distance down range and off line from this information. The physics make this possible. You are getting consistent but relative results. When you are testing with them, your best bet is to compare what you know ( your current driver, wood ) to the different club(s). The relative measure of performance should be the same. As you stated, thin shots behave as you might expect ( a relative reduction in performance ). Your swing may (will) change when you move into the simulator. That may effect your performance.

I have one and use it occasionally. I have the mat and the sensor. I have a driving net, but I generally practice without a ball indoors, so do not use it. It does a nice job of giving you swing information. I have been using it to attempt to correct my slice -- open face at impact. It does give you good information on the impact area. It is nice to use even without a ball -- the device is tracking the club head, not the ball. One bad thing about it is the sensor surface is a hard rubber -- which kinda hurts if you hit it. So one might be learning NOT to hit the ground which is fine for a wood or driver. Not as clear with a wedge or 6i. Another issue is if using a laptop, the screen is too small to read while on the mat. Granted the software has an audio/voice feedback to tells you a couple of items ( I think on-line/off line and open/closed face ). You can of course playback the last n swings. It might be difficult for some people to connect their swing and the feedback together. A projector would help, but I did not want to include that expense.

Being over 50, I too realized that I am way over weight. Tried to get back via exercise. After one year and a half, certain things improved -- endurance, muscle tone and size, resting pulse. What one might expect from exercising. However, no weight loss. In fact, I gained weight. I wishfully felt it was muscle, but have my doubts. I think a lot of this is due to the miscalculation of exercise burn. If you burn 200 cal in one hour, you need to subtract your baseline cal burn if you did nothing. A general estimate is 100 cal/hr -- hence the idea of eating about 2400 cal / day. Your 200 cal exercise is actually only an additional 100 cal. The second thing is you are most likely over-estimating your burn rate. So even that 100 cal is suspect. Finally realized that the solution to the weight is to diet. The best (most efficient) is a protein-sparing-modified-fast (PSFM). Pretty boring and can be a bit dangerous. Optifast is one corporate name for the program. You can do it yourself if you like without buying their products. The next level up is the Atkins and South Beach. Basically a variant on the PSMF. I am enjoying the Atkins -- eat anything you want until full off the list which is mostly protein/high fat-protein/meat. No carbs. So steaks, beef, pork chops, lamb, fish, seafood and lots of eggs. Atkins is a qualitative (what), not quantitative (how much) diet. Generally easy to follow but a lot of cooking/food prep. In addition, I have noticed that even restaurants have menu items that fit the plan. I really hate not having carbs -- my comfort food. But until I get off the 100 lbs, I can live with it. In addition, the Atkins has a concept of maintenance level -- so something to do when all the weight is off. I would suggest dieting until you are near that target weight. And make the target weight aggressive. I am 6'0". My idea running weight is less the 160. I was running/racing/marathoning into my 30's at 170-175. My goal is to get down to that weight.

That is unlikely. 0 or standard for a male is for 5'10" to 6' 0" or so. +1 is 1 inch longer shaft, therefore is by definition longer. The typical set of clubs eg something you might get a sports store or costco or a department store are standard size. Go to one of the clone sites eg pinemeadows.com or hireko.com or gigagolf.com. All have a "fitting" page to give you some idea of the typical size of your clubs.

As an ex-runner (15 years over 20+ years ago), I feel that the biggest bang is from being aerobic fit. This translates into still having energy on the 18th after walking the course. Does this translate into golf skill? No, it does not. That means working out for 30-60 minute range at the "it is hard to talk" level. As an old guy, 5 days a week is plenty. Doing running, ellipical training, etc works all the big muscle groups. I have never really done much in the way of stretching. I never intentionally cooled down. In 15 years of running, I really never stretched. I did warm up. And running is a great warm up for faster running. Weight training does have a place. It does strengthen muscles and tendons. When I do it, I prefer 3 set of 15 at a weight that I can do almost all 45 repeats at. And short breaks between sets.

I have started using the Swing Pro golf system to practice and play on the PC. The system allows the using your clubs to swing and measures a bunch of club measurements for each swing. The Swing Pro system has two courses. And you can use the electronics for input to Tiger Woods golf game. I am not really sure how real all aspects of the swing are. But the swing is real. The saddest thing I have encountered is the realization that my swing speed is fairly low ( mid-high 80's mph with driver) And I wonder why I am not hitting the ball farther.

I think it is easiest to practice putting as you really only need about 10 ft. And some training aids use considerably less space. Chipping and pitching can be done in the yard. Obviously a shorter swing and you do not need to see the roll out. There are low flight balls, etc, so even full swings with a wedge can stay in the yard. The only serious issue is how much do you like the grass in your yard. Of course, you can add a hitting mat. Switching to full swings, you really run into an issue IMHO. The issue is are you grooving a good or bad swing. Using a swing cage to warm up is one thing. To hit a 100+ balls, you might perfect a bad swing. The ball flight is really too short. And if you allow for longer flight, you need a really big net to catch the strays. There are devices out there that measure your swing -- more significantly the path of the club head through the strike zone. They would (should) give you feedback on how well you are swinging. I have Swing 3Pro. I have not used it alot yet. It generates a lot of feedback. I hope to practice this winter.

As is stated, the worst thing is that you cannot determine the flight path using only a mat and a hitting cage. Therefore you could be doing something wrong -- and learning that as your swing. This is that "practice makes permanent" issue. To a large extent, any practise without appropriate feedback is bad for you. There are devices that measure your swing which range from a $100 or so and up. Some measure ball flight and infer swing performance. The other class measures the actual swing and club motion and infer the ball flight. Personally, I like the later. All of these systems are designed to generate feedback on your swing. And without the specific need to have a pro watching every swing while you are training. I tried the 'p3 swing pro' a few times ( I own one). Lots of data on your swing -- actually too much. IMHO one has to pare down the data and look at the particular numbers that are significant to you. Having said that, one can see from the data whether your swing is true, on line, correct angle of attack, etc. In fact, since the device is measuring your club, you do not even have to hit a ball. Similarly there are tempo devices like the 'Sonic Golf' System. At $400, it is not cheap. But then again, getting better is not cheap either.

I have a ClicGear 2.0. Really like it. Well built and easy to handle. It really is strong looking -- big tubular parts. Easy to unfold and fold back up. Easily lifted with one hand. Everything is well done. I like the storage on the top -- good for a couple-three balls, my pda, and gps and a pencil. The bottle holder appears to take some fairly large bottles and it nice. A basket or hanging bag might be nice for wet towels or snacks. But then again, you do have a golf bag on the cart. The brake system is really good. The cart appears to be balanced well to stay stopped on any slopes but the most extreme. The cart rolls easily over almost any terrain. The wide two handed grip is nice for pushing. I have two complaints. The umbrella holder is one. The standard issue one is a bit lame. The new improved one addresses most of those issues but at additional cost. The other is the width of the wheel base. It make the cart very stable, but is difficult to take through some doors and paths eg at the driving range and small foot bridges. I am guessing 36" wide. Not terrible but wide. Granted I do not need a cart for most ranges -- but during pre-round warmup, the cart is already loaded. Has it ever stopped me from proceeding. No. Just a bother.

An impressive showing today -- 14/14 fairways hit. Birdies on the two hardest holes (17,18) and that eagle chip!!! Tiger has played 7 events versus the typical 13 or 14 and is now fourth in the FedEx cup. You really have to admire that level of performance.

I use a gps and believe it would be useful for anyone. To play well you have to hit the ball the correct distance. If you do not know what the distance is, how can you be correct? Most of the course I play have few markings -- and the way I play it is hard to use them eg how far are you when standing on the adjacent fairway or way right or left? In addition, my experience indicates that many markers are off. I stood next to a 100 yard post. The gps said 75 yd. I tried a 75 yard shoot -- middle of the green. 100 yards would have been over the green. Granted, it requires that you know you distances for each club and you actually hit it that distance. Most gps allow for tracking each stroke. So you can record each solid hit with each club and work out your own distances. As to the second question, I have a small towel that clips to my pants/belt/belt loop. I has 2 surfaces: a nylon mesh/webbing to remove big stuff and a plush surface for cleaning. The mesh is great for cleaning the club face especially after a practise swing. Since it is attached to me, I have it no matter where my clubs or cart is.

Here is some information from another site. A later reply said this worked. Google around with the information on the card itself. The brand, card name and size and with and without windows. I know the SD cards are evolving -- I have one from a camera that my card reader hub will not accept. Quote: Originally Posted by Don Landis Is there a problem with windows XP seeing a 4 Gb SD card in the SD card slot with an adapter? I can insert the micro SD card in my XV6800 and then tether the phone via USB cable to access the card with active sync, but I'd like to see the 4Gb card direct in the laptop. It sounds like you may need newer drivers for the adapter... See this other link: Becuase it's MicroSDHC - CNET Windows XP Forums There's also a hotfix available from MS on this - Hotfix for Windows XP that adds support for SDHC cards that have a capacity of more than 4 GB Here's some more info: DigitMemo.com » Adding SDHC support for Windows — with your old SD card reader Last edited by jetsetter; 04-06-2008 at 11:19 AM. Reason: Added additional information

Having a memory card to store the images is a good starting point. Some of the video camera have very nice lenses on them and have a reasonable pixcel area -->> NTSC has lot of pixcels. I forget the number. HDTV is 2x (at least ) bigger. The video receiver has to have that many pixcels. I was surprised at my Sony. Granted, there are a lot of SLR features missing -- but not a bad image.