CPHoya

In the tent he was sitting with his father and a representative from IMG. By not taking the prize money he probably guarantees himself a larger payday right after the Masters, when he will secure large equipment and clothing deals. Taking the money now would have a significant opportunity cost.

He had a touchy pitch against a slope and he managed to leave his pitch in the same place four times. All four times it rolled right back to him. Don't remember which hole. On the fifth one he hit it about 20 feet past the hole, and then he made the putt. After that fifth pitch he threw his wedge, as hard as he could, directly into the rough on the green structure, leaving the head completely buried and the shaft sticking into the air.

Cannot stand FIGJAM (Mickelson) as a golfer/competitor/athlete. Stands for "F*** I'm good, just ask me."

Two things. 1) I noticed, for me, that when I had a full-offset Anser-style putter (Newport 2 for me) I had a harder time taking it back on the proper path than I did with a half-offset Anser-style putter (Mizuno BC1 for me - Scotty makes the 1.5 in half-offset, I believe). I was told this had something to do with my being right-eye dominant. 2) I also noticed that my putting improved when I improved my putting setup, alignment, and grip. The grip, above all else, is key in putting. Interestingly, I'm still more comfortable with half-offset putters, but I don't jerk full-offset putters around anymore. I'd pick up The Art of Putting by Stan Utley and take it to heart. It will definitely help you. As a secondary solution, check out different putters until you find a comfortable one. Keep in mind that it's okay for the putter to move a little closer to you on the back swing, because that's the first half of a "gated" or arcing swing path (nothing wrong with that). It just shouldn't be a dramatic inside move. So don't try to make a perfect straight line, but instead try to make a consistent slightly arcing path. Straight Back Straight Through ("SBST") putting is a total joke IMO, both because almost all adamant supporters of SBST don't even putt SBST and because it requires path correction with the wrists and/or hands.

Putter > 53º > 58º > Driver > PW > 9i (chips)

I'm going to put in another vote for stop firing at sucker pins - you're obviously talented and you can hit the shots, so let yourself use your abilities and just hit greens all day. Sand 4 times in 9 holes strongly suggests you're hitting irons at tucked areas.

I'd go with Villegas.

Haha join the club.

A new, larger putter grip.

~ 70%. This needs to be higher. If I were an intelligent golfer I wouldn't hit 53º wedges directly at tucked pins until I can hit the middle of the green every single time.

I thought I'd drop by because I'm feeling sorta celebratory, thought I'm not sure I should. I shot my first round under par today, by shooting 1 under . . . on an 18 hole par 3 course. So that's a 53 on a par 54. On the one hand, it was really cool dealing with the pressure of knowing I was under going into 17, which I parred by two-putting from about 30 feet, and again on 18 (same thing). On the other hand, we're talking about probably the easiest course on the planet - shooting 1 under equates to a 1.8 handicap on the round. Should I be pumped about this or not? Have I actually shot under par for real? Finally, is this my best round ever? Previously it was shooting 74 at Moorpark Country Club (71.5/133). How legitimate is a great round that doesn't involve anything longer than a 7-iron, but on the other hand only required 25 putts?

Differences : launch monitors give you more information than you ever thought you could need about your shots; every club is longer; balls are longer and softer; custom fitting is more prevalent; courses are even slower than they used to be; everyone uses at least one hybrid, many use more. The more things change, the more they stay the same : the nicest courses are still way too expensive; the nicest courses have the only good greens; the nicest courses have the hottest cart girls; the hottest cart girls are still not giving you their number. Update : From your username I am unsure if you are a dude or a chick. Add "CPHoya is still a moron" to the second group above. Welcome!

The XM coverage of the Open has been superb. Seriously, yes, I prefer listening to this to the televised coverage in America.

I'm getting really confused at this point. Here are my thoughts: No matter how spinny your ball is, it's not robbing you of 50+ yards. Maybe ten . . . maybe fifteen ? Something is messed up with your contact. The no pitch mark, at all, is very bizarre. Your ball sounds like it spins back and climbs higher than you want in the air, which means it's falling a great distance, which means as a simple mater of physics it must be leaving a pitch mark on the green. I want to help out but I simply do not understand this. If you stood on the green and threw your ball at the green as hard as you could, you'd leave a mark. And that would be slower than a ball falling out of the sky. If you can't pull the string and bring the ball back once it lands, part of that might be that you're not compressing it enough - except for the part where your trajectory is ballooning because of backspin - and part of that could well be that your course's greens just won't allow that sort of action. But, mostly, I think your swing is a little wacky right now and your coach can help way more than us. After all, equipment can make positive differences, but it doesn't reshape your game.

2009 Acura TSX 6-speed Manual, and I love it.

There we go, thank you very much!

Explain Wimbledon.

Is there any reason to believe the Titleist "How Do You Mark Your Ball" ads? I know that pros receive whatever ball they use custom stamped with their name, or a nickname, etc. So why bother actually marking them? Do they really do this?

http://www.sportsline.com/golf/tourn...tishopen/video Just 16, 17 & 18. TNT, meanwhile, has the rights to the Open but has decided to televise some boring-ass introduction to the Open instead of showing the actual open. I swear, golf coverage on television is as bad as it could possibly be. EDIT: And the TNT coverage ISN'T EVEN LIVE! Seriously, how @#$#^%# hard is this? If someone charged $200 / year for providing a webcast of each major, I'd pay it happily.

Callaway is the only one - between that weird grip ridge and the fact that everything just LOOKS way offset, they drive me crazy.

My pick: Andres Romero The dude I'd like to see win it the most: Jim Furyk My question: how is there not a decent webcast of the programming in the UK?

You sure your driver isn't broken (not joking)? As far as the irons checking too much goes, is this happening at your home course or at every course you play? Is your iron trajectory one of those piercing flights that suddenly starts to climb and then lands softly? If your natural shot is a soft fade, but you can draw it sometimes, does your draw roll out significantly further than your fade? Are you just habitually underclubbing? I like the post that says you should club up. Basically, club up and make a smooth, slightly less aggressive swing, and you'll get more rollout from the same distance. A lower spin ball that's a premium would be the B330, the V1x, the Callaway Tour-i X, and the Srixon something or other (either the Z-URC or Z-URS; one is low spin, one high), and the Black. At 110 mph you can compress anything.

I seriously think Scott is developing the congenital y-disease. Before he's a contender he needs to chill on the greens. It's ugly watching him roll the ball, from any distance. His stroke is pure, but so what?

1. You've gotta get the thought that you're having another inevitable disaster hole out of your head. That's first priority. 2. Course management can save you a lot of these strokes. For instance, I'm betting you hit driver off that tee and snapped it left, since you knew your landing area before the dogleg was small and the fairway bunkers were in play. Look for a good landing area somewhere that leaves you an easy shot. Maybe with a 3-wood or an iron you can aim at the right side of that fairway, leaving yourself a slightly long but a straight, unhindered shot at the green. No disasters off the tee with a hybrid, right? 3. Being a confident putter makes all the difference in the world; no disasters when you know you can make the putt. Answer to your question: You can, indeed, stop a disaster hole. Last weekend I played a hole where I shank-pulled my 3-wood about 165 yards, into a "fairway bunker" that isn't in play for anyone . Ever. The hole is a 320ish par 4 and not parring this hole drives me nuts. So that was just an abysmal shot. So I get to the bunker and I'm directly behind the lip so the only shot I have is a lateral wedge shot to put myself about 120 out laying 2 (where I should be laying 1). I blade that shot about 45 yards longer than I had intended, sending it sailing into a tree on the other side of the fairway and probably 90 yards from the green, and on the 17th hole tee box. Things are not going well. From here, my angle is impossible because of that same tree, but I think "just put this stupid thing on the green somewhere ," and I proceed to hit a mediocre approach that's supposed to hit once and check, but does not. I have now hit two awful shots in a row and one half-ass wedge, and this is turning into a disaster. I drain the putt from 25 feet for par, and the scorecard will never tell you how incompetent I was until that happened. Sometimes you can't get the strokes back , like when your first drive goes OB, but you can play the hole for "par" from there and get away with a double bogey, or maybe "birdie" it for bogey. That's the way I like to think about it.

The 32s are definitely a little longer but they're not much different in the forgiveness category. The 67s do feel more workable to me, but that might just be me. The 32s are getting discontinued, I think.