crawf061

I don't know where you stand, but I know many "liberals" that think if someone is a Republican then they have to be one of those people that lives their life in 30 second sound bites. Far too often we all fall victim to letting stereotypes define people/things that we don't understand. All I'm saying is just please try not to accuse someone of being ignorant just because their political beliefs do not align with your own. (I'm not necessarily referring to the discussion in this thread, just discussions I have seen all over). Now, in an effort to get this thread back on topic, I feel like the upcoming presidential election is far too divisive. You have one guy who is way to the right and one who is way to the left and the third (who likely won't make it much longer) seems to have taken the worst of both worlds (in my opinion). As I've mentioned before, I'm a conservative, but I do not like to be called a Republican. I think that many of the big name Republicans have lost sight of their conservative values (introducing the term Neo-con). There are no candidates that really come close to matching my values, so I'm going to be forced to choose based on how I weigh specific issues against each other (War in Iraq vs. Universal Health Care as an example because I am not a fan of either).

I agree with you. However, I think political discussions in person are less likely to result in flame wars. I know that many of them still do, but almost every political discussion that I have seen on the internet has resulted in mud slinging.

I'm kind of in a tough position as far as golf balls go. Earlier this year I was playing the Nike One Platinum and I was really enjoying it. However, the +$40/dozen was really starting to take a toll on my golf budget, so I decided I would move back to the balls that I used to play all the time, the Nike PD Soft at $15/dozen. There are two things I noticed with this change. The first one was obvious: the PD Soft is very difficult to spin, so my play around the greens is much more of a struggle. I have a hard time gaging how far the ball is going to roll out. The second thing I noticed is what bothers me. Switching to the cheaper ball gives me between 20 and 30 yards more with my driver and 10-15 more with my irons. I was expecting it to fly a little bit farther, but that was pretty shocking. Tomorrow I am in a tournament at a very short course. It is 5801 yards from the tips (68.1/128). There are three par 4s that are 309 yards or less. There are three par 5s that are all 541 yards or less. I know that I can get around the course in regulation with the Nike One. However, I'm just wondering if it would be worth losing some touch around the greens to try to reach the shorter holes under regulation. Thoughts? I'm going to buy some golf balls this evening and I'm willing to pay the price for the Nike Ones. (I would prefer to not go to a different manufacturer before tomorrow)

Couldn't even make it 4 pages before the personal attacks surfaced. This is why politics and the internet should not mix.

You should consider getting a part time job at Starbucks. All of their employees are covered (though I'm not sure if there is a minimum number of hours that you have to work per week or whatever). Personally, I believe in a small government. I believe a government that truly cares about its people does not give hand outs to everyone. I know there are people that are in tough positions that need help, but I don't think that it is the government's duty to do this. I think it is the citizens' duty to take care of his/her fellow citizens and that the government should just protect our freedoms.

I love those ping commercials. I've had times where I felt like the one guy that was going to play the club champ with no strokes... "mano e mano". I've never known someone that quit their day job to attempt to make the tour. However, I could see a doctor that is frugal with his/her money retiring early and then giving it a go. I think if I were to come upon a large sum of money >$10 mil, I would quit my job and see how competitive I could get with golf. Then after a year or so I would reevaluate and consider going into teaching so I could coach some high school basketball. Those are two jobs I think I would enjoy the most (coaching bball or playing professional golf). In the meantime I will enjoy my life as a cube monkey. (Wow, this reply is all over the place... sorry if it is tough to read )

That is why I love golf. It can get so technical (which is how my brain works). I guess some people play with more feel and what not, but I never could do that.

I wasn't trying to say that I thought you wouldn't vote for him because of his skin. I was just saying that I agree with the OP that it would improve how the world views us. It is alright if you don't agree with me. After all, it is still just politics. I refuse to consider Hillary as a viable option. Not only are her policies ridiculous, but I think the last 20 years have given us more than enough of the Bush and Clinton families. You would think that we vote based on royal blood or something.

I'm going to go out on a limb and agree with both of you. I think that Obama would bring a breath of fresh air to our foreign policy. The fact that his name is what it is, and his color is the hue it is means that people in other parts of the world would automatically see us differently. Terrorists might still hate us, but I bet there are lots of Europeans that would give us more respect. (By the way, it was extremely ignorant to imply that someone is a terrorist just because it is a person in the middle east) However, I will not vote for Obama because his domestic policies are the suck. They align with his extremely liberal tendencies* and I believe the government should stay out of things (like healthcare) as much as possible. This election is becoming the same dilema that we have had the last couple of elections. We have to vote on the lesser of two evils (Obama's domestic policies vs. McCain's foreign policies). I'm probably not going to vote for either next fall. I liked Ron Paul's conservative ideas, though many of them were far too extreme.

I'm getting married in a week and a half, and I had pretty smooth sailing through the planning phase. The only thing that has limited my golf has been saving up for the honeymoon/early-marriage living expenses. That's just something to keep in mind. Along those lines, I signed up for the Golf Channel Amateur Tour for the sole reason that it would give me an "important round" twice a month. I figure it would be pretty easy for a casual round with the guys to be vetoed, but a tournament round carries more weight. Anyways, congrats on the engagement! I hope yours is as nice as mine has been!

That was some great information guys. Now we know our options for everything. Thanks so much for your help!

Wow, I'm sorry about the forgotten thread. Things got crazy at work last week so that kept me away for a bit. Alright, so we will be getting into Banff late Sunday night (May 18th), then leaving again on the next Sunday (May 25th). My bride-to-be is not a big golfer, but I think that I can sell her on the prospect if the course is photo-worthy (which includes all the courses that I have seen in Banff). I think that she is pretty much expecting that I will take her for one round while we are there. Here are a few things that we have seen that we want to do: Gondola Ice field (maybe by tour) Dinosaur museum (potentially) Lake Louise I figure we will also do a day trip (or perhaps an overnight trip) to Jasper. It sounds like there is cool stuff there, and it would also be neat because I grew up in a town named Jasper. We are also going to want to become more familiar with the local establishments, restaurants and whatnot. If you have any suggestions of quality (and mostly affordable) local restaurants I would love to hear them! On a similar note, what is this I hear about Poutine ? Is it easy to find all over Canada? Are there any other Canadian soul foods that we need to try?

Couldn't hurt to call them. Just let them know that you expected the money order to get there by now.

Sounds like you pretty much just confirmed my post. Glad you were able to finish the round.

It depends on the weather. If it is overcast then you are pretty much screwed as soon as the sun goes down. If skies are clear you might be able to make it a half hour after sunset.

That is why they don't like to play with you.

http://www.theclubcaddy.com/order.html Why would he package it like that? If this thing is spring loaded (which I would imagine it has to be), then this packaging is only going to weaken the spring. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this product will actually lose value every day that it sits in that packaging.

Those words aren't in my vocabulary. However, I do like hearing those words in casual rounds, because they tend to make the competitive rounds easier for me to win

Whenever it looks like I'm about to be waiting for a while, I look for a nice shade tree to sit under. Then I kind of just "meditate" in a loose sense of the word. I just soak in the golf course, knowing that when I'm at work the next week I will be wishing that I was here again. Anyways, this helps me to not think about my score or the group in front.

I'm going on a honeymoon to Banff in just under a month and I'm trying to figure out what the best things are to do there. There are a ton of websites out there with all kinds of different things, but I'm looking more for personal recommendations. Your input will be greatly appreciated.

They're heerrrreeee...

This thread made me think of this I think it would be interesting to talk about different ways to make the Tiger Woods video game series more realistic. Obviously I think the first step is to use the option that is already available to remove the ability to spin the ball when it is in the air. Also, the ability to see the putt's path before you hit it would have to be turned off as well. Here is one thing I would like to change: 1.) I get tired of the camera angle that is used to watch the shot (the one that follows it in flight). I would prefer to just be able to see the ball fly away from me and towards the target. That way (like IRL), I might not know if the ball held the green until I made it to the green. 1b) Maybe you could also see the ball as if you are in the gallery next to the green. That could be fun, but not as realistic as the first option

Holy hell, guys! The man did better than everyone else, except for one guy!

Harvey Penick always said that you should focus on clipping the tee under the ball. Even when your ball is not on a tee, pretend that there is a tee beneath it and that you are supposed to clip it. Also, it always helped me to take a little time and just take practice swings where I would thump the ground, but not enough to take a divot (depending on the conditions, this can be easier said than done). I feel like this helped me to feel where the ground is.

No, these greens were part of a 9-hole par 3 course on Augusta National. That is why most of the holes were ridiculously short. I think that is what everyone should keep in mind. This was not meant to be some big competition between the players. Some take it more serious than others. The purpose of the event though is to relieve some of the stress of playing in the first major of the year.