billchao

Being athletic and being fit aren't mutually exclusive. Everyone on tour is an athlete. They're capable of hitting a tiny ball with a 4' stick they swing in excess of 100 mph, consistently repeating that action to about a 3° margin of error.

That's a bit odd. I hope the numbers back him up, at least? If I fit everyone into my specs, I wouldn't help many people at all 😆

If it's the same app I saw somewhere, it's really only meant as a practice aid.

Feels disingenuous at this point, like he knew the right thing to do, but the USGA convinced him it was ok to play, so blame it on them for not disqualifying him and later talking him out of withdrawing. That's the problem when people get caught in a lie. I can't help but look at everything that comes out of his camp differently now.

Don't get me wrong - I agree with you. Intent matters. I would have given him a DQ. All I'm saying is the that way the two rules are written, I can see how they came to this conclusion. Basically once they ruled he made a stroke (which he clearly did), it automatically fell under 14-5 because of the first exception to 1-2. There's no ambiguity there in how it's written at all.

It's a technicality (and kind of dumb*), but he purposefully deflected the ball by making a stroke so it falls under 14-5, which 1-2 explicitly states because there is a rule that covers making a stroke on a moving ball. *It's dumb because had he deflected the ball with his putter in the more commonly used sense of the word "deflection", his ball would have kept rolling down the hill anyway, leaving him in a worse position and qualifying him for a DQ. So somehow in this case he made the breach of the rules that was both more advantageous for him and simultaneously not considered a serious breach of 1-2 simply because of a technicality that allows it to be covered by 14-5.

I switched to MP 4s this year and I love them. Do I come up shorter when I miss than I would with my CF16s? Yes. Do I care? No, not really. It might be worth a half of a stroke per round. When I do hit a great shot, I know I did it - which is a great feeling. It ultimately depends on you. If you like the MBs and you're ok with your misses being slightly worse, go for it. If you want to score your best and need the extra forgiveness, get the CBs. Life is short, so play what you want.

I don't know if it's that. It looks to me like you extend more towards the ball or ball/target line and to me, extension is about getting the left hip up and left. Full disclosure though, it's not something I work on or think about much at all, I just do it.

Oh. I don't think it's your priority, but I think it has to do with how your hips are working.

Huh? I do what now?

Yea, that's the most basic tenet, which of course illustrates the problem with playing or deflecting a moving ball. However, you are entitled to declare the ball unplayable as long as it's not in a water hazard and play the ball from the original spot with a one stroke penalty. Phil was perfectly within his rights to let the ball come to rest, declare it unplayable, and re-putt. Here's a link to another author explaining Rule 28, and he actually uses the downhill putt that ends up off the green as an example of applying it.

It's not IMO, but it's also perfectly legal within the rules of golf.

I fail to see how blatant disregard of the rules is anything other than disrespecting the game. His explanation was basically, "Whatever, just give me 2 strokes." Saying anybody who doesn't like it should toughen up just makes him out to be a tool. I didn't like it and I certainly wasn't offended by it, but his response to the whole situation makes me believe that his whole "good guy" persona is just an act which I've read from various sources over the years. Exactly. If he owned up to it and said he got caught up in the heat of the moment, I can understand that. But it's rather presumptuous to basically say, "I don't care so you shouldn't either." Literally the first thing I thought when I read about his reaction, but you know how I feel about certain people getting more negative attention than others. Well he's FIGJAM, right? Everyone should be on board with that /sarcasm In my eyes, it does. If he came out to the press tent today and said something along the lines of, "I was frustrated yesterday and wasn't thinking clearly, I slept on it and realized I made a mistake and I apologize" and WD, that does make it somewhat better. Showing remorse speaks to a person's character. It's why people forgave Andy Pettitte but not Roger Clemens.

I really want to see Furyk make a run.

That makes sense. Grip changes can feel weird for a bit. Half the time I think I finally get my grip change feeling comfortable, I actually end up reverting to the old grip. It just looked to me like you completely open your fingers up and close them a few times just before your takeaway.