Tom Shanks

This is incorrect. Clubface angle may be the major factor in determining direction, but it's not the only factor. If you bounce a basketball on a perfectly flat treadmill moving at 5 miles per hour, do you think it's going to bounce straight up and down? No. A golfball compresses when struck, so there's friction. If you swing 20 yards left of a target and at contact your clubface is perfectly aligned with your target, that ball is gonna move left.......not 20 yards left, but probably 5 or more depending on the club. This isn't my opinion. These are simple laws of physics. If you don't believe me, try it with a putter on a practice green or carpet, etc. Keep the face square to the target but make a stroke that cuts out to in across your target line. I assure you the putt will start left.

I'm sorry, but if you have somewhat of a repeatable swing a draw and fade can be controlled with setup. I tend to draw, so if I want to play a fade I aim left and open the clubface so it's pointing at my target. Then I just make a normal swing. There's really nothing more to it than that regardless of what your handicap is.

Look at his stats to see where he needs coaching. It's not his driving. He's at or close to the number 1 spot on driving distance and even if his accuracy is off, last year he was #2 in GIR and this year he's #1. Unfortunately if you look up almost every putting category imaginable, he's close to the bottom of all those lists.

They say about 60% of swing speed comes from releasing the lag angle. So while you may have felt like you were holding it, you were releasing it to some degree. Maybe you were not releasing enough? I've started lessons for the first time in the last 2 months and I had the same sort of issues driving and with fairway woods. I'd usually drive 235 on the fly, which made no sense given my strength and shape. Lower body was one issue, but the other was not letting my wrists release fully. I know it's the internet and everyone drives 300 on here, but even with a few quick tips I was adding a ton of yards. Last session we were focusing on lag and release and I was consistently driving 260.......from a static position starting at the top of the backswing! Off the tee I say let those wrists go! Off the deck is another thing.

Take a look at Dustin Johnson's backswing and position at the top. When I start opening the face on the way back I'll hit pushes. It helps me a lot to keep the clubface square as long as possible when hitting a draw. This gets rid of any unnecessary hand/arm rotation on the way down.

You know you can hit fades with a draw swing right? Open stance, open clubface..... No sense changing mechanics to shape a shot. Try video based practice or lessons to see what's going on in your swing. Maybe there's only a small fault in your swing that you can correct and pull everything together.

Changing your swing is a difficult thing, especially when you're dealing with the swing plane. You have to understand that while you're working on one part of your swing, other parts may not necessarily fall apart, but you may not be paying as much attention to them. With a flatter swing, its going to be a little longer and the impact position with your hands and arms is gonna feel different. I would check your shaft angle at impact. I wouldn't be suprised if you were just releasing too early.

Just today I've realized that the interlock IS causing me a lot of problems. For whatever reason, I physically cannot match the strenght of my right hand to my left(righty). The right hand is always much weaker. Sure I can fiddle around with it for awhile and get them to match, but when I do it feels uncomfortable. This has been causing me to hit a lot of pushes, feeling a little uncomfortable at the top, and having trouble turning the club over(because my hand is already turned over!) Changed to an overlap today and my hand fell into place almost too easily. Everything lined up perfect, got a draw with less effort, and increased my lag a tad. Guess I'm just not built for the interlock. Anyone else discover issues like this?

For most people, when they swing "harder" they actually increase their muscle tension leading to slower swing speeds. There have been tests confirming this where they've monitored long drive champions who lost 40mph + when they "tried" to swing hard. Hard and fast are two different things.

Being a Chicago fan I'm pretty biased, but I fear the Wings are in the same spot I see the Blackhawks being in 5 years from now. You try to keep a group of guys together too long without making any major moves.......you'll eventually see them go down one by one. Maybe it's due to retirement, maybe injury. The game has changed so much that I think it's gonna be rare to see any of these young guys tough it out to 40.

First of all, the other 95% of the world's golf population would probably sell their wives and children to be able to post scores like that. I think the word you're looking for is consistancy. It's something that every golfer regardless of handicap is always looking to improve on. Ask any high handicapper what the worst part of his game is, and 9 out of 10 are going to say consistancy. The best rounds I've posted have been when I wasn't adding up my strokes during play and I thought I actually didn't play so well. The 2 eagles I've recorded have been complete luck. One an inadvertant low cut shot on a short par 4, ball landed 30 yards shor of the green and rolled to the back, caught the slope, and rolled to the right stopping 2 feet from the pin. The other, going for a par 5 in 2. Missed the green pin high and caught the craziest bounce i'd ever seen. Bounced straight left and hit the pin. Both scores from both rounds were 3 under my handicap. Most likely would have bogeyed both those holes.

Anyone use the Oakley golf specific lenses? They were probably one of the best purchases I've made. Makes it so much easier to spot balls and read green contours on your approach.

Haha! I think this thread is about to get hijacked by ball jokes. I suppose you could also rub your balls when you're on the teebox.

Wrap your balls in a small towel and throw a few handwarmers in there. Balls lose compression the colder it gets.

Just a thought. Why doesn't someone make a poll to determine the ideal time people would like to finish in a foursome? I've had 2 1/2 hour rounds and I've had 5 hour rounds. 4 is the magic numer for me.

In a recent 3 man match play(I know I know).......I watched 2 of my bonehead friends argue over scoring it 3 to the winner, 1.5 if 2 tie and 1 if it's a wash........OR.......score 1 to the winner, 1/2 if 2 tie, and 1/3 to a wash. We went with the fractions........and I was keeping score. Never again.

I think courses could be a little smarter about the first hole. One local I play starts with a short par 5 at 490yds. So you have the average guys waiting to hit their approach shots as the old timers hit their 4th then putt out and the guys who can get there in 2 are waiting on the average guys to hit their 3rd then putt out. If it happens to be all old timers it's not uncommon to see 4 foursomes on the hole at once. On the flip side, another course starts with a driveable par 4 that's reachable due to the teebox elevation. There is always at least one guy (usually me) that's gonna go for it. So now you have to wait for group ahead to finish up before you even tee off and then hope you don't embarass yourself. Only good thing about this is you get a huge gap in groups after the first tee.

I developed the opposite in trying to promote a draw, which only lead to a slight hook and losing my lag at impact. Fortunately I worked on this today with my coach with the following drill to start to become conscious of club face angle in relation to path. These are partial swings mind you....almost like a really really strong hinge and hold pitch. Its called the army drill I guess. Hit one straight right Hit one straight left Hit one right that fades Hit one left that draws Hit one right that draws Hit one left that fades, etc. I did this for 45 minutes.....and saw immediate results when I stopped thinking and swung away after.

Any predictions? I'm thinking all the big names are gonna make a good showing. Those Jonas Blixters out there are gonna have a slow start.

Maybe a flaw has snuck into your swing without notice? My buddy had a few rounds where he developed a long pause. Long enough for me to think "this is not gonna turn out good", which is a terrible thing to see someone go through. Being the most stubborn person on earth, it took awhile to listen to our advice. He was taking the club back so far inside that it had to feel unnatural, as he didn't do this before. It seemed like his mind was telling him yes, but his body was telling him no.

I plan on workin getting my handicap under 10 and joining in 2014. I can't see myself being too proud of accepting a trophy with an average round score of 93. Looks like a lot of fun though........plus you get a bunch of ugly golf channel merchandise!

Haha. Totally understandable. It's a "links style" course and the designers took the term "links style" a little overboard, so the rough is pretty thick and you gotta be pretty agressive to cut through it. Take that along with the insane pin placements and you need to have that shot unless you're. Hitting the green everytime. My buddy's dad is an 8 handi and he played with us a few months back, shot a 96, and said he'd never come back.

As mentioned in my post, the course I practice at has one green for both. It is massive and it's acceptable for both putting and chipping. Also, I'm hitting out of the rough with the ball slightly fluffed up and I'm certainly not aiming in anyone's direction.

Are we talking realistic game situation flop shots? Or Big Break stlye flop shots? I frequently practice flop shots at my courses practice facility(which is chipping and putting, with the chippers yielding to people putting). A flop shot to me though is what you'd use if you shortside yourself and have 6 feet of rough to 12 feet of green downhill. This rarely requires anywhere near a full swing and only goes about 7 or 8 feet in the air max.