SwinginCaveman

It's unorthodox, but I have seen people use 3 woods from 15 feet off the green to bump and run with. The key is using a club that you are comfortable with. The only clubs I would not suggest are a driver and a putter. Other than that, it's only going to fly a little bit so using something you are completely comfortable with will benefit you a lot more than having "the right" club. Also, they are bringing back the lofted putters for shots just off the green. You take the same stroke as a putt, hit it a bit harder, and you will have the same effect.

Perfect. I'm not sure if anyone noticed the 34 handicap of the OP, but suggesting flops and spin with a 60* wedge is probably not a shot he has in his bag yet. Assuming there are no hazards in between you and the hole, take out a 7 iron and fly it at most 1/3 of the way there and let it release towards the hole. The natural trajectory off that club will allow it to roll towards the hole. Just make sure you factor in the slope of the green just like a putt.

So I heard some interesting comments the other day about Tiger's loss at Doral. Whether they are fictional or not I have no idea so don't kill the messenger. A couple analysts were thinking that Tiger didn't win at Doral on purpose. I don't want to say that he threw it, but I don't think he had his head in it as much as he usually does. The cameramen were causing trouble as they always do. I have seen him stop in the middle of a backswing because the shutters were terribly loud, fast and annoying. Secondly, some thought he wanted to take some pressure off of himself for Augusta. Majors are the only things that matter to him at this point so why make it more difficult when by having to hear about streaks for days on end? Your thoughts?

When Tiger does it it's very subtle. It looks as if he only keeps it about a foot to a foot and a half off the ground, but he defintely takes a couple swings with the club up in the air. Here's what I've made of his routine so far: Tees the ball up Walks behind the ball and looks out into the fairway and I'm sure he picks his shot. Then, while still behind the ball, he turns parallel to it and takes a couple of the practice swings I was talking about. Then he turns and takes one last look into the fairway, approaches the ball, waggles the club a bit and takes off. I'm not sure if he has the same routine for every single tee shot but that's what I've gathered so far in my religious study.

I use it under my right armpit. With longer clubs it's ok for a lefty's left arm to separate from the body a bit on the back swing. I see a lot of pros do this. I use it mainly to keep my arms swinging around my body, you might do it differently to prevent something else. But if you tuck a glove under your left armpit and swing the club on a vertical swing plane then the glove will fall and that's what I'm trying to prevent.

He's a hack. People use his name to make joking references to decent players.

Little Mountain Country Club http://littlemountaincc.com/ 5 star rating from Golf Digest. Only 16 other public courses in the entire country can claim that and it's the only 5 star public course in the state of Ohio. About a 20 minute drive from me. It's nice.

All I know is he finished 5th amongst the best in the world while playing very poorly and everyone's talking about "Has he lost it?" Man I wish people would say that about me.

I took my first lesson the other day which probably came a couple years too late, but I learned a lot. Using high speed cameras my instructor found out that my swing plane is way off. I'm coming back on like A but the downswing comes back lower on line B, causing it to go way left. (I'm a lefty, remember) So I want to pass on some of the information and drills that my instructor gave me. My problem was that my swing plane was very vertical and when I came down on a lower path I swung across it and pushed it. He had a couple ways to prevent this: The first thing he had me do was stand in address posture but with the clubhead about 2 feet off the ground. He said to imagine the ball was on a 2 foot tee. Then he told me to hit the ball. In doing this it forced me to swing around my body on a good plane instead of straight up and down. Every so often you'll see Tiger do this on the tee box during his practice routine. This has worked wonders for my swing plane. The second thing he had me do was fold up an old glove and put it under my right arm pit. (Remember I'm a lefty) Then he told me to take a few practice swings. He said if your backswing is too vertical, your right arm will separate from your armpit, causing the glove to fall out. After hitting a few balls like this it felt much better and I was hitting the ball much better than before. Very solid contact. Then he laid down a long, rectangular box outside the tee and told me to hit the ball without hitting the box. Very common drill and after doing his other two I hit 15 balls and did not hit the box once. Then he told me was that my backswing was too long. He said 90% of players take too long of a backswing thinking that it will give them more power. I had my hands almost behind my head kinda like John Daly and that was throwing my swing plane off as well. I come back as far as I can without bending my right arm. Much shorter than before but much more efficient. The last thing that he told me was on the follow-through to pretend you're throwing the club down the fairway. In doing this you will get full extension and have a better follow-through. These are all things you can do in your backyard and have helped my swing plane in so many ways. It feels a lot more natural and I hit the ball 100 times better than I did before. All you need is your clubs, a glove and a box. I promise you will stop hitting across the ball and pushing it like you used to.

Start watching Jim Furyk

Stop using POS Pro-V1s! Ok I keed.

Guilty. When I do it I make a funny spectacle out of it to subdue to embarassment. If I'm not on a super nice course I'll toss the club up a couple feet above my head and make a joke about myself before anyone else can. It makes them laugh and spares you the embarassment. Then you get back up there and knock it past all their balls. Then they don't laugh so hard.

While watching the CA Championship they were talking about Tiger's putting stroke. They said he actually holds his elbows against his sides and just lets his shoulders swing. It allows him to make a perfect pendulum-type motion.

If you want a classic feel, go with a set of Pings. They have a G10 and a Rapture set out right now. Mizuno has always had a good name with irons. Titleist has a new set, the 755.CB. Then there's your offerings from Nike and Taylor Made. If your handicap is what you say it is then you won't need to bother with graphite shafts. They cost more and won't do much to benefit a better player. As far as the flex, though, that's a tough call. You're young, but you'll want to keep these for a while. Chances are you don't swing hard enough for stiff shafts, but you might within a few years. So you can get a regular flex now, and possibly grow out of them, or you can buy a stiff flex now and struggle until your body and swing grow into those.

I've hit plenty of mallet putters but just can't get used to em. I've putted with a blade for too long now. Plus my putting is my strongest part of my game so if it ain't broke...

10.5 here. Hit a 9.5 but never owned one. Not sure how I would like it.

Most of golf is mental. You could probably make the same argument for balls. Every premium ball on the market is so similar in performance it really comes down to what you are most confident in hitting. I'm not sure if they putting routine is a Butch Harmon thing, but I see Tiger do one thing that Scott doesn't. When Tiger has a lengthy putt (18+ feet), I see him split the distance to the hole and line his putter up at the halfway mark to gauge what the ball will do on the 2nd half of the putt. He has a very good pre-putt routine. It's not focused too much on one part of the preparation. I would steal it too.

He said at the start of the week that everyday you have a different game. The feel is different every time you get to the first tee. While it might be moving day for everyone else, he might just not have his feel today. I think the rain delay is going to benefit him more than anyone. He was playing the worst of the three in his group but was still hanging around. Now he has a chance to gather himself, hit a few more balls on the range, maybe even get some sleep. We all know that tomorrow is another day. My question, though, is if they postpone it until tomorrow, would they finish the tournament on Sunday or would it spill into Monday? They have the Tavistock Cup starting Monday and that could cause some headaches.

No one mentioned the Superquad. That is still quite expensive, even compared to the 2008 models. In my OP, I said that I was referring to all the ads you see for drivers under $200 (R7 460, not Superquad). Please read before you post next time.

I thought about this before I bought the Cobra and here's my explanation: I don't think I'll be confused between an R7 driver and a Cobra Speed 3 wood. A wood and a driver are very different clubs that react in different ways so there's going to be a difference either way. The 5 wood has always been a fairway club for me as I never use my 3 wood off the deck. It's strictly a driving club. Which leads me to why I didn't buy the R7 3w. The face is extremely small. It doesn't have much height to it and I wouldn't like that in a club I mainly use to drive. The Cobra has more of a larger face to it, giving you a little more of a driver feel as opposed to a wood feel. The 5 wood rarely comes out as most of the courses around here are less than 6,800 yards and I usually lay up on Par 5s anyways. I just needed a club I could hit off the tee into a tight fairway or to keep out of trouble and the Cobra will provide that for me better than the R7. It will be a bit of an adjustment but every new club is an adjustment.

WOW! I guess I just solved one of my problems. 3balls.com had an Ebay auction for a Cobra LD-F Speed 3 wood with a stiff Aldila NV shaft in Like-New condition and I picked it up for $33. What a deal! I guess there are perks to being a lefty.

That reminds me that I wouldn't mind buying a 3 wood used, but I would prefer the wedge brand new. You never know how much the grooves have been worn down on a used wedge so I really want to stay away from that route. What are some of the "mid-major conference" brands that were talked about in the other thread that make good woods and wedges? I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of these companies so my knowledge is limited.

So I'm in need of two clubs to get my bag right where I want it, but do not want to spend the money on both quite yet. I still have about 3 weeks before the snow is finally gone but I want to get one of these out of the way. I need a 3 wood and a 56* wedge. I have a GW that came with my set but it doesn't give me the spin and control that I would like and I've always been more of a SW player anyways. As for the 3 wood, I broke mine late last year and never got around to replacing it. I hit a driver pretty well and can usually stay in the fairway but it's always nice to have a 3 wood for a really tight fairway or must-make shot. I have a 5 that's consistent but that won't give me the kind of distance off the tee that I'm looking for. So, that leaves 2 questions: Which club should I replace first? What should I replace it with? Any feedback is appreciated.

I'm going to make a comparison that some of you may deem ridiculous: You want your golf swing to look like a rubber band, not a caveman. I don't mean rubber band as in you swing like spaghetti; I mean you want to wind yourself up and use momentum to snap through the ball. The best players always say "Make your swing and let the ball get in the way." Now, you don't need to bench 300 lbs to do so. If you can properly shift your weight and use speed instead of strength then you will hit the ball well. Take Bubba Watson, for example. By far the longest hitter on tour, but he weighs no more than 185. He was born with the natural ability of having very fast arms and hands. Distance comes from accelerating through the ball, and that doesn't always come from being strong. If you are flexible, you will be able to wind up with your wrists behind your head, and with a proper weight shift, you will be able to unleash a hell of a swing. I want to say flexibility plays a large part in the consistency and distance of your game. When I started out last spring I was extremely tight, but a week of hardcore stretching and my swing just felt a lot more natural. I was able to duplicate it more and didn't have to put as much effort into the swing. Muscle conditioning is another important part of golf. Again, you don't need to have big muscles to have them in good shape. They need to be able to withstand swinging a club 120+ times (practice tee included) in a 3 or 4 hour span. If your muscles get tired, you will get lazy and make lazier swings. If you're going to lift, make sure you do so with low weight and high reps. This will tone your muscles and increase their endurance. So I say work on flexibility and conditioning and your game will be more consistent leading to better scores.

You must be a Steelers fan. I'm not sure how extensive your knowledge on golf shows is, but you have failed to realize that merchandise at golf shows is always very cheap. Why is this? A couple reasons: 1. The equipment is being sold directly through the manufacturer. This eliminates any middle-man so they can sell their equipment at wholesale price and still make money. $120 might be what your retailers like Golf Galaxy are paying. They make the same amount of money whether they sell it to Golf Galaxy or directly to the customer. The only ones missing out are the retailers and merchants. 2. Not only are they making money off the wholesale of equipment, but it is allowing them to get their name out there. If Joe Shmo buys a Cobra LD driver for $120 and loves it, he will tell his friends and hopefully they will go out and buy one. Theoretically, the trend should continue and lead to a lot more sales. It's a very simple form of marketing, really. That said, I dare you to find me one online or in-store retailer that will sell a brand new 2008 Speed LD driver for $120 and I will eat a box of Nike Platinums and put it on youtube.