jamesduncan

Totally Agree. I read it all the time just to keep in a nice relaxed frame of mind. If you have a VCR (or your computer plays either VCDs or multi-region DVDs) hunt around on ebay for the Little Red Video (or DVD in the UK). Cant say enough about it. Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw demonstrate most of the routines and its narrated by none other than Dave Marr! Great stuff

like was said, your # is your NY State Lic #. but you have to get put in the system at the office. out of towners cant use the system unless you still have NY State ID. Yes, whomever books the time has to be in the group and must register at the office 1 hr before teeing off or the time will be put back into the system. if youre a single, black in pretty easy to get on. Weekends (depending on the weather) you can usually get off in the early afternoon. For 1-2pm times, i usually show up round 11am and grab one, hit balls and putt then hang out at the starter, i usually get out a bit earlier. if u want to play with a group or a 2, then as a walk up you'll have probs, but as a single its easy. Same with the Old Course.

personally, i think most people look at rules as hurting them and not helping them. a strategic player knows how to "bend the rules" to his or her advantage, hence getting a ruling from an offical or playing 2 balls and getting a later ruling from the commitee. again, for every day play, i dont think strict enforcement of some rules (like stroke and distance for a lost ball in the fairway) does anyone any good. Hence ESC. if you loose a ball like that, just pick up once you take double or triple or whatever your handicap allows to speed up play. But in Tournament golf, knowing the rules throughly can really be an advantange. Case in point: i was blown away after attending a Nationwide event this past season. a player hit a pretty wild tee shot into a wooded area but with a cart path running thro it, giving a clearing to the hole. after a 4 minute search, at last minute someone found the ball wedged up against an old stump with weeds around it. the player deemed the ball embedded and the rules officals aggreed with him. he dropped within his allowable distance and gave himself a clear shot to the green, and ended up making par. for me that would have been the last thing to think about as i would have just assumed unplayable. But now that i think about the rules helping me (instead of there to penalize me) i look at all my options, given within the rules, more more closely. its a wierd mindset to easily describe. hence why i think knowing the rules is part of becoming a better player (not changing them)

handicaps are only used so that 2 players can play a match against each other at the same level on a given course. they dont address trying to make the game itself fair. hope that make sense.

$5 nassau

yes it is fair, becuase the best player won the masters in this case. being the best also encompases knowing the rules fully and following them correctly. hope that makes sense. i do have to admit i love these "is it fair? type threads. not to pick on anyone, but for the life of me, i cant find anywhere where someone said golf was ment to be a fair game.

2006 for me was a solid year as I hit all of my goals For 2007 1. Reduce handicap to 0 I plan to do this the same way i halfed my handicap in 2006, thro a solid mental game and better course management (playing for percentage shot more, gauging which pins to shoot for and which ones not to) 2. Get better control of my short game, specifically bump and run chips and 3 wood chips My wedge play improved this year, but when I was just off the putting surface, I wasnt taking advantage of the chance to hole the chip and sometimes was struggling with my distance contol. 3. Play in State Am, US Am and US Mid Am Quailifers In 2006, my goal was to play in the Public links Qualifer. I made the cut which i was very happy about, considering it was my first truly competitive round since 1986. 4. Play in US Open Qualifer This might not happen in 2007 since i wont be able to get my handicap down to 1.4 by early May (thats only 2 revision periods here), so that will be a goal for 2008. 5. Play in some mini tour events Something small and reasonably priced like the Moonlight. 6. Continue to improve on my iron play Again tightening up my mental game will help this tremendously. I tend not to commit to my iron shots, which isnt a problem in driving and putting for me 7.Play in the 07 Q School Pre Qualifier Get to the post office in time.

Sponsors exemptions are a fact of life and happen at every PGA/Nationwide event. Sponsors can invite any tour calibre player (past/present/future) they want.

agreed on the Puma stuff. Great quality and really cheap. I buy my stuff at the Puma Store in Soho, NYC and its half the price of some of the JL stuff.

i played a Wilson R-90 re-issue in the mid 80s, that i bent back to 60 degrees at the time.

yeah but we dont pay to go get entertained by the clerk, therefore contributing to their paycheck. Not to give someone a hard time for simply having a "bad day" but these guys have to remember their pretty blessed to be able to make a living like this and that they have to be true professionals at all times, atleast while at a tour event. if your doctor was a total jerk to you one day in his office, im sure we'd tell our friends too.

Interesting thread Someone told me on the weekend that Travino is a total dick, off camera. Is this true? I know if might be hard to answer, but do you (the guy who knows him) see things in his personality that could maybe come off the wrong way? I dont really "hate" anyone since I dont know any of them personally, but following up on the Quigley comment, i have a story about when I was a kid with Chi Chi and Palmer. During a practise rounds at the Canadian Open (I used to go every year in the early 80s), I asked Chi Chi for his ball after the round at the 18th hole. In the rudest voice he said "Its promised!" and stormed off (apparently after a bad round). Ive never forgotten that and, given that he does all his work for kids, it rings even louder ahha. Palmer on the other hand was so gracious. In between holes, I asked him if i could take his picture. So he stopped and smiled, while I got the shot into "focus" (now imagine a 10 year old kid taking waaaaay too long) Still smiling, he said between his teeth "click it kid!" and then laughed after i got the perfect shot haha, my dad still laughs about it til this day...seemed like a cool guy for sure.

im slowly switching most of my bag over to bridgestone to answer the question, i guess ill have to putt with my 3 wood as they dont currently make a putter.

i keep my own score (we all usually keep our own, no group card) i keep score, putts, fwy, gir i fill in after the round is over tho.

this season i made huge break throughs in my putting by addressing essentially 2 simple things. 1. Mental Attitude 2. Feel (In this order of importance). 1. For adjusting my mental attitude I did the follow: - On the course, focused on target (a la Rotella) for all putts. - Didnt worry about missing putts. Just move on to the next hole. Think of the positive (getting yourself into a good position by a good shot or chip in the first place) - Tried to think of sinking EVERYTHING 2. For feel, I did the following drills: note: For all practice putting, I only used 2 balls, important (dave stockton) - Ladder/step drill: on a putting green i put down 3 tees in a line: 2 about 6 feet apart then i put one in the middle. so like this: X X X I then hit puts from about 10-20 feet towards this set up on the same line as these tees. On the first ball i tried to get it in the middle of the first 2 tees, then the second ball i tried to get into the middle of the next 2 (hope that makes sense) - Fringe Drill: to get feel, i hit 2 putts to a spot on the fringe of the practise putting green. Vary the length. - Eyes Closed Drill: hit putts with your eyes closed. Hit one then open eyes and then hit the next ball (with eyes open). This will get you out of the sensation of "anticipating" hitting the ball and smooth out your stroke. Hope this helps. These drills (along with mental/course management work)were key to me pulling 4 shots off my handicap this year (6 last season - 2.8 this season). The key to getting your numbers down is developing good feel on longer putts to avoid 3 puts, getting good feel on 6-12 footes to make them and having a good mental attitude on short putts. My ball striking was hit and miss this year and I dont have a short game practise facility where i live (NYC). Working on improving my putting was an attainable/realistic goal this season which payed off handsomely. I now feel i dont have bad putting days anymore (even if my stats sometimes show other wise) Also I think while working on stroke technique is nessessary (and important if you have a major flaw ie: hands behind ball at impact) i really feel its over rated. I instead concentate on fundimentals: ball postition and alignment. I also concentrate on just making solid contact and use a chalk line to see how the ball is coming off the club head (ie: is there side spin?) - This is what i do indoors, to directly answer your question your post Again whatever drills/technique work you do, the only way to see improvement on the course is to leave all this on the practice green. On the course, try to make the putt in front of you. If you dont move on to the next hole. Its as simple as that.