Liko81

Number 6, about Ready Golf on the green (aka "clean up your tap-ins") is definitely something to discuss with your playing partners before you do it. That's the way my normal group usually plays, but in a different group a few weeks back a couple of them got uppity when I left a 10-foot putt a foot to the side and walked up to give it the coup de grace. Whether it's appropriate depends on the group, how long you left it and whether you left it in anyone's line of putt. As for headcovers, I only have them for the driver, 4h and putter. My matte-finish gunmetal Ping G10 duffhammers can chatter all they like (your brand-new mirror-chrome CBs might deserve more babying), and my 3w ends up nicely nestled between the driver and 4. And I always have at least one spare ball (and tee) in my pocket; comes with the territory of losing a ball and a half per hole on average for the first three years I played. I agree that learning where the next tee box is and positioning your bag/cart so it's on the way from the green to the tee is something pretty much every walker learns, however depending on hole layout and how you're hitting your shots it's not always practical. I don't bring my driver onto the green; that would look a little silly (or disturbing depending on how new you think I am given my handicap), but I do make my best effort to leave my cart in between green and tee box where practical. And "slow shaming"? No. In fact, turn the cell phone off and leave it in your bag (or in your car). The last thing you need to be doing on the course when we're talking about speeding up the pace of play is messing around on Instagram. If you're behind a slow group and there's a clear hole ahead of both of you, they should let you play through, and if they don't/won't, just drive or walk ahead of them to the next tee. You can come back to the hole later when it's convenient, or just fill in a fair number for the hole and move on. Playing the holes in order is one of the easiest (and most-often) waived rules of the game. In competition, of course, the go-to option is to bring the matter to an official's attention, and they'll handle it as the competition rules dictate. If the rules are anything like the Tour, they'll put the group "on the clock" and penalize each player who fails to make each stroke within some allotted time.

Yep; the flop shot. Essentially you're turning your sand wedge into a 64* high-bounce lob wedge. It works well for me from thicker lies like sand and dense rough (obviously from sand I'm not getting nor wanting 40-50 yards); not so great for picking the ball off a dry fairway. For that I just have to trust my gap wedge with a 9 or 10 o-clock pitch swing; I'd add a low-bounce 60* to my bag if I could find a good one (and if I wasn't paying more attention to upgrading the two wedges I play now).

These are really the same strategy except in a couple edge cases (pretty much literally, like going for a hole near a downhill). If you watch the Tour, you'll see the pros' basic strategy; try to put every putt right on the hole, no matter the distance. But, they don't expect it to hear it fall in beyond about 7 feet. 7 feet 10 inches, in fact, is the Vegas over-under for one-putt distance on the 2010 PGA Tour, and it hasn't gotten all that much better in 6 years judging by a quick skim of the average performance of each Tour golfer from 8'. However, even when they miss, the ball is usually right there inside their "95% circle" of about 3 feet, because they were aiming to hole out, not just get it close. You'll also notice they try to putt with exactly the power needed to get to the hole; few pro golfers visibly exhibit the "never leave it short" mentality that many putting aids encourage (and IMO that's really just marketing spin on the fact that building a totally flat, level putting surface with a recessed hole is impractical). You can drill toward putting with exactly the strength needed to get to the hole very simply, by taking a paper plate, cutting out a 4" circle and laying that flat on your putting mat or a practice green. The goal is obvious; stop the ball on that cutout from increasing distances. This is harder than hitting a hole (even if you cut the cutout to the regulation 4.25"), because a hole allows you to overputt to some degree, as long as you're on line. However, if you're not on the line, overputting will leave you a knee-knocker instead of tap-in; this drill will teach you to leave it right beside the hole instead of beyond it when you misread the break.

Just a touch, yes. If you were looking at my stance and didn't have a tape measure, or my sight picture, you probably couldn't tell. That's an important point to make; too far back and you'll either top it every time or you'll pull your swing plane to the outside to get the bottom of your swing that far back. This is a very small adjustment in ball position and in swing depth, while changing virtually nothing else from a standard pick/sweep, to give you a shallow dig.

Focus on what costs you the most shots in a given round. Identifying that can be deceptive; it's easy to see where deficiencies in putting, chipping and pitching add up. These are the precision shots that are supposed to put you in one-putt distance if not in the hole, so when you mess them up the ramifications are obvious. However, having to be good with a shorter class of club or shot on a regular basis usually indicates an issue with a longer club. You wouldn't have to chip or pitch it to one-putt distance if you could consistently stick the green from 80-150yds ("approach" range; full wedges to mid-irons). You probably wouldn't be approaching from 150 yards on that short par-5 if you were hitting your fairway woods, hybrids and long irons better, and you wouldn't have to stripe the shot of your life from the next fairway over to make GIR on that par 4 if your driver could find more fairways. Just sayin'; everything in balance. The short game tends to be underemphasized at the range during personal practice, but overemphasis on the short game at the expense of the clubs that get you to "short game" territory in the first place is just as bad. As for your driver, a 200-yard drive down the center of the fairway is a playable shot. A drive that would have gone 300 yards, if it hadn't taken that big right turn through someone's skylight, is a stroke and distance (and a significant repair bill). And more likely, even if it had stayed in, it probably wouldn't have gone 300 yards if you have a slice problem. Straighten your drive out at the cost of distance, then work on adding distance while keeping your flight path. If after 21 days you end up with a drive that always goes straight but averages 20 yards less, that's an unqualified victory right there; just grab an iron two numbers stronger for the fairway shot. When you practice at the range (and you will need to, a lot), don't just make the ball go bye-bye. Common mistake, only encouraged further by the width and target-rich environment of the range. Getting it up in the air off every club consistently was a good focus to have as a beginner/30-capper, but once your game is securely in the double-digits, you'll quickly run short on low-hanging fruit like tops, turfs, push-slices, duck hooks and other wild shots to erase from your scorecard, and you have to start working on the harder stuff like being able to accurately call your shot (Babe Ruth did it once, for about a 130-yard HR, and he's legendary for it; scratch golfers have to be at least that good every shot, from up to double the distance). Pick a marker at the approximate range of the shot you're practicing, and aim; put the shots in line with the flagstick on a regular basis and you'll drop strokes dramatically. Similarly, your instructors will tell you to remember the good ones. That's good for confidence and so it keeps you coming back for more lessons, but at a 15-20 cap range, your overall goal is to minimize the bad shots, and that means not only remembering them but keeping track. Consistency, especially in flight path and direction, is your ultimate ideal for the 21 days.

I'm learning now. I am still more a sweeper for mid-irons and for pitch shots (meaning I have to be really careful with body position; turfs and tops are still the bane of my short game as is not committing to the shot and backing off the downswing), but for the 8-9 and any full wedge shots, I'm taking more divots. The benefit, especially with the short clubs, is a flight path that nails the ball to the green where it lands due to the extra backspin of hitting down on it. First off, for standing up on the downswing, my swing thought is "head still". Other people will probably flame me to a crunchy crisp for that, but the mentality, if tops and turfs are a problem for you, is that your spine angle should not change until the ball is gone and you're straightening into your follow-through. Your backswing and downswing should feel like you're rotating around your spine, winding yourself up like coiling the mainspring of a watch. Then as you transition to the downswing, you're releasing all that coiled-up energy through the same plane of that coiled mainspring. This puts the clubface at impact right back where it was at address. The actual mechanics aren't quite so linear, but this is the mentality that minimized my turfs and tops. Then, to go from a sweep to a sod-cutter, the change for me was really simple. My sweep starts with the ball centered in my stance and the clubhead just behind, and I focus on a dimple at the very center of the ball (aim small, miss small; combination quiet eyes/American Sniper mentality). To switch to a sod-cutter, all I had to do was move the ball one half-diameter rearward in my stance, move the clubhead back an equal amount to make room (but keep my hands in the same position), and then focus on a blade of grass right on the front edge of the ball. Because I'm grounding the club further back, it will naturally swing deeper as I come back through (my natural sweeper tendencies will cause a slight lift to make sure I don't turf, and I just use that to make sure I don't go too deep). By focusing on the front of the ball, because my head is the top of the axis of my swing plane, I keep the same swing plane I had with the ball centered (if I look at the ball I risk moving that plane to the outside). The result of both of these tweaks is a ball heading downrange in a straight, consistent path, and a coaster-sized brown sandy patch in the center of my stance. Close the face just slightly (which really just squares it back up to the target line at the more rearward impact point) and it's going down the target line. If I'm feeling really adventurous, I move it another half-ball backward with the same overall mentality, and the result is a very professional-looking low baby draw. Or a top. Which is why I have to be feeling really on to try this on the course.

Definitely get fitted; if you need a stiff shaft, you probably have a high swing speed (>100mph), but the natural "off-the-rack" complement to a stiff flex is a lower loft to transfer more of your swing's energy outward instead of upward, which is the wrong move for you if you're already launching low with a more centered swing. Be careful with adjustable drivers. They're very adaptable and flexible by design, which could make that driver the last one you'll ever need as your swing adapts over time. However, the ability to "cheat", by simply adjusting the club at the range before tee-off for whatever you're doing wrong that day, is very seductive, and it encourages a more and more incorrect swing (as the club will behave badly with a correct swing when adjusted for an incorrect one). Adjustables are like eyeglasses; a lot of people need them to correct a minor problem, but too much correction causes you to end up needing even more as time passes. You have to be disciplined enough to either (a) not adjust on a day-to-day basis, (b) always return the club to a predefined "neutral" after the round and use those settings on the range, and/or (c) keep a fitted, non-adjustable driver handy for the range to keep you honest as you practice.

You can either do one or the other; you can move the ball back in your stance and keep your natural swing, or you can keep the ball on your left instep and keep working on dialing in that inside-out swing. If you do both you'll probably end up with a straight push; you can correct this by closing the clubface a little to produce the fabled "power draw", which if you can control and aim it well is a very pro-looking shot shape, but for now let's focus on a clean, straight drive. If you keep working on the new swing path, your "swing thought" should be "out" more than "up". Hitting up on the ball will be a natural consequence of teeing the ball forward, so you don't have to worry too much about that. What you do have to watch out for is "wrapping" your follow-through by thinking you have to "pull up" on the ball at impact. That will bring your swing path to the inside sooner and introduce inconsistencies. If you focus instead on extending the swing outward from yourself and keeping a high follow-through, you'll straighten the path a little more at the crucial time so it will be more forgiving of being slightly ahead or behind the ideal impact point, and you'll get the high-angle, low-spin launch the modern driver is designed to hit. If you move everything back a little closer to center, consider getting re-fit for your driver. You may want a bit more loft, and/or a shaft with a lower kick point, to bring the launch angle up with your more centered swing. It may not seem manly to have a driver with a "12*HL" loft marking in your bag, but Golf.com estimates that 75% or more of golfers are using too much club, so they're launching too low, and that's costing them carry distance and thus total distance (they get more rollout, but rollout doesn't help you carry that water hazard 180 yards out, and the ball travels much more efficiently through air than rolling through the grass). If the centered swing is working for you, make your equipment match your play style. And yes, definitely get a lesson or three. I took a wild guess at the problem, which seems to be a lucky guess given your response, but a pro giving you a face-to-face lesson will be able to examine your swing in person and tell you how to correct anything you're doing wrong with the new path, with much less guesswork.

In re-familiarizing myself with some of the more obscure rules, I've found that virtually all rules prescribing relief, drop and/or placement procedures include the words "and not nearer to the hole" when referring to the ball's new placement. This has led to no small number of Decisions regarding each of these rules regarding what is equitable when it is impossible to follow all the Rules as written. For instance, 20-3d/2 talks about what to do when a ball rolls into a bunker, rests against a rake or other movable obstruction, then will not come to rest in its original spot after removing the obstruction, and all other parts of the bunker are near the hole. From my experience playing from bunkers, just about anywhere near the lip of the bunker where the ball would come to rest when placed would be as disadvantageous as any other, even if it does roll a foot closer to the hole. On that same point, all other things being equal, does a foot, or even a clublength, closer to the hole actually get you that much of an advantage in the average situation? I would think that in general, loosening the prohibition on "closer to the hole" to allow it in situations where it would not, in the judgment of opponents/fellow-competitors/Committee, give the player a significant additional advantage beyond the relief taken, would allow for many more situations to be more equitably solved.

For average guys playing a round of golf for fun, do whatever you agree is fair (1-4). Under Rule 25 and the definition of "abnormal ground condition", cracked dirt does not qualify, so by strict rules you should either play it as it lies or take relief under one of the options of Rule 28 with a one-stroke penalty. However, I've seen players do far worse than stretch the definition of "abnormal ground condition" in furtherance of an enjoyable casual round of golf. If the ground presents a hazard to yourself as a player or to your equipment, I'd think nothing of granting you a drop on the nearest patch of smooth dirt or grass. If you're not swearing to the accuracy of the scorecard in front of the USGA or their sanctioned Committee, you can do whatever you can live with, as long as you leave the course in a playable condition for others.

This is handled by a combination of Rules 18-1, 5-3, 20-3 and Decision 13-2/4. * 18-1 states that a ball moved by an outside agency (here, the groundskeeper) must be replaced without penalty. * Rule 5-3 states that a player may substitute a new ball for a ball deemed unfit for play due to a cut or split (or being chopped in half). * Decision 13-2/4 generally deals with a similar situation in which a groundskeeper improves the lie of a ball (in the decision, it's by raking a bunker when a player's ball is in it; in our situation it's by mowing the grass of the original lie). Since the action by the groundskeeper was not made under your instruction or sanction, there is no penalty and you are not required to reconstruct the original lie. * Rule 20-3c states that because you can no longer determine the exact spot of the original lie through the green, you must drop, not place, the substitute ball as near as possible to the original lie, but not in a hazard or on the putting green. The combination of these rules, by my read, would allow you to drop a new undamaged ball as close to the position of your original lie as can be determined, and to play from that point with no penalty. During a sanctioned competition at a course, the groundskeeper will very likely be enjoying an iced tea in the garage, not mowing the rough along the 13th fairway, so this specific scenario is extremely unlikely (and I'd be complaining very loudly to the "Committee" organizing the competition if the groundskeeping staff were changing the conditions of the course in the middle of it).

This. A ball has to be dropped within two clublengths of your current lie and not nearer the hole under Rule 28c, and then after it drops it must come to rest within two clublengths of the point of impact and not nearer the hole. Marking both the previous lie and your intended drop point allow you to prove beyond reasonable doubt that both of these are true. However, you are only required to mark your current lie if the ball is to be replaced (20-1), which it is not in this situation, and you are not required to mark the spot of an intended drop at all, so marking either of these points is only as required by your fellow-competitors to ensure the drop is legal. Keep in mind that you are allowed, under Rule 28, to substitute a ball. That means that the ball you are declaring unplayable can be its own marker if you simply pull a new one out and drop that, before picking up the unplayable ball. Also keep in mind that an illegal drop is not a penalty until you make a stroke at it; if a fellow-competitor wants you to re-drop because there is some question as to its legality, you may do so without any additional penalty, as many times as necessary until your fellow-competitor(s) is/are satisfied. If they wait until the ball is downrange before calling a penalty for an illegal drop, first off I wouldn't be playing with them again, and second I'd put the burden back on them to show why it was illegal.

A different setup for your driver versus other clubs is not uncommon, because the strategy is different. It should not, however, feel so different that it's unnatural; if you're changing your mechanics that much, you'll be more likely to try to make it feel more natural by backing away from one or more changes while doing everything else the same, and that's when the ball starts doing things you don't want. On every other club, even woods, you usually want impact right at the bottom of your swing if not slightly to the back, primarily to ensure you hit the ball first without topping it when it's sitting on the deck. This will naturally lead you toward a centered or slightly rearward ball position in your stance for almost all clubs, and a similarly centered, "in-to-in" swing at it, so everything at impact lines up pretty close to where it was at address. Believe it or not, this will produce playable driver shots as well. However, the shot behavior won't be ideal with a modern driver, because the design of the 1-wood has been specialized over the last couple of decades to produce the best possible shot off the tee, with a specific combination of launch angle and backspin for maximum carry and rollout given your average swing speed, and these design features usually work best with a swing that hits upward at the ball, past the bottom of your swing, meaning a forward ball position. Picture = word*1000: None of these pictured swing paths are "bad", per se (even the outside-in path), but they will cause flight path or contact problems for you if the ball is positioned somewhere other than at the point on the path where the club is moving parallel to the intended line. If the ball cannot be positioned in the center of the clubhead when it's facing and moving square to the target line (common with the outside-in path; it's square too early and high), that's when you'll have real problems and have to adjust your path to match a more realistic address. This is just a wild guess, but your normal swing for your irons, if you're hitting them well, is probably somewhere in the realm of the light blue "inside-to-inside" path, and that's a beautiful swing to have for a centered or slightly rearward ball position, because the path, as you can see, is straight or very nearly so at this point in your stance. For a forward ball position, however, the club will be moving inside the intended line at impact, adding sidespin which will cause the ball to fade or slice away from you (not as badly as with an outside-in path, but enough). The proper swing path for the more forward ball position is the green "inside-to-outside" path. As the image shows, this path will square the clubhead's line of travel to the target line further forward in your stance, as the clubhead curves around into your follow-through. The bottom of your swing will be further back, closer to your back foot, and so you'll be hitting upward into the ball. There's not a lot of room for error here, as there is with a more in-to-in path, but when you strip it just right, you'll get the ideal high-angle, low-spin straight launch that will send the ball downrange the longest distance for the energy you're putting into it. However, if you get too used to that path with other clubs, you'll start pushing and/or hooking them, because at the center of your stance and/or the bottom of your swing, the club is moving outward. If the clubface is square to the target line, you'll hook the ball. If it's in line with the swing, you'll push. In any case the timing of other events in your swing, like throwing your hands over, will be affected and the ball flight will be just plain inconsistent. The key is to practice all your swings, from your longest club to your shortest. The next time you hit the range, try hitting five off the tee with your driver, then five with a 7-iron, then maybe 5 with a 3-wood or hybrid and 5 with a full-swing wedge. Keep rotating through these clubs, focusing on making each of them do what you want. The idea is to make each swing with each club feel natural, without letting anything that you have to do differently with one club affect what you're doing with any other.

First, get a lesson. The pros know how to swing, and how to teach that swing. Most of us are not pros; we might have a decent swing, but all we can really do for you from the other side of the aether is parrot what we've been told to do, or point you to helpful videos. A pro will show you how to swing at the ball instead of flailing at it like so many newbies do, and more importantly, a good pro will be able to explain the method behind the madness. Second, develop a routine. About 90% of the entire game is about doing exactly the same thing that worked for you on the range or on the putting green, over and over, between 70 and 100 times (from experience, if you're taking more than 100 swings at the ball over 18 holes, they aren't all the same, and that's the problem). If you watch the Tour pros, they'll have a routine to create the proper grip on the club, set up their address of the ball and settle into the proper stance. It may look silly or even annoying to watch them do it 70 times a round, but it's a bigger part of the reason they only do it 70 times than you might think. Lastly, get fitted. You will almost certainly buy your first clubs at a garage sale, but If you take them out to the range as they are it'll be a crap shoot as to whether they'll encourage or discourage any bad habits. Properly fitted clubs are more important for the beginner than they are for a pro; the pro will know how to adjust for the desired result with clubs that are too long or short or flat or upright. You will not, and starting with clubs that are any of these, you'll learn bad habits to compensate for what those clubs do with a proper swing. Get a fitting, then have whatever clubs you buy adjusted to match. Make sure they have new grips, too; you'll save yourself a lot of blisters, worn-out gloves and general frustration with new grips that fit your hands.

I've only recently moved away from this mentality. First off, I've been working on a "quiet eyes" technique. The ball, relative to your eyes' azimuth of focus, is a fairly large target, but at the same time the sweet spot even on duffhammers like my G10s is only about as big as the ball itself. Instead of focusing on the ball as a whole, if the ball itself is where I need to focus, I pick a dimple on the ball that I want to pass the center of the clubhead through as I swing. Aim small, miss small. Second, I focus on the ball only if the ball is near the bottom of my swing path. For everything between my driver and about my 8 iron, the ball will be there, but for the shorter irons and full wedges, I'll be focusing on the front edge of the ball or even a blade of grass just in front of the ball, while for the driver I pick a detail on the teeing ground right at the leading edge of my clubhead (which is centered at address). I then work on maintaining a single plane to my swing, with my spine still (not leaning back or forward) forming the axis of rotation of my entire body, and the club more or less does the rest. It's not the most athletic approach, but it puts the center of the clubface on the back of the ball much more often than not.

When I walk I use a Tour Trek One-Click Classic. During the hottest days of the year I drive a cart. I prefer walking, cause it keeps my clubs closer to hand and because it makes the pace feel slower without actually slowing the pace of play all that much. Definitely a more relaxing game when you walk the course.

Break the century mark. In tantalizingly close; my last three rounds were 103, 102, 103. My biggest problem is the approach, from 150 to the edge of the green; I lose the most strokes in this range. My putting, driving, even my fairway shots have improved significantly, but I always manage to turn a routine approach into an up and up and down (or worse).

I don't. When I address the ball, I find myself using the same, centered Vardon Overlap for every swing, with every club. My swing is variable enough as it is without intentionally rotating one hand or the other around the grip for every shot. Now, before I read the full post, I thought it was going to be about grips, as in the ones on the Muppet end of the clubs. In that case, I have soft Winn grips on my woods, and rubber wrap-styles on all my other clubs. It's a question of durability and of feel; unlike some, I don't regrip every club every year, so I use the nicer and pricier Winns on the woods to encourage a softer pressure on the grips for those faster clubs, while the wrap styles will last years between regrips, thus saving me money.

So at a course I played a while back, the right side of the fairway is bounded by a fairly steep grassy ridge, with the cart path running along it about halfway up the slope. The reason for this design is that the other side of the course has a lateral water hazard that would be unfairly affected by the presence of a cart path, and the peak of this ridge has a netting fence protecting golfers on the course from errant shots by the driving range adjacent to this hole (also defining out-of-bounds for this hole, so the hill and cart path are in-bounds). The cart path is thickly poured, and new enough that the outer edge of the cart path is above the ground level of the hill, with no retaining wall needed (not yet anyway). This was in July, in Texas under drought conditions, so the roughs were very thin yellow bermudagrass, given just enough water from the course sprinklers to not die completely. Upon teeing off, my fellow-competitor's ball fades and runs up the hill, rolls along the cart path for a while, then off the outside edge of the path, coming to rest against the cart path. The cart path being an immovable obstruction, Rule 24-2 applies, allowing a drop within one clublength of the "nearest point of relief" and no nearer the hole. My fellow-competitor determines, and we agree, that the nearest point of relief is further up the hill by enough distance to clear the cart path (about a grip-length), and so he elects to drop about a clublength from the edge of the cartpath itself which is in accordance with the Rule. However, the hill is steep enough that the ball rolls right back down to the edge of the cartpath. Under Rule 20-2c, this calls for a re-drop, which occurs with exactly the same result, and again under 20-2c the ball must be placed at the point where it first hit the ground. However, when placed, the hill is still steep enough and the grass thin enough that the ball will not lie at rest in accordance with Rule 20-3d, even after replacement. So, under 20-3d(i), the ball must be placed at the nearest point where it will come to rest that is not nearer the hole. Here is where we didn't know how to proceed. What we actually did, since by the time we got this far the next group was at the tee behind us, was to allow the fellow-competitor to place the ball at the nearest point we could find where the ball would come to rest in a playable position, not nearer the hole, and in a similar ground condition (in the rough, with the ball still above the level of his feet), and to play from that point with no penalty. We found such condition on the other side of the cart path, closer to the fairway, and play continued from there. However, this seems to have been in error. Technically, the closest point where that ball could have come to rest in accordance with 20-3d is against the cart path where it originally lay before all this began. Neither Rule 20-3d(i) nor any decision on 20-3 stipulate that the point in question must be playable; just not nearer the hole. Decision 20-3d/2, which generally advises players to proceed under Rule 28 and allow alternate relief in exchange for a penalty stroke, seems the closest to our situation, only we wouldn't have to use 1-4 to justify proceeding under any option provided by Rule 28. Since we'll play there again, what would be the correct/fair move by strict rules? Requiring a penalty stroke for relief from an immovable obstruction that would, in any less severe circumstance, be penalty free doesn't seem fair, but neither does allowing the player to move it anywhere without penalty just because it's impossible to move it according to 24-2.

I would say that even if the team has their own clubs, if he's good enough to join it, he's good enough for his own sticks. Clubs bought specifically for your son can be chosen based on his strengths and weaknesses, and fitted to his exact measurements and swing style. They'll also be newer than what a public school team will likely own; the amount of technology gain inherent in that gap depends on just how old they are and what handicap they're intended for. Lastly, they'll be his clubs; what he does to them and the resulting condition of those clubs is on him, not the result of ten or twelve other kids playing that set. It will be tricky, though, if he's still in the midst of his growth spurt or has yet to start. It's very important for a new golfer learning to make good contact and a straight launch to have clubs properly fitted to their height, arm length and natural swing characteristics, and it stays important to maintain all these things over time, so he doesn't develop bad habits to compensate for the club "getting shorter" every year. So, these clubs will need to grow with your son. Adjustment costs will add up; GS charges $9 (plus a new grip) for a length change and $5 for a lie angle change, per club, so multiply that by 14 clubs (though woods other than adjustable drivers aren't often adjusted for lie IME) and with sales tax you can expect to spend over $200, plus 14 new grips at anywhere from $4 to $8 apiece, each time you get the full set refit. How often that has to happen depends on how fast your son shoots up; you might get away with one adjustment between school years if he sprouts 6" in a summer like I did, or you might have to shell out for at least the length extensions every year if he's like my brother and grew from a diminutive 4'9 up to 6'3 over four years of high school.

Yes, theoretically, by USGA guidelines on course management, an area two to three feet in radius around the hole location should be as close to level as possible, and of uniform grade.[1] The hole should not be located in an intentionally "tricky" place that actively works to prevent tap-ins after a close putt, such as on a steep grade, the crest of a mound, etc.[ibid] These are, however, just guidelines, not actual rules or requirements (even for competition). The groundskeeping staff will usually be much more concerned with maintaining good green conditions and avoiding artificially-created hazards to a putt due to greens maintenance. They'll avoid hole plugs (and in certain course conditions or if the hole was badly cut or was abused, it can take weeks for a plug to heal), thin spots, cart wheel marks (even private courses have people who don't know or don't care), etc. If the best place for a hole based on the condition of the green that day is on the precipice of a steep slope, that's where they'll cut it, cause they'll get far fewer complaints about an overputt rolling down the hill halfway across the green than they will about the fresh hole plug three feet from the current hole.

This is the difference between my pitch and my chip; a pitch in my game is a smaller, gentler iron swing (takeback is only to between 9 and 12 o' clock instead of to 2-3 o' clock), and it's something I've only recently been able to hit cleanly, to say nothing of dropping it where I want it especially at very short range. If I'm inside 10 yards from the edge of the green, I'll just take a club that will roll out the distance I want afterward (somewhere between a 7 and a gap) and give it a stiff-armed, stiff-wristed bump to set it on the green and let it run out from there. As far as rollout distance, it depends on the club and you really just have to try em out. Bring your bag to the chipping green and start with your highest-lofted club. Start about 3-5 yards off the green and aim for the edge, then see how much further past the edge the ball rolls. Take notes (mentally or on paper); this carry-to-rollout ratio will be similar for just about any strength of swing with this style of chipping. So, when you get to the course, estimate how many clublengths it is from your lie to the green, and then how many clublengths more to the hole, choose your club accordingly, and then aim for the edge of the green. This works until you have to carry a longer distance than you can roll out, at which point you switch to the pitch shot to drop it where you want it.

It's a bit of a band-aid. You'd get similar results with any static weight distribution. Essentially, what's happening is that with a weight transfer in your swing, you're swaying backward and then forward and there are small timing differences between that and your arms and upper body, which bring your path over different points on the ground and so affect your ball-striking accuracy. By keeping your weight in one place, you silence the "yips" your lower body produces during the weight shift, and so you increase the accuracy of your ball striking. This is one reason that many coaches advocate narrowing your stance for short iron and pitching shots. Due to the loft of the club and the desire for a high launch and soft landing, pitching requires you to get that leading edge underneath the ball but still hit the ball first, making the pitch swing a game of millimeters between a good shot and a thinned or turfed one. So, a narrow stance and minimum weight transfer helps ensure the iron gets right back to where it was at address to slide under the ball. However, for full-swing, full-distance shots, this no-sway approach comes at the cost of swing power; by not moving your hips or giving yourself more room to push off your right leg, you're giving up on most or all of the power that your lower body can produce, focusing instead on upper-body and core strength. The result will be a slower swing speed. If your distances are still acceptable for the game you play, then I say no harm done, but if you'd like 5-10 yards more from each iron when you want it, you'll need to loosen up your lower body again and get your weight transfer and hip rotation in sync with your swing.

Regarding #1, I can think of two things. First, you say you're hitting your driver 275 total, but your 8-iron goes 195 and your 7-iron will go 215 on a good day. So essentially, every club you have from the 8 through the driver, which is 8 clubs if you start your irons at 4 and have a 3w and 3h between irons and boomstick, is covering a distance span of just 80 yards. Yeah, that's an average 11.5-yard gap between them (7 gaps between 8 clubs) which isn't too bad in general, but you have your shorter gaps at the long end of your game. Unless you have a plethora of par-3s beyond 200 yards and long par-4s beyond 450 that require precision approaches at fairly long distance for birdie chances, you usually don't need that many weapons on that half of your game; the average golfer, or even the scratch player, might only have 3 or 4 weapons beyond 200 yards, while you have at least 7 in your bag. Meanwhile, the other six clubs in your bag, including your putter, have to get you anywhere you need to be that's within 195 yards of your lie. From 0 to 195 is better than 60% of the strokes you'll make during the average round, especially if your driver through long iron game is as good as this, and you're expected to use just 5 clubs not counting your putter for any shot from off the green inside this distance. Assuming a minimum full-swing distance of 100 yards with your highest-loft club (pitching or chipping anything shorter), you're covering 95 yards with 5 clubs, for a 19-yard average gap between full-swing clubs. If the hole falls directly between the expected total distances of the two closest clubs you have, even if you select the club and hit the shot perfectly, you can expect to have to putt from as far as 28 feet away. Yes, you can close the gaps by learning 1/2 and 3/4 swings for lower iron numbers, but those shots will behave differently from the full swings as far as carry and total distance, which could leave you with gaps in carry distance because the shots that have the closest total distance to what you want do so with significant rollout that you don't have. As for #2, I recommend two things. First, with these distances and rollouts, I expect you're swinging fast and sweeping the ball. Some golf coaches tell their players to tee/address every shot from the same place in their stance, giving the player the same look and the same swing, increasing consistency of ball striking. If you're playing your irons forward, even if you're narrowing your stance, then you'll launch higher and spin less. You didn't say what clubs you play, but if you're using GI irons designed to lower the sweet spot and launch higher, this can contribute to the problem. The solution is to launch lower and spin more, and the go-to method for that (without spending a dime) is to address your iron shots further back in your stance so that you hit down on them. When the clubhead's moving downward relative to the ball at impact, it will impart extra backspin, and with the club further back in your swing path at impact, the face will be delofted to launch lower. Just make small moves in your stance, so you can adjust your swing path to keep it straight (and avoid topping the ball by swinging too far in front of it), and watch what happens to the launch, carry and landing/rollout. Second, if your ball striking is solid and consistent and your swing speed is high enough to get you the raw distances you state, but you're still hitting duffhammers (GI/SGI clubs) like Ping G-series, Titleist AP1 or Mizuno JPX base-levels, you should probably look into trading up. High iron swing speeds and consistent ball striking typically call for a "better player" iron marketed to the single-digit and low-double-digit cap crowd. There's a lot of selection available here depending on exactly what you want (between 5 and 15 handicap is the most targeted range of players by manufacturers in the sport, because these are the guys good enough to want to spend serious money getting better), but generally, irons in this class will have higher centers of mass and higher angles of loft for a given club, which with a higher average swing speed (7-iron in the high 90s or low 100s) will give you a lower launch and more spin than a GI/SGI iron intended to give those of us swinging our irons in the 80s enough pure distance to still play from the blues. You can still get "forgiveness" at the better-player level with cavities and stabilizers, but the irons will be designed with priorities given to the feel, accuracy and workability of the club instead of the pure distance and forgiveness that GIs are designed to provide.

Carry or total? Do I have room for a rollout/rollup or do I have to nail it to the green? For high 70s carry and minimal rollout, that's probably my 56* sand wedge in a full swing addressed two balls back from centered. That'll punch it out about 75-80 yards and keep it in its own ball mark. If I have room to roll, I'll hit a full 52* wedge centered, or a soft pitching wedge (same backswing amount, about 80% swing power).