jeffhale08

You should actually not roll the wrists until just after impact. Impact should be square with, as mentioned earlier, the back of the left hand (for righties) facing the target. When practicing at the range, always roll the ball to where the logo is facing straight back in line with your target. Try and hit through that line, the ball, an intermediate target and your final target. A good way to practice or learn a solid, square grip, is to grip a yardstick. There is just about no way to not grip a yardstick with a square grip. Also, for all slicers, try a Medicus dual hinge 5iron. Good training aid.

Just curious as to how many of you out there plumb-bob your putts when reading a green. What are you looking for?

I played a few there a couple of summers ago. Real cheap courses. One called ChiChi Rodriguez, cheap, not real busy, no driving range, but decent course. I think it was a Par 68 or 69. Another one is Clearwater CC. It is a CC but was open to the public as of July '06. Read the grain down in Florida.

$1.50 here in Southeast Texas. Just shows you how much control our government has. Economy sucks, gas prices to high. They start throttling the oil prices down.

Wrist rolls, increase your wrist and forearm strength. Take a 10 to 20# weight, 6 foot of rope and a 18" piece of 1" PVC pipe. Hold your arms straight out from your chest, roll the weight up and roll it down. At least 3 times a day. Core muscle work outs are great for all sports as well.

Ditto...I bought my dual hinge Medicus 5 iron a few years ago as my son was beginning to show some interest in playing tournament golf. The Medicus took him from a left to right (fade to big push/slice) to a solid and consistent right to left (soft to hard draw, occasional hook). Took him from the 90's to where he is now, a solid 5.5 handicap. We don't use it to often anymore, but occasionally swing it once a month or so. For the money great buy. Also, using a weighted club is a great tool as well. If you have some old clubs liening around, you can make your own. Simply fill the shaft with BB's. This gives you more than enough weight to allow you to feel the proper positions in a sound golf swing. We swing a weighted club everyday, part of a regimen I have him on.

Glad to meet you, my name is Jeff...and I too am a 3 putter (occasionally, wouldn't be a round of golf if I didn't!).

It matters for all your clubs. In the irons, it is really all about feel. However, with your driver, shaft flex is what I feel to be the single most important factor in buying a driver. Loft is #2, but not even close to flex.

You all sound like a bunch of golfers. Always trying the latest and greatest thing!! Same here...but isn't that what makes this game the greatest ever? You can never master it, but we are all in pursuit of that unattainable perfect round. Gotta' love it!

Overnight is a great time frame, but you can actually swing them not too long after regripping. They take hold quite quickly. Safely, 1 hour.

I think it was a Golf Digest article from earlier this year that pointed out if you had shot even par every round on the PGA Tour, you would finish 44th on the money list. Not bad huh? I don't remember the $ earnings or the nuimber of starts, but I'll look it up, I'm sure I have that old issue laying around somewhere. When it comes down to it, take a look at the stats. Bubba Watson blasts it past guys, but can't chip and putt worth a flip, so, he has yet to win. The old adage, "Drive for show, putt for dough" sounds pretty good. Anthony Kim is the highest ranked "Long Driver", he is currently ranked 6th in money, 9th in driving distance. Vijay, the "Cup" champion, 25th in distance. Noone in the top 10 of driving accuracy appears in the top 10 of money leaders. Singh proves that it gitting greens is pretty important, he is the only top 10 in GIR and money. Harrington makes a strong case for the putting aspect of the game, he is the only one in top 10 of putts per GIR and putts per round and also money list. But if you look at any of these stats, it is only fractions of percent seperating each player. Perry, Kim, Mickelson and Singh all top 10 in scoring and money. The lower you shoot, the more money you make. Seems like a long way for me to go to prove a point. Sorry for being long winded. No go shoot a great round.

My son and I were playing with a friend of his (horrible golfer). We were teeing off on the first hole. We both striped ours down the middle. He teed his ball up (way too high), as he addressed the ball, I leaned over to my son and said, "Calling my shot." My son said what? I said I am calling my shot, he misses the ball completely, hits the tee only and the ball just drops down. And of course, his buddie proceeded to make my prediction come true, tee flew down the tee box, ball just dropped straight down! Quite funny.

Obviously not in the same breath as Pebble Beach, Cog Hill or some of the others mentioned before, but if your in the Gulf Coast area of Mississippi, try the Grand Bear in Gulfport. Linked to the Grand Casino, it is a real challenge. Great practice facilities, great greens and fairways. Tee shots are at a premium. Rough is quite thick making it tough to hit the greens after missing the fairways. If your in the area, a must play ($53 on the weekend).

First of all, get off the mats. You'll never learn the proper way to hit down and through a golf shot off plastic "grass". After that, yes, always stretch prior to hitting balls. I use a weighted club that I made myself (old 8 iron, filled shaft with lead BB's, works great). I do what I call a 3 position practice swing. Everything is in slow motion for the first 10 swings, then I take a smooth slow swing to feel the 3 posiions I just worked on. Position #1 is taking the club back to waist high, checking the toe, making sure it is pointing up, also you want to check your shaft position here, either down the line or slightly outside the target line, never inside the line. Position #2 is making a full shoulder turn from waist high, front shoulder should end up directly under your chin, from there I check my left arm (should be fairly stiff), my clubhead position, pointing at an imaginary wall behind you, not over your head. Position #3, is a slow motion swing down from the top, feeling the cock in your wrist holding just before impact, then a smooth, solid finish with full body rotation through the shot, belt buckle and chest pointing at your target. As far as a range strategy, I work up from my wedges through the odd number clubs, then back down with the even numbered. I only hit 3 shots per club, it really doesn't matter if you hit them well or not. If you keep hitting until you hit them well, you'll never get that feel on the course. Because, in a round of golf, can you keep hitting until you finally hit one good? No, or not without penalty shots! After working all the way back down, I head to hybrids, fairway metals and finally the driver. If this is a war up session prior to a round, don't hit anymore than about 5 drivers. the longer swing of the driver will throw off your tempo and swing with the irons. If it is a practice session, bomb away!

Dress like a golfer, not like you are on vacation. I hardly goto the range without full gear on. Just doesnt' feel right. I am raising my son the same way. If you look good, look like a golfer, you stand a better chance of playing well or at least look like you play well.

I think the Big Break is a great show. Highway 18 on the other hand is a bit gimmicky. But as far as the channel all together, they do need more instruction, like the old days with Golf Channel Live and such. I guess Monday night is instruction night now. Personal lessons are ok, but not too personal for me. I watch the Golf Channel everytime my wife lets me!

I have never played a round with just one club. However, years ago, after working a night shift and talking alot of smack about my golf game (3 handicap ten years ago), I challenged 2 guys at work (one was a solid 8-10 and the other one was high teens handicap) to a match, they scrambled, I played with 6 iron through putter. It was a tight match, until I started trying to hood the 6 iron on a few par 5's and started pull hooking them pretty bad. If I recall, they scrambled for a 78, while I finished in 83 strokes. Not too bad, but it could have been better if I had stayed with my original plan of hitting routine shots and not trying to create more than my clubs would allow.

Yeah, the greens I am looking at are the ones from Southwest Greens. The one "tmker" was talking about is what I want. The current USGA Junior Amateur Champ from Houston (Cory Whitsett) has one at his house in Houston. I have a 4 x 16 green made of a base of treated plywood and lumber and covered with a very fine astroturf. We use it to work on our stroke. It is ok, but you can't chip to or hit short iron shots. The Southwest Greens you can hit full shots into. I do want the chipping area for chips and bumps fro the edge.

Anybody out there have a synthetic green at their house or ever putted on one. I am looking to have one installed by next January. Just now started looking. I am a 5 and my son is an 8. Our shots we lose are always on the green. Let's get a good thread going on this subject. If you are in Texas and have had one installed, let me know by who. I am hoping I can work it into my new home loan as "landscaping"!!!

35-36=71, Babe Zaharias Golf Course (67.9/102), Port Arthur, Texas. Hit 16 greens in reg, unfortunately 3 putted #2 and #3 for bogeys to start the round off. 5 birdies on the day, only hit 6 fairways, but absolutely killed the driver today, drawing on command. Course is dry and hard right now, ball ran through all the fairways I missed.

All yardages are ball flight only. 4 iron- 190 5 iron- 180 6 iron- 170 7 iron- 155-160 8 iron- 145-150 9 iron- 135-140 PW- 125-130 GW- 115-120 SW- 100-105 LW- 0- 85

74, Silsbee C/C (70/120), Silsbee, Texas. Drove ball well, hit alot of greens. Unfortunately, double bogey on the 18th for the second consecutive round. Gotta learn how to finish these things!

Not as scenic as some of the other destinations, but right here in Southeast Texas (Houston, Beaumont area). Golf all year long, maybe 5 days at or near freezing during the winter. Summer from April through late October.

Please spend your evenings away from the range and course using weighted clubs, slow motion drills and tempo training. Every evening (unless we played that day), my son and I (I am a 5.5, he is a 9.0) do weighted club step drills (take club to waist high, check shaft position, take club to top, check and make sure chin is over front shoulder, then feel the weight of the club swinging it down and into the slot with a good, slow, solid finish), then we do take away drills (address a ball, put another ball 6 inches behind that ball and drag it back until it knocks the back ball out of the way and swing club to top of swing and repeat) this helps promote a slow, steady takeaway. Then alot of smooth tempo swings. Once you step onto the range for pre game warmup, no mechanics should be thought about. Tempo only. Good tempo will help all of us out quite a bit. Before every shot in a round, take a simple tempo reminder swing, slow, smooth and easy. Then step into the ball, no swing thoughts except for tempo and hit away. Good luck.

79 (38-41), Beaumont Country Club, Beaumont, Texas (69.7/121). Lost to my 15 year old son for the second time, he shot 40-38=78. I leaked too much oil coming in. Missed 2 three footers (1 for par, 1 for birdie) on the back, jerk hooked an 8 iron into 18 from 145 yards then went on to 3 putt for double bogey on. Ouch! My son has a Texas State Junior Amateur Qualifier there next Wednesday, probably will take a 75 or below to qualify.