Eddie Weatherby

The wind was quartering and against from the left. The hole plays slightly uphill. 127 yards seemed like a good yardage to me. Phil just got too cute trying to land a low one w/o spin. A smooth gap wedge with those Callaway balls would have spun back to what maybe 25 feet below the cup. If Bones was off, it might have been one yard. Phil flew the pin by at least 10 yards and was fortunate it did not go into Cobbs creek..

There was a chance for birdie on the 530 yard 18th and Rose made a brilliant one, it is called a four.

I wonder if the powers to be at Merion will return the course to what it was before the USGA made various changes like moving the fairway towards the road on #2 and moving the bunker closer to the green and more into the fairway. It seems some bunkers were added, too. If the course was firm and fast, the rough would not have been as sticky although it always seems difficult to advance the ball from the rough at Merion. I'd guess 5 over might have won with firmer conditions. The USGA made a bonehead move on #3 and #4 tees yesterday. The" up tees" on #4 are adjacent (maybe 12 yards offline) to the green on #3 where players are hitting driver from 266. Dangerous to say the least. Would have been different had #3 been playing like 210 and the boys were hitting 5 irons into the green.

I don't know but I never ever practice my long game before a round. I just dance with the lady I brung. Practice is usually its own day or maybe after I round if it went badly.

Very interesting topic. I have generally and approximately followed Erik's ratios on my own practice; however, I recently changed them owing to an online software evaluation program of one's game strengths and weakness. You log data from every round. It tells me that my long game is +7, short game is +4, sand play +3, and my putting is a 12 average and sometimes I putt like a 20 Hcp. So, I am now spending much more time practicing my putting and it has improved but my long game has suffered. Maybe my ratio might should be 40/25/35 instead of 20/30/50. I am probably spending too much time on my putting. I am coming full circle. The game is not as hard when thinking of fairways, greens, and lag putts. My experiment is not over. I am coming to the conclusion that the long game accounts for at least 50% of your score and putting probably only 25%. Think of it. Pros might make 27-29 putts in a round whereas the average golfer might need 34-36 putts. There is only maybe 8 shots of improvement to be made on the green. Pros might hit 32-34 full shots into the greens whereas 24-28 HcP amateurs probably hit closer to 55-65 full shots on an average round. The variance between a pro and amateur is greatest when it comes to the long game.

Holding the right shoulder in external rotation on the way down as opposed to chopping over the top helps as does having sufficient strength to keep it in the slot. Strong wrists help to counteract centripital forces of the swing thereby allowing the club to lag. Strong wrists can delay the release and maximize energy transfer, which is one of the reasons hockey players all hit the snot out of the ball. Tutelman explained the Physics and Miyahira showed the high speed videos on lag. Worth a google search.

Ok, I read and misunderstood, "He rotate's his hips open in the backswing like majority of the players on Tour" and misinterpreted what was said. No good player intentionally "rotates" their hips into the backswing. Some rotation results but it is not an action. The point that I was trying to make is that Freddie has relatively little hip rotation and has a very quiet lower body on the backswing owing to his superb, god-like flexibility and balance. Pure rotation.

Thanks. Portmarnock was the only one that I did not get. Maybe I was too hung over. It seemed way overrated.

Really. Listen to Jim Mclean at 2:30-3:00 on the video that I posted. I was not talking about angles. The right leg must brace. His right leg is like the Rock of Gibraltar. Freddie does not rotate his hips 85 degrees. I estimate his shoulder rotation of 105 degrees and hips maybe 15 degrees. His lower body is quiet all the way back. Coming down is a different story.

Correlation does necessarily mean causation. I would not blame Tiger for the poor behaviour of society on or off the course. Anyone who has been playing for more than 20 years knows what I am talking about. Tiger cannot be credited with the building of all the new golf courses in the late 90's and early 00's, that really belongs to the Baby Boomer bubble and Alan Greenspan's cheap money, both bubbles of which have popped.

I may use different terms. Tight in my mind can be front, say guarded by a bunker. If that is the case. I would play a low 7 iron to to the left half of the green allowing the wind to drift it and accept (be happy with) a 20-30 footer If the pin is tucked way back right and left is dead. I would hit a hard, high fade 8 iron into the middle of the green. If I over cut it, pitching into the wind makes the next shot easier. I try to never short side when the pitch would be downwind especially on firm greens. Better to just be in the middle of the green on those tough pins when windy.

I really, really liked the Cashen course in Ballybunion when I played it about 20 years ago. I understand the locals changed some of the holes. They hated that course. None of the caddies would set foot on it. I had to tote my own. This course made the old course seem like a walk in the park.

Me too. Need a fourth? Probably the fairest, hard test of golf. I love that course and you can roll out of bed and walk to the first tee.

I would agree. Played it in the wind (30-40mph) from the tips and holes 11 and 12 were unplayable. I actually putted off the green and over the cliff on 11. I replayed and lost another ball. The next tee shot was almost impossible.

Trajectory is an important part of ball control when it is windy and I think about it on every shot when it is more than just breezy since distance control is more important and under appreciated by the higher handicap guys I play with. It seems they always pull the wrong club. Whether one is playing a draw or fade into a green, hitting it solid is obviously a requirement but even more so in the wind. At the moment, I am just trying to play towards a safer part of the green w/o taking unncessary risk. Just because a player can draw or cut the ball at will does not mean he should work against their natural tendency.