jasongst

My wife is strong (she does weight training multiple times a week), but when I put a golf club in her hands it seems her initial tendency is to swing slowly and awkwardly. Granted, she's not a golfer, so the club must feel rather alien in her hands, but I just get the feeling she's lacking a certain "edge" that is necessary when hitting the ball. Look at the women on the LPGA tour: they are strong, but they aren't exactly body builders, and they aren't all tall, yet they hit it really far, relatively speaking. I'm wondering if the biggest differences aren't only mechanical, but also lacking the desire to aggressively hit the ball the way a martial artist would punch at a board. I've seen this lack of "edge" in male golfers too from time to time. I know a lot of it may have to do with past injury, or maybe just not playing baseball or having any pinatas growing up. (You gotta hit that thing like you wanna cause pain!!!) Is it possible to have strong "normal" muscles but weak "twitch" muscles?

When I tee off, part of my routine is to find a piece of debris or grass about 3' in front of the ball to aid with alignment. When I can't see anything, I sometimes swish the grass with my club to make a small visible crease in the grass. Is messing with the grass legal? This is something I don't do, but I would if I knew it was legal: Can I drop a tee 3' in front of my ball to aid in my alignment? Here's one for putting. When I'm reading putts, I seem to get the best sense of the slope using my feet instead of just eyeballing or plumb-bobbing. Would it be legal for me to walk along the line of my putt prior to hitting the ball, so that I can feel the slope? Lastly, I'm pretty sure this one is illegal. My buddy likes to press down the grass behind his ball with his foot, to make it easier to get a clean strike at the ball. Is this legal? Thanks for any answers!

Wow I had a huge post on this but lost it! (I guess I was previewing and didn't know it.) Anyhow, I'm new to hitting driver off the deck, but I still think it's a good shot as long as you know the limitations. I think if you can hit a straight shot with your driver off the tee consistently, then you should be able to execute a driver off the deck. Why not? Just skim the grass like you do with your 3 wood. Here are some good things about the shot: Hits farther (especially into the wind). Hooks and slices are less exaggerated by the wind. Great for hitting under tree limbs. Even thin shots get decent distance. It's a good shot to recover from a short first or second shot, assuming you have a good lie. And of course, it's a good gamble shot for trying to get within 20 or so yards from the green. But you'll have less consistency clearing hazards, and you need to account for massive amounts of roll. If it's not windy and you can't make it near the green, just hit your normal club to lay up to your favorite distance. I usually hit my 3 wood about 230-240 yards when it's not windy. The other day I hit my 460cc driver off the deck. I hit it thin and it only flew about 3-4 feet off the ground. Still, the ball rolled along for 250 yards, and I ended up about 10 yards from the green. I'll take that!

A couple of notes about this show. I can see it being an interesting show if I actually followed what was going on and who was being eliminated. The problem is, I watch the Golf Channel sporadically, and GC seems to re-run episodes constantly and in a haphazard order, so to an outsider like me it seems like I'm always seeing the same episode, and no one is ever actually being eliminated. Overall a pretty chaotic experience. Additionally, I'm a bit turned off by the obvious push toward sex appeal. Can't we enjoy the *sport* part of sports, rather than trying to turn everything into a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue? As much as I like golf, it seems to objectify women as much or more than any other sport, not looking at them simply as athletes, but rather as hot chicks who also happen to be good at golf. In the case of Big Break, it's kind of embarrassing for me (a guy, mind you) to see these women, who in many cases are not exactly super model material, shoved into skimpy bathing suits and asked to pose for the camera. They're on the show because they've worked their butts off to be elite golfers... right?

For a true average you have to include all the mishits, right? Is this how they do it in the PGA, or do they only take the best X number of drives per round?