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I have been liking Rocco since yesterday (I love his attitude and his reactions after awesome putts for birdies and to save par) but Tiger's 2-iron scramble and that eagle putt just gave me the goosebumps too..... That's going to be in the highlight reel for years and years!

Oh man... I feel sick to my stomach for poor Phil. 9 strokes on the par 5 hole #13 while he was already well over par for the tournament... I grew up in San Diego, went to La Jolla High and Torrey Pines would be my home course if I had started playing golf before joining the military and moving away. I know how important winning this tournament is for Phil and while I know his chances were getting slimmer and slimmer as it went on I have to say there's just no chance. His mental game just has to be shot.

You could do what I did - buy a full set for about $150 with a stand bag. I bought my starter kit from Wal-mart and added a couple of wedges. They are a lot nicer quality than you might expect. I am going to phase out my starter clubs and go with all new clubs next season. I figured there was no reason to spend more than I did for my first season without knowing how 'into' golf I was going to be. I'd rather spend $200 this season and get a lot of playing in, and then sell or give those clubs away and spend $1000+ next season on awesome fitted clubs, than spend $300-400 my first season and decide I don't like golf as much as I'd hoped.

Hole 15 at my home course is a Par 5 on a steep hill left to right, gradual dog-leg left around the hill. The whole fairway is angled left to right, and any slices fall off the earth to a totally different hole down the hill. I hit a poor drive that comes up short and right, down the hill. Pop up onto the fairway with my 4hybrid, then shank my 3rd shot right back down the hill again. I find myself sitting high in deep rough on a steep hill just off the fairway about 150 out from the green, with a skinny tree between me and the green. I sweep the ball off the grass, well below my feet, with a 6 iron shot that misses the tree perfectly, forms a very slight fade up and over the bunker guarding the front-right of the green, hits the green and checks up to within 4 feet of the hole at the back of the green. I tap in an easy putt for par and name that 6-iron shot my best hero shot scramble ever. Never have I hit a 4th shot from so far away that ended up so close to the hole.

I've lost respect for Ian for good after today's performance.

I like to listen to audiobooks on my ipod while on the practice green. I've found audiobooks very helpful in a lot of situations - for instance I have driven across the country a couple of times with a bunch of audiobooks to listen to, and they keep me awake and interested, while helping to pass the time much better than music. They can do the same thing on the practice green. I relax a lot more. Sure I don't have 100% of my focus on the putt, but considering how often I over-focus and make mistakes, that's a good thing - it helps me think about the important thing - which is to get the ball in the hole. If I am playing by myself I will take the audiobook out with me onto the course sometimes (with only one earpiece in to be able to hear people shouting Fore, of course). I like the silence and sounds of little birds chirping, but I sometimes get lonely out there, and start filling the silence with over-analyzation

If you have something like Big 5 Sports go and see what they have on sale. A friend of mine bought some basic Footjoy shoes for $40 and another bought some nice looking Alien shoes for $25. They both seem good enough. I had to spend $60 for Nikes because I have size 13 feet - and I already ditched the Nikes for some Footjoy Reelfits from TGW because the Nikes were very much not waterproof.

He was playing with an overlapping grip, too.

I voted for several times a week because that is what I will do when I am healthy and the weather is good. Right now I am a bit hurt so I can't take many full swings without aggravating my neck and back. In the winter I doubt I will get to play much at all. :( But I WAS playing 18 almost every day of the week. Sometimes 36 on the weekends :D

I actually just had a poll thread about this recently, but no worries. :) I started with an interlocking grip but switched to overlapping recently.

You shouldn't make light of that idea... golf balls can go 175mph off the driver... I would never want someone to hit one at me intentionally. I'm sure a judge would consider an intentionally struck golf ball a deadly weapon, yes.

Probably at the racetrack on my Triumph 675. Only gotten around to one trackday this year, I was all spooled up to do 2-3 a month until I got addicted to golf... It's a lot cheaper and closer to home, though less of an adrenaline rush!

I am happy when I consistently hit par-3 greens on the tee shot, and a few par-4 greens on the approach; And when I'm feeling very confident with my short game. Scoring under 100 always helps! Still working on breaking 90!

It's tough to be hurt, I have been a bit recently, I just consider it a good reason to spend a lot of time practicing putting.

Why not? If you intentionally hit a ball at someone and hit them, it's assault.

I like Oil Can, I bought a cheap Dunlop SW with a lovely brown finish. Imagine my horror when half of the club had turned silver after my first 2-hour practice session on rain-wet turf at the practice pitching green with it! I had no idea about the oil can finish. I never thought the brown would wear away so quickly, I thought it was permanent. I bought a LW to match it and now that I understand about the finish I like them both. Neither one has any rust whatsoever - just an interesting blend of brown and silver where the finish has and has not been worn. I look forward to buying better oil can finished wedges next year, either Vokey or Cleveland.

Those SeeMores seem like awesome clubs. Very basic, yes, but I adored the grips on them when I tried them out, and they seemed deadly with an arced stroke. I am more comfortabe with a straight stroke right now so I had to put a little extra work into the stroke. I naturally keep the ball right under my eyes - I can't read the line otherwise.

I am also a Topflite D2 Feel user right now - $1 per ball. $15/15 balls

Seems like an editorial mistake to me. I actually read it as 'if you can't make more than four GIRs a round'. I had to read the rest of Erik's post to understand what his complaint was. Then, it was obvious. I'm certainly no linguist! It probably should have been re-phrased. I only subscribe to Golf Digest, not Golf Magazine. What was the drill/tip? By the way, I am lucky to make 4 GIRs in a round, and that's including the 3 par-3 holes at my home course. :)

Not that I am suggesting anything, but this thread made me think about how easy it was for me to change my grip from interlocking to overlapping. I posted a thread a little while back about pinky finger pain, which was getting worse, and I was waking up in the morning with a locked-up pinky finger due to damaged tendons (classic trigger finger symptoms). I switched to an overlapping grip and it took me less then 9 holes to completely mentally switch over. At first it felt odd, and in just an hour of play it became completely natural - my hands went into the grip by themselves, and my pinky has been feeling a lot better ever since.

Thanks guys, After getting some rest with my heating pad I feel 100% better today, though I'm going to hold off on playing golf for a few more days. Interesting facts and advice, too. Thanks!

That's weird. Are they going to have magic grooves?

Nicely stated!

No - the whole point of golf is to get a tiny ball into a small hole 400+ yards away in just a few strokes, right? I know that statistically, making the hole a little less than twice the size doesn't make the game easier, but I think most of us, in our hearts, wouldn't consider the game as challenging.

I was having some middle back ache from golfing, went to the chiropractor last week... i think I overdid it today, on my 30th hole of the day I hit an absolutely booming drive and there was a loud pop, and my middle back basically gave up on me completely. Thanks for the advice on lying on the floor with feet up, I've got some ibuprofin in me and a heating pad. I think I have to lay off golf for a week or two and let things knit up. I think my swing is what does it, I don't initiate the swing with my hips, but from my back.