soloredd

Great post. I'm enjoying watching Luke more and more. The guy makes golf shots, such a solid all-around player.

Man, David is pretty damn solid. That shot he put on the green from 180 was money. Oren was lucky to get out of his match - hitting driver after David went in the bunker was nuts. I'm loving Robbie more and more. That skull across the green was just like me!

No denim allowed on the golf course! LOL

Agree with the last comment :) And I had a chuckle about the TaylorMade/Srixon fight. Well played! I can answer your last question: for me, the hats my local courses offer are crap. Most are adjustable denim hats that are super flimsy - I've always liked crisp, pro-fitted hats like the MLB wears. So I wear the Titleist FJ/ProV1 hat. I also wear an A's hat and a Florida Gators hat, depending on my mood - all 3 are fitted wool caps. I give my courses money every time I play, and unless I'm going out of town I play the same 5-6 courses in rotation. I choose not to belong to a specific course for this very reason. I know I am not a compensated, endorsed pro. Believe me, my wife let's me know that every few weeks when she sees the money going OUT for golf and ZILCH coming in for golf

Had a "Phil" moment today. 340 yard par 4, hooked my 3 wood into some trees - complete crap hit, I still had 175 to middle of green. Pin was at back at 182. My options were to either hit a hybrid punch and then wedge or hook a mid iron around a tree and hope for the best. There was a bunker protecting the right of the green so if it didn't hook enough I was toast. My lie sucked; hard pan with pine needles spread about so I took a 5 iron and set up for the hook - aimed clubface at the middle of green and closed my stance to aim just about to that bunker. Put a solid swing on it (didn't chunk it, which happens most often from hard pan for me). That sucker hooked so beautifully and I had played it low enough to where there was forward spin when the ball hit. Ball landed just left of the bunker right off the green and rolled to 8 feet from cup. Missed the birdie and took par. I must confess...THAT was a golf shot!

It's been my experience that, no matter what tees are played, the "casual golfer" is going to slow things up. Again, the courses need to do a better job of moving play. I love how some of the courses have clocks posted. The clocks are set so that they display the time you teed off at; if you come to #5 tee and see your tee time on the clock, your pace is perfect. I have to confess, since I work Fri-Sun 12-hour night shifts, I get to play weekdays and very rarely have I had the jam ups that probably most of you experience. So you probably encounter a lot more crazy stuff than I do. Maybe start making people check in at the turn?

What is the difference between wearing a Titleist hat when playing golf to wearing an A's hat to a baseball game? If my favorite player is Tiger Woods, wouldn't you expect me to wear a Nike TW hat? And why do people always feel they need to judge others? I don't understand threads like this: worrying about someone's apparel or wondering why someone would play a full set of one brand. No wonder the layperson thinks golf is full of snobs.

Yep, I'm in the same boat as you. My good friend who is a scratch player had me play from the blues a couple weeks ago. Before that day I'd always played whites (or whatever was ~6,200 yards). For the first few holes I was having a tough time but it was mental, thinking I had to swing harder of course. Once I relaxed and just played it felt natural for me. The par 3s took some adjustment as I was usually hitting a mid to high iron before. I think the blues (6,600 yards or so) is as far as I'm going to get.

I've only seen one issue out here with players playing the wrong tees - a foursome ahead of us teed off on #1 from the 6,600 tees and all 4 put their drives around 200, two of which were hooked into the rough. Starter gets on them and says they need to move up tees. That's the only time I've ever witnessed the policing of playing the proper tees. It seems as time goes on, golf courses are taking less and less responsibility for what is going on. I hardly see the presence of marshals anymore, there's no communication from the pro shop to the player as to what the course expectations are, and fewer and fewer courses have actual starters. I'm all for the Tee It Forward initiative but I think putting all the blame on the player is wrong. Those of us on this forum are the exception - most players are casual who just go out for fun. They don't care about the mechanics, the history, the desire to get better.

I have the same opinion as you. I used to be at the range a lot but the past month or so I've taken a different approach and only go to the range if I won't be playing in more than a week or something is whacked out with my swing. When I was going the day before I was playing, if I had a bad session, my mental approach was shot - just made things worse.

For me, my grip is in the top 3 of most important things in my golf game (along with tempo and mental focus). I've made a thread or two here before about my grip being inconsistent, battling hooks and fighting plane issues. I finally, finally figured it out at the end of March and my game has been as good as it ever has been.

87 (71.0/123 - blue - 6,636yds) 86 (72.1/135 - blue - 6,844yds) 89 (69.8/120 - white - 6,311yds) 83 (69.2/125 - blue - 6,250yds) The 86 and 89 were at the same course...pretty funny. Real test comes Monday on a course I've only played twice, both from the white tees. Never shot lower than 96 there so this will be interesting. Going to play from the blue tees and give it a go.

Got the Callaway Org 14 Sport golf bag in black. Finally have a good bag to use on my Clicgear. My Nike stand bag is a nice bag but I was so sick of clubs getting stuck together. Also bought a box of ProV1 prior gen, ProV1x prior gen (which I traded with a friend for a box of Penta) and some tees. Next up will be new shoes, my adidas 360 3.0 have about had it. Debating between the adidas Tour 360 4.0 and the Nike Lunar Control.

Frogger has a mini version of their great amphibian towel just for this purpose. They sell the regular towel and ball towel together in a package. I just park my push cart near the green, mark my ball, clean it real quick then line it up (I don't have the mini towel just the regular size towel).

Tuesday: morning round @ Riverbend, played white tees (69.8/120) scored 89 (43/46) then afternoon round from the blues (72.1/135) scored 86 (40/46). My putting was atrocious in both rounds - I managed to 4-putt a GIR hole the 2nd round, in addition to losing 3 balls during the round. Should have broke 80 Today: early round @ Riverside, played blue tees (71.0/123) scored 87 (41/46). Was in the bunkers a lot. On 18, had a 6-foot chip for eagle but ended up with par. Couldn't even birdie the SOB. Now that I think I'm over my anger stage, I am pretty happy with how I've been playing. 6,600-6,800 tees are still new to me and I'm having to re-learn some of my local courses now. I just need to figure out WTF is going on after the turn. My front nine scores have been solid - not sure if I'm losing focus or what.

Yup. One of my friends hits a draw off the tee with a wide open face at setup. It's amazing to me, really. My clubface is usually closed relative to my path and it's a fine line between drawing and flat out hooking.

83 (blues) 86 (blues) 81 (white) 83 (white) That 86 is the first round I've had from the blues. I enjoyed it a lot, had to use some shots I normally haven't had to. I'll be playing whatever tees are around the 6,800 yard range from now on. These scores for me have been amazing, I really can't explain it other than a lot of the practice and play time I've put in has finally clicked. I have a setup I'm very comfortable with, a grip that's been consistent, but most importantly my mental game has been sharp. I've been a lot more cerebral on the course, not rushing things, and when I get put in a tough spot, instead of getting frustrated I'm reveling in the moment to make a good play. I'm also really happy that it's going good this early in the season as opposed to something like the final month.

My son is the same age as yours. He's already wanting to play, has his Little Tikes golf set he's always playing with. Anyway, as for me, I'd like to be shooting in the mid-70s and winning local tournaments. I want to start playing on the Golf Channel am tour next year so I'd hope to be a few years into that as well.

I'm also gaming the 360 3.0. Got them in San Diego last July. I'm thinking a year or so does me pretty good. I also bought a pair of TRUEs in the winter, so my 360s are not as worn (I'm a walker). I'm looking at either the 4.0 or going over to the Nike Lunar Control.

You said you screwed up the next 3 holes. I'd start there. Your attitude is highly important. I try to take the approach that Tiger does: take 10 steps off the green and forget about what just happened. Nothing wrong with bogey for a hole. Something's wrong when 4 holes go bad.

I love my 4 iron but use my hybrid on approach shots (from the fairway or off the tee) - it lands softer for me than the iron does. I was at a point last year where I wasn't hitting my driver off tees, I was using 4 or 5 iron. Was having major problems with my hybrids/woods. Anyhow, this forced me to develop a good relationship with my 4 iron and get comfortable with it. Unlike my 5, I do play the 4 about half a ball roll further up in stance. Try putting the same 5 iron swing but a different ball position?

I'm pulling for the silent guys: Oren, Will, David, and Carl. All the other players are what I dislike about "reality" television: annoying one-liners, over-the-top attitudes, etc.

83 (42/41) on par 71 course. Played like $#!t today. Only hit 2/14 fairways and 7/18 greens with 35 putts. I could not get any of my short pitch and chip shots close to the hole and I had three 3-putts. We played the front 9 again for free (gotta love walking!) and was +2. Go figure.

Find a solid, repeatable grip and setup then go play. Play some more. And then some more. (Respectfully, that whole par 3-executive-twilight is asinine.) I find most people that I know that start to play golf aren't trying to get on the tour, they just want to do something fun. And thinking about 100 different things isn't fun when you're new.

A friend of mine played the Penta last year and converted to the ProV1x this year. Said it was a bit more durable for him. Personally, I've yet to play a Penta - it would take a lot for me to switch from the ProV1.