NJpatbee

After all the years of injury and personal problems Tiger is playing at age 42 the way I would have expected him to without the melodrama of the last 10 years. Watching the amazing recovery shots he made demonstrated his raw talent and he certainly can keep up with the young guns. If he can tame his driver he has multiple wins ahead of him and perhaps a major or two. To be at this stage in his first year back was beyond my expectations (and maybe Tiger's).

Great leaderboard on Sunday and steady play by Koepka who deserved the win. Tiger did have a Tiger like performance and made it interesting and fun to watch.

Location, lack of crowds, and great course maintenance and conditions.

10.5 with an 88 mph driver ss. Higher than a line drive but not a high ball hitter and I do get a fair bit of roll out.

I am a 66 year old golfer and as expected I am shorter than I was 16 years ago off the tee. However, the larger sweet spot on the 460cc drivers, hybrids, and some improvements with the golf balls have me still playing from the same tees (men's) but about 25 yards shorter with my drives. This is a very difficult stat to measure with amateurs due to age and I believe analyzing the pro distances gives a clearer picture of distance gain.

I will usually lose 1-2 balls/round on my home course. When I finish the round and if the ball I am playing is in good shape it goes back in the bag to play again.

If you can get the Top Flite Gamer or Gamer Soft on sale (which is frequent) pick one that you believe fits your swing and stock up. If you indeed lose 6 sleeves of balls on some rounds I would go with used (not re-finished) balls of the same kind. If lessons are not in the cards for you there are some good free tips on-line. I would also get a shag bag and find a place to work on your game.

I buy the rolling ball concept but do not buy into the statement that higher handicaps get more aces since our balls are not nearly as close to the pin. I have been playing for 26 years and as a mid-teen HCP golfer I have never had a hole in one. How many does Tiger have?

Driver, 5 hybrid, PW, and putter.

I still buy "stuff" on ebay (not much in the way of golf equipment) and have had no problems.

For the record during good weather I have a scotch and cigar on my deck so I am no prohibitionist. But the root cause of most of the bad behavior is drinking too much booze and guys in there 20's - 40's getting ripped. I doubt it will happen but to mitigate the problem you have to reduce or eliminate the booze. Yes, we are a coarser society with Robert De Niro yelling F*** Trump at the live broadcast of the Tony's and the "sophisticated" audience stood and cheered - Then we have Samantha Bee calling Ivanka Trump a c*** on her TV show. How about pulling out into traffic these days and all the smiling people waving you in? Rudeness and crudeness is on the increase and allowing idiots to get smashed at a Tour Tournament will result in the behavior most people could do without. (Full disclosure I live in the NY Metro Area). And....why are people blaming the USGA which does not control and sponser most of the Tour events? How about the PGA Tour?

That sounds reasonable although I could see additional extensions (may be 3 or 4) for major championships.

Although there are some pros that tend to complain more than others I could not paint the entire tour as whiny and spoiled. The Tour does specify what the conditions should be for most tournaments and of course they do accommodate the players' preferences in most cases (the USGA is a different story). Golfers like Dustin Johnson or Keopka are good examples of solid golfers that accept their results and official rulings for a round. Spieth can sound whiny but he tends to think out loud. Saturday at the 2018 US Open was enough to test anyone's patience and even Phil had a mini-meltdown. Let's remember these guys are playing for the big bucks in purses and endorsements and most of them are very careful with their criticisms.

That could change my opinion depending on what the criteria is for an extension is.