ztexz

Yeah, those are fair points.

Yeah, it was driving me crazy too, so I put on the live feed from PGATour.com. It's only one hole, but at least it's continuous coverage.

Personally, I don't think he's a legitimate single handicapper. 4 indexes do not shoot 87 in the Oregon Mid-Am. Yeah, I'm kind of over this whole thing too. Not because it isn't an interesting experiment, but just because -- and I feel bad saying this -- I don't believe him. Guys who really have a handicap under 5 don't routinely go out and balloon an 85 in tournament play.

To me, the most telling thing was when Tiger said that he didn't know where the bottom of the club is when he chips. I mean, that to me right there says that it's 95% mental. Tiger is roughly 40,000 light years ahead of me in talent, and even I know where the bottom of the club is with my short game. I think he's just wandering in a desert wasteland of despair.

As a spectator, the 2008 Ryder Cup was unbelievable and unparalleled. It really deserves to be in its own category. I also went to Rory's US Open win at Congressional, which was a snooze-fest...which to me was an indication of just how dominant he was that week. Some of the most fun I've ever had has been volunteering as a standard bearer at the Wyndham Championship. If you ever get the opportunity, do it. You get to spend an entire round walking inside the ropes with the pros. And if you do it on a Thursday and Friday, they are pretty relaxed. I had a lot of conversations with Eric Compton and Nicholas Thompson, who are both really cool guys. I also ended up hanging out for about an hour after the round with James Hahn's caddie. Other notables that I've spent time with (but didn't really interact that much with) were Padraig Harrington, Rocco Mediate, Charlie Wi ( he shot something like a 65 that day, and if you've never seen a 65 in person, it's incredible), Tommy Gainey, and Woody Austin.

I used a belly putter for about 18 months. What I found was that my putting improved from 5 feet in...but absolutely tanked from 20 feet out. I ended up pretty much just swapping out bad putts. My putts-per-round didn't change at all.

Out of curiosity, what's your pre-shot routine like? As a 12 Handicapper, you're clearly a fine golfer who can hold their own and is technically proficient. Do you do the same thing every time, no matter what, before a shot?

The most recent driver data I saw was from January 2013, and he was averaging 255 yards. He would have ranked dead-last on the PGA Tour last year, 15 yards behind Justin Leonard.

I mean, the fundamental flaw in Dan's Plan is that 10,000 is significantly less than what the touring pros are already doing. Consider: the average, grinding professional on the PGA Tour plays probably 23 events in a season, and let's assume he makes 15 of those cuts. This is roughly how much time he puts in each season: 15 Made Cuts x 6 rounds during the week (including pro-am + practice rounds) x 8-hours / day (playing time plus practice before / after round) = 720 hours + 8 Missed Cuts x 4 rounds x 8-hours/day = 256 hours + 26 weeks of practice x 5 days/week on average x 6 hours/day (kind of a guess, but I'm guessing 1.5 hours in the gym, plus 4.5 hours on the green/driving range) = 780 hours + 3 weeks of vacation = 0 hours So I'm estimating that most PGA Tour players spend about 1756 hours / year (which makes sense if you consider that 2000 hours is a full-time job, and I haven't accounted for travel, press time, etc.) So if you're a 30 year-old Tour player, you've probably been doing this schedule for about 8 years. That right there is 14,000 hours...and we haven't included all of the time as juniors or collegiate players. My guess is that the average Touring professional has probably poured closer to 30,000 hours in over the course of their lifetimes.

I really admire this guy's perseverance, but I think it's pretty clear that he won't be able to make it out of the initial stages of Q-School, much less to the final days and on to the Web.com tour. Heck, at this point he'd be hard-pressed to win a club championship, especially given what seem to be his blow-ups during competitive rounds. For example, in August he placed 45th by going 87-80, finishing 24 shots off the winner. In June, he played in a 3-day tournament and he went 88-87-88. In April, he shot 90 in a freaking charity tournament. Taking his word for it on his handicap (and, quite honestly, I'm skeptical -- legitimate 4-handicappers don't consistently shoot in the upper 80s), he's still light years away from even being in the realm of contention for Q-School: he'd have to shave 20+ strokes off of his typical tournament scores.

Driver: 250-260 (Carry); roll is anywhere from 0 - 30 yards depending on conditions. Usually it's about 10-15 yards. 4+ Wood: 235 2i: 205 3i: 195 4i: 185 5i: 175 6i: 160 7i: 150 8i: 140 9i: 125 PW: 115 52: 100 SW: 85

From Harvey Penick's "Little Red Book" (p. 48) "One of my University of Texas golfers was playing in a tournament in North Carolina. He won his first match handily. He phoned me and said, "The guy I play tomorrow I can beat easily. He has a bad grip and also a bad swing." My boy lost the next match. "The lesson to be learned," I told my golfer later, "is don't be afraid of the player with a good grip and a bad swing. Don't be afraid of a player with a bad grip and a good swing. The player to beware of is the one with the bad grip and the bad swing. If he's reached your level, he has grooved his faults and knows how to score." I guess my point is, is your grip causing you problems? If you can identify specific problems caused by your grip -- for example, I tend to get too strong with my driver, so if I find myself hitting it left, I know exactly where to look -- then by all means tinker with it. But if it isn't costing you strokes, why change? And for what it's worth, I use a baseball grip

I lift my left heel to take some pressure off of my back. I was having a lot of problems with sciatica, to the point where I didn't play for 6 months at one stretch. Letting my left foot drift up naturally, instead of keeping it firmly planted, has been a big help. The thing I have to guard against -- and which is repeating several other posters -- is (1) Lifting the left knee and dipping down into the ball, or (2) Swaying back off the ball. If I find myself doing either of those things, I have to remind myself to just let it happen naturally. The swing thought I use is, "Flow like the river." What I mean is that water flows smoothly and naturally, but it is contained by the river bank. In other words, don't get so loosey-goosey that the swing loses definition, but also not in such a planned out way that I anticipate the movement. It took me about 2 months of working on it before I felt comfortable enough with it.

I don't usually say someone's opinions are idiotic, but this is one of them. Spieth is incredible -- in 15 months, and at the age of 19/20 years old, he went from zero status on the Tour to 10th in the money list, a PGA Tour winner, and playing in the final pair on Sunday at the Masters. "He may win a few majors, but he is not spectacular." "A few majors" is a Hall of Fame career. It's beyond spectacular: it's among the Top 1/10 of 1% of PGA Tour alumni.

I mostly agree. The one change I would like to see to the Masters field is an end to the lifetime exemption. It's already a smaller field, and having guys like Craig Staddler or Ben Crenshaw tie up a spot doesn't do anything for the game, the tournament, or deserving pros (or amateurs) who have an actual shot at making the cut. Let them come participate in the festivities, play the Par 3 tournament with their grandkids, and basically spend the week fawning over them and kissing their butts. Or, if you insist on inviting them, I'd like to see them have the grace to politely decline