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

I was thinking about this today when I was talking with the mother of one of my son's friends about getting the kids interested in golf. This mom and my wife are beginners, whereas the other dad and I have been playing since we were kids. One of the challenges with getting kids and new adults into the game is how damn tough the sport is. I would LOVE to see a golf course in the area that is specifically designed for kids and new golfers: short holes (e.g. 275-yard Par 4s), with this 15" cups, wide open with no elevated greens. Think about how much more fun it would be for everyone involved: if you're there, you can't be upset at the pace of play. The courses are easy so it's about learning the game and enjoying time with your friends and family. The price can be set accordingly. And then you can go tackle the "real" golf courses.

It's funny looking. I don't like it. I'm not going to offer any more of an explanation that that because I don't have one other than: I don't like it.

I think "Keep your head down" is the absolute worst advice you can give a beginner. It took me about 2 months of teaching my wife to play before I realized that me saying, "Keep your head down" is what was causing her to dip down at the transition and then pull up over the top of the ball to avoid chunking it 5 feet behind the ball. I found it a lot easier to teach her to "cover the ball" with the club. For some reason, that particular image just clicked. (That and we spent about 20 minutes in the backyard one day tossing buckets of water to teach her how to do a weight transfer.)

Isn't "bed rest" what caused so many of his other problems? *rim shot* Seriously, though, this could be No Big Deal or it could be The Beginning of the End. That's just how back injuries work. His second swing was so insanely violent. This new swing is almost perfect: nice, narrow stance to take pressure off of the busted leg, and he maintains flex in the left leg instead of snapping it straight up. The one thing I would like to see is a different way for him to start his lateral move: he drives his left shoulder down pretty hard, and that's going to put a lot of strain on both the leg and back. Still, the narrower stance should help compensate for that. I think his new swing is a tremendous improvement over his old swing in terms of his longevity, but I worry that the change came too late.

To me, golf is a hell of a lot more interesting when Tiger is in the running - As a true golf fan, I appreciate & respect all that he has done for the game... I'm a lot more likely to make time to watch if he is in contention... Anyone who says it isn't more interesting when Tiger is in the running is lying. It's clearly more interesting. (Now, I get frustrated when he's 8 shots out of the lead and they are showing every practice swing, but he moves the needle...it's just a fact of life.) Fact is, golf needs another Tiger Woods -- that is, a player who captivates. Personally, I think that next guy is going to be Jordan Spieth, but there are certainly a lot of contenders. The first crop of "young guns" hasn't really panned out that way, although why Rory gets so much crap for having "only" won 2 majors is beyond me.

That's not the bad part. The bad part is before slamming his club down he backed off it twice, took 12 practice swings, and 47 wiggles.

Loupe just addressed the ball 4 times. Each time, he took at least 2 practice swings, and sometimes 3. By my count, he took a total of 10 practice swings. He then fanned it into a sand trap. This is ridiculous. I'm not sure I can watch this nonsense.

If ONLY there were a rule governing the pace of play, then perhaps something could be done. But Finchem is just a powerless victim here, as he has no ability to assign, I dunno, penalty shots on people who fall off the clock. If only! But in all seriousness, I don't have a problem with guys taking some time to discuss a shot. I get it: these are very, very difficult shots and there is a lot to consider. But when they then take 7 or 8 practice swings and then back off the ball twice, it's too much. Pick your shot, grab a club, and hit the damn ball.

Hey folks, As I have mentioned in a separate post, I have a bad back brought on by a congenital condition (my L-5 never fused correctly, so I have a crispy shell with a gooey center). For years, I've been trying to find the Silver Bullet exercise or stretch. I believe I have finally found it: Tread water for 10 minutes as many times a week as you can. Honestly, the results have been tremendous and incredible. Not only has it helped strengthen my back muscles, but also it has helped strengthen the rest of my core, arms, legs, and (this surprised me) neck. And obviously it is as low-impact an exercise as you are ever going to find. Anyway, just thought I would pass it on. I'm able to go to the gym by my office and get in a "complete" workout in about 30 minutes. If you've got back pain and are looking for something new, I can't recommend this highly enough.

http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/10659142/criteria-voting-changed-world-golf-hall-fame " Officials have eliminated the PGA Tour and International ballots for men. Instead, the four categories will be for men, women, veterans and lifetime achievement. Active players must have 15 wins on major tours or two majors." I'm glad they got rid of the distinction between PGA Tour and International. That made sense back in the day, but the European Tour has come really close in parity to the PGA Tour in terms of quality (if not prestige).