Patch

I walk with my ClicGear trolley when ever possible. My reasoning is to keep my legs in golf swing shape. Folks who ride all the time, especially older golfers, will lose leg strength, unless of course they use another exercise to keep their legs in swing shape. Effective leg strength is an important part to a consistent golf swing. Leg strength is something I am struggling with right now due to my previous lay off from the game. A 4+/- mile walk pushing about 50+lbs is helpful exercise. Now if it's a really hot, triple digit day, say Furnace Creek GC in August, I might use a cart.

To me a chipping stroke is pretty much the same as a putting stroke. Both are an "arms only" type stroke for me. With that, I use the same grip on both strokes. Heck, I even use the same grip, and stroke on longer chip shots that some folks might call a short pitch shot. The loft I might use is determined by the shot at hand. The only change I do make when chipping is that I raise the heel of club up of the ground a little to avoid it hitting the ground. Yes this puts the toe down a little, which again I don't let touch the ground prior to striking the ball. Actually when raising the heel up, the pitching club will sit some what level, just like the putter does. Only when I have a distance, shot, and/or ball lie that requires me to break my wrists in the back swing, do I change my to the Vardon grip. Just a few thing less to worry about. You can google "Paul Runyon Chipping" for a better idea.

It use to be my AW, with a full swing 2+ years ago. 15 years ago it was my SW. Now it's a 9i with a nice easy swing. Of course it depends on what's between my ball and the pin. I can hit a 7i punch shot, up hill, the same distance. Right now my dispersion from 100 yards is about 6% on the fly. Slowly but surely it will get some what better. Playing my 8th round on my own come back trail tomorrow. Last 7 rounds have me averaging 85.7 strokes. Having fun, and flirting with the Cart Ladies.

After a long, forced lay off from golf, I played 54 holes over the past few days. For the past few months I have been practicing, (/emoticons/biggrin.png"/>

I own a lot of the books listed in this thread. Hogan's 5 Lesson is a very good book, and Penick's Little Red Book would be the 2nd of the three of my favorites. Penick's book is just a great, simple book to read. My third, and also my favorite is the " Nine Bad Shots of Golf......... [Jim Dante] " I found myself always going back to this book when ever my swing took a vacation. My reasoning is that if you know (understand) what causes a particular bad ball flight, you will have a head start fixing the swing problem(s) associated with it. This is especially important for an on course fix during a round. I also found out a long time ago, that (IMHO) most book titles that use the word "secret" in it's title is probably not worth a read. There are no "new secrets" in the golf swing. I prefer the older teachings of the golf swing, and anything by Manuel de la Torre will help anyone's golf game. So would anything by Ernest Jones.

Amateur golf is just like any other form of entertainment. The more affordable the entertainment, the more people there are available to use it. In today's economy, golf is not affordable to most folks once you factor in equipment, the gas to get to the golf course, and some of the higher green fees you come a cross. Let's not forget that most courses do not allow their visitors to bring in their own food and drink. Being forced to accept having to buy $5 hot dogs, and drinks does not sit well with a player who just paid $50+ dollars for an 18 hole round. Less expensive golf courses also have their own a down sides. The cheaper the green fees, the more folks who use that course as a cost saving measure. More golfers on a course means longer rounds, and more damage to the course, especially the greens. More damage results in higher green fees, or just poorer course conditions. Golf instruction from a qualified professional teacher costs quite a bit too. Assuming you can find a qualified swing instructor who is not teaching on a pro tour some where. Then there are those first time golfers who have watched the pros on TV shoot scores in the mid 60s, but who can't break 100 themselves. These first time golfers might be ringers in adult softball, or some other sport they played in college or high school, but can't hit a decent golf ball to save their soul. When they think they can't play golf at the level they think they should, they leave the game. What about the golfer who is just learning the game, but is ridiculed by those players who own a better swing? To my way of thinking the slow, and/or not so good golfer helped to keep my green fees lower just by paying to be on the course. There are quite a few reasons the game of golf is shrinking at the amateur level, with the biggest reason being the cost of play. Take me for instance. When I was playing 3-5 times a week, I found I shot the same scores regardless if the green fee was $25, $100, or $300. So since my scores did not change, why pay the extra $75?+ That $75+ savings allowed me to purchase those $5 hot dogs and drinks....LOL....{:

If you want further info on this alleged mess, google "Billy Walters". Mickleson would have been smart to stay away from him in the first place.

Here is what I did, and worked out perfectly for my wife and I. My wife was a non golfer, but she liked to ride in the cart with me. Problem was, some courses we visited, even if we offered to pay, would not let her ride, with out having her own a set of clubs. So we bought her a bag, and put a putter in it. That's it, just a putter. Oh, and few of those pink lady balls. Her golfing consisted of just putting, and to make it interesting, we made up our own little competition. She would drop a ball on the green at a point farthest from the pin. Her "putting" par was what ever that hole's par was. 3, 4, or 5. If it took me 5 strokes from the tee box to hole out, she could win the hole by just holing out in less than 5 putts. At first we gave her a putting handicap, which she quickly made obsolete. Eventually she became a very good putter, and it was getting almost impossible for me win. So we then added a chipping club, with the same rules. She would drop a ball 10' off the green, and chip/putt from there. Long story short, she eventually started playing from 150 yard marker, and/or par threes in that same yardage range. She uses a 7 wood. She was happy, I was happy, and we never held anyone up while she was learning the game.

Howdy all. Just signed up a few days ago. Finally getting back into golf after several months of recuperating from a collision with a drunk driver. After some loss of memory, and a few surgeries I will be playing my first round of golf on a real course within the nest few days. I had been playing golf for the past 40 years at the time of the accident. I made it all the way down to 5 handicap during my best playing days. If I had had more time to play and practice I am pretty sure I could have made it to scratch. I have shot par before on a few courses. Best score was a 70, (4 times) on a par 71 course. I am self taught, never having taken a lesson. For the past few months I have been working my way back, practicing with the short stuff (150 yards) on a make shift practice range hitting off a mat. My longer shots will be suspect for a while, but I don't care, as I will be back playing again. Anything under 90 will be most satisfying. I am retired, and my wife and I travel while volunteering at various national parks. Right now we are in southern Nevada in the Lake Mead area. Hot weather will be good for the healing processes. {:

Not much bothers me on a golf course, but I have been riled by rude players a few times. I remember one time a rude guy was talking while I was waiting to hit. He was very boisterous. I was in the group in front of him. After I hit my drive I walked back to my cart, as I was going past him I told him "thanks for tip, it really helped my drive". The look on his face was worth a good chuckle.

At my age I just want to go out and have fun. That and to stay healthy enough to eventually shoot my age....lol

Usually on the course's score card they list the different tees that go with a given handicap. If not on the score card the starter should know which tee a golfer should use, based on the golfer's handicap. If there is no starter to ask, the counter guy who takes the golfer's should know. Tournament directors should also know which tees a golfer should be using based on their handicap. All that said, on some courses the different tees are so close together, it does not matter which tee box is used.

Here's an idea for new golfers wanting to see better scores, quicker. Learn the game backwards. No, you won't hear any very many (if any) accomplished swing gurus say this, but it does have it's merits. I know it has merits because I have taught some of my family members the game using this method. Plus, they had fun while learning. However, those same swing gurus who do not think learning the game backwards is a viable way to quicker, better scores, will tell you that the short game is where you save the most strokes. Myself I play for the fun of it. I learned this backwards method by accident, because I had non golfing family members who wanted to go to the golf course with me. The competition was them dropping the ball on the green at spot farthest from the cup, then putting the ball in the hole with a putter in less strokes than it took me from the tee box. Once I could not beat them with them just putting, I made them add chipping to our family competition. Eventually some had to add pitching, and graduated farther back from there. I have grand kids who now shoot in mid/low 80s from the tee box, after only a year's worth of occasional golf outings with me. By backwards here's what I mean. Start with putting, and work your way back to the tee box from there. What you do is drop balls on various parts of the green. Long, short or in between, from the cup, it does not matter. When you get to a point where you can average 2.50 putts or less from any distance to the cup, you are a proficient putter. Something less than a 2.0 average putts is great. Now you move off the green to chipping distances. Again you drop balls from various chipping distances to the cup. To me a chipping stroke is just a longer putting stroke 99% of the time. Again, once you can chip, and putt the ball into the cup in 2.5 strokes or less, you are a proficient chipper of the ball. Chipping distances will vary for each golfer, but the 2.5 stroke average will stay the same. Anything less than a 2 is tremendous. Now you move to pitch shots to the cup. A pitch shot to me is just a longer chip shot where the golfer adds a little more body turn, and a little more wrist cock for more distance as needed. Again 2.5 stroke average to hole out is the golfer's goal, although any thing 3 or less is still pretty good. Again, pitch yardage will vary for each golfer. By the time a golfer has a good grasp of pitch shots into the green, the golfer already has all facets of their short game working well for them. Once the golfer has a good grasp of pitch shots, it's time to move to full approach shots. Again, full approach shot distance is relative to the individual golfer. My full approach distance is 150 yards with a 5 iron. A full approach shot swing is just a longer pitch shot, and basically the same as tee shot swing. A good goal for an approach shot to hole out is a 3.5 hole average So if you can aver 3.5 shots from 150 yards you have accuracy. Add that accuracy to a full tee shot, and you are at 4.5+/- shots per hole. 5 shots per hole is a 90, and 4 is 72. The fun part is that everyone likes to practice chipping and putting. It's easy to learn with out having to deal with hooks, slices, shanks, and what ever other bad shots that come with the longer swings. Learning the easier shots first is less time consuming. Plus when you do hit a bad approach, or tee shot, (we all do) the golfer already has a decent stroke saving, recovery shot in his bag.