JessN16

Yes, exactly. "MOI" has become a marketing slogan as much as it describes a property of physics. I figured using the slang instead of spelling out my intentions every time might be in the interest of brevity. And by "semi-MOI," I was kind of being cute about the fact that I was hitting an oversized head (the Long Jon) back before it became all the rage. But it's still 110cc smaller than the limit. Jess

I'm in Prattville. But I'm from Monroe County originally and get down that way quite a bit. Jess

Mostly just curiosity, and as a hobby. I also drill bowling balls and have 49 of them sitting around the house right now (my wife wishes I was joking about that). MOI wasn't around when I quit playing, so when I got back into it this summer, my hobbyist bug took over and I figured I needed to see what this was all about. Prior to me building that Long Jon driver -- which at 350cc, was the biggest on the market when it came out -- I struggled driving the ball. Having the bigger driver head did give me more confidence back then. The Cermet MMC is (I think) a 270-290cc head and I built that in an effort to get a lower ball trajectory. Well, mission was accomplished at that point, to the extreme: I went from hitting high, controllable fades to dead-straight-but-too-low shots that (a) didn't get appreciably more distance, and (b) weren't as controllable (several OOB drives). And, the smaller head size didn't agree with me. So I guess you could say I've been playing a "semi-MOI" driver for years anyway, and figured more might be better. I'll keep fiddling with it through the end of this year. One thing I did like about it was that, even though the club is a 9.5-degree, I got a good balance of height and distance on the ball. Jess

...is a big, fat "I don't know yet." I build my own clubs, and I assembled a Snake Eyes Mamba 2 9.5-degree driver on an Aldila Vse 60 shaft. I figured I probably needed to stay in R-flex; my swing speed was around 97-100 on woods back when I was a little younger, thinner and more apt to practice, and since I haven't played in about six years I figured I should skip the stiff stuff. I've been playing with a Golfsmith Cermet MMC 9-degree driver for awhile and averaging about 240-250 a drive (with a range of 220-280 depending on how good I catch it). The first thing I noticed about the Mamba 2 was the noise. I played the last three holes of my round Saturday with a couple of elderly gentleman I caught up to and joined up with. When I teed off with them the first time, I lasered it into the treeline about 250 yards down, causing one of the gentlemen to remark, "Son, I don't know if you're going to find that ball but that's one hell of a club you got there." This thing sounds like the Liberty Bell when you hit it. I was playing a pretty tight course (Emerald Mountain in Wetumpka, Ala.) and playing it for the first time, but I really didn't drive well at all. I typically hit about 60-70 percent of my fairways; I was 1-for-7 on the front side and 2-for-7 on the backside. Worse yet, I got my slice back. I was under the impression these MOI drivers were supposed to cure off-hits but this one did not. I was able to work the ball, however, which I couldn't do very easily with my Cermet MMC. Overall, I averaged about 240-250 yards, which was what I usually do, and I missed a bunch of fairways. I did *not* play around with the adjustable weight ports, however, which I will do before I call this thing a waste of my time or not. Best driver I ever hit was a Golfsmith Long Jon 10-degree, with a S-rated XPC Ultra Lite 65 bubble-type shaft. I still have it, and I might take it with me on a practice round sometime so I can compare and contrast. Right now, I have to say I don't see what all the hubbub about MOI is -- but I do like my MOI putter (Golfsmith XPC Sapphire) that I put together a couple weeks ago. Jess

Welcome! I'm also in Alabama. Where are you located? Jess

...getting paired up with high handicappers when you play? Since I have no playing partners around me anymore, I'm forced to either play as a single or, if that's not allowed, pair up with strangers. I always seem to get put with people a helluva lot better than me. Most of the low handicappers I've been paired with were nice folks -- or, at least, polite about things. I play bad golf but I do play it fast, so at least I don't hold them up. But I worry I'm being looked down upon or that I'm being scorned for ruining someone else's round. There have been a couple of times when my partners were visibly frustrated to have to play with me. Jess

I'd like to know why the group was on the clock in the first place. Everyone keeps saying "if the group is on the clock, that's partly OP's responsibility;" well, no it's not. If he's playing fast and scoring well, what's he supposed to do to the rest of them, carry a coachwhip and beat the skin off their butts if they don't hurry up? He can't force anyone to go faster. If he's at risk of getting DQ'ed because Gavin keeps spraying the ball, Gavin would be well-advised to show some etiquette of his own and basically get out of everyone else's way. I believe OP said scoring was scratch, anyway, which would mean Gavin is doing nothing but serving as a boat anchor. Jess

From an amateur clubmaker's standpoint (built all my own stuff), I would lean to believing you're correct about a quality control issue. That many failures with the same club, IMO, points to a bad batch at Aldila. Given that Aldila is typically a very reputable company, I'm thinking they've either got it fixed now or don't know they had/have a problem with that particular shaft. The other explanation is that whoever assembled the club didn't de-burr the inside of the hosel before assembly. If they didn't, it could cause separation in the graphite inside the hosel which in turn can weaken the shaft even above hosel level. Either way, it's just about impossible at this point for a clubmaker to fix that club without de-burring it, because he/she is going to have to remove the broken tip plus all the epoxy and in the process, will have to smooth up the hosel. I might be inclined to drop Aldila an email about their shaft, too, just in case. Summary: If you fix it this time, you probably won't have to fix it again. Even if it is/was a QC problem with the shaft, I would think that would be fixed by now. I will say this, however: I just ordered a Snake Eyes Mamba 2 driver kit from Golfsmith and the box showed up with shipping damage. When I unpacked everything, I found my Aldila Vse 60 shaft broken in two pieces. It might be that Aldila shafts in general don't take a beating very well nowadays, but I'm betting that's not it. Jess

That shaft is DOA. It can't be fixed, and once graphite shafts break, I never salvage the remains. There's no telling how far the damage extends up the shaft. It could go several inches. Let Adams reshaft it if you like the driver. Otherwise, buy a completely new club from them or someone else. Putting a new shaft in that head won't be hard at all. A good clubmaker can fix that club in no time flat. Jess

Strongly recommend this one for putters (they come in several different colors): http://www.golfsmith.com/products/TS...ed_Putter_Grip As for club grips, I play Avon Chamois or Avon Jumbo Chamois on most of my clubs. A very simple grip and one not a lot of people know about, but when they're new they have great feel, tackiness and a classic look. Easy to install and cheap, too (about $2.60 from Golfsmith): http://www.golfsmith.com/products/93..._Chamois_Black Jess

Like you, Bay Pointe would have been my first choice. I'm told the Hombre is a good golf course. The guys I usually go play Bay Pointe with also play the Hombre while they're down on their trip. I've also heard Bay Dunes is pretty nice, but I've not played it, either. Holiday Golf Club gets decent feedback. I've heard to avoid Signal Hill unless you just want cheap golf. Jess

I was playing with my Dad when he hit a police car while it was coming down the road. Hole No. 1 at Vanity Fair GC runs parallel to the appropriately named Golf Drive, a residential street. Dad was famous for his slice, so he set up left -- and then promptly hit it straight. Over the fence, OOB, one hop, and hit the bottom of the front bumper of the cop car. The ball went under the car and kept bouncing off the road and hitting the car; sounded like a machine gun. The cop pulled over but fortunately it was a good friend of my Dad's (small town we lived in). As for me, either: a) The time I hit the course maintenance supervisor's golf cart while he was sitting in it (he'd waved me to hit but didn't account for my slice), b) The time I decided to teach a friend how to play golf at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Magnolia Grove's Falls Course (course marshals weren't too happy with that one), c) The time I drove it into the swimming pool adjacent to Hole No. 7 at Vanity Fair GC. Jess

Let's, for the sake of divining the LPGA's motives, consider the following: 1) Women's golf is struggling for sponsors. 2) The LPGA is being dominated -- or at least being heavily led as a whole -- by foreigners of many different countries. 3) Because the LPGA is pitching to a predominately U.S., English-speaking audience, there is a disconnect between the audience and No. 2, which causes people to become frustrated or disinterested in the product, which causes a gulf between the audience and No. 1, which leads to financial trouble for the LPGA. Summary: If the LPGA simply becomes a place foreigners come to make money and take it back home with them -- and can't offer much interaction with the fans, let alone be someone fans can relate to as heroes/heroines -- the LPGA basically becomes just a holding pen for good golfers and not much else. This is the thought process behind why the IRL split from CART in open-wheel auto racing back in the early 90s. The Indy 500 had become nothing more than a march of foreigners with no connection to the U.S. and no connection to Indy. Unfortunately, the IRL chose to split away just as NASCAR was rising to prominence, and the timing couldn't have been worse. The LPGA has no such issue to worry about. Its core audience doesn't watch other, foreign tours -- at least not enough to worry about them jumping from the LPGA to something else. There's a LPGA stop in my town (the Navistar Classic) and the local crowd seems to fall into one of two categories: People who are fans of golf first, but who see the PGA guys as being too distant or unapproachable; and people who came out to watch a professional (but local) sporting event. If the LPGA runs off half its foreign contingent with this rule, it's not going to affect either kind of fan that I've run into. Sure, some will leave, but certainly not most and maybe not even a significant amount. The LPGA is also likely to pick up some fans because of the decision, from folks who see the organization standing up for the "unofficially official" language of the country. There is a big backlash in this country right now against people who don't speak English, for several reasons. Their families may have been immigrants, too, but they did whatever they could to learn the language. For some, there is a racial component -- reprehensible, yes, but unavoidable. Then there are the common problems of having to communicate with people who don't speak the dominant language. The LPGA, therefore, comes off looking like a trendsetter or a standard-bearer for English-speaking U.S.A. As for my personal take on that matter, I can sympathize with those people, not from the racial standpoint but definitely from the communicative standpoint. Both sides of my family were immigrants and both sides learned English quickly after arriving here. The people who don't care to do that (presuming they're going to stay here, make their home here) frustrate me. It's disrespectful. "American freedom" doesn't absolve you of some very basic responsibilities, such as paying taxes, observing the criminal codes of law and learning to communicate with those people who already live here using their language, not your own. It further grinds me to see activist groups trying to convince certain immigrant peoples to purposefully refrain from teaching their children English so as to force the country to come to them, not the other way around (a story for a different day, but one my old newspaper covered a couple of years back). What I really can't understand are people who live here and were born speaking English, who think it's somehow wrong or immoral to ask non-English-speakers to learn the language. That's my definition of trying to be so open-minded that your brain falls out. Being "American" isn't a free gift; some payback is required. As for the women from other countries who are here to play the game and then go back home -- as some of our U.S. golfers do on the European tours and such -- they'll have to treat this as a cost of doing business. If I was living and working in another country, I'd make sure I learned enough of their language to at least get by, and it would be my own fault and my own problem if I didn't. If the LPGA is getting resistance, particularly with sponsorship dollars in the balance that could wreck the tour completely if not addressed, the organization should do what it has to do. Jess

Thanks. Would somewhere around 38 work for me, in your opinion, or do I need to go shorter? Jess

Anyone? I'd rather not screw this up for myself... Jess

Hey all, I'm about to make my first golf clubs in about seven years and three of them will be hybrids (Snake Eyes Viper Tour Blacks). Lofts are 18, 21 and 24 degrees. I'm a 5'11" golfer who prefers to be neutral to maybe a bit upright with my irons, but I have a very shallow, horizontal swing plane with my woods. These things will have R-flex graphite shafts that come 45" long before cutting. What would you suggest cutting the lengths to for these clubs? Thanks, Jess

I love playing in inclement conditions, because I don't let it get to me. I love playing in the rain, too. I can make some hay against better golfers because I take a positive attitude. I do the same in bowling when the lane oil conditions are tough. I love to hear people start griping about the conditions, because I know I'm winning part of the battle without even having to take a shot. My greatest weapon is my mental game (since my physical game pretty much stinks), so when I can score using my head, it's playing into my strengths, however meager they might be. I guess it's because of my approach to tough conditions that I don't see all that much loss of distance on my drives, or have quite as much of a problem on the greens. In fact, my scores don't seem to suffer much at all. And if I score well in difficult environments, I really feel like I've done something. It's quite gratifying. Jess

It is beyond my understanding how any professional athlete could let themselves be a jerk. They are PLAYING A GAME FOR MONEY. They, more than any other human on this earth, should all feel the responsibility to be bastions of good conduct. It's something that the majority of law enforcement officers, and nearly every fireman or soldier I've met, can be the epitome of class and respect, despite having such dangerous jobs. Yet so many professional athletes are complete scuzbuckets. I'm glad to hear of the ones that are full of class and dignity. I'll support those people. Not the jerks. Jess

I'm almost finished with it now. It's a good book. My short game was previously a mixture of a lot of different things. My chipping style was pretty similar to what Utley teaches but my pitching was different and my sand style 180 degrees different. I haven't had a chance to practice or play with his sand techniques yet, as the course I typically play has no bunkers. My chipping feels more refined and I'm more confident with it. The real difference for me, though, has been with pitch shots. I'm much better now than I've ever been. The other thing I got out of his book was that FINALLY, someone helped me to understand bounce in the clubhead properly, and how it worked. Case in point: I went out this past week and hit only 6 of 14 fairways and only 2 of 18 greens, but still shot 92 (with 32 putts and only 1 three-putt) because my short game kept me out of the 100s. Jess

That post sums up the issue absolutely perfectly. There are some pros that hardly ever hit one over 280, and there are some really average golfers who can bomb from the tee and that's literally all they can do. Technology has opened up the 300-yard drive -- at least on occasion -- to more people than had ever dreamed it possible before. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your position), technology has not done the same for consistent domination (or even competency) in many of the other areas of the game. Jess

Depends on whether the question is can you hit 300 or do you AVERAGE 300. When I was playing regularly, we had a guy who played in our foursome on occasion that could bomb the cover off the ball, well over 300 by any kind of measurement. We were playing one of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses in Alabama, Oxmoor Valley (Ridge Course), and he hit driver-soft chip shot into a 377-yard slightly uphill par 4. And he shot somewhere around 120-125 for the day. He was also 6'4", all arms and legs, with a very fast, upright swing. He may have hit four fairways all day long. But he crushed about half his drives (too bad most of them went as far offline laterally as they did vertically down the course). He also had his fair share of 125-yard choppers to the third baseman. It's very possible for high handicappers to once in a while catch one -- especially guys who have a strong baseball background. But if you're talking about guys who average 300, that's a totally different kettle of fish. I doubt we've got more than five of them on this message board and that's being generous. Averaging 300+ is a feat. Jess

I have not tried that. Haven't even heard of it, in fact, until you just said it. I've copied and pasted it into a "golf tips" file I'm keeping. Usually, most of my attempts to purposefully hit down at the ball result in a very bad chunk, with the ball going about 30 yards downfield and a divot the size of Massachusetts going about 50. Jess

As to high handicappers not being able to hit long, I can do you one better than just hitting it 300 (which I don't typically do, but have done plenty of times): I hit, on average, 66 percent of my fairways, with an average driving distance of around 250. However, I also average around 20 percent, if I'm very lucky, in GIR. Why? Because I cannot hit out of a fairway. And why is that? Because I have a shallow swing plane, which results in topping a lot of shots out of the fairway and/or generally not being able to get the ball airborne. However, that shallow swing plane allows me to murder the ball sometimes off the tee. I'm 5'11" and about 250. I'm kind of barrel-chested and have very strong legs. But my handicap floats between 15 and 25 depending on how often I play. Reason is the fairway play. There's no excuse for 250/66 on the driving stats to translate into 4 GIR a round, tops. Right now, I'm concentrating on my short game and my game from 100 in. I can get short irons in the air but not mid-irons, long irons or most fairway woods. I will probably always have to live with that glaring shortcoming in my game, so I'm trying to get better around the green and on it to cut most of my strokes out. Jess

Thanks. I appreciate the civil discourse. I can definitely see your side of it as well. My father taught me to play golf off the blues at our home course and I played strict rules from age 8 on up, every time I played with him. Nine-hole rounds literally took 4 hours. I shot several nine-hole rounds over 100 as a child when playing with him, but that was just Dad being Dad. Where I really got off the all-rules-all-the-time bandwagon was when I got serious about playing a lot while I was in college. I was invited to join a foursome (which eventually became my regular foursome and we're all still close) and for awhile, I tried to have us all playing strict rules. It probably wasn't my place to do that. But they did go along with me for awhile. Then I began to realize that we were turning into the slow group. Rounds took 5 hours or more, through no one's fault but our own. Eventually I agreed to try it their way. That's when things got really fun again, because we were no longer looking over our shoulder for the marshal or the group behind us. We stopped shooting 110s and instead were breaking 100. As that happened, confidence levels rose and we started breaking 100 not because of mulligans, but because we were getting better. There is a huge debate raging on this very thing in bowling right now. Lane conditions for league bowlers are set up to be very easy. The conditions you see on ESPN on Sundays, the ones the pros use, are completely different. A lot of the old-timers want to put everyone on the toughest conditions imagineable, while others are arguing for some distinction to be made between the recreational/league bowler, and the competitive tournament bowler. The reason I spoke up in this thread was I felt people were being demonized, and when it got down to a discussion of how someone's character relates to taking a drop near an OOB stake, I felt it had gone too far. The guys who are the true cheaters -- the ones who report 90s when they're actually capable of breaking 80, the ones who cheat like gangbusters in scrambles, etc. -- they're the ones who have a character issue. The guy out there who doesn't report his cards to the USGA and is just trying to have a good time with some friends -- his character has not been impugned. Jess

Well, it's not quite that simple. What we have here is the failure to differentiate between "cheating" and playing golf away from the rules as written in the book. While that might sound like the same thing at first blush, it is not. "Cheating" implies gaining an unfair advantage, or a deliberate attempt to deceive or defraud. It would be cheating if Player A "finds" a lost ball by dropping another one down his pants leg, a la Odd Job in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger." It is not cheating to do the same if Player A is playing by himself, or with Players B, C and D that also agreed to condone the behavior ahead of time and participate in it themselves. In this instance, dropping a ball where one was lost takes on the flavor of a local rule, much like the one in effect at a golf course I played in Florida that allowed free drops if the ball rolled within 20 feet of an alligator. It would be cheating, too, if Players A, B, C and D made a pact during a tournament for the entire foursome to play by their own set of rules, because they would be doing it while being judged against the performance of others on the course under the impression they were playing by the book. That's why cheating is relative to the scope of the group within which the act is done. If the entire group agrees to play, say, by rules 1-499 but not rule 500, there is no act of defrauding because no one has been defrauded. On a larger scale, this is how old rules get changed over time; we keep the ones we like and change the ones we don't. Likewise, if it's a group of one, he can throw the ball into the cup if he so chooses. He has defrauded no one -- although I question why anyone would want to play golf modified to that extreme. We also should realize that this issue manifests itself most often in the OOB/lost ball rule. I do play by strict rules of golf from time to time and, even though I'm a very fast golfer (if not a very good one), there is no way I can play a round with three other people of my handicap level and do it in 4 hours flat. Yet on several courses I've played, prior to the round while getting instructions from the starter, I've been threatened with removal from the course if my group "slowed down play." So then, I'm left to choose between getting removed (which has yet to happen -- although my group has been shadowed by a marshal on two occasions) or bending the strict rules of golf to keep from backtracking to a tee box 2-3 times a round. The real debate comes if/when the golfer reports his score when it was not played by strict rules. But that raises another interesting point: If you turn in a scorecard showing 80 but you probably shot 90, who have you defrauded? Only yourself. You're robbing yourself of shots you'd otherwise get in a tournament. In that case, the "cheater" will eventually get his, by his own hand. In the end, though, it's the act (or lack of an act) of defrauding that really draws the line between "cheating" and "alternative play." If I want to go out tomorrow and count two strokes for every one I really hit, that's nothing more than an alternative scoring system (Stableford, anyone?). Now, if I submitted it for handicap purposes, that's a different story. Jess