rb72

Did I miss something? Who suggested Europe be penalized by what?

Thank you.

Obtuse much?

Sounds like child abuse to me. Just ask A. Peterson.

Well I hate to rain on your parade but I have to take stories like this with a grain of salt. You’re basically saying your friend who never played golf in his life picked up a driver and because he chopped wood could drive the ball 350 yards and then went out and beat Davis Love six matches in a row. It’s NOT going to happen. Even if your recollections are correct, I guarantee that if your friend went 6-0 against a three time state champ in “phys-ed class” it was because the state champ let your friend beat him ..oh…maybe SIX TIMES. If they wrestle a match that counts your friend doesn’t get out of the first period. It just doesn’t happen. I don’t care how strong your friend was (from chopping wood). Newaflash: It takes a fair amount of strength to be 3X state champ and that would be wrestling specific strength (not wood chopping strength). Well then it’s even more obvious to me that your coach was blowing smoke. To tell a kid who never even got to his state tournament he should “try out for the Olympics” would be tantamount to a HS golf coach telling one of his golfers who can drive the ball 300yds but can’t break 80 that he should forgo college and try out for the PGA tour. That coach should be fired. Wrestling, like golf has many, many, many levels of proficiency and there are many, many levels between even the greatest HS wrestlers and Olympians. Even some of the best college wrestlers have tried and not come close to qualifying for the Olympics. I would venture to say this applies more so to wrestling than golf. If a high school golfer who just takes up the game in his sophomore year and is a 4 or 5 handicap by the time he graduates with four year of college and improving at the same rate, MAY have a chance someday to reach the PGA tour, but a HS wrestler who, for whatever reason never makes it to his state tournament in HS will NEVER be an Olympian. As far as the guy you beat in college…well suffice it to say if you think (amateur) golfers are bad at exaggerating their prowess, they’re nothing compared to wrestlers. This guy probably had a mediocre (and mostly JV) HS wrestling career and thought that gave him an edge over everybody else, which would have been the case until he runs into someone else with HS experience, like yourself.

Thank you.

No he didn't and neither did you. See quote above. ALL OTHER THING BEING EQUAL, what effect does a stiffer shaft have on a golf shot?

I wonder if you would like to elaborate. I'm not saying you are blowing smoke....or your HS coach was blowing smoke..... but the fact that you don't "try out" for the Olympic Wrestling team until you're qualified to do so through a series of regional, national and international competitions and any HS wrestler who's coach has suggested that route to him must have been phenomenal in HS (see; Henry Cejudo, Chance Marsteller and Aaron Pico) in which case you would have been nationally famous in the world of scholastic wrestling and I may have heard of you. Just curious.

Excuse my ignorance, but how is a course handicap determined as opposed to a HI in general?

Oops, I don't why I thought two guys answered that question, I guess I was counting the quote from TW. In any case.....

Wow, neither one of you guys answered the OP's question. I would like to know the answer myself. Regardless of variation among manufacturers and what the ideal stiffness for your swing would be, what is the effect of swinging a shaft that is too stiff for you?

It's not the tucked in shirt. It's the high waist. Jeans that they're wearing now have skinny legs and a low waist. High waisted jeans are mom jeans.

Well, if your two oldest scores in your last twenty are in your top ten they will get bumped out and replaced by two score in your bottom ten and your handicap will go up.

Thanks. I'll look for those threads.

If this is OT, I apologize but I thought it was related. In all of the time I've been following this forum (6 months) I've seen no mention of Goftec, which is surprising considering they seem to be the McDonald's of golf instruction (although they're certainly not cheap). Based on my limited experience with them (a few free lessons) I thought their basic principles were a little strange. I don't know if these concepts were just coming from my particular instructor or if he was following the company line but it seemed that the first three things that he wanted to emphasize were wide stance (wider than shoulder width even with irons), stand farther from the ball and bend over more (to the point where I felt like I had to reach for the ball to make contact) and a straight back wide takeaway that actually hurt my left pec muscle to hold. I think the biggest benefit that I got from those lessons was that the video analysis showed me how over-the-top my swing was and I guess to some degree widening my stance (although not as wide as he told me to) helped that, but I found the extreme take away and standing that far from the ball to be completely useless. Anyone else try Golftec?

I don't know how that's playing into his hands since staying out of the elimination challenge assures advancement while getting in it, no matter how good you are, will introduce the possibility of elimination. I hope he gets picked every week because his luck will eventually run out.

I am with iacas on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Mr. Bishop’s behavior was extremely unbecoming of a man of his age and stature and for that alone he should have been admonished or even relieved of that position but to suggest that this was an egregious example of sexism is a bit of a stretch. Had he called Poulter a “woman” for the stand he was taking, then I would agree (totally sexist). But the implication of him calling Poulter (a grown man) a ”lil girl” was to suggest that his position is weak (and overly sensitive) as compared to Faldo’s. Are we really taking the position that it is discriminatory to women to suggest that a little girl is not as physically strong or as thick skinned as a grown man? Is it a bad thing if my seven year old daughter can’t bench press 25 lbs., cries when her friend has to go home for supper or squeals in the schoolyard because a bee landed near her? One would expect her to do all of those things because that’s what little girls do. I’m sure not ALL little girls would do ALL of those things but the point is none of those things would be considered negative traits when attributed to a little girl. But to suggest that a grown man would behave the same would, in fact, be an insult to the grown man while saying absolutely nothing negative about little girls. That’s the common sense of it. But as usual the PC crowd has managed to jettison common sense as far overboard as possible. I have to wonder what women in Syria, Iraq and India would think of American female journalists and PGA officials calling something like this “extremely disturbing” and “appalling”. I think they might find those comments “OFFENSIVE”.

Well I don't do twitter and its not likely that I'll have any opportunity to talk to him personally anytime soon but what I'm talking about is the image that he projects on television. While I'm sure you can't get a 100% accurate picture of someone's personality from what they project on TV I believe that in most cases it can't be far off. After all, they're not actors. they're not trying to hide who they are. For example, Billy Horschel comes across as an intense gregarious person who wears his heart on his sleeve. And its not even necessary to be intense or outgoing to project personality. Fred Couples is neither of those things, yet he projects as someone who is cool and very likeable. Dufner (IMHO) however, projects as someone who is dull, unkempt and unathletic. He shows no emotion and it seems to me that this is due in large part to the fact that he genuinely feels no emotion. He comes across as someone who doesn't say much because he genuinely doesn't have anything to say. Even his fellow golfers got a kick out of (laughed at him for) the one event that he is most famous for. The picture of him sitting in that classroom fits the image to a tee. Its not that he's sitting on his hands that made it funny, but the dull uninterested look on his face. He's supposed to be there to entertain the children and instead he looks like one of them. And not just any one of them, but the painfully awkward, totally disengaged one who doesn't feel he is included in the festivities and just can't wait for the clock to strike three. He looks like an idiot. Obviously I don't dislike him, or anyone else that I see on TV, personally because I don't know them personally but when you make your living on Television its all about image. And as I said I simply don't understand why so many on this forum are drawn to that particular (and particularly dull) image, but to each his own.

Really? So you look forward to the day when human athletes are replaced by robots?

But that's my point. Considering he has been on previous Ryder Cup teams (with some of the same guys) and he was supposed to be on this one, effectively that IS his team. Otherwise I agree. I would have no problem with other American Golfers saying they didn't watch if they had no actual connection to the team. When I first heard him say he didn't watch I almost expected him to give as a reason that it bothered him too much because he couldn't be there but when he didn't it almost came across as him bragging about how watching something so unimportant to him is a waste of his time.Maybe its because i don't care for the guy but that's the impression that I got.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's a big deal, but just based on how I would feel about it if the star of my favorite pro team did something like this, it is, at least, a small deal. And correct me if I'm wrong but I believe he did make the team but had to withdraw. I'm not sure how your last statement is relevant since while golf is generally an individual sport, we're talking about the Ryder Cup here which is certainly a TEAM event.

And before I get jumped on for this analogy, I realize these two situations don't EXACTLY correlate (Winston is actually ON the team and Dufner is not although he would have been) but it's a matter of degree matching the level of similarity. While Winston would have justifiably taken ALOT of heat, I think Dufner should take some.

Actually I'm kinda with you Skydog. Let me first qualify this by saying that I am somewhat mystified by how many people on this forum count themselves as Dufner fans. To me, the guy has ZERO personality so I'm not quite sure what they are fans of. That being said (and back to the OT) this is, after all, a team he would have been on had he not been injured. Can you imagine the fan reaction if, say, Jamies Winston of FSU would have gotten hurt the game before their national championship game and not only was he not on the sidelines supporting his teamates but he wasn't even in the stadium and when asked, announces that he didn't watch the game (but got updates) after tweeting that the coaches play calling sucked and that's why they lost. The media would have a field day and fans would boo him out of the stadium (and off campus) the following year.

Several people have taken this overly simplified position and it really has no legs. Obviously winning requires better shot making and putting. The issue is why are European players with higher scoring averages, lower world rankings and less success at majors making better shots and more putts than their American counter parts in these competitions. Obviously there’s a psychological component to this. Anyone who has ever played this game knows the mental aspect is hugely significant. How many of us have not had that terrible round of golf when we can’t get our minds off of the problem we‘re dealing with at work or the argument we just had with our spouse? The discontent with the leadership that some of the American players have expressed could easily have created just that type of distraction. Not having an input in the process could also have created just enough doubt in the minds of some players to create problems. I know they’re all professional but that doesn’t make them immune to mental distractions. We’re not talking about complete implosion here. None of the American guys played terrible but I’m sure the sub-conscious belief that they have not been put in a good position to win whether it’s because they haven’t been rested enough or they sat out when they didn’t want to be or they’re paired up with the wrong partner, etc. might be just enough mental distraction for them to miss that 6’ straight uphill putt that they would normally make 99 times out of 100 while their opponent who feels it doesn’t even matter if I make this because we’re gonna win anyway, we always do, sinks a fifty footer. If this was a one- time thing then you could make a case for “hey they just played better this weekend” , but when time, after time, after time the team who is superior on paper gets their head handed to them, there has to be some psychological/leadership factor involved.

Admittedly my short game is not the best. I would not have described a "thin shot that still carries reasonable distance, fairly straight" as "brutally topped". That conjurs up images of a complete duff that barely goes 50 yds. But I still believe I don't do either one as much as 5% of the time (combined). My ball striking problems are mostly pushes, pulls and over-cuts but I do make solid contact 95% of the time. Guess I need to work on my short game.