plop

I also think it's similar to hinge and hold method. Could you elaborate a bit more why they are different?

It's like saying that casino always hold an advantage so you won't play casino. I think you don't have to try to minimize your score every time you are out there. I guess we play golf to maximize our happiness (sorry for the lack of better word) and the number of strokes is just one factor. For me, leaving a driver home is like taking some fun out. So I guess it's an ego thing and there is nothing wrong with that imo, well, unless you slice the ball into the wood and spend 15 mins finding your ball.

I have a couple of questions and hope some folks here can clear these up. - If I can hit push/draw, does it mean my hip already slide correctly? In other words, is hip slide a neccessary condition for push/draw? - If I slide my hip correctly, would the club be on the correct downswing plane? Or I still have to drop my arms at the beginning of the downswing+slide my hip. Thanks!

That's a big IF. Given that people are skeptic about handicap shown here, it's just like a lemon market. With an assumption that it's biased downward (not follow the rules strictly, delusion or whatever), it however serves as a nice lower bound. Do you actually have data and run some regressions? If so, could you give me to the data source or the article about this estimation? I would like to do some econometrics as well. I suspect there are tons of endogeneities so that R-square means nothing but I might be wrong.

Man, I trust you more than those three and I believe many people in this forum do as well. How about "Swing Analysis Iacas's Way"?

Maybe a little off topic. Why this forum shows handicap in the first place? What's its advantage and disadvantage?

Very informative article. Casio Exilim EX-FS10 which also records 210 fps video at 480 x 360 runs around $100-$110 at Amazon. I think it would be great if you would also write an article about how to do "basic" swing analysis--how to draw a plane line, common mistake in analyzing swing video, etc. I guess learning by example particularly from Swing Check is the best bet as of now. I'm sure there are some people (like me) who wouldn't dare posting their swings. So, I had better analysis it by myself

Being Asian myself, I can say that it's mostly, if not all, about beauty. Non-American born Asians prefer girls with white fine skin as opposed to tanned one. I think this applies to most east and southeast Asia. Not sure about other regions. For some genetic reason or whatever, Asians won't become tanned. They just turn black and that doesn't suit Asian eyes. I guess Michelle Wie is an exception.

My wife started playing around three years ago and she has committed since then (lucky me!). At that time, she tried slingshot and hate it because of its look and weird sound at impact. It's like ringing a thick, muted bell. So, she went with callaway x20. She also hit the new model of slingshot a month ago and said the sound is much better than its previous version but she doesn't like it anyway because the clubhead is heavy. I guess she gets used to her set. Are you also considering buying the new model but fewer clubs? like 6-pw?

Thanks for all answers! From my understanding, it's like we assume that I hit the 3rd shot from the tee to where I drop the ball. That's why it's 4th shot. I guess I had better either hit a fairway or use a pink ball .

What penalty should I take in a situation like this? I hit a tee shot, see with my own eyes where the ball goes but I don't see it bounces. (it's not on fairway of course!). For some reason, I look around and cannot find it! I didn't hit a provisional and I cannot go back to the tee box and rehit. (well I guess I shouldn't do that in a crowded public course). I normally drop a ball where I think my ball first hits the ground and take one stroke penalty. I want to make my score legit but I'm not sure about the best practice. I wish I could hit every fairway and don't have a problem finding my ball. Sorry if this has been asked before!

Burberry

This may be true for driver or wood. It's a different story for iron I guess. I actually found that Japanese made tons of irons with traditional look. Take Fourteen, Yonex, RC or so. Sure there are some exceptions like JPX which aims towards higher HCP players. I would think in this aspect both markets are similar--better players prefer more traditional looks. I also think Japanese may in fact tend to favor luxurious looks. BTW, I haven't seen any Japanese iron that looks as fancy as TM Burner.

Not really related to the OP question. I have tried several "Japan spec clubs" as I sometimes travel and play in Asia. As far as I know, Japanese/Asian spec clubs are in general a bit shorter and has flatter lie angle which match Asian build (shorter legs relative to arms). My mom uses Maruman. It's so light and its shaft wobbles a lot when I waggle. It seems that Asian spec shafts are lighter and have higher torque? Almost all of my Asian friends complain that US spec clubs are heavy. One of my friend who is a Asian tour pro and can easily hit 180 yards with 7I uses 695MB with NS pro shaft...I once tried to sell my used driver with Aldila NV-65S in Asia and the shop didn't want to buy it because the shaft is too heavy!

I found this paper very interesting. Does anybody know where to obtain the data they used? The paper just says that the data source is PGA. Does PGA have a public database? BTW. is there any economist or OR guy around?

I bought a wood from them once. Got a defected one. Returned it and got a full refund.

In the end, I returned it to Rock Bottom. They said it's a defect one and gave me a full refund. It takes like 2 weeks or so but I'm happy with that. This turns out to be good for me as I already have 2H and I hit it well recently. I just bought the 5W because of its attractive price. It was 69.99 at the time I bought and it's 89.99 now.

I've used 755 with trispec shafts for almost 2 years. I agree with most replies. Its trajectory is a relatively high and sometimes I balloon. And yeah, the feel is harsher compared to other titleist irons. But what you get is durability I guess. Frankly, I feel like I should have bought one with dg shafts instead or picked 735 instead...my 2 cents.

I got my 3W from Washington Golf which is a Callaway authorized dealer...

I bought a 2005 Callaway Big Bertha Fusion FW 5 from RockBottomGolf.com a couple days ago. I hit several shots and found that its sound at impact and feeling are completely different from the 3W of the same model even when I stuck at the middle of the club face. The 5W sound is muter. The shot shape and trajectory actually look normal to me and the distance is roughly equal to that of my 2H. I am pretty sure that my 3 wood is authentic. I suspect that the 5W I got is either defect or counterfeit. I called Callaway today and they said 5W doesn't have a serial number on it so that only way to authenticate is to send the club to them but I don't think it's reasonable to do so. Is it possible that 3W and 5W of the same model have different sound and feel?

Here is my personal experience. My wife got hooked up with golf when she played 9 holes in a beautiful course two years ago. She broke 100 and beat some of my friend already. She hates practicing putting, short game. I try to make practicing fun for her. We gamble sometimes but the bet is a chore. Something likes if she can hit a green 100 yards away and I can't hit the other one 160 yards away, I will wash dishes after the dinner. She seems to enjoy this kind of gambling. I teach my wife sometimes but I try not to get too technical. As you guys know, it usually ends up in an argument. I think it's ideal if she has some of her friends with the same skill level to play with. My wife and her friends seem to enjoy chatting about which are more beautiful, update each other about accessories and cloth. I totally agree with you on letting her enjoy the game herself. She will automatically improve once she enjoys it.

The good thing about the course I mentioned is that it's beautiful especially during fall foliage. The bad thing is that they don't provide a slope or course rating...but even if they do, I don't think we can rescale the score to reflect the actual score. We plan to play another short course this weekend. Maybe I should bring only even number irons, PW,SW and putter. As many of you guys suggested, it is a good opportunity to work on GIR, short game and putting. I had better get my short game in shape before playing standard 18 holes. At the local driving range, I saw many young golfers in the university team hit 7I high fade 170++ and many of them easily out drive me 50 yards. I always enjoy watching these guys practice.

Just played the first round of this season last weekend with my wife and friends at a short 9-hole course. I'm nowhere near scratch nor a long hitter (160 yards carry with 7I) but the course is still relatively short for me. 2400 yards from the back tee . Par 3 holes are fine (160-190 yards) but par 4 holes on average are just 280 yard...hitting driver and then half wedge to the green seems a bit like cheating to me and it will be very boring, assuming that I don't slice a ball into the wood. So, last time I teed off with only irons and sometimes 2H. But then those clubs are more consistent than my driver/3W. I am pretty sure that we will play there many more times this season because the course is however challenging for my wife and my friends who are beginners. How do you guys play in a relatively short course or make it more challenging?

Thanks for all inputs! I am no way justified to buy new sticks for myself because last year I replaced those two wedges I plan to give her with two Fourteen wedges... So, I'm a good husband who is trying to get rid of my old stuffs . I just saw a new Cleveland CG14 Bloom wedge for lady on the website. It is shorter and comes with lady flex. Most importantly, it's green. I will show her and see if she likes it. The previous CG14 lady is pink and she hates it. With three observations consisting of my wife and her friends, I can say that an appearance is the primary concern for a woman golfer. She can't let a *pink* in her bag full of *blue*. (she has X20, TM CGB Max driver, divine line putter...all blue!).

My wife's set is Callaway X20 and she uses a SW that comes with the set. She has been played for almost two years and getting better. She starts to feel uncomfortable using X20 SW around the green. One day, she tried my blade wedge and likes it a lot. I guess it's because of its versatility. I'm thinking about giving her my old Cleveland 588 54* and Spin Milled 60*. The problem is that she is short, like 5'1". Her X20 irons were cut down 1 inch and the lie angle has been flatten like crazy, probably 3 or 4 degree. Sure. she got fitted by Callaway club fitting professional. I can't remember.) As I know, wedge's shaft is stiff flex and, if it is cut down for an inch, it will be stiffer. I rarely see her full swing a SW tho. The gap between SW and PW is small. Should I cut it down or install a new shaft? For a new shaft, what kind of shaft and spec would be suitable for her? Thanks for help!