gibbous

Shot 75 without my sand wedge today. About halfway through my warmup I reached for a wedge and realized that I was missing one, and immediately knew that it was in my living room right where I'd left it. I think this cost me at least one stroke from the fairway, maybe another from around the greens but who's to say. While this was a good round for me, I was in a very strange mental state for pretty much the whole round. Maybe it was because I hadn't been sleeping well, or possibly the ridiculously slow round I had played the day before, but the entire time there was a smoldering, impatient rage lurking just beneath the surface of my attitude that overflowed with the occasional bad shot or when things just weren't happening fast enough. Anything that got in the way of very efficient play from a scoring or time standpoint was almost unbearable. But somehow through all this I was able to visualize full shots and feel the appropriate motion in my practice swings better than I ever had before. The numerous instances where I looked up after hitting a tee shot to see the ball flying exactly how I had imagined it were nice and I'm going to be working on that more, I just hope I don't have to hate the entire world to make it happen in the future.

True, but this particular Indian has probably been doing it this way for a really long time and doesn't want to go through a complete swing rebuild at this point. Plus he reports to still be killing his fair share of buffalo, which means that the rest of his game is solid enough to make that big swing change even less appealing.

It's your money and your game so you should do whatever you want with it. But I think people are mostly just curious about how your swing produces a ballflight that would require such a low lofted club, and maybe a bit worried that if you do go this direction you might make that peculiar part of your swing even more pronounced. Is your driver the only club that you feel you hit too high? If so, such a club could be an easy fix. But if you hit all your clubs higher than you'd like eventually you're going to need to figure out why if you want to solve the problem, and at that point the low lofted driver will probably have pushed you further down the wrong path.

I was hitting very low lofted drivers for years and also found the lack of choices of clubs very frustrating. However I also knew that while I hit the ball further than average, there was nothing exceptional about my swing speed that would require me to play such a low loft. Tour pros don't use 6 degree drivers anymore, so why did I need one? The most likely answer for me was a 7 degree Big Bertha that I had borrowed from a friend for a couple rounds when I didn't have my clubs with me in college. Adapting my swing to hit that one club had put a major flip move in at the bottom of my swing adding loft to the club, and 15 years later I'm finally getting rid of it. The good news is that after some lessons and exhaustive practice I'm now getting ideal launch conditions from a 9.5 Ping i20 with a stock stiff shaft, and my trajectory throughout my bag is much better. So it's very possible for the OP to bring his ballflight down naturally, but I also understand why just getting the lower loft could be a more practical short term solution. If you're looking around for more options I still have all my old drivers in my club graveyard, at least the ones below off the top of my head. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in any of them... Cobra 460 SZ (I think that's the model number)- 6* w/ Aldila NV X-Stiff Adams 9016D- 6.5* w/ Aldila NV-S Stiff SMT Encore- 7*, forget the exact shaft.

I saw an RBZ driver in a shop the other day that had been custom painted matte black, it looked really good. Might be worth looking into if you like the club that much.

Maybe 6 or 7 months ago I was in the market for a new driver and wound up with a Razrhawk 9.5 tour model. I was pretty happy with how it felt through the swing with varying qualities of impact, and it was a good 10 yards longer on the Golfsmith launch monitor than anything else in the store. Done deal right? Wrong… After using the new club for maybe a month’s worth of playing rounds and practice, I’m hitting it at the range and not striking it terribly well. After one swing, catching the ball low on the face, I see a little black blur fluttering away from me out into the grass. It took me a minute to realize that what I had seen was the metal sole plate coming off the head of the club, leaving me with what is in the attached photo. The bond between the epoxy on the metal plate and the composite had failed, and my new club was dead. So the club goes back to Golfsmith, and they happily sent it back to Callaway for me with assurances that this was the first time that they had seen the problem. A week or two later, I’ve got a replacement club and am still optimistic. Again a month or so goes by and I’m back at the range. After a mis-hit, there is suddenly a loud rattling inside the clubhead. Not like a little loose piece of epoxy rattle, more like a big chunk of your clubhead is no longer attached on the inside rattle. Club #2 goes back. Club #3 arrives a while later, and I am no longer optimistic. I had never broken such a new club before, and two in a row is not a good trend. Maybe a month or so later I’m back at the range, and club #3 fails in the exact same way as club #1. This experience has led me to the conclusion that these clubheads cannot absorb the poor energy transfer of a crappy range ball repeatedly hit low on the face at 110+ mph. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced anything similar, I just call ‘em like I see ‘em. When #3 went back to the store and was replaced by what would have been #4, I told the salesman I had been working with previously that I didn’t want another one if there was any possible way I could exchange the latest replacement for something else that I could actually depend on. After a conversation with a manager and a small premium paid for a newer club than the Razrhawk which had been discounted by that time, I left very happily with a Ping i20. So in conclusion, major thanks to the people at Golfsmith for making the situation right for me. Thanks to the people at Callaway for sending me 3 new clubs in a pretty short turn around time, but not so much thanks for building a club with a bunch of crazy new materials glued together in a way that is liable to fall apart at the mere sight of a limited flight ball. And finally, thanks to Ping for making the club that is truly the right one and will hopefully last me a very long time. It was painful, but at least it turned out right in the end.

Seriously? Like the guy would have had no interest in a hole in one before he was put on the clock, but then suddenly decides to pull out his magic wand and ace the hole just to speed up play? I've never made a hole in one, am I just not trying to play fast enough? Quote:

I've got that one, and honestly I wouldn't recommend it. The biggest reason being that the leg assembly is pretty poor. When I pick it up, the legs rarely retract in all the way like they're supposed to. Also the bottom lever part of the bag that hits the ground doesn't have much grip to it so if you put it down on some slick concrete like I do at the range, the base of the bag always wants to slide backwards. Since there is nothing besides the (plastic) hinge at the top of the legs to prevent it from completely collapsing a lot of strain ends up on that one particular part and it doesn't handle it too well. Several times I've turned around for a different club and my bag is laying almost on the ground with the legs sticking all the way out in front of it. Garbage. It also gets to be problematic getting clubs to go all the way into the slots sometimes, and the strap mechanism is squeaky but this isn't nearly as annoying as the problems with the legs.

Thank God someone mentioned Maria Verchanova, I was trying to remember her name and it was killing me. Kim Hall ain't bad either- http://assets.sbnation.com/imported_...l_1_medium.jpg But that said, I'm still completely drooling retarded for Anna Rawson...

Because if you choke down a little bit on the 5H you have the equivalent of a 5i? If the OP can do that more consistently than he hits the iron I think that's the right choice. And who cares what other people are hitting off the tee, just play your own game.

I wish I could agree that people won't still buy from BP. Maybe they won't for a while, but as soon as they have to start dropping their prices because of it everyone will start going back just to save some money. Getting a bargain always wins out over principle...

I don't think it's the government's job to stop the leak, but I do think it was their job to make sure that BP had an appropriate contingency plan in case of such a worst case scenario like this. So both of them failed pretty miserably before the fact. The regulation watchdogs have been in bed with the oil companies for years, figuratively and literally, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at any corners that may have knowingly been cut to save money at the expense of increased risk.

I couldn't find much on this site about these, so I figured I would write up my impressions on them so far. A few weeks ago I picked up an 18* and 23* to replace my 19* and 25* Burners from '08. Basically I wanted to replace the Burners with others that flew lower and went a little further to give me better options off the tee and long approach shots, and fill the gaps between my 5i and 3w a little more evenly. Before settling on these I hit the Burner TP from this year and last year, as well as a Titleist 909 and both offerings from Ping. These are all good clubs, but the Titleist was noticeably less forgiving, the TP didn't come in the lofts I wanted, and the Pings just look ridiculous. I have to admit that the look at address is a big thing for me, and of all they hybrids I've ever hit this one is the most confidence inspiring at address. I've never been a big fan of the huge hybrid heads that look more like woods, and these are about as far away from that as you can get without going to one of the older driving-iron types of designs that nobody seems to even make anymore. These clubs look like they were designed by a group of aerospace engineers to have a smooth shape with a low radar reflection profile so they can very stealthily and efficiently blow a golf ball the f*ck up. One of my biggest concerns about these was forgiveness. The simulator at Golfsmith was showing me all sorts of good numbers and lines, but it's never the same as actually being able to see the ballflight and how they'll react to whatever swing I happen to bring on any given day. It turns out that mishits feel and sound awful, but the result is never as bad as I think it's going to be at the moment I hit it. It's probably more punishing than other hybrids would be as far as distance lost on mishits and how much slice or hook goes offline, but I think the benefits they bring make it worth it. And to me, the big benefit is a low, penetrating ballflight and a greater variety of shots that they can be used to play. I hit a high ball, and my only good option with the old Burners was a big ballooning arc that was useless in any kind of wind. The Adams is much easier to control the trajectory. A higher launch shot is a more penetrating flight but still lands pretty soft, and a low one is much easier to pull off. I can't say I'd recommend these for someone who needs a little help getting the ball in the air, but I've never really had that problem so they're great for me. I've had great results with these from the tee, fairway, and rough, they're basically everything I needed them to be and then some. I could see maybe getting them reshafted some day, but the heads are going to be in my bag for a long time.

I've got a set of those that were living in my closet for a while, but I just put them back in my bag in place of my older Taylor cavity backs. The 32's are definitely harder to hit, but with all but my worst swings the difference in forgiveness really isn't that punishing. OTOH most other things that feel as good as a flush strike are illegal in most states, the trajectory is better, and they're really pretty... They may stay in play until I spring for a forged cavity set. Hope you enjoy yours.

She looks like she's yelling at you in the first frame of the bottom clip. For a first day, I think that's really pretty good. It seems to me her hands are really far back toward her right side at address with the right wrist straight and left bent, club shaft pointing pretty much straight up and down. I'd encourage a little bit of a forward press with the left wrist more flat than the right. That will probably feel really weird, but I think it will help locate the bottom of the swing arc in a good spot. Also, like tons of beginners she seems to have a little trouble getting off her right foot through the downswing & finish. In the practice swings in the top clip she ends basically flat footed, does a little better when hitting the ball, but still finishes without completely turning through the shot. The tip about making sure your belt buckle faces the target at the finish is an old one but there's a reason it's still around. If she can finish rotating all the way through the ball and come to a balanced, stationary position facing more toward the target I think a lot of the smaller things can work themselves out. Just my opinion though, and I'm sure others will have more...

Truth. If you really want to research this, read posts on this site until you can't stand it anymore- http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/ One piece of advice I'll give you is do not skimp on the processor. I've got a 52" LCD with only a 60hz processor, and while it looks okay with still or slow moving images when something moves a little bit too fast it loses resolution pretty badly. Panning backgrounds get blocky and occasionally move in little jumps, footballs being thrown turn into little brown and white smears. When I bought it I didn't think it would be worth the extra few hundred bucks to get the model with the 120hz chip, and I was wrong.

And maybe much worse still. Apparently a yet to be named woman was taken from the Woods house at 2:30 this morning on life support. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34323757/ns/sports-golf If the world really ends in 2012, the apocalypse might just start in Windermere FL.

+1 for the Rav4. My sister lives in Chicago and drives one of those, pretty good little car. I don't know if it's the 4x4 or not, but the 2x is still fwd so it'll still be okay in the snow & ice. I think it would be crazy to buy a rear wheel drive anything there and expect to be able to drive it year round.

I would think that the average PGA player is bigger than the average LPGA player, so the wider swing arc would also give them an advantage in length.

I agree that putting a different shaft in the club you already have is your best option. Even if you have to pay for the fitting process it'll likely be cheaper than a new club, and you'll come out with the shaft that you know is correct for your swing. I have to say it seems strange to me that the Titleist is getting more votes for a person looking for forgiveness. Every Titleist club I've ever hit has been very nice when you hit it solid, but far from forgiving on mis-hits. Maybe the one listed there is different, but I certainly wouldn't buy it without hitting one first.

It's very likely that the blade won't be as forgiving on off-center hits as the 2-ball design, and that's an issue for amateurs so it makes sense that someone could say that the blade is better for a lower handicapper. But I think it's far more important that the putter design suits your eye and encourages you to make a confident stroke, and if that means using a blade over some kind of monster MOI mallet then so be it. I like the look of blades and the way they swing too, but just find them a little bit difficult to align.

Maybe I'm nitpicking here, but this always seemed like a bit of a scumbag move to me. The premium price you pay at the shop is what allows you access to try out their inventory of clubs, use their technology, and get advice from their employees which is all to help determine which one is best for you. I just have a problem with taking advantage of all these things without giving them your business in return. Support your local economy and buy it at the place that helped you find it.

Nice shot! I've come about that close to an ace a couple times, but settling for a tap in birdie isn't too rough. I wish I remembered my first birdie...

It's still in my bag, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to keep it. I'd probably do that for an ace though. Thanks to those who have responded, yes it was a great feeling and long overdue the way I see it.

The wonderful world of ebay... It was slightly used when I got it, the seller said it came from a tour van somewhere but I don't really know the details behind it. That head is sold there by itself pretty commonly in low lofts. Pros don't use them because they're much better at controlling their ballflight than I am, I can't hit it low with any club to save my life. I'm not really sure why but it's always been that way, and I honestly wish that weren't the case because I'd have a lot more choices when it came to what driver I play.