aaronwright21

I get to play Port Royal in about 3 weeks! Super pumped! The 16th hole has been giving me nightmares. 230 yd par 3 with ocean breeze!? Gonna be a tricky one... Hopefully they don't keep the same pin placements!

Yeah that's crazy that it was for the win! Looks like he won the Junior-Pro by 2 strokes. If that doesn't hole out he could easily be in the rough, scrambling to try and take it to a playoff.

Nobody cares besides the maintenance men. It happens on 90% of shots so whats the difference if it's from a practice or real swing. Obviously don't go hackin away at the fairways, but if you chunk a practice swing, don't worry about it! Not a big deal at all.

I agree. My pet peeve tends to be more when people say nice shot while the ball is still in the air. Of course the ball usually hears them say this and decides to dip down right into the green side bunker. Balls have feelings too. You have to be honest and respectful to your ball. Happy Gilmore can attest to that. That ball didn't go in his home because he didn't ask nicely. All jokes aside, you can hit a good putt/shot without the results being good. That is golf!

Found a Prov1 in the parking lot before my round of golf yesterday. Decided to play with it just in case it was a magical ball (Like Mike anybody?). Turns out, I was right. Ball of destiny. I never hit the ball OB once during my round (only done this 1 other time) and shot a 40 - the best 9 hole round of my life. I'm playing in my first tournament on Saturday and I plan to use the magical ball. I will post results later But anyways, this got me thinking. Do any of you guys have specific superstitions on the golf course?

Honestly I don't know why more people don't play with rain gloves to help grip the club in humid or hot temperatures. It is night and day difference!

+1. Discovered this bit of knowledge this year and it has helped tremendously!

Yes I was fitted. And I have short arms for my size anyways.

Yes we have 1 course rater position in GAP. I've been on a few ratings and they are awesome. Almost always get to play the course after. Don't know how it's considered a real job!!

Yes but the "experienced" 3 people sometimes consist of interns and volunteers.

Quote: On a side note we are both correct because the USGA Course Rating is the Scratch Golfer Rating for the course. Haha, makes sense now that I think about it!

Thats not true. The slope rating is the difference between the Bogey Golfer's rating and the Scratch Golfer's rating. A lot of this has to deal with distance and if there are forced lay ups, forced carries, etc. I believe bogey golfers can hit a maximum of 180 on their 2nd shots and scratch golfers can hit 200. Not positive. But a course can have a very high slope rating and a low course rating if the distances work out like that. I just learned this recently!

David, I've been on a few course ratings as part of my internship with Golf Association of Philly. The sand shouldn't make too much of a difference. The only thing I can think of is if your course has modified the bunkers to make them deeper. If they are more than 5 feet elevation they will get a higher score than if they are 4 feet or less. Other than that, the only other thing that could possibly affect the CR would be the actual rater. The entire process is just a bunch of opinions of the rater. Some might feel trees could be a problem while another rater could feel that the trees are far enough away from the fairway, green, etc. that they shouldn't affect a shot. If there is a new course rater for the Florida State Golf Association this could be the reason. Now that I think about it. I wonder if they have added any new sets of tees? The main factor in the formula for CR is distance. Everything else factors in but only changes it a little bit. Distance is by far the most important factor.

My suggestion would be to get out to the range when you have a hour or two and go through your bag hitting all your irons starting at about 50% speed. Make sure your hitting them good then go up to 75% then 85 ect... When I got my new irons I was looking for results and ignoring fundamentals. Those clubs are awesome stick with em. Jakester - Thanks for the response. Where at in Wisconsin? I'm originally from NW Suburbs of Chicago. If you aren't too far away from there we should get together next season and hit the links! I thought I saw you post something similar in the Wisconsin thread. That's funny! I didn't even check this message and that's exactly what I did yesterday. I tried to slow my swing down a lot and just focused on the ball at impact. I just need to become familiar with the new length and then I can start to get the finer details figured out.

Bulletbone - Thanks for the reassurance. That's exactly what i like most about the clubs. I can plan for the draw. I used to just hit it straight and it would fall left or right and I would have no idea why. Now I play a small draw and I can plan my shots around it. It sounds like you're doing the same thing. Do you hit your irons pretty long too? I was a pitcher in college, but I feel like I've been playing baseball for my entire life and its made me have a much stronger swing. How far do you hit your PW? I hit mine about 155 and I do not like it lol I'd much rather be right around 135-140. I feel like I'm the only one who's not trying to hit the ball further!

Vangator - Hey nobody asked for specific dimensions about your "GRIP" size!! Haha! I thought it was pretty funny actually. +1 I just had the grips put on when I got my new clubs (2 weeks ago). I don't think I need to clean them yet but I've never cleaned my grips with any club so maybe I'm wrong. I hit them yesterday and they felt much better. I just started using a Nike all weather glove and it helped my grip a lot more. I also tried to loosen my grip a little bit and I felt much better. I would say my hand size is average. Probably a little smaller than the average for how tall I am though. I'm sure I'll get used to them. They felt a lot better yesterday.

thanks vangator for the reply, The grips are Golf Pride midsize multi compound. I've heard everywhere that these are the bees knees so I figured I'd give them a shot. I'll wait a few months or weeks before I come to a conclusion on them. We will see...... I'm thinking I had bad habits with my old, standard sized clubs. Hopefully it just takes time to get used to them!

2 weeks ago I just got my new AP2's. I am 6'4'' and had them extended 1", lie angle changed 3 degrees upright, and midsize grips. I am a baseball player at heart, but have been golfing for the past 5 years and really starting to get into it. I have been shooting in the 80's for the past year or two and wanted to take my game to the next level so I bought the new irons. Needless to say, it has been a struggle getting used to them. I know it takes time and it shouldn't be a surprise because I've changed the grip, lie angle, and length. I'm wondering if anybody has any tips or drills that they used when adjusting to longer clubs. I'm not too worried about the lie angle and grip size (although it has seemed like my grip has weakened and the club is "slippery"). I'm trying to focus on picking the ball cleanly and being consistent with it-- I know the best drill for this is repetition. I used to hunch over pretty significantly due to the smaller clubs so I know I probably have to work on my posture with the longer clubs. I also used to hit my previous irons with a low ball flight, which I also believe was due to my club length being too short or me putting the ball too far back in my stance which leads to a low angle of attack. I will try to put together a video of my swing and post it on My Swing section, but for right now any comments and tips would be greatly appreciated.

I'm no golf expert at any means but I've just bought some new AP2's and I feel I can provide a little insight. What I've noticed about hitting my new irons in the first few weeks since I've got them is the consistency when trying to work the ball. I've noticed that rarely do any of my shots go straight. With my old irons, they absolutely went straight. Now there is a consistent draw to my shot and I can plan for it. With my old irons (Callaway RAZR X Black) it was much harder to produce a draw or fade and it was not consistent in terms of how much it would fade/draw. You are correct that if your swing has the right physics the ball has no choice but to draw/fade. But since muscle back irons are made for players who wish to hit a straighter ball, the draw/fade must be hit very precisely in order for it to work.

great job!! Hopefully I'll do the same in a year or two

amac, I'm not a golf expert by any means. I just ordered new AP2's and got them bent in the factory by Titleist. I would always recommend getting them modified by the manufacturer. They deal with the same equipment all day throughout the year. Not saying that your local golf shop wouldn't do a good job, I just think its worth the extra 3-5 day wait to ensure your clubs are perfect. I'm sure Mizuno would have a better warranty or be more understanding if something went wrong. Just my $.02

Was playing at Philly Country Club on Saturday. Woke up to a nice call from my colleague that the 4th guy couldn't play so he asked if I would like to. Couldn't imagine a better phone call to wake up to a Satuday! It was my colleague and I playing with 2 USGA employees. I was a little nervous in the beginning but once we started playing I was fine. Hole 12, Par 5, 542 yards out. I smashed my driver a solid 320 in the fairway. I have about 220 left to the green. Keep in mind there was some sort of qualifier in the morning so the greens were firm and quick and pin placement was ridiculous. I hit the perfect draw with my 5 iron. Landed about 15 yards short of the green and ran up perfectly. As we are watching the shot unfold, my partner and I go from "oooo that looks nice" and "ooo that looks perfect" to once it started running towards the pin "oh my......get in the hole!!" Ended up not going in the hole but rolled to about 5 feet from the pin. Of course everybody made a few comments while hitting their putts to remind me that I had a nice eagle putt. I knew there was no way I wasn't going to screw this up. To my surprise, I stayed calm and didn't tweak. Banged the 5 footer and walked away with my second career eagle! ....No I didn't flap my wings and make an eagle noise. (Yes I wanted to)

I was B-Fit for Bridgestone Tour B330-RX golf balls 1. Rory McIlroy -13 2. Marc Leishman -13 3. Angel Cabrera -13

Who did you ask from GAP?! Kirby Martin?