sgt1372

Jordan has an exceptional record at the Masters. Of course, he's only played the Masters twice so far but he was T2 (after holding the lead for awhile) in 2014 and won the thing in 2015. Not bad. Something about Augusta seems to suit Spieth, so I wouldn't be surprised if he wins again. Wouldn't THAT be something!!

I'm late to this thread so pardon anything that's repeated. Congrats to Day for winning the PGA! Found it interesting that it was Day and Spieth in the lead after they were tied for 4th (actually 2nd in my mind) just 1 stroke back from joining the playoff at The Open. Two fewer strokes by either of them and one of them would have won The Open too. I was rooting for Spieth but am happy that, if Spieth didn't win it, Day did. He won going away by fending off not only Spieth but also Rose and Grace who kept knocking on the door. No one gave it to him, he earned it, which should dispel any doubt about his ability to close a match. My only take on it is what might have been different if Spieth had started in the morning on Thursday instead of the afternoon, when the winds were extremely difficulty to play. Only 3 players in the afternoon on Thursday -- Spieth, Koepka and Coetzee -- made it into the top 10. Day, Johnson, Kuchar and Rose in the morning group on Thursday each scored less than 70. Day scored 68 and Spieth 71 on that day. Give Spieth a 68 on Thursday and there would have at least been a playoff and there also would have been a lot more pressure on Day during the match, which might have caused a mistake to give Spieth the edge to win his 3rd major in the year (and career) at such an early age. It would have been historic! BTW, the weather was an issue for Spieth at The Open too; better weather during in the 2nd round and he might have won that too. Yeah, I know -- "woulda shoulda coulda." Just the luck (or bad luck) of the draw for Spieth. So, we'll never know what might have happened, if Spieth played in the morning instead of the afternoon on Day 1. That's not a knock against Day. He played extremely well and consistently during the championship -- average 67 in all 4 rounds would be impossible to beat in most tournaments, let alone a major. So, hats off to him. Spieth will have another chance to win The Open and the PGA some other day (no pun intended).

He's listed on his website as playing the RBC, Crown Plaza and Byron Nelson in the next 2 months. Things have changed for him and I think he should skip the RBC and play only the Crown Plaza or the Byron Nelson before the US Open in June. He needs time to adjust to his new standing in the game and refocus on what he wants to achieve. Hope he's got good management because there will be lots of endorsement offers to field and TV shows and other media events to attend. He should take the time to deal with all of this stuff, relax and take stock of where he's at and where he wants to go now that he's accomplished his childhood "dream" of winning the Masters. Becoming the #1 ranked golfer in the World will probably be at the top of the list, but that position is fleeting; few stay there for long. So, he needs to think of other goals as well.

Amazing that Tiger made the cut and finished a respectable 5-Under tied for 17th in the Masters, considering what a mess his game looked like only a few months ago. I am a Tiger fan but I think his time has passed and I don't think he can ever rise to the levels of play that he achieved in the past; no one really can, it was SO extraordinary. That said, if Woods can improve and maintain his current quality of play, I think it's in him to win one or more tournaments this year and perhaps even a major. Remember, it was only a couple years ago that Tiger won 5 tournaments; no major wins but most pros would be happy with just 1 tour win for the year. Can he win 5 again now, probably not, but then again few other players can expect to do so either. Don't think he'll exceed Nicklaus' 18 career major wins but I think he can exceed Sneeds 82 tour wins and that would be a more realistic goal for him now at this stage of his career. We'll see . . .

Was rooting for Spieth all the way!! Good to see him go wire to wire and to finish in solid form. Puts down earlier posts from those who said he can't close and predicting that he would fade The win is good for him and for the game of golf. No one "gave" him this win, he earned it. He's been playing amazing golf for the past month. These runs always end but I hope he can continue it thru the summer and perhaps pick up another Major win by the end of the year to take away the #1 ranking from McIlroy. Congrats, Jordon!!!

First time that I watched the show. I found it boring. Caught bits and pieces here and there and only watched the "finale" out of curiosity making great use of the fast forward button on my DVR. Will probably not watch it again.

Not yet.

When I started to learn how to play golf this year, I decided to go to a simulator site in order to get an idea of how "long" I hit each club. Got read outs of the distance for each club before I actually step foot on a course -- a 9 hole -- and, based on the simulator chose which clubs to play. Discovered that I was hitting the ball on the course about 10-20% SHORTER than what I was doing on the simulator and had to adjust accordingly.

Tiger is a public figure and has to expect the kind of treatment Jenkins meted out BUT he doesn't have to like it and is entitled to express his displeasure about it. Both have had their turn at bat and that should be the end of it. Tiger haters LOVE the piece because it depicts Tiger in the worst light. Tiger lovers hate the piece because it's an obvious HIT piece which was written for no other apparent reason other than to demean Tiger. The majority of us, who I believe neither love nor hate Tiger, think it was a "low blow" and unnecessarily mean spirited article which does not speak to Tiger's historic accomplishments on the golf course, which have with one exception been far greater than Jenkins' hero, Ben Hogan. I think if you were a journalist and were out to write a character assassination piece on anyone, you could do it quite effectively -- even on such legends as Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus and Player -- especially Player who was known to be quite an SOB in his day. But to go out of his way to do this to Tiger, when he has not been playing particularly well in his career, really seems boorish and cheap."Humor" at the expense of others is NEVER funny to me and Mr. Jenkins' article is no exception

It's like HS but, if the guy said that to me, regardless of what I "muttered" to myself, I would have just stayed there and started to hit balls. Then it would be up to the other guy to start something physical to try to get me off OR apologize, which would defuse the entire matter. If nothing happened, I'd just continue to hit balls UNTIL his wife showed up (if she EVER showed up) and THEN I'd offer to let her take the spot saying something to her like: "Oh, your husband said you might be dropping by, let me get out of your way so that you can play together." Which would REALLY piss the guy off because it would make me look like such a REALLY nice guy to his wife. LOL!!!!

Most exciting end to a golf tournament that I've seen in a very LONG time. 6 guys w/in 1 stroke of each other on the final 2 holes. Was hoping that Fowler would finally win one but he couldn't seem to avoid dropping the ball into the water. Was glad to see Kaymer's ball take swim; don't really like or dislike him but he's not American. Same reason I wasn't rooting for McDowell, Iwata (Japan) or Clark (So. Africa). It should be noted the commentators (who I think were British) made a stupid comment suggesting that the Chinese would be excited to see win Iwata win. NOT!!! Iwata is Japanese and there are still a lot of Chinese who remember the war crimes and atrocities that the Japanese committed in China during WWII. The Chinese have a very LONG memory and there is absolutely NO love lost between the Chinese and Japanese. They tolerate and do business w/each other because they have to but I don't see any reason why the Chinese would root for a Japanese golfer any more than they would for an American, Irishman, German or South African. In fact, they'd probably favor an American, European and South African over a Japanese. When Fowler faltered, I was hoping that Bubba would win but it looked like he was done when he double bogied the 3 par 17th but then he came back w/the eagle on the 18th by holing the ball from the trap on 18th to tie for the lead w/Clark. That was pretty exciting, as was that fact that Kaymer, Iwata and McDowell each had a chance to tie for the lead on the 18th, but that none of them did. The capper was Bubba's birdie to take the title over Clark; he was he was just trying to lay up but it rolled in. So, despite messing up, he was still able to win. Not a Bubba fan or hater, but he did what it took to win and it was exciting to watch.

I'm just a beginner and, if you can hit the ball 265 years, you certainly don't need any help from me. However, FWIW, from what I've read & heard, in order to drive the ball effectively, you need to center your swing about 3-4" BEHIND the ball so that the driver hits the ball off the tee on the upstroke in order to get sufficient loft angle on the ball which will maximize distances as long as you hit the ball in the center of the face of the club with sufficient club head speed resulting in max ball speed which ideally will result in a 1.50 smash factor (or as close to that as possible); smash factor = ball speed divided by club head speed. So, if 30% is equivalent to placing the ball about 3-4" behind the ball, then I'd say you're doing it correctly (or at least as I've read or heard it should be done). Good luck!!!

Saw the finals on Golf Channel last night. Interesting event but I don't think it really has anything to do w/really playing golf. Just proves you can win some $ and make a living hitting a golf ball around a 1/4 mile, if you just go up there and whack the heck out of the ball and hope it lands in the "grid." You get 1 out of 6 tries to do it. So, accuracy really doesn't matter as long as you can get at least 1 out of six swings to stay w/in the grid. Not sure how wide the grid is. I've seen reports of 40 to 70 yards wide. Not easy to keep the ball w/in those bounds when you're trying to hit the ball a country mile but still not really a factor as long as you can get just 1 out of 6 balls anywhere w/in that space. Min tech requirements seem to be a club head speed of 140 mph with a ball speed of 210 mph resulting in a max smash factor of 1.50. If you can do this YOU TOO can make the finals of the RE Max Long Drivers competition. That said, I was a little disappointed not to see any 400+ yard swings during the show (they showed some from prior events; one that actually rolled off the course at around 470 yards!!!) due I believe to the weather conditions. Was rooting for the "old guy" Crittenden but youth prevailed and Flagg (a ex-minor league 1st baseman) won by a foot & 1 inch at "just" 365 yards, 20 inches. Guess it just goes to prove that there is a life after baseball. As for learning anything about hitting a golf ball farther, all I learned from comments from the Golf Fix guy (Michael Breed) who was a commentator on the show was the same stuff he's previously mentioned on his show: 1) hit the ball in the center of the face of the driver, 2) increase your club speed on the down swing and 3) get your power from your hips (not your arms), which (from what I see in the videos) involves bending of the knees along w/hip rotation done coordination with the downswing as you swing upward through the ball with as much velocity as you can muster (similar to the way you swing a bat at at baseball) while still maintaining your form, so that you can still hit the ball in the center of the face of the driver, in order to achieve max club head speed and loft angle in order to drive the ball as fast & far as possible. All much easier said than done. I know it when I see it on the videos or on the range, but I still can't do it myself w/any consistency or accuracy.

I'm ambidextrous too. Write left handed but I did everything else in right handed when I was young -- batting, bowling, shooting a basketball or casting a rod. Didn't seem to make a difference playing other sports but when I picked up bullseye target shooting (with a gun) things changed. In bullseye, you shoot single handed w/the arm extended w/o support from the other hand. So, a right handed shooter would normally line up his RIGHT eye in line w/his arm towards the target. However, doing this, I couldn't hit the target consistently and the problem wasn't w/my breathing, grip, arm strength or trigger finger release. It was in my vision. An old timer asked if I ever checked my eyes for dominance. Turns out that I was (am) left eye dominant and, when I was shooting right handed, my left eye would take over causing my vision to "cross over." I converted to left hand shooting and my accuracy improved dramatically. Assume the same thing would apply to archery but not sure if it matters in golf. Can't play golf worth sh*t yet but seems to me that swinging right hand and being left eye dominant shouldn't matter. In fact, it might be better since my dominant left eye is facing the target when I swing or putt. Thing the same thing applies when I'm batting. Would be interested in hearing otherwise if anyone has some research data to point to, but I'd hate to have to buy a new set of left handed clubs and start all over trying to learn how to swing the club left handed, if it turns of that eye dominance matters in how well you swing a golf club.

It was bad enough when we developed the ability to send off a thoughtless email from a computer at home (or work) to another person BUT now, with social media, you can send out a thoughtless remark from your smartphone anywhere you are that EVERYONE can read and that you can NEVER take back. That's why I don't use Twitter to send out any idle thought that might cross my mind. I assume that Bishop now wishes he had never used Twitter to do that too.