sjduffers

Is the implication that those who don't wear gloves don't hit as many balls? There are few pros, most famously Fred Couples, that never use a glove, and I don't think that they play or practice any less. Perhaps they have hands that take the wear and tear better? In my own experience, playing 3 times a week or more, my hands are actually better off not wearing a glove. I have even played 5 days in a row a few times and still had no ill effect. I use the Golf Pride MCC grips, which are half-cord hybrids (cord on the lead hand, rubber on the trail one), and other than the two calluses I mentioned on my lead ring finger (at the base of the finger and a smaller one on the ridge of the second phalanx), my hands are silky smooth... and I don't do much manual work either. 😉 Sure, when I first started and had the grip (and everything else) wrong, I was easily getting blisters, but after a while, I just kept putting a glove on out of the force of habit and/or because of the example shown by the pros: there must be a good reason why they do it, right? I mean, other than the marketing aspects... When I realized that wearing a glove was causing me to not grip the club strongly enough, creating this variation in grip strength throughout the swing that has been discussed at length in this thread, I tried to challenge the common perception and just try without a glove. It just stuck, perhaps because of an improvement in my grip contact with the club and/or increased pressure throughout. Anyway, I thought I would mention it, perhaps as something to try...

@iacas, I understand that movement, not grip pressure is what wears out gloves, but my question on this tangentially related topic of gloves is why do most people (pros included) wear a glove on their lead hand? I am not talking about those who wear two gloves (fragile hands, perhaps)... Personally, I have gone to wearing no glove about 2 years ago, when I realized that my grip pressure was too low and I had a tendency to grip stronger (or regrip) as the swing progressed. I surmised that the feel of the glove was causing to have this relaxed hand with too low of a pressure, and so I removed the glove, which caused me to start the swing with an increased grip pressure, and keep it (or slightly increase it) throughout the swing. I have to say that I don't feel the need to go back to wearing a glove now. My hands are no more "chewed up" now than they were before: I just have a small-ish callus at the base of my lead ring finger (and a very small one on the ridge of that ring finger facing towards the thumb). The lower pad of my hand is not affected at all, whereas it's where the glove was eventually wearing out, most likely due to me regripping mid-swing. Bonus: I save all that money in gloves! And can use more for:

Mine was a round of 23 putts: 5 2-putts and 13 1-putts. I think I hit only 1 green in regulation. Of course, a lot of the time, I was real close to green, so I could just chip on and 1-putt. The score was like 6 or 7 over (including a ball rinsed), as I recall.

Given that I started playing the game way after 35, I sure hope that one can improve after that age. Sure, I muddled with my self-taught catastrophe of a swing for close to 15 years, but then, I saw the errors of my ways, sought instruction, practiced and not only broke 90, but 80 as well and nearly touched 70 a couple of times. Look, I am 60 and still improving (and driving distance still increasing, or at least not decreasing)! So there...

Ouch! That is some kind of brutal, week in and week out. I thought I was going to quit golf after that couple of horrendous experiences, but how can anyone withstand that every week?

I have had a six hours round twice, both times in a tournament. On a tough course, with people looking for balls on nearly every hole, in scorching heat. I so wanted them to be over with... I couldn't care less about the outcome. When I mentioned afterwards that this was a new record for us, well over six hours, I got some blank stares. But it was indisputable. Shortly afterwards, I quit that group: we had NEVER played in under 5 hours in all my time there, regardless of all my efforts to educate people on how to do things... and the president of the (associate) club himself refusing to put any pressure on the group to improve the pace of play. "We are here to just have fun!" was the typical bullshit excuse. Yes, but we are not... and neither are all the groups behind us, duh!

Maybe not the worst shot I ever had, but here's one that I recall (I usually don't dwell on the bad ones...): trying to kill a drive with a driver (always a really good idea, right?), I caught the ball with the bottom of the club and the ball starting screaming a bit right, less than a foot above the ground, right into the right tee marker in front (e.g. the forward tee if I am on the middle tee) and with a beautiful arc sailed back over my head, for a net loss of 20 yards or so. I don't remember the middle of the hole, but I remember chipping in with a bladed wedge from just off the green, above the hole, on purpose!. Another really bad shot, was a snap-hooked 5 wood that hit a gentleman sitting in his cart by the next par 3, which tee box is well to the left side of our hole, but closer than our green. I am surprised that this sort of errant shot does not hurt more people there. I yelled fore, of course, but it was against the wind and he didn't hear it. It caught him at shoulder height, just a few inches below the side of his head. It could have been really bad. The guy was tough, and was joking that as a vet, he had been shot at by worst than golf balls... I was really shaken afterwards but glad that he was going to be ok.

I like a 95-100 yards shot with an easy pitching wedge. I also like a 50 yards shot with either a sand wedge (55) or a gap wedge (50), depending on the landing area and roll out (i.e. uphill/downhill, short pin or lots of green in front, etc).

In my case, the snap hook comes when I stop turning my body early on (i.e. not a fully committed swing), with not enough of a hip slide, i.e. hanging back: the arms take over and the ball starts a little left and goes much further left (righty here), instead of starting a bit right and drawing back gently to the left.

I agree with water bottle. I use a YETI thermos, half-filled with ice, and I replenish it along the way with water as needed. On those hot summer days, I can easily drink a gallon, walking. One thing I don't always bring to the golf course is ... ta-da... my game.

I won't count the few times where the wind was gusting to 35-40 mph with the ball oscillating or downright moving on the greens, because those times were in Hawaii and it was still an enjoyable time, pretty poor golf sure, but still fun. What I would qualify my worst was in a tournament (with my associate club i.e. a club without a golf course, roaming around the area). It started sprinkling a bit when we were on #6. By the time we reached #12, the greens were unplayable, with pools of water everywhere. The tournament was called off and truncated to the first 9 holes, which wasn't even fair, but whatever... I put on my rain gear on #8, I think and by the time we got back to the club house, not a single fiber of clothing under that "rain gear" was dry anymore, lol. Good times!

It was a 235 yards hole for me, played only once (at Tilden Park in the hills above Berkeley, CA). I hit my driver and was happy to be almost hole high on the right side, but missed the chip and 2 putted for bogey.

There is a course in my area that does not allow their web site reservation system to book one tee time spot (not a whole tee time for 4 spots) for a single, regardless of whether nobody or a twosome or a threesome has already reserved spots in that time slot, even a few hours before tee time. You have to call them either the night before or the day of to be put on the tee sheet as a single. Period. It’s just stupid. I have complained numerous times to the folks at the counter and they agree with me, but refer me to the general manager instead who won’t budge and tells me to call the night before or the day of. And the course is busy enough that losing my business is not going to affect them either way, so I play in the early afternoon when many single walk-ons end up doing the same thing, except that it is not an option in the winter as there is not enough day light to finish, typically. I have no problem whatsoever getting paired with just about anybody and typically enjoy the experience. I have never asked and will never ask for a tee time all to myself, so don’t talk to me about a single can’t be by themselves on a busy course. Of course not: that would be stupid too. But not allowing someone to book online the remaining single spot when a threesome has already booked is just stupid: what do they expect? That the three blokes call up later and say “oh, we forgot that Joe was coming too: can we turn that threesome into a foursome?” Bull! People would rather book a foursome even though they only have a threesome committed at the time, and maybe cancel one slot the day before (which the course still won’t let a single book online, btw!), or at the last minute if they can get away with it and not pay the cancellation fees. And for those saying “get a friend”, I say “get a slighter wider frame of mind”. You are assuming weekend play, and nobody has mentioned weekend being a factor in this. My complaint at this course applies to weekdays and not everyone has buddies available to play during that time, but that’s when I choose to play and I typically avoid weekend play like the plague (unless tournaments). I have friends, thank you, but not golfers willing to play in the middle of the week. I meet and get phone numbers of various fellow players and sometimes try to arrange a future weekday round, but those things also have a way of falling through... So, in my book, the OP complaint is legit.

Well, he is not lying, just not saying it right: he did lose his shirt (at that price)! LOL I have stopped buying anything on Ebay, unless I can't find the item anywhere else. They in fact deleted my account after a number of years of inactivity. I guess I have always been able to find things I wanted elsewhere for a while now...

Just one: I do use my rangefinder on pitches (down to 40 yards or so): it only takes me a couple of seconds, so why not?