Cesar

Well yes, that's because there is only one ChampION now as in playing today. Guys like Arnie and Jack are nice old guys now that nobody could ever imagine losing their cool. But I'm sure you followed every single shot of their entire careers to be able to so boldly contend they never lost their cool on the course, correct? Did you also follow every single shot of Bobby Jones' entire career as well? Can you assure me, betting your life on it, that these guys were always the gentlemen they are now? How? I just get the impression that you and are ASSUMING that someone like Arnold Palmer was always as nice and classy on the course in his younger days as he is today at 70 years old. Were you an Arnold fan when he was in his 20's and 30's? Did you follow him around every single tournament?

Champions do it too, hence the point of this thread. Many great golfers have done it throughout it's history and will continue to do it many years into the future. Golf isn't limited to driving just a hopeless duffers into madness, it can/does/will get to the best of them at times. In fact the better player you are and the higher expectations you have of yourself, the liklihood of losing your cool increases dramatically in my opinion. You're comparing apples and oranges. I don't play a competitve sport for a living, so what I do in the office has no bearing on what I do on the golf course. It's pretty apparent that I don't hold players to the same standard that you do when they are competing. Maybe it's just because I've grown up seeing golfers get pi$$ed off since I can remember, it's just part of the game to me I guess. The higher the stakes, the bigger the competitor, the more frequent the f bombs if things weren't going well. I'm not old enough to say for a fact what guys like Arnold and Jack did, and certainly not old enough to comment on Bobby Jones. But I have it on pretty good authority from some of the old timers at my club, a couple of them some of the top players in California in their day and total straight shooters, that Arnie used bury his clubs in anger, get a little liberal with the liquor, and treat his caddie like dog $hit. I can also remember seeing highlights from Jack's younger days where he wasn't immune from slamming a club against his bag in anger. Lee Trevino, as fun loving as he is on camera, is supposedly one of the biggest arseholes you'll ever meet if there are no cameras around. Me thinks there is some selective memory going on here and one hell of a lot "holier than thou" being spewed. Who knows, maybe when Tiger has broken all of the records and is a nice old man, maybe then people will be critisizing the next young star and saying that "Tiger never did that kind of stuff back in the day."

Hillarious!!!

This is golf we're talking about, right? Golf has been notorious for many many years of being able to reduce a grown civilized man into an emotional wreck within minutes. It's been happening forever. There have been countless commercials/movies over the years where players are found cursing, hurling clubs, throwing an entire bag of clubs into a nearby lake, etc. that play off of this fact. It is a human reaction. Now while not all players wear their displeasure on their sleave as Tiger does, I'm still not going to crucify the guy for something I still do from time to time. He's not the first and he certainly won't be the last. As for spitting, I never really heard of that being a huge deal until I came across this forum. And I've played with some real old school "guardian of the game" types for over 20 years. As long as you're not spitting on the tee or green, or in Sergio's case, in the cup itself, I don't see what the problem is.

They may do it because Tiger does it OR they may do it because that's just what a lot of kids do. Lord knows I broke my share of clubs as a junior and I didn't have anyone to blame but myself as Tiger is the same age as I am. At one tournament it required me and two of my friends to help unlodge my putter from the turf after I buried it almost a foot deep behind the 18th green. Kids, particulrly teens, have ALWAYS had real bad tempers on golf courses. It has been that way before Tiger and will be that way long after he is gone.

I hear what you're saying, I guess it just isn't that big of a deal to me. I've been seeing it happen for many years with many different players. Some guys, like Craig Stadler, almost turned it into comic art. Nobody really gave a damn then and I don't think anybody should now. Just because it's Tiger, doesn't mean anything's changed for me. It has nothing to do with giving him a pass becuse he's the greatest ever. I'm giving him a pass because he's human, as hard as that may be for some to believe at times.

Then don't give him a pass. It's your choice. I don't think he'll give a damn, but what the heck. As for it not doing him any good, you have no way of knowing that. Some guys just can't play unless they're fired up. IMO, that's the kind of guy he is. Take it or leave it, he's not going to change and he's not going anywhere.

I know this is going to sound overly simplistic, but have fun. This is not the kind of format the 2 handicapper is going to take too seriously and you're not going to be looked down on if you mess up (unless he's a pr!ck, or you're using some seriously bad etiquette). Just relax, enjoy yourself, and let her rip. The rest of your game will fall right into place. And if it doesn't, who cares? Still beats the hell out of working.

Personally, I wouldn't have Tiger any other way. It's who he is, it's part of the fabric that's made him the arguably the best player to ever play the game. The fist pumps, the intensity in his eyes when the tournament is on the line, the twirl of the club when he hits a shot on the button, the f bombs when he f's up, all of it. It's Tiger. You don't have to like it or root for him, but he doesn't have to change for you or anybody else. There's room in this game for all kinds of different personalities, and it's OK to like them all. When I was growing up, Seve was my idle. The flair and intesity he played with is who I modeled my game after. That still didn't mean I didn't like guys like gentlemen like Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson on one side of the spectrum or notorious hotheads like Lanny Wadkins or Craig Stadler on the other. The mix of all the different styles and personalities is what made the game great and still does today. The only player I really ever hated was/is Greg Norman, and that's for personal reasons. I didn't take kindly to being pushed into a bush at Pebble trying to get his autograph at the age of 12.

Go for it dude. What do you have to lose? Just make sure you give it your best so you don't have any regrets and let the chips fall where they may. You have to take it seriously though. Treat it like a full time job. Doesn't mean you can't have fun and enjoy it, but to be a professional you need to behave like one. Worst case scenario is you become the best golfer you can possibly be, like that's a bad thing.

What an awesome story, thanks for sharing. That's my dream right there. It would obviously be much sweeter to make the cut, but for a working family man, what could be better than getting to play a bunch of practice rounds at Augusta and get to compete in the Masters?

He won a lot of junior tournaments, almost everyone he played. I know, I competed against him and got my arse spanked on several occasions. I was just pointing out than not all state amateurs are created equal. The Cal Am is a tough nut to crack. For a 15 year old to win it would be something pretty special. Tiger is on an entirely different level though. If you're comparing yourself to him, then you're going to fall short everytime. You don't need to be "out this planet" good like him to make a decent living playing golf, but you need to be good. Damn good. For someone to not be at least scratch and winning tournaments against quality competition by the time they finish high school, they'd probably stand a better chance at winning the lottery TWICE before making it on the PGA Tour. Like others have said, get to a +4, win a lot of local tournaments, some bigger state tournaments, and seriously compete on a national level as an amateur before you can even remotely consider going pro.

Depends on the state...Tiger was never able to bag the California State Am even while winning the US Am.

I grew up playing junior golf with Johnny's sons and used to be good friends with Andy before we went our separate ways in college. I got an up close look at Johnny, even been to their house several times in Napa and got to see the US Open trophy, which I'm sure will come as no surprise to many, was made the centerpiece of the entire house. I got to see the good and bad sides of him quite a bit. First, the good. He is genuinely a good person at heart. The entire family were really a good bunch of people that treated me with a lot of warmth and kindness. They really went out of their way to make me feel welcome. You can really tell Johnny took a lot of pride and loved his wife and kids, which goes a long way in my book in measuring someone's character. Then the bad. What gets said about Johnny a lot, that he's an arrogant ass that isn't very considerate of other people is true...SOMETIMES. OK, a lot of times. I personally only had one bad interaction with him, playing in a junior tournament in Sacramento with one his sons (Scott), but witnessed a lot more with other kids. I was in a fairway bunker and playing fairly well at the time when, right in the middle of my backswing, comes Johnny Miller in a cart flying 100 MPH jumping roots through the trees to come out and follow his son. Totally f-ed me as I bladed one directly into the lip of the bunker, where it plugged and ultimately forced me to take an unplayable. I ended up making a quad on the hole and was so pi$$ed it completely destroyed my round and took me out of contention. I glared at Johnny the rest of the day and couldn't shake the thought of wanting to wrap a club around his neck. Everyone knew he f-ed up, him and Scott included, yet only Scott had the class to come up to me and apologize. Johnny never did. That was Johnny in a nutshell. Too proud to apologize for anything. That always stuck with me and every time I see him now on TV, I can't shake the thought of how much I hated him at the time. He's not one of my favorite people, but his family more than made up for it. As far his skills on TV are concerned I think he's pretty good when it comes to analyzing actual golf shots. When he veers off on tangents that have more to do with his opinion is when he loses me. Regardless of what you may think of him though, he was one of the best ball strikers to ever play the game. He would come out to the range sometimes, not touching a club in months, and rip a 3 iron one handed 200+ yards on a rope on his first try. The guy had some serious skill.

Yeah, playing in tourneys really tests you mentally and physically. When I first started, everything seemed to be happening so fast. Which sounds weird in golf, where a round takes 4-4.5 hours to play, but it's true. So many thoughts race through your head it's not even funny. Physically, the tension of being under the gun also changes things. Your body reacts differently and that causes the ball to do all sorts of crazy things. It all comes down to comfort level and the only way to fight through that is repetition. I'm feeling more at ease with each tourney which is allowing me to slow down the swing and bringing my scores closer to my weekend round scores. It's a process and there really is nothing you can do to rush it. Just learn from each experience. As for my Nakas, yes I did go to their headquarters here in Stockton, CA. It's about a 45 minute drive from my house. Went into their studio which had a super bad-arse launch monitor and got dialed in. The driver is UNBELIEVABLY good. I've gained 20 yards and my shot dispersion is way down from where it was. I still hit the occasional horrendous drive, but that's due to my swing and swing speed (120 MPH) than anything to do with the club. If I just make a half ass decent swing and get the clubface square at impact, the ball takes off like a bat out of hell! well worth the $$$ IMO. The hybrid was something more of my creation. I didn't have the $$$ to throw in a graphite shaft so I just went with the KBS tour shafts I have in my irons. It's much heavier than the standard hybrid, but I have the swing speed to pull it off. The ball flight is unbelievable and it's my go-to club when I need to put one in the fairway. I can't say enough good things about the quality of their products.

You're on the right track. I basically completely quit the game for 12 years and just started playing again last summer. While my game is nowhere near the consistent level I want it to be, I still have been going out and playing the USGA and NCGA (NorCal Golf Assoc) events as well as other local events. I haven't played well any of them yet, but the experience has been priceless. Nothing like playing under the gun to find out where your game really is and what needs to be worked on. If you haven't already done so, check out amateurgolf.com and consider signing up. They have a great database of tournaments all over the country (world actually) that you can sign up for and get some experience against very good players.

Good question, I'm not sure about that. I wouldn't even know who to ask. All the old timers there play at my new(ish) home course or have moved on. We left that course when it went all corporate and lost that "small town" feel. I doubt anybody still there would know the answer to that. I suspect that it wasn't the first. It used to be a par 73 w/ 5 par 5's and 3 of them were pretty easily reachable holes. There's also a drivable 300 yard par 4 that I've knocked it close for eagle many times. We've had some really good sticks to come out of there over the years. I'd be shocked if there wasn't at least one other one before me.

Thanks Ben. It really is. My pops has been dealing with some health issues over the past few years so the signifigance of this kind of stuff isn't lost on me. Funny thing is my only hole in one was when I was 15 trying to qualify for the Cal State Am and he was also there caddying for me. I really need to bring him everywhere I go!

Thanks for the correction...Albatross indeed! I ended up shooting -4 (33 on a par 37) That's with hitting one OB on #1 to make double and missing a 4 footer for birdie on #3. Birdied # 4, and followed up the albatross on #7 with birdies on 8 and 9. #8 is a par 5 as well which I hit a 6 iron from 195 to 25 feet for eagle. I wanted so bad to follow it up with an eagle that I got a bit excited and ran it by 6 feet, but still made the come backer. +1 going into 7 and ended up shooting -4 three holes later. Easily the best 3 hole stretch of golf I've had.

Thought I'd share a pretty cool story. I played in a two day fourball tourney this weekend which finished up mid-day yesterday. After the tourney I went to my dad's house for our yearly tradition of watching the US Open on Father's Day. After the Open was over we were sitting around kind of bored and I suggested we go try to get 9 holes in before it got dark. He agreed so went to one of our local courses (Lone Tree GC in Antioch,CA). I got to the 7th hole, which is a 496 yard par 5 with a blind tee shot over a big hump. If you can carry it 280, you can get over a 2nd hump, which runs down hill for about 75 yards or so. You can get your ball to sling shot pretty good if you manage to carry that 2nd hump. Hole was playing with about a 10 MPH helping wind and I ended up hitting a lazer that carried the 2nd hump and took off. I had 136 in to a severly elevated green. Coming downwind to that eleveated green I knew I had to barely carry the front (120) to get it anywhere close. I ended up hitting a dead hand PW right on the sweet spot tracking right at the pin.The ball landed about 3 ft on the green and it looked like it released to the hole. I knew it had to be pretty close. My dad had a similar shot for his 4th from about 80 yds out and hit almost an identical shot to me. So we drive up to the green and there's one ball about 2 feet from the cup. No other ball to be seen. My dad says one of us has to be in the hole. We walk up the hole and wouldn't you know it...he was right!!! There she was, all snuggled up in the cup for a double eagle 2!!! My first ever and the only witness was my dad...on Father's Day! Went to bed with a smile ear to ear and woke up this morning the same smile. Still can't get over what a cool day yesterday was!!!

I'm not a fitting specialist by any means, but with your swing speed you should be right on the cusp of being able to use an X. I know I tried a few blueboards before I got fitted and was very interested in getting one put in on mine when I got fitted. I loved the way they felt. But when put on the launch monitor, I ended up hitting it slightly too high with too much spin. I then tried the whiteboard and the exact opposite happened...too low with too little spin. I ended up going with the Fubuki which turned out to be a perfect fit. Great blueboard-like feel, with a slightly lower launch and perfect spin #'s (low 2000's) Of course, just because it works for me, doesn't mean the same will apply to you. I'm in the low 120's in MPH and I tend to de-loft my driver at impact (ala JB Holmes). The only way to know for sure would be to get on a launch monitor at a reputable shop that won't try to sell you something just for the sake of selling it to you and try it out. With your launch angle, you're slightly on the high side, but can be more than OK if the spin is low and the ball doesn't baloon on you. There is a misconception that you can't hit a high ball into the wind and that simply isn't the case these days. If the ball is struck solidly with low spin, the ball should cut through wind with little problem. Do you find yourself having problems hitting into the wind with your ball flight?

Personally, they don't frustrate me at all. A lot of my close friends are in the same boat and when we go out, it strictly for beers and laughs. It's good to have those "let your hair down" rounds every once in a while. I couldn't do that on a regular basis though. Not if I want to improve at least.

Really? Maybe I'm just unlucky in that the slow group never seems to get the idea until somebody says something to them. Personally, if the course is crowded, me trying to ride up somebody's azz is just going to lead to an even longer wait on the next shot, worse shots, and even more frustration. I'll keep up with the group in front of me and play my game and let the marshalls marshall. If it's getting ridiculous, I'll call the pro shop on the cell phone and ask them to get somebody over to read the bad group the riot act. Most of all though, I try to avoid playing courses/days/times when this is even a possibility.

If I'm keeping score, I'll play by the rules. Period. But I don't always keep score when I play. I'll go out to the course and try situational shots that I'm working on. Hit 2 or 3 balls at a time until I get it right. Basically practicing, only on the course and not on the range/chipping green/putting green. Obviously I do this when the course isn't crowded, which is usually the case on weeknights after work But when I'm gearing up for a tournament, I try my best to simulate that situation and play every shot like it means everything. Play little mind games with myself to add pressure and that includes putting everything out, hitting provisionals, taking penalty strokes etc. Otherwise, what's the point of keeping score? In the end you're only lying to yourself.

If you're not coming over the top, you maybe taking coming in too much from the inside and getting "stuck" which will cause a block to the right. Tiger calls it "ole'ing" it and it's the exact same problem I've been trying to correct from my junior days. (see clip below)