huck344

"So this is what it's like to play smart golf!"

This thread is AWESOME!!! I thought I was the only one who experienced all the "pros" who try to give lessons to random strangers. There is a course 2 minutes from my house that is infested with these type of guys on the range. Normally older guys who I assume must be retired. Most of them are relatively harmless and if I tell them that I am working on something in particular and not talk to them, they will walk away. However, one time I was working on hitting fades with my 5 iron and one of these guys comes up to me and tells me that he can cure my slice. I tried to explain to him what I was doing, but he wouldn't listen. He kept talking and talking. So, I decided that I "needed" to go to the bathroom. As I walked away, I look back and see him helping himself to my range balls that were still in my bucket. I turn around and confront him. His excuse was that he thought I was done. Why exactly would I be done when I left my bag there, rested my 5 iron on the basket and actually put my glove in the basket on top of the balls. I went to the pro shop to tell them about it and they just laughed and gave me another token. Apparently, that guys does things like that all the time. They told me that he also walks onto the range while people are hitting with an empty basket in hand and just fills it up. I guess they have confronted him several times, but he doesn't stop and they won't ban him. Now, I mainly go hit balls at a course that is 20 minutes from my house. Most of the clientele are Korean so they ignore me and just give each other lessons.

Thank you all for your responses and feedback. It's kind of a funny predicament. The two worst guys are the ones that are most upset and vocal about it. The other two are actually pretty adamant that they would have a better time playing with the guys that they are friends with and are at the same level. I have brought those two along several times to play with the higher skilled players and they have said that we take the game too seriously (we don't take mulligans, count penalty shots and gimmes are putter grip length). Of the higher skill players, there is only one who isn't in favor of mixing up the groups, but he is hell bent on breaking 75 at this course. The others don't care too much as long as the beginners play quick and pick up after "x" amount of strokes. In no way did I ever mean to "abandon" anyone. I remember when I was just a beginner and played with a group of highly skilled golfers. I was very self conscious and spent the entire round nervously apologizing for every slice, duff, skull, etc. I have no idea if the people I played with were frustrated or not, but I've always remembered that feeling and honestly thought I was doing them a favor. The only reason I even invited the 3 other players is that this course doesn't allow fivesomes so I thought it would be better to have 2 x 4's than a group of 3 and a group of 2. In retrospect, I probably should not have said anything and just let it work itself out on the first tee. On a positive note, I shot 77 this morning playing with the beginner group. . . Why can't I do that in my money games???!!!

Thanks for your input Matt. My first reaction was to tell them to stop being such babies, but then I really tried to see it from all sides.

I have two different groups of friends that I golf with on a regular basis. The first group are all experienced golfers with handicaps that range in the mid to high single digits. We normally play from the blues or the tips depending on the course. I'm an 11.9 and can keep up with them. The other group of friends that I golf with are basically all beginners who shoot in the 110-130 range. I don't mind golfing with them because they are my friends and I think it is important to teach new golfers about course etiquette, something that is grossly overlooked when people learn to play golf. My dilemma is this. In a couple of weeks, myself, my beginner friends and our families have family vacations scheduled for Palm Springs (about 90 minutes from where we all live). Through a personal connection, I am able to get us a fantastic rate (75% discount) at a very good course. Including myself, there are 5 of us, so I have invited 3 from my advanced player group to join us so that we have 2 foursomes. I have decided to pair up the group of advance players and myself in one group and the 4 beginners in the second group. The advanced players have no problem with this and would prefer to play together as we usually have several wagers going. However, a couple of the guys that are beginners think that we are being snobs that don't want to play with them, despite the fact that I play with them a couple times a month. The 4 beginners are all good friends. The 3 advance players are all good friends. Obviously, I'm friends with both groups. I honestly don't think I'm being a dick by pairing the advanced players together and the beginners together. But somehow, I went from being the man for getting the rate to being the snob. What do you all think?

My personal opinion is that your results on the course are most important. For me personally, I always seem to hit worse on a monitor than I do on the course. Probably because I'm trying to kill the ball! I never really trust any distance readings on a monitor in a store. That being said, a lot can be learned from the spin readings and launch angle.

@MyrtleBeachGolf - What monitor were you using to get those numbers. A lot of stores with indoor monitors such as the GC2 only collect ball data and then use a preset smash factor to calculate club head speed. For example, my local Golfsmith has smash factor preset for 1.35. Another local store (Roger Dunn) has it set to 1.4. That being said, as others have mentioned, your launch angle does appear to be low.

For me, it depends on the course I'm playing and whom I'm with. I have a regular group that will always play blues, so I go with the flow and play blues. I also play with a bunch of high handicappers and will play the whites with them. I have ok length (250-270). There is a course that I play regularly from both blue and whites. (Blue=6711, White=6389) From the blues, there are three holes which are par 4s that play 443, 468 and 443. Each of those holes plays 15-25 yards shorter from whites. I have never shot par on any of those three holes when playing from white, but will typically par at least 1 of those holes when playing from blues. I don't know if it is a mental thing. When playing from the blues, unless I get lucky and hit a monster drive (monster for me), I play them as 3 shot holes and rely on my putting. When playing from whites, it doesn't matter how crappy my drive was, I'm always going to go for the green and in most instances, I end up putting up an ugly number. I can be so stupid sometimes!

JapanDave - Not to hijack your thread, but I was curious about the speed monitor that you purchased. It looks like the Yupiteru GST-4. It also looks like it will convert from M/S to MPH. I was on the Yupiteru website and it appears that this model is no longer being manufactured. The GST 5W and GST 6W are monochrome (which is fine with me), but they don't seem to do a conversion from M/S to MPH. Do you know any other Japanese speed monitors similar to this that will convert to MPH? I can pick up a GST-5W on ebay for around $100 which is much cheaper than the Ernest Sports monitors sold here in the states. I don't mind going through the hassle of converting the speed myself, but was just curious since you are over there. I travel to Japan 3-4 times per year and if I don't purchase on ebay, will stop in a golf shop on my next trip. I very much like that it has head speed, ball speed and smash factor. Don't care as much about distances as I know these are just estimates.

I've been playing for about 22 years. For the first 10-15 years of playing, this used to happen to me quite regularly. In retrospect, I am very embarrassed of how I acted. I threw clubs, yelled etc. and just made life Hell, not only for myself, but my playing partners. Not sure if age has mellowed me out, I doubt it. I'm probably still one of the most self-negative golfers out there. I think that, for me, the difference is now when I have a bad hole I mutter to myself what a stupid f'ing B***h I am, as well as any other name I can think of and then let it go. I have to get it out somehow before I can move on. If I follow a double with a bogey, I tell myself that at least I'm making progress. I played a couple of days ago and shot a 47 on the front with no OB's or lost balls. Just all out terrible playing. If I hadn't 1 putted 4 holes, it would have been 51. The old me would have lost it, But at that point, I just wanted to make some good swings. Shot a 38 on the back with 6 pars and a birdie. I don't think that would have even been possible with my mindset from 10 years ago. Anyway, IMO I think it's ok to get mad at yourself for screwing up. . .But once it's done, move on.

Hello. I am a manufacturer's representative selling steam turbines for the power industry. I've been a lurker to this site for a long time. Joined about a month ago. This is my first post. I play 2-4 times per month and hit the range 2-3 nights per week.