Never3putt

I prefer a neutral Vardon grip.

I used to work in a retail golf outlet and it was not uncommon to see damages in the club heads and faces similar to what you're describing. The titanium bodies and faces of these new drivers are very thin. Any weaknesses in the metal can cause early fracture and/or fatigue. The good news is that the manufacturers (most, anyway) recognize these inherent faults and readily replace those that get damaged.

Your assumptions about the bounce and hard pan are good. Hard pan presents a particularly difficult aspect and requires a cleaner contact with the club face. One wants to be striking downward on the ball to cleanly nip the ball. Hitting the earth first with a club that has bounce will cause all sorts of issues that only result in less than stellar results. The advantages of other wedges rather than the ones that match your set depend highly on a) your set and b) which wedges you replace them with. I don't think there's a clear cut answer that will fit. Higher end wedges offer various combinations of loft and bounce that one can use to tailor their selection to the types of courses they routinely play. Some offer high spin conditions. In other cases, it's a personal taste in the feel and look of the clubs. It's a lot like a putter -- very personal, since these are your scoring clubs (putters and wedges). If you're having issues using your sand wedge outside of the bunkers, use the gap or lob wedges instead, as they both will have less bounce than the sand wedge and are better suited for play from the fairway in most cases.

I've read both of his books recently and began applying his principles into my short game. I've seen significant improvement, particularly with short pitches and chipping. His putting technique makes a lot of sense, but I still struggle on convincing myself to hit it just a bit harder and tend to come up just short way too many times.

10 over my handicap ... I don't want to talk about it

57 and looking forward to being old enough to shoot my age

I have always been a DD fan and would love to see him return to form, if that is where he wants to be in life. He seems to have found happiness in family and, for him, that's his reward.

People who throw golf clubs or use excessive verbal assault because of anger/bad shots/immaturity, whatever ..... regardless of their handicap!

I remember the excitement I had when I did the same. Rushed home to brag to my wife. Now when she asked how I played and I grouse about shooting in the low 80's, she has the audacity to remind me of when I couldn't break 100. Keep working on it, my friend! Congrats!

I play Bridgestone 330-S ..... no problem

Of course, the obvious answer is to figure out why you're not hitting the greens with your irons and work on that. Have you ever taken lessons from a professional or are you considering doing so?

Retirement seemed to help me with that Of course, it doesn't pay as well

Nope ... not at all

nor is mine .... my fairway wood is an older model Cleveland Launcher that's been in my bag for the last 7 years or so.

Actually, many of my countrymen were well aware of terrorism prior to 9/11, not only against our country, but yours and others, as well. A wider scope of vision might enable you to see beyond what you read in the papers. Newspapers sell sensationalism. To me, the media has done much more harm worldwide than they have good. They rarely report beyond the immediate appearance and generally invoke their own political agendas into their text, stating more opinion than fact. I am not defending the policies of this administration, nor of the US in general. I'm merely pointing out that things are never as black and white as they appear on the surface. To place the entire blame of the world's problems onto the shoulders of one man's policies is short sighted. The scope of the worlds violence is far reaching and well beyond George Bush's policies. I firmly believe that the violence will continue to escalate under the policies of the next US administration. Now, Obama has promised to change from Bush's policies. All well and good. I just don't see Hamas, Al Quaeda, Iran, and Korea, not to mention what Russia is doing to suddenly change their policies because Obama reverses any policies Bush had in play. Hopefully, I'm dead wrong and the world suddenly is at peace....somehow, I don't think that will be the case. And darn it! I said I was going to refrain from this type of discussion .... grrrrr ..... I'm going to the golf course....see ya!

I still use my older Cleveland Launcher 15 degree. I hit it long and straight so I've been reluctant to try anything newer. I do have a Callaway FT3 4 wood that sits idle in my garage. I just hit the Cleveland better. Go figure!

Could be a number of reasons. For me, I find that when I start with the laterals it can generally be related to my backswing and taking the club too far to the inside at takeaway. This puts me in a difficult position at the top (or end of the swing on a shorter backswing) causing me to either manipulate my hands on the downswing to correct it or strike the ball with the hosel first and/or with the open clubface. I typically experience this more often with my wedges and short shots than I do with longer, full shots. Next time you find yourself doing this, take a look at the clubhead's position in relation to your hands when the club is about 1/4 to 1/2 swing behind you. If it's behind them, look out!

I'm going to assume that you take a stance of about shoulder width distance, bend the knees slightly and bend forward at the hips for your setup. If you play the ball off your left instep, have your chest behind the ball, and your arms held naturally, the shaft will have a tendency to lean back slightly. With a normal grip, your trailing hand will be lower than your leading hand, thus creating a slight downward tilt of the shoulders. If you maintain your spine angle through the swing, the club should reach the bottom of the arc behind the ball and thus have an upward movement at impact. Don't try to exaggerate these, however .... it only leads to necessitating unnecessary manipulations somewhere in the swing to return the clubhead to impact position. Of course, there are other theories, including Stack/Tilt and Natural golf that will differ somewhat.

It depends on if you are trying to practice or you are warming up for the game. If you're practicing, then practice with the same procedure you would use on the course. It does little good to practice something different than what you try to execute on the course. Practice doesn't make perfect...it makes permanent...so practice well. If you're just putting a few before the game starts, you're not really practicing as much as you're getting a feel for how the ball is rolling and warming up your muscles to prepare for the match. Hopefully, you're not trying to figure out how to improve something 5 minutes before you tee off.

But this isn't something that started during the current administration and isn't the cause of one man's actions. This has been an ongoing situation since the late 70's. The housing crisis was the direct result of relaxed regulations on lending, corporate greed (and downright dishonest practices), and a host of other issues that were not the policies of administration, but rather acts of legislation. There's plenty of blame to go around here from the current and past administrations, current and past legislative branches, the industry itself, and personal responsibilities. Again, it's easy to try to blame one party or one facet, but that falls short of accuracy. Terrorist groups have been striking out at other nations (US, UK, Israel) etc for a lot longer than 8 years. There were numerous instances of attacks by these groups, including attacks on embassies, a US ship, and others. Condemning these attacks and doing little else certainly didn't stop them. Had the US taken no action following the attacks of 9-11, would Al Quaeda have raised their arms in victory and struck no more? Would Iran and Korea have said "oh yeah, we don't really need nukes"? Would Iraq's monster of a dictator suddenly said "wow, I should really stop this genocide"? Somehow, I find it difficult to buy your argument that George Bush's policies on fighting terror caused more violence in this world. Had he done nothing, the violence would still exist and I'm fairly certain would have escalated further. Could Bush have handled things better? Certainly. But I just don't buy the "he caused it" argument. I've already done much more political talk than I prefer to do, so I'm going to have to force myself to quit reading the comments here. I'd rather talk golf. Peace unto all.

The reason you're topping your shots or chunking them isn't because the shafts are shorter. If that were the case, everyone would have that problem because shafts get shorter progressively in all (well, most) sets. I would guess, without seeing your swing, that you tend to try to scoop the ball in an effort to get it launched. In doing so, your spine comes out of position by lifting upwards (you've heard the old saying "you lifted your head" ... well the head is attached to the spine) which draws your arms with it and you hit the shot thin or your strike the earth first. Changing the plane of your swing during the backswing and forward swing makes it awful difficult to return the clubhead to the position you're seeking to hit.

Build a practice area, either using your own clubs or construct one from PVC piping, and use it when you practice. Make it an effort to ensure that you adhere to the basics and work on that without concern of ball flight. If the basics become routine, the rest will follow. Resist the urge to make "adjustments" in the basics to compensate for swing flaws. Once the basics become ingrained in your setup, minor adjustments for specific shots can more effectively be executed.

While this was a good political talking point, when one did the actual research rather than rely on campaign rhetoric, these points are inaccurate. With the exception of the recent worldwide economic situation, people in the US are better off financially than they were before and the world is growing increasingly more dangerous regardless of who was or wasn't the US President. Obviously, there are exceptions and there are people who were worse off financially, but there are generally reasons other than US policy that mitigated those circumstances. It's easy to blame someone else for our own weaknesses.

I'm 57. I've seen a few Presidents come and go in my adult lifetime. I survived every one of them. I didn't always agree with the policies they or their party may have represented, but I've always supported them and called the President. I'm a moderate Republican (yes, there are moderates still in this world and not everyone is a conservative or liberal). I don't support the far right and I don't support the far left. They both have it wrong. President-elect Obama will have his hands full as there are many things that need addressing in this country. Ultimately, however, his performance, be it good or bad in the end, will be subject to the whims of Congress. While the Presidents get all of the blame and some of the credit for what happens on their watch, ultimately Congress is the underlying force. This country needs to unite behind their President, be they Republican or Democrat or some derivative thereof. We have been divided long enough. We need representatives that work for US and not for their party. It's time that we demand that our Congress put the USA first and not the interests of their party or their reelection. If I had my way, we'd fire Congress and start over. Term limits isn't a bad idea! On another note....not all Christians are of the Religious Right. In fact, many of us cringe every time the Religious Right gets on their pulpit. Faith in God isn't about supporting anti-abortion, prayer in school, or defeating gay marriage. Those are political arguments that some have chosen to misrepresent under the guise of Christianity....and in the process, have done great harm to religion in general and Christianity specifically. So....let's go play some golf!

Basic clubmaking demos