wachesawgolfer

Glad to hear no one has injuries which limit their play as I have have been dealing with this past year.

I am sure footjoy still offers models. Do not many touring pros still wear them? Need to surf the net and use "Google" (as someone said)

I also fail to see your point. Maybe, you should lighten up and not be so concerned with what every body else is doing, wearing or playing. There are jerks everywhere, on the highway, at the football game, at the office, in school. You name it. People are always envious of other people's skills, possessions and appearances. Funny thing of it all, even the best players, really only hope they get it airborne in the fairway.

To me there is only one correct golf swing. The fact some people are more flexible, shorter or taller and swing flatter or steeper or shorter or longer does not change the basic elements of the swing which is to turn back and through and a swinging of the arms up and down. The more the body controls the arms in the backswing the more correct the position will be at the top. If the body has properly coiled in the backswing the downward swing of the arms transfers the weight to front foot and the body turns through to a complete finish. Short shots can be made with no wrist hinge but the full shot needs the hinging to develop any real clubhead speed. What some folks refer to as a two plane swing is really, nothing more than arm travel upwards which if too excessive results in a "false backswing" and necessitates a lot of compensating moves to reroute the club from the inside down through the ball. The goal is to work on ones flexibilty so the arms are taken back only so far as the torso turns back and and the arms have folded such and wrists hinged such that you are in a good "waiter's position" at the top; left wrist flat and right hand under the club with no regripping.

You have hit on something that most people do not realize. The lower body transfers weight back to the lead foot but does not turn much until after impact. Ben Hogan felt like he turned his hips as fast as he could and players for years have been fighting an over active lower body which is beyond the ball at impact so the club is open and nothing is left to hit with through the ball. If you look at Hogan's swing his hips were square or slightly open at impact but he is still behind the ball. He could not have been in such a position had he turned hips as "hard as he could" to start the downswing. The clubhead has too far to travel and cannot catch up if the hips turn too much too soon in the downswing.

I still think Bobby Jones's drill of hitting balls with your feet together is one of the best to feel the body turn back and through and keep the club swinging inside to inside so that the cluhead is being swung by the body, (not the arms), allowing it to release and close through impact. An arms swing is not connected to the body turn and thus is generally open at impact which means slice.

Generally when your half swing goes almost as far as your full swing, it means you are coming over the top which causes the left arm to break down prior to impact to allow the club to travel across the line, out to in. When the arm breaks down the left wrist cups backward and the club is then up lofted so your 9 iron is now a sand wedge loft. The shorter swing allows for less over the top and the left wrist is flatter at impact thus the greater respective distance. Most instructors will say its an early release, but really it is the outside move which collapses the left arm which pops up the ball in a scooping motion.

It sounds like your too steep in your swing and coming over the top. Focus on a good setup where you stand tall to the ball and weight towards the rear foot, tilt the spine to the rear, chin up. Now feel the plane of the shoulders and try to turn back keeping the shoulders level. A friend or a video will tell if your breaking down in the turn back and not keeping the shoulders level. I like to put a shaft in the ground next to the driver, same angle, then move left of it so the hosel of the club would touch the shaft. Now swing back so the driver does not hit the shaft in the backswing. This keeps the club outside and extended and makes you complete the backswing with a torso turn which maximises coil and keeps the club on plane. Now simply swing straight down at the top as if to hit the club on the ground behind you so as not to hit the shaft in the downswing. As you swing down focus on keeping the left arm sliding the chest and left wrist flat. You want to feel you are striking the inside rear of the ball to send it off to first base, but your left arm must remained extended, not stiff, and the left wrist flat through impact. If you made a good coil to the top, simply swinging down will transfer the weight to the lead foot and turn the body. Jan 2009 Golf Magazine profiles Vijays swing which is a great instruction on the swing. Good takeaway and coil and then just swing the left wrist down keeping the shoulders turning on the same level plane. Take a tee and put it in a paper cup so its high. Hit balls at that height at the range and your groove your swing pretty quick.

Another issue is that walkers usually do not carry sand to refill divots where that practice is done so those Bermuda courses gets pretty ugly if there are too many walkers. I think if the distance between the holes is long carts speed up the game, but on the course in play there is no difference. Clubs push the carts to make money.

Most, if not all clubs, publish the type of grass on the greens and that on the course on literature or a website. In the south its usually Bermuda and further north it can be Bent. Bermuda can be very tough to hit out of if its ball height or higher and it enmeshes the ball. Tall rye grass is harder to hit out of as it wraps around the clubhead more. Being in the south, I have only played bent grass on greens, too hot for it to survive on the fairways in summer.

A second vote for this book (The Trigger Point manual) which I also have. Your problem could be the scalenes muscles which are tight on most people and refer pain particularly to the pec area. The book shows how to massage and release those trigger points and show what else could refer pain inot that area.

Its like anything else. You can pay as much as much as you want and spend days doing it. Bottom line is if your swing is arms based and inconsistent with slices and pulls, what you fit into one day may not fit you the next day, no matter how much you spend. Point two, there are no standards whatsoever in the golf world. There are three ways to measure the length of clubs; one company's stiff is another's senior flex. One company's 8 iron loft is another 's PW loft. Point three is if your over 6 feet 2 inches or under 5 foot 4 inches or your arms are very long or very short (male), it would be of benefit to to a custom club maker as you may need significantly longer or shorter clubs to swing as well as you can. If your about average most off the rack clubs will do. Shaft flex is easy. If you can carry a 7 iron 160 yards, ie hit the 160 stick or marker you can play a stiff, 170 your into an X, less than 160 you need a R (which is most of us) If you fall into 140 or less you need an A. This is standard weight steel about 129 grams. If you cannot hit a 7 iron 150, you should look at shafts 95 grams or less. There is a lot out there now from Femco, Nippon Rifle and True Temper. Hit a few clubs and find out which feels the best and gives you the ball flight and distance you want. Be sure the lofts are the same which may mean an 8 in one set and a 7 in another. Specifications are vital to club fitting, re tagging a 5 iron as a 7 iron can be misleading. Once you find a set you lie hit off a lie board to and adjust the lie angles if needed. For drivers there no shortcut to hitting a lot of sticks until you find one you like and here, a custom clubfitter is a bonus as they may have a lot shorter demos and you may find you can really tag a 44 inch driver with no distance loss. Bottom line to me is club fitting is a common sense thing and realizing you cannot buy a golf game, there is no shortcut to learning a good repeatable motion.

This thread to me understates, what I have thought forever, that the new technology is new but it may not be better, even though we have been brainwashed to think it so, to keep restocking our bags. We should all be under 80 with all the new great technological advances we have.

That is me exactly. If something hurts, I ride. I am finding also carrying the clubs is similar to a heavy backpack which they say is destroying our children due to the extreme forward head position to balance the weight on the back. So walkers may end up with upper back, neck and shoulder pain they did not expect. The ideal world is to use a caddy.

Probably some new ball markers. I seem to keep losing them somehow.

Did you know it was not so many years ago that everyone played with blade irons, men, woman and chidren because that was all there was and you know what, they were for the most part better ball strickers than today. Not opinion just pure fact.

The problem this time is people cannot see how we come out of this downturn, unlike other recessions. We have lost our jobs overseas and the credit bubble we have been living on for the past ten years has burst and probably will not return any time soon. What we relied for a robust economy to compensate for the erosion of jobs was the consumer spending more than he or she has, no matter what.

Cast clubs do not ding as they are hard enough to withstand the clangs. Most Ping iron no matter how old have very little clatter. Some forged clubs are totally smashed after one round on a bumpy cart path without any protection from hitting themselves.

I have simply used a towel interwoven between the irons to reduce the clang and resultant dings, but, at some point you must accept they are simply tools to play a game and clubs with substantial clatter and wear still play like they are new. One thing you can do is take a new set and hit balls off a cartpath with each iron a few times, so your never worry but appearances again just performance. Not kidding here, lots of truth to this. Another idea is to buy an old banged up forged set at a golf store/auction and play with them. Eventually you won't care what your clubs look like just how they play. Clubs with any noticeable wear depreciate a lot so worrying about wear which is inevitable with play is not worth the effort.

I would suggest Peltz's Putting Bible to you. He talks about the magic 8 feet which is the Pro's make able range. He is talking 99 per 100 go in. Beyond 10 feet, too many factors enter into consideration, which he lists, which make absolute perfection beyond 10 feet difficult. A high percentage going in at twenty feet, due to high putting skill, is not the same thing as being in your make able range whatever it is, where you never, never miss, except on rare occasion, like to win the Bristich Open as Doug Sanders can relate to.

In realty 10 foot plus putts are beyond the makeable range no matter how hard you practice. In truth your goal is to get the ball just over and beyond the hole so the next putt is a tap in. As they are above the hole some will on occasion go in. The key to putting to me is to be able to make the make able putts which Peltz says is 8 feet in, it may be a little shorter who knows, and hit the long ones close and you are well on your way to fewer putts. In realty, however, the tour pros consistently take the green out of play by hitting the ball closer to the hole, time and time again. They hit to their power zone and nail the ball tight from there.

I would go with the Mizunos, they are far better on the eyes and great playing clubs.

What do you bet they will now be over $50 per dozen street price at the large discounters.

To need a "practice ball" is exactly the type of thinking that holds you back in this game or any other endeavor for that matter. You only live once, go for it. Hit your best ball and your best shot over that water. See and feel the ball land on the green with courage before you hit it and eventually it will. The best advice is always to play one type ball and stick with it. To play random balls around and on the green is a road to "no feel."

I would rather pocket the cost of the club and forget about the added distance.