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Gap wedge, sand wedge, Excedrin and sun block. Subpar

The most I've had is 3 consecutive birdies. "Mark Calcavecchia opened the delayed second round with two pars, then reeled off the nine straight birdies . His nine birdie putts were from 15 feet or closer. Calcavecchia broke the record set by Bob Goalby in his 1961 St. Petersburg Open victory and matched by Fuzzy Zoeller (1976 Quad Cities Open), Dewey Arnette (1987 Buick Open), Edward Fryatt (2000 Doral-Ryder Open), J.P. Hayes (2002 Bob Hope Classic) and Kelly (2003 Las Vegas Invitational). Hayes played alongside Calcavecchia on Saturday. The streak ended on the par-4 third hole when the 49-year-old player's chip from over the green went 5 feet past. He saved par to remain 10 under,." Good for Mark, one of the best ball strikers ever. SubPar

TR is a nice course but it illustrates to stupidity of the handicap/course rating system. I am an 8 handicap at Encino, Balboa and Woodley Lakes. These are courses with little or no water in play, flat greens and wide, level fairways. You can miss a fairway by 60-70 yards and still have a shot at a par. Only Woodley has water and I don't think I've hit a ball in water there in 10 years because it is placed so far out of play. TR has massive elevation changes, multi-level greens, lots of water in play and hardly a level lie anywhere... I am a 9 there. If I walked the ball to the middle of every fairway and placed it 250 yards from the tee I'm not sure I could shoot the same scores I shoot at those other courses. Miss a fairaway by 20 yards on most holes and you'll have no shot, IF you can find your ball. $60 is a nice price at TR for a challenging, attractive course. The greens are very consistent and a good speed. This is a look at #8 (on the right) from roughly where the tee is, but tee is higher up and to the right. Image from Aidan Bradley . SubPar

That may depend on the specific ball. If you play a ball like a ProV1 and you hit it hard a few times, it may be reasonable to assume it may no longer perfectly round or perfectly balanced. I don't hit a ball with 120+ club head speed, but when I play the Callaway iX I can tell the outer layer has lost its softness after one or two rounds. It does not seem to fly as far or spin as much as a new one. BTW. Ernie Els says "there is only one birdie in every ball". After each birdie he throws out the ball and breaks out a new one. The pros do change balls often and maybe this is a carry over from the days of wound balls which would really degrade quickly. For most of us a slight loss of ball performance is not a big factor. On the other hand, if you are going to spend $35.00-$100.00 to play a round of golf, why not play a fresh $3-$4 golf ball? SubPar

I've read pros break out a new ball every three holes or so. Their thinking is once you've hit a ball hard a few times it can't be "perfect". They don't pay for them so it makes sense. I really should not play more than one round with a ball, but I'm too cheap to do that. I can tell the diffference in the performance of a new ball over one that has been used a couple of weekends, but I've got bigger issues to resolve in my game, so I only use new balls in tournaments. SubPar

I played a tournament there a year ago and swore I would not go back. The course was not in real good condition and it stunk really bad from the mushroom farm next door. But winds change direction and time heals some wounds, so I am going to give Olivas another chance. SubPar

I have a tournament at Olivas Aug. 15th and would like to play there between now and then. I have mixed feelings about it because it is such a long drive out there and back. Let me know if you are playing it. I might be persuaded. Saturday or Sunday afternoon would work for me. SubPar

It's kind of hard to explain and it is probably different for other people. I have an imprint in my head of the elements of a golf swing and what I see influences what I tend to do. Like someone said earlier, I also avoid watching other people on the course who are swinging badly or using some move that might influence me negatively. It's hard to explain, but I can fairly reliably reproduce in my swing what I visualize in my head. This is why I am starting to work seriously on a pre-shot routine that brings more positive images to mind prior to hitting a shot. SubPar

I do the same thing with most of the Majors. I get a couple of hours on the DVR and then I catch up with the live coverage the last 30 minutes or so. I am usually playing golf on the weekends, so I TiVo as many as 3-4 events and watch them when I get home. I used to tape them until about 3 years ago. Tape was awful though. I had to schedule each start and stop time and spent a lot of time shuttling the tape around looking for the bits I wanted to watch. I was playing poker with a friend who was talking about her TiVo and I decided to get one. No technology has had a greater positive impact on my life than digital video recording (at work and at home). Being able to set shows up to auto-record, recording up to 80 hours of SD programming, and so on, is great. If I realize there is something on TV that I want while I am at work, I log-in on the web and schedule it from my office. The jump-back feature is the best. As I shuttle through and see a player hitting a shot, the "play" button compensates for reaction time, so when I hit Play it bounces back to the bit I want to see. I have no patience for sitting through some glowing Jimmy Roberts package, or a Viagra commercial while waiting to see what's happening on the course. SubPar

I think something was going on with Woods that we have not yet heard about. He is not normally so emotionally out of control. He has had flashes of frustration, but usually he goes to work on correcting his swing enough to stay in the mix till he can get to the range. He almost looked like he didn't want to be there. Not like him. Subpar

It is true there are many different kinds of swings that are successful, but I am trying to imprint an image of the kind of swing I want to emulate. Perry's head bobbing up and down or Allenby's round shoulder slouch or Furik's "octopus falling out of a tree" form is not something you would teach anyone to do. I used to watch all of them closely, but I have recently found it troubling to do so. Subpar

I virtually never watch anything in real-time on TV anymore, but certainly not golf. With all the retrospectives, interviews, recaps of what happened the day before, inane commentator chatter and advertising, I cannot bear to watch it unfold live. Apparently we are a group that might have money to invest but suffer from ED, bladder control issues, and high blood pressure. I skip all the garbage and just watch the play I am interested in. The DVR, especially TiVo, is a gift from heaven for the sports fan. SubPar

I've seen a few old golfers with chunks of their ears removed due to cancer from exposure. This inspires me to apply and sometimes reapply. Subpar

There are some players I have just stopped watching when they swing the club. I have found they paint an image in my mind I really don't want in there. Some represent a variety of odd moves, weird posture or timing I don't want floating around in my head. Furyk, Perry, Milkha Singh and Allenby are among those I avoid watching. Among those I like to watch is Ogilvy. He leaves a good image of balance, simplicity and tempo. Subpar

It was interesting to hear Cink talk about how his mind was a blank when he hit the birdie putt on 18 Sunday. He picked the line and the speed and hit it with no thought of the outcome. This is the "no mind" zone you have to achieve to perform under pressure. I am sure Watson's mind was not a blank when he wanked the par putt that would have won it. SubPar

I have been having good luck with the head turn. I am working it into my game by starting with chip and pitch shots. I am getting the feel of rotating my shoulders through, and not looking at the ball, with these "small" swings. The more I get comfortable taking my eye off the ball chipping the easier it is getting to do it with the longer shots. SubPar

Nice piece on DD. "He's always projected an air of aloofness, given off a sense that you'll never really know what goes on behind the dark shades. It was that way when he was the No. 1 golfer in the world. It was that way when he couldn't hit a ball any straighter than a weekend duffer. Even now, eight years removed from his last win, he might be the most intriguing golfer at the British Open." LINK

Someone has designed something like this. Pressure sensor glove SubPar

Something like 4 or 5 is good, but whatever it is, the pressure should not change during the swing. Tiger told a friend of mine his grip pressure is around a 7, which is high. But he was quick to add, it does not change through out the swing. SubPar

He's talking about keeping his weight loaded about 60/40 on his left side. You can do that and still rotate around your center of gravity. Watching his swings you can see the weight is not ever shifted toward the right side. He rotates around his center point through impact and then goes left slightly after the ball is gone. SubPar

Eight full field events, eight top ten finishes with three wins. If that is not dominance, what is? Based on his finishes, he's beating about 96% of the field on average. SubPar

The recent responses to this thread inspired me to work on the passive arms/head turn thing more this morning. With this swing I get a much nicer trajectory and hit straight, high shots which land softly. I've got to just make it a goal to get this into my normal swing on the course. When I look at the ball, I hit "at the ball". With this technique I swing more freely through the ball. One thing that has been helping me on the course is to take the club back and drop it a couple of times before I take my shot. When I reinforce the concept of keeping my arms relaxed I hit some really nice shots. Recently I've been getting a lot of comments on how easy and smooth my swing is which tells me I'm moving in the right direction. SubPar

She kind of turns her head back with a little tilt up. What Ron does is what the Swedes have been doing for decades. When you do what he does, you never see the club hit the ball. It helps me keep the "hit" out of the swing, but I am not able to do it every time yet. SubPar

His head starts early. He does not teach the head move much unless someone needs it or wants to learn it. I have a problem keeping my shoulders rotating at impact. When I do a little of this head rotation it takes my eyes off the ball and I hit better shots because my shoulders follow my head. Not sure what track record you are looking for, but if you are talking about the head rotation, Annika Sörenstam and David Duval offer a pretty good testimony for that. There are dozens of pros who turn their heads to varying degrees, but you have to watch their swings in slow-mo to see it. SubPar

To hit good golf shots we need to be relaxed and confident. As soon as you are concerned about the result tension creeps in and you can't execute your best shot. When I am goofing around practicing on my own I can chip 1 out of 6 balls in the hole and get to kick-in distance 2 out of 3 times. But as soon as I am under any pressure at all I feel tension and self doubt creep in and I may ony knock 1 of 20 chips in the hole and get up and down 1 out of 4 times. The toughest aspect of competitive golf is that you have to think through the variables, pick a club, pick a line and then hit the shot with "no mind", as a Zen master might say. mushin no shin SubPar