SubPar

If you are talking about me, I didn't say any such thing. There are ditches and bodies of water that are not marked. They are not 'hazards' by deifnition of the rules so if you could not play out of them then you'd proceed under the rules applied to an unplayable lie, but you are not restircted by the rules of a hazard if you play out of them (i.e., grounding your club). The perimiter of the course is OB by default (fences, roads, parking lots, etc.). Is there any other kind of "non-marked OB"? If it is not marked as a hazard then there is no perimiter, nor any need for one. You play it like any other part of the course. You either have a lost ball or a playable/unplayable lie. SubPar

They must be the 'Bally Total Fitness' of golf. Never let those guys get an account number either. read sad Bally stories here . read sad Medicus stories here . SubPar

If one of your options is to drop where you originally played the shot then I think you could drop in the bunker. If you are taking that option you are not required to keep the point where the ball crossed into the hazard between yourself and the hole. True, but that's not what I said. I said they leave them unmarked rather than take the time to mark them yellow. SubPar

If you have a large hazard and it is marked with yellow stakes, even if your ball rolled back in the front of it, you'd have to go back behind it to play. I don't think you'd have a situation where the back side is yellow and the front is red. It happens, but is rare, that a single hazard would have partially red and yellow markings. That would apply to an "L" shaped water hazard. There was a water hazard in front of a green at the Memorial which was marked yellow all the way around, even along the side. If a ball rolled in the front of it the player would have to play from the back side. You can imagine at a municipal course, with all the denial and desire to hold onto a $3 golf ball, how many people would search for the ball and then drag themselves back around to play the shot from the correct place. One course in Camarillo Springs put in a drop area on a par-3 with a lateral water hazard just to keep play moving. SubPar

It is pretty simple, if I have this right. You have the same options with a yellow staked hazard as a red staked hazard, but with the red (lateral) you have the added option of dropping two club lengths from the point the ball crossed the hazard line no closer to the hole, under penalty of one stroke. With either red or yellow stakes, under penalty of one stroke you can: drop the ball at a point behind the hazard keeping the point where the ball came rest between yourself and the flag. you can go back to the point where the previous shot was played. With a red staked lateral hazard have the option to drop two club lengths from the point the ball crossed the hazard line, no closer to the hole. I am guessing that it takes time and money to mark "non lateral hazards" with yellow stakes and paint so some courses have just left those with no markings. Also, I think there are "pace of play" considerations. Some holes have a fairly large water hazard in front and they still mark them red. They don't want people hitting in the side or rolling in the front of it and walking (or driving) all the way back to the other side to play the next shot. In many cases there is plenty or room to do that, but it slows everything down. SubPar

I know Tiger is better about than most, but he does not always indicate when he has flared one out into the gallery. Tiger and Anthony Kim are the two who I have noticed signaling the danger. No one else leaps to mind. What is true for sure is that the LPGA and European players are more willing to call out a warning than the PGA players. Anyone who watches all three tours will see that. Today the galleires are larger, the balls are harder and travelling faster. If that guy who got hit this weekend haad been facing the ball and got it in the eye, he would be half blind, maybe dead. The player knows where his ball is headed better than anyone and for them to just get pissed off and frustrated about their play without thinking of fan safety is unfortunate. I just don't think the PGA takes this seriously enough. And they won't till something really sad happens. SubPar

The USGA goes to some length to define a lateral hazard and in doing so, in effect, defines a "non lateral water hazard". But I don't find anything directly adressing when to use yellow stakes. It seems to me, defining a latteral as one where it is "so situated that it is not possible, or is deemed by the Committee to be impracticable, to drop a ball behind the water hazard in accordance with Rule 26-1b" would mean any hazard where it is practicable to drop behind it could be marked yellow or not marked at all. I have seen a drainage ditch across a fairway that is not marked, which means you could ground your club in it and try to play out or take an unplayable and drop behind it. I guess it would then be up to the course to decide if they want to define it as a hazard thereby disallowing the grounding of a club while playing out of it or encouraging one drop behind it under penalty of one stroke. SubPar

Even if you are watching a player hit from 200 yards away it is nearly impossible to track a ball coming your direction. Often when waving a group up on a par-3, players in my group will see how ball ball starts off the club but then lose sight of it if it fades or draws toward us. It is not reasonable to expect people sitting around a green to be able to track the trajectory of a speeding golf ball. It is very hard to do once the ball is up against the sky. Someone will get seriously hurt or die and then there will be all the customary '"after the fact" soul-searching and policy changes. Subpar

I play a number of courses around southern CA and I can't remember ever seeing a hazard marked with yellow stakes. I recall seeing some yellow staked hazards years ago in Texas, but they seem to have vanished there as well. What is the reason for this... pace of play issues? Do you play courses with hazards have any yellow stakes? SubPar

When Cink's shot hit that guy in the head this weekend it sounded like the ball hit a cinder block. The incident brings to mind something I've been concerned about for a long time. How long will it be before someone is blinded or killed by an errant shot? Just a few years back players and caddies were pretty good about calling out when a shot heads toward the gallery. Today however it is seldom done. They hit an approach shot and the caddies runs for the divot, the player takes practice swings and the hundreds of people around the green are on their own as the ball comes at them at 100 MPH. On the Eropean Tour the players are much better about sounding off when they fire one into the gallery. Not only could someone get seriously hurt, but it could crush a career if a player kills someone. A few boxers have never recovered emotionally after an opponent dies in the ring. I'm sure a golfer would be haunted by it as well. On the tees at least there is a marshall waving a flag or something. Should the players be more concerned, especially when approaching greens? SubPar

Right. You have to get comfortable with hitting the ball first and going down into the ground in front of it. Hitting 40-50 yard shots with a SW is a good way to groove this feeling. J. Miller said the other day that where the hands/grip are at impact will determine where the divot is. If the handle is not in front of the ball when you hit it, you can't hit down on the ball to impart spin and also maximize club head speed. SubPar

Oddly, when I am practicing chipping, I use my wedge to knock the balls in the hole and make about 65% from 5-12 feet and 80% from inside 5 feet. I think this is better than with both hands on a putter. The key is relaxation and confidence. We've all had the experience of making a variety of shots when we are "not really trying". SubPar

I putt really well with my right hand only. I have thought about why that is and feel with one hand I take the club back and let it swing through without any manipulation. It is pretty much impossible to decelerate or yank the club with only one hand. Sometimes I do it as a drill to get the feel of a smooth back-and-through motion. SubPar

Tell it to the former pros calling the action on the PGA. I'll take their word for it. SubPar

The club head should be accelerating through impact. Slightly after impact it should be moving faster than at impact. If it is not then you are decelerating and losing club head speed. I was chided here for saying that you get more spin by pinching the ball against the ground at impact, however I believe I was right about that. On the PGA broadcast Sunday they played a slow motion of Stenson hitting an iron and pointing out how perfectly he "pinched the ball against the fairway". Hitting down on the ball and trapping it increases the compression of the ball against the club face and produces more spin. This is one of the reasons you can spin the ball more off a firm fairway than out of the first cut of rough. You can control the spin by controlling how you strike the ball to increase or decrease compression. I had this conversation today with a +3 teaching pro. He said you absolutely pinch the ball to produce more spin. SubPar

He was making a joke to illustrate a point. David does not understand that you can't joke about killing members of a certain political party, even in the most innocent and humorous manner. These same people and their supporters get a free pass when joking about the death of people they don't approve of (even when it is clear they are not kidding). If he had made that crack about someone named Bush, Cheney, Coulter or Limbaugh he would have heard little about it in the national press. SubPar

Golf-specific clothing is over generally priced. Try Target or Wal-Mart if you want colorful inexpensive shorts or polo shirts, etc.. I refuse to pay $75 for a golf shirt because it has a Nike logo on it. You can sometimes find good golf clothing on sale or clearance at websites for stores like Sports Chalet. I got a $100 set of rain gear on line for $35 there. SubPar

So when they talk about trapping the ball to spin it more, what are they trapping it against? Can you spin the ball just as much out of the rough as off a firm fairway, as long as there is no grass behind the ball? I guess my mental image was imperfect. I had always assumed the act of hitting down on ball would pinch it against the ground compressing it more against the clubface... Sort of like spinning a ping-pong ball by pinching it. I know when I hit off a rubber mat I can spin a ball back 15-20 feet sometimes. SubPar

You'll sometimes hear the commentators mention how Tiger, or others, hit a "dead hands" wedge to reduce spin. You have to reduce the compression of the ball against the turf to make it spin less. I quit playing high spin balls because on average I come out ahead with a ball that spins less. If you can't control how you strike the ball to get a variety of results then the spin rate becomes unpredictable and hurts more than it helps. SubPar

If this is the case, the index will go down accordingly. It is not possible to play to your index most of the time without it going down, unless you are "sandbagging". SubPar

20 scores posted is the magic number. 10 are used to calculate the index. If you play a variety of courses and post ALL scores you should play at or below your handicap about 25% of the time. SubPar

Tiger has never seemed so irrelevant. All he has to do is shoot 69 to win and he does not even break par! A 3-putt par on 14! It is nice for Glover, Watson and O'Hair, but Tiger did not deliver the expected drama on Sunday. What a let down! SubPar

I have actually become quite careful about what I listen to on the way to the course. A song affects your mood and your mood affects your game. I try to listen to tunes that are medium tempo and up-beat. I realized how important this was after listening to Mickey Newbury one morning. He was a brilliant song writer, but his music trended toward the downer end of the spectrum. Not what you want running in the background while you are playing golf. SubPar

One thing that can be a challenge is getting worse before you get better. It is easy to get to a 7-10 index with some poor habits that limit your progression. When you try to change your swing to something with more potential you always play worse for a while. (remember Tiger's changes?) A friend of mine teaches a top level tennis pro who was a 6 handicap when he came to him. This guy went up to a 14 before he dropped down to a 1. SubPar

This not meant to be discouraging, just realistic advice. It gets exponentially harder to shave points off your handicap as you get lower. You have to practice a lot and practice "smart". That means not just hitting balls at the range. You need to isolate your weaknesses and focus on them. Each time you go to practice choose something specific that you need to work on and focus on that. I got down to a 6.4 and just assumed I could continue down to a 3 or 4, but stalled out and went backwards a few clicks. At a certain level I am too casual about my short game and I know I will never get below a "6" until I start to take the time to analyze every variable prior to hitting a shot and take it seriously. ( the lie, speed of the green, wind, where the trouble is, exactly what club feels comfortable for any given shot, etc.). Speaking for myself, I think I'm a bit lazy, for lack of a better word. Part of me wants to just enjoy the game and lowering your handicap is WORK I play with a number of low handicappers and I notice a few specific things they do that I don't... mostly mental/disciplinary stuff. They think through the details of each shot, especially around the greens. If they are chipping onto the green they walk around and read it like a putt. They don't take three foot putts for granted. They have consistent, productive pre-shot routines. They are having "fun" but when it comes time to plan and hit a shot they go into a zone that I seldom visit I notice the low index players get in trouble now and then just like I do, but they have a variety of shots they can hit to still get a good result. Practice the odd shots, like low running shots, with or without a draw or a fade. Figure out what club you would hit from trees that will let you advance to ball various distances. Spend quality time in bunkers working out how to hit a range of shots from the sand. Go to a chipping green and practice from tight areas and deeper rough All the little things add up and hurt you more and more as you go lower, so you have to prepare yourself for all the possibilities. Smart practice not only hones you physical skills but also yields confidence that you can pull those shots off Good luck. SubPar