BigBoy

This podcast does a mock pairing set up for the Ryder Cup - came up with some interesting matches I hope we get to see! http://18whiskeyshots.com/2012/09/23/the-bj-show-episode-4/

Got this sent from a friend of mine who knows a friend of one of the guys on the show - pretty funny stuff - can imagine what'd be like to be in their group of golf buddies - http://18whiskeyshots.com/2012/08/13/the-bj-show-episode-3/

i have a question for you guys - how does one go about finding the costs associated with joining clubs? Seems to me they keep it close to the vest, and you have to call or meet with them even to get a ball park, or rely on word of mouth. Maybe I'm too proud, but I'd hate to meet up with a membership person at the club to inquire about a membership, only for them to tell me there is a 50k initiation fee. Then what, just get up and leave? Be polite and stick around? Stick around and pretend to get turned off by something else?

Check out the book - Talent is Overrated - http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrat.../dp/1591842247 Its a great read, and the author takes a closer look at a lot of the myths that permeate western culture about child prodigies and "gifted" people. Mozart is an example he uses, as well as Tiger Woods. Both were perceived as being gifted beyond compare, but a closer look at their childhoods both include highly involved fathers that had the boys working on their crafts harder than just about any adult does, well before they turned 10 years old. As they grew into adults they became even more focused on effective and constant practice. I have not done the book justice in my above paragraph, I highly recommend the book, it is REALLY interesting and well written.

this is something I couldn't believe even two years ago, when I played very casually with my buddies, and the one serious golfer was about a 8 index. He seemed like the best golfer ever. To imagine a scratch golfer at that point led to images like I saw when I'd go to Tour events. I thought it must be almost identical. Maybe the pros were just a little better at putting, I thought. Then the past two years, I've had the pleasure of playing with a couple of honest scratch golfers several times. While their games are certainly impressive, it still didn't resemble the guys between the ropes I had watched up close. It was a real eye opener to me. It is a different level. The pro I took lessons from here in Nashville told me about a time when he was out on the range giving a lesson, and all the sudden he heard a noise that he never heard there before. Then he heard it again. He turned around and Brandt Snedeker was at the club hitting a bucket. About 50 feet away. The sound was so distinguishable that the pro realized it even in the middle of providing a lesson amongst 15 or 20 other people hitting balls.

for me, it tends to be the opposite. I've even talked to some low hdcp guys I play with about it. What I've guessed is the issue for me is that when I'm on a level surface, with a perfect lie, I let too many technical swing thoughts get in my head. On other approach shots, I may be in the rough, on a downhill lie etc - in those cases, it becomes more of an athletic endeavor for me, I just swing to try to make good contact with the back of the ball - I will say that while on average I end up with better results, the few longer "approach" shots that I have hit REALLY tight this season have been on par 3s.

I think it would be a nice touch if the rival was a loose cannon type too - like the stories I've heard about Walter Hagan, a little crass, womanizer, who didn't always say the right things - I doubt that type will ever emerge, because with all the sponsor money available a person would have to be a moron not to be to have a squeaky clean image - but it would be an awesome i've probably watched too many movies

another must make 20 footer for the tourney on 16, and he just crams it in the hole - it is cliche and boring on the surface, but just so incredible at the same time - its really, really unbeleivable -

I was looking forward to really getting into the tourney today, but this damn tennis match is going to leave me with nothing left in the tank! Imagine if Tiger and AK go to like 6 extra holes or something, could be an epic day in sports!

just checked the weather for DC (where I lived the first 29 years of my life)... and it looks miserable - rain all day starting at 5am thru the night - ugh - I hope its scattered enough that they can play a decent round

This might be the first chapter in what everyone in golf has been waiting for for a couple of years now - a young player who can look Tiger in the eye and not melt on a Sunday - not saying that AK is there yet - but I'll be pulling for him because I think if he holds Tiger off and wins tomorrow its going to be potentially a spring board for him, and could finally be a great rivalry for the upcoming years - I'm not sold that he can do it... but I'm hoping that he does - and I'm a Tiger fan!

no luck on finding a specific clip for you - but the show I think is still available on Golf Channel On Demand - also, to help your memory, there were times in the show when Hank would actually use a long shaft to pick the club up for Charles some times - he would stand facing him, and use the shaft to kinda of hook the shaft of barkleys club, lift it up as he started to swing and say 'turn!' once he lifted it -

that is awesome! congrats! It reminds me of last spring, I was playing with a guy who had taken a bunch of lessons, but had only played probably 8 rounds or so, and always was well over 110, and usually quit keeping score at some point - then all of the sudden he just went out and shot an honest 92. the course was no push over either, lots of trouble. He was so pumped that the next time we played he took 3 10's on the first three holes and quit keeping score - he still hasn't broken 100 yet - but he still has the memory

during my series of lessons, my pro teed a ball up just on the inside of my left heel and my right heel - the idea was that the ball teed up on the inside of my left heel should NOT get knocked off the tee, and the ball on the inside of my right foot SHOULD get knocked off the tee - good practice to make sure my weight was headed towards my target and not twisting around - before that drill, both my feet would spin out to a degree - he also told me that flaring out the front foot somewhat is helpful to less flexible golfers like myself, but urged me to keep my back foot at 90 degrees to keep me from getting too far back on my backswing

try to follow Steve Marino for a bit - I went to high school with him in the DC area, he is a few years younger than me and we didn't know each other, but I knew some of his friends well - in 2007 they made quite a scene on the course - they like to drink its a home event for him

As I've stated before, I've played "golf" since high school, but only got serious last fall. I've had a recent rash of rounds in the 80s, and feel like I'm still improving a lot - except for the day when all of the sudden, I can't execute a golf swing to save my life - if I'm on the course that day I'm scrambling to stay in the low 100s, and if I'm on the range, I go thru 40 balls before hitting one I'm even remotely happy with - A couple weeks ago, I realized that on those horrible days, I'm not making a shoulder turn, just lifting the club up with my arms. I was so happy to have figured it out!!! Unfortunately, just knowing what my problem was didn't seem to help the last time I was having issues. I would turn my shoulders, but it felt forced and everything was still very out of whack. Today was another bad day on the range... but this time I thought of the way Hank would make Charles swing the club - lifting it straight up with his arms first, then making his turn into his back swing. I took a few practice swings doing this motion, then another "regular swing"... and wow, it felt natural and smooth with a full shoulder turn. Then I stepped up to the ball, and hit a beautiful shot. For the next 20 balls or so, I used that lift and turn swing for a practice swing, then hit the ball "normally" and 16 of the 20 were great, and the other 4 were serviceable. The best part of this all, was that I never felt totally comfortable, and didn't have the feeling of being in the "zone" that is usually required for me to shoot the kind of round that I want to - I'm hoping this "drill" can be my safety net for those really off days. It really helps groove the motion of a good turn even on bad days - Has anyone found this "drill" this helpful? Does anyone use it as a crutch on bad days, or maybe just use it every time they take a practice swing?

I think its comes to down to distance. In 2000, the guy was just tearing up golf courses with his mammoth distance advantage. Only a handful of guys could keep up, and they weren't as good golfers as he was overall. The way courses were set up then allowed him to take lines that no one else could, doing things like hitting SW into Par 5s at Augusta. That kind of advantage allows you to win when you aren't playing that great, and allowed Tiger to just kill the field when he had his A game. It was like he was able to play from the white tees while most everyone else was forced to play from the tips. Technology, club fitting ect, have allowed the field to catch up in terms of distance, and new course layouts make every one try to 'bomb' it more often. Also, once someone starts winning like that, people will work to emulate it, so distance became a focus of a lot of younger players. Tiger is still "long", but you don't think about that being the biggest part of his game anymore. In the 2000 time frame, his length was what was talked about the most, because he was so dominant in the category.

I'm contemplating trying to engineer my own sounds that follow the Tour Tempo philosophy (3:1), but are smoother in nature. If any of you watched the Haney project, that tool that Hank had Charles use where he could "hear" his swing kind of inspired me. http://www.sonicgolf.com/ Rather than three tones, I'm thinking of a consistent sound that progressively "peaks" at the top of the downswing, and then at the moment of impact. Basically mimicing the sound sample they have on the Sonic golf website, but ensuring its in the 3:1 tempo Anyone else think this might be a good idea? Perhaps I will give the current system another try first to see if I just need to get the hang of it - I really believe the importance of tempo is not over estimated by the author

http://www.lamkingrips.com/grips_crossline.php (the full cord are a little more than halfway down the page) The crossline full cord are awesome in the hot and humid TN summers. I've gone to the range in 100+ heat index where I've had to use 5 gloves because they are completely sweat through, like I dipped them in a tub of water, and the grips never slipped. I have one club I ordered direct from callaway where they didn't offer the Crossline full cord, and just got the standard crossline, and i took one swing with it and it almost flew down the range. The grips lack "comfort" some might say, but they are very easy to get used to, and you really never need to worry about the club slipping, especially just during a round of golf.

The ring finger on my left hand will often ache the day after I hit the range - I'll wake up with my hand in a fist, and it takes some effort to straighten it out. I think it has to do with a gripping too tightly. While I consciously keep a very light grip in my set up, some swings I can feel myself bear down on the downswing when trying to hit certain shots. My guess is you tend to try to 'grip it and rip' on your driver, trying to give it that little extra hit with your driver, and grip it tighter. The ironic thing of course is that will actually tend to slow down your swing and cause you to hit it shorter. I believe I initially injured my finger last year when I hit a REDICULOUSLY fat shot on a severe uphill lie while trying to kill the ball. My finger has never been quite the same. My knuckles are a bit of a mess already from years of jammed and broken fingers playing basketball a lot during my youth

My friend has come and gone, and I played well while he was here So today, I finally took my MP3 player to the range to do the Tour Tempo workout described in the book - went thru all the drills and was really feeling the 'music' - then i began with full swings... and it was complete disaster. I tried with the headphones on, with them off, at 24/8, 21/7 and 27/9 - everything was terrible - we are talking shanks, tops, fatsies and everything in between, a range session that was as bad as when i first picked up the game - i am distraught - i had very high hopes. I think the issue with me is two fold, first, my tempo was not very slow to begin with so the "quick fix" aspect of book was probably out the window - 2nd, the "3 chimes" got my swinging in a very choppy manner - even when I realized this was part of my problem i still had trouble not getting very jerky and cutting off my shoulder turn in anticipation of the beeps I stopped about halfway thru my bucket because i did not want to engrain whatever i was doing out there into my memory - anyone with success with this program experience any disasters to start? I'm thinking that a different type of smoother sounding tracks might work better for me

Have him hit a bucket of 30-60 yard pitches with his wedges to get the feeling of good contact grooved in his mind - I have a tendency to have my ball striking crumble about every 5 rounds or so and I try to get to the range either after the round or the next day and just taking small swings wiht short clubs till I get contact down, then I try to thing about things like distance and trajectory by the end of the bucket -

overall, I prefer faster greens I think, but if I get yippy on one putt early in the round and end up stabbing the ball 15 past the hole I am ruined for the round, putting scared - so when I'm feeling grooved with my putting stroke I like fast greens, but when I'm feeling less comfortable slower greens weigh easier on my mind While there may be some lessons to be learned by the ol "Amateurs tend to.. leave putts short, miss on the low side of the putt, not take enough club" I think using them as rules of thumb are dubious, and I've gone through stretches were I blast the ball by the hole, miss putt after putt on the high side and hit approach after approach over the green because I don't want to be amateurish The differences in tour greens and average public course greens I believe are responsible for the two putting issues - coupled with the fact putting on poorer greens with less true rolls make a 5 foot comebacker more nerve racking - lately I've tried to dump those rules of thumb that are in every golf magazine and just try to make the best shot I can at the time

I'm not a big advocate of putting the ball back in the stance, I think the weight forward technique is enough of a "cheat" to make sure to hit down on the ball - that being said a lot of people like putting it back there so it obviously works for some - now, that being said, i think its even more important to hit down on the ball, however you do it, in the fairway as opposed to the rough - in the rough around the greens you'll often have a "fluffy" lie allowing you to get away with more around the greens, making a good downward strike is more important on tight lies on the fairway or a shortly mowed fringe I'll also use this post to recommend Phil Mickelson's "secrets to the short game" DVDs - they are pretty cheap on Amazon. The chipping portion of the DVD is the best part of it - its kept simple and to the point as a disclaimer, I'm obviously not a very good golfer as illustrated by my handicap, but the better players I play with, single digit guys, say that my chipping is more advanced than the rest of my game, and they often want me and my handicap on their teams because of how I get around near the greens

I am 6'6" and have all of my irons lengthened by 1.5 inches. I went and got fitted, and they measure where your hands hang naturally by your sides to determine if you should have them lengthened and by how much - a lot of taller guys I know, and a few guys on tour who are taller don't use lengthened clubs. Stewart Cink is one of them, although he is experimenting with getting longer wedges (just .25 inches though) I feel more comfortable with them, and I like the fact that the longer clubs help me exploit my height to create more club head speed. It also means less control though. I had a driver made with 1.5 extra inches to match my irons, and after a few months had it cut back down to standard size. go into a golf galaxy or similar store and asked them to measure you out - I bet that there are even charts online that can tell you what you need if you have someone at home measure for you - If you decide to get longer clubs, you don't need to buy a new set or new shafts, they can "plug" you existing clubs, which is what I had done initially until I splurged on my current clubs