cdriver

I like the Dave Pelz system for wedges. He says everyone should carry 4 wedges and have 3 different length swings to cover all the possible yardages. He says a 1/2, 3/4, and full swing with those four wedges gives you 12 different yardages to work with. That sounds like a good system to me and I used an abbreviated system like that. I only carry 3 wedges, a PW, 54 and 58. Between those and the 3 different length swings, I can cover most distances from 120 yards and in. Once you get used to making those abbreviated swings, it is easy to develop touch for the odd distances. You might want to pick up his book, "The Dave Pelz Short Game Bible". Just reading it, before I even tried the drills probably took several strokes off my round.

I have been toying around with two different sets of clubs. I previously played a set of MaxFli Revolution Irons, but just absolutely wore them out. I have a set of Titleist DCI 990's and also a set of Tommy Armour EVO31 Reduced Offset Blades. I have been trading off between them every couple of weeks trying to decide which I want to play full time. To be honest, there are things I like about both of them. The Evo's are really sweet for feedback and workability, but they are not at all forgiving. The short irons on the Evo's also launch higher than the Titleists by design. I like the long irons on the Titleists. I was just wondering if any of you have tried a mixed set of clubs using different types of clubs in the long, mid and/or short irons? How successful do you think this might be?

I suggest that you take your normal setup, make a few practice swings with a 7 iron that brush the turf. Find the point on the turf where your clubhead just starts to make contact with the grass. That is where you want to position the ball. Put a ball in place and make the same swing you were practicing. Don't try to lift the ball in the air, just swing smoothly like your practice swings and let the club do its job. If you do that, you should see the ball flying in the air. Trying to manipulate the club to insure you hit down or pinch the ball always seemed to complicated to me. If you follow the instructions above, you will find that getting the ball airborne is easier that you think.

I have only been on one forum other than this one and it is run by my wife. Nothing to do with golf. I am enjoying this forum, but I didn't understand about the "reputation points" either. I am glad to find out how they work. I didn't know I could get "negative" reputation points or that I was being judged on the quality of my posts. I am not sure how I feel about that just yet. I realize that most forums need a method of weeding out bad actors, but I also like to think we all participate on here as equals. I can't imagine saying something to someone else on this forum that could be construed as an attack or malicious. Golfers as a group have been the most courteous, friendly, inclusive sorts I have come across, so all this animosity between each other seems so out of place to me among men who share the common bond of loving the game. If you truly love golf, you behave in a way that makes you the gentleman that golfers must be. Without the gentlemanly behaviour, ours would not be a sport that requires no referees. We call penalties on ourselves because it is the honorable thing to do. Our honor in posting correct scores, not using underhanded or devious distractions to affect our opponents, playing by the rules should permeate the rest of our lives as well. I didn't mean to get on a soapbox, but this is important for all men who call themselves golfers. Honest disagreements are one thing, but personal attacks are quite another. Being new here, I almost decided not to post this as I think it may be presumptuous on my part, but I really like it here among all of you and want to have my say and, hopefully, help put this to rights.

Last summer, my son-in-law and I played golf in Maine for a week. He brought his video camera several times and we took turns video taping each others swings. The next couple of days, my swing went down the tubes, but eventually, what I saw allowed me to make some changes to correct some set up faults.

I have the same problem at my home course. The practice green is always faster than the actual course. I don't understand why they have trouble getting them more closely matched except the practice green gets a lot more traffic and may be harder underneath.

Being a leftie myself, I hate to watch Phil throw up on himself like he did at the Open. I swear, everyone talks about his creativity with a wedge in his hand, but when I see him pick up a wedge around the green, I know its because he didn't use his head and got into trouble AGAIN. A friend of mine told me once he wished he had that low slider that I could hit. I had to have that shot because I missed so many fairways left. Phil has to have a short game because he just makes too many mistakes. You gotta love the guy for his "go for broke" attitude, but how many times is he gonna shoot himself in the foot before he develops a permanent limp? On balance, Tiger's game both mentally and physically is better than Phil's.

One of my playing partners told me he played golf like he made love. He really enjoyed it, did it as often as he could, BUT, it was an ugly thing to watch!

A guy gets married and on his wedding night figures he should get what has been burdening him off his chest. He tells his new bride, "I know I should have told you earlier, but I am an avid golfer. We won't be spending a lot of time together because I will always be on the course." She blinked a couple of times, swallowed and said, "Well, dear, since we are confessing, you should know I'm a hooker." Without missing a beat he replied, "Don't worry about it. We'll open your stance and weaken your grip. Before long you'll be hitting 'em perfectly straight."

One of the leftie problems is finding demo clubs to try out, but I played with another leftie who had a hybrid. I hit 5 iron off the tee on a short par 4 and then hit his hybrid 5 about 20 yards short of that. I tried it a couple of more times with the same result - shorter than my 5 iron, so I decided it wasn't for me. I've got buddies that swear by them though.

My course (Paradise Valley, Fayetteville, AR has a slope rating of 70.1/125. It is a par 71 course and I think the 125 may be a bit low. It is narrow, tree-lined and full of doglegs that require accurate drives in both direction and distance to avoid going short or long of the dogleg. When I moved from my old club to this one, my handicap went up 2 strokes before I figured out how to play this course. I moved because I thought Paradise would make me improve my game and it is working, but it is frustrating.

I started way back with the TW 99 version for a laptop. My wife got me a PS2right after they came out and the guys from work bought me the TW2005 for Christmas that year. I really like the joystick in place of the meter and space bar arrangement. I also had the 2004 PS2 version and they keep improving it every year. I agree that the putting was way too easy. I was making birdies from 50ft.. Not something I am used to with my real game, trust me.

I am a club junkie, which isn't easy for a natural leftie. I currently have Cleveland, Maxifli, Titleist, Tommy Armour wedges and irons. I have noticed some different tendencies between brands. The TA's are loooonnnnggg. The Titleist 990's are accurate to a fault. The Maxifli Revolution's are my favorites, but just plain worn out. I am retiring them and trying to decide if my primary set will be the TA's or the Titleists.

I love my TM R580 (no XD). I thought the Ignite had a heavy feel for some reason??? Anyone else notice that?

My friends all say I am good around the greens and bunkers and wish they were able to get it up and down. I spend at LEAST 2/3rd of my practice time at the chipping and bunker area on our course. I usually take a bucket of balls and set up with 25% of them at each of 4 different locations, varying from easy to difficult and I work on getting the ball into the 5 ft "magic circle" for me. I vary locations on different days. At least 25% of the shots are out of the bunkers. I throw the balls in and take em as they lie, good, bad or indifferent. My buddies are all over on the driving range pounding drivers and long irons and they just can't understand why my short game is so much better than theirs. Go figure. Alter your practice time to allow for more work around the greens and I have faith that you will figure out what technique and what clubs are best for you to get it close to the hole. If you are concentrating, it will work itself out to your best solution