Muttface

You would technically be playing with a club that has been altered during the round. The same way that you cannot "legally" write the yardages on the club during the course of a round. For the OP, yes it is legal but you can't do it during the round; you can do it before or after. My understanding is that you can use written material (i.e. a yardage book or chart) so long as it's been "published" or created before a round. You could in theory walk around with a copy of Ben Hogan's swing book and refer to it as you play. However, if I understand the rule correctly, you would not be able to make notes in the margin during the round to be used during that round.

If you don't decide to keep playing it and try to sell it, you're going to take a hit no matter what. You can sell it back to Callaway for $60 and take a $90 hit and get something you really like or take less of a loss and try to sell it privately. For me the hassle of trying to sell it privately (responding to incoherent emails, late night phone calls, people standing you up, risk of not getting paid, etc.) was not worth the few extra bucks I might have gotten out of it. You're unlikely to get your full $150 back. Take the hit (one way or another), buy something you really like and get on with enjoying your golf game.

Callaway has the "trade in trade up" program which is a good way to minimize your losses. You buy the club you want outright (through callawaygolfpreowned.com) and tell them which club you want to trade in and they will give you an estimate of the value of your trade in. You send in the club and they then credit your account. I won a slightly-used Hyper-X driver on Ebay for $79.00 and could not keep the thing from going right. I then purchased an FT-i from the pre-owned site for $130.00 and traded in the Hyper. They gave me $65.00 for it.

Do you think she would really lie to you?? The factories that perform the authorized, legal outsourced work would have very tight security to prevent workers from walking out with components and the rejects would be destroyed to prevent them from getting into the marketplace. The authorized factory management would not want to endanger their gravy-train relationship with the parent company by letting the junk get out. One of the magazines had an article about the Chinese outsource factories a while back. They're sweatshops, but workers are passed thru metal detectors as they enter and exit and the eagle eye is everywhere. They're about as real as Pelosi's face. Save your money man.

The bastards. They're making money off their customers!

It's a social phenomenon that seems to be getting more pervasive in golf and elsewhere. Might have something to do with people being afraid to be alone. They get nervous being by themselves or are afraid they're missing out on something. Examples: I'll park my car away by itself at a large store so that it does not get dinged up (as well as needing the exercise) and sure enough when I come back out some chucklehead is parked next to me. I was at the driving range a couple of weeks ago and was the only one there. I picked a stall about 1/4 of the way from the far end. Half a bucket later a guy name "Joey" parks himself right next to me with at least 20 other stalls to pick from. We're the only people out there. How did I know his name was Joey? Joey kept a loud running conversation with himself in the third person: "Joey got hold of that one", "Dammit Joey what are you doing?", etc. Reminded me of The Jimmy episode from Seinfeld. I ended up moving to the other end of the range.

The lining is the tall metal or plastic cup itself that is sunk into the ground to hold the flagstick. It also keeps the hole the correct diameter and prevents it from caving in. If the top edge of the cup is not kept the correct distance below ground level, balls can rebound off the edge and come back out if a putt is hit dead center. The band of turf/dirt around the top of a properly-cut cup acts like a deadening cushion. The pro tours paint the dirt around the top edge mostly so that the cup is easier to see on television. Lots of the greenskeepers actually use a small brush to do so.

It's clubhead speed and sweet spot contact and technique, not necessarily muscle mass. Lorena Ochoa is five foot something and weighs 120 something pounds. According to an article in one of the magazines last year, she can get close to 290 off the tee if she wants to really crank it.

Agreed. McCabe is probably my favorite of the local courses, but you're risking taking one in the melon especially on the weekend afternoons. I'm thinking of getting a hard hat or perhaps one of those pith helmets like the Brits used to wear.

Ah, the kid had a tough climb to the top. You might just be better off taking your business elsewhere. The business is already doomed, he just does not know it yet. He will eventually flounder and go away if there is no logical reason for people to go in there. Any business that has higher prices than the competition has to offer some other offsetting reason for people to patronize it.

I go to McCabe quite a bit too, often during lunch break to use the same facility and have not had any problems as of yet. If there are others chipping to the holes, I try to work it so that I'm coming in from another angle and will try to alternate my shots with theirs so as to minimize distractions for them. I'll also wait until others clear out to hit pitches in case I blade one. I'll also only hit 3 or 4 balls maximum so that if they do get intermingled it's not big deal to sort them out. The only etiquette is possibly just to share the space and adhere to the old "do unto others...". My opinion is that you're doing it right already. It is an awfully good practice area, especially for a muni isn't it?

This is exactly what he should do, except it should go directly to the owner as the manager may not have a direct investment in the place other than receiving a paycheck. The guy signing the paychecks is the one to to contact. He more than likely would not know what is going on but would certainly care more. Carefully-written letters of complaint, on paper (not e-mail), are an easy way to make a huge impact. Very few people today take the time to generate one. Make sure to provide your contact information as you will likely get a response.

AP2's are forged so yes they can probably be bent back. I tried to get some cast clubs bent back to regular (they were bent upright also by the factory) but none of the shops would do it; they were afraid of breaking them. The castings are apparently more brittle, especially if they've been bent once already.

You might want to try Stoughton Acres just north of Butler. It's a family-owned course and the owners manage it themselves. They take lots of pride in the place and it shows in the upkeep. They don't allow booze out there which is not necessarily a bad thing; certain elements tend to shy away from it. My brother in law plays there often and raves about it. It's supposed to give your bag a workout.

I've gotten tired of these guys too. Most of them seem like decent guys, personable, friendly, not bad...but perhaps a little ignorant or perhaps off in their own world. For some reason ball marks bug me; probably because I agree that it is a manifestation of a once great society sliding rapidly downhill. If a guy doesn't seem to notice his mark and fix it on his own, I'll usually say something like "...let me get your ball mark for you Bob (or Sam or Pete)..." and proceed to fix it up right in front of them. Seems like the majority of the time they get the hint (and sometimes seem to get embarrassed) and fix subsequent ones on their own.

Par Aide makes this pretty cool tool that does a nice job. Don't know if they sell a lot of them. You would think course supers would invest in several of them: http://www.paraide.com/product_detai...pid=984&cid;=35 This thing is also on the market, perfect for those guys that are too top heavy or otherwise have difficulty bending over. No excuses now.: http://www.greenfixgolf.com/greenfix-putter-grips.html

Tim Herron still plays them on The Tour.

Ouch man. I bet the course superintendent would not like that too much. Would they not ding up the blades on those reel mowers? They keep them sharpened to a pretty fine edge and pinching a penny between a blade and the bed edge could be a problem.

Be careful. After you've been a walker for a while you'll take a look at some of the guys in carts and, just like a righteous ex-smoker, you'll ask yourself "did I really look like that?". There was mention of a study done recently, possibly in one of the magazines, that indicated that lifelong walker golfers tended to live longer than cart guys---go figure. My experience too is that I've not yet had to play with a jerk who was also walking. Perhaps its the endorphins.

I picked one up from Callaway Pre-Owned about a month ago and don't plan on giving it up until someone pries it from my cold dead hands. It's the old man version, 13°, lite flex regular shaft to compensate for a slow swing. It's got an authoritative bang when it's hit, even with the slow swing. The best thing about it is the confidence it supplies; you have to really screw up to miss a fairway.

I don't disagree with any of that; it could certainly be another indicator of social degradation. However, bouncing one off a guy's melon without trying to issue a warning is not quite the same as walking in someone's putting line. We're talking possibly blinding someone, mangled teeth, concussion, fractured skull, possible brain damage, etc.; perhaps even killing someone if the ball is traveling fast enough and hits someone the wrong way. I don't quite understand why someone would not give a warning shout if a ball is headed towards someone. It doesn't cost anything. Like one of the other guys said better safe than sorry. It may be just plain stupidity. The guy that dropped one in on us last Saturday came over to look for his ball and mentioned something about "we saw it turning towards you but lost sight of it...". All you can do is shake your head and hope he doesn't procreate.

Is is just me or are golfers not yelling "Fore" anymore when their ball looks like it might bean someone? Four times in the past three outings we've had incidents with balls landing literally within an arm's reach away. Three incidents at one course and the fourth just last Saturday on a different one. One guy almost got beaned on a tee and the other three came off the tee from adjacent fairways and almost got us as we were walking in the opposite direction. There was not a single warning yell from any of the guys that were teeing off. I'm not expecting that there won't ever be more close calls; I'd just like some kind of warning so we can duck and cover. A hard hat might not be a bad idea either. I think I'm going to start pocketing them or smacking them off into the woods.

Sign her up for some lessons, especially if you can find small group lessons with other women, preferably with a female pro. My wife took lessons that way and enjoyed the camaraderie and the less intimidating atmosphere. I suspect that most lady pros run such a program. Trying to teach her yourself can cause friction and might help you wind up in divorce court.

Check out your local Goodwill store, especially if it's near a more prosperous area. I picked up three Greg Norman polo's for two bucks apiece that looked brand new and a couple of Tiger Woods's dry-fit types of shirts for five bucks each and they still had the info tags on them (apparently never been worn). You can probably get some like new pants for close to pocket change.

I started forward pressing a little bit to initiate the swing also at the suggestion of a good teacher. It helps get the swing started without tension and helps keep things smooth. It also seems to act as a "dress rehearsal" for where my hands should be on the downswing as the club approaches the ball i.e. seems to help create good muscle memory. The swing thought for me is that it feels like I'm dragging or pulling the clubhead through impact. Its helped me make more solid, compression-like contact and for the most part straighten out a nasty fade. Still hitting the occasional fat one too, but that's due more to slow weight shift. Stick with it, it really works.