Howling Coyote

I don't know if I should reply to this subject. I am glad they were able to remove the mass, though I am surprised they didn't follow it up with chemotherapy. My wife died of lung cancer. They couldn't stage her properly. They guessed it was anywhere between stage 2a and stage 3b. Lung cancer is tricky, because there are so many vital organs nearby, that you typically can't use radiation. Surgery involves either VATS (video assisted thoracic surgery), or thoracotomy (maximum invasive surgery, you don't want this). VATS is usually reserved for people who are stage 2a or less.

How does he fall on stairs? I am an old fart, I should be the one falling.

So you'd recommend 1, with a faster tempo. I saw over the weekend, Rickie Fowler 4-putt because his 2nd and 3rd putts were lip-outs (on the 18th hole). Each time after the lip out his ball rolled quite a distance past the hole, I assume both the lip-out and distance past the hole were due to too much pace (too firm). Is this because these guy train hitting it so firm that sometimes they over do it? For me very frequently I hit it too soft. Often I am way short. The other day, twice I left the ball on the lip of the cup. I even stood there and jumped up and down hoping the ball would drop. I also hate these claims, "Well teach you how to never 3-putt again", but when I see a pro like Rickie Fowler 4-putt I know it is untrue.

Just my opinion, I think it will be a repeat of World Golf Championship-Dell Tech Match play, DJ versus John Rahm. Phil Mickelson is a wild card. If he brings his A game he will win, its just that I have not seen him play his A game in a long time.

Iacas This is the only thing that has got me greater distance. Only in like the past 3 weeks have I began doing this and it feel like the clubbed is whipping around. Before I could only hit the pitching wedge about 80 yes, now I can hit it 100 yds and in some rare instances 120 yds. I know this is crazy. What I do is I picture a little fat man, who is laughing at my swing. He has been laughing all day long at my swing. He has his back to my target and is standing next to my right leg and has a big stomach. I am angry at him and want to punch him in the stomach with the butt end of my club, on the downswing. In order to do that I have to bend (cup) my right wrist. This has the side affect of bowing the left wrist. In order to hit his stomach, I have to get low and once I hit this imaginary target, my hands slow down and I let the wrist go completely loose. The club then whips through all on its own.

I don't have a swing thread. I am not sure what one is?

iacas I have questions about putting. First I have observed a lot of people putting and have seen approximately the following types of strokes. Which do you recommend? (1) Standard follow thru method: Lower body is quiet, putt back stroke is about equal to follow thru. About 1 inch of backstroke per foot seems to work. However, I have trouble with distances greater than 20 feet. The putt does not get there unless I use one of the other types. (2) Pop stroke: A stroke with no follow thru (see Brandt Snedeker). Like all putting, the lower body is quiet. The Pop seems to transfer more complete momentum (as I have tried it and it is easy to hit it further). However, from my experience direction control is poor. (3) Wrist fling: Some golfers I have witness them flinging their wrists as they putt. I keep my wrists quiet maybe that is why I can't et distance? Ok, I have tried this method and distance control is difficult, but you can really make the ball move. (4) Noisy follow thru: Basically the same as (1) but the lower body is allowed to sway a little.

mvmac That's a really long and complicated post. The reason why I hate the driver and don't like hitting it, is because I can make progress (learn quickly) with the 3-wood, but can't with the driver. Just using the 3-wood more frequently in no time I begin to hit it 200 yds. The driver is like a that sailboat so many have joked about. A hole in the ground, where an infinite amount of time can be spent with no progress. I'll hook it, pull it left, then slice it and all way much shorter than the 3-wood. BTW. I am still digesting your post.

To me golf instruction can be very frustrating. It's like packing too much in your luggage. Say the lid does not close; its bulging out on the left side. Its easy to fix. So you go over and push it in. But now clothing is hanging out on the right side. You go back and forth never making any real progress. However, I like this (your) way of learning. For me I like video lessons, because I am not an auditory learner. I can learn by hearing the instructors words, but its better if I can listen to it several times before the full intent sinks in. Also seeing visual demonstrations of some drill, or concept, work very well with me. Then as you say go back and work on that drill until the problem is corrected.

I like the 5 "S", but this last one I thought meant defining success criteria.

About 2 1/2 years ago I did not like my golf swing. Besides lacking distance, I was coming over the top, there were to many chunked shots, shanks, bad slices, and I could not hit a draw, or make the ball curve left. I destroyed my old swing and created a new one. But for a long time, during the transition I was a lousy hitter. My swing was very uncomfortable. Now I can actually draw the ball. Ball flight actually seems to behave exactly as the professional describe.

I feel that my ball striking is better than ever. But has this lowered my score, no!!! There are several issues here. First (1) every now and then (1 in 20 hits), my ball will squirt right. (2) I will start to chunk the ball toward the end of a round like I am getting tired. This appears to be caused by drifting slightly toward the ball during the downswing. (3) my putting is inconsistent. But in terms of target line, I can be dead on target on many hits. I love it when the ball follows my target line and flies high in the sky. I do tend to hit it too high at times.

Also it is best to fix the coming over the top issue. I don't think you will ever be able to whip the club without fixing this.

Let me see if I understand. Because the ball at impact gets severely deformed both spots will appear on the club (say if I desire 1 degree inside out path), unless the spots are spaced further apart and I hit it 10 degrees inside out?

Wow! You hit it hard! When I warm up and start getting club head speed over 75mph, that's when the ball starts to fly over 200 yards. I never get over 80mph. I can't imagine getting over 100mph. My goal is a more realistic 80mph. Strength has nothing to do with it. Tiger Woods when he was a scrawny kid and new to the tour could hit it further, than just a few years later after going to the gym and becoming all buff. In the circus imagine a lion tamer using a bull whip. The tamer can only move his hands at most 25 mph. Yet the whip cracks and we are told by physicists this means part of the whip broke the sound barrier. How can a man who is only capable of moving his hands 25mph can get a whip to break the sound barrier? This phenomena is described in physics, but I have never seen a name or label put on it. So I will put a name on it, and call it compression of angular momentum. In simple terms, you are taking all of the angular momentum (stored in your body during the backswing) and chasing (or compressing) it into the very end of the club. You do this by decelerating. That's right, on the downswing, you've got to decelerate into impact.

Yeah there is only 1 way to not grow old and that is dying young as in auto accident, robbed and killed at an ATM, etc. This is a great idea. I am going to augment a bit. I will try it at the range tomorrow with a blue spot and a red spot. Will position the blue spot on the inside and the red on the outside, that way I can tell not only how centered the impact, but also whether I am hitting more on the inside-out or outside-in.

Maybe you are doing something in your swing. Make a video of your swing and have someone look at it. If your swing looks fine, then maybe you are developing tendinitis?

I've been gone for awhile and saw this thread. I began playing a certain way, which has greatly improved angular accuracy. (1) I would allow myself only one putt on the green (once I got on). (2) I would leave the flagstick in (not in a tournament and I am no pro). (3) The object was to hit the flagstick, or have the putt go about 5 feet past the hole (but not more than 5 feet). At first this had little effect, but after awhile I began hitting the flagstick. The ball would typically not drop but the flagstick acted like a break, leaving a very short putt back (but per my conditions would not make another putt). After awhile I could regularlly hit the flagstick. I think pro's would be even more clever and would take advantage of this to an extreme. I still suck at pace.

I invented this name -and by the sound of it- it is not good. But I think I can learn something from it. I have shanked a lot of balls. When I do, contact does not feel good, the club vibrates a certain way and the ball flies 45 degrees (or more) to the right of the target. It typically does this without a curved flight. Impact tape has shown that I come close to shanking every shot! However, because I tend to slice this problem might be getting covered up—the ball must be rolling away from the hosel, toward the toe, thus picking up a lot of spin that leads to a slice—and one’s attention is drawn away from fixing a poorly centered strike to fixing a slice. As a ubiquitous slicer, I know that when I hit the ball (in the bad slicing way) it either goes left of my target without a curve (just straight left), or it goes straight for the target and then hangs a right turn once gravity starts to pull the ball down. Both of these 2 hits have the same outside-in path. The only difference between these 2 flights is the clubface. The straight left path occurs because the clubface was lined up with the club path. The slicing case, the clubface was pointed towards the target, and right of the club path so the ball went right. However, recently something odd has been happening. Sometime the ball goes right, like a shank, except contact still feels good and there is no odd vibration. These have been occurring more as I try to get more weight forward, inside-out club path (to draw), and getting the clubface over. In other words I was working at getting the draw to work. Then it occurred to me. On a slice the ball rolls away from the hosel but on a hook the ball rolls toward the hosel. What if it did not hit the hosel at impact, but came really close and then began to roll toward the hosel and then bounced off it like a shank? Maybe this would explain the lack of vibration? Wouldn’t this be a hookshank? But it goes right not left, so I will call it the Crookshank. So today I put a second ball down (on the driving range matt), so that I had 2 balls in front of me with a 1-inch gap. My drill was to hit the nearer ball and not touch the second ball. With this in place I began to work on hitting that draw and to my amazement had enormous success. With the 8, 7, and 6 iron I could draw the shot. Had trouble with the 4 and 3 hybrids. Once I struck both balls, so I still am crookshanking on occasion. In conclusion, I have a ball striking weakness—poor control of impact centeredness. So I want to drill impact control. I want to be able to hit the ball on the center, or on the toe, or near the hosel, all on command. Maybe that should be one of my 2016 goals.

That was not on my list or the intent of the rule change I had in mind. But now that you mentioned it, and after thinking about it, I must alter my position to be.. ANY deflection or stopping of a ball in motion by an outside moving agency that is artificial or man made, the shot will be nullified (both the stroke and position) and the ball returned to its position prior to the shot. So if you are making an approach shot to the green-and after hitting- a golf cart darts out. Then your ball hits the roof, takes a big bounce and lands into the bottom of the cup, the shot does not count and must be redone.

Yes, Langer holds the putter more vertical and away from his chest. However, this anchoring rule has me wondering... Once I teed off and my ball landed just past a bunker, just inches past. If I were a lefty this would not have been a problem. But being right-handed, I had to stand in the bunker to do a chip, pitch, etc. I was standing about 18 inches lower than the ball because of this and the top of the club was very close to my sternum. Now if I was DeChambeau and had those long clubs, it would be impossible to keep them from sticking into the chest or hitting the ball with the heel of the club. I wonder what he does in these circumstances?

I think I understand. Maybe I don't, but here is my best shot. The first statement is correct, it usually fails them under pressure (the second statement is incorrect). It also should or ought to result is some loss of power. Jordan then compensates for both of these in 2 ways: (1) Slow play. Lots of practice swings, backing off, etc. Why? Because he knows he can't trust his swing. (2) To compensate for power, one would have to get more weight forward. A lot more. He is the only player that rolls up on his left foot after impact.

I think it was Mike boatright who in a different thread (Should the act of "dropping" be eliminated in favor of always placing?) stated ... "Dropping the ball is almost always for relief in pga tournaments ... Hitting a great tee shot down the middle and find it lands in a divot full of sand is bad luck but is also been up for discussion for a free drop because hitting a fairway shouldn't penalize you..." I would also ask why is it that one gets free relief from a gopher hole or cart path? I would specifically ask that the rule be changed to say.. if the ball is deflected out of bounds or into a water hazard, a free drop should be permitted, if and only if the outside moving agency was man-made. My reason would be, 1) it fits with the golf philosophy that golf is a game of nature and no or less relief should be granted for natural agencies/obstructions; 2) man-made or artificial agencies/obstruction are more readily subject to human influence (i.e. cheating). Example, say I trained a bird to fly out and deflect a ball solely to help a golfer win a tournament? It could happen, but not likely. It would take a lot of training and the bird would have to fly out right on cue. Too many variables, impossible I would say. However, say a quadcopter(drone) with a camera covering a golfing event was hovering behind a tree and not immediately visible. Then a pro hits his shot for the green and at the last moment the quadcopter flies out and deflects the ball into a lateral water hazard. The golfer ends up loses the match by a stroke. Worse yet later the golfer gets a bill for the damage to quadcopter. But he also discovers disturbing evidence that the operator of the quadcopter was friends with his opponent. He can't prove intent, but I would argue, why don't we take temptation off the table.

There is one rule I would like to change. Say your ball landed on the fairway and are about 90 yards from the green (par 4 hole). Your second shot is perfect. Your ball is going straight for the green. Suddenly you see this shiny thing fly across the fairway. Your ball hits this and is deflected out of bounds. The shiny thing turns out to be an iron, flung from #17 tee because that player had a fit and tossed his club. According to rule 19-1 Ball in motion deflected or Stopped. If a player's ball in motion is accidently deflected or stopped by any outside, it is the rub of the green, there is no penalty and the ball must be played as it lies, except ... Now the 2 exceptions pertain to the ball landing on the moving agency and don't apply to the above situation. Also the bit about there being no penalty is not true. Not only did you lose position and stroke, but also a stroke penalty for going out of bounds. Yet you did nothing wrong.