plugged

Carl, since you and have the same handicap, we should make it a bet. Whoever breaks 40 first this summer buys the other a sleeve of balls of their choice.

I lived in Texas for a long time, played just about every city and several of its best courses. Texas has many nice courses, some very nice courses, but IMO no great courses. Even the PGA tour stops (Texas Open, Houston Open) are only very nice, not great. I will say, however, I never played Colonial, so this might be an exception.

Same here. The best nine I have shot is a 42, but I think I can break that this summer.

Some folks like the rust - it supposedly adds some grip to the face.

My very favorite golfer is Corey Pavin. He is not a powerhouse - he has won a major - but I like him rather because of his approach to the game and life. He is mature, confident, but very humble.

I went out aain yesterday afternoon and hit some more balls, this time focusing on a good hip pivot and very little lateral movement. This has been an issue for me for the past few weeks as I am adapting to a new swing. I noticed immediately that at 175 yds, my shots were about 10 yds off-center, not 25 yds. I am pretty happy with this right now, especially since I am doing this fairly consistently. Obviously, I will try to get this even lower, but for right now, this is a huge improvement.

I am also a fan of the Hogan method. It does provide for more consistency IMO. When I first adopted it, I used to lock my leading elbow in way too much and would notice some discomfort later. Now, I still keep the elbow pointed at my hip, but I am not completely locked. It allows for a little more flexibility.

I drew arrows on mine to remind me which end to swing with.

Thanks, guys. This confirms what I was thinking. And yes, this is my natural swing right now. As of three weeks ago, I was hitting a very slight dafe of no more than a few yards. I don't know what I am doing wrong now. I'll play around with my swing to try and find out.

At 175 yds with my 5I, I am about 25 yds off-center. Pretty consistent throughout my clubs (so, 7I I am off about 15 yds, etc.). Is this too much? It seems like it is. For the low-handicappers - what do you consider an acceptable fade/draw at the same distance?

I have never really paid much attention to what ball I am using, primarily because until about a year ago, it didn't make much difference. Recently, though, I have been trying to think about how the different golf balls I use feel and perform. Yesterday, I tried five brand new balls on the practice green - Topflight XL 2000, Pinnacle Gold, Srixon AD333, Callaway HXi, and Titleist ProV1. I was trying to see how each felt putting. (BTW, I am using an Odyssey White Hot Rossi). Surprisingly, this how the balls felt on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being very soft and effortless and 1 feeling like I was striking a rock: Topflight XL 2000 - 4 Pinnacle Gold - 3 Srixon AD333 - 2 Callaway HXi - 3 Titleist ProV1 - 4 Given the results above, my question is: are the premium balls supposed to feel that much different than a low-end ball on the green, or is all the "premium" part in the spin and distance? I know off the tee, in the fairway, and especially in the rough, the ball is as important as the club, but how important is the ball in the putt?

I have always had a very discernable amount of of knee bend at address. Recently, I took a video lesson and realized it was way too much (it was pretty obvious to both the instructor and me), so I have compensated by intentionally emphasizing bend at the hip and only a little bend at the knee. I say "little" because it feels that way to me, but it is probably more than I think. However, when I do this, I feel unbalanced and weight-forward and on the follow-through I often end up falling slightly forward, my shots are straight and long, but the contact feels fat. It does not feel comfortable, and more importantly, repeatable. Anyway, I'm watching the Colonial tourney yesterday and focusing specifically on knee bend in the pro's address. I noticed that Paul Casey and to a lesser degree AK have a good bit of knee bend at address and David Toms has almost none. What is a good rule of thumb on knee bend, IOW, how do I know when I have too much (other than a visual check)?

I agree. I think I will make both my GIR and FIR goal to be 50%. My chipping is pretty good and half the time I can get up and down. My putting, OTOH, is just OK.

I am a 16 handicap and right now, my driving accuracy and GIR are both around 35%. I know the pros are somewhere in the range of 60% for these categories. As I work on my game, what should I be setting for my goals? I don't want to sacrifice too much accuracy for distance and I want to be realistic, i.e., not shoot for 90% GIR 'cause I know that's not going to happen.

I can't count that high. Seriously though, I see this a lot on muni courses. Either people don't know or don't care about golf etiquette (I suspect the latter). The one time I hit into another group is when I reached the green on a 260-yd approach shot on a par 5 with my 5 wood. That is unusually long for me. The ball wasn't airborne, but did roll right up to this lady that was putting and her husband went ballistic. I felt bad and tried to apologize to no avail. Since then I wait until the group in front is clear by at least 30-50 yds of my longest shot with that particular club before I hit.

I never believed in capital punishment for rude golfers until this past weekend. I was playing by myself and got paired with another single. Turns out we were both 17 handicaps, so very similar pace and quality of play. We got along great and were having a lot of fun playing....until we got to the back nine. The foursome in front of us let us play through and we soon realized why. The group in front of us were literally the rudest golfers I have ever encountered. I'm talking intentionally being as painfully difficult as possible. Here are a few examples: - Two of the foursome werwe walking, so instead of each walking to their own balls, they would both walk to one of their balls, let the guy literally take ten practice swings, shank the ball or hit a duff shot twenty yards, and then they would go to the other guy's ball and do the same thing. This continued throughout the entire back nine. - Each hitting between 2-4 balls off the tee. - One of these guys felt compelled to give the other guy lessons on the tee box after they hit. After they all hit. IOW, when they should be moving towards their tee shots (as badly hit as they were), they instead lingered behind for a good 2-3 minutes to talk golf swings - These jerks actually got worse as they round progressed. They were going so slow that an elderly foursome (two couples, both sets I estimate to be in their 70's) that were right in front of them at the turn actually finished their round while these guys were still on the 16th hole. Starting on the 15th green, after they putted out and replaced the flagstick and put their putter back in the bag, they would stand on the green for several minutes looking back at the fairway and counting their shots. By this time, we had three groups stacked up on the tee box. These guys knew exactly what they were doing. In the meantime, I and a player from the group behind us were calling the clubhouse. We got some pimple-faced kid on the phone who informed us that he was the only one there and couldn't do anything to help us. Finally, when we were on the 18th fairway waiting to hit our approach shots, they pulled the samw BS - hanging aorund on the green. Apparently, a manager had showed up and could see wha( was goimg on through the back window because all of the sudden this lady comes on the loudspeaker and tells them to "exit the green immediately.". They glared at my new playing partner and me and walked away. The kicker to all this was that during the entire back nine, neither of us did anything that would even remotely justify ANY response for them, much less the behavior they displayed. We never said a word to them, never hit a ball until they were well clear of the fairway or green, absolutely nothing. The only thing I can guess is that they were having a typical bad golf experience and decided to take it out on everyone else. The whole episode was unbelievable. The only good that came out of it was I met a fellow golfer that I think will make a great future playing partner.

Driver - 28% No 3 wood, so 5 Wood from 220 - 15% 3 iron from 195 - 15% 4 iron from 185 - 20% 5 iron from 175 - 25% 6 iron from 165 - 25% 7 iron from 155 - 30% 8 iron from 145 - 40% 9 iron from 135 - 45% PW from 120 - 50% SW from 90 - 65% LW from 50 - 75% I am typically running 30% GIR right now.

C'mon Phil, don't crater on us.

I'm not a "fan" of John Daly, but I do have sympathy for him, even if most of his troubles are self-inflicted. I hope he does well and finishes out his career with a couple more wins.

Understood. My apologies. I thought you bought fake clubs on purpose.

You'll forgive me for asking why anyone would contribute to product piracy sponsored by organized crime just so they can try to impress people with lookalike clubs. Just wondering. BTW, those junk clubs may look like X-22's, but they almost certainly do not perform like them.

The immutable laws of physics lie in your favor.

Golf and tennis are the only women's sports I enjoy watching, golf especially.

I have a Leica CRF 1200. It is pricey, but I almost always get a reading. Can't say that for my Bushnell.