gir

You can do it, even though those guys are pretty good. Look at those numbers they post up on hard courses, and they're regularly posting up sub 70 rounds 4 days a week! A bad round might be in the mid 70's or something. What's a bad round to the average golfer - something in the upper 90's? And that's on their home course. A pro might come in to someone's home course on a relaxed casual round, and shoot something real ridiculous. At the same time though, as much as people say these guys are so good, when you watch them on TV, it seems like they're constantly making mistakes. Look at this years Masters - the guy who wins it, puts his tee ball into the trees on 18. Tiger was constantly driving into the trees there for awhile.

Usually fields are around schools of some type. That or sometimes there's openings in the tree coverage out in the reaches of a park somewhere, but you might have to walk a little to find them. There's a field by this school within walking distance from where I live. I hit balls there all the time. Heck, most of my major swing issues and improvements have been worked out there. I can hit anything up to about a 6 iron. I even hit into this little abandoned volleyball area that has all grown in with grass that serves as my pseudo-green. The only downside is the lies aren't the best, but usually you can make due and find a suitable spot. Very peaceful actually to find a field like that to practice in.

I'm about to go hit balls, waiting for it cool some. It's 101.

Yes, fast greens. I don't mind slow greens that are kept well, but more often than not they're slow due to lack of maintenance and are poorly kept greens overall.

Great book. Classic of course. When I first started a couple years ago, I learned out of 5 lessons. I'm still learning from it today. The book answers all those little questions a new golfer might have. Just following the recommendations on getting a good grip and rotating the left hip to start the downswing got me off on the right foot. I went from hitting sporadic shots with no clue what I was doing to hitting quality shots with some regularity, at least for someone starting out. Now, my only criticism of the book would be the chapter on stance and posture. I recently struggled with my game, and am just now getting out of the funk after about a month of struggle, largely due to the setup. I feel that the chapter on setup is not exact enough. There are some general basic things, but there is a lot of room for variation. For instance, I struggled for a long time, and still do with how far to stand from the ball. I don't think Hogan mentions much on how far to stand, even though it's seemed in my experience to be a crucial part to the success of the swing overall. Also stuff like knee flex - the closest part is the reccomendation of sitting on a bar stool, about two inches below the bottom. So knee flex is mentioned in that regard. Also, the hands at address and shaft lean at address. Hogan just reccomends the ball to be placed off the left foot, but how about the hands? At the belt buckle, up near the left hip, toward the back hip? Anyway, all those little details about setup plagued me for a long time, and even though some of them are mentioned in a roundabout way, that is my only criticism of the book. Altogether though, there's no filler, and Hogan writes the book with a tone of authority and certainty that instills confidence.