Marinemike

You're all nerds. Don't you know you're supposed to ride no-handed and bearhug your bag the whole way. The veterans can carry a staff bag in such a manner. seriously though, 2 miles?...Bike to the course and ride the cart back to your house to get your clubs.

Did you know you were in the running for #1 after the 14th or did you not have a leaderboard available? Just wondering if that mind factor had anything to do with the drop. Good job on 3rd.

Agreed. I lived in a dumpy little town in Erie County for 14 years. I would never do something like this where lake effect snow is a fact of life. Now in FL-GA...If I was going to stay in one place for a long time(and it wasn't already on a golf course) I might get myself a reel mower and make my property a practice facility.

105 to 90. On different courses, but they were essentially the same rating/slope (69.3/123 & 69.5/123). It just happened this week. Ballstriking wasn't much different, but putting and penalty stokes were VASTLY different.

True. But at least you know you're a hacker. I had a friend take a 7 iron off the tee on a 600 yard hole. That was a bad day.

After shooting a horrendous 105 on Monday in a round that I should have taken a rain check on.... Shot a 90. This is a tie for my personal best. I dropped 7 1-putts and had 2 3-putts for a pretty good (really good for me) 31 putts. I also had 2 birdies. Both 3-putts were inexcusable missed tap-ins. My handicap is teetering on 20. Hopefully it will crack 20 after 1 or two more rounds.

I don't doubt that you're a good and intelligent person, but you're sounding mighty strange, and even this tiny bit of drama is too much for this message board. Isn't it weird how an old soldier is giving advice about how every single person on the planet looks upon any MPs to well...every single person on the planet? Your generalizations are wrong, and now you sound like a 9 year old saying "I know you are but what am I" over and over.

I'm with you. Use the stick that gets the job done. I hit fairway about 2/3 and rarely am in the trees (this has not always been true, I assure you). I leave my 3w in the truck because it's a waste of space in the bag. If I took a 6i off the tee on a 400 yard hole it would take me a week to get to the hole. If there's trouble at 230 to 260 I'll use my 5W. YMMV.

Short wait...stand on the tee box and take some practice swings. Long wait...find a nearby bench and slouch and daydream with my hat half off my head.

I just got this little guy in my inbox...as if the golf balls weren't already madly cheap...but you don't have much time.

You're way off. A lot has changed in the past 10 years. Sure, people don't like the MPs because they jack you up when you do irresponsible things, but freaking good. They don't need to be doing dirt anyway. However, everybody is grateful to the MPs when they are focused outboard on force protection and external threats which allows everyone else to focus inboard on training and equipping. So basically, you're out of your lane. Sorry.

SOO...I thought I was going to get my new (to me) irons, and would just hit a hundred golf balls into the trees on the edge of the range. I was planning on using them more as a training aid at the range to clean up my ball striking and gaming my cavity backs. Not anymore though...I spent a few hours on the range and things were going really well so I roughly dialed in distances (good Nike range balls so I trust the distances), and I'm going to use them in my round tomorrow. I can hit these just as well as or better than my no-name CBs. Let's see if I can keep it up. I'm pretty sure it's because I am concentrating more and it doesn't hurt that they fit my body a lot better (+1/2" & 1* weak). A few observations: 1) The biggest penalty for most mishits was distance lost. That's the same as the CBs. 2) I can actually get a predictable shape. With the CBs, I would get some manner of fade no matter how I set up (which is predictable, but not ideal some of the times). So this puts the blades vs cavity backs thing in perspective for me. Sure, the musclebacks aren't going to hide your faults, but they aren't monsters that rip apart and swallow up mid-cappers for lunch.

Do you pick out a target on the fairway? If you don't, that could be a reason. The whole fairway can't be your target. If you don't have something to aim at you a) won't be focused and b) won't ever hit a straight shot. Picking out a target and just focusing on lining up my body and club to hit the shot I wanted kept me focused enough on the right things to hit a very large percentage of fairways even if I didn't get to my target. YMMV.

I'm refering to this and the ensuing conversation.

I've never had this problem with my gigantor Spider. If you're not satisfied, take it somewhere. They're supposed to be good at customer service.

The slope is NOT what a bogey golfer would shoot on that particular course. A bogey golfer would typically shoot +18 on a course with a 113 slope. There is much math involved, but it's called slope because it refers to the slope of a graphed line connecting the par golfer's score and the bogey golfer's score. A harder course has a greater slope because it gets more difficult faster for a bogey golfer than it does for a par golfer. That misundertanding is why my sidebar thingy under my screen name is a joke. Apparently it's lost on most people though. And yes, 4 years majoring in physics has left me with a much greater understanding of math and numbers than I would ever care to admit. I'm sure a lot of financial management guys here can sympathize.

Yeah, I misread your post. Join the Marine Corps instead. It's harder, but it is much more rewarding.

People who go get fitted should at least be able to get the "good fitting" treatment. I went in a pretty big name golf shop here and got the "poor fitting" treatment. Even a newb should at least get the courtesy of a swingspeed check (especially if they have a monitor). I'm never going back to that shop.

I've been in the Marine Corps for 9 years; since before 9/11. It's a great living. The first thing I have to ask you is: Do you want to be a Marine? It will promise to be the hardest thing in your entire life for the first year and will never fully be easy. Do a lot of research and be diligent. Now my two cents: Don't let the recruiter shove anything down your throat. I guarantee she's good at her job, and can probably sell a plate of BBQ ribs to a woman with white gloves on. Score high on the asvab. Scoring high won't give you an occupational specialty that you want, but it will make more occupations available. Look at the list of MOS's and choose one that you want. Tell her that you want that MOS or a program with that MOS in it. If she or her NCOIC can't give it to you, then hold out for it. I guarantee they'll find a spot for you in that MOS. It's not a scam, it's just how the system works.

77! After not swinging a club for 9 days (except for back yard practice). It was on a par 60 executive course though so it was only +17. It brought my cap down a tiny bit, but not by much because with a slope of 93 the differential was still 21.26 Still though, only 2 doubles ain't bad for me. We'll see if I can stick a better than bogey round on a 113+ course in the next week or two.

Coming from Georgia/Florida bermuda is a way of life. It grows thick, and has a broad blade. I see you have Cleveland wedges so a little anecdote... I have a SW that is a monster and it'll felt like a car crash every time I used it in the sand so I got my CG12 which has a much thinner sole. It slices through sand like butter, but guess what...running it through bermuda is like trying to throw a baseball underwater. I got used to it though...in may back yard. You have two options. 1) Get a wedge with a wider sole. It'll clear the bermuda with hardly any effort. 2) Make your swing thoughts all about acceleration and a rugged front wrist . This will let your thin wedge hawg its way through the grass and get the ball. Spin...without some awesome grooves you're gonna have to play a pitch and run because that thick grass won't let the grooves do their work.

I'm amazed that all of us aren't wearing cart seatbelts and golf helmets. Do you get a golf helmet that matches your gear, or just the one that suits you best? I still have a beer helmet. Perhaps I'll put a Taylormade sticker on it & wear that.

Yeah, I'm the guy that sticks his approach shot pretty cozy next to the green, but not quite on most of the time. My bogeys come from chip/pitch then two putts (my most common scheme) which is straight short game junk. I'm working on nailing that down now. My doubles come from jacking tee shots or from three putts. This change may put me further from the green for awhile, but it'll still be chip/pitch, putt, putt for bogey. I'm poised for consistent mid-80s. Perhaps now I'll have the clubs to get past that point.

Reminds me of one of the first peeves I ever had about golf. I can't stand warming up on a practice green that is well maintained and true because it's right at the club house and then the greens on the course are completely opposite. I wish it was perceived, but it's too true that they are different at most of the courses I play.

But if you hit it past the hole your friends don't make fun of you quite as much.