Marinemike

I have found that a putter is such a personal thing. It's not about price or name. Try out every putter you can get your hands on. All major golf shops have a putting green that is lined with putters. I guarantee you that as you try them out you will find one that makes you say "woah...This one is good!" It may be the $60 one or the $300 one. I've written this on here before, but that's I got my Monza Spider. For months before I got it I said "Man, that thing is ugly. Who would ever want to putt with that?" Then I just pretty much by accident picked one up at PGA Superstore, and poof, it's perfect. So go try out about 30 or 40 or 400 putters. You'll find one that fits you.

Michelle Wie shot an ace today. She's still +1 when the leader is -10. I think she needs to bake a little longer, but is going to be a force before long. For the record, I would also dance around the tee box like a young girl if I got a hole in one.

Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA- Holes 1 & 2 run parallel to the main road through the base. You wanna talk about a high density of the honkers you describe try golfing there! Young Marines are the awesomest people in the world but irreverent as hell! As far as hitting cars on the road, I had to floor it to not be hit by a tee shot on the 2nd. Yeah, I was watching the tee instead of the road, but (don't lie)so would you!

I played them, and would definitely recommend them to anybody who wanted a hop and stop ball that wasn't $4.00 per ball. I would be excited about this sale if I didn't just get a dozen mint tour ix's from usedgolfballs.com for under $11. (and nobody lecture me on the balls being too good for my handicap. They were cheap, and I can most certainly tell a difference from cheaper balls)

Good on you for getting out there. A couple of observations: 1) You'll find that when you start playing full length courses that it is JUST as easy to score a 6 on a par 5 as it is to score a 6 on a par 3 hole. I still haven't figured this phenomenon out except that it shows how important short game is. For a long time a course full of par 3s was my worst nightmare! 2) Good on you for picking up when you got double par-ish and picked up if someone was waiting. Some people may argue with me on this, but you're probably not going to learn anything by rushing and making a 9 because you know people are watching. 3) Stay with it. Get on the course as much as possible. You figured out that the range and the course aren't the same. I'm not that far ahead of you in my game, but I sure as hell wouldn't trade with you.

OK, so I'm a little late with this one. It is basically my home course because I've been playing it a lot lately. NAS Pensacola. It is 45 holes with 3 champ 9s, and an 18 hole par 60. Lot's of oaks and a decent amount of elevation change for a Florida course right on the gulf. Any 45 hole course where my round is interrupted by this every Tuesday and Wednesday and sometimes Thursdays in the summertime is high on my list. Now if I can just keep those oaks from interrupting my round.

What is that evil laughter I hear from afar? Oh yes, it is the equipment manufacturing execs peering down on us from on high and wringing their hands. By the way, is that Taylormade's newest driver in her hand? Where can I get one?

I have to hide it. I have to appear to not be so rabid about it until my wife gets on the same page. She's reading the book so to speak, but I'm 200 pages ahead of her right now. I deliberately put on a baseball game instead of the Golf Channel just so I appear to maintain some balance. I haven't been in it for too long, but if I could be involved in golf 24/7 I probably would. As I was lying in bed last night I had my hands out in front of me in my Vardon grip and I was thinking about the wrist cock.

If I keep playing my local par 60 course, I'll make a 1 eventually, probably within the next 30 rounds. I may never shoot a 59 unless I give it a serious, serious effort. How many 15 handicappers have a hole in 1? How many 15 handicappers have a round under par? 1 perfect shot versus 70ish perfectish shots. No contest.

You mean practice short game for an hour, then play 9 3 days a week. Or do you mean practice short game 3 days a week, then play 9 on one day?

Sometimes I can't even figure out which one is mine. I sometimes golf with the 22 to 25 year old scene and most of them just don't know. They are outstanding individuals with impeccable moral compasses, but THEY JUST DON'T KNOW. So when you see people ahead of you screwing the pooch on course maintenance, approach them about it instead of judging them. It's your prerogative until they tell you to screw off, then it's the ranger's prerogative once you call him. If I was a manager I would probably have a 10 or 20 minute video that every new guest would have to watch before they were allowed out. It would include instruction on divots, ball marks, and what you can't spit on my greens and bunkers. You don't watch the video, you don't play. The revenue lost from pompous asses who refuse to watch it would probably be made up on the maintainers' time clock. Perhaps a course can buy properly shaped semi-disposable divot tools cheaply in bulk and keep them available gratis.

Usually my head is too far up my butt to be able to see the club hit the ball. Seriously though, I look at the ball, and I often concentrate on making sure the sight picture doesn't change as I swing, but I'm too busy to see the contact in a Matrix-esque moment of conciousness. I'm waiting to be on my deathbed to receive that level of total conciousness.

THIS...My handicap would look like yours if I didn't have this problem.

I was under the impression that clubs were carried for the soul purpose of expeditiously losing golf balls. Since a retriever doesn't fit that description I say it's an accessory.

It's different for different green conditions really. If the pin is tight in and I need it to fly further than it rolls, it's sand wedge all the way. Pitching wedge for 50/50 usually . If they're rolling fast I'll use SW for a 50/50 shot and that's my favorite because it usually means I can read it a lot better with a slower roll. If the pin is far off, and it's double the roll or longer I'll use a 9i. It's all negotiable though based on conditions and especially on lie; that's what I'm trying to wrap my brain around right now.

This has vexed me in the past. I feel like Im missing something when I read it too fast, but if I read it and get in and get out, that's usually right. So I would say maybe 15 to 20 seconds from first look to address. What I hate, and what I need to stop doing, is I'll read it and line up then get over the ball and feel like the whole world is sloping off way harder than I thought and I adjust while over the ball. I always miss to whatever side I adjust toward so now I try to ignore the signals my body gives me when I'm over the ball.

I recommend somewhere near Atlanta. Here's why. 1) Golf courses hanging out the ass. Flat, mountainy, watery, you name it, it's there. Hilly is the most popular. They have this one conglomerate I suppose you could call it called Cannongate that for somewhere around $1500/year you can play a massive number of courses they own. Some were private until they were recently bought up by Cannongate. The $30,000/year crowd were not happy with this at those courses! 2) Hospitals and doctors hanging out the ass. You'll have a job. 3) Decent cost of living. So many suburbs in so many price ranges you will find something perfect for you. Hell, Peachtree City has more miles of golf cart trail than road. Their high schools have student golf cart parking, I kid you not. 4) They also have the sports teams, decent night life, and good looking women. 5) 3 PGA Superstores and 3 Golfsmiths. You'll never not find a club (new or used), and you'll never have to wait for a hitting booth.

HOLY CRAP!! Played one of my regular courses today from a set of tees back because I'm feeling good about myself...6400 yards/par 70 & 71.2/125. I hit an awesome 11 of 14 fairways....and shot 105. HOLY CRAP. Out with a 59 Fortunately I pulled my head out and got in with a 46 which isn't my best, but I was like a totally different golfer for the back. The start of the problem is that I had 2 GIRs (guess the longer tees made a difference, eh?), and that's where everything went to crap. Where does this stuff come from?

Found this on Golf Digest. It seems to add to the hysteria and mystery behind regular guys using blades. I think I am going to opt for small cavity backs when I upgrade early next year as long as my game continues to improve.

This is great advice for your first few rounds. Yeah, score would be hard to keep, but if you could keep it you wouldn't like it so don't worry about it. And don't worry about picking up if you're slowing people down. Also, maybe let the starter know your situation, s/he will make sure you don't go out with the group playing $10 Nassau. I had one fundamental rule when I first started and it is still important to me- Forward progress is the name of the game. That's all you're looking for.

Really cheap ones! They will literally evaporate if there is any water or deep brush anywhere. I didn't start searching for "better" golf balls until I started averaging about 1 lost per round...Which actually means I stopped finding B330s, ProV1s, and Tour i's in the woods while I was searching for my ball because I stopped losing mine. When I started I used the Maxfli Noodles which weren't bargain basement, but they were 2 dozen for $15 at Sam's Club. And actually, that's actually a ball that I would still tee up.

Yeah, there are very select few times that it can be done. If I remember right we did minutes + strokes as the final score. There may have been a factor or fraction in there somewhere, but I don't remember. A good time is about an hour for 18 holes. We called it battle golf, but we definitely still respected the grounds and rules.

93. It felt so great though. Only one hole went poorly before I got to the green. For some reason I toed a ton of chips which is very uncharacteristic. I'm on the edge of a huge breakthrough. I'll be shooting mid to low 80s consistently before August.

Yeah, 2 tournament wins and a bunch of top 10s. He's certainly not back! It's going to take a Major win to shut people up.

I agree with that. I tried doing 56 only, but it would never release once it hit the green. After burning myself with this phenomenon repeatedly I realized that I really like to keep it on the ground as much as possible and make it roll. I was having to fly my chip all the way to the hole which wasn't working for me. So I learned a basic ratio of flight to roll distance for my wedges and long irons and modify that based on slope and line. I now basically use 8, 9, P, and S (no gap wedge in my bag). Not really many 7i situations where I wouldn't just pitch. The cool thing about using different clubs is that I really only need one swing. I just switched to this and I'm already starting to see dividends in confidence. I think my scores are going to start seeing a big payoff soon.