golfaddiction

I always get screwed with side hill lies. I never seem to play the ball far enough to account for the hook/slice of the side hill lie. Seems like you've got that same issue, rather than an issue of whether or not to lay up As long as you are committed to a shot and believe you can hit it, go for it. If you have doubts, then switch to something you know you can hit well.

I have read from other teachers that spending 70% of your practice time on the short game is the way to go. As for the posters who say first you have to get all your shots in the fairway, ask yourself this: haven't you spend hours on the range, hitting hundreds of balls, and yet when you get to the course you still shank one or two out of bounds? I guarantee that if you spend an hour before the round on the short game, you'll see a huge improvement in your touch around the green on the course. I cannot offer the same guarantee that spending an hour hitting woods and irons on the range will lead to hitting every fairway...

Last round I was playing with a Titleist NXT Tour, and playing well through 14 holes. On the 15th hole, I took my usual swing and the hit made a pretty standard sound (perhaps a bit more hollow than usual), but the ball popped up and came down about 40 yards away. I thought this was really odd, and wasn't sure how I could have produced that ball flight with my swing speed. I continued, hitting 3 wood fairly well, then coming up about 20 yards short with my 8 iron. On the next hole, my drive was similar, this time going about 80 yards, but still sounding a bit hollowing, popping up, and coming right down. My approach shot with a wedge landed about 10 yards short of where I thought it would go. From here I concluded that my ball died. I switched to another ball on the next hole, and then took one last swing with the dead ball to send it into the woods. Am I right to have concluded my ball was dead, or was there just something weird going on with my impact? Has this happened to anyone else? A few years ago a similar thing happened with a fairly fresh Pro V1, which was surprising because of how expensive these balls are.

Was surprised to find a decent selection of shirts for 20 bucks at Filene's basement the other day. Bought one for my dad for Father's day. BTW, to the poster who said cotton shirts are just as good as moisture wicking, I wholeheartedly disagree. A few years ago I was playing in 85 degree humid weather with a cotton shirt and I literally couldn't swing the club by the 13th hole as it was drenched and sticky. Since then I only wear 90+% polyester shirts. I haven't found a lot of difference in performance between the brands, although I am partial to the look and feel of Under Armour.

For me, its about thinking carefully about the tee shot on every hole. Reachable par 5 with a fairly open fairway? Driver. Short, tight par 4? Iron. The key is understanding that hitting a shot from 70 or 80 yards is not any easier than from 100 or 130 yards (full SW/PW for me), so why not hit it accurately to where your best approach distance would be? On Sunday I used my driver 6 times total. Two of those times I shouldn't have, though I managed to save bogey after hitting one in a cross creek and one in the wrong fairway.

Ironically, pros probably have dozens of clubs but would only need 2 or 3 to beat most of us.

I have a feeling you didn't pay retail price for those Titleist hasts.

I'm going to play a par 64, 4,600 yard course on Saturday. The longest hole is about 420. I was thinking about leaving the driver home. Maybe instead I'll replace it with the 3 iron I took out a few weeks ago to make room for my new hybrid.

TW '11 is one of the first games to support the new PS3 Motion controller. The controller will be released in the fall, after the game. I can't stand the Wii, so if the price isn't prohibitively expensive I'll be picking up the new PS3 motion stuff.

I have always thought this too. A golf ball coming from 200 yards can't have any more energy than, say, a golf-ball sized piece of hail. I imagine there are a few places where a direct hit would cause serious injury, such as the front of the neck. But the chances of being hit exactly in one of these places seems almost impossible.

I went from Washington Wizards to Callaway to Under Armour. I have to like the brand/team and the style/color of the hat. My Under Armour hat is amazing; it has a built in UA-fabric head band that absorbs sweat and keeps my head cool.

Saw a sign on one course that said "Golfer is liable for any damages caused to property" or something thereabouts. It was on a hole with a busy street down the left side.

Wouldn't this depend on whether the club comes open at some point during the swing? I don't consciously roll my wrists, but I do start my swing by opening the club with my hands a bit. From here, the wrists will have to come back around at some point for me to square the clubface. If you are square throughout the swing, and are being taught the correct positions to keep square throughout the whole swing, then no, you definitely should not roll the wrists back over. The ultimate goal is to be square and on line at impact, but I believe there is more than one way to make this happen.

There is nothing wrong with rolling your wrists. Most PGA players do it. I think the issue many people on this thread had was that it can throw off timing and potentially cause serious problems. But the PGA pro has seen your swing, and everyone's swing is different. If your instructor is reputable and you think he's helping, I wouldn't hesitate to go back to him, rather than take advice from a collection of posts on an internet thread.

Looked this up online and it looks great. I'll suggest it to my buddies. Thanks.

When they make a putter that reads the line, lines up the putt, and swings itself, then you'll see the scores drop. A similar wedge for chipping would certainly drop scores.

A group of 8 of my friends and I are going down to Pinehurst in July. Any suggestions for cheaper and/or easier courses? Half of us aren't very good at golf and I would hate to pay 100+ bucks for my buddies to hack it around. I am thinking one day we would play an easier course, and another day we'd split up and the better players would play one of the courses listed in this thread. Thanks.

If you have a distance gap (e.g. you hit your PW 120 and your SW 80) then you might want to fill that in with a 52 degree. If you think you are skilled enough that a 60 degree would help you get loft and control of your chips and short pitches, go with that. Personally I use a 54 degree and a 58 degree which seems to make sense for my distances and types of shot I play around the greens.

Couldn't this be a matter of playing the ball too far forward in your stance? Middle of the stance is a good starting point.

I guess if you're really good you can keep the clubface perfectly square throughout the entire swing. I personally have found this to be difficult. For me, it's easier to rotate my wrists open a bit and return them to square. If you try to rotate the wrists at impact without first opening the club at some point, then yes, that would lead to horrific results.

I don't think I have the physical ability to be a scratch golfer, but understanding why the ball travels the way it does gives me the opportunity to improve, rather than taking random tips from various sources in hopes that eventually one tip will turn me into a super star. I am sure that most slicers come outside-in, and that must become inside-out to improve their shots. As a higher handicap, I have insight into why slicers do what we do; I've struggled with it for many years. Swinging inside-out is scary and counter-intuitive for a slicer because you're swinging in the direction you are trying to avoid. But adding a bit of wrist rotation to work the ball back to the middle - now it becomes clear as to how a straight shot is going to be achieved. And I do mean *a bit* of rotation, just enough so you get the sensation of controlling the golf ball, but nothing that will wildly throw your swing off plane.

You're never going to find a consistently great player who doesn't have good hand action. I found AJs advice to be helpful. If you're trying to keep the clubface square throughout the entire swing and through impact, as I said in my original post you're taking away your most precise muscles. Whether adding wrist rotation to your swing thoughts is a good idea is debatable, but it is a fact of physics that your wrists do need to rotate to avoid a slice.

This is an interesting thread. After reading it, I think a great compromise (in non tournament rounds) has been what many suggested: drop where you think the ball would have been, but take +2. This is equivalent to re-teeing and hitting a similar yet findable shot to the one you originally hit . The only concern I have is that casual players are at a disadvantage because we don't have spotters like pros do. It seems unfair that pros will never incur such a penalty because others down the fairway are specifically watching their ball. If I hit a good shot, see where it lands, then see someone else hitting my ball (and am 99%+ sure it was my ball), I am inclined to drop it without penalty. This is especially true if I find another ball nearby where mine landed (which presumably was the other person's ball).

I just watched A.J. Reveals the Truth About Golf (the informercial that comes on all the time on the golf channel), and the premise of the video is that golfers *need* to rotate their wrists properly if they are ever going to achieve consistency in the golf swing. Taking the hands and wrists out of the golf shot means you're taking your most precise and easily trainable muscles out of the shot. Your fingers and hands don't move in relation to the clubface throughout the shot, so learning to use your hands as an extension of the club itself demystifies the game and makes hitting the ball a lot more natural. So in general, I'd say OP's advice is sound, but different strokes for different folks.

The study I read is this one: http://www.golfballtest.org/whitepapers/scribd.php You have to register/log in to read it, but it takes a second to register. I wouldn't be surprised if the study was sponsored by the recycled ball companies, but the findings are pretty conclusive IMO.