dayll

I doubt this'll make sense but if I takeaway my driver low/long/straight back, I pop it up but if I just tell myself to sweep the ball off the tee I'm okay (usually). My irons are fine with the conventional low/long takeaway. I have to tee my driver low. I don't want two different swings. My driver swing with irons is a disaster. I spent a lg bucket yesterday trying to get the driver to go with low & long takeaways but all I got were pop-up pulls and pushes. Any ideas? dayll

"dayll" is, and has been for as long as I can remember, my alter ego. It's me with confidence, courage, talent, and intelligence. He doesn't exist except in my head. - signed: me (meek, scared, talentless, and dumb)

I'm so glad this thread exists. I play five days a week and practice my short game on weekends and for months my short game has been right on. Then earlier this week it just goes away! Yesterday I was terrified of any shot around the green! I'm blading simple chips, hitting little lobs super fat, and putting like my hands, arms, and shoulders are made of pig iron! I get panicky real easy and think I'm the only person out there that is having a hard time with this hard game so it helps me immensely to see in print that I am not alone in this misadventure. thanks - dayll.

I play golf and tennis with a guy who denies himself water. He is in incredible shape and will only drink water (never a beer - god forbid!) at the end of the round or match. He believes that in the near future potable water will be in very short supply and he is training his body to live with the minimum amount. What bugs me is we often walk 18 in ninety degree plus heat or play three sets of tennis at noon and I'll be hydrating every chance I get and I'll be soaked in sweat and he'll be dry as a bone. I hate this guy! -dayll

Zombie- You showed great restraint - I would've gotten in his face. (I'm much braver now that I'm old.) I'm a Tonawanda guy, long removed from Brighton & Eggert - go Bills! -Dayll

huh? dayll

MGP: Thank you for the input. I'll defer to your opinion of the TF Feel ball and play another round with them tomorrow. My favorite short game shots are high lobs or semi-lobs all the way to the pin that just plop down like spent fish. Specifically, that was where the Top Flite Feel ball (for me) just did not match up to the ProV1. thanks again - dayll

I usually play Pro V1 or TM Tour Black but after reading the Top Flite hype I caved and popped for 15 Top Flite "feel" balls. Distance off the driver and other clubs was fine but on little "flip" sandwedges and lower "hop 'n stop" shots the ball was a big let down. I did like putting with them however but I was not impressed with their spin performance around the greens. I prefer the Taylor Made Tour Black over the Pro V1 but hate the way they scuff-up so quickly. Dayll (Always doing my best to prove P.T. Barum's dictum.)

#17 is a long par 3 over water which I have played over twenty times. The last few times I've played that hole I've hit the green or came very close each time. Yesterday while I'm driving to the course, for some inexplicable reason, I suddenly picture myself chunking a ball off the tee into the water. WTF! When I get to 17 tee I'm one up in a friendly but very competitive match and you know what happens! Topped shot into the water. Livid, I re-tee and lay one out there fifteen feet from the pin. Golf is strange - yes - but my brain is even stranger. dayll

If someone has a fence in their yard then of course by all means stay out but a gate and a sign saying "Your welcome to retrieve you ball but please be respectful of my property" would suffice keep 99% of us just that - respectful. Probably I'm giving golfers too much credit regarding behavior. Also, it no doubt has a lot to do with where a golf course is located too. dayll

I have been playing for almost a year now with Thomas Golf's hybrid iron-woods. I was converted when I hit my friend's just to see what it felt like. I carry a Cleveland 56° SW but that's it. For whatever reason I hit the Thomas' straighter than my conventional Cobra irons. Distance control, at least for me, is sacrificed somewhat - but my game has improved considerably since I made the switch. Incidentally, I back-up the ball almost as much with my 55° Thomas saucer-sized wedge as I do with my CG 10. Also, the mega-sized Thomas' make super-long and low "chip 'n run" shots very easy. e.g. the "21" (46°) punch n runs just over 100 yds.) My only criticism is that with fourteen clubs in my bag, all of them with head covers, it's a crowded mess! TM425 R7, Cobra 3w, 4 Nike Hybrids, Thomas hybrids 15,17,19,21,23,25, CG 10 SW, Ping Cra-z putter. dayll

I have been hit three times, twice serious enough to injure me, and it never occurred to me to sue the persons who hit the balls. Myself, I deplore the litigiousness of our society and its greedy marrow-sucking lawyers. Also, kinda related - I never understood those people that live on a golf course and then put loud and vicious dogs in their yard. It's a golf course! balls will be as common in your yard as birds! I was playing Mission Lakes one blazing afternoon and hooked a drive into a backyard. When I went over to see if my ball was retrievable a guy came out from his patio holding my ball and a cold beer! Sorry - kinda hijacked the thread a little -dayll

Last year I yanked a par 3 shot OB and the ball hit a parked mini-van breaking a rear side window. I left my number on the windshield and later paid to have the window replaced. ($160) While I realize what I did was the correct thing to do do you think that had it gone to small claims I could have saved myself that $160. dayll

I have a persistent superstition that does not make any sense but it bothers me to no end. Like most of you I have a closet full of very nice golf shirts and related apparel but I almost always wear older, almost threadbare shirts and shorts because I score better! huh? If I wear my classy stuff I play poorly but if I dress like a ragamuffin I, for some reason, feel like I can shoot lights out. It's not fair - I spent all my life hiding the fact that I was nutty as a Christmas fruit cake and along comes golf and exposes me! dayll

Peltz and his pals can take that 17 inches and do you know what with it! My wife (who is a "jam 'em in" type) says I'll probably die at the breakfast table IN FRONT of my coffee cup. Whatever - I'm the cautious, don't like taking chances, type. dayll

I have a friend who for some rather severe physical reasons has a very abbreviated swing. He has a very good short game but cannot get 200 off the tee using his driver (Bangster hooked to a lady's flex shaft.) He said he would like to try some super-whippy shaft. I have a Ping G5 10.5 driver I don't use and told him he could use that if he wanted. Any ideas for a suitable shaft? He won't go get fitted - too humiliating he says. thanks, dayll

Good work on your part. I am so tired of human pigs! thanks, dayll

My problem (one among many) is I am concerned about those behind us. I'm the idiot to be sure because so many others could care less about others. Now I'm no golfing Mater Teresa or anything but if I notice our group is holding another up I'll urge the guys to shift gears. The only problem with being concerned with others having a good time is it is not always a reciprocal thing. It has been said that golf tests you more as a person than as an athlete - frankly I am more impressed by politeness than I am by a monster drive or any other shot for that matter. Rudeness is the general way of the world - how nice it would be if we could at least get beyond that when we play our impossible game. dayll

Heat-'o-philes - try this - you'll love it. Furnace Creek in July (Death Valley). We teed off at 11 AM. Nice guy working there - closing up as we were teeing off. Do you have any idea how incredible iced cans of beer taste after 27 holes in 122° heat? dayll

Excelsior HS, Norwalk, CA Class of '59 (Very few of us left - many died from complications from the beatings the teachers used to administer back then.) dayll

This happens to me all the time - I'm at an intersection and am waiting for traffic to clear to make a left turn. I have my left turn signal on of course. An oncoming car comes at me from the other direction with no turn signal on. I wait for them to go by - then the idiot makes a left or a right! Is it laziness, rudeness, stupidity, or what? Can a person be so lazy as to not want to reach over a matter of inches and hit his or her turn signal lever? AHHHHHHHG! thanks - dayll

I am Mr. Over-the-top himself! and like you I hold the clubhead back from the ball with irons and hybrids and above and back and as much as six inches with my driver. So doing seems to ward off my incessant over-the-top pulling of the ball. I have quit golf in the past over my inability to stop pulling shots. Lessons from several highly recommended pros, hours and hours of reading and practice, never helped. (for long) But that "hover and lag" thing is allowing me to play again and even hit some pretty decent and powerful shots now and again but most importantly - a minimum of pulled shots! The other thing that has helped is to tell myself to turn my left shoulder "under" not "around" as I take the club back. dayll

A few weeks ago my golfing pal topped a shot on a 210 yd. par three. I was standing next to him as he stood over his next shot. "How the hell should I know how far I'm to the flag from here?" he asked out loud, but kinda to himself. I told him, "Wait, I just got this high dollar yardage scope; let me get the yardage." I put my two fists together and acted like I was scoping the flag for him. "Exactly 116 to the flag," I told him authoritatively. He nodded, pulled out some club or other and hit the freaking ball to within ten feet! Later he searched though my bag looking for my "range finder." Like it has been said, "Golf is 90% mental - and the other 10% is in your head."

My Bison's cap goes off to that guy! Your experience redeems my faith in our fellow golfers. It seems that lately all we witness is rudeness and callousness on the course. There's hope for us after all! I'm going to do something similar at the first opportunity - that guy inspired me. dayll

I wish my interest in golf would back off a little. It has taken over my life - and I'm an old hack golfer! I haven't read a book or magazine that wasn't golf related for a year! I don't want to get a new car because I want to be able to spend four or five bills a month if I want on golf stuff not car payments. The pro at where I play a lot told me he would give one-on-one lessons one/third off because he liked my enthusiasm so much - I told him I'd write him a check for $1000 if he could make me quit golf! "I'm a golf pro," he told me, "not a miracle worker." dayll