CyboNinja

The most embarrassing thing I do on the course is pretend I actually know how to play golf. Once, while playing a course for the first time, alone, I holed out on the wrong green. A quick glance at the course map (or even the sign next to the ball wash) and I would have known it was a 90°to the right par 4 (like a 200x150). Instead I saw a green about 400 out and just went right for it. After I holed out and picked up my ball I'm heading for my cart thinking "where's the cart path?", then I look up and see I'm on a par 5... at this point I'm confused as all heck and then it hits me... "DUH!" Too bad I only had myself to laugh at myself as I was playing alone and the course was dead cause I teed off at like 630am. The starter and I had a laugh about it on the turn though. I didn't feel so bad once he told me how many others have made that same mistake on that hole.

Ya that's crazy! I would probably get myself arrested if someone were to do that to me. I doubt I would be able to exhibit the same amount of restraint you did.

Depends in pin location. If the pin is near the front then a 58 wedge so I can land on the green and stop. If it is near the back I'll pitch it up with an 8i or 9i.

I don't take my gun out of the house so I wouldn't have it with me. But even if I did for some reason have it with me I wouldn't draw it on him. I wouldn't try to detain him. My goal is to get my clubs back. Once I got my stuff back I'd just chase dude off. Well that dude at least (the thief's) cause I'm like twice his size. Then I'd go play golf cause I got my favorite clubs back. Maybe when I'm an old man I'll react differently although I doubt it. The way I feel is just give me my stuff back and stay away from me forever or I'll take it back and hurt you. If I need to use a weapon then that's on the thief. I'm gonna get my stuff. If the thief has a deadly weapon then I'd just call the cops and follow him until they arrive. It's not my duty or job to see that he gets punished. I just want my stuff back and I'll let that person's poor choices catch up to him down the road. Call the police, file the report and move on with your life and be glad you recovered your clubs in that kind of situation. Maybe that's not necessarily the right way to react or feel about it, it's just how I would deal with something like that if it happened to me. The guy in the video however was a LEO, albeit a firemarshall. So in his case he felt it was his duty (and it kind of is) to see to it that the thief was detained and answered for his crime. He definitely got way carried away though and that's messed up. You can't kick and threaten someone who is compliant.

Depends on the hole for me. A 1/2-3/4 driver for me is 200-220. So if its 250 to a hazard I may opt for such a swing. If there is no hazard but the fairway is simply narrow I'll just take a full swing with my driver and opt for a closer second shot likely out of the rough. If its a narrow fairway and a hazard I'll opt for an 4i or a 5i generally.

Congrats! Its exhilarating the first few times you do it. Then it gets frustrating when you can't just do it all the time. But hey at least you know you got it in you!

That is not true. If a 4' tall golfer and a 7' tall golf each swing their club at 100mph then both will hit it approximately the same distance. Having longer limbs simply makes a higher clubspeed more achievable. That's it. And for why PGA golfers are a meager 2" above average I feel the reason for that is simply because short people typically don't play sports. I played a lot of sports growing up. And nearly every player on every team I was on was above average height. Some were very tall and some closer to average but only a handful out of hundreds of teammates, accross several sports, could be considered short. Short people generally don't play sports as much as average height or tall people. This is likely why for every major sport the average height is taller than the mean. Aside from the jockeys of course.

Wait, so putting is less important than driving? Ummm what?

Here's what actual pros have to say on the matter. After everything that's been stated I'm inclined to take their word for it.

This! So much this. Rules say you get 5 minutes to look for a ball. If someone is waiting I'll take maybe a minute. If I don't find it, I drop near where I last seen it and play on. Also a simple suggestion is hardly confrontational. "Hey man, you oughta keep a couple extras in your pocket". Or even toss him an one when he is walking up to the tee. "Just in case you need it" as you throw it his way. If they still don't get the hint then they're just an oblivious jerk and nothing you can do or say will help.

For me it seems to happen when I focus too much on my score instead of the next shot I have to take. What I've foind works well for me is to think about something totally unrelated to golf for a few moments. Usually I'll think about my daughter. What shes up to or how funny she was the other day or whatever. It helps me to clear my head so I can focus on what I need to do on my next shot. Then I just try to do it. Thinking too much is what causes me to start "blowing up" on the course. I think this is true for most of us.

If my ball is close enough to someone's line I'll simply ask them "would you like me to mark that?" Or if someone's ball is in my line I'll simply ask them to please finish out. Personally I'd prefer to putt over a footprint than a ball marker.

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/tall-order-trouble-bigger-golfers-face-course/

That's not what anyone said either. There is an advantage in golf in being slightly taller than average. When you are taller it is easier to generate SS and you can achieve a higher maximum SS. But only to a point is this an advantage. If someone is too tall the advantage of their higher SS is offset by physics and consistent ball striking becomes less achievable. I believe I get what Tdiii is trying to explain. Imagine you're using your 9i but the shaft is the length of your 3i. If your arms were longer it would have a similar effect of an increased difficulty achieving good contact. Just like it's a little harder to hit your 3i vs 9i (nevermind the loft, just talking about the shaft length) it is probably a bit harder for someone with longer arms.

You guys can argue with science all you want. I'm simply pointing out the fact that the numbers line up with what one would predict using the laws of physics.

That would be true if that's what was stated, except that's not what was stated. ""the average height of the 10 best players in history is just under 5ft 9!"" Total number of majors was not taken into account. Just simply the "average height of the 10 best players in history" Also I think the reason we are seeing more tall golfers now days is because of technology. Custom fitted clubs were rare until the past 15-20 years or so. That and modern golf clubs are much more forgiving.

How exactly is that abusing statistics? Also I never said "there are no tall golfers". But a handful of outliers does not disprove my point. Yes I realize there are a handful of tall pro golfers. You guys have named maybe 5 out of the thousands in the history of the PGA. They are the outliers. The average height of an NBA player is 6'7". In the 100+ years of the PGA there probably haven't even been 5 golfers that height or taller. Sure maybe all of the tall athletes in the world simply chose a different sport or maybe they chose a sport where their height was an advantage. We can all agree that a longer lever will create more speed. But with any object, as its speed increases seemingly small forces are exponentially magnified. Again, physics. A handful of outliers or an NBA study on the injury rates of "bigmen" do not discount the laws of motion. Again... physics... Its worth noting that physics would predict that taller athletes would excel at basketball (because closer to the rim) as well as pitching in baseball (because the ball is released on a higher plane with more deception due to vertical movement). Physics would also predict that taller golfers will struggle with balance and consistent ball striking. The seemingly small forces become exponentially magnified in a person with a taller build. http://golf.clickon.co/2015/11/10/body-extremes-of-pro-golf-the-fattest-shortest-and-tallest-men-to-ever-play/ ""A quick look at the average height of the top 10 major winners of all time and you wouldn’t believe me when I told you. Can you guess what it is? Here’s a clue, Tiger Woods is the tallest on the list at 6ft 1 . So here it is, the average height of the 10 best players in history is just under 5ft 9!"" And a lot of people claim Tiger is closer to 5'11" than 6'1".

But if your eyeballs are 8" lower to the ground then your eyeballs are 8" closer to the ball. Arm length and shaft length are irrelevant. A golfer who is 6'6" will have more trouble making consistent contact than a golfer who is 5'10" (skill level being equal). There are several reasons for this. Most of which have been mentioned already. The laws of physics don't change for golfers. Based on the numbers there seems to be a threshold between 5'10"- 6'2" where the extra height is an advantage. But once players get to be too tall the SS gained is offset by consistency issues. Perhaps its balance or less control because of longer arms or it could be a distance away from the target issue. My guess would be that its a combination of all these as well as other factors that haven't been mentioned. Bottom line is the numbers don't lie. In the NBA virtually all the players would be considered tall. This is because being tall is an advantage in basketball. In MLB virtually all the pitchers are tall. This is because height is again an advantage. In horse racing we see a much smaller build because that is an advantage. Looking at golf the only place tall people dominate would be long drive competitions where max SS is critical for success. Does that mean tall people can't be good at golf? Of course not. It simply means they will have more trouble with consistent contact. Sure there are outliers but if one looks at the bigger picture you will see the data supports what physics predicts.

So if we subtracted 2" from all the player's listed heights that would skew the average of all of them to exactly the national average male height. Interesting.

Had myself a bittersweet round over the weekend. Started out doing OK. Drives weren't there, irons were so-so but my short game was on point. I practiced chipping all week and it really helped and my score on the front reflected that. Through the front 9 I shot 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 6, 5/45. Looking back I probably should have left after the front nine. On the 7th hole it felt like I strained or possibly tore a muscle in my upper back on my left side. Being as stubborn as I am I was determined to play through it. Ended up shooting a 54 on the back 9 playing through the pain. I just was not getting any solid contact on my irons and my drives were all over the place. Pulled a few, sliced a couple, and somehow managed to bomb 2 of them for 290 and 320 with an injured back. Easily my longest drives of the season... with an injured back... golf is so weird! I'm thinking perhaps I'm over-using my left side and this is why I hurt myself because on those 2 long hits I recall firming up my grip with my right hand and just letting it fly. So now I'm looking for some good drills to help myself balance my tempo and better utilize both arms more equally. All in all I'm still encouraged by the progress I've been making. After an 8 year hiatus from the game I started the year shooting a 110 and now I can say I'm constantly in the 90s after 2 months of committed practice. My short game has improved substantially and I'd say that has been the biggest contributor to lowering my scores. //thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/39411-quickie-pitching-video-golf-pitch-shot-technique/?page=1 Big thanks to iacas for this thread he created 6 years ago. I would implore all golfers to give it a read and practice the technique he shares in that thread. It's helped me quite a lot. Gonna take this whole week off and just try to let my back muscles heal so hopefully I will feel well enough to play next weekend.

Balance isn't much of an issue for anyone when hitting a nail with a hammer. Also swinging a hammer is a simple motion with 2-3 pivot points. There's also the fact that when you mis-hit a nail (which we all do) you just bend it back straight and drive it in. Comparing a golf swing to hitting a nail with a hammer is a poor comparison. I'm tall and I almost never miss with my spoon or fork either. Tennis was also mentioned. Also a poor comparison I feel. The sweet spot on a tennis racquet is exponentially larger than a golf club. So is the ball. The racquet is also much shorter which makes hitting the sweet spot even more likely. No one has to get their racquets modified because they're tall. In basketball the taller you are the closer you are to the rim (your target), which makes it easier to score. Certainly an advantage. In golf being taller puts you further away from your target. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_in_sports ""Advantages for below average height include:[1] Faster reaction times (shorter neural networks) Greater strength to weight ratio Faster limb acceleration Greater endurance Greater power to weight ratio Faster rotational capability Greater agility Greater balance and lower centre of gravity Lower risk of heat exhaustion"" The data backs it up. Only a handfull of tall pros ever made it to the HOF and those in the GOAT conversation are all of average height. If being tall was such an advantage in golf there would be many more exceptionally tall golf pros. And there are virtually none.

Whenever I'm putting I position my ball so that all I can see is white. No logo, no arrow, just white. Extra lines distract me from the line I am aming for. Also I refuse to wear gloves. Even if its wet I'll just use my towel.

I think that statement is accurate. But with a caveat. Tiger brought more fans to the game. Particularly blacks. Golf is seen by a lot as a "wealthy white man's game". And to some degree it is. Tiger helped to break that image. Since his decline a lot of those same people have lost interest in the sport I think. That's my theory anyhow.

With golf the issue for tall people is balance. The taller an object, the higher up CoG becomes thus making balance much more critical. Also the longer a lever is (arms) the less precise it becomes. Its simple physics.