amished

Echo'ing what other people have said: find different thoughts that all work for you, and if you have to think of something during your swing, only think of those thoughts. It tends to work out better if your thought is more of a feeling (50% tempo, stay balanced, relax your right shoulder, etc..) rather than something specific to try to monitor (cock your wrists before your hands get to shoulder height, keep the club face pointed at the ball on backswing until club is parallel to the ground, etc.). Your active thoughts ruin more golf swings than your body does once you get even a moderate level of competence in golf. If you can't focus on something in your swing, picture a flight path of the ball and tell your body to hit that shot. Or tell your body to make the ball land on an imaginary line between you and some far off point. There are a lot of ways to have your thinking brain allow your movement brain to just hit the ball the way you should and you might need to take a bit of time to figure out which ways work for you.

I think that just highlights how easily you can be swayed by one piece of data. Lockey was clearly bothered by par 3s all day and hit a worse than average shot for him on yet another par 3. After that, he decided to give it a go with a chunkier iron, and maybe he was more relaxed due to it not really mattering and hit a good one and now that's why Crossfield said what he said in the moment. I don't think I can argue that SGI/GI irons do well for excessively mishit strikes compared to blades, but if you're close to the center I've seen what I'd otherwise call fliers from those same clubs that, if you're trying to score, can screw you just as much as anything else. Personally, I don't think I'll ever get away from blades. It keeps me focused on my swing when in the moment, and keeps me introspective if I feel like I didn't hit it pure so I can better track what I think I need to work on.

I only have three problems with my pushcart: my bigger bag doesn't sit extremely well on it, it's another thing that takes up space in my vehicle even when folded up, and if I'm limited for time on an open course I'd rather get the holes in rather than the exercise (so then I ride). I've ordered a smaller bag that should work better for how it fits on the cart, or carry around if my heart so desires, but I do like to push if I have the cart available. For personal preference, I'd rather carry than pull. The sort of rotation while walking doesn't do well for the types of health issues I've had.

We all realize that effectively using the driver will lower our scores. So you trying to force yourself to use it puts you in a bad spot as you can't make your normal turn or whatever with your swing. At some point you must've hit a good swing, try to recreate that feeling. Or figure out which of the 5SK you are farthest from and focus on that for a while in your swing. Is your head starting to move cause you're trying to kill the ball, are you not getting your weight forward cause you're trying to guide the ball out there leading to a non-inline impact position, etc.. For me, I started to realize that my stress of my driver was causing me to not have a proper sweet spot path (my shoulders were way off line causing a bad hand path, and even pulling my head away from where it started. Also for me, it's easier for me to focus on staying in balance than trying to keep my head steady as my body has some weird ways it can compensate for keeping my head in one place so that put me in a better position as well as letting me think about less during the swing too which seems to help.

For these types of thoughts, understand what your stress is doing to your body, and how that (likely) extra tension isn't letting you do the swing you're supposed to do. For me, my tension causes me to misalign my shoulders and pull the ball into very bad spots.

Without ever having any involvement with a player of their caliber, I'd argue that the pros had the mental game working properly when they are at their best, they just might not have known it or realized what exactly they're doing.

Spending some time with a PGA pro to help get certain feels better ingrained into myself to have a better swing, and reading the books by Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson. I've always been super analytical in my daily life and their books have helped me find a place for (and handle the negativity from) my brain, and then allow my body to do what it needs to do while on the course. Everything else I read is great for between rounds, but they broke it down to something that you can hold on to during a round which makes a big difference for me when things can get too fast when going downhill... It's allowed me to keep the concepts provided by the 5SK and allow me to figure out what my swing is like for that day. Their books have been the best mental game books I've ever read, and I'm not fully through the three books of theirs that I own just yet. And this is compared to The Inner Game of Tennis, and Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, both of which I swore by before, and still do for their own purpose.

Had I known that was the type of dress code we were debating, I'd be on the other side of this particular topic!

First of all, I don't understand what a wedding and a round of golf have anything to do with each other. Secondly, it seems a lot of the arguments presented are whether a dress code is good for a certain course, or for the game of golf. If a course decides it will make more money by having a certain look and appeal to a higher class of golfer, then obviously that's good for that course but I don't know if that's best for golf, and there is a difference. I don't come from a large area, or particularly well-to-do area, so most of my friends and myself grew up and learned to get into golf on our local muni without a dress code. If it was a fancier course that required a dress code I never would've started playing there, and I wouldn't have gotten into playing as much there as I still do. Being a municipal course, I know that if it was just based on the golf the course would barely survive and one bad year could be the end of it. A lot of the revenue that is generated by my course is through the campground that it provides nearby, and the rounds that are played by the campers. I also know many of those campers come up with rental clubs, or sharing clubs with the golfers that they came with, and would not normally bring a collared shirt with on a camping trip just to wear it for a round on a hungover morning activity. So if this course would shut down because of a dress code, I have to imagine others would too. That makes it that much harder for more people to be introduced to golf in a meaningful way (actually playing), and doesn't contribute to growing the game at all. I have to imagine that with fewer people being introduced and playing golf, these mid to upper class public courses would have more trouble staying afloat as there are less people that are willing to splurge on a higher priced round than they normally do, or wouldn't have the opportunity to get the middle level executives that have gained enough to want to be a member there because they haven't been introduced to golf.

@iacas If you went to any super private/exclusive course, and you were allowed to wear anything you wanted from just your underwear to a 3 piece suit and anything in between, if you chose to wear just your underwear would you respect golf less? Would you respect the course less? Why? If we say that wearing certain clothes is "more good" for Golf, then we should do that everywhere. If it's truly the best thing that we can do for golf on the apparel topic, why wouldn't we want to make every golf course have a dress code? Tangentially, why is the PGA relaxing their dress code if it was better for the game of golf? What level of dress code helps? Collared shirts? They don't require that anymore. No shorts? It's allowed for practice rounds (I think...). I can't imagine these decisions are hurting golf, but if it was better for golf why wouldn't they want to keep it the way it was? Above all, I believe that a corporation will try to do what is in its best interest to make money. If they think that they can get more people to watch, or to get out and potentially be the next Tiger, Rory, Brooks, DJ or whomever so that they can make money off of their popularity, why wouldn't they keep the same dress codes that they've always had to make golf better/more good/however you want to say it. Anecdotally, we as golfers largely have these clothes because we've grown to accept the way things are and have bought them because of that. My wife hates going to courses with a dress code, to the point where we've not gone, because she's not part of this community. These types of interactions cannot be measured as you can't measure the lack of something, so I know it's not a solid argument but how many rounds are being lost to people that can golf, would spend money on the round, but don't want to or can't dress up compared to what they're taking in now? Obviously we can't measure the other way either as they're not relaxing their dress code and I don't know of any places like that which have put out a survey asking if they'd stop coming if they did so to get any meaningful stats.

I don't equate respect for people that I know and like well enough to celebrate a once in a lifetime (hopefully) event to a regular leisure occurrence. But if you do, I'm glad.

For the Funeral/Wedding question: it's a sign of respect to the people/family involved, not some business. That respect to a person/family I care about is what it adds. However, if I don't dress up for a round of golf, I'm not going to go out on a golf course and drive over the greens or anything, I'm going to respect the rules of golf. Clothing doesn't affect how respectful I am to a place of business. Now if I didn't do my research and went to a course that had a dress code, I'm forced to change what I'm wearing or I can't play there. I'm not debating if the establishment has the right to do so, of course they do. But I don't see where having such a dress code is beneficial which is what I'm trying to understand.

I would just go to the range, get used to where your weight should be, and try to find your own feeling on how you need to get there.

Still not an answer, but if there isn't a good one then I guess that will help me settle my mind. Places have always been well within their rights to restrict people based on apparel. No shirt, no shoes, no service is a common motto for a reason. I still don't hear a reasonable explanation for what a dress code adds to golf. I've heard that it can make you feel better to dress up, and an informal three person survey that apparently it wouldn't bother those three people.

I didn't ask if people would be "fine" dressing up for golf, I asked what it would add to golf. I routinely dress up for courses because I can't golf on them if I don't. Doesn't mean it adds to the game for myself. A great course and fancy clubhouse, that I can feel comfortable at and enjoy myself in, in any attire sounds amazing. If the only argument that you present is that I need to dress up to fit in doesn't hold a lot of water with me as if the dress code went away, then I'd still fit in. Should I not fit in to a place if I don't dress like you? That seems silly. It might be fun to dress up if I choose (and I agree, it is nice to dress nice when I want to) but when I want to and being forced to are two different things.

I have to agree with Erik here. Just watching three or four videos from the sidekick was enough to show me that they aren't analyzing their game(s) scientifically. Anybody that can hit a 9 iron 170+ has a good swing, and of course they're going to do well (because they have a good swing). So preaching the importance of short game for them is fine as long as that's their most glaring weakness. And honestly, I haven't watched enough to know if that's their weakest part of their game, otherwise they should be spending more time to dial in their long game so they don't have to have as good of a short game.

Some hybrids don't always set for a super high launch. I was fitted for a hybrid earlier this year and a couple of them had my typical fairly low ball flight but some of the heads (no matter the shaft) just sent it skyward compared to my stock shot. However, if you're hitting with too much downward angle, I don't think the hybrid head will matter as you're taking too much loft off the club at that point. I know I have that issue from time to time in my irons, but changing my swing mechanics sorted that out for me. Essentially, the rule of thumb is that the hybrid will make it easier to get the ball into the air, but not always necessarily higher than an iron would be.

I haven't kept up on this thread at all, but I would pose the question in two different ways: What does dressing nice bring to the game, or what does wearing any old shoes and shirt detract from the game? I don't see how adding another requirement to golf benefits it. What are the opinions out there that makes a dress code a net positive?

Then as somebody that's learned a lot from here, and from other reputable sources, I would work on shaping my shots every time you have a non-pitch shot. Pick whichever one is better for you (draw or fade, I've come around to loving my fade even though my home course tends to set up for a draw better) and try to do that every time. With practice, you'll get your shape down to a reasonable amount as your "minimum" shape, and occasionally if you overdo it you'll curve a bit more in the direction you were intending to have the ball go anyways. Also, keep in mind that when I say shape your shots, I'm not telling you to be Bubba and have a 20 yard curve on every shot. Watching the pros, most of them don't curve it more than 5 yards it seems if they are trying to hit it straightish. Picking a shot shape and sticking with it until you can be confident that every shot will curve +- 5 yards at the outliers will eliminate the misses you're talking about. And it will give you something to focus on practicing. Instead of working half your time on draws and half your time on fades, you can now work 100% of the time on whatever shot you decide to implement.

Either a block or a pull sounds like a double cross. Are you trying to always shape a shot or are you just trying to hit it straight all the time? Personally I try to have a little fade on all of my shots and occasionally I'll "screw up" and hit it dead straight which is something that I've planned for. If missing by 15 yards will put you in a creek, aiming away from the green even to take the creek out of play if you really hit it to such a penal area that often might be a change until you can eliminate that type of miss.

I try to swing as sweeper-y as possible, and generally ball fairly forward in my stance (exactly like I would if I was on the tee box). I tend to tee it just enough so it's almost like hitting off the deck just so that I can keep the idea of hitting the ball with that club as close to each instance (fairway/tee shot) as possible. One thing I tend to struggle with for all of my clubs is trying to hit it too far. Generally my 3wood isn't a "I need to hit this 230" club, it's a "I want to get as close to the green as possible" club so trying to hit it too hard takes me away from my proper swing mechanics. When I think about the club as one that I want to hit a certain distance, I know my normal swing will get there and helps me keep my head steady and get my weight forward at the right time so that I'll have fairly steady contact.

Even pros will double-cross themselves from time to time. If it happens every 40ish iron shots, you're looking at what, a little over once a round? What happens with your other misses with irons that account for the 4-5 other misses? Getting a one-way miss is a big deal, so accepting a bigger curve on some shots will be your problem in the interim. So occasionally I'll have a shot where it curves more than what I wanted or expected, but that's something that I can gameplan for. How much curve (and what type) do you have on your shots currently?

How do you typically miss your shot by 10-15 yards? Is it always long left, always short right, or other? Just knowing you miss isn't enough to really get you on a plan to fix what the miss is.

Wrapping a ball in the glove can cause some unnatural folding patterns, so I'd just be careful when doing that. Using something to soften the leather, then just sitting down on your couch while watching tv or a movie or something and trying to move the glove back and forth is how I got all my gloves broken in. Another option that I've done with my last glove is we went to a place (Scheel's, for me) that sold Mizuno gloves and they had some sort of steam treatment that was free if you bought Mizuno, otherwise $25 bucks for any other glove which seemed to get it out of the "too stiff to play with" phase much quicker. Finding a larger sports shop that would have that can work depending on where you're at.

I know the area from my picture is an extreme example, but what's stopping a putt's break from being that different based on speed? The speed you hit your putt affects how much the putt will break, I don't think either of us will dispute that. Across a slope, a putt hit slower will break more than a putt hit faster which is something I think both of us could agree on. Sure, if you only ever want your missed putt to finish close to the hole (within a foot or two), you're not going to risk the high pace and need to hit it perfect line but that's not to say that the putt couldn't go in on that line. You're probably turning the 7% chance of a pro making that 30' putt into a .005% chance by taking that line so you wouldn't want to do it, but it's possible, no? At a speed where you'd only leave the missed putt within a certain radius of the hole, the shaded area is clearly wrong as the area would be much smaller, but I don't think that's the intent of the graphic.