amished

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/shanneken/round/2276789 Not a bad league round. Kept it mostly in play. Dropped shots were to hitting my PW extremely clean and a possible flyer lie that I didn't recognize missing the green long and leaving myself a long putt from my short game, then dropped one on a long three putt up and across a slope. Hole 6 sucked, my 5 iron didn't draw at all so I was behind a tree, I didn't chip well to get out, but when my ball bounced the first time it hit a stray twig embedded in the rough and took a straight right bounce into the water for a penalty stroke. Then got out and two putt from there. Last dropped stroke was tee shot on 9 with a 3W, half way through my swing I was not thinking about golf and hit 6 inches behind the ball causing it to only go 50 or so yards. Parring both par 3s on this course is quite the achievement for me, the green on 4 barely has any legal spots for the flag, and 7 is just a decently long par 3 with a small green and a lot of hazards that you're looking at. Hole 8 has been a nemesis of mine, but I was more and more comfortable with a swing change I've been working on so I felt good trying to cut the corner of the trees on the left side and got me down sufficiently close to give me a short shot at the green.

I never really understood the slope rating on courses, so that's interesting. For the most part, the course is pretty wide open, you tend to have to try to lose a ball there. The greens, surprisingly, are rather large but they all multiple severe tiers on them where if you're not on the right tier you might as well not be on the green. It's just a long course compared to what I'm used to and I think that is psyching me out more than anything else... How do you like hitting into a net? It's something that I've considered getting but without seeing ballflight that always makes me a little anxious. On top of hitting off of a mat that can hide some low point issues that I struggle with from time to time...

Oh, I think we're back to the same old discussion, where top 3 vs. 5 players that could regularly beat you compared to top 3 vs. 25 players that could regularly beat you, I would hope that the first person's percentage is much much much higher than the second. If all things were equal, the second person shouldn't even be in the discussion unless they were extremely dominant...

I'd suggest hitting the ball better

Then that makes even less sense to me why he would use a compass. Does the grounds crew use GPS or something else to precisely place the hole? If not, then a compass, while technically accurate, still wouldn't account for any human mistakes made while placing the hole.

6,600 yards is about as far as I ever want to play from. Most people I know won't play from that distance, but my friend who's the local high school golf coach (plays off 5.5 I think with the last revision) will sometimes talk me into moving back a teebox. There are a couple local courses that have tees at around 6800, but I'd only do that with him on a day where we want to be beat up... There is a 6,800 72.6/118 tips teebox that I want to be able to play someday and not feel like a total ass. I think if I ever get down to single digit handicap I might give it a try... Luckily for me though, my miss is almost always a pull or overdraw with my Driver, so I do generally eliminate half the course with that club. Unfortunately, the "good" shots that happen by accident are dead straight so I have to allow for that to happen and then my left miss throws me in trouble. I think I just need to keep telling myself "you're not a pro" and swing easier as that is much more consistent with not much distance loss (10 yards tops...)

I didn't even see the bunker there with the shadows and all, seems like a good idea to play the hole your way if you don't always get a draw with your driver. Seems like a really nice course though, very jealous that you get to golf there semi-regularly!

You just have to take a day off and book one hours worth of tee times yourself....

Hole 6 looks like you had an adventure.. Hole 10 must be tighter than it looks? Seems like a good one to be able to attack, but depending on your day I could see not wanting to hit driver there.. http://www.gamegolf.com/player/shanneken/round/2261653 My league round. My 9 hole handicap here is around a 5 or 6, currently a 6, so shot 1 under net par. Kinda blew up on the last three holes though, was really hoping to break 40 again but got in my head and a little bad luck... But it was kind of a windy day for here, and I was putting really well for myself except for one muscled putt on hole 7 so that helps when you're close but not as close as you want to be. Also, this was the first time hitting directly over the cart shed on hole 1... Normally I'm nowhere near that so it was an adventure...

Shot a 40 in league (net 34, par 35). Took some (all) wrist rotation out of my swing as I found I was doing that again and was hitting it really well. And even though I shot under my handicap, it was really disappointing as I finished with a bogey on holes 7, 8, and 9... I had a really bad long putt on 7 (was about 50 feet, hit it 60 feet) that screwed up my GIR. My drive on 8 ended up landing in somebody's poorly repaired divot and I didn't account for it as it rarely happens so chunked my 2nd shot. On hole 9 and then I hit a poor chip that left me a little long on my par save putt and missed it by a couple inches (misread the green rather than mishit it). Oh well, gives me confidence for the next time as I think 2 over through 6 was my best start to a round ever!

I was asking which holes. There are definitely some long par 3s depending on tee position where you might not get to the green even with a driver depending on length, but those are the holes you'd have to chip/putt with your mulligans to par. There were some that looked to be close to 200 yards to carry, but I would say most people here could pull that off once in a while with their mullies.

I have a CaddyTek 3 wheel cart. Love it, the only thing is that the size is kinda weird. I'm sure it's not much different than any other cart but for where I want to put it, the design makes it awkward. That's definitely more of my own personal issue and the size limitations of my vehicle but in general use I love the heck out of it. If I ever replace it, I would like to see all the carts available stowed up as I sometimes forget the right order to collapse mine and it doesn't fit together right otherwise.

Which holes? I don't see one that requires that type of carry.

I recently got some sleeves, and the elastic at the end seems like it's the best way to keep the sleeves in place. I certainly wouldn't want to cut it down, but I don't see why you couldn't have the elastic more around your bicep rather than up near your armpit if that was uncomfortable for you. Personally, it doesn't bother me to have it up near my armpit, I just like to ensure that my arms are covered with them.

I feel ya, and that's one of my biggest frustrations as well. The AimPoint/Edel fitter I went to is about 2.5 hours away, the teaching professional I'd most want to go to to take lessons from is either 1.5 hours away or 3 hours away (both 5SK trained)...

I think that was my mistake thinking early on that I couldn't do it as well. A GIR will get you a par. With a better shot in there, a 10'-15' (maybe even 25') GIR will get you a birdie and you only need to find 3-4 of them on the course. Watching the video, the guy ended up hitting 400 golf shots that day, but it seemed like half of those were putts that shouldn't wear you down all that much. I think it's possible, and it'd be something that I would want to try on my home course late on a Sunday afternoon or something when nobody is around. Even if I limited myself to 5 mulligans per non-putt (to ensure I had the balls available and could find them), I think I could break par there.

Driver, partial wedges (getting better), and green reading. I can hit my driver plenty far enough to be a scratch golfer. When I hit it even moderately well for distance on a long par 5 at my home course, I can easily get GIR/nGIR. Even with a slight mishit, I'm generally okay to get nGIR. However, in the last two weeks I've had two OB drives, a lost ball, and three in a water hazard. That's more penalties than I've had in the month previous so hopefully a tweak will get me back to avoiding penalties... I recently got a new wedge, and dialing in the distances on partial wedge shots especially with a swing change has been rough. I've been hitting the ball cleaner than I have in the past so adjusting to better contact has made me go beyond many greens by either bouncing near the back of the green and continuing on or flying them altogether. I think this is just an adjustment process as I'm slowly being more accurate with distance with practice. For green reading, I rarely misread the direction of the break, but the amount of break as well as trusting my read of the speed has historically been bad. I routinely hit/get acceptably close to my intended start line but the greens I play on are generally pretty slow but relatively sloped so I struggle to adjust and trust my speed on longer putts with slope and everything. Going to an AimPoint express class is on my short list of things to do for my game, and I'm lucky that I have a level 3 instructor in my state that I worked with before to get my Edel putter. Hopefully it's something that I'll do next year as my big golf purchase has already been used up this year...

Unfortunately I don't get as much time on the range as I would like to have, but I get out for casual rounds when my local muni isn't busy where I can implement swing thoughts and try out new swings in a "shot making" situation. So through the course of this year, I've been able to work on a couple things that's gotten myself much better at key #2 while maintaining (or slightly improving) key #1. In the past, focusing on one aspect of my swing has caused seemingly all other aspects of my swing to get worse, and so I begin the process of determining my major flaw again and then working on it. A perfect example is that over the past month or so I've reduced my issue with key #2 to having maybe 3 shots be slightly fat per round rather than 3-5 shots have the low point be so far behind the ball you'd think I'm hitting out of a bunker, and then having 3-5 shots be slightly fat on top of that. However, my swing path during this weight forward work changed significantly to creating a massive hook. The ball would start relatively close to my intended start line and "Bubba Hook" if I wasn't careful. Last night near the end of the round of league, I decided to go back to working on key 4 and was hitting shots that I would consider very successful (starting just right of my goal, and either staying straight or curving back to my goal). So from hitting a couple 30 yard hooks early in the round to a consistent 5 yard draw is a big change and very exciting for me. So I hope I can keep it all together and that this will be the start to another "round" of improvements and lower scores, and hopefully back to breaking 80 more consistently. I think I'm still a ways away from ever breaking par, but my fingers are crossed... tl; dr: Do you have a period during golf instruction and practice where one key or one aspect of your swing gets so much better but something else is affected and gets so much worse? How do you handle that if it happens to you?

They're the "Timmy" of the golf world. They just want big numbers, and don't care what else happens. I'd say a fair few of us here are the "Spike" type players, studying, trying to improve ourselves and get lower scores as that's more along the lines of "winning" golf...

After hitting an okay drive that you should be able to find but you can't, the 5 (2) minute search period as well as going back to the tee box if there's anybody there is the longest time for me. Second goes to after getting a new club, the wait time to actually use it on the course. Third would be times between hitting a good shot. I hit one once two years ago, haven't hit another since.....

Have a couple rounds in the 70s. I've broken 80 before but it seemed like a fluke day where everything was going right. I do want to take some full swing lessons but the best instructor for me that I've found is a couple hours away.

I think it's hard for me to say at this point. I was fitted with a Ping Driver back in the day with a horrible swing and I've kept with it as it's still hitting the ball well even with my mishits. Because of that performance, my first look at a 3 wood was Ping and turns out I love that club and hit it incredibly well. Irons were a no-name knockoff brand (GigaGolf) until about a month ago, though I've switched to a brand of irons I've always respected and loved when I could get a chance to hit them (Mizuno). For wedges, I had a Cleveland 52* that I lost before getting a Ping Glide 52 (influenced by my driver, wanting to keep that the same brand as well as the reviews here) and loving it. Because of the 52's performance, I stuck with Ping to get my 56*, and will when I get the go ahead to upgrade my 60* as well. My first putter was a Wal-Mart Dunlop Anser style putter. I then upgraded to a real Anser after a couple of years and the even more recently got fitted and got an Edel. Titleist bag (just liked where everything was positioned on it and looks sharp) Vice Golf balls, but have hit ChromeSofts, ProV1/x, and Taylormade balls. Still like my Vice! So I feel like I'm becoming snobby after good experiences with certain companies and equipment. Slowly finding what I like in feel and performance and then trying to only use that. I will give original preference if/when I swap out my 3 iron for a 5 wood during club testing but if I hit something better, I'm going to go with performance over everything. If it's marginal, I'll stick with a company I currently have just to have some continuity in my bag....

Phil broke the rules, and was punished by the rules. In my book, that's the end of the story. What else would you want to see happen? Not allowing him entry into the next tournament? A monetary fine? Something else?

Yes. Why not? Most of my friends who golf have moments where they hit a bad shot and "give up". That's what it looked like Phil did in the heat of the moment on the green. He broke a rule that arguably should've gotten him DQ'd out of a tournament. So what? All that link/story tells me is that the golf world will blow anything out of proportion. Phil's action cost nobody but himself anything as it pertains to the tournament. I mean, in 5 years are we going to look back at one of the top 5-10 golfers of all time and say "Oh, but he broke the rules at the U.S. Open that one time"? I can't see that happening. So yes, I don't understand how his hitting a moving ball will matter one bit. I don't like that he made something up afterwards, seems like he just tried to BS his way through a reasoning. His comments will not affect me, nor will it even affect next weeks golf. So, will it affect his reputation? Only to people that want to make the Monkey House a thing "fit for a Christian family to see."

Regardless of whether or not you think the penalty that the USGA gave him was the right one or not, I thought it was a fun thing for Phil to do. As a hacker, I've had plenty of shots that I skull'd over the green, or a putt I misread so horribly that it's nowhere close or was going to go down a ridge that I never should've gotten close to, especially near the end of a round where I didn't play particularly well. In those situations I've asked my partners to stop the ball and pick it up for me, or I've putt the ball again after I duff the putt and it's close enough to me to do so. None of these rounds go towards a handicap round for me, nor are they in a competition. So while the circumstances are different I can certainly empathize with the sentiment to just get the hell off the green without expending too much more energy. It showed the same relatability that he's always had with his fans to me; the willingness to go for it, hit the hero shot and the consequences be damned. I 100% don't understand the sentiment that it will tarnish his reputation to do what he did in this situation, though. It seems like he wasn't aware of what the ruling would be by asking the rules official after the hole, so even if he got DQ'd, it's not the first time a player has gotten DQ'd from a tournament.