Tee Wade

This is an interesting topic for me as I just became consistent at breaking 90 and now break 80 on occasion. For breaking 90, I would recommend the Level 5's strategy. Treat every hole like a Par 5. Yes, to break 90 you will need to drop 1 stroke eventually but this approach can help you mentally if you have a decent swing. Nothing makes me swing easier on a par 3 than knowing I can double bogey this hole and still be right on track. Chances are I'm more likely to bogey the par 3 (than double bogey) which will give me an extra stroke for the Par 5's. A lot of this game is mental and anything that can take pressure off of you has to be helpful. As a quick aside from 'strategy', I would agree with the folks that say you don't need to have a perfect swing. I do think you need to strike the ball consistently though. If you're hitting more than 2-3 iron shots fat per round or your driver is wildly inconsistent then you're going to struggle. At the end of the day, avoiding blow up holes is what it comes down to for breaking 90 (at least for me). I've had days where I felt like my ball-striking was poor but because I avoided double-bogeys I would look up and see my 'ugly' day resulted in an 84. Good luck.

Gotta agree with this. The mid-competition friendliness wasn't that entertaining TO ME. I don't support poor sportsmanship at all but I do like seeing more of a competitive streak during sports matches. The Cristie Kerr vs Mel Reid match to me was great because they seemed to be playing against each other not just fist pumping to the crowd after every hole. It seemed like they generally disliked each other until the match was over. I think that's one of the overlooked exciting aspects of the PGA relative to the LPGA. Watching McIlroy vs Patrick Reed during the Cup or Stenson vs Mickelson in the Open a few years back was really entertaining because there was this sense of "I really want to beat this guy." I watch a lot of my golf on Youtube so I see way more LPGA than PGA rounds and the lack of intensity during their matches is one thing that's always stood out to me.

Hey guys, we just had our golf trip this past weekend. Below is an update/overview: The Good: They were aerating 2 of the greens so we got an additional discount. Played a good course, had two beers, hot dog, chips, and two powerades all for $75 total. The next day we played 9 and it was only $45. The women easily entertained themselves (that sounds weird). They went to Epcot, planned our dinner, bought tix to Blue Man Group. We fellas just showed up, played golf during the day and had good food and overpriced drinks in the evening. We were paired with some a father and son visiting from Ireland. The dad was a 12 and the son was a 5 handicap - much better than us but we managed to tie them in a skins match! My partner has roughly the same handicap as me but we're deceptively bad. We get plenty of pars but we make idiotic triple bogeys every 3-4 holes. That made it pretty hard for them to beat us with the strokes given. The Irish guys were extremely nice though and gave much welcomed swing advice. The Bad: So we ended up being paired with the Irish guys because 2 of the couples flaked out on us at the last minute. Luckily, the remaining couple was the guy who I started playing golf with and his wife is one of my wives' best friends so it all worked out. The course was a little more difficult than I expected. Shot a 101 the first day. There were lots of fairway bunkers and I discovered that I suck majorly at hitting out of those. Almost all of the greens were protected by bunkers AND steep drop offs into water. I can come out greenside bunkers just fine but there was no room to overshoot the flag. Also, the course was pretty long and we were playing the middle tees. On one hole I hit a 270 yard drive (which is above average for me) and still had a 6 iron into the green! The next day we played nine and I shot 9 over. Didn't hit driver much, played to the safe landing areas. It was really, really hot. Felt like above 95. We ended up not even finishing half of a beer and just chugged water and powerade. I think my partner was slightly dehydrated around the 12th hole. We had to stop and wait for some food so he could continue. We were supposed to play 27 the first day but we quit after 18. Overall, it was really fun. We're looking forward to doing this annually. It's my turn to pick the next course/resort so I'm definitely open to suggestions. I think we're going to stick to Florida again. I've already seen some good courses recommended earlier in this thread. As you read above, there's no need for me to plan for the ladies - they can take care of themselves.

Shot maybe 150 my first time playing. Hit only one awesome iron shot during that round but it was so pretty that I fell in love with golf. Took me about a 1.5-2 years of range work/playing to get below 100 regularly. Eliminating 3 putts and better course strategy helped me drop to the low 100's within the first 3 months. Spent a year working on my driver, it's my best club now (due more to accuracy than length). That got me below 100 with consistency. Being in the fairway gives you room to flub your next shot and still have a realistic shot at par or bogey.

I was a chronic slicer that now plays a natural draw. The flat left wrist was the beginning of eliminating my slice. I would add a note of caution though...I found that bowing my wrist to produce the FLW was not the best method. FOR ME, rolling my forearms with a strong grip produced a more easily repeatable flat left wrist. The roll is subconscious now but in the beginning I noticed that I had to focus on this roll or else I would prevent my forearms from naturally rolling during the backswing in anticipation of trying to bow my wrist. In the downswing my forearms would naturally roll clockwise (and open my face) since they never rotated in the backswing. If I allow the forearms to roll clockwise in the backswing, then the forearms would naturally roll counter-clockwise on the downswing and help close the face (I say "help" because I use my body turn to ultimately square the face at impact). If push-fades start appearing out of nowhere you may want to look at whether or not you're restricting your forearm turn while trying to get a flat wrist.

Hey Guys, a little update here. So the wives got together and essentially planned everything they're going to do themselves. They'll be at EPCOT for a bit, then Disney Springs. We're not even sure they're going to meet us for dinner. I'm starting to think they're disappointed we're tagging along on the trip, lol. Also, I appreciate the advice on the different courses. Found out that my buddy got some crazy discount from his job so that's how we ended up at the Waldorf. Our rooms are free and the rounds are half price. He said that before he found out about the discount, he was looking at Streamsong or PGA national in Palm Beach. That'll probably be our trip next year.

Happened to me 3 times. First time was early in the morning and I spent quite a bit of time looking for it. My partner was certain it landed in the middle of the fairway and the flight was straight, maybe a 2 yard draw. The other two times, I'm certain the ball was picked up by people playing on another fairway. This particular course has fairways adjacent to each other. It's pretty common for guys on the first tee to slice it into the 9th fairway and come pick up 'extra' balls while they're over there.

Thanks for that tip. I personally don't know anything about the course. One of my friends got us rounds for $80 a pop but I think it's because the trip is in July so we must be getting the dehydration discount. We're definitely open to switching courses. Are there any you could recommend?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Seems like the consensus view is to let them know that buddy golf is the priority of this trip and that they're responsible for their own entertainment if they want to come.

Reading these replies, I'm starting to do that laugh that slowly turns into a depressed crying fit. I don't think there was an option to let them sit out this year. The conversation literally went like this Me: "Hey, me and the guys were thinking of traveling to Orlando for a nice round of golf on..." Her: "AWESOME! I'll call the wives and make sure we get babysitters for the kids! We'll let you guys play by yourselves though" Me Later: "Hey John, sorry my wife really ran with that one"

We're playing (and staying at) the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando. It's our first trip so we decided not to go too far from home - 3 of us live in Jacksonville. Yeah, it would have been much easier if they were willing to play. All of our wives have played golf with us before but none of them seemed interested. Lol at MacDutch!

So me and 3 other guys are planning the first of what we hope to be our annual destination golf trip. We're all married and our wives have colluded expressed interest in coming on the trip. None of our wives are interested in playing golf with us though. So my question is what do wives normally do on trips like this? We were thinking of booking massages and pedicures but that's like 2.5 hours max. Maybe that's enough considering our tee times will be early and the massages will likely start later in the morning but we're not sure. How have you guys entertained the non-golf playing spouses on golf trips?

I voted walk for 9 and ride for 18. It's easier for me to sneak away from the family for 2.5 hours so I walk 9 frequently even though half of those rounds are solo. I like walking because it helps me slow down and focus on my next shot. I tend to play fast and sometimes taking an extra 20 seconds to think about my shot would really help. That extra time is built in to my walk from tee to fairway and fairway to green. That being said, I like to ride 18 since I feel it helps me better enjoy the social aspect of the game. When I get a chance to hang out for 4+ hours with my golf buddies, I think the cart gives us more time to talk, catch-up, complain about our swings, etc.

That's a good suggestion but I had already experimented with ball position before. My swing was the bigger source of my problems. Since starting this thread, I took a few lessons with a pro. Among the many flaws she noticed was that I flung my arms forward to hit the ball instead of moving my hips in the downswing (which is pitiful considering how many of the hip slide/turn threads I've read and learned from on this site). Because of that fling, my head was moving all over the place and I was having to jump up to avoid hitting the ground which made it hard for me to hit down on the ball properly. Now that she has me making a more pivot controlled swing, I hit the ball 10-15 yards further with better compression. I still hit it higher than I think I should but she says not to worry about it that much.