B-Con

They've changed that. They still make some low end rocks, but the Gamer series has been admired by many. They're a solid mid-priced ball and feel nothing like range balls.

Slow play is the winner for me, but I hate smokers and drunks too. Slow play makes the game inconvenient and unbearable. But sharing a car with a smoker or drunk person can be very annoying. It may not be, but it can be.

That was the thing that threw me the first year I moved there from CA. It was northern CA and the summer's were maybe 5ish degrees cooler and dry with no humidity. But what a difference it made. I tried to out-wait the heat and play in twilight hours, but it's still really hot at 5 pm. I was used to at least getting cool nights and cool evenings, but that strategy wasn't as effective here. I still play twilight and super-twilight hours, because at least the sun isn't directly on you and you've lost a bit of the heat's edge. That's still worth quite a bit, IMO.

It's just juvenile. Yelling bizarre things just for the chance to be heard and/or laughed at is something everyone should outgrow by high school. However, I think that pro golfers should be able to perform with a few distractions. Most other pro athletes have to compete with way, way, way more distraction than they do. I agree that the fans can be distracting, but unless someone breaks the silence at the top of their backswing, I don't think the pros can blame fans.

Played in 106* last summer walking. Texas summers are hot, and they come with 50% humidity to boot. Being where I am I will be routinely playing in 95*+ and 50%+ humidity during the summer. After a while the sweat and humidity puts a thin layer of slickness between you and the grip. I have to be aggressive in wiping down my grips and glove in order to hold onto it well.

Having played both, yes. They are comparable. I haven't played the e5 in a while and am currently playing the Q-Stars, but I think the e5 would edge them out. Another vote for the Gamer v2. Best performance for money out there.

I would definitely like a large for free.

An 85. No idea how it happened. Actually, I do. Played mostly bogey golf with a few stupid doubles in there. Then went par-par-birdie on 15, 16, 17. It was a par-70 course, so 85 is only 3 under bogey golf. I guess I had just more than enough pars to offset the doubles.

I think the 20xi usually goes for about $26-30. It's Nike's upper-level ball, but it doesn't have the same brand recognition that the Taylormade's and Titleist's do. Never played it, so no idea how it performs or compares to other top-level balls.

Even if the green was sloped backwards, almost everyone would probably be able to lay up short (within 100 yards) and pitch on. It would probably not be worth it to shoot over the green unless short of it were extremely bad lie. You'd need something like a very deep water hazard and a lot of rough to make it worth trying to hit long. That would probably be difficult to pull off. And even if you did, the good players would probably still aim for the green and then just let the ball run off, so they'd just be chipping back on from within 10 or so yards instead of hitting full shots.

On the plus side, it makes a great story. :-)

It's hard to tell on these types of shots when I practice because they're off forgiving mats or soft driving range soil, so it's possible for these shots with the unexpected divots I'm hitting the ground first just barely. Originally I thought maybe my lie was too upright and it was combined with catching some ground before impact, but I think iacas was onto something with his explanation. I should try that technique to get a gauge for whether my lie is too upright or not, though. Tangentially related to this topic: If you view the clubhead arc traced out on a flat plane viewed from above, the clubhead has a point where it's moving away from the body, an apex, and then back in towards the body. I'm curious what the optimal point is for the low point of the swing to occur along that arc. From watching pros, it looks like they generally hit the low point just before they the clubhead is the farthest from their body from that overhead view, but I would think that it would depend partially on whether the goal was a fade or a draw. I was thinking that, for these unexpected divots, the clubhead was hitting it's lowest point after it had started to come back in on that arc. Kind of like if I were trying to hit down on the ball to hit a fade, but catching it too far back in the swing. Because it's not like the divots were pointed a little bit out and then a little bit in, like the diagram in iacas's link, they were all completely left. And I continue to see these patterns in my practice. No divot portion going right, just divot going left. So it makes me wonder if the apex of that overhead arc is occurring just before or at the ball and then the low point is happening just after that. But that almost sounds like it would require I hold lag too long, which I find hard to believe. Anyway, any thoughts on the low point of the swing compared to where it is on the arc "going out" vs "coming in"? Should I be aiming for it to occur at the apex, catching the ball before the low point (if I'm trying to play a draw)?

I used to carry only my odd irons because it didn't really matter. I didn't have the control or consistency to need gaps in between them, and it reduced the number of clubs I needed to learn how to hit. And you're right, it makes the bad a few pounds lighter to boot. :-)

I don't doubt that swing could shoot a 74 on a par-60 executive course. Given a lot of tries.

I don't care what my partners do at all. It isn't my game. For myself, I let myself by on a [i]few[/i] minor infractions here and there that don't really effect anything. For example, I once played a round with 15 conforming clubs in my bag, but one of them wasn't a part of my set and I never used it. I didn't feel like walking it back to the car, so I noted it as "not available for use" and just left it. If I just barely touch the ball on the green I don't penalize myself. If the wind moves my ball, regardless of my position, I don't penalize myself. I occasionally graze the ball with my ball marker when I lift it, and I don't penalize myself. Things you would probably have to call if you were playing competitively , but I don't and they have zero impact on the game I play. I play similarly to PhillyMac's #1 above. Like today I hit a decent drive down the right side of the fairway. I saw it land, bounce, then take a small bounce (maybe a foot high) on the cart path, and then disappear. It clearly had almost no energy left in it and couldn't have gone much farther. I got up there and couldn't find it. I walked 150 yards worth of the carpath area and looked at both side and couldn't find it. A couple golfers from the adjacent fairway had come through and I didn't notice them hitting or taking any balls, but it's the only explanation I could come up with. It was a yellow ball, right in the flat green grass, it simply couldn't have gone that far. I went back to about where I thought it had originally been and dropped another. But no fluffed up lies. No "relief" from trees that are on my line of play. (Some of my proudest moments have been hitting good shots around obstructions.) No foot wedges out of divots. Absolutely no gimmes. I don't keep an official handicap, but what you see listed here is extremely close to what it would be if it were 100% legit.

I really need to remember get one of those. Every par 3 I forget about it and hit the green and then putt out. Need to remember to just hole out from the teebox. (Kidding... kidding... ;-) ) Congrats! :beer:

It seems like the course is rewarding consistent solid efforts. The guys scoring well aren't making many mistakes and are playing smart. There's a little bit of luck involved amongst the leaders to be sure, but the only major issue of luck that struck me was the bounce of the sloped fairways. When the ball rolls downhill, it's often a matter of luck as to whether it stops in good grass or bad grass.

As far as I can tell, Tiger has taken less club off of every non-par-3 than both Phil and Bubba. I didn't tune in until the group was on their 4th hole, but I don't think I have seen Woods take out a driver yet.

On #4 with it's narrow fairway, Woods too an iron off the tee and even Phil went conservative off the tee with a hybrid, but Bubba still took out the driver. Walking off the teebox, Phil was laughing to himself about Bubba. I bet Bubba reminded him of a younger version of himself. It wasn't that long ago that Phil make those kinds of gambling decisions himself. How long ago was, it, 6, maybe 7 holes? :-D

Is it just me, or does the fairway on #18 look like it bottlenecks down to all of 25 feet wide? [VIDEO]http://www.twitvid.com/I3SZH[/VIDEO] Might be just a perspective trick.

Collar down and top button unbuttoned. Pretty sure that's the norm on the public courses I play.

AFAIK the Gamer v2 hasn't undergone any name changes. I still see it on store shelves out here.

I'm trying to groove my swing to be draw-biased, but it doesn't always come off that way. The goal is a slight draw, or at worst straight. I usually align myself to the right side of the fairway so that a straight or drawing ball is in the fairway. [quote name="ApocG10" url="/t/58945/who-hits-their-driver-straight#post_723772"]I have never, in my life, seen a golf ball go 'straight'. They just cant. The key is to build a good, repeating, effective swing and work with your natural abilities,, and of course, when on the range, its nice to practice trying to shape shots. Maybe your natural shot is a draw or a fade. You learn to play it, and as you get better, learn to make small changes to your ball flight. [/quote] It's hard to hit a ball without a little bit of drift one way or the other, but how strict are your tolerances? You've never seen a ball only drift a couple inches?

Five black dots in the shape of the hacker logo: [img]http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/glider.png[/img] Easy to do, very distinct, and it has some meaning. :-)

I putt a Winn jumbo putter grip on my putter sometime last summer and I've loved it. I can't imagine not using one now. It really keeps the hands still and has helped me with some of the yips.