schigara

Sitting on the ground, all balls are equal. When you apply force with a club, the balls begin to show different characteristics. A distance rock will fly far as hell but when you try to attack a pin, you can hit the green and bounce over. A nice, soft cover ball may not rocket off as far but when you catch it crisply with a pure 8 iron and hit the green, it will have gotten enough traction of that 8 to have enough backspin to stop or even back up a bit instead of running off the back of the green.

I only carry one brand and model of ball. I carry the Maxfli Blackmax, which is a top line ball equal to the ProV1, but I get them for .50/ball on ebay. I don't want to lose one but if I know it's a shot I can make, I hit it with confidence. 50 cents or 5 dollars, I don't care about the ball, I care much more about the shot. I am still a bit inconsistent with my irons so the last thing I want to do is add another variable into the mix by changing balls from one shot to the next. Maybe if I paid retail for the balls, I'd have a different perspective. Because I don't care about the money, I can concentrate on hitting the shot without making a change. I only lose 1 ball every round or every other round.

I have a driver coming on Wednesday and am curious what to expect. I currently use a Slazenger 460 with 10.5* loft and a stiff Harrison Striper shaft. Just in the last 3 weeks, I have gotten consistent with a nice and long 260-275 yard drive(gps measured) and playing 4 full rounds per week. I used to hit 230yd balloon slices. Now since changing my grip and actually feeling the release of the club, I am hitting the driver, woods and hybrids straight and long. I still think I am losing distance with the driver to a high trajectory. The ball takes off kinda high and then continues climbing until it stalls and drops without much roll out. I tee the ball up with the center of the ball at the height of the top of the driver head and position the ball at the inside of my front heel. The new driver is an Adams Insight BTY 4350 8.5* with a ProLaunch Red stiff shaft. I have always used a 10.5* driver. What do you guys think will happen to my drive with this combination of driver and shaft change? I got a great deal on this driver which is one reason I bought it@ $40 on Ebay and the curiosity of the loft change.

When putting, do you focus totally on the ball or do you let your peripheral vision kinda focus on the putter as well? I used to strictly focus on the ball and was quite good at putting but recently I have started to notice that I am still looking at the ball on the takeaway but now I am also paying attention to the club head as well during takeaway and my putting is going downhill.

No. Not much more needs to be said. If I were a betting man, I would definitely not bet against Tiger.

I tried driver-driver a few times before I got my 3 wood. It was a 550 yd p5 with wide fairway and little trouble left or right and the ball was sittin up pretty. I was able to get it close enough for an easy 30 yd pitch. Mainly did it just to see if I could. Now I can use my 13* 3w, which is very easy to hit and get 235-250 (GPS measured) from the fairway.

Oh, I don't care for Audubon. I love Fox Meadows and even though it's more money, I will start playing there more often. The Marshall there has never given us any BS. If the front is very crowded, he'll suggest that we go ahead and play the back first. Rather than overloading one side, he's smart and splits the load front and back.

It's Pine Hills. We and most everyone walk up at this course. The course had just opened so there was no chance of getting in anyone's way making the turn from the front. We always take a break after 9 holes and would have been happy to wait a while for any groups starting the front as we went from the back to the front. But c'mon.......waiting 2 hours while absolutely no one is on the back?? I will be going elsewhere.

It's a municipal course. It's actually quite nice and is only $21 any day. This was the first time we have encountered a league on Sunday.

My brother in law and I showed up at our regular course on sunday early and their was a league with about 10 foursomes. The wait was gonna be quite a long one so we started to play the back first. The marshall came up to us and said we had to play the front first and just sit an wait for the league. He said it would mess things up for new arrivals as we would make the turn from the back to the front! Even on the weekends, at this course, it's never packed except for the leagues. This was the only league playing that day and they were all starting the front so there was no chance of us getting in their way by playing the back first. The prick would not budge and did not let us start the back 9. We sat behind this "league" of hackers for right at 2 hours before we could tee off. Out of forty guys, only 3 or 4 hit it in the fairway and longer than 200yds! These were grown men but it was like watching and bunch of 8-10 y/o's wack away at it. We got there at 7:30am and didn't finish until almost 4pm!! It usually takes us about 3 hr 15-45 min to play a round there. Rant: OFF

I got paired up with a guy yesterday that had the same ball position with every single club. The ball was in the middle of his back foot! This de-lofted every club big time. When he tee'd off with driver, he would hit a very low hook or duck hook. He seriously hit down on it so I don't think you want to hit down on it like he did. His irons were actually pretty good. He hit his PW like a 8 and his 8 like a 6 and so on.

I may try one if I find it out on the course but for now, I am happy with my used Ebay Maxfli Blackmax's. Can't beat 50 cents per ball for a damn good ball!

I don't care what name is on sunglasses. I have never and would never pay more than 20 bucks.

I finally bought some golf shoes after playing 4 years without them. I was at a very hilly course and was walking back down a very steep hill in the rain and slipped, fell half way down the hill. I got up, slipped again and fell the rest of the way down the hill. If they are good for anything, they will help prevent falling down hills!

I don't even think about my hdcp, when I play. It's just a rough average of your high and low scores and you can quickly start to expect to shoot your hdcp number or better. This is not realistic. I have only been tracking my scores for about 2 months which has yielded a 16 hdcp. I would like to think I could shoot an 85-88 whenever I play but that is not what got me to a 16. I also shoot in the low 90's and, on bad days, shoot in the mid-high 90's(not many). If I can par a hole, I think I can par any hole. I don't go into any hole hoping to save bogey. I expect to par it, at least. When I screw up, I don't get pissed off, I bear down.

I understand and really appreciate what you are saying. The hard part is the he is one of my very best friends, here in Memphis and the only friend that is serious about golf. I will continue to play golf with him but I will certainly have a different mindset. I used to feel like I could play him straight up......and now I will still play straight up but just will totally block him out. It's kinda sad, when you think about it.

Maxfli Blackmax. More durable than the Pro V1 and cant tell the difference in spin. I can hit it as long and and get it to stop dead off a 5 iron and get it to draw back 10-12 feet from a 9I-60*wedge. I played 1 ball for 3 rounds. It was dirty looking but was not scuffed or shredded.

I think you missed the part where I said I beat him the last 5 out of 6 times. First time I beat him he began talking trash. I had a problem with the kind of trash he was talking today. So called advice meant to do harm. My main point was that it is a BS way to try to win by talking trash. If you can't win without talking trash, stay off the course. I did let him get into my head and that is my fault but I would hate to win if I did that to someone else. I guess I am just too decent. When I play, I am considerate and just play my own game. If I lose because someone plays better then so be it. He beat my by 2 strokes today and I was only there to work on a few things and knowing that, he's gloating that he beat me. I don't care. He beat me for years when I could barely break 95. He has been shooting mid 80's for as long as I have played with him. Now that I am beating him, his true and distasteful colors are starting to show. I don't like ghetto golf. This is not a dice game behind a strip joint in an alley. I have played with many scratch golfers that didn't use gutless tactics against others of any skill level(class acts).

I play with a friend who really gets on my nerves sometimes and messes my game up as well. I think he does it on purpose to beat me. All day on the course today, he's harping on how my routine is wrong. My final part of the setup, I have the club head sitting about ball height and then bend my knees down to ground the club behind the ball. I have been doing quite well the past few months with this routine and very rarely hit one fat or thin. Today he's starts giving advice on how I should first bend my knees and then set the club down behind the ball. WTF difference does it make? As long as I am doing something that is comfortable and works. I have beat him the last 5 of 6 rounds so I must be doing something right....... I was working on a slight grip change and he knew this and I was shooting a little left and then he starts with this crap and now I'm topping and chunking shots! He has been playing 4 years longer than me and never thought I would catch him or beat him and since I have started beating him, he tries to get me out of my mental game to be able to win. Is that not some BS, cowardly way to win?

Haven't played it yet but have a tee time reserved for this Thursday during twilight. Also curious to hear from another local who has played it.

I play with a couple guys and it pisses me off because they will try to give me 1-2 foot putts and sometimes they will hit the ball back to me right before it goes in the cup! I have missed many putts 2 feet and less and I want to know if I actually make them.

If I am out playing a round where I am practicing like working on my grip, stance or swing or something I will break the rules because I am working on shots and not the overall game. If I am actually playing for a score that will contribute to my handicap, I will always play by the rules. I am not saying I know every single rule or the correct interpretation of every rule(how many of us do?).

I was recently looking for a 3 wood and settled on the Adams Speedline. The majority were 15*and had to search for a few days on Ebay until a 13* showed up. I grabbed it and I am in love with it. When I have trouble with the driver, I pull out the 3 wood and hit it very consistently to 235-245 which is just shy of the 260 I hit the driver. On the tee box, I tee it up about a half inch off the ground and in the middle of my stance and it takes off on the same trajectory as my good driver shot.

He's 8 under with 3 to go so I'm pretty sure he'll make the cut. Went from 95th to 7th in 11 holes. He started with 5 birdies and an eagle on the back and has one birdie and the rest pars on the front with 3 to go. I think he figured something out since yesterday.

That is a very true statement. I played for years mainly for the fun of it but when I realized I was getting no better by just playing or practicing, I started reading books, this forum and watching swing videos. I had a hdcp of about 30 just 6 months ago and am now at 16 since I joined this forum and began reading and voraciously consuming knowledge. I just read Ben Hogans book a couple days ago and now know a lot about what was wrong with my game. It was basically my grip, stance, takeaway, etc. I have been able to grind out an 87, 2x88's and 5x89's with a very clumsy and inconsistent swing.