Buckswin

There's a guy here in Cincinnati named Ron Curran who gives lessons called Instant Bogey Golf. It's a ripoff, as his claim is that he teaches you how to shoot bogey golf without changing the swing that you have. His teachings boil down to: 1. Hit the little ball before the big ball (!) 2. If you slice it, turn your hands over sooner 3. If you hook it, turn your hands over later Thing is, I saw him playing golf a couple of weeks ago at a goat track. If he broke 100, I'm Tiger Woods. A bogey golfer shouldn't shoot much higher than 83 or 84 there.

Terrible attitude... Besides, it would be too late to call the violation once the round was over.

I've played several rounds as a single and also shoot some of my best scores playing solo. The other advantage, as noted by some, is that it's possible to play 18 in about 90 minutes if you don't get stuck behind anybody.

I think that I play most of my shots from about the same ball position, except for Driver/3-Wood off the tee (more forward), SW and chip shots (further back). I have a tendency to think too much over the ball and during my swing, which causes many issues. I play much better when I think through the shot during my pre-shot routine and more or less clear my head throughout the actual golf swing. I do have a tendency to hit the ball fat, though, and I've never been able to fully rectify the problem. I'm a sweeper, so it's not usually a huge loss in distance, but there will be the occassional beaver pelt on a wet fairway or out of the rough the just kills a score. It seems to actually get worse when I move the ball back in my stance.

I played with an older gentleman this past Sunday. On #18, a long Par 5, he was well over 300yards from the green after his drive. He never put his driver back in the bag, so I'm thinking, "Wow! He's going to hit driver off the deck, IN THE ROUGH!!" Well, he did hit driver out of the rough, after a pulled out a tee and teed it up!

Doesn't matter how long the club is... I have a TaylorMade Rescue Dual 19* that's certainly shorter than my 3-wood or 5-wood (and 3-iron, which it's marketed to replace), but it replaces more than the 5-wood distance for me (and 3-iron). The question is, how far do you hit it? Hybrids have shorter shafts so that they're easier to hit.

I've switched to ProV1x balls recently, from NXT Tours. My handicap is on the rise, though I also switched to a mid-size grip (from the originals that came on the clubs), so I'm not sure which is to blame more (or is it just me?). When I hit on the launch monitor, driver swings were in the 90-100mph range with ball speed in the 140's. Other than the pro saying that my swing speed was a little slow, though acceptable, for ProV1x, he didn't mention other balls that I might try. Are any of you aware of a resource that would assist me in finding other balls to demo/try out?

When I got my SureShot GPS unit in March of this year, my handicap was 21.1. Since then, it's come down to 18.0. Having exact yardages to the f/c/b of every green, as well as hazards makes me take more confident shots.

As I understand it, and have experienced myself, a less stiff shaft would likely cause a more pronounced pull hook. Besides, I've already made the change and am happy (for now). We'll see if it's just the "new club effect" or if the change is a lasting improvement.

Well, I finally got resolution to this problem. I went to Golf Galaxy on Friday and did a full fitting on their launch monitor. I started by hitting about 7 balls with my old driver (TM r7 460 in 9.5 degrees with stiff shaft). We moved to an r7 460 in 10.5 with stiff and was experiencing more of the same issues that I was having with my old driver -- I was averaging in the 230 range, but my mishits were low, left and hooking. I hit 7 with that and then hit 7 with the Nike Sumo in 10.5 with stiff shaft and 7 with the Cleveland Hibore in 10.5 with stiff shaft. It became pretty apparent that it was going to be between the Sumo and Hibore, as I was averaging 255 - 265 yards with roll (pro said that you should add 10 yards to that because of the rubber tee??). I hit about 10 more with each and we plotted the shots on the monitor. I had a draw with both shots, a hook on bad swings (sometimes getting up to 1000rpm of hook spin. Most of the time, I was getting 300-500 rpm of hook spin after pushing the ball 3 degrees right (yielding a nice draw back towards the middle). I had far more scores in the mid 80's with the Nike and was much more consistently in the middle of the "fairway." I wound up ditching my old r7 460 in 9.5 for the Nike Sumo in 10.5 with stiff shaft. Due to the hook spin and the really small stock grip, I went ahead and had a Crossline mid-size grip put on it. I played with the Nike for the first time today and probably hit 6 or 7 of my longest 10 drives of the year. On almost everyone hole that I played driver, I was longer than I've ever been on the hole, including the #3 handicap hole (Mill Course), which is #7 and is a Par 4 that plays 400 yards but has a slight dogleft left that's very protected by trees. I'm typically hitting 3 wood and trying to get to the 150 birdhouse. Today, I flew right over the birdhouse and was left with 96 yards to the middle (SureShot GPS!!). Had I been able to not blade a wedge and/or hit an iron anywhere close to straight, I would have been in the low 80's today. Instead, I bladed wedges on #3 (leading to a double) and #5 (leading to a double). I completely mishit iron shots on #4 (leading to quadruple b/c it went OB), #7 (leading to double), #8 (leading to double), #9 (leading to par), #10 (leading to bogey), #11 (leading to bogey), #15 (leading to bogey), #16 (leading to double) and #18 (leading to triple). There's more, but you get the point. My drives were not an issue today, save for #12 and #18, but as an 18 handicap, I expect that I'll have a couple of bad drives in a round. Now, I just need to figure out how to tell my wife that I got rid of the r7 because it was her anniversary gift to me last July (2006). She already got pissed when I told her that I went to the launch monitor to "think" about getting a new one :)

I've dropped over 4 strokes from my handicap this year, and I'm positive that a large percentage of the credit goes to the Sureshot unit that I've been using. Prior to this season, I'd only broken 90 once, and now am regularly doing so, including an 80! Having yardages to doglegs, mounds, trees, creeks, f/c/b of greens generates so much confidence! If I could change anything about the interface, it would be to include the ability to mark clubs and map courses without leaving the "play golf" function. As it is now, you'd have to either dedicate a round (or 2) to mapping the course or mapping club distances or constantly go in and out of different menus, requiring several key presses. I have to admit, the intelligreen feature of SG sounds like a great idea, because the sureshot only gives distances to the points that you marked and doesn't have the entire green surface mapped. In other words, if you're pin high, but right of the green, your distances to f/c/b are going to be basically the same numbers because you're getting the distances based on the f/c/b as mapped from the fairway. Not a big deal, but would be helpful. Any other users have feedback, ideas, hidden uses to share?

When I picked the game back up about 5 years ago, I shot over 150 at the Nicklaus course here in town. I say over 150 because we didn't count every stroke/swing and miss/penalty/etc. I'm sure that it was scary to play with me that day, as noone knew where the ball was going to wind up.

The 14 is in the toe now. When I move it to the heel, I get the hook. I have a push slice now, which seems to jive with what you're saying. I play twice a week. On Sundays, it's always the same 4 guys and they all hit driver off the tee. One is a short hitter and might get 200 on a good drive. The other 2 hit their drivers about 240 average (260-270 on a great shot) and I've stuck with just the 3-wood for the last 2 months. I'm consistently in the same vicinity as them with the 3-wood, though I can't ever get the 260-270 with it. I'd love to pull out the driver and blow by them (in the fairway, of course). More than anything, I've stuck with the 3-wood for accuracy. My course management skills have improved greatly, as a result, which is a direct factor in the large reduction in my handicap index over the last year (I was at 26.4 on July 2, 2006 and am now at 18.2). Is there a primer somewhere on shaft stiffness that I could read? I assumed that I need XS because of the distance on my 3-wood.

I've been playing with my Nike T40 3-wood for about 2 years now (bought at a Second Swing) and by R7 460 since the end of July last year. I've taken to only playing the driver on severe dogleg rights, as I can't figure out the push slice. If I move the weights (the 14 is on the outside now), I fight a low duck hook, which is worse to me. I average around 240 off the tee with the 3-wood and about the same with the r7, but the 3-wood is much more consistent. The r7 has 9 degrees of loft and a XS shaft. I'm thinking that I might benefit from a session on a launch monitor or some lessons specific to hitting driver. I can't figure out why hitting driver off the tee would be so much different than hitting 3-wood, though. Interestingly, the 3-wood comes with a little bit of a pull. No hook at all, just a slight pull (maybe 10 yards left of target). It's a pretty closed face, though. Anyone in the Cincy area know where I can get some cheap/free launch monitor time?

Is it an S&T; thing to not have your left thumb (righty golfer) on top of the grip or is that a standard grip? Which side of the grip did you move it to?

Shot an 85 this morning, which moved my (running) handicap to 18.8. I looked back at my statistics for the last couple of years and found that my handicap was 26.4 on 7/2/06. I've improved my handicap by almost 29% in 1 year! My goal at the beginning of this season was to get to 18 (be a "bogey golfer") but I wasn't sure that it would really happen. I'm hitting many more GIR and when I miss, I'm not missing by as much. I'm also not getting myself into trouble as often. I'm losing some strokes right now because I'm experimenting with a ball change and my putting distance is suffering (I'm not consistently around the hole with my first putt. I leave too many way short or way long).

I started playing ProV1s recently (switched from NXT Tour) and have had to keep the driver in the bag to compensate for the lateral movement off the tee. I'm actually scoring better overall, however, because I tend to fly the ball on chips further than I should and the increased spin helps to check it up. I'm going to try some V1x balls to see if I like them better.

Nothing makes me madder than groups not letting faster groups play through. On Wednesday (yes, 7/4), we had to tee off on the back 9 at 8:20am. We were the 3rd group off and were in carts. The group in front of us was a 3some and were walking (and had a senior). We waited on every shot on that side and the group in front of them (a 2some with a 5 year old) was more than a hole ahead of them until they started having the 5 year old play because they were so far ahead. Not once did the group in front of us offer to let us play through. Getting pretty frustrated, I said "maybe they'll pick up the pace or let us play through) loudly a couple of times when they were teeing off and we were on the green. Fortunately, they only played that side. When we made the turn, there were 3 groups waiting to tee off on 1, including 2 groups of seniors who couldn't hit the ball more than 100 yards but refused to play from the yellows. Hole #1 is a reachable par 5, so we were sloooow there, too. I screwed up twice in 2 holes, though. On #2, my drive leaked a little right and my view of the green was partially blocked. I thought that they were clear of the green so I hit my approach. It came within 15 feet of them as they walked off the green. On #3, there's a tree that overhangs the tee box on the right side, but you have to hit a 20 yard fade to get maximum use of the fairway. I clipped the tree and wound up with 231 to the front edge. I pulled out my hybrid, which should be 200 if I absolutely nuke it. I swumg away and the ball game to rest on the back edge of the green (250 plus) while they were still on it. I felt terrible, but as you can imagine, they were in no mood to accept another apology. The round took 4 hours to play, but this course (Reeves) shouldn't take more than 3.5 at any time.

I picked up a SureShot GPS about 4 months ago and can't imagine playing without it. The great thing about the SureShot is that you can map a course yourself if it isn't in their database. Obviously, that doesn't help you the first time you play a course... If I remember correctly, you can map up to 15 points per hole (plus front/center/back of each green). I've improved my handicap by 10% since getting it. When I miss now, I'm missing pin high but right or left, instead of missing short/long.

Shot 86 today (68.6 107), but went out in 38. On the front, I wasn't driving the ball very far (215 avg.), but it's a short course and I wound up with a lot of full irons into greens and was really sticking shots. I played the front with 1 birdie, 4 pars and 4 bogeys. I started the back with double, double, double because of a bad chip on each. On #17 (160 yard par 3), I hit about 3 inches behind the ball off the tee, leaving myself with 100 to the flag. I hit a pure GW but caught a gust of wind and it fell short into a bunker. Because we'd had rain, and based on how the ball was sitting on how the sand felt, I tried to pick the ball of the sand. No dice. Sand was super soft and I left it in. Wound up with a 6. I did hit 2 great draw shots today. One from 186 out on a par 5 where I had to go around a tree. It was at least a 30 yard draw and wound up just a hair long.

You're absolutely right. I read the article, as well, and have been keeping stats for some time. There is a direct correlation between my highest GIR rounds and my lowest scoring rounds, regardless of how close to the pin my approach is. Over the last 2 years, I average a hair over 2 putts/GIR and 1.7 putts/missed GIR. As a 20 handicap (19.9), I could certainly do a better job of getting my approach shots closer to the pin to give myself an opportunity at a 1 putt GIR, but that's simply not realistic at this point. If I miss the GIR, it costs me 0.7 strokes. If I hit every GIR, I'd shoot par golf. If I missed every GIR, I'd shoot bogey golf. I'm averaging 20% GIR this year, and am averaging shooting a 92.

Except that you can move your ballmarker (and replace it) without penalty...

There was a program on TGC last night about the redo of TPC Sawgrass and they specifically mentioned that they wanted 1 big hop and then a check on the greens. Perhaps the course was playing as they wanted it to...

I think you meant the other way way around, as he's a lefty... You mean that he should start will all of his weight on his back foot. What you said was that it should be on the front, which would cause a reverse pivot. Maybe I'm backwards, though!

I picked up a tip about a year ago that's really improved my distance control. I think it was on one of those HDNET golf instruction shows. You use a different club based on the ratio between your ball position to 1 pace onto the green and 1 pace onto the green to the hole. If the ratio is 1:1, use a PW If the ratio is 1:2, use a 9I If the ratio is 1:3, use an 8I If the ratio is 1:4, use a 7I If the ratio is 1:5, use a 6I. In other words, pace off the distance from your ball to 1 pace onto the green. That spot is your landing spot. Then pace off the distance from that spot to the hole. If the distance from your ball to 1 pace on is 10 feet and the distance from that spot to the hole is 20 feet, you'd use a 9I. Obviously, on a downslope shot (or upslope shot), you have to take that into consideration and add or subtract a club (or more).