ArrrrJay

Had a great round on Saturday going, +5 at the turn. I am next to the green on 10, a par 4, when I thin my pitch enough to roll it off the other side of the green. Not very happy, but I erase those thoughts, and do my lap around the green with wedge still in hand. Set up for the same pitch, a little higher than the pin, and hit it perfectly, lands where I'm aiming, and starts rolling on the line, goes square into the face of the cup for the par save! It was match play, and my opponent was speechless, he then holed a 35 foot putt for his par! We both had a good laugh, wishing there was some amateur muni highlight show we could be on.

but.... the trap draw. That's insightful....

I usually recommend (or force, if they are friends) they read the book Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella . There's a lot this book has to offer, and most of it is about how to enjoy playing. It teaches the way to play the game, not how to swing or anything. If you can enjoy what you're doing, smile when you have a bad shot, and truthfully play the course one shot at a time, you're doing it right. I credit this book with taking off 5 to 10 strokes on my bad days, where my temper used to come into play. I no longer go to a course with the expectation of shooting my best possible score every time, and can still have fun when I end up in the triple digits (beer may be required though). I'd pass the book along, it's fairly cheap, and I've given it to a few friends as a gift, and it's made them better playing partners.

I've read Bob Rotella's "Golf is not a game of perfect", great read. I do have 2 golf domes I can drive to, but are not very close, probably a once a week drive on the weekend. I'd like to try to work on my swing in the off season, as I am hesitant to do so during the golf season while my scores are improving. I don't think of any of those things while I'm swinging. Just an observation of the parts of my swing I know suck. I don't get my weight onto my left side very well, and end up rotating around the center of my body, coming over the top, and leaving divots under or before the ball. I've worked on this enough to be able to pick the ball off the ground well. Thanks for all the responses and advice!

I play Bridgestone's J33r driver, and it's a great club. My brother plays the J33 combo irons and likes them a lot as well. Good clubs, and a good value.

I don't have access to a video camera for that, but hopefully that can be part of a lesson I take soon. I feel in general I am too flat, don't pivot forward enough, come over the top, and am forced to use my hands to square the club face. Probably playing the game harder than I need to. I have a putter I like (only tried 3 on the course IRL). I plan on practicing putting a lot, but am not sure if practicing on fake hard turf will help or translate to a normal course that I normally play.

Thanks. My putting game comes and goes, but the usual problem is speed. I'm not good at reading greens, but even at the easiest greens I usually have problems figuring the speed of the putt. Not sure if it's just practicing thousands of different putts or a problem with my putting fundamentals. I can pick a line and have an idea of how hard I need to hit it, but usually am short. When I try to putt it far enough on tough putts, I go 6 feet past. I've thought about perfect garage practice setups with nets and such, but I have an apartment with no spare room, and outside is not an option as winter is here...

I think a proper driver shaft fitting is much more important than the type of head. New drivers are all good. Finding the right shaft for your swing is the difficult part.

I played one course all year, and it does help on the greens, but when it comes down to hitting the shot, it makes no difference. I had my best round ever (+17) at a course I had never played on, that was much harder than my home course. About the same length, big elevation changes, many blind shots, and greens that were twice as fast.

First a little background. I started playing golf the last few months of summer 07. 2008 was 95% par 3 courses, and 2 or 3 attempts at a full length course. I had a poor game overall. Would hit my irons thin or fat 60% of the time (mostly fat), sliced the driver horribly, and had no short game. would score in the low 40's at my local par 3's. I caught the bug, and wanted to give a full go at golf and see if I could be any good, or weather it would simply be a drinking game with friends. For 2009, I joined a golf club at a local muni, and started playing and practicing A LOT. Would try to play at least once a week, and practice between rounds. I got a new set of irons, a new driver shaft, and a new putter (half way through the season). The driver shaft change had me hitting major slices for a bit (came back recently too). Here's my scores the year, all at a par 71. 4/17 - 118 4/18 - 105 4/24 - 119 4/25 - 112 5/02 - 119 5/16 - 114 5/17 - 105 5/30 - 105 6/21 - 99 *Year's goal achieved 6/27 - 100 6/28 - 107 7/03 - 97 7/05 - 109 *New driver shaft 7/12 - 103 7/18 - 98 7/19 - 101 7/24 - 102 7/25 - 110 7/26 - 103 8/02 - 99 8/07 - 89 *Split front and back 9 2 days consecutive 8/16 - 95 8/23 - 90 9/06 - 89 *First 89, a par 72, new course to me, big elevation changes 9/12 - 89 *First 89 at home course 9/19 - 93 9/27 - 96 10/3 - 93 *Wet/aerated 10/11 - 100 *Wet/aerated/windy My game is getting more consistent, but I still have some major fundamental flaws that I think will stop me from getting better. I come over the top, hit lots of fades/slices, and can't leave a divot past the ball. I duff some 6+ irons still, putt poorly from over 10 feet, short game leaves a lot of long putts, and only drive the ball around 220-240. I started the year a 34 handicap or something, ended a 21.1 handicap. I've been thinking of taking some lessons over the winter, try to improve my swing at the golf domes. I want to work on my pivot, release, come from the inside, leave a divot past the ball and compress it, etc. I have no clue who where to start with that. No one I know can give me a recommendation for an instructor. Any thoughts, comments, recommendations are appreciated. Hope everyone else in the north had a good year in golf. I am envious of those that can play year round, but they have to deal with hurricanes and tornadoes in return (i keed i keed).

Is it just me, or is that a screwdriver holding the steering wheel together?!?!?!!

I think this might damage the fairways....

I guess I'm just concerned because of how quickly and badly they caused a sore. I mean, I can understand getting a blister after 18, but these made a blister, tore it open, and started wearing out the sore within 11 holes Should I just play 9 hole rounds until they are broken in, or does it seem extreme enough to exchange for a different size. Like I said, I never had this bad an issue with my 10.5 wides, but they were tough to get tight (too wide), and I would get blisters on my toes...

So I broke my FJ DryJoys, and needed a replacement pair of shoes to finish the season. I had been wearing 10.5 wides, and would always get blisters on the inside of my big toes. I wore a hole through the right foot heel (low in the shoe). I tried on a few sizes of contours, and the medium width fit me better. 10.5 seemed to have a bit too much room for the toes, so I tried on 10's Fit well, snug, and seemed great at the store. So... I go to the course and start my round walking 18. At the turn, I had torn a dime sized hole on the outside top of my heel (achilles tendon area, just outside). Deep... I played 2 more holes and had to stop, I had an open sore. I normally don't get the rubbing on the top outside of the heel like this. I am curious what I should do. I am thinking of returning them for 10.5's, but I don't need any extra room in the toes. would this help, or might the rubbing be from the width? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

I prefer using 4 wedges. Currently using a 46* PW, 50* AW, 54* SW, and a 58* LW. Gives me a lot of full swing yardages, and options around the greens. If I played a course where my strategy needed another wood or iron, I'd probably ditch the AW.

A Golfsmith rep responded to my request about the Snake Eyes 600 series. "Unfortunately, the item is no longer available and is discontinued. We have checked all of our shipping locations and we are sold out. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you."

Snake Eyes 600B heads Snake Eyes 600C heads Same issue I was having with the 600XC's, limited club availability. I'll post the info I get from a rep about that whenever I hear back. in the meantime, they do have a full selection for the 675B and 675C (as well as XC). Snake Eyes 675B Snake Eyes 675C

Unfortunatley, as of right now, only the 3 and 4 iron head are available through golfsmith. I sent them a note asking if these clubs will be available again, and if this price will carry over till then, or if I can get a rain check. I thought the 600's were all $19 a head (the C's and B's are, XC's are dirt cheap). Great deal, thanks for pointing it out. I like saving money, but was planning on spending around $200 - $300, so my original question still applies. Also, I'd like to think the 675XC's are better than the 600's, but for that price, if I can get them, I'll buy them.

I will be getting a new set of irons for next year, and am currently trying to decide between a few low cost options. Initially I was looking at building a set (3-PW) from Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes 675XC : $26.97 = $215.76 True Temper DG S300 : $15.25 = $122 Golf Pride Tour Velvet : $3.19 = $25.52 I could reuse my current DG S300's and save $122, but would be unable to keep my current clubs together, or give them to a friend. Would be re-gripping anyways, so the cheapest before shipping this would be is $241.28. I've been looking at Bridgestone's J36 Pocket Cavity for a little bit, and the deals on eBay are really good . I could get a 3-PW set with Rifle 6.0's for between $259 and $299. Both these sets are forged irons, the Snake Eyes are a larger head, with a larger sole, more of a GI club. The J36's are their most forgiving irons, but still have more of a players iron profile. I'm not sure which I would prefer, and doubt I could find either of these clubs to test anywhere locally. My questions: What would you do? What spec Rifle shaft is equal to TT DG S300's? Am I only paying extra for a brand name? What are the pro's + con's of a larger GI iron head? Any other thought, or clubs I should be considering? Thanks in advance!

I started the year with a bunch of 105+'s, and my under 100 rounds are: 99, 97, 92, 90, 89, 89. Also, my home course's par is 71. The last 89 I got was at a par 72, so I guess I've only shot under 18+ once. Even with these scores, I'm a 24.6 or something, although I haven't entered in my newest 89 (one of my old 89's was from a front 9 + back 9, over 2 days with nothing in between. I was told to enter it as a round). Each time I put in a score nowadays, it drops by 1 to 1.5 points. I guess I had a few too many high rounds to start off with.

I had the same problems before, sitting with a 92, I was on pace to break 90, and on hole 13 which practicing a 15 foot chip, I accidentally brushed the ball with the club, sending the ball to the opposite side of the green. I was luckily able to 2 putt from there, but ended up with a 90 at the end of the day.

I try to always be ready as soon as it is my turn, but I am guilty of taking a full practice swing. My biggest issue has been hitting fat or thin shots, so when I take that full practice swing, it's to calibrate the height of my clubface to the ground. Wastes some time, and I do get get exhausted by the end of the day, but when I step up and take my shot without it, I have a high chance of chunking it.

Congrats! Sounds like a wonderful round of golf. To be under par with a double bogey is crazy!

A few weekends ago, I broke 90 for the first time. It was a crazy round, 2 birdies on the front for a 39, and barely held it together for a 50 on the back. Gave myself a 2 stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball, and 4 putted a GIR. Definitely did not feel like a solid round of golf. The other day I played a course for the first time, and shot 89. This course had a lot of features I've never encountered before, major elevation changes, blind shots, few yardage markers, fastest greens I've ever played. I was expecting to be in the high 90's, but had a solid round of bogeys, with one double and 2 pars. Felt much better about the round than the one with birdies, cause I kept it together, and played better on the back than the front (45/44). Really depended on my chipping and pitching around the greens, and saved many strokes. I started this year shooting 115's on my home course, and worked a lot this year. my only goal was breaking 100, and I'm now in the 80's. Just shows that if you work hard on consistent ball striking, short game, and putting, you can play to the 80's. Just thought I'd share my highlight of the year. Hopefully I can keep improving and get a bit lower before the year is done.