Greg

Im about to go play at a local lighted par 3 course tonight. Its a different experience and most of the holes are really short, ranging from 77 yards to 150 being the longest so the longest club i carry in my bag is my 6 iron. Its nice being able to play after dark, especially in the summer when its not so hot. Its challenging hitting those in between shots and trying to hit the greens.

Lately mine was about a month ago at Hickory Ridge in Carbondale, IL. Playing 9 that day and doing horribly, I didnt even bother to record a score on a few holes. Got to the 8th, a short par 3, about 130 yards to a green guarded on the left by water and surrounded by bunkers, so for a short hole still a pretty tough tee shot. Had been having trouble keeping my head down all day but this hole was straight into the Sun so it forced me to look down. My playing partner, a much better player than myself and much more familiar with the course, had already hit the green about 30 ft to the right of the pin. I threw a ball down, grabbed my 8 iron and hit my shot. I couldnt even see where it went at first but he told me Im right by the pin. I thought he was kidding but then I shaded my eyes and saw his ball on the right side of the green and saw where mine went, about 5 feet away from the hole, best shot of the year to date. Was very nervous on the putt but managed to sneak it in and get only my 3rd birdie of the year so far.

Ohio State over Alabama, they're just simply going to be the 2 best teams, though I think bama will have a tougher time going unbeaten having to beat florida and lsu, both will be good. Ohio State if they stay focused shouldnt have any trouble running the table in the Big Ten.

Cardinals in 7 over the Yankees. Would be exciting but it seems the last couple of years the Cards have just been missing something when it comes to postseason, maybe they can make a move or 2 this year to put them over the top again.

I always hit all my clubs at the range, starting with the short irons then working my way up to driver. Aiming at certain targets at the range like the distance markers helps too, pretend thats the flag and see how close you can get to them. At my range theres a flag at about 70-75 yards that you can aim at, they've got it sitting inside a milk crate and its fun to see if you can hit one in the crate, got pretty close yesterday, missed by about 2 feet. I mostly just use the range to make my muscles remember how to hit shots and keep everything fresh in my mind about my swing so when i play i feel more comfortable and more relaxed. Yeah its fun to try to see how far you can smash your driver but im more concerned with how straight i can hit it and whether its a hook or slice and how to try to straighten it out and try to judge if that drive would be in the fairway or not if i were actually playing. Same thing with irons, try to judge how far off my target i am and if they would hit the green.

I know driving distance isnt everything, but it helps hitting a shorter club into a green than trying to hit a long iron or hybrid on a longer par 4, especially for a higher handicapper like me. Im not likely to hit the green or even get close with a longer club but put me 50 yards closer and give me an 8 iron and ive got a chance to hit that green and walk away with a par instead of struggling just to make a bogey.

Its not all about the loft, the shaft in the driver has a lot to do with ball flight, maybe even more so. Think about it, whats the difference in 8.5 degrees or 10.5(which is what i have, im 5'11"). Im not an expert on driver shafts or anything but I know certain shafts promote a higher ball flight and others promote a shorter ball flight, regardless of driver loft. Im sure someone more knowledgable will hopefully expand on this and be more helpful but Ive hopefully got the ball rolling at least.

The one thing the LPGA has going for it now is there is no dominant player(or maybe thats a turnoff). There is no female version of Tiger or Phil that is always in contention. It is somewhat disappointing that the American players arent doing well lately(Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr, etc). Yes it is nice to see that many of the players are attractive but that shouldnt be the only reason they're there, if they cant win or at least make cuts, you"ll never see them on tv anyway.

Wow, great prize, great putter.

I just went to the Dicks SGweb site, i didnt realize there were so many different versions of the burner irons. Im shocked to see that they no longer carry r7 irons. They have to be probably their most popular irons ever, maybe available new elsewhere just not at Dicks SG. My irons are very similar to r7's and thats why i got them and I like them.

I may be way behind on this thread but im guessing that one of the main reasons that handicaps overal arent dropping is that so many more people play golf now than they did years ago, meaning a lot of new golfers every year. Great for the sport as it continually grows in popularity but you constantly have newbies introduced to the game hence high handicaps and bringing up the overall average. I didnt read all the posts so someone else probably already said something like this. Most people are terrible in the beginning and many never get much better and a lot of those are ok with that, they still have fun. Ive been playing for 2 years, I was horrible when i first started and still struggle just to break 100, 95 is my best 18 hole score ive ever recorded. In fact i think ive only broken 100 maybe 4 times. I usually just play 9 so i dont really play 18 that often, maybe 10 times a year or so. And thats another factor, new players may not get to play very often and practice even less due to other responsibilities and obligations so it takes a long time to improve.

Many times i dont have the 2 hours free time neccesary to go play 9 at the course and hit a lot of practice shots, but ive got 45 minutes to go hit balls at the range to keep my swing somewhat sharp and consistent, at least to my 20+ handicap level anyway. Theres a local course around here that is ok but is seldom crowded and very cheap to play 9, $10 for 9 with a cart, good place to practice a lot of shots as there are hardly anyone else out there when i go in the afternoon and although its not long, has some challenging holes that require some shot making, probably the hardest 280 yard par 4 anyone will ever play. I would rather go play there 3 times during the week than go to the range and spend almost as much on range balls but I just dont have the time unless I want to sacrifice sleep(I work at night) as we have been working lots of overtime lately to get out of working on Memorial Day weekend. I plan to play quite a bit this coming weekend and want to be playing good so practice helps a lot.

When i first started, i had a couple friends help me to learn the basic and eventually i developed my own swing that feels natural, though im sure flawed but I play well enough to enjoy the game most of the time. Ive thought about gettting lessons, just not many instructors in my area, most of the courses dont really have a teaching pro, its a rural area in southern il. Like when i looked up where i could go to get a free lesson for free lesson month, closest participating course was about 40 miles away. Prob at least half around here dont even have a driving range and I would think you would need a driving range to take a lesson, thats where most instruction would occur and of course a putting green for putting and chipping. One reason I havent attempted to take lessons is that im not sure i would be a good student, i know some things im doing wrong and just cant seem to physically stop doing them so im sure a teaching pro would get frustrated working with me. Ive recently been working on keeping my head down and not dropping my right shoulder, 2 things a friend pointed out and showed me as he videotaped my swing on his phone. He's a much better player than me so I take his tips seriously, if he played and practiced as often as i would he would probably be a single digit handicapper, but he never gets to practice and only plays maybe once a week if that because hes busy with work and 3 young children at home, probably plays to about a 15-16 or so normally.

The one thing i noticed he pointed out in the video that i tried and it helped a bit, was the setup for the shot, setting the driver 3-4 inches behind the ball. I had never even thought to try that before, I think it did help me to hit my driver a bit better though you have to make sure that it is lined up properly with the ball when you start your swing or you will still slice it but i hit one of my longest drives ever(about 270-275 yards yesterday) with my cheap kmart clearance rack nitro driver that im using now. So you dont need an expensive driver to hit good drives. I had more consistency if I didnt start the club quite as far behind the ball, maybe 2 inches or so because its easier to see if it is in fact lined up with the ball. Its just something i have never thought about doing before. Ill listen to any instruction and give tips a try, thats what the range is for, trying to improve yourself. If it doesnt help, i revert back to what I know has worked. You cant expect miracle results from a one-size-fits-all generic tip downloaded from the internet but at least they're free so if they dont work you didnt lose anything.

Now that I think about it more, its mostly just one finger that hurts and its a finger I hurt as a child so thats probably why its sore, so probably not much i can do about that. I smashed it playing on something i shouldnt have when i was about 8 years old, i still cant bend it fully so forcing it beyond its comfortable range of motion causes it to be sore. Golf uses a lot more muscles than people think, back, shoulders, hips, etc so being sore after a long time away is probably normal.

Why not, you can find used 7 iron for probably $20, maybe find a demo one at a local store or one on ebay or even a pawn shop. Do you really want him to keep using yours? Just tell him, here now you have your own 7 iron. It doesnt have to match whatever set of irons he has. I havent had anyone ask to use any of clubs for a long time and vice versa. Truthfully he probably likes your irons better than whatever he's using and probably doesnt want to get his own.

I notice that my fingers are sore on my left hand, being a rightly i guess that makes sense as I use those fingers to grip the club. I never wear a glove when playing or at the range, might help i suppose but never felt right. Might be too strong a grip, not sure, its just not severe enough to worry about yet.

If I dont go to the range at least a couple times a week, my swing(which isnt the best anyway) gets noticeably worse. I need the reps on the range to maintain it, I could tell this week as work didnt allow me as much practice time this week and didnt play well sat. Im not sure how productive it is at times, but i havent gotten good enough to go out and simply play once a week without practice and do well, sometimes working on specific things im struggling with, sometimes experimenting with subtle changes like ball position or making sure i have good footwork and balance. All things you really cant do when you're playing, you need to have some confidence in what you're doing before you go to the course. I usually will hit 3 buckets of balls, about 120 or so in about 45 min to an hour, going through every club starting with wedges and working my way to the longer clubs and hitting driver last. I actually enjoy going to the range though if i hit it poorly, I do leave discouraged at times. Its like any other sport, you need to practice to play better or at least play well enough to enjoy it, thats basically my goal at this point in this game.

I think every course around here only allows soft spikes, not sure why anyone would even want to wear metal spikes, I doubt they would perform better and would be much harder on greens. Ive never used metal spikes, just now started wearing golf shoes but i seem to get excellent footing with the soft spikes.

congrats, the first one is always the hardest. My first came 2 years ago on labor day at crooked creek golf in mt vernon il. 1st hole, short par 4, only about 280 yards but have to lay up short of the green for pond. Hit 4 hybrid and pw and actually missed the green by about 5 feet, then chipped in from about 35 ft for birdie. My last was at mcleansboro about a month ago, drove the short 245 yard 3rd hole and 2 putted for birdie. I still dont get very many, maybe one a month if i play a lot so they still mean a lot to me, still working on first eagle, may never get that.

Id look at some used drivers, has to be some local store around there that has a used section, most stores will let you hit the used ones as many times as you want on their simulator to see what you like. Should be able to find something you like for $100 or less. We have a store in mt vernon il(about 25 miles from me) that always seems to have a good supply of used drivers, usually trade ins to choose from, might be able to find another hibore if you really liked that driver or something else. You cant look at a driver and tell whether you like it or not or go by what anybody else says or any review, have to hit it and find out how it feels to you.

I guess what nobody has stated yet is that all recycled balls are not created equal. If there are no scuffs on them, then they should play as new. Not all ebay sellers or wherever you get them from grade their used balls the same. Some "mint" balls are anything but and some other sellers "good" condition balls are just fine as many sellers on ebay are not golfers so they have no idea how to judge the condition of used golf balls. Best way to tell if you're getting a good deal is if they have closeup pics of the balls they're selling or perhaps a detailed description of how they rate them.

I guess it would be similar to people racing old race cars or motorcyles or something like that, never really thought about it. Might be interesting especially if the participants were to also wear clothing from the same time period as well and use balls from the same era, though i bet those would be hard to find. I doubt many people would have the time or money to invest in old club technology to play just for nostalgias sake but worldwide there's bound to be a few and apparently enough that they have their own tournament each year.

Id rather play cheap brand new balls, i.e. intech beta ti or walmart has a new one now, some wilson distance ball that goes for $5 a dozen. I really like the intech balls, though im not a great player but for less than 50 cents a ball brand new, i know im at least the ball is going to be the same all the time, unlike used balls that may have been polished up, might have been hit once, might have been hit 50 times. Unless I get some outstanding deal on ebay like I did last year on some used maxfli balls, got 120 for $25 shipped. They werent all mint but at least playable and got a mix of different balls and I dont mind trying to pull off a shot and lose a ball if it cost a quarter. I still lose too many balls to play any of the high end balls like pro v's or nike ones.

I was wondering this one too