rwfastrax

3 balls is enough when others are around.

Maybe "ShamWow" would work?! I like the cold towel idea too...anything but what I'm dealing with.

I've seen quite a few threads about playing in the heat and my biggest problem is keeping my hands dry. I take my glove off in between shots and the biggest problem is on my short wedge shots, which I like to play w/o glove. No matter how much I dry my hands on my towel...by the time I set up and grip the club... my left hand feels sweaty and I don't have the "tacky" feel on the grip that I like. I feel like I'm gripping too tightly. Any tricks I might be missing out on?

as long as the etiquette is in order...I don't particularly mind. One thing that bothers me and does effect my game is someone who outwardly and continually (and usually increasingly) displays frustration. Throws clubs...overhand axe chops their club into the ground etc...don't care if it's a higher or lower hcap than me. That sucks and effects me mentally. But I'm working on blocking that out.

Tobacco spit on the green! Or anywhere really. I do not want to touch my ball if it rolled through that. I've heard this defended by saying "it's absorbed in 60 seconds..." so what!! Keep it to yourself. Just because it doesn't gross you out doesn't mean it doesn't disgust others. Not fixing ball marks Slow inconsiderate play Sports bar behavior that can be heard 300 yards away.

I HATE hitting a golf ball towards anyone within range. I don't care if they're sitting there watching me or not. Case in point. Last week in my league play we're on the last hole, waiting for the group in front to finish their approach shots. As they finish and head for the green a cart from the hole to our left enters our hole through the tree line on the left. I suppose he wanted to play his ball from the rough on my hole instead of pitching it back to his fairway. He starts flailing his arms for me to hit and I refuse. His cart is parked 10feet from our fairway and only about 240 yds away from our tee. After about 60 seconds of this stalemate...I yell for him to "MOVE" and he yells back for me to "HIT!!!" To me...it's not the point of whether or not he can see my shot, know it's coming towards him...and get out of the way. It's more about me knowing he was there, and suffering some sort of psychological muscular bailout and blocking my tee shot to the right. He finally moved back into the treeline and I cracked the drive past him on the fly into the fairway. That felt good.

My biggest one was to score a round in the 70s this year and I made it this past Saturday. I was at 1 over through 14 holes and I realized to heck with 70s I want to shoot par. Started thinking about it too much (I'd fought it off the entire back nine until then) and lost 3 more shots to par. Finished with a 75 and my previous low had been 81. Very happy.

+1 on this!

Same pre-putt routine every time. If the course is backed up..be very efficient in between shots, but always stick to your pre shot routine on every shot. A pre shot routine for a putt shouldn't take more than 20-30 seconds. You should make your read while others are putting/chipping whenever possible.

Whether it's a par 5, 4 or if you're behind a tree on a par 3. If it's too risky/difficult to put it on the green...set up the next shot to be an easy approach. Risk/reward is a great ruler to play by.

I only have a short practice range at my home course. Driver or fairway woods are way too long to hit. If at all possible I will try to find a teeing area and aim to an unoccupied part of the course and hit a few shag balls with the driver. It's not always possible though. I'd love to be able to hit 20 balls before the round...

I think the people that think golf is easy___ a. have never played (maybe they've been to a driving range...but not played a round) b. their only exposure to golf is watching the tour on TV and for the most part...those guys make it "look" easy. Even though we know better.

Last night during my round, I was teeing off with 5W. For this I always use a broken tee as I don't tee the ball up very high. I tee the ball...address it, takeaway..then on the downswing the tee topples over and the ball falls to the ground. I'd say I got about halfway on the downswing...but no further. If this would have been an at-bat in baseball I'd definitely have "checked" my swing. I re-teed and played a good ball. Was this a penalty?

1. at the edge of the green...8i - 52 degree wedge pending roll distance needed 2. always 60 degree wedge

I asked if the matches were based on hcaps before the match or after...I was told that all the numbers went into the computer program and it gives us what it gives us. These are people I work with and I'm certainly not going to make a stink about it. I don't want to take all the fun out of it. Guess I just need to continue to play well.

We've played about 8 rounds so far. I think someone is trying to make sure me and my partner don't run away with it halfway through. That's ok..my main intention for playing was to be able to get 9 in after work during the week and playing in a league was the only way. Mission accomplished. Thanks for the replies.

Guys I just want to get some opinions on my league situation. For my match last week I went into the day with an 11 hcap. My opponent was a 14. I shot 41 and he shot 48. Should have been an easy win. The match results however were based on the new (post match) hcaps in which mine was dropped to 8 and his was raised to 16. I lost the match by .02 strokes. I see our schedule today and my hcap is now a 6. I can assure everyone I'm not 6 away from scratch by any stretch of the imagination. Am I getting hosed? This is my first league and I may not know all the details...

I have such a mental block about hitting a shot in someone's direction...I wouldn't do it. I'd likely blow the shot and then be pissed at everybody. Especially myself because I know I should have waited. But yeah...the courtesy should go to the golfers.

GolfshotGPS is very good. I think RE yardage they'll all get the job done. I'm not certain what the other apps offer in RE to stat tracking. But I really like what Golfshot does. It represents stats graphically and with pie charts too. I like the fact that with a touch of the screen, you can see all of your rounds, your last 50 rounds (and hopefully the improvement), last 20 and last 5 rounds. Also stores all the individual scorecards too. No yearly charges either.

I'm dealing with this myself. My girlfriend started playing last year and really loves to play. Her swing is very inconsistent. My biggest issue is...if I coach her...swing and golf philosophy..etiquette...etc the whole 9 yards...I don't focus properly and my game seems to fall apart. She really loves to play but clearly sees the effect that playing with her has on my game...lately I've been modifying my state of mind when playing with her to a "practice round" where I work on things or try things that I might not if I were really trying for a good number.

+1 on this. With driver on shorter par 4's I'll be well inside a wedge, but still not on the green... and would need to play a half shot (which is not very comfortable for me). Same goes for par 5s, 2nd shot from 250 out...I'm just as comfortable (or more) with a wedge- 8i in my hand from the fairway hitting a full swing. I tee off regularly with a 5 - 6i, 3H or 5W just to set up that comfortable approach. Sure does make the game a lot easier. Last week in my league match..final hole on par 5. My opponent teed into trouble and I hit fairway. He was forced to play a risky shot and didn't do well. I hit 9i to get about 118 out...then 52 degree for GIR and match win.

+1 on the in to out swing path. Therefore also working on compensating for the extra distance I'm getting. Roughly 1 club.

short par 4 dogleg left. I played a 5 iron draw and started it too much in the middle of the fairway and ended up to the left of the cart path in some trees. I had one tree blocking my approach to the green so I couldn't go straight at it. I've been working on my swing path to get more inside to out...and I've been able to incorporate more draw shots but I hadn't tried a punch with a draw yet. I was about 145 out. Again with the 5i pulled the shot off ended up about a foot short of the green on the fringe. Saved par.

Wet towel when necessary between shots. Clean (detail) about 3 times a season. RE grips..I may have stumbled onto something cool. I have very hard water in my home. I've cleaned my grips regularly and thought it helped out a bit but not as much as I'd have liked. i got caught in a rainstorm a few weeks ago during a round and all my grips got completely soaked. I brought the clubs in the house and wiped them down. By the time the grips had further dried naturally they felt like they were brand new again. So I'm thinking rainwater...I got a spray bottle and collected some and sure enough...this works much better for me than tap water. YMMV

If it's the one I have it's a little older (maybe early to mid 90's) and was originally released on VHS. Still worthwhile.