Teesand

For me the question would be how do you score well when you are hitting it badly because if I'm scoring well then as far as I'm concerned I'm playing well. But on those days when you know you're swing isn't right it can be hard to get around the course. The one thing I've learned is to not fight your swing. Play with whatever you've got that day. If the ball is flying right, then play it. Certainly try and minimize the slice by club selections and don't swing too hard. So your clubhead speed is a little slower but the ball won't go so far off line. actually now that I think of it I think the key is just to keep swinging within yourself. Stay in balance. On days I struggle with my swing I tend to swing harder in an attempt to "fix" it and that never works. I even see Tiger doing that on Tour. Watch how balanced he is on good days and then watch him on days he struggles. his follow throughs are all over the place. He might shoot 68 both days but he worked a lot harder on one of them.

I'm probably in the minority here but I think there are some advatnages to hitting off of matts. the biggest thing is that you can set up your hitting station with alignment clubs and not have to move everything around after every few divots. I've been lucky enough to take lessons from some very well known instructors and they all insist that you cannot practice without a proper practice station unless you can afford to have someone you trust watching you. So I think the mats are good for that.

The strategy for good course management is the same for all levels. The specific are different but the overall concept is the same. Play the hole backwards. Where do you want to be for the shot into the green whether that's the 2nd 3rd or even 4th shot on a par 4. Try and give yourself the easiest approach, even if its just a chip. Would you rather play a flop over a bunker or have the whole green to chip across?

Don't forget Tiger has bought that "compound" somewhere else in FL and is developing that property so I'm not sure if he's still in Isleworth. Maybe he didn't like the new neighbors.

Don't forget to check into the Massacre at Winged Foot in 1974. The leaders there were shooting in the 80's so there had to be some big numbers in that US Open.

He talked about that in a Golf Digest interview quite a while back. He always used a Ping putter since he was a kid and he doesn't want to change the feel in his hands. Needless to say its worked for him.

Hello from SOCAL. I would love to have your green fees! Here in OC it almost costs that much to hit a bucket of balls and unfortunately I am only slighlty exaggerating.

Here is the link to my home course. www.arroyotrabuco.com I think its one of the best courses in OC. Usually there is one hole on almost every course I play that I think is terrible. I honestly don't think there is a bad hole on this course. There are some holes I don't play well (needless to say) but its not because they are tricked up.