wubskis

I still maintain that age should be a factor. A young scratch golfer may not rely on bombing drives, but they sure will help him go low. A senior scratch golfer will be relying on a stellar short game. As I said earlier in the thread, I'm averaging around 230 at a 24 handicap, but it's not because I have a good swing, not even close. Youth is on my side.

I would work on improving your iron consistency first. To have a +/- 15 yard discrepancy with your 7 iron is something I would address before concerning myself with eking out a little more distance with my driver. If you're putting it in (or closely around) the fairway with your driver, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Distance will creep up as your ballstriking improves.

I wish that were the case here in the UK, but well, you need some pretty serious money to join any of the clubs around where I live. There's a course about half a mile up the road from me, but it is ridiculously overpriced for a good front nine but seriously dull back nine. I've seen some UK clubs with a 'student rate' which would be amazing, it would essentially let me play over my easter/summer break, but again, none of the local courses do that. Fantastic. I'd love to be able to play "seriously" more often, because my mental strength is atrocious right now and could definitely do with a boost. Sigh, England, etc.

I would have no problem if a player better than myself wished to play from tees further back, but I would object profusely if they "weren't qualified" to play from the back tees.

I know I'm a blade guy because if I look down at address and don't see a blade, I feel awkward and completely unsure of the putter I'm holding. From there, I just tried and tested everything I could, having narrowed the search. I'm sure right now you could say outright "I don't want to try anything like [blah]", say, a two-ball putter or something with the 'fangs' up from the heel and toe. It's just a case of developing a taste and finding your preferences, I suppose.

Man, everything is SO much cheaper for you guys. Ridiculously so, in some cases. Anyway, my concern was that they would be easier to counterfit because of the fact they're cheap, but I guess you're right. I'll go be the bearer of good news I suppose, thanks!

Those do look pretty sweet.

Well no, nothing glamourous here (despite so many dead bodies turning up on courses according to another thread?). I'm helping my dad get a starter set of clubs going, and after some research and subsequent bargain hunting, came across this set of Adams Tight Lies irons, with 5-SW and a 4 hybrid too. The price has me concerned though, as it seems like it might be too good of a bargain (For the record, £120 = $187). The account belongs to a vendor of golf clubs, and the only negative feedback seems to be from some dolt who pressed the wrong button. So, detective squad, what is your verdict? China expanding its empire, or David Dickinson's wet dream?

Well, it wasn't practical for me to do this on Friday due to a playing partner blanket refusing to play from the red ladies' tees, due to some machismo testosterone fuelled puff-your-chest-out bullcrap. I'm playing on Tuesday with my dad, and will try the red tees then I guess. He's a pretty short hitter anyway, so it could be a nice break for him instead of barely ever being able to go for a GIR. Again, it'll be purely for the personal experience, as I don't have slope ratings to refer to etc. Also, that's a pretty damn fine round you put together there iacas, well played.

That's because putting it further back in your stance delofts the club. What's more important is whether you were swinging both clubs consistently enough to differentiate their distances~

I took my driver out of my bag for a while due to horrific inconsistency, but last time I used it regularly I'd say I was at about 220 carry, 230 roll on average, and my handicap will have been oh, let's say 25 at a guess. I haven't done a good job of logging my stats/scores this summer, I've just been trying to get out as much as possible. I think this also needs to take age into account. Without youth on my side, I think my terrible driver swing would result in something more like 190-200.

Shortish par 4 with a fairway that splits in the middle, elected to hit a hybrid off the tee "to be sure", so I of course completely thin it about 120 yards down the left rough. I then proceed to try again, and again top it, pretty bad this time. I'm mad. I compose myself, look around to get a yardage, and decide I'm about 180-185 out. One 4 hybrid later, and I'm standing behind a 12 foot uphill left-to-right putt for par. Made it.

This, a thousand times this. I've got a bag full of stuff from eBay secondhand, but I knew exactly what specifications I wanted before I went looking around for stuff. It's the same concept, buying something "blind" because you've been told it's a good piece of kit. I don't doubt for a second that the wedges are insanely good, but I couldn't bring myself to actually buy one.

Adding another two that have been chirped up already to my list: - Inconsistent greens. The last round I played, half the greens played like they were covered in glue, and half played like tarmac. I couldn't get into a groove, and one of the strongest parts of my game right now went out the window. - Holes cut on ridiculous parts of the green. Combine both of those, and you have me hitting an 8i into a headwind to within about 5 feet on a par 3, and feeling real good about myself, leading to a three putt as I watched my first attempt lip out and proceed to end up 20 feet away. I was seething .

Congratulations, and congratulations =P

The two main things that come to mind: - People who talk to my ball. I don't talk to my ball, so you can't adopt it as your own and tell it to sit, or bite, or be good. - Incorrect yardages. If I'm on the tee of a par 3 which is telling me it's 150, but in my head I'm thinking "No, that can't be 150, it's more like 120", I will always trust the yardage given on the card. I will then usually proceed to fly the green and wonder when I'll start trusting my own judgement. I feel that I should never have to be in that situation in the first place, though.

A shot a buddy of mine hit on a short par 3 once actually left me slack-jawed in amazement-come-bewilderment. This par 3 is only around 130 from the men's tees, but there's a pond from about 30 yards in front of the tee box to about 5 yards in front of the green. So my buddy tees it up, and hits it really, really fat. I mean, this thing is going about 90 yards tops . Whilst it's plummeting into the pond, I have one of those "no way" moments as I see where it could actually land, and sure enough, it hits the only rock in the pond, causing it to take a huge bounce, and landing just on the front of the green. Which by the way, was where the flag was cut that day. My face must have been such a picture, because I just stared at his ball for at least 5 seconds before saying anything. He was in stitches.

Well sure, in the same way all a bar does is sell you the alcohol and give you a place to drink it, my point is more that whilst I like nothing more than sitting down in the sun after a round and having a beer whilst I scrutinise my scorecard, I couldn't possibly imagine wanting one mid-game. Not only because keeping my score down is hard enough already, without having a little buzz on top of everything else~

I'm still amazed that in America you have people in carts that drive around looking for you to sell you beer on a golf course . Italics overload, but the concept seems so, so ridiculous to me. I just can't understand it. The main thought in my head is that if you buy a beer from them, it's actually them vetting you to see if you should be allowed to play the course. Entrapment at its finest, perhaps?

290 is pretty incredible indeed. I for one don't expect to see this kind of distance off the tee anytime in the conceivable future, pending lottery-winning luck on my side.

I'm all for diversifying the target demographic of golf, and bringing in new players. More new players -> more opportunities for younger players to sharpen their talent -> fiercer competition on tour, making for higher enjoyment from my sofa. Sounds like a good deal to me. I'm in agreement with cargo shorts, I can't actually think of how they are banned in the first place. Denim and backwards caps though, eh. I don't really care if someone wants to wear their hat backwards, I mean if you're wearing a cap "properly" at least it's serving a purpose, wearing it backwards is just to show how gnarly you are. Restricting tee times for women/juniors. Seriously? That happens? ...Seriously? Cell phones on the course. I absolutely always carry my phone, not because I need to talk to anyone in particular, but for emergencies. If there's an old guy on the next fairway that's having a heart attack and there's noone with a phone nearby, and noone with a cart nearby, the chances of old guy dying increase. I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing. It'd be hard to try to quantify what is an important phone call and what isn't, so I'd just allow the use of phones on the course as long as it doesn't hold up play . Guy needs to dump all his shares before he loses his entire savings? Fine. Guy needs to dump all his shares before he loses his entire savings and he's doing it on the green and there's a group on the fairway and a group on the tee? You're barred.

5i, 50*, putter. They're the clubs I would feel most confident with in their respective "class", ie driving/moving up fairways, and approaches/short game. ...though I could be tempted by my 4 hybrid, I probably play better bump and runs with it than any of my irons, heh.

I shot 2 over on a six hole par 3 executive course, which included a birdie on their imitation Sawgrass 17th! So pretty.

I'm playing without a driver right now, so I'm never teeing up higher than about 3/4". Needless to say, I spend a lot of time hunched over on the tee box.

I will sit and stare at my scorecard from my most recent round like a psychic reading tarot cards, it's a habit that tends to scare those around me. What I'm looking for (heh) is the shots that went well, and the shots I'd rather forget. My classification criteria aren't particularly strict, i.e. if I was a short/mid iron out and I missed the green by a couple of feet, that's fine, I'll take it. If the shot ended up 20 yards in front of me, or 20 yards left/right of my target, I make a mental note of the shot and add it to "the list". I then go through all of the shots on "the list" and think about what went wrong, and pick up on any trends, eg 7 out of 15 of my bad shots went left, determining the most prevalent swing fault - once I've got that, I add it to the list of things to work on. I then repeat that with the different types of shot (drives / mid to long irons / mid to short irons / short game), and I'm left with a neat little list of things to work on, eg a hook with my drives, thinning my irons, catching my chips a little fat. One thing I absolutely make sure to do after making up my "to-do list" is to recall my good shots, and ensure they're on the forefront of my mind when working through the depressing realisation that my game still has a long, long way to go =P