injury

If I'm not playing alone I avoid egg mcmuffins, or any morning where I'll be around others for that matter. I'm fine with their burritos, bacon egg and cheese etc, but something with my gut and the way they do those mcmuffin eggs...lets just say I've had my cousin begging for air going down the highway with the ragtop down. But boy are they tasty.

nice seeing my home course getting some mention. They have some cabins and do stay and play deals I believe, about 1.5-2 hour drive from the metroplex depending what part you are coming from and traffic.

Good win in my book. I get your disappointment though since I'm one of those 'want to crush the opposition' personality types so not playing it out would be bittersweet. I got a crappy win/gift myself in a scramble two weeks ago and it still bothers me. My club does a couples' scramble every couple of weekends. Wife and I had already established handicap with it for this year (we're the highest handicap of the field both being beginners), a pair of grounds crew were just establishing handicap that week. Wife and I had a great day for us and finished 5 under net, the other couple finished 5 under scratch. Hole card playoff puts me and the mrs in second, we're perfectly happy being pretty new to the game. As we're leaving, Pro Shop pulls us in and says the GM wants the employees to tear up their card. I get annoyed and let them know in no uncertain terms that was crap, the employees put up money like everyone else and should be just as entitled to win it as any of us. Left thinking it was settled and a bit peeved that they tried to give us a win like that. Next weekend we come in and were told they gave us first, apparently they had a meeting with all the couples after we left and someone pointed out that rules stated one person in the couple must be a member so they tossed out that other card. While technicaly correct that is stated on the sign up sheet, and the employees weren't members, I made damn sure they gave the entry money back to the employees. I'm still pretty annoyed over what I feel as being gifted a win. Even if the ruling is by the book accurate I feel like they shouldn't have been allowed to enter like the rest of us, only to be shot down when they did well enough to win.

That's what I took from it too. One thing to ask quite another to reach up and spin his hat around like he's your kid. If that's how it occured I'll say Ricky has more composure than I would have had in that situation.

If it's at an appropriate volume I'm fine with it. Several groups I play with have those little external speakers for their ipods but you can't hear it more than about 10 steps away from the cart.

Would that I were you and couldn't slice. But since I can't keep it on the same fairway maybe I can help heh. Don't you mean moving ball backwards in the stance, so you don't have time to square up the club before impact? Could give you the rundown of things my instructor has me working on to quit slicing into the next county and you can do the opposite...relax grip so I don't lock out arms, ball more forward to give a chance for the clubface to close, get weight back to front better (had me doing front foot only hitting drills, maybe you could try hitting off your back foot). Then of course open up to the taget. My real doozy drives (go out 150-200 then about 75 yards dead sideways and look like they may keep turning to make a u turn back to me) feel like if I had a samari sword from the top of the backsing I'd slice the inside third of the ball with the club, leading with the hosel kind of feel but makes contact with the face instead of a shank. If you can figure out how to do it, maybe I can figure out how to reliably STOP doing it.

What helped me and gave me an aha moment in the bunker was watching an old playing lesson from the pros where one of the old pros discussed how and why Gene Sarazen devised the first sand wedge by putting a bunch of solder on the bottom of a clubhead. Can't find that clip but the description of the function is pretty adequate here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fGIYXj7BU Imagine you are in the road hole bunker maybe a foot or two from the face, how do you pick it clean and get it to go pretty much straight verticle. As you lay that club open to get the loft you need you increase your chance of blading the ball (if said club had no bounce or you weren't bothering to use the club the way it was designed). The bounce allows the clubhead to surf through without digging in and still present an extremely open face under the ball where it needs to be. It's not the most efficient use of power for horizontal distance but you don't need distance in a greenside bunker. You'll find a lot of times you just don't have enough ball to pick clean, or you have a real high lip but a real short green to work with so you need some force but it needs to be more up than out. By using the bounce the sand can help cusion that force so you don't go flying across off the green now chipping back to your nemesis bunker. And it's also a way to swing that all you have to figure out is how much or little sand to take for the distances you need and then are pretty much using the same shot no matter the lie. Helping my wife with this it seemed to work better to tell her to put the sand that's under the ball on the green, rather than trying the dig down in the sand method. Now if the sand is wet and hard and ball is sitting up, yeah you'll usually be better off if you can pick it clean since it isn't playing like real sand and the club will really be slowed down or the bounce has a tendency to bounce off that kind surface.

I don't think there is a whole world of difference between a ladies and senior flex. Were these guys short it might have been a better length fit off the rack as opposed to fitted? Or as maybe it has something to do with the graphics the liked. That being said I know bowling in Asia they actually have a whole different delviery method called spinning (we call it a helicopter release) that differs from the typical delivery in the rest of the world. The lanes are even dressed differently due to it. So maybe you stumbled on to some culturaly different approach to the game where they like real whippy clubs.

start writing down the good things that happen. Our psychology is such we remember the bad much easier than the good, it's a defense mechanism. However opening the thread I expected to read stuff like clubheads coming off, sticking it to 2 feet and the wind blowing it off the green into a water hazard, approach shot landing in the hole and bouncing out. Stuff like that I consider bad luck issues. Odd bounce in the water I ask myself why did I give the water a chance to be in play. If I hit a tree limb why didn't I play under, over, short, or around it. When I sit down and analyze and be honest with myself I can usually find exactly where I could have eliminated the "bad breaks" I've gotten from being any kind of real factor.

Several at mine. Since I'm a lefty most of them don't give me too much pause since they are generally opposite of my flaws/tendencies. Hole 3 (par 4) one setup on the left as a risk/reward for trying to cut the dogleg about 265ish to carry from the blue tees. Plenty of fairway to miss it right. Hole 4 (par 4) left side of the hole from about 190 yards (from blue tees) to past the green is water, right side of the hole around 210ish up to the green is a series of 3 fairway side bunkers with big hills to the right of them, then cartpath, then yards OB/Houses. Guesstimate it's barely 30 yards of fairway between bunkers are water. Hole 9 (par 4) Dogleg right, all right side is water, waste trees etc, green is a peninsula type setup. If you cut the dogleg (no problem from blues) but don't go far enough right you can end up in the sand at the far end of the dogleg. Hole 13 (long par 4) one on right side about 260-270 down from blues. Plenty of fairway to miss it. Hole 14 (par 5) One on left and right of the fairway that could be in play off a second of three shots in the green. Pretty wide fairway but it is downhill and they are on the edges of some gentle curves. Some of what would technicaly be considered greenside stretch far enough down one side or the other in front of the green you might consider them fairway too.

mentioning the pillars made me think of something else. Being out in the humidity on hot summer days some of us have 3 or so gloves velcro'd around said pillars to dry them off. Maybe some tubelike device that would turn them into "windsocks" that would dry them fester.

Use the courses carts. They get me around so what's not to like. Looking to buy one when the right deal comes around. No personal preference, but I think being quiet Electric is more suited to a golf course for players use. Can only imagine the racket of a crowded holiday weekend with the course covered in gas carts. Custom cars or custom golf carts made to look like cars like at http://badassgolfcarts.com/ ? Either way I'm more of a Hummer, Truck, SUV type of guy. I'd dig a custom cart as well, It'd be cool for the pro shop to toss me the keys to say the "Nissan Titan", instead of telling me to take number 1 and going out and seeing several that might be number 1 because decals need to be replaced. Age is 35. Oh I should note while fun I wouldn't pay extra for the priveledge if a course offered a choice between the two. Not much on the design front to change I guess since there isn't much to them. I think from a safety aspect maybe a slower take off would keep my wife from getting angry at me when I hit the accelerator before she's seated. Also think the take off thing would help keep people from spinning out when the grass is wet. I'd personally benefit from something like a safety button/pedal you have to press with the left foot since I tend to dangle my long leg out of the cart. I know I'm gonna have an accident one day but having a hard time breaking the habit. I wouldn't mind a tighter turning radius (we have a "cul de sac" part on one hole and I never can make it withought swinging wide enough to rub the tires), though they already seem easy to tip over so not sure that's a good idea. Upgrade the bag hold downs to accomodate more bag styles more easily. Maybe something that straps to the mouth of the bag instead of wraps around so stand bags don't take as much fiddling and controting to get secure, and that should allow easier access to all pockets. Maybe something rigid that secures the bags with the key to a cart to address bags walking off, or end the old driving off and dumping your bag problems. Could be incorporated like a trunk that extends over the middle storage basket area thus addressing the issue of things blowing out of that. Our course carts have racks for sand bottles, and another for an ice chest. Would think both of those would be standard enough to include in a basic design. That ends the problem of 6 divots now I'm out of sand til I get to the next bottle station, or the wind blowing up the ice chest lid and the last persons trash flying out and onto the course. Most of the rest of the changes would be things they already make to add or bolt on you can buy aftermarket. Club/ball cleaning stuff. Wouldn't mind an intercom like thing back to the clubhouse but I have my cellphone so no big deal these days. They send us messages via the electronic scorecard/gps unit that also tracks where we are so they can keep on top of pace of play from the clubhouse.

Well my best find was a beer still on ice in my carts cooler, I drank it because well...there's no beer like free beer. Find hats and towels all the time. Funniest though was last week. The course is surrounded by a big lake and this summer has been dry here in TX so the level is getting low. Way backed up labor day weekend so I happened to see a hole in the cattails and the water was low enough and had dried out enough I was able to walk out abit, found a bunch of balls out there, but I got a laugh finding a shaft bent at the end clubhead long gone. Imagine someone got mad a flung it into the lake.

I never played golf when I was in the Air Force, but couldn't you cross train to whatever MOS takes care of the on base courses where they exist? Assuming they don't contract it out to civis. I imagine doing something like that would mean when you separate you wouldn't be entry level. Or those jobs in the service would fall under the hotel management type stuff (had a friend going that route) which would perhaps lead to a chance at some resort type work after you get out.

This kind of goes along with something Tom Watson was talking about on a Golf Channel Show. He was stating only when you are playing your absolute best do you get anywhere close to playing to pin point targets. Most of the time it's more of a zone you want to hit through, he used football goalposts for a visual. When you are playing horrible you want to wide the goal posts (wider cone) as you improve you start to narrow those goal posts (narrow cone).

The one with the hazard stake make me wonder about the free drop from a dangerous lie rule, or is that also not allowed in a hazard. Don't know that I want to be hitting within 20 feet of that water.

funny. I was just watching a chipping video on youtube last night where the instructor used shanking on purpose as a way to figure out how not to shank.

Now I have to decide the lesser of two evils. Letting my wife watch it Tivo'd while I know my favorite won and hers lost...or telling her and ruining the surprise. I think option A would cause less overall drama til the I told you so's start :D WTG Carling

something smallish like this any host with reasonable uptime is just fine. $20 a month hosting would be major overkill.

Martin Hall...I was trying to find that guys name and those videos two weeks ago to look at the hinge one. Searched everything I could for hinges on youtube and the golf channels website. Thanks Jefffan

I think you understand, and that helped enlighten something for me I think. I was envisioning the circle at address, but it should really be "drawn" at impact with weight getting the most forward at driver impact correct? thus the circle as it was would be centered on where the weight is.

Hope this isn't too confusing, hope people that know what I'm talking about will understand the question. Have a bit of a swing theory question based on something I was working on tonight. I recall seeing in the SnT videos months ago (was illustrated there), but also in other places around about hitting the back of the circle. Wish I could find an image of what I'm talking about but I imagine guys that study a lot of swing stuff know what I'm referring to. As I remember the illustration there was a smaller inner circle for the hands and a larger one for the club head. The illustration and usually the explanations was centered on the middle of the golfer's stance. My question is would a better idea of the outer circle not be necessarily centered on the stance but rather arcing from the impact position based on clublength thus in some positions actually have said outer circle center more forward or backwards? In working on getting my hands deeper with a driver I got into a discussion with a friend where he mentioned how that it didn't matter about deep hands much with say wedges as far as causing out to in swing paths. So sitting here pondering the why's and such of the golf swing I'm wondering if the reason for that not mattering is more related to the shorter length of say a wedge, or the fact that said outer circle with a longer club and ball position more forward would actually move the clubhead backswing area of the circle closer to the rear hip than if the center of the circle was in the middle of the stance.

I feel ya I fight it all the time. In my search I've learned there are about as many causes for slices as there are fixes for each one. Vid helps those guys that know how to breakdown the swing and spot flaws (I'm not one of them, I'm just a beginner trying to get better). But I know how frustrating not having some idea of something to try can be so I'll mention some things I've found lately. Push slice would be going away from you initially then slicing. If the ballflight is straight initially like you said I believe that would just be a good ole fashioned slice. Had the best session with my driver tonight after a friend worked with me on my takeaway. I'm a chronic push slicer and the the longer the club gets the worse it is. Apparently taking the hands back too straight and not enough in was causing me to come out to in, combined with an open club face = push slice. Once I got those hands in tonight surprise surprise I actually started pulling the ball at times. If I was to describe the feeling of me working on it I would say it was nearly the feeling of pulling the hands in almost 45 degrees to behind my back hips as they were working back about when the clubhead got to my back foot. Remember feel isn't real, but that's how it felt to me as I was doing it. http://thesandtrap.com/forum/entries...ands-Explained explains the concept. So you don't do what I did when I had first read about it months ago hands get deeps and draws the clubhead back, not the other way around. Per your initial concern about hands and body timing, lots of drills for that. Think of a pause at the top and starting down with the body. Feet together is good if you don't cheat, need to feel that space at the top as the club is changing directions where it's almost weightless and use that as a key to start from the feet up to pull it back through. My wife was struggling with same thing Sunday doing the 3 to 9 drill and I came up with a drill for her that got that body motion first idea through crystal clear but it takes 2 people. If you got someone with you take club back to 9 o'clock, have them hold the clubhead, then leaving your arms as the last to move pull that clubhead out of their hand starting from the legs up. I grabbed her club and said, "alright kick that front knee towards target and turn your hips", was the best iron contact she's had.

Ya that's the gist. Haven't read his book but saw the Dvds couple of months ago, and I've learned that some of the movies leave out some technical stuff covered in the books. In the movie 2 Plane was body more upright turning horizontally and arms lifting vetically then returning by coordinating timing of the body and the arms with what I believe he called a karate chop move of arms dropping. 1 plane was more bent over at about 45 degree hands, shoulders, arms etc starting and returning maintaining their respective planes more of a rotary style type of move and more body controlled. The vid of Ryan looks like a hybrid. Setup his back is in a 1 plane posture, arms setup like a 2 plane. Takeaway looks 2 plane, then after the loop he does at the top everything from there to impact looks like he was doing 1 plane. I had an instructor that spent a lot of time having me look at the toe in the top of the backswing. He was working towards having me do some hand adjustments in the the transition to fix it to what he thought was ideal. He moved away, but I'm fidning I'm having more consistant results with fixing the wrist issue in the initial takeaway and the grip that was causing that toe at the top to be wide open. If I get everything going back correctly from the start coming back down is almost automatic.

I've been to the one in Plano, and was pretty impressed. Especially with some of the prices on clearance clothing and shoes. Organization on some things though was a bit annoying with a store that big. The wife was wanting a visor, and they had the womens hats and such all separated out on different endcaps spread all over instead of a wall like the mens stuff. Couple of other things like that I was looking to pick up and had to hunt all over.