k14

My Bushnell V2 arrived on Wednesday and all I can say is it is awesome. First round I used it I made 2 birdies cause I knew exactly what distance I had to the pin. It is really useful from 20-50m too, I know I can hit my 60 degree wedge 30m and the same swing with 56 degree goes 45. If I want to take 5m off I just open the face and my stance a little. I also managed to get a flag from 220m. You have to be a bit more steady than say from 100m but it was quite easy since a light breeze was keeping the flag flapping. I always have to use two hands to hold it though, pretty hard to get a lock with only 1 hand, unless you are inside 100m. Also if you can't get an instant lock just hold the button down to use pin seek mode. Scan left to right a few times and it will pick it up. It will usually lock onto the trees behind the pin if the flag is limp and there is not a big target. But with pin seek mode it is really easy. Really happy with the purchase and definitely think it is better than a GPS.

On Sunday I tried running my 7km loop which before my knee injury I was doing in 35-38 mins. But 4km in my knee started playing up again and I had to walk home. Still did it in 45 mins though. Back to the physio! At least I can walk 18 without it hurting now though.

I thought I'd again update this thread. I am continuing to make progress in some areas and de-progress (or maybe regression??) in others. My irons are awesome, I am continuing to get more and more distance and accuracy. In the last 12-15 months I have gone from hitting an 8i 100-110 yards and now hit it between 155-165 yards with a full swing. My instructor taught me what I call the 1/2 swing (which is more like a 90% back swing when I video it) and it is really fun to hit. Lower trajectory and heaps of back spin, I only loose 10-15 yards off my full swing. One hop and stop on the green (if I get clean contact). I can still hit a full swing which goes a heck of a lot higher but it just gives me another set of options for getting on the green and close to the pin. Also inside 100 yards I have really got my wedges sorted and have been averaging 30 or less putts per round in my recent rounds. So the negatives, getting off the tee. In my last 2 rounds I have shot 82 and 84 but hit a total of 1 fairway in those 36 holes. Yes 1, and that was on a dogleg par 4 where I hit 5i. \ If you look at my FO swings of 8i vs driver below it is very obvious what the difference is. It seems with the driver I get stuck and stop swinging through the ball and pull up and around with my body. Coming over the top and either hitting a pull/hook or mega slice. It is so frustrating and just killing me. I've been averaging 3.4 on par 3's recently but on par 4 and 5 I am 1 stroke over par on both. So the only reason I manage to shoot mid 80's is cause my irons and short game is really solid. My local course has all the fairways running parallel, so on the par 4/5 if I have a big miss (50 yards+) usually I am on another fairway so can still hit into the greens over the line of trees separating the fairways. But if I have a small miss I am usually going to have to get up and down from 80-100 yards for par. Does anyone have any tips/drills that might be able to get me to transfer my iron swing to the driver? I am still getting lessons but I just seem to go round in circles and am starting to loose a bit of faith in my instructor. I have been tracking stats since before I started getting lessons and my fairways hit has not changed an ounce. 22% for the last 18 months. GIR has gone from 10% to 25% in the same time.

I ordered a Bushnell V2 last week. All these people raving about them is making me more impatient. Hopefully it shows up tomorrow!!

I think it might be slightly cheaper here at GPP golf. http://www.gppgolf.com/taylor-made-penta-tp-golf-balls $29 a dozen but buy 2 get one free, so 3 dozen for $60. Also you can get up to $20 of credits by adding them to your facebook, twitter etc account. Not sure what shipping costs are though. I ordered 9 dozen off them the other day. So cheap for such a decent quality ball.

Yeah got it now. It is a decision on rule 2, I was looking at decisions for rule 2-1.

If you look on the R and A website and go to rule 2/1 you will see there is 6 different decisions for that rule (decisions are on the right hand margin). What decisions are you referring to? Here is link to the R and A rules explorer Quote: You can use your smartphone for it's normal purposes when on the course (apart from accessing outside information e.g. weather etc) but you can't use it as a distance measuring device if it has a non conforming feature (most likely a compass). Hence the reason I just purchased a rangefinder. Even though I removed the compass app from my iphone by jailbreaking it I decided it was too much of a grey area so will remove all doubt by using a rangefinder.

I had never even considered that it was contrary to the rules. Which actual decision of the rule 2/1 decisions are you referring to? If you look at the rules on the R and A website there are 6 separate decisions for rule 2/1. Yes I did ask if it was ok to stand behind the player, he didn't mind. So whilst it is a breach of etiquette by the letter of the rules, I don't know if it is an actual breach of etiquette?? If someone says don't worry about being quiet while I swing you guys talk away, then is that still a breach of etiquette? As I said in my earlier post, in future I will most likely never do it again. It creates a lot less confusion if you stand 2-3m off the side behind his putt and then walk in after he hits it. I am pretty sure I have seen pro's do that before.

Oh sorry, I thought Steve was just saying it is plausible. Should read better next time

Could you please tell me which decision from 2/1 that applies to? I can't see anything in there that applies. The guys that were in our 4 weren't even in the matchplay knockout, we were only paired with them because we were playing on a Saturday and everyone else was in fours. The rules are the rules, if it was against the rules then it would be in there. It isn't and thus I played to the letter of the rules. Etiquette is a suggestion and I took that suggestion and decided against. The guy putting didn't mind so I didn't think it was a problem.

He isn't saying he needs a Phil Mickelson career he is saying he needs one sort of like his career, using an example to state it is possible. I think it is referring to the age Tiger is now and saying how even though he is into his 30's it is still possible because other guys have done it. Seems logical to me.

Mine was in the semi final of a matchplay champs at my local club. My opponent and I were playing with another 2 guys who were just in the usual Saturday field and thus were only there for the walk effectively. On the 9th green one of the other guys had the exact same putt as me except it was about 2-3 inches longer. So I stood behind him when he was lining the putt up and he wasn't bothered by my position so I watched him play his stroke to get a good read (I was putting for birdie). It was a nasty putt and I missed my first but made par. I think I won the hole cause my opponent made bogey. Walking off the green my opponent told me that I had lost the hole because I stood behind someone else while they were making the putt. I told him no I didn't, the rules allowed me to stand wherever I wanted behind the player. I acknowledged it was a breech of ettiquite but the rules (rule 14-2) only prohibit a players caddie, partner or partners caddy to stand there. Furthermore it is the player making the stroke that gets the penalty and not the player standing behind. So that was fine. I won the match 5/4, a good old thrashing. However the week later, I was approached by another know it all mate of the guy I bet (remembering I am only 27 and these guys are both over 60, cause of course that means they know more than me). He told me I was disqualified because I breached rule 8-2. He read me out the following bolded part from it: Quote: a. Other Than on Putting Green Except on the putting green, a player may have the line of play indicated to him by anyone, but no one may be positioned by the player on or close to the line or an extension of the line beyond the hole while the stroke is being made . Any mark placed by the player or with his knowledge to indicate the line must be removed before the stroke is made. I was quite taken back buy this but was still sceptical. So I went and had a look at the full rule book and read the correct part of the rule which is: Quote: b. On the Putting Green When the player’s ball is on the putting green, the player, his partner or either of their caddies may, before but not during the stroke, point out a line for putting, but in so doing the putting green must not be touched. A mark must not be placed anywhere to indicate a line for putting. I printed out the correct rules and showed them to the club captain to ensure I wasn't disqualified from the match the previous week and also printed rule 8-2 and 14-2 off from the R and A website to show my opponent and his know it all mate. The R and A website even has a specific FAQ regarding people standing behind you while you putt. It was fairly obvious that it wasn't illegal although in the future I probably will just stand slightly to the side to avoid any confusion. Neither of them have apologised to me or even admitted they were wrong, although that comes as no surprise.

International team to win 18 1/2 to 15 1/2

Mine will probably be on the 31st of Dec, unless the weather isn't good in that case it will still probably be the 31st. First round next year will be the 1st of Jan

Well the new rules have been published and from the looks smartphones are still illegal. Screw the R & A, what a bunch of muppets. It makes you wonder who is pulling the strings. All the big golf companies make GPS devices and if smartphones are allowed it certainly would reduced the $$ going to them. /conspirytheory If anyone is interested, here is a good site to get a read of the amendments.

Totally agree with your last sentence. I went from a chronic flipper to pretty decent lag swing in 3-4 months through having a decent amount of lessons (an hour every 2 weeks). One day I was filming myself and saw I was lagging pretty good. Where my club used to be fully released and I was starting to flip my wrists now were still fully cocked. A 30-40 yard increase over all clubs was the result along with dropping 4-5 shots (and still decreasing). My instructor never once did anything that was specific to increasing my lag. Just changed my grip and got back to the fundamentals of a good swing. A good swing and lag go hand in hand.

The way the ruling reads is even misleading. Does clause 1 and 2 apply to "Multi-functional devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, etc " or only clause 3? They use slightly different wording for each clause which is even more confusing. Hopefully they just say that compasses are legal or something like that and this whole thing will be fixed! If in the start they had just defined the "distance measuring device" as the software and not the hardware all of this would have been avoided. The dictionary definition of a device is " a thing made for a particular purpose; an invention or contrivance, especially a mechanical or electrical one". Using this definition the actual device used for distance measuring is surely the software and not the hardware. Because the software (Golfshot, Mobitee) does not have a compass built in then it is not in breach of the rules. But alas, the R & A aren't that straight forward. I really don't want to breach the rules (or cheat if you want) but it's so frustrating when it is clear that the perceived intent of the rules are different from the application.

Well does it? For the clause relating to an Iphone it says: 3. Multi-functional devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, etc (i.e., devices that are primarily communication devices, but which may have other potential uses) may be used as follows: · The device may be used for any non-golfing purpose (e.g., as a communication tool to phone, text or email), subject to any club/course regulations and the rules on accessing advice-related matters – see Decision 14-3/16. · When the local rule is in effect, a distance-measuring application may be used, provided the specific application is restricted to “distance only” and the device does not have any other “non-conforming” features . This is the case even if these other features are not being used. As above, the rules on advice-related communications (including the use of the internet) still apply. The part in bold is the crucial phrase. If the software that enables the compass means you cannot use it then does the device still have the feature (being a compass). I can see an argument for both sides. Me being biased would argue that for a device to have a feature it would need to be accessible whilst on the course. For my phone it isn't, thus I wouldn't class it as having that specific feature. Just because the hardware supports it doesn't mean the software actually enables it. It is quite common for a tech device to come out without specific hardware features enabled. The Iphone 4 supposedly has an FM tuner in hardware, it isn't enabled in software so most definitely is not a feature. The same could be said for the compass. If apple released a version of iOS with the compass disabled then surely the Iphone no longer has the compass feature.

When I demoed (and subsequently bought) the JPX800 pros I didn't even have a hit of the MP53's. My reasoning was that if PGA pro's (and there are 3 guys on tour using them iirc) can use the 800 pros then why do I need less forgiving and harder to hit clubs than them. Get the JPX800's, I have gone from 17 to 13 in 2 months since I bought them. They are seriously awesome clubs. Getting fit for the right shaft and lie is crucial so make sure that is 100% correct before you pull the trigger.

Well I worked out a way to make my iphone using golfshot legal again (I think). I jailbroke it and then installed a program called iFile that lets you delete any application on the phone. So I deleted the compass app and thus now my phone has no compass and doesn't indicate anything but distance.

I have spent a lot more time with this app in the last few weeks and I think I have seen an improvement. It is still quite difficult to get a consistent handicap in the 5 putt test but I am able to regularly get in the 0-8 range and often get into the +0.5-+2. I worked out that if you mark a spot for the ball to get placed and another mark ~2 feet in front for the ball to be rolled over it is a lot easier to be consistent. I have always been a decent putter so not sure if this has improved my on course putting but I am a lot more confident standing over those 4-6 footers.

Shot 85 yesterday, not a bad score but made better by the fact it was a match for our club knock-out championship. I was 1 down with 2 to play. 17 is a 510 yard par 5 playing downwind. I knew I could get on in 2 with a good tee shot. I hammered my drive just over 300 and had 200y downwind to the front of green and the pin was about 5y on. I just got some new irons so was not sure on distances but the previous night I hit 4i from 210 and it went through the green. So I pulled my 6i out and hit one of the best shots of my life. Perfect draw that bounced just short of the green and rolled onto pin high about 4y below hole. My opponent was 150y out for his third and put it about 2y off the front of the green. As usual in matchplay he sunk his birdie putt so I had to make eagle (and I have never made an eagle before, ever). I hit the putt a bit hard but it hit the back of the hole and popped up and straight down. Eagle 3. All square one hole to play. 18 is a par 4 with the wind blowing right to left. I hit a good drive down the right side and the wind bought it back to the centre of fairway and I had 145 to pin. I pulled out my 8i and aiming slightly right of the green hit a nice shot but the wind caught it as it was dropping and pushed it to the left side of the green. My opponent was about 2y in front of me but to the right of the fairway. With the left to right wind he was slightly blocked by a tree and he duffed his shot about 50y. So I was sitting pretty good although still plenty of opportunity to 3 putt. He was putting first and put it to 3 feet for bogey. I had a long putt with about 4 feet of break and hit a great shot just past the hole and settled to 2 feet away for par. He didn't conceed and I gently tapped it in for the par and won the match 1up. Pretty awesome feeling pulling it back from the jaws of defeat like that. Sorry for the long post but had to tell someome, my wife just said 'that's good"!!!

Try the other hemisphere, New Zealand :) It got just above freezing and I managed to go and have a hit of my new sticks. Toes went numb though

I saw a few guys over on another golfing forum going crazy about it. Very interesting but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't skeptical. They have sold quite a few already though and from most reports guys say it is the bees knees. Could be placebo effect though. Have to hit it myself to know for sure and I'm not going to stump up a few hundred $$ to find out my suspicions were right

Heat wave aye It was -6C here this morning (thats 21F) and I have my brand new set of JPX 800 Pro irons to test. Come on sun, thaw the frost out! Where's global warming when you need it?