Uncle Peter

Been playing for over 5 years and have holed out from the bunker several times, but have never gotten an eagle. This year hopefully...

Just wait for the cart girl or marshall to pull up behind you, then hit your shots. That does it for me.

Final hole of my home course (par 4 379 yards), I hit my 2nd shot right of the green under a tree, near the trunk. I walk over to the ball and I can't even make a swing or chip with my wedge. There's also a little hill I had to get over and the green's sloping down and away from me. I'm about 50 feet away from the hole. So I take out my 3 wood, aim for the little hill, and take a small jab at the ball. It comes out from under the tree, hits off the hill and bounces up a bit, lands on the green and rolls to about 7 feet. I make the putt for one of my best up and downs ever.

I was putting on the 3rd hole par 4 389 yards at a new course in my area (first round of the year). I have a huge downhill putt, maybe 35 feet, to save par but I completely mis-read the slope and the ball ends up almost off the green, barely any closer to the hole. I line up again and sink the uphill putt for bogey.

Interlocking grip if I want to hit the ball nice. Baseball grip if I want to show off my wicked high slice to my friends.

Chipping and putting practice for sure and occasionally a small bucket of balls if I have some extra time.

SW nearly all the time, but occasionally I'll hit a 64* wedge, all depending on the situation. I used to bump and run the ball a lot more around the greens with a 7I, or the occasional 4H if it was a long green. But I find I'm more accurate (AKA likely to hole it) chipping with a SW rather than bump and running.

I usually take my headcovers off as I need them during the round and they don't go back on until the end of the round. Often times though when they're all off they clunk around as the golf cart moves. I hate that noise so I think I'm gunna start putting my headcovers back on after I use each club (except for the driver maybe, which I use so often).

A few years ago I was out with my golfing buddy who had just gotten the new R11 driver (I was amazed by it haha!). We're on the 10th hole (par 4 386 yards, dead straight) at our home course and I asked my bud if I could give the R11 a whack. There's another twosome behind us, waiting. One of the guys is standing near the sign for the hole that tells you the yardage, shape of the hole, etc. It just so happens to be made of metal... We're playing from the back tees, so the guy beside the sign is diagonally to me left. My friend neglects to tell me that he put a new shaft on the R11, one that was really short, compared to mine. So I line up, first time hitting it, and give the ball a big whack. I hit the ball with the toe end of the club, open club-faced and the ball goes flying towards the metal sign, literally inches from the guys head. It hits the sign with an almighty BOOM that echoed throughout the golf course. I froze there, then turned to the guy after a few seconds and apologized. Surprisingly he was pretty cool about it, as if nothing happened! My ball was nowhere to be found surprisingly. The best part is that there's a small dent in the sign that's still there today. Every time I play that hole I always check it out and have a laugh about it with my friends. :)

I had a question about stiffness of shafts and found TST after a few Google searches. Like Bill, I wasn't really looking for a forum to post on, but one post led to another and I've pretty much stuck around since.

My cheap 56* SW. One of the cheapest things I've ever bought at a golf store, but I can't even count the number of times it's saved me over the years (i.e. chip-ins, nice shots close to the hole from bunker/rough/fairway, etc).

An average round playing with my regular golfing buddy (~same handicap as me) usually takes about 3.5-4 hours with a cart. I never played alone yet, but I'd say it would probably take me at most 2 hours. We usually play during off peak times, so we play relaxed golf. That being said, if we see the group behind starting to catch up, we'll pick things up or let them through, never slowing anyone down. I personally don't see the point in rushing around a golf course, unless need be. To me it wouldn't feel enjoyable or relaxing, which is one of the reasons I play in the first place.

In general, the 40' chip for me, only because I've holed more chips than putts from that range (although I do get more opportunities to chip than putt from that range). I feel more confident with a chip than a long putt too. Really though, it all depends on the situation. If it's an easy green with little slope, then I'll putt. If I'm off the green and the green's pretty tough, then I'll chip.

I chose 15-17. I could see most players benefiting from having an extra wedge, hybrid, or driving iron in their bag. Or another driver if you're Mickelson...

Picked up a new grip for my SW. Fact: The grip cost half the price of the SW itself. It's a cheap SW, but hands down my favourite/best club.

On a short par 4, I hit a 300 yard drive to the right edge of the green, but pin high.

Thanks for the suggestions! I haven't heard of most of those courses, I'll definitely have to check them out. I have heard a lot about Eagle's Nest though. It seems like a pretty good course but I'm not sure if it's worth the price. Apparently weekday rates during the summer are around $200 and closer to $150 on the weekends.

Short hitter here and from the start, I'm definitely not hitting the green in two. From the whites, I'd definitely start with a driver. Assuming I hit the ball nice and straight (about a 240 yard drive), I'd be left with about 275 yards to the hole and maybe about 210 yards from the front of the water. Now it's decision time. I hit about 200 with my 3W, so depending on how the fairway slopes going towards the water (i.e. sloping down towards the water), I'd either hit a 3W (maybe not a full 3W) or a full 4H. Assuming it went straight again, I'd have about 10-20 yards to the start of the water (maybe even a bit closer again depending on how the fairway slopes) and about 60 yards to the hole. Now depending on flag location, I'd hit a wedge onto the front part of the green just short of the flag and let it roll towards the hole, leaving me with an uphill putt. I can see why this hole would be difficult now. I'd like to play it, just to see if I could pull it off.

To all my fellow Ontario golfers, I've been looking for a decent links course in Ontario for a while now, with no luck. Have any of you played any good links courses in Ontario/GTA?

I think motorcycle revving is counter-clockwise rotation (so extension I guess), whereas palmar flexion is clockwise rotation. Whichever one it is, the direction of "revving" became clear to me when I tried it out on my club, i.e. revving so that the club face becomes closed.

The British Open for the reason stated above. Links golf in general forces players to hit different styles of shots and be more creative (I personally think not enough links golf is played on tour). Add in the fact that it's a major and you're in for some exciting rounds of golf.

Thanks for the diagram @boogielicious . Since I'm a lefty though I would be rotating or "revving" with my right hand (I think). I'm planning on heading out to a range this weekend to try out this new technique and hopefully make a swing video. Will let everyone know how it goes and hopefully I'll be able to put up a video!

I never thought about rotating my wrists @ hlca. I'll try it out next time I'm at the range. Hopefully it works for me too!

Same here, spot on for me, especially with the mid-irons (predicted value of 7I was withing 1 yard of my actual 7I distance).

Wow, I had no idea I was looking at it wrong and following the wrong ball laws all this time. Thanks for sharing that link Erik, I understand everything crystal clear now! It looks like swing path is definitely the way to go (as Bill said), if I want to fix my slice, mainly trying to swing more in-to-out than how I'm swinging now. Will definitely try to post a swing video now.