GolfBear

Tell you what sport. I have to travel to Salt Lake City next month for a meeting. If you're willing to put your money where your mouth is I'll book a flight to LA after my meeting and we'll have a little game of it. I'll even let you pick the course. My college roommate lives in Manhattan Beach and I owe him a visit anyway. Here are the terms though: 1. 18 holes of stroke play. You should be giving me 4 strokes but I'll play you straight up. We'll play the round under tournament rules. No lifts, no gimmes. No touching the ball....period. 2. We'll play for $1000 3. A neutral party will hold the money and walk/ride with us and act as an official. The money will be CASH and will be given to the neutral party BEFORE the match begins. Let me know if you're game and I'll see if I can make it happen.

Let's be clear on a few points. It doesn't bother me in the least that he choses this form of practice, in fact I find him endlessly entertaining. As long as he's happy doing what he's doing then the more power to him. Bash away good sir! I should add a couple of points though that I omitted earlier: 1. He does not hit off the mats, at least not that I've ever seen, he's always on the grass. 2. He brings his own pail and brush. I guess he doesn't like the ones that are at the range? 3. He brings some kind of gym bag. I don't know what's in it, I've always been afraid to look! All in all, I think I could go to the range just to watch him

Here's where I see a problem with your conclusion. I absolutely believe average driving distance is unequivically linked to handicapped. The reason I believe this is because my interpretation of average driving distance only includes drives that actually land in the fairway. Everyone that's ever picked up a golf club has probably blasted a drive 300+ yards into a treeline somewhere. Unfortunately those monster blasts don't count. In fact, they're meaningless outliers. I also believe that you have to include ALL of your drives in that average. Far too many message board pros state that they "average 275" because they're remembering the two drives that they striped. They're ignoring the other ten, two of which were duck hooked and went 100 yards, 6 were in the rough on either side of the fairway but only went 225. The remaining blast was 280 and landed three fairways to the right. If a player is averaging 275 yards off the tee and those drives are landing in the fairway then that is absolutely indicative of a player who is able to generate significant clubhead speed (>100mph) and do so with a large degree of precision. The probability that a higher handicap golfer (20+) can consistently hit a ball 275 yards that lands in the fairway then not be able to hit a 7 iron or higher into the green is unbelievably low. The shorter irons are easier to hit and the increased backspin mitigates any sidespin. Unless you're putting blind, it's inconceivable to me that you could maintain a handicap of 20 or higher if you're averaging 275 in the fairway . We can argue this point back and forth but without commissioning a massive study we'll never have hard data. I've played golf for almost 40 years. No offense but I'm willing trust my personal observations over that time as opposed to internet claims.

Well in the interest of full disclosure I did spend about 20 minutes trying to keep my 5 year old daughter from running out into the range. She LOVES to set the balls down for me so I can hit them, she gives me a target to hit to then cleans my clubs. I love her soooo much!

I've played against a lot of 2 handicaps, both in high school and in club championships. If you're carrying a 2 handicap with that swing your short game must be AMAZING . You keep following that dream though, you make me smile! PS: It must be a blast hitting balls in that cage you call a range. You do know that bouncing the balls off the left and right sides doesn't count right?

So I go to the range tonight to hit a small bucket just to keep the muscles lose. As soon as I get there I notice that Mr. Driver Guy is there. I was curious how many of you frequent a range that has a Mr. Driver Guy? Here's what Mr. Driver Guy did this evening. Two jumbo buckets (140 balls each) with nothing but the driver. If that's not insane enough, it's not the first time I've seen him do this. I literally have never seen the guy hit an iron....ever. I've seen him at least a dozen times and every time he's just banging on that driver. It's not helping his game because he's blasting the ball all over the place but to each his own I guess. It must make him happy or he wouldn't keep doing it right? Any of you have a Mr. Driver Guy at your local range?

I almost wish announcers would stop talking about what club a pro is hitting from the tee. It creates such a false sense of distance it's almost a worthless statistic. The next time you hear "he's got 220 to the flag, he's hitting a 5 iron" remember the following: 1. Pro's are at the top of the heap when it comes to physical fitness. Not only are their cores very strong but they work extensively on flexibility. 2. A pro's equipment is absolutely perfectly matched to his swing. Their shafts are pured and are perfectly tuned to their swing speeds. 3. The lofts on a pro's set of irons, or woods generally look nothing like the lofts you see on the rack. Their 7 iron might be your 5 iron. 4. Pro's hit the sweetspot far more often than we do. Ever make a nice easy swing and absolutely nuke the ball over the green? They do that all the time! 5. Pro's posses a tempo we can only dream of :)

No, no you don't and I'm almost willing to be my paycheck on it. The PGA tour average is 286.9 and that's carry and roll. As much as you'd like to be you're not in the top 10% of the golfers in the world. You're delusional. I'm 5'10" and weigh 230 and I average about 250-260. I guarantee I could throw you 5 yards though!

I was watching some of his videos on YouTube and an earlier poster suggested. He shot a 62 when he was 12....A 62 WHEN HE WAS 12!!!!

I don't know how many of you saw Bubba Watson's press conference today after his first round at the PGA but that guy is genuine beyond belief an is now the guy I'm rooting for. He told a story today about his prior win being emotional because of his dad's cancer fight. He then went on to tell a story about his wife and a tumor scare. I LOVE athlete's who aren't afraid to show real emotion. Bubba is the man!

I found this article to be very interesting: http://www.thegolfchannel.com/equipm...ccuracy-34802/

I believe this is the source you're referring to: http://www.rcga.org/_uploads/documen...sos%20Reid.pdf "Core" golfers are golfers that play at least eight rounds of golf/year or more not 28. It also says "among the highest" not THE highest. You're the gift that just keeps giving.

One of the nicest things about the internet is the ability to cite facts, something you're clearly unwilling to do. Show me where Canada has the highest rate of golfers per capita. I tend to believe that honor belongs to Scotland. They have a population of only 5 million and more courses per capita than any country in the world.

Unless you're willing to go out and do a detailed analysis of amateur golfers with a variety of handicaps then it remains your opinion. An athlete stating they'll "play golf when they retire" is meaningless.

I went with the 2.0 and I couldn't be happier. I had a coupon for Dicks and wound up getting it for $130. For that price I can live without a net!

I'd like some see some statistical data that backs up your assertion. Otherwise you're just making stuff up. You're probably right in one respect, if you gave an athlete a bucket of balls and a driver they could probably hit a dozen or so that roll out to 280. Carrying 280 with accuracy is a mucher more daunting task.

Ironically Carling and Sara are 72nd and 73rd!

I got a big dose of reality yesterday. My home course is short but extremely tight so there aren't a lot of holes where you can just open up and bomb the ball. So yesterday, I'm playing in a tournament and I'm driving extremely well. On the long drive hole I hammered a drive and if you had asked me on the tee I would have thought "that's 300 easy". Reality strikes as it was only 277 and I was 30 yards behind the leader. Needless to say, I was quite deflated. The harsh reality is that I probably average around 250 or less on my drives. I've never been one that struggled for distance with a driver but age is undeniable. I certainly don't hit it as far now as I did when I was 18. The thing that has always puzzled me is that the guys I play with are all within 10 yards of each other on drives but they all hit their irons one full club farther than I do. I'm getting a bit older now (44) and I'm thinking more about maximizing my equipment to make sure everything is properly fitted. I'm currently playing the Penta which I realize probably isn't the longest ball out there but I play it for the greenside performance not the distance and I'm not switching! What I'm wondering is: 1. In general, how much more distance does one gain (assuming same swing speed) with a semi-distance ball like the NXT? Is it 10 yards, 15, 20? 2. How much distance with the driver does the perfect combination of launch angle, spin & carry yield? I've never really experimented with the distance chase and I'm wondering mostly about the driver distance effects

I picked up last years model of the Clicgear 2.0. I absolutely LOVE it.

Wouldn't that mean that the shaft is flexing away from you? How does that even happen?

I can't remember where I heard this but my favorite story was about a player during the British Open when Nicklaus was just coming onto the scene. Apparently Jack was on the range just hammering the snot out of his driver. He was hitting it so far that one of the guys just up and quit basically saying "what's the point"?

Course management. It can often mean the difference between a birdie opportunity and a bogey or worse.

Three things that are instantly obvious. Unless there is something really weird with your camera angle I'd offer the following: 1. Your spine angle is autrocious. How tall are you? By that video it looks as if you're almost horizontal over the ball 2. You're swinging out to in because you're spinning your hips and not sliding towards the target. Try taking your backswing then hold it at the top, bump your hip to the target then swing. I bet a bigger hip slide fixes your path. 3. You're head is dropping significantly on the downswing. Work on keeping that bad boy still! But fix that spine angle first!

But but but...that can't be true. My irons are forged by Chuck Norris in the magma of earth's core then they are alpha maraged in a heat so intense it can only be achieved by dousing the iron heads in the surface of the sun. This process creates a surface that is so hard it literally scares the golf ball off the ground and forces it towards the hole. It's called "brimstone processing"! :P

Blade it? Or you could buy a set of those absurdly strong lofted "game improvement" irons!