Shripe

Coming from a similar newbie who knocked down about 75 balls this weekend for my first range visit in a long time, I noticed some funky things with my "yardages" (again, these were Titleist range balls, not regular, so take the yardages with a grain of salt). Not as bad as yours, but I did notice that while I could manage to hit my 5i somewhere around 150, everything above that (3i, 3W, and driver) came within only a few yards of that point on most shots. I can say it was based on not having good contact, though I haven't exactly figured out my wood/driver swing yet either. I don't really have money for the lessons either, but I'm just going to try to work with what I have... and maybe check out the S&T; stuff tomorrow when I could actually work on some of it around the house. One thing I do wonder about all of this advice and such is that if you're not really out there taking lessons, is it more of just trying to commit yourself to a certain mindset, taking away a little point here and there that you can focus on a step at a time from these videos/pieces of advice, or is there another way to basically absorb all of it? I understand a good bit of the jargon, but it's not like at this point I can automatically figure out "Hey, I'm totally not doing this correctly, so instead, I'm going to do this and this and this to correct it." Maybe that'll come in time, but it's still a bit confusing as to how I should go about getting to the point where I'm adequately mimicking what I ought to be doing. :P

So... think Notre Dame will follow suit and make it the Big 13? lol

Actually, they're $12 and change for a pack of 4 on Amazon. Still not an ideal cost, but they vouch to stay consistent enough over many more strokes than regular golfers tend to use their golf balls for. We'll have to see about that. And I basically used my 55* wedge and 9I this afternoon. It seemed to hold up pretty well. I can't vouch for the length of travel given where I practiced today (into a garage wall), but on the box they show it as flying lower and farther than a wiffle ball on a comparison graph. As far as fades/draws, well I'm really not at the point where I've learned how to do either outside of a "normal" swing so I can't say for sure. Sorry that I can't be any more specific than that.

They may not be golf glasses, but I usually pick up my sunglasses at Walgreens.

I finally have the chance to work on my swing at my house, not only saving me money but also avoiding any breakage of precious items in and outdoors. I wanted to pick up something good for hitting around my small backyard, without having to deal with the odd movement of a whiffleball type practice ball (not to mention my few actual golf balls in my possession!). So I decided to give the Floppy a shot, given the decent/good feedback I'd read from other reviews, and ordered it from Amazon. It arrived today :D My first (limited) impression is that of course it's going to get somewhat dirty when playing outside, considering I was hitting the ball against the garage from a few feet away, and managed to dirty it up after about 30-45 mins of practice. However, the performance doesn't change a bit. It has a slightly weighty feel like a golf ball, but doesn't give the same kind of "click" as a normal golf ball would. However, for a beginner like me, it gave me enough of an idea as to how my swing was doing based on the ball's flight. I didn't have a whole lot of room to practice with, so I couldn't see how it might do in flight regarding slices, but I could pretty much figure out what the end result might be based on where the ball went relative to where I was aiming. After a few dozen strokes, I think the Floppy seems quite durable. Has anyone else used the Floppy, or are using it now? What are your experiences, given the fact that I may be totally wrong about 80% of the stuff I've said since I'm a newb?

Though they're saying that officials are trying to get 2 automatic BCS bids for the top 2 teams in the conference.. presumably top of each division? Might not lead to a championship game.

Indeed! Their sharp cheddar chips for some reason brought me back to those TGI Fridays potato skins chips.. similar texture and taste.

Good point... I forgot about the whole division thing, since I never have to deal with other big conferences. Now I'm nervous as I usually am about all UW/OSU matchups. Ugh.

All I really care about is football, so at least now OSU will have a bit more in-conference competition... unless the Badgers decide to finally wake up and take the games they're supposed to.

Well, my reason's pretty simple. I wanted to join the golf team in high school, with no prior experience... picked up a beginner set that happened to be the Northwestern clubs. Needless to say, since I didn't use them a whole lot in the first place (complete with not playing for a few years afterward), I still have them now.

And then of course Nebraska waiting for a decision on joining the Big Ten... of course, we're eleven teams already, so we might as well become the new Big 12/Ten, right? :P

Yeah, it looks like GolfLogix is $40/year for smartphones incl. the BB. That was one of my potential choices, though I'd prefer to just pay some amount up front and not worry about a yearly subscription (even if that seems to be standard for most programs). I may end up waiting until next golf season, as I'm not in dire need for it given the courses that I play, and I'm also hoping I can snag the BB Curve on a Black Friday deal in November, as it's not likely to be reduced before then.

Granted this will probably open up a whole can o' beans by asking this, but as a beginner, I'm trying to get my divots more consistent (i.e. going from a total sweeper to actually taking a divot), but not sure how exactly to get there. Without looking at my swing, I'm sure there are dozens of things to address, from addressing at stance, to angle of swing, etc. I noticed BigMikey talking about setting up lower at address (or more specifically, setting up higher on the practice), but is there a thing or two that any of you tend to keep in mind at address or swing to get the proper angle, especially when you were beginning?

This thread seems to have the most active conversation on the topic, so I wanted to ask something a bit related: What is everyone's opinion on the golf GPS apps for the Blackberry? I'm currently running Virgin Mobile, and may pick up the new Blackberry Curve they've released since a couple weeks ago. Would be easier to get a phone I'm already going to use, and use a golf GPS app on there rather than buying myself a standalone unit as well.