Harmonious

Although I knew how, I never had the desire to count cards. You have to continuously watch everybody's cards, which takes away from the "fun" of playing. Employ basic strategy correctly, incorporate a good progressive betting system (I used 1-1-2-3-5 or 1-2-3-5 depending on whether I was up or down) and KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY .

I'd be interested, depending on the schedule of course. And David would have to get his buddy Graeme to come, too.

Obviously you wanted to improve your game, thus you took lessons. One question: How much time have you spent trying to incorporate the items your instructor suggested? The reason I ask is that you probably were expecting that you would immediately start hitting it like Adam Scott, and that has not turned out to be the case. This is just a guess, but you probably relied on an early release (flip) to square the clubhead in your old swing. And you were quite successful, up to a point, since you state you are a 7 cap. Now, by concentrating on lag and bringing your hands through before the clubhead, you are leaving the face open a bit, causing your slice. It takes time to ingrain the new feeling of a correct swing with a forward shaft lean at impact. I have had the same issue. It has been 3 months since my last lesson, and many, many hours on the range. I am seeing the positive results now; it was not immediate. But I knew it was the right thing, and I did not question my instructor's advice. If you are in doubt, I would suggest you go back to your instructor and express those doubts. Maybe he can explain in better detail why his suggestions will work for you. The old saying "The good is the enemy of the great" holds true here. Returning to your old swing will allow you to continue to be "good" but you will never be "great".

I think most walking carts these days (Clicgear, Sun Mountain are two I know of) have sand bottles you can buy as accessories. I fill up my sand bottle every 9 holes and fill my divots plus as many others as I can. I am continually amazed how lazy motorized cart riders are such that they won't use the sand on their carts to fill huge divots. But then, they don't fix their ball marks either.

I purchased their cart bag last year, and it has held up very well. Lots of pockets and full length dividers. A great deal at under $100. I've purchased golf gloves from them for many years as well.

Gates may be a lot of things. But LUCKY certainly is not one of them.

You raise an interesting question. Do we really NEED instruction? And why golf but not other sports. A few thoughts: 1) Golf requires a substantial amount of money to start (equipment, greens fees, shoes, etc.) So, by and large, the people who are interested in starting out have available income. Thus, they might be inclined to spend some of that money toward getting lessons. Most don't, but I would guess more than in other sports. But this is also true of skiing, equestrian and a few other sports. 2) Face it, golf is hard. It's not a reactive sport. It's all on you to initiate action. To be able to control that little ball requires a goodly amount of coordination and ability. Some people can do it without lessons, and they will get to a certain level of proficiency. Others just can't do it without someone showing them exactly how. 3) Golf is played over a lifetime. Unlike football, people can play golf their entire life. So they might seek out instruction at some point. And, if they improve, they are more apt to continue getting lessons. 4) There are other sports where instruction is very important for advancement. Think about gymnastics, swimming/diving, tennis, skating. Those who want to continue to excel seek out instruction. And there certainly are instructional camps on basketball, football, soccer, hockey. But adults generally stop playing those sports at some point. Good topic.

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I just looked it up on Golfwrx. Ping G2 is .350. Titleist is .335. So you cannot put the Ping shaft into the Titleist.

Given the track record, I think your reading of the comments is right on.

The adjustable drivers these days have adapters on the ends of the shafts. This is so you can change the loft, etc. Each manufacturer has their own adapters that, of course, do not fit on other brands. But you could pull the shaft from your Ping driver and put it into a Titleist driver. You would just have to remove one adapter and put on another. They cost about $20.

Interesting thought about Harmon. Just feeding placebos. OKay.....

Because I found your statement about the glut of + cappers so amazing, I did some checking of state Mid-Am Championships last year. I figured the Mid-Ams better reflected club players rather than the college golfers that enter the State Ams. I used Florida and Arizona because they would seem to have a lot of good amateurs. And PA is your home state, right? Florida Mid-Am Championship, GHIN Handicaps for the top five: +0.3, +3.1, +1.0, 1.6, +1.6. Arizona Mid-Am Championship, GHIN Handicaps for the top five: +3.2, +4.8, 0.5, +3.5, +2.6. Pennsylvania Mid-Am Championship, GHIN Handicaps for the top five: +1.9, +4.2, +2.0, 0.7, +0.9. So while there are some really good players out there, your club champ would seem to be able to hold his own in any amateur competition.

Good explanation, Dave. Some folks are taking your 5 keys much too literally, sometimes to the extent that they cannot imagine anyone being able to hit the ball if their head moves even a little. Obviously, Walker has fashioned a great golf game, regardless of his head movement.

Are you a member of Whisper Rock? Where is this place with all the +3, 4 & 5's handicaps walking around, and a guy with a +2.5 can't compete in local amateur events?

Sorry about that. I think "playing seriously" is different for each person. For me, it started when I decided to play in a couple of local county amateur tournaments years ago. Before then, I played maybe 20 rounds a year, never practiced, never took a lesson, etc. My scores were generally mid-to-high 80's, around a 12 cap. Once I got "serious", the cap dropped down to 6 within a year. I still didn't play more than 30 rounds a year, but now spent some time on the range and putting green. Still with a flippy, homemade swing, but useful enough to get around in the high 70's most days.

I was thinking of anything inside of 20' as a "makeable" putt, a distance that a tour pro should feel like he can try to make instead of just lagging up to the hole. In those situations, the tour pro will be much more likely to hit it past the hole than an amateur, for all the reasons listed.

I've read through Pelz' books. He wrote that he "tested for optimum speeds on different putts and different greens all around the country" through "years of experiments". I couldn't find where he identified the stimps for the greens he tested.

Yes, tour pros hit a higher percentage of putts past the hole than amateurs. Yes, they are better putters so they have the confidence to make those 3-4 foot comebackers. Yes, they play on better and faster greens so they know if they hit their short putts on the right line at the right speed, chances are very good it will go in. For them, leaving a makeable putt short is a very big error. They never have a chance to go in.

I know that lots of folks here will disagree, and I really don't want to dash your hopes, but if you have played the game seriously for a couple of years or so and haven't yet gotten under 10, you won't get down to scratch no matter what. Certainly you can get better with practice and instruction, but everyone has a talent barrier at some point. The guys I know who are close to scratch, including myself, played other sports first and took up golf later in life. One was a hockey player, a couple of us played competitive baseball/softball. None were child prodigies in golf, but I guess we had the eye-hand coordination necessary such that hitting the ball wasn't an issue. Then it took a considerable amount of effort to drop down to the near-scratch level. So it is very much doable after the age of 30, but just hitting more buckets of balls, or watching more golf videos, or getting more lessons will not be enough if you don't possess the initial talent.

When I lived in Las Vegas, I played with a Rod Stewart impersonator from one of the shows on the Strip. Does that count?

I would suggest the OP state either, 1) Yes, I want suggestions from anyone and everyone; or, 2) No, this thread is just for me to post my swing videos and comments without outside discussion. Otherwise, this thread will just continue to be back and forth insults, which certainly offers no help to the OP and just makes everyone look either petty or silly.

Power Golf was written in 1948, nine years before 5 Lessons. As Mvmac said, this was when Hogan fought the hook, and before he found his new swing in the dirt. He definitely revised some his thinking by the time he got to 5 Lessons.

Search on "stock shafts" and you'll get a complete discussion on this subject.

My only comment is lose the Rowan Atkinson avatar.