Paradox

I think its important for people to understand that the left arm isn't supposed to be stiff. A little bending in the left arm, specifically in the backswing, will not kill you. Bending at impact will always cause problems, though.

Forgot to add one... getting paired with the elderly racist guy. Talk about being uncomfortable on every shot!

haha, I know one of those.... and I think I might be the guy who legitimately can shoot a low 80 score by myself and then get with a foursome and shoot horribly. Mainly its because I play with ^^^that guy and he also gets entirely pissed, starts cursing, slingin clubs...it throws me off my game. My pet peeve is the guy who is driving the cart but wants to spend 10 minutes looking for his ball while you forget where yours landed, haha.

same the same things. Jim Furyk's entire body is pretty much facing the targe at the time he makes impact. Tiger is about halfway there at impact.

I'm stepping out on a limb here but I think that what the OP was really trying to say is that a lot of times, "instructors" want to teach you their swing or one way to swing a golf club when it doesn't fit you or your body or your style of play. That, I agree with. A person can get just as messed up by trying to "fit a swing" rather than finding a swing that fits them. I think all golfers should have certain fundamentals that carry over to any and all swings but I also believe that each persons swing should be whats natural to them. That doesn't mean that any old swing will work...don't forget the fundamental elements of a golf swing.

and if you have bentgrass greens, the grain is not really a factor. They are cut so short and are such a "soft" grass that they don't effect putts that much.

Also wanted to note that I played a round today, as well and took the strategy of someone who posted in here of playing 3 holes at a time. It really helped my scores for the most part. Knowing that I "didn't miss the mark by much" was much better than getting to the 8th hole of a side and saying "well I need to shoot a 2 here to have a decent score!". Played +3, E, +1 on the front and +4(had a double bogey on 11), +2, +2 coming home. You can probably tell which side is the tougher side.

From my experience, it takes a good while to get used to hybrids. At least, it did for me. After two years of swinging it and hitting it every which way, I now love the club when I wanted to throw it in the trash last year. Lesson is, don't give up on them and take them to the range for a while and keep playing the game with what you can work with right now until those clubs come around.

all this driver distance talk reminds me of the softball world. "I can't hit the ball 380 so if that guys doing it, he must be using a cheater bat!" Some people just have a knack for hitting things far. It doesn't equate to anything other than they can hit a golf ball far. Too many golfers worry about what someone else is doing instead of worryin about their own game. WHO CARES how far someone can hit? You're playing your own game and whatever distance they hit has no relevance to your next shot.

was looking more at his club path and not the net. It wouldn't be something I would focus on at this time because I think a lot of his swing faults are caused by the simple lack of "finishing" his swing. He's A LITTLE above plane on the downswing but if you watch the video and use lines you can see it isn't too far off. Looks like a product of "all arms" as far as I can tell.

No, both things influence direction. Just a matter of which one is greater than the other on any particular swing If I swing across the ball with a square clubface, it can start out left and go right. If I make the same swing with a severely open clubface it can start right and keep going.

not entirely true. A slice is any ball that moves left to right uncontrollably(granted that it isn't just a 10-15 yard movement, especially if you intend for it to do that). A fade would be done with intention. A slice can start out on any line, pull slice would start left and go right, a push slice would start right and go right, a normal slice can start on line and move right. None of it is caused by any one swing fault, either. Open clubface, steep swing, wrong path, body rotation, hand action, all kinds of things can be at fault.

the guy is not far off on his swing plane from address to impact, if at all. Maybe its steep(can't tell unless he gets face on) but its not coming over the top.

One year of what? Who calculates your HC? What rules are you playing by? No need to get your panties in a wad because its not just a "make it happen" kind of thing to get to playing scratch golf. As you can see by my handicap, I've worked that down starting out at about 22 4 1/2 years ago(granted most of the drop from 20 to 10 has happened this year). This September will be 5 years and by then I probably will be a 10. After that, getting to 5 won't be so easy because ANY "bad" stretch of golf will hurt you. Getting from 20 to 10 is "making less mistakes" getting from 10 to 5 is "that one mistake can cost you the round".

GIR is such a killer. Someone has broken my aimer and messed up my golf game!

the lower you get, the harder it is to move. I play generally 80's golf with the occasional 90's score and am at 12.2. I strike the ball reasonably well and all of that, but there is a world between me and a -1 or even a -5. I've been working to get from a 20 to 10 for a year...I suspect I've got 5 more maybe to get down to a 5.

Your lower body is very slow to rotate/doesn't rotate through enough and causes your shoulders to stop, also. This all causes your arms to go up instead of around and gives you the dreaded right spin. In short, I'd say its a classic case of "hitting at the ball"