mdbuschsr

This is really a case of semantics. I refer to my biological father as my father and to my step-dad as my dad. I agree with the usage referred to by Koth. In the end what we, and the OP, are talking about is manning up! Barring medical issues, any adult male can produce offspring. Parenting a child requires more patience than I ever thought I had. And if you really want to impress your child admit to them when you are wrong. Make the time to spend time with your kids. They did not ask to be brought into this world. It is our responsibility to do our very best as parents, recognize when we are screwing it up, and make the changes necessary! Sorry, that's a mess of a paragraph! I was raised by my step-dad starting around age 8, because my biological father was/is a pretty useless alcoholic! My wife and I got our son as a foster at age 5, and adopted at age 8. His parents were equally useless! He is 10 now, and I think we have learned as much about being parents from him, as he has learned about being a child from us. In our situation, Matthew (Dennis at the time) required some pretty heavy discipline in the first three years he was with us, because he had never received any real parenting in the intial years of life. Times change, now I find that I need to curtail the discipline, show love, and understanding even when my first instinct is discipline. IMO kids need to know there are limitations, but they need to be loved more than anything else! Granted my situation is a little different in going from zero kids to having a 5-yo. But to me it just meant the learning curve was vertical, rather than the slight incline birth parents get to enjoy. I could ramble on and on about this subject for many pages. It's hard for me to organize my thoughts here because they are so vast. In the end, learn from your mistakes like you expect your child to. MAN UP and be the parent your child deserves! Based on the OP, he is making the changes necessary to develop a relationship with his kid. I applaud him for realizing his errors and making changes. He and his child will benefit from it for the rest of their lives!

My tee shot on a 350-yard par four was this gigantic hook. About 180 out I hear, KNOCK!. The landing area is blind so I hit a provisional. Another hook, although not as bad. Same area, I hear knock, knock, knock, knock. Tee up one final ball, and hit a slice. You guessed it, KNOCK! Finally, I said the hell with it and drove forward to see if I could find the last ball because it was in an area I'm used to being in. As I clear the top of the hill, I see ALL THREE of my balls sitting in the fairway. I could not believe it. Picked up the two provisionals, and hit hit a beauty of an iron right at the stick. Came up a tad short, and it stopped right on the lip of a deep bunker. Chipped on, putted for par, and said thanks to God! That was the extreme, but it's how my whole day went. Wierd, ugly shots that came out OK or better.

Ditto! Had the same thing happen on a 480 par 5

Nice thread. As an adoptive parent to a 10 year old with emotion/developmental issues, fighting the first instinct is a hard thing. When we "got" our son, it was all discipline, ALL the time. But it had to be, as he had never had any discipline. Now, after almost four years, I am trying to back down a little and let him make mistakes, and be a boy. In that time we have gone from daily bad reports from school, to now, I haven't heard from his teacher since the first day of school. NNNNIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCEEEEE!!!!!! Heck it's almost normal! Now I just need to get my wife to back off a tad, and things will get even better.

I left out the part of my post where I would like to learn more about your chipping style. At first glance, at least in my puny little head, it seems as though your method and what I am trying to do are similar. Excluding ball position, what I gathered from your post that I first quoted is exactly what I am trying to achieve. I will re watch your included video to see if I can gleen some more info. Are there any other sources of similar information?

I have been making a conscious effort to accelerate through all shots, even the shortest putts. Distance is controlled with the length of back swing. I'm not sure what was going on today other than like I said letting my brain get in the way of the shot. So perhaps I was decellerating slightly. As for hands forward... That's how I have always hit my chips. I watched Phil's short game video and have been slowly getting into to play which is the only thing I can figure has helped my short game. But I always play the ball "back" in my stance for chips (depending on lie). If I'm on flat ground the ball is any where from slightly back of center to aligned on my back big toe. When on an uphill lie I move the ball forward as needed to allow for better contact. The above has been working for me, and has been getting better since installing the "hinge and hold". Today, I was fat, fat, FAT! Take two or three practice swings to "find" the low/contact point, align and address... Hit two inches behind the ball!

All of my really crappy holes today (a QUAD, and 5 doubles) were the result of crummy chipping. I know, your thinking, how do you get a QUAD as a result of bad chipping. Beautiful 3-W to 20 yards... 2-inches, 6-feet, bladed over the green into the woods, stroke and distance penalty, FINALLY chip on to 3-inches, tap in. I kept letting my brain get in the way. I'm normally at least a decent shipper. In fact until today I thought I was getting down right good! For instance in my round yesterday, I had quite a few that rolled over the edge and past the hole 1-6 feet. I guess the mental game got in my way. How do you quiet your mind, so it's not in the way? I shot a 93 which about the norm for me. But I felt like today could have easily been a mid 80's round!

The heart to tell him your swing sucks? LOL

I've hit a few found NXT's and they seemed to have a distinct click off the club. The action off the club was nice enough...

I marked a batch last night, so I guess I'll see if they hold up better after two days of cure time. I doubt it will help. The marks seem to come off due to impact with my clubs. I've seen orange on all my club faces since I started marking the balls. No big deal, I'll just have to remark during the round or switch balls. Superstitions be DAMNED!!!

So, I guess I'll just have to re-mark during the round and deal with it! Not a biggie, I was just curious if anyone had come up with a better solution.

It's definitely not skills... But for some reason, I couldn't get the 7 to stop worth a darn. The 6 was better, but gave me more rollout than either Gamer. The 5 (used today for the first time) gave me the most stopping power. I don't generate much back spin, in close (or anywhere), so more is better.

I've hit a couple of found E6's, and a few new E7's. Neither come close to the E5 in terms of pitch/chip control.

I have recently started marking all of the balls I play with an orange Sharpie "permanant" marker. I write my initials MDS around the sleeve number (both sides), and then strike through the alignment arrow. The problem is that the mark never seems to last a whole round, or even a few holes. On occasion I get through a whole round with the same ball, by the time I am done, almost none of the marker is left. Do you guys re-mark your golf balls during the round? I'm a bit superstitious... If I have a good round going, I don't want to change balls, or make a change to the ball I'm playing. Would the marking hold up better if I did them several days in advance?? I realize this is a stupid question, but I'm FULL of those!!!

I currently use something that came with a container of replacement spikes. But I think somewhere down the road (hopefully way down the road), I will modify your approach, and use my dogs name tag as a marker. HE'S A GOOD BOY!!!!