mdbuschsr

I hope to be be moving to the Charlotte NC area in the near future and I'll have to basically start over, new courses, new friends etc. I'm kind of looking forward to it! I plan to join a league, and eventually get a membership somewhere. Hopefully, with the potential increase in income, I can afford them quickly.

I played yesterday, and decided that I was going to hit every short iron in my bag around the green EXCEPT the 52*. If the 52* was the right club then, I hit it, but I also dropped several balls and hit other clubs just to see what they would do. I had some nice shots. so, I just need to get out and spend time on the chipping green. In fact I had my first ever chip in yesterday. I duffed a sand shot about 3 feet and barely out of the bunker. Kept the SW in my hand stepped forward and chipped in for birdie. My first chip in ever!

I'm probably going to spend some time bouncing back and forth between this thread and the "top 5 worst" thread. Today I "hit a sand shot" that barely made it out of the bunker, I mean by inches!!! Then I followed up that little miracle by chipping in for birdie! Talk about going from worst to best. The bunkers at my course are crap to put it mildly. But I make no excuses. My sand game every where else is crap too! On the BEST side it was my first ever chip, in let alone for birdie!

I'm sorry for this, but THANKS, I needed a good belly laugh. And after my round today I know exactly what you you are talking about!!!

@ andef - I guess that should be the plan. I don't have any real expectations of hitting the green with anything above an 8 (my 130-140 club). As for chipping with longer clubs... I REALLY struggle with club head speed on them. If I use 8 or 9 iron to bump and run, I end up WAY past the hole or off the green. I know it's a shot that I need to have in the bag, but I just haven't worked it out yet. @ upah - if I'm off the green, I ALWAYS leave in the pin!

It had to be pretty obvious that this thread would be started after the recent, and ongoing, Top 5 BEST shots thread! #1 - The driver that you absolutely CRUSH, but never see! LOST BALL -2 strokes #2 - The chip or pitch that hits the stick but doesn't fall #3 - The 30+' putt that tracks exactly like you imagine, then hits an unseen pile of snot and veers off course inches from the cup. #4 - The INEXPLICABLE hosel rocket after your drive from #1 that finds the center of the fairway. #5 - The missed putt from inside 2-feet to save par! I'm not sure if they are in exact order for me, but those are 5 of the many that just make my heart sink!

After re-reading my post, I obviously need to work on my mid-irons as well as my putting. My putting has really come along. I went from an undocumented 3-4 putt average per hole, to where I get really pissed if I 3-putt from less than 30 feet. I should be able to stick anything from a 6-iron down to within 2-putt range. If I lose the extra chip from the fringe, I make my sub-90. But my question is still the same...

Lately, I have taken to using my 52* wedge for chipping nearly everything around the green. I've gotten accurate with it to the point of running many, too many, shots right over the edge of the cup. When I try to soften the stroke, I either fat it, or blade it. More often than not I fat it. Should I drop to my 56* SW, or learn to hit the 52*? The obvious answer is learn to hit both in given situations, but my frustration is growing. I went from loving my 60 to skulling it every time I pull it out. Now, I am deadly with the 52 but still a little too strong and I can't seem to get it right. Based on what I am seeing on the course, if I could drop a foot or two from every chip, I'd potentially be holing out 5-6 chips per round. As it is, I'm running them past 2-5 feet, and then 2-putting. Sorry for crying in my beer... I shot a 97 today that minus one MAJOR blowup, and many chips run by could have easily been the sub-90 round I have been hoping for.

Any Golf shot that flies exactly like I imagined... Their RARE! Full swing wedge that stops dead on impact. Had one on Tuesday that checked back into it's own mark on the green. Short chips & out to 20-30 yards that manage to nestle up close. A low stinger under the branches to get out of trouble Any putt that appears to have a real chance of falling whether it does or not. Putting is my weakest part of the game!

Depends on the day. I played on Tuesday and I was spraying the driver all over the place. I played yesterday, and except for a two hole stretch, my driver was pretty accurate. We'll see how today goes.

I agree with the first three points in this list. To me it seems every closeout/clearance event I hit has a plethora of lefty clubs, and very few righties. I once went to the driving range before I was playing often. The only club available was a left handed 7 iron. We were just a bunch of 20-year-olds messing around, but after a handful of whiff's I started making decent contact with the ball. I can switch hit in baseball/softball so why not golf. At this point I still stink bad enough playing from the right side that I wouldn't make the switch. But it would definitely be a fun challenge, and if it feels more natural at setup then I say run with it!

I've been playing the Gamer this season. I started out with the V1 and really liked it. I just ran out of new V1's so I opened a box of V2's. Does anyone have an opinion on the spin of the V2 vs. V1? The round I played I was spraying the driver all over the place and hitting a ton of provisionals. All of my provisional shots were with a used V1 so I could tell the difference easily. While almost all of the first shots went wayward, most of the provisionals went straight, or at least in the neighborhood of my target.

Count me in! If there are any SandTrappers in the Raleigh/Garner NC area, that want to check out a nice little 9-hole course let me know, otherwise I'll play with my "usual" threesome of me, wife, & son. As long as I don't have to wear a skirt while playing from the ladies tees, this should be a blast and probably a bit of an eye opener.

For me it just depends on the day. Often I can straighten out the driver. But today, I just had no idea where it was going. When I really, REALLY slowed down I was able to hit it straight, just short. Honestly, I would rather have my irons than my driver any day. But it was frustrating!

I just finished a round where I had absolutely ZERO control of my driver. I have never played more provisional balls in my life (probably combined). In an 18 hole round I had to hit 16 provisionals. Fortunately I only had to use two of them. I was playing a new-to-me course for the first time, so I didn't really know where the trouble or openings were. Several lucky breaks helped immensely. On the other hand I was obliterating all of my irons. For instance a 151 yard par 3 playing downhill about 6-8'... I hit my first shot WAY over the green and thought I was in the water with an 8i. I hit a provisional 9i choked down, and blew it over the green as well, and into the water. Finally I hit a PW and stuck it 4' left & pin high. Fortunately, I found my first ball on the edge of the pond and was able to play it, so all of the provisionals went back in the bag. Normally my 150 club is 6-7 iron. I hit the 8 because of the down slope, and I was hoping that I'd make the front edge. But the whole round went that way. I had to drop at least one club for every iron shot, and still had many fly over the green.

I don't show a HC high enough to speak authoritatively, but it happens to me almost every time. I aim out to the right some distance depending on the lie and distance to the flag.

The hook sounds like the club face getting closed by the tall grass.

I finally got back out to my course today. Returned the wedge from the other thread, but I digress... I thought I was going to play a nice solo round at an easy pace. But when I got there, there were four foursomes waiting to tee off. Some kind of mini skins game I assume knowing the groups. So, instead of dicking around on the practice green/range, I decided to go out to my nemesis tee and KICK IT'S A$$. After verifying with the GM that the rest of the course was basically empty I went to #9 tee and hit ball after ball until I was able to place 5 in a row in the fairway with my driver. I was getting my swing so grooved for 'that' shot that I had 3 of the five grouped in about a 5' circle. The fourth was a little short and the fifth was longer by 5-10 yards each. Of course after all that practice I played 9 practice holes, but I was so whooped from banging the driver that I stunk up the joint, until I returned to #9. Best drive of the day... Not distance but the shape, trajectory, and direction were EXACTLY what I wanted. So, the final tally for today was course 8, me 1. One very important shot! HA! I WIN!!!

I think my favorite compliment to date was during the awards ceremony at a recent best ball tourney. I won closest to the pin on a 150 yard uphill par 3. It's nice to receive compliments from a whole room full of "golfers". It wasn't until after that I found out I was the only one to hit that green during any of the last umpteen tournaments. Still, it made me feel pretty good. I also receive compliments on my swing. Doesn't make much sense to me as I still spray the ball all over the place occasionally. I guess it looks good to some, or they just like lying! LOL

We adopted our son finally after a 3 year battle with the state. He has been diagnosed with more three & four letter acronyms than you could shake a stick at. ADHD, RAD, PTSD just to name a few. He, unfortunately, takes more medication in a week than I take in a year. We have found the best way to provide normalcy, is to do normal things as much as his behavior will allow. We tried baseball, but it was just too much standing around for him. We tried bowling, and while he liked it, he became overly competitive with the other bowlers. Soccer will be the next attempt at a team sport. Golf seems pretty good for him as he is only competing with himself, and is pretty much always on the move. Plus he gets to "do it" with us!

It is both fun and challenging to golf with younger kids. I consider most rounds that I play with my son practice rounds. It's good to be ablet o work on the mental side of the game with the distractions that he brings to the course. He is getting better about it, and follows most of the rules of etiquette without reminder. He still has a propensity to walk through a putting line occasionally, and talk/laugh inexplicably during a swing. The course I play has a set of tees just for the kids, laid out such that my normal average drive lands in the vicinity of his tee. They aligned themselves with The First Tee program, and run kids camps from time to time. I hope to get him involved in one soon.

I guess I didn't think about the every 3-4 month, or extremely occasional golfer. I am playing a round at that course today and will return the club.

I decided to take my son out golfing this afternoon. We played nine of the nicest holes we have ever played together. Maybe that's not saying much with him only being 10 and all, but I take him out quite a bit. He hit some of the best shots I have ever seen him hit. Like, Driver about 90 yards (but right of green). Then he hit a 9i back at the green from about 35-40 yards to 10 feet. Two putts and in. He played a really nice round! I was absolutely killing the driver. Not fantastic distance, but it was actually going where I wanted and still with OK distance. My chipping was OK to mediocre. And with my usual 2-putt average, I managed a literal bogey round of golf. One double, one par, 7 bogies! I even managed a bogey on the 9th which is normally my BLOW UP hole (shot an 11 on it last round). It was far from my best round scoring-wise. But it was most definitely my most consistent round ever!!!

I'd give it a few weeks before I wrote it off completely, unless you have to have that club for a league or tourney. I recently obtained a club that I found and turned in. After two months it was not claimed, so I took it. I'll probably trade it in at Golf Galaxy or something. My point is, maybe the finder forgot to turn it in. If/when they return to the course hopefully they do the right thing. Just keep checking with the pro shop.

What is your normal shot? I thought a push was caused by inside-to-out swing with club face square to swing path. And that a push fade was caused by the same swing with a slightly open club face (to path).