newtogolf

Nice touch!

What people don't seem to recognize is that along with pollution, populations have increased to record numbers. To accommodate all the additional people we need to clear more forest area to house them, increase the number of power plants and their capacities, burn more fossil fuel to heat the homes, more cars, more manufacturing plants, more office buildings, etc. At some point we need to regulate the population as well as pollution or I doubt we'll make much progress in effecting any change.

That's the crux of it but to get good at golf it takes time and some money (lessons, range time, practice rounds) which most people don't see sufficient ROI on to dedicate to the sport. I found similar attitudes in running, most runners don't mind training for a 5K, some will move on to 10K's. Once you get past 10K and start considering half and full marathons you're talking about a lot of hard work and training hours per week just to finish in the allotted time, which most people don't have the desire to put in.

I think the RoG are a convenient scapegoat but I don't see them as a real issue as to why people don't play golf so therefore I don't see any basis for wanting to simplify the rules. Again, almost every member in the clubs I've been a member of posts their scores for handicap and almost none of them follow the Rules of Golf explicitly. The result is a large portion of the clubs members are vanity cappers but it only becomes a real issue when a vanity capper goes up against someone that plays consistently following the rules (which are usually incorrectly called "sandbaggers") in a tournament, otherwise everyone is happy. Creating another set of rules (even simplified) does not ensure people follow them or that more people will golf or post scores for handicap. Based on those I speak to, amateur golfers prefer the illusion of playing by the same rules the pro's do and are against bifurcation of the rules. Golfers like to tout lower scores than they actually in accordance with the rules shoot and the ability to hit longer distances than they actually hit, that's the nature of non-competitive amateur golf.

I agree to some level, it could have been much more insightful to the design process but they seemed to want to hide that part.

The last I heard is they designed their own golf balls at The Oven but outsourced manufacturing to Bridgestone. I don't believe they ever added the mass production manufacturing.

Based on what I'd heard, Nike golf balls were made in Bridgestone factories.

Stereotypes are hard to shake, golf has the stigma of a sport played mostly by old, wealthy, white men, which in todays PC society is not a favorable demographic to be associated with. Overall the problem is that the majority of us are aware of the stereotype, I didn't start playing golf until I was 47 because I didn't realize how challenging and fun it was, it just looks easy on television. As kids get exposed to the game and realize that the top pro golfers today are as much athletes as many other sports their opinion of the game will change.

I don't deny climate change or the impact humans have on the planet and other living creatures, I just dispute the level of influence we have. For example, how many different species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish became extinct as a result of the ice age that occurred without any human interference? Conversely we've made great efforts to eliminate roaches and rats from NY City and have been unsuccessful. I believe as humans we have a responsibility to not abuse the planet but we also should be more humble about our role and the impact we have on it's long term welfare.

We definitely impact the environment, but the issues listed above aren't related to fossil fuels.

This is where I'm at, we are putting coal miners out of work here in the US but China and India continue to build coal burning power plants. I fully support the use of solar and wind as alternative power sources but they're not ready to take over as primary power sources. Nuclear remains the cleanest power we can produce but no one wants the plants in their home town, so it seems we're premature in calling for alternative power sources and shutting down coal mines when we don't have superior alternatives.

My first reaction was that the author must not be a golfer, because I can't imagine why any golfer would want to hit out of a footprint or other imperfection of the sand. As I thought more about it, it makes some sense. When we land in the rough, we're not guaranteed a clean lie to hit from, same goes for hard pan and other non-fairway areas where our ball can end up. Most bunker shots, especially for pro golfers are preferable to shots out of rough around the green (except for deep pot bunkers). If bunkers are placed around the course to protect the course and green, ensuring those areas are well maintained and in pristine condition seems to be contrary to their purpose. On the other side, sand traps usually surround the perimeter of a green so does a slightly offline shot warrant having to play a ball out of a footprint. I'd like to see some pro courses adopt this policy and see how it impacts play. It could make it more interesting to watch.

Exactly, and he never convinced me that he wanted to achieve the goal they had set for him. I don't want to say GC exploited Mark but he clearly needed help and counseling far beyond what they seemed willing to provide on camera. He was ungrateful, lazy and seemed to resent those that tried to help him.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Sand Trap friends.

The concept was intriguing, but the execution was very flawed. Like any "reality" show, the episodes were loosely scripted to "enhance" viewership, It was more about the show than trying to help the guy put his life together, at least based on what we saw. The biggest issue I had was I was never convinced the main character had a real desire to achieve the goal the show set for him, I think he enjoyed the benefits and attention. A guy like that needs real help, not a few old golf buddies trying to play psychologist on camera. It's not the worst show I ever watched, but it could have been much better had they taken the time with it.

Here's what I don't understand about those who claim the rules of golf are too complex and difficult; Most casual golfers don't know the rules of golf, they likely never read them and know the rules they do because a fellow golfer told them or they saw it on television. Most people that claim to know the RoG, don't play by the official RoG, they pick and choose which ones make sense to enforce. I've never seen someone call a penalty on themselves because the ball moved a micron on the green after address or when removing loose impediments from around the ball. Most don't hit provisionals when their ball might be lost or OB and they almost never go back to the tee, instead they drop a ball (usually in a favorable place) and play on The actual RoG are not practical to enforce on a public course and still adhere to pace of play. Why go through the effort of changing the official rules when courses have the ability to create local rules and most golfers are quite content to "modify" the rules to suit their needs? Tufts was an enlightening read because I now appreciate how the rules have to cover so many different course types and unique situations that it's difficult, if not impossible to anticipate every unique situation and therefore a generic rule that properly covers 95% of those situations is better. That said, the rules aren't perfect. I don't like how the rules were enforced at the US Open for both the PGA and LPGA. I also don't agree with every rule in the NFL either so I guess that's life.

The Pivot was going to be a more expensive driver but based on the feedback and limited statistics they did have, it was the better performing driver.

Football is a simpler game in the sense that all teams play on a field with the same dimensions. What players can or cannot do is based on their position. There is also no honor system in football, referees are hired to oversee the players and determine if the fouls they observed had an impact on the play. A referee could literally throw a flag on almost every play in a football game and be justified in doing so.

I was confused watching the last show because the Pivot seemed to be the favorite of everyone that tested it so I was shocked when they said the Triton was the winner. I don't know how the Triton looks in person but on the show the top of the head reminded me of a skunk.

The best drive I ever hit in my life. I was at the tee box, water was just over 280 yards out so felt comfortable it wasn't in play for me. Hit the best drive of my life, excitedly watched it fly, take a nice bounce on landing and roll right off the fairway into the water.

Callaway Preowned usually runs a decent promotion for Black Friday into Cyber Monday. Right now they are running a BOGO free on wedges and putters.

I've never seen a shaft break in two place at the same time like the pictures you attached. Why don't you just buy a replacement shaft rather than throw the entire driver away?

It's not always that items are marked up overseas by the manufacturer, higher import tariffs and currency exchange is usually what inflates the prices. The off the shelf prices of PXG are not that far out of line with some of the more expensive Japanese club manufacturers. The ridiculously high PXG prices you see some quote are due to their fitters taking the customer through an extensive fitting process that results in PXG just shipping the heads the fitter ordering custom shafts and assembling the clubs for you in their store.

They are also accustomed to paying prices for clubs that are closer to the PXG pricing model.

The charge a membership fee and have a large membership which gives them an advantage over most of their competition. In order to maintain that membership they must continue to offer quality products at prices that encourage people to renew their membership and attract new members.