utztech

You'll find that the nerds in any hobby or sport will try to establish their superiority and define themselves as the 'real' practitioners of said hobby or sport. You would think that the ones that could actually score the best would be the top practitioners of golf, but you would be wrong. The nerds consider 'purity' much more important. So don't do any of the following. 1. Most important: Do not ever break or bend any rule or decision. You can do this, but don't say you are playing Golf, because you are not you are playing something else. 2. Real, pure golfers always walk and always carry their bag. If you have a push cart, you are not pure. Don't even talk to me about those idiots who ride in carts. 3. Pure golfers would never use iron covers, because, because,uh....just because. That's why. So if you want to be a 'real' pure golfer, do what they do. Although I can't understand why they don't play with Hickories on Links courses maintained by sheep. Cause that's what I do, so I am the only 'pure' 'real' golfer around here. In all seriousness, I hope you keep pushing your cart (I do). Keep using your iron covers. Break out that foot wedge every once in a while. Have fun and don't let the unfriendly golfers keep you away from the best sport in the world.

Quote: I want to make 1 other observation, and would appreciate feedback from everyone to see if anyone agrees. Tom Abbott absolutely annoys the hell out of me and I can't figure out how he ever got the job as host. Surely the Golf Channel can find somebody more interesting to host the show, right??? He makes me want to pull my hair out.............. In contrast, I absolutely love Stephanie Sparks. I have a huge crush on her...LOL Yes, Tom Abbott is really annoying. I have not seen any positive comments about him. I can't stand how close he stands to people when he talks to them. He is a close talker.

Obviously a lot of the advice above to practice this or that thing is good. Because if you keep getting better you will some day break 80. But here is some advice that might help you with the game you have today. You are going to break 80 when you are playing well, by definition, since it will be a new low for you. When I am playing well I tend to expect more out of my shots and this leads me to two mistakes: 1. Don't be more aggressive just because you are hitting it well. I tend to take riskier lines off the tee and aim at riskier spots into the green when I am hitting it well. This leads to mistakes that will keep your score at the same level as when you are not hitting it well, but playing less aggressive. 2. Don't compound mistakes because you are hitting it well. When I am playing well I tend to expect more out of my shots, so when I really screw up, I tend to try to make up for it and often compound my mistake. For example, I was playing pretty well a couple of days ago and I hit a really good drive, only had 80 yards left. I chunked my second shot and it came up way short. There was a bunker between me and the flag and I had little green to work with. Well I was not going to stand for a bogie when I had hit such a great drive and I was playing well, so I tried a shot I was not confident in and dumped it in the bunker. Double bogie. I should have just taken my lumps after the first mistake and hit a safer shot. I probably would have on a day I was playing worse and my score was not as good.

I don't think carts are inherently slower, but if you get stuck riding with a slow player, it makes both of you slow. One of the guys in my normal foursome is quite a bit slower than the rest of us. I have been riding with him the last few rounds and I have found it frustrating. I often grab a couple of clubs and end up walking to my ball and then the green while he is doing his thing. So maybe people walk more in the UK and one slow person does not make for two slow people. I have also found that it is much easier for the one slow person in the group to make everyone else subconsciously play more slowly than it is for the slow person to subconsciously play faster. I don't know why.

I have not seen every season, but I have watched about 2/3 of them. This season seems to have more talented players to me. In the last few episodes guys were actually beaten by birdies instead of by making their own stupid mistakes. (There were a couple of short missed putts, but those happen). I don't know specifically if the players have more experience, but the quality of play has been high so far. Unrelated question: Why does everyone have a problem with Chan. I have been working on my computer while watching these, so maybe I missed something? As far as I can tell he is a little neurotic and nerdy, but other than that I don't get the hate. Is he just not cool enough for these guys or is there some jerky behavior I missed. I am surprised Anthony has made it this far. He has an ugly swing and more than that, it seems yippy. Anyone else see the same thing?

Does anyone have experience with this thing? It looks ridiculous, but I am thinking of getting one. I always struggle to maintain the triangle. It's amazing some of the crap we will do to improve. http://www.golfswingshirt.com/index.html

He has more energy, he's more energetic, and he's not as tired. I think Miller is on to something though. Most of these veteran players know how to lose the Ryder Cup. It must bring a bad vibe to the locker room. Incidentally, I bought into the line about Tiger's Ryder Cup record being poor until I saw the other American player's records. Considering he has only been on one winning team (1999) it is amazing he is basically batting .500.

The only problem here is that they had to finish Monday. To fix that they need to outlaw caddies lining up the players. And the players need to be embarrassed that 12-year-olds can make it to the US Open, and 15-year-olds can win tournaments. Why aren't there grown ladies that can beat 12 and 15 year old girls? In all seriousness, now that I have ranted about what I really don't like on the LPGA, nothing needs to be done. It was a rare occurrence that might happen every 40 years or so.

I had heard of the drive before, but never the story behind it. Thanks for posting the link. The most interesting part to me is the last page. It seems it was just barely possible. Mike Austin's record 515-yard drive has yet to be approached in thirty years. Which begs the question: Did it—could it—really happen? T+L GOLF asked the engineers at Focaltron, a golf-performance company in Sunnyvale, California, to simulate the drive to see whether Austin's story flies. After plugging in all the known data—that day's wind and weather conditions, the altitude, the persimmon driver and the two-piece ball—here's what they determined: At an altitude of 2,030 feet and a temperature of eighty-eight degrees, Austin would have needed the day's maximum wind gust of 27 m.p.h. behind him, an astonishingly low launch angle and spin rate and a swing speed of 150 m.p.h. to carry the ball 445 yards before it started rolling. (Indeed, Austin's swing was once measured at 155 m.p.h.; by comparison, Tiger Woods swings the club about 120 m.p.h.) A few lucky bounces might—just might—have yielded another sixty or so yards. Plus, by cutting off the slight dogleg, Austin shaved ten or more yards off the hole. If all these variables came together, the 515- yard drive could have occurred. Or perhaps, as Austin's biographer, Philip Reed, suggests: "Something unquantifiable may have happened that day. It's like the moment when a mother lifts a car to save her child from the burning wreckage. Whatever Mike did that day seemed to defy everything we know about the golf swing."

I paid about $190 to play Torrey Pines. I would not do that often, but next time I am in San Diego I will play again. I will play Pebble some day as well. One thing I love about golf is that we can play on the courses where the greatest championships have been played. Go try to play a pick up game with your buddies at Yankee Stadium.

I guess I signed up after the period expired, but here are my results anyway. Aggressive Round Score: 72 Conservative Round Score: 73 Average 7-Iron Distance: 160 Notes: I was surprised at how well I scored. Granted, my 81 average is probably a little high because I have been improving lately, but the 72 was my best round ever, and the 73 tied my best round ever (which was from the 5900 yard tees at the same course. My best round from the 6500 yard tees is 75) As expected the aggressive round played to my strengths, which are driving and wedges. By far the worst part of my game is mid and long irons. I probably was a bit too aggressive in my conservative round because I hit 3 hybrid off the tee instead of long irons. I think that contributed to the score being so much lower than I expected. I felt that if I used my long irons off the tee I would be duck-hooking them etc, and that was not fair either. a. Did you find that the aggressive or conservative round was more enjoyable? - Aggressive since it played to my strengths. I hit nothing into a green longer than a 9 iron all round. I think I could do even better with a few more rounds at those tees. I did not know where to aim a few times and hit the ball through the fairway into the junk on dog-legs. b. Did you discover a hidden strength or weakness in your game? No c. On which area of your game did the shorter tees put pressure? Mid range putting. Getting on the green and two putting was not a victory anymore, I wanted birdies. I was looking at a lot of birdie putts inside 20 feet and I wanted to make more of them. Normally I have very few chances at that length during a round so it does not seem as important to work on that putting distance. Its not a distance you are going to 3 putt from really, so I normally work on long and short putts. d. Did you have more fun than normal? Will you occasionally play shorter tees for fun? I did because I was scoring like never before. I think it would get boring to do it all the time, but I will be moving up more often just to remind myself of the things I learned. e. What'd you learn? I found that with no pressure to hit it long I made smooth swing that went as far, or further, than normal with more control. Also, standing on the tee of that long par 4 (which is 370 now instead of 440) I felt no pressure, so I of course bomb it out there. That taught me something about the mental game too. f. Did you shoot your predicted score(s), and if not, why not? If so, was it for the reasons you suspected? Better than expected. I may have just had some good days, but I suspect I was hitting it so mush better because of the reduced pressure. I also started to think about birdies a lot more and I think that helped me score better.

Course Name : Longbow Golf Club Course Website : http://www.longbowgolf.com Course Style : Desert, Stay on the grass or you probably will be taking an unplayable Regular Tee Yardage / Rating / Slope : 6513 / 69.9 /125 Regular Tee Average Score : 81 Forward Tee Yardage / Rating / Slope : 5202 / 66.5 / 114 Forward Tee Predicted Score (Aggressive Round) : 74 Forward Tee Predicted Score (Conservative Round) : 78

I voted 4 iron. I hit it like crap. I usually choke down and take a 3/4 swing with my 3 hybrid instead.

The handicap system only works in two ways: 1. If everyone is honest 2. If you use it with your regular group of buddies that everyone knows how they play and what their handicap really is. Since #1 is never going to happen, handicaps are useless except in #2. The handicap system started in clubs where everyone knew each other and sandbagging was a lot more difficult. I have never been in a scramble that was legit for this reason. If I play in a scramble it is to have some fun, benefit a charity, and ignore the group of drunk guys who post a 53 but can't stand up straight to accept their trophy. (Handicaps are also useful to track your own progress, but only if you observe #1).

I actually thought of the comparison because I think with Donald and Westwood at this point it is all mental. They are beating themselves because they have played at a high level for so long and been number 1 in the world and had close calls in majors. So the expectation is huge and it defeats them. Tiger seems to be in the same spot, where he can win 50 more tournaments, but his 2nd career, if you will, means nothing without that major. So I just wondered if he is becoming a 'major' head case like the other two.

I just had a horrible thought when considering Tigers performance in majors the last few years. What if Tiger is the next iteration of Luke Donald and Lee Westwood. The top rank player in the world who is always solid but can't get it done in the in majors?

I really think this whole thing is some sort of gimmic. Maybe Dan was hoping to get a reality show, or maybe he is planning on writing a book about his experience? More power to him. But this "experiment" has already been done thousands of times. There are literally thousands of golfers that have been golfing from a young age, played high school golf, played college golf, played mini tours, and tried to make it. Over the course of a decade or two they have put in at least 10000 hours. They did not make it, and most of them probably had more talent than Dan. If Dan was going to make it he would have been scratch within the first 2000 hours. Most pro golfers have been scratch since they were either around 12 years old, or within a couple of years of picking up the game if they started later in life. I believe any reasonably intelligent person can become a surgeon with 10000 hours of training. But there are 10's of thousands of surgeons in the world. To become one of the best 150 golfers in the world takes 10000 hours and a lot of talent.

Tiger on 16 - where did that first putt come from? Did he talk about it in the presser? That thing went like 20 ft past the hole. It reminded me of when I was playing with my bro in law. It was about his 4th time playing. He rolled a 15 ft putt about 30 ft past the hole and off the green. The lady we were paired with said, "What are you doing?". She thought he was screwing around.

"Swedish Meatball" - I about spit out my drink when I read that.

All this talk about the non-bunkers got me thinking. It was said they are not maintained like bunkers and are more like hard pan cart paths and that is one of the reasons they are played as waste areas. That sounds like every bunker in Arizona (with the exception of the nicer courses in the winter). So I think I may start playing them all as "sand areas" :)

I liked Daly until I watched his reality show. He has got to be the biggest whiner ever. I thought he was moody, rude to his girlfriend, and entitled. Sometimes it is better to think you know what someone is like, than to find out you're wrong. Having said that, I would like to see him in contention on Sunday. It is a good story, and when it comes to golf, I only care about the golf.

I watched the entire 18 holes of the Tiger group. - I like watching these marque groups because there is less talking a you get to see every shot, good, bad and ugly. - If that damn survey banner pops over one more time ... - If Michael Breed does one more analysis on that screen ... - Keegan Bradley is the twitchiest golfer ever. If they take away his anchoring he might lose his tour card. He also has a very specific pre-shot routine: 1. Line up behind the ball, tilt head to one side and stare for 15 seconds. 2. Step next to the ball and take 4 crouching little mini pitch-like practice swings. 3. Step back behind the ball, take 2 steps forward, one step back, then one step forward, now two steps back (now swing your partner round and round and dosey doe) 4. Walk up to address the ball, when 2 steps away go back and line up behind the ball. 5. Un-velcro and re-velcro glove exactly 6 times. 6. Repeat steps 3 and 4. 7. Address the ball and take 6 mini waggles. 8. Swing away! Very simple and effect routine, but if he only velcros his glove 5 times he has to start over.

I too will address your 5. 1. The top 4 or 5 players had game, but otherwise, yea they don't meet expectations. I guess they caste some eye-candy and some players, and some in between. 2. At lease 2 of the top players were Spanish speakers, so we got to hear PARA, PARA, PARA, PARA to change things up a bit. In all seriousness, this yelling of SIT along with having caddies line up every shot is the worst thing about women's golf. I have not noticed the men constantly yelling this stuff. 3. They were nicer to look at than a bunch of guys. I would prefer they skew casting more to golf skill though. 4. Not confusing if you've watched a lot of Big Break. 5. I like it. It is something different. As a certified golf addict, I will take my drug in any form, and new different forms are good.

I heard that all the bunkers are played as wasted areas this week. But looking at, for example, picture k_25 there are waste looking areas, but in the middle of the fairway there is a pot bunker. I noticed in other pictures clearly defined greenside bunkers as well. Are they all really being played as waste areas? And thanks for the pictures, it is cool to see the course close up.

I am surprise it took until page 2 for someone to mention it. POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!