utztech

I was playing with my brother yesterday and we were driving up to the green on the par 3 ninth. I was driving and suddenly we see a white blob, I thought it was a bird, but then a I heard a bang. I stopped and looked at my brother and he told me he had put his arm in front of his face when he saw it and it hit his arm. It would have hit him square in the face otherwise. I looked around and saw a player teeing off on 10. He must have hit a wicked push hook for the ball to fly at us at that angle. I can't really be mad at the guy since we have all hit bad shots, but he could have at least come over and said he was sorry. Instead he skipped the 10th hole, I assume out of embarrassment.

I think this one would work better. (I admit, I just posted this to express my hatred for Keegan Bradley and long putters.) I am assuming this topic is sarcastic, but I love golf so even if its nerdy I'll play. I am an engineer anyway so I'll just double up on the nerd factor :)

Quote: Watched it last night... anyone else think that the level of golf is quite poor? I thought the level of golf was poor too. But at this point we are mostly watching the worst of the bunch in the eliminations, etc. The way the show is set up, the best golfers don't hit many shots or get much TV time in the first few episodes. (Unless they have a bad day, which can happen). I think there are a few ladies who can play, so I would expect the level of golf to improve. Isn't there a couple of them who have played in the US Open? I would assume they have some game.

Quote: Do they put this on demand or online at all or do I have to wait for a re run? Past seasons have been available On Demand. I have Cox in AZ, so not sure about other cable providers.

78, one of my best rounds. Could have been a 73 if my short game was better. Made two bogies from the fringe and missed 3 birdie putts inside 12 feet.

I have been keeping a close eye on the Nike Free shoe that is supposed to be coming out at some point. After this review I decided to check out the True shoes. I wanted to try them in person so I went to the PGA Superstore since they were the closest place that had them in stock. I tried them out and bought a pair. They are extremely comfortable. I went to the driving range yesterday with them and I am really happy. They seem to have as much grip as normal soft spike shoes. I can't wait to walk 18 in them and see if how my feet feel. My other golf shoes hurt my feet after about 9 holes. A couple of things: - Living in Arizona and not having a work dress code, I wear sandals all the time from April to November. You can't wear socks with sandals, you just can't :) so during the colder months I wear shoes. Lately my arches have been really sore everyday. I was thinking I needed more arch support, but after wearing the True shoes for about 10 hours yesterday I think the opposite might be the case. My feet are used to no support and the shoes I am wearing lately are too constricting. My feet felt better after wearing the True shoes for half a day. - For those of you wanting to order on-line the sizes seem to be right on. I almost always wear a 12 in all my shoes and the True shoes in a 12 fit just right. - As I said before, after one range session, the shoes seem to have as much grip as normal soft spikes. - I am exited to try more "minimal" shoes running etc. I am wearing my True shoes all day today to test them out further. Hopefully I don't wear the spikes out too fast :). - I am in no way affiliated with True.

I'm in

One time my brother and I were playing and we were on the 15th or 16th hole. I was using my driver from the tee. I swung at the ball and the head of the driver flew off the hosel. I did not hit the ground or anything, I hit the ball and the head just flew off. So I asked my brother to borrow his driver which he has just bought used. I tee up the ball and swing, hit the ball again, no ground or anything, and the head of his driver goes flying off the hosel. So two broken drivers on consecutive swings. That was a very expensive round because I had to get mine and my brother's drivers repaired.

Have you guys seen this on golfdigest.com http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-courses/blogs/wheres-matty-g/2012/01/the-tao-of-steve.html One of the reasons Whitten gives for thinking Bandon Dunes is overrated is that the caddies encourage you to speed up at times. I have never been to Bandon Dunes so maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but I can't imagine the caddies are doing that if you are keeping up with the group in front of you. It is attitudes like this guy Whitten has that cause the Slow Play Epidemic (yea I just called it an epidemic, because it is, no hyperbole intended). This comment by Whitten made me want to play Bandon more than ever. It must be a true golfers paradise. Can someone that has been to Bandon comment on the pace of play there and if the caddies are annoying?

To follow up on Stewie007's post and my own. I would highly recommend a net for high handicappers. I reduced my handicap about 9 strokes in about 9 months, and a big part of that was having a net in the backyard that I could use a lot. The net is great for learning to make good consistent contact. It is also very easy to go out there for a few minutes and just hit like 10 balls. I think short, frequent practice is better than hitting 100 balls once a week.

You may have partially answered this above, but I would love to hear some more. I have a hitting cage in my backyard that I don't use very often anymore. When I was closer to a 20 handicap I found it very useful since I was not making good contact most of the time and just learning to actually hit the ball solidly was big improvement. The problems I have now are more with flight that you can't see in the 10 feet before the ball hits the net in my cage. I am closer to a 10 handicap now so I still am not making perfect contact a lot of the time, so the hitting cage would still be somewhat useful. I just find myself using it less and less since I can't see the problems with my ball flight. If you have ideas how to better use the cage I would love to hear them. It is so much more convenient than going to the range.

Tiger would have already done this at least 5 times, but he was not eligible for the Order of Merit since he did not play enough Euro Tour events in any given year.

I shot an 81 on my local muni. The round was memorable since I 4 putted for the first time in I don't know how long. Putting is the best part of my game, so 4 putts are very rare. The 4 putt was even more painful as it happen on a par 5 where I was lying about 20 yards off the green in 2. I bladed my chip across to the far side of the green and had probably a 70 foot putt. So I almost hit the green in 2 and ended up with a double bogey. Ouch.

I think Greg Norman answered is own question by going on a show to complain that Tiger won't answer is calls. At this point it should be clear to anyone with half a brain that if you want to be close to Tiger you need to: 1. Be fiercely, even insanely loyal. 100% or nothing. 2. Don't reveal any private information about Tiger unless approved by Tiger. Right or wrong that is the way it seems that Tiger operates. On a related note, why does Norman think he has anything to offer Tiger? Pretty narcissistic if you ask me.

I have a laser range finder. My experience is that on munis and other 'budget' courses that yardages are often not accurate, or the tees are moved up quite a bit. For example I was playing a hole marked as 395 yards on the card yesterday. I hit a good drive and when I lasered the flag I had 95 yards left. I thought I hit a good drive, but not that good. There was a tree next to the tee box so I stood by my ball and lasered the tree, 265 yards. Now the flag was in the front part of the green and the tee was moved up a bit from the back of the box, but it was not enough to account for the 40 yard difference. I think this sort of thing accounts for a lot of guys thinking they hit 300 yards. On nicer courses around here there is almost always a marker somewhere on each tee box that has the distance to the center of the green and I find them accurate. One other thing, if you are a high handicapper your average distance is going to be less than the occasional ball you catch just right, so maybe your work on the range is starting to pay off, or you just caught a couple of balls really well.

I am in Arizona so I ride in the Summer and walk the rest of the year. I enjoy walking more, but I typically play in the afternoon, even in the Summer, so riding is the only way to go for me during the Summer months.

I am 6'4" and 265 lbs. While I am not going to lie and say its all muscle, I am not just a fatty either, I have broad shoulders and a 50 inch chest. So now that you know more than you ever wanted to about me, I'll get to my question. Since I started taking golf seriously 2 years ago, and trying to improve my swing, I have always had a hard time swinging from the inside. I had a slice as a result. So over the last 6-9 months I started taking the club away to the inside and swinging below plane as a result. That did 'fix' the slice, but it introduced some bad pulls or blocks to the right if my timing was not perfect. As a result my game was very inconsistent. I finally decided to take some lessons and the first thing the instructor did was get me to start more on plane in the backswing. I have really committed to the changes and I have seen great results, even breaking 80 for the first time. I am taking the club back on plane now and to me it feels like it is really high in the air. Now on Friday I went to Hot Stix for a driver fitting and found out my main problem with the driver is my attack angle is -7 degrees, so I am hitting down on the ball way too much for driver and getting too much spin as a result. I have actually been taking huge divots with all my clubs since I started getting my swing on plane and so the info about the driver made sense. I think I am coming in too steep with all the clubs The driver fitting turned into a lesson with the guy tweaking my set-up and encouraging me to swing below plane so I could attack the ball at a better angle. He said my chest is to big and there is just not enough room if I swing on plane. He said big guys need to swing on a different plane. So now I am a bit confused. I would have just dismissed the Hot Stix guy out of hand, but I have always sort of felt that my shoulders and chest get in the way when I am trying to come from the inside so it put some doubt in my mind about the swing plane. I am really enjoying the results from my instructor and I have only had two lessons with him. He has only seen me hit pitching wedge and 8 iron at this point so I am going to keep going to him. Maybe he will tweak my driver set-up when we get there, or maybe there are other things he will have me do that will improve my attack angle, we just have not gotten there yet. So does anyone out there think there should be different swing planes for different body types? Will I eventually get there if I just keep the faith?

I went to Hot Stix at Legend Trail in North Scottsdale on Friday for a driver fitting, I thought I would share my experience. I currently use a R9 460 driver with a stock stiff shaft. I had never had my swing measured in any way, I just bought that driver because it was adjustable and I was fighting a slice at the time. So the first thing they have me do is hit a few with my driver. After I hit about 3, with no warm up, the guy says, "I can already tell that you don't need a new driver." I was a little floored since I had not even hit a decent drive at that point. After the whole thing was over I don't think I disagree with that assessment, but I was pretty surprised he came to a conclusion that fast. The main issue was my angle of attack was -7 degrees which was causing too much spin. I think he saw that and thought that it did not matter which driver I was hitting unless I fixed my swing. Again I don't necessarily disagree, but maybe you need to be less than 5 handicap then to get much out of a driver fitting and they should say that. Of course they would be eliminating 99% of their potential clients if they did say that. So then he tweaked my stance and encouraged me to swing more shallow in the back swing and I hit a few good ones with a better angle of attack and the right amount of spin. The only problem with shallower (feels more around the body to me, like Matt Kuchar) is that I have been working with my instructor to get more on plane and I have been seeing great results so I am not wanting to go back to more shallow. At first I didn't think he was even going to give me anything else to hit, but eventually I did hit an R11 and a G15. I would probably recommend Hot Stix to someone else, in the end it was only $50 and I did get a brand-neutral opinion. I also had my swing measured and some advice given. I would just tell mid and high handicappers to view it more as a lesson and less as fitting.

I think it is fun to discuss who is the best ever. It is something that cannot ever be proved. I personally think that Jack played against much weaker fields than Tiger. That is why there were so many 2nds, and 3rds. In my opinion Jack only had to beat a hand full of real contenders on any given week. I will offer this to support my opinion: Players with 4 or more majors who won majors against Jack: Arnold Palmer - 7 Gary Player - 9 Peter Thomson - 5 Lee Trevino - 6 Raymond Floyd - 4 Tom Watson - 8 Seve Ballesteros - 5 Players with 4 or more majors who won majors against Tiger: Phil Mickelson - 4 Now you might think that so many players with a lot of majors against Jack means that he was playing against better fields, but statistically the exact opposite is true. The fact that so many players were able to win a lot of majors means the fields were weak. These handful of great players were dominating everyone else. So Jack really only had to beat a hand full of contenders for any given major, while Tiger has to beat a much larger number of real contenders. In Tiger's time it is so much harder to dominate the field because the field is so much stronger.

Thanks for all the replies. I am going to give Hot Stix a shot. I wish the Valley Gold Center was closer, I live in Mesa so it would be about an hour drive. I have seen their commercials and I have wanted to check it out.

I have read the book and I liked the first half. I think a lot of dope was smoked during the writing of the book. The first half is about a guy who is on his way to study in India and has to pass through London, so he decides to take a detour and spend a few days golfing in Scotland. He meets a course pro named Shivas Irons during a round of golf. As the round progresses Shivas imparts much wisdom and knowledge to the guy about golf and life. After the round the guy is invited to dinner with Shivas and some friends where more philosophy, religion, and "the way things are" are talked about, all of it is related back to golf in some way. I thought that part of the book was great and very interesting. The second half of the book seems to be filler to me. Just random topics on Shivas' ideas etc. I did not even finish this part of the book as I got bored. I would recommend the first half of the book to anyone. From the trailer it looks like the movie covers that part of the book. I will check out the movie as well.

I am looking for recommendations on where I can get fitted for a driver in Arizona (metro Phoenix). I would prefer a place that has an actual range rather than a simulation bay. I would also prefer to be able to buy the driver from the same place that does the fitting, I think I would save money that way. But more important than those two preferences, I want a good fitting. So if that means a simulation bay and buy the club elsewhere, then so be it. Thanks.

While I too have no interest in playing the game described by Dr. Strangeclub, I think some of you are being unfair by saying it holds not resemblance to the game of golf, or that it drastically alters the premise of golf. The basic premise of golf is to hit a ball with a club across some stretch of land into a hole and count your strokes. I think that was pretty much how the game was invented, so I think Dr. Stangeclub's game maintains the premise. Also, his game would be played on the same courses as golf, using the exact same equipment, and having the same goal. So I think someone watching it on TV would recognize it as golf. I also agree that a decent version of the rules of golf cannot be defined in a couple of pages, but I think the rules could be simplified. The way I would simplify the rules would probably make the game less fair, but I think that is in keeping with the original spirit of golf. Golf was and is a betting game and that is why 'play it as it lies' is important. All good betting games need both a component of luck and skill. Here is a couple of examples of how you could simplify the rules, but the game would be less fair. 1. The Pin - You can leave it in or take it out for any stroke, but you cannot tend it during a stoke. That would eliminate all the wording on how to tend and who can tend. 2. Movable/immovable obstruction and loose impediments - You can't touch them, play it as it lies. That would eliminate all the wording on what is/isn't an obstruction or impediment and how to deal with them. If you don't want to deal with an immovable obstruction then don't go near it. Loose impediment ruining your lie? Tough luck. 3. Advice - give it, take it. If you happen to be paired with a buddy who wants to give you advice, then tough luck for everyone else. This is just another break you can get or not get like landing in a divot. 4. No drops ever - If you can't play your ball, or don't want to, then you must replay from the previous spot with a one stroke penalty. This would eliminate so many rules, including the ones about the condition of your ball. If you think your ball is unplayable because of a tear or other condition, then go back to the previous spot and play again with the penalty. I admit that numbers 1 and 4 would slow the game down, and number 4 is very draconian, but number 4 alone has the potential to eliminate rules 25 through 28 and greatly simplify others. I guess my main belief is that most of the rules added over the years are trying to eliminate the unfairness or component of luck. If you accept that the game has a significant component of luck then you can eliminate some rules and simplify others.

This is my first post so I would like to first thank everyone, especially Iacas, for making this forum such a great resource. As a local I feel your pain with prices in AZ this time of year. The reason they are so high right now is because of the incredible number of tourists here right now. I have played 1 to 2 times a week the last 2 months on muni, semi private, and resort courses, mostly as a single. I have been grouped with a grand total of 2 other local golfers in those 2 months. I have been grouped with mostly snow birds (retirees that live here only in the winter), but also a surprising number of people here for a week or two vacation. I am grateful for all the tourists though because they make all the great course possible by keeping them in the black, then I play them all summer for a 1/3 or 1/4 the price :) Having said that, you can find decent prices. I would recommend you rent a car and get out of Scottsdale on the days you are not playing your hotel courses. If you are a single you can get on a lot of courses by calling the same day or using Golfnow. I would not pay $200 to golf Kierland, instead golf We-Ko-Pa for less than $200. I would play Talking Stick though even at $150. I also agree with Papago and Aguila which can both be played for less than $100, Aguila quite a bit less. Skip Apache Creek ($40), I play there a lot in the winter because it is reasonable, but I am not on vacation. For $20 more you can play a great Pete Dye course called Red Mountain Ranch. Longbow is one of my favorite courses and can be had on Golfnow for about $90. I recently played a course called Vistal for $45 on a Saturday morning. I loved the course layout and architecture, and it has great views of Downtown Phoenix, but it is inexpensive because the condition is rough and it is located in South Phoenix. I also would not play Superstition Springs. It will run you about the same as Longbow, but Longbow is a way better course. I am starting to ramble but in summary, play a couple choice resort courses in Scottsdale (like We-Ko-Pa), but then rent a car and drive a little to play some really good courses for a lot less. For $40 you'll be playing munis and lesser public courses (Dobson Ranch, Apache Creek, Vistal), for $60 to $100 you'll be playing good munis and good resort courses outside Scottsdale (Augila, Papago, Red Mountain Ranch, Longbow).