I once, on an all-but-deserted course, playing by myself, with a cart, played 18 holes in less than 45 minutes.

I play really really fast, I just have to get the yardage and line and then just one little practice swing and go. It also helped that I shot 74.

To me it seems better players take more on a pre shot routine than bad players, my pre shot routine is pretty simple. I gauge my distance standard (stakes, sprinkler heads etc) and also generally know what I will hit before I get there. I then line up the shot thinking about exactly what i want to happen while taking some light practice swings I then lineup and take 1-2 full swings then simply line up and swing away.. Probably sounds like it takes longer than it is.

I always make sure my cart/bag is in line with the next hole and the only time I **** this up is if I am unfamiliar with where the next hole is.

My putt average is 2.06 for the rounds Ive posted on OOB.golf and while I definitely take my time unless its a money putt (birdie, par) I dont over analyze and to be honest this problem costs me because I tend to go for the lag as opposed to draining it.

If I hit a shot and cant find it I have no problem taking a drop quickly to speed up play, and the only time Ive ever had issues finding the ball is in wet conditions where the ball plugs or is in obscene rough. Nothing tilts me more than watching a 4some looking in the woods for some asshats ball, if you are that bad that you cant find the ball you shouldnt be using balls that are valuable enough to hunt down.

This is the correct answer.

The bigger problem is people use cheap balls and still need to track it down because they are ****ing ******s.

To be fair to the "asshats", it is against the rules to just drop a ball when you can't find yours. On a lost ball you have to re-hit from your original spot. However, no one ever does this when the course is busy. Instead, some people will "pretend" you went back to the tee and hit your third shot, and then get you to drop a ball in the area the third shot "should" have landed. So now you are hitting your fourth shot instead of taking an illegal drop and hitting your third. Finding the original ball could save one of those asshats a couple strokes if they play by rules.

That was the 1 other point I forgot to add. I never spend 5 minutes looking for a ball. That's ridiculous. 1-2 minutes then I drop and give myself 2 strokes (pun not intended). I've played courses where I saw my ball land in grass (tall brown grass) and couldn't locate it. I might spend 3 minutes here because I know for sure it didn't land OOB and if I find it it will be playable. It's infuriating dropping a ball that you saw settle in grass but I'm not spending 5 minutes looking. It's my fault for being a cheapo and playing cheap courses.

Also I want to chime in and say I don't feel like 6,400 is short either.

Courses I've played:

Blues (tips) 5,908 67.2/111
White 6,350 70.3/125
Gold 6,647 71.3/121
Whites 5,646 66.6/108
Whites 6,255 69.7/113
Blue 6,628 71.4/128
White 6,523 70.3/116
Gold 6,793 72.5/125
White 5,756 68.6/119

I take a 2 stroke penalty on lost balls. 1 for the "re-hit" and 1 for the drop, which I try to play a few feet from the area where I think it went OOB. This is so that I don't waste time re-teeing and also because I'm not that concerned about saving strokes if it means my handicap might drop from 34.4 to 33.9 or some bull****. A very high handicapper spending 5 minutes to locate a ball because it's USGA rules is a jackass. I don't gamble on the course though so my handicap is really just to see if I'm improving or not. If you're a low handicapper and you gamble for decent stakes you probably need to abide by the rules so that your handicap isn't artificially inflated by taking a two stroke penalty when an extra minute of searching might locate a playable ball.

Okay so my set i bought consists of 1 driver, 1 wood (#3), 4 and 5 hybrids, 6-9 irons and a pw....I have yet to go to my local golf course to try them as i am waiting for my buddy to get a set of his own.
Thanks!

I live in riverside california (southern), yes i do have access to local golf clubs/ranges. Unfortunately i dont have the extra cash to spend on private lessons. I am gonna attempt to by a book or two on the subject (one suggested in a pm from another poster, btw ty for that). Yes i figured this forum would be a good start cuz i know there is alot of baaaad info that can be detrimental to a beginning player. Thanks for the responses!

Ok...then your friend was probably saying you need a sand wedge and/or gap wedge possibly. These are what I explained earlier. I would definitely get at least a sand wedge if I were you because hitting a PW isn't optimal at all from a greenside bunker. You can pick these up for real cheap or a pretty good one for like $100:

http://www.golfsmith.com/ps/browse/b...8&TabVw=0&Xx=G

Thanks AG,
Yes i will pick one up eventually,
For now im gonna hit up the driving range a few times. Perhaps they have a 'for sale' bulletin board that i may be able to pick up one at. But i will definitely get a sand wedge before i play a round.

That's a very decent putting avg, I feel like you could break 90 tomorrow if you had someone giving you strategy advice during the round. Sounds like you can hit irons and putt, that's more than enough to play bogey golf. I agree with the others that you would have more chances to think strategically, and practice the "scoring" shots like wedges from inside 100 yards if you played white tees more often.

Yeah I'd look for a used 56 degree wedge (cleveland makes good wedges and they are easy to find) - I got one in a golfsmith store for I think $60.

Sounds like you have a good learning set of golf clubs, practice at the driving range with those hybrids and irons, I wouldn't really touch the driver or 3 wood for a bit.

No doubt it will help others the more forward you tee off, however it´s a balance for one self to determine. I do agree on the part that it has a lot to do with ones handicap or play.

I don´t see there is any simple way to judge it, but I guess I would say it had to do with being able to play most par 4´s in different way. If you need to hit the driver every time to get within spoon distance to the green, there isnt much strategy left in the game (except scoring strategy, which few people care to think about from tee).

You probably also need a putter.

I would suggest hitting up the library first, maybe check out a couple books. Personally I rather like Tiger Woods' book (I think it's How I Play Golf) because it has a ton of good photos.

Also, thrift stores and craigslist are good sources for cheap clubs to fill in holes in your set.

I would say you're a lot closer to being right. I've never seen a player profile saying they use a NXT or other Titleist (other than ProV1/V1x).

I dunno if #2 is Callaway or Nike or Bridgestone.

I am sure there has been a ton of stuff written on this subject, but it drives me crazy. I have never gotten more frustrated at one thing in my entire life. Yet, I always come back to it. I think I have quit golf at least 4 times this year on Sundays, then I was back practicing by Wednesday. I don't know why this game has such a strong grasp on my brain, but it sure does.
/rant

Even your preshot routine is on the longer-end for better players IMO.

I find that most better players don't even take a full swing practice shot. Just a bit of light swinging to envision the shot and get loose.

I have a current working theory that golf is actually crack cocaine.

In other news Charlie Sheen moves to world #1 in the golf rankings.

A good start but the list goes on and on

There's people who sit in their cart next top the green after playing a hole dilgently asking and writing down everyone's score then tallying up the bets for that hole rather than doing that at the tee box or the next time they have to wait.

There's people who decide that spending two minutes finishing the story of their son hitting a single with his teeball game tied in the 6th inning is more important than addressing the ball.

There's guys who a literally too polite to drive the cart to other side of the fairway and come back to pick up their partner because their partner might need help watching the shot.

There's groups who will spend 3 minutes when they get to the green searching and fixing their ball marks before any of them remove the flag or start to line up putts, and won't get ready for their putt at all unless it is their turn.

There's groups who will have 3 people yaking it up in the fairway while the 4th looks for his ball. If someone loses a ball and it's not a tournament everyone else should go tho their ball and hit then go back and help the guy so there isn't actually a 5 minute window of looking for a ball in addition to the other play that the group behind has to wait for.

There's guys who spend 10 minutes doing nothing but hit on the cart girl while getting 1 beer each time she comes by.


When I was a 30 handicap I would play rounds with a buddy in under 3 hours and walk 9 by myself in less than an hour between classes if I was hurrying to get it in. The tees I played had little bearing on how fast the round went.

This is so true, and happened to us just last week. Group in front was 3 frat guys, hackers, but that wasn't the issue. 3 times on 9 holes they stopped right next to the green they just finished to chat it up with the cart girl. To be fair, she was ****ing smoking. 2 empty holes in front of them by the 7th hole, but wouldn't let us play through.

Which also reminds me that standard groups of frat-boy hackers are generally slow as ****, because they all think they're Tiger and take a million pretty-looking practice swings before addressing the ball, taking an ugly, giant hack at it and topping it 50 yards into the tall grass. Then they have to pause to talk **** to each other, to **** around with the carts and purposely leave each other behind so they have to walk, etc etc. Just play the game and quit being douches.

You can get a Adams Watson Wedge for $30 on rock bottom. About the best you will do on a budget. I'd probably get a 56 degree. You can google a code for free shipping ... not sure if there is a minimum purchase required. Gap wedge probably isn't essential at this point.

I would have just asked to play through them or make up some BS excuse about how you are in a rush.

Also leaving a club or phone on the previous hole and having to go back to retrieve it.

Newbies do this a lot, because they'll set their clubs down randomly on the fringe instead of between the cart and the pin.

Even if you aren't good at golf you really should learn how to do things right and expeditiously. You never know when you'll be invited to play by someone who is really good, or to play a nice course, or invited to play at some event at your company with a supervisor or boss. You don't want to look like a clueless guy out there or you basically won't be invited back.

I hope shooting a 105 but otherwise looking like you've been there before would reflect better than shooting 95 and being a slow, non-courteous douche.

finally have a beautiful day and im goin out to play now......sooooo happy

Im not going through 2700 posts but Im sure it has been asked:

What are some good books/videos on short game playing??.... Im sick of losing so many strokes there and of course we know its the weakest part of most peoples games and If I plan on breaking 90 any time soon I need to get this under control.

As mentioned prior Im tracking at 2.06 putts per round over my last 9 rounds so while I can improve here I think its reasonable for now.

It seems a standard par 4/5 goes like this:
1st shot - Off the tee I usually get distance but do not have amazing accuracy.
2nd shot - Majority of the time I put it within 120 or less
3rd shot - If I get lucky I put it on the green or just off where I can putt, generally I ****ing duff it or skull it or catch it fat or any number of possible **** ups meaning I need to pitch/chip it again
4th shot - I probably get it on more than not here
5th/6th putts

so If I can clean up the 3rd/4th shots and put it on and avg 5s on the par 4/5s and bogey all the par 3s it adds up to a tidy 86... it seems so simple

I used to pretty much use an 8i on all my pitches and chipping but I was really limited especially when I had to drop it tight so Ive really been working on my Ws in these spots but its not working to the extent I would hope... thanks for any insight help