solid nytimes article on loss aversion and birdie putts
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/sp....html?_r=1&hpw

So I just watched The Golf Channel's top 10 hardest US Open venues... any opinions on the list?

10) Shinnecock Hills
9) The Country Club
8) Merion Golf Club
7) Oakland Hills
6) Pinehurst #2
5) Pebble Beach
4) Olympic
3) Bethpage Black
2) Oakmont
1) Winged Foot

Just Missed: Hazeltine, Torrey Pines

I think Shinnecock and Oakland Hills should be higher, and Bethpage back a few as it lacks the history of its contemporaries on the list. I'd probably flip 1 and 2... but I can't really argue against Winged Foot, I just always liked Oakmont more.

just a little brag/psa

i found a hookup at Oak Hill Country Club, a private club in Rochester NY, the site of 2013 PGA Championship. Tiger famously said that "it's the hardest, fairest course [he's] ever played." It was also the host of such events as

1949 - Oak Hill plays host to its first major tournament, the U.S. Amateur.
1956 - Oak Hill plays host to the U.S. Open.
1959 – NBC-TV filmed the World Championship of Golf at Oak Hill.
1965 – Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer play the Big Three exhibition match at Oak Hill and are inducted into the Hill of Fame.
1968 – Oak Hill hosts the U.S. Open and Lee Trevino wins for the first time in his career.
1979 - Oak Hill hosts the inaugural Grand Slam of Golf around the time Taylor Made introduces the first metal woods.
1980 - Oak Hill hosts the PGA Championship and Jack Nicklaus wins by a record-setting seven strokes.
1984 - Oak Hill hosts the fifth U.S. Senior Open.
1995 - Oak Hill hosts the 31st Ryder Cup Matches.
1998 – The U.S. Amateur returns 49 years after its last visit to Oak Hill.
2003 - Oak Hill Hosts its second PGA Championship and a record 96 of the top 100 players compete for the title just two weeks after entertainer and Hill of Fame inductee Bob Hope dies at the age of 100.
2005 – Oak Hill is selected to host its first Senior PGA Championship in 2008, and its third PGA Championship in 2013.

One of the club's courses also features a slope of 160. I am going to play it as soon as and as often as I possibly can and report back here.

that is all. return to your regular scheduled chattering.

I have a few questions about putting. I put up a 95 from 6500yd tees at Beltera Indiana. And just put up a 96 on my local course 5900yds. I feel like my iron game, chipping, and woods game is good enough to break into the 80's but I put up 41 putts, and 43 putts in both rounds. Some pretty regular 3 putts from 20-25 feet which is pretty annoying. So now that the background is done.


1. I'm 6'3", and use a 33.5" putter. Is this the right size, and how would I measure?

2. Do different putters really make a difference? I'm currently using a cheapie blade someone bought for me for christmas for I'm guessing 30-40 bucks. I tried using my dads belly putter and liked it a lot.

3. Is there specific putter to stop being so handsy? I tried some drills I saw on youtube, but it's still a problem, and I'm horrible at guessing distance.

4. Any drills to guess distance? It's really not uncommon for me to put a 20-ft'r 1/2 was to the hole. Then miss that one by2-3 feet.

Stop by your local library and pick up Dave Pelz's Putting Bible. It's almost 400 pages but is extremely useful. In detail, it explains how to remove the hands and wrists from your putting stroke, along with other tidbits that will improve your putting.

FWIW, I picked it up this spring and have retooled my putting stroke based off of his guide; last round I had 31 putts (awesome for me).

Not very good, where are the courses from the first half of the century? Typical polling crap where people are ignorant to the history of the event.

I have no problem with Winged Foot and some others on the list. Bethpage has hosted once, it has no business on there. Pebble should be the easiest in history as in 1992 Gil Morgan became the first person to reach -10 in the event as well as Andy Dillard birdieing his first six holes, and in 2000 Tiger finished at a record -12.

A sports trivia question tonight on NTN made reference to the 1901 tournament where Willie Anderson won with no rounds lower than 80. What about that course?

BO

I'm not as much a student of the game and its history as you are, but I think I disagree. Pebble doesn't belong, granted. But it is hard to put Myopia on the list for several reasons. 301 won at Oakmont way back when-- different game. Also, Oakmont, Oakland Hills, and Brookline go way back. Shinnecock and Winged Foot seem like obvious choices. Merion is kind of a weird one despite it giving higher scores. Be interesting to see what happens in 2013 (still can't believe they aren't going back to Brookline for that year).

Regarding #1 and 2, I'd definitely try a longer putter and try some "better" putters like odyssey 2-ball, taylormade spider, rife 2bar, etc.

And on the speed, practice rolling balls the same distance on the practice green....just find a fairly flat 20-30 foot area (don't hit to a hole) and just try to roll 3 or 4 balls the same distance.

Agree with ntnBO and others on Pebble, it just doesn't belong on this list. I think Pinehurst is probably weak as well as it is just not that hard. In fact, I would probably put PB ahead of Pinehurst, if only by a little. Bethpage and Oakmont are two of the hardest courses I have ever played and I walked Winged Foot in 07 and it just looked ridiculous so I have no issue with it being #1.

I don't have a real opinion on the other 6 as I have neither played or walked them.

One thing that might help you is to go to about halfway from the ball to the hole (remember to keep the putter up from the grass!) and then try to judge how hard you have to hit that putt to get it to the hole, then go to your ball and try to judge that putt remembering that it should be about double the force.

But don't take too long about it.

Also when practicing long putts on the putting green then set up a line with two tees and putt towards the line, intending to hit it 1-2 feet past the line. That takes the thoughts about the hole out of the equation and trains your brain to focus on length.

TYVVM for this link. This sort of paper is right up my alley right now in my studies. It's also where my head is at w/ golf right now (working hard to NOT think that way).

FWIW, I found it weird that they considered Tiger the best putter in the world...he's very far from it (based on stats). He's usually outside the top 40 for putting. Tiger's the best because he's 'good' in all areas but not really 'great' in any of them. The result is that he's 'great' on the scorecard and blows everyone away.

I'm playing in a tournament this weekend, 4 man teams but you play your own ball. THey call it a Red, White, Blue tournament. Tees at our course go from Red, White, Blue, to Gold in the very back.

Everyone starts at the White tees, then depending on your score, you tee off from the corresponding tee.

Bogey = Red tees
Par = White tees
Birdie = Blue tees
Eagle = Gold tees

Besides the obvious of "shoot the lowest score possible", what would be a good strategy for this type of tournament?

thanks for the replies. I didn't have time to putt before my round today, but I'll try and get out 1/2 hour early and do some of these putting drills next round.

Does the whole team tee off from the same place every hole? I.E. if you birdie and I bogey, do you hit from the Blues, and me from the reds?

It's hard to say without looking at the holes. But certain holes I'm very prone to blowing up into a big score because of certain factors, but from the ladies tees it would be super easy. So I might consider taking a bogey on one hole over a Par if I feel that there is more then a 1 shot difference in what I'd probably average from each tee placment at the next.

my regular course for example there is 2 Par 3's that are 137yds, and 154yds. They both have water from tee box to 10yds in front of the green. The flight path is narrow because the water is surrounded by tall trees. And thick woods about 10y'ds behind the shallow-ish greens. The womans tees are about 60yds from the green though, w/ only about 40 yds of water to carry, and no trees to worry about your shot path. I think on average I'de easily make up that 1 stroke on average from the different locations.

So far I'm quite impressed with Ping's customer service.

Called Ping this morning about my broken 5 iron. Talked to a guy who actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about and wasn't some call center drone. He took about two minutes to walk me through what I needed to do. Got a repair order started in their system. They had records of my specs - I purchased the irons in 1991 or 1992 - in the computer. The KT-M shafts and original grips aren't available any more, so he recommended the closest match.

Sounds like it'll cost about $35 plus shipping, which isn't bad. I'll be interested to see how closely the reshafted club matches up with the rest of the set and how long it'll take to get it back.

Sometimes the call center monkeys are trained well.

Twice I have spoken with a call center monkey from my ISP, when I had some problem, I could tell the guy didn't know anything, but by telling him which lights were on on my modem I could guide him to the right conclussion.

My guess is that Ping will have no problem in hanging on to their call center drones, as they don't have listen to a lot of abuse, but are actually helping people, and most calls end with the caller thanking them for the help. Which again improves their quality and again improves customer satisfaction.

I once bought something from IKEA for $5, that was missing a few screws or bolts. I was behind some angry dude in the line. When he finally left I went up to the clerk, gave her a big smile and said gently, "Hi! I've just bought this, and it seems that these parts are missing, can you help me?". It was worth the $5 just to see her face light up.

Ping irons are broken, perhaps not by the houndreds but still, everyday. They've got the tools, know the glue used. They will have no problem in getting the old shaft out. If their database is worth just something, they will have some shaft compability link.

But it is still very good service on their part

everyone plays from whatever tee they do, so we could have one person tee off from each Teebox on 1 hole if we had an eagle, birdie, par, and bogey

So is it aggregate score for the team, or just the best score of the 4? If not total score, then once someone gets a low score (par or better), everyone else should keep missing shots so they all tee off from the red, increasing the chance one of them will get a lower score on the next hole. Repeat process.

But I would at least hope its total score so this doesn't happen.

its 3 of the 4, last year we would have a guy go ahead and "bogey" if we had 3 pars or better in....i was thinking it might be helpful that trying to birdie holes where the next hole all the tees are grouped together. there really isnt a lot of difference in the whites and blues most of the time, but the Red/Front Tees are a ways up there sometimes to the point of having to hit 3 wood to not hit over green.....

its Saturday so I will let everyone know how it goes

Not sure if we're just posting golf stuff in here or other things, but here's a nice story of our city attorny (who lives down the street from me) found asleep in his neighbor's garbage can yesterday. Classy!

http://www.fox41.com/global/category...clipId=3877009

US Open returns to Oakmont in 2016. i don't have anything against the course, but i do think they should expand the rotation a bit. i have no idea how these courses are selected, and perhaps someone can shed some light, but it seems the US Open comes back to pebble, oakmont, shinnecock a little more often than other courses.

How is "Scrambling" defined, as a stat?

Is it "par made after no GIR"? or something like that?

Thanks,

J

Exactly that.

I have a question. I've still been getting an outside in swing w/ the driver.


Originally I was doing what this guy was saying at the :55 second mark. http://www.ehow.com/video_2364661_co...-top-golf.html

Then I started getting lessons. And my Instructor had my turn for a take away. then lift my arms straight up. Which the guy seems to talk about being incorrect as well in that video. I had a slight improvment. Better contact. But still outside in a good amount.

I noticed my shoulders were parallel to the ground throughout the swing, and the swing felt like 2 seperate steps. When watching the pro's their left shoulder dips instead of being parallel to the ground, and their swing doesn't look like s 2 steps.

So I watched this and tried this today with a dip. http://www.ehow.com/video_2364663_sh...olf-swing.html


Ok on to the question. It felt much better for 90% of my clubs, but driver was still going out/in w/ the occasional 300yrd'r(much longer then normally). I was off balance at the end of the swing (which isn't normal for me). So I'm thinking by dipping the shoulder my weight goes towards the ball more, causing my to go outside initially. And then basically trying to fight to keep my balance, and get back inside to hit the ball. Does this make any sense for a possible reason for my sing path? And is the shoulder dip correct, but I just need to stay more centered without shifting my weight?


Hope this makes sense since I don't have another video lesson for 2 weeks so can't post a vid of my swing till then to show what I mean.