Eff, it is about 85 and the sun beating down from 4am to 10pm, had to wear slacks today because my legs had gotten far too much sun yesterday.

Yes and no. If you are changing something you need to unlearn the old ways and learn the new ways. Your body remembers how it used to be. Unless you hit bucket loads of balls your body will never accept the new way of hitting balls as the correct way.

Around 350-400 full shots, which includes quite a few less than 100% percent full shots, where I just go through the motions.

I might add that I never try to hit a shot with full power, I can't hit anything when trying to hit with more than 90-95% power.

What I am trying to achieve actually puts a bit more strain on my back, but so far it is holding up very well.

I wasn't the most U-grooved wedge in the bag today.

Went out to the course to get a good long practice session in before the weekend play, and discovered that I had forgotten the key to the locker with bag and all in it.

So I had some lunch and walked about 5 miles along the river on the way home. A very nice walk, got a good view of a buzzard.

J, that is certainly a great swing for that age. Have you worked with him to develop this or have you had a pro help him? I can't imagine he just started swinging that way naturally? It's very impressive.

any of these in california?
bay area or socal region, i don't care.

my local range charges about .10 a ball.

One of the courses in my area (midwest) has a $300/year unlimited range balls deal, which I've used a couple of times, but it's the only one I've heard of anywhere near here. I wish they all had a monthly/yearly fee.

Just parked at course, par 3 adjacent to lot.

First group...hole in one

second group...4 balls within 15'...nobody makes the putt

tsk tsk tsk

If there is a bucket w/ like 25 balls in it that has been sitting next to the putting/chipping area for 1.5 hours+ and everyone who was on the green practicing has already left (and new ppl have come and gone) is it standard to take the balls and hit them on the range?

I see no problem with it.

Totally standard. At my course there's a very nice large chipping/bunker green and members have 2 free buckets/day so it's pretty darn normal for at LEAST 150 balls to be lying on that green all day. It would be bad form to not pay for any range balls and take those to the range...but if you buy a small bucket, it's okay to chip for 30 min and take a few of em off with you.

I researched a bunch of golf drills a few weeks ago regarding the swing. I practiced a bunch of the drills and my next 4-5 rounds were some of the worst ive ever played.....ever. I couldnt fix my swing. I tried forgetting about the drills and just tried to do what i did before but i couldnt.

I took about 10 days off and ive went out the last two days and shot the best i have in a long ass time. (im a 14 handicap)

So wtf was going on? Should I just never do any practice drills ever again unless its an actual lesson with a golf pro?

This is common and I am convinced that many times it is linked to the grip. I had a poor swing for many years but was able to score in the 80s. When I worked on improving my swing I suffered because I had developed a grip that helped my poor swing work...but butchered a better swing.

Does this make sense?

I suppose it makes sense? I'm probably the last person thats qualified to talk about the golf swing though lol.

perhaps you'd get better answers if you mention the exact drills you are doing, as well as a video of your swing, or at least a description of what you think you are doing wrong and how you are trying to correct it, and what the ball flight ends up looking as.

Also...when you're working on something, it will take you out of your normal (bad?) swing which often causes horrible results when you try to go play...but so what? Eventually, the hope is that it fixes things and when everything is back in synch, it should be better.

This is common.

I need a ruling.

Was playing the monthly medal yesterday. Playing a three-some. We get on the 15th hole, a par 4, which crosses water twice. The woman I was marking hit a good tee-shot. When she hits her approach it's a low flyer which goes directly in the water. She drops another ball, hits it on the green. As we walk more towards the water to cross the bridge, we see that her first ball did not even reach water, it was about 3 yards short! All 3 of us pretty suprised, she asks what she should do, not sure about the rule.

The other guy immediatly answers, play the first ball. Which she then does, she hits it in the water, drops another one, hits the green. And 2-putts. She picked up her second ball. I ask what here final score was, she answers a 7.

Correct, or should she be DQ'ed?

This is similar to some of the stories in the current quiz.

I assume that she drops the first ball at the point from where she thought she had hit the ball in the water. If so then that is the ball in play. With the drop she is now on the green in 4. It doesn't matter that she thought it was in the water, because she is always entitled to play a new ball at the penalty of stroke and distance.

The problem then comes when she plays the first ball, which is now a wrong ball. By failing to hole out with the ball in play, she will be disqualified when she plays from the next tee and she has not holed out on the previous hole.

It gets a bit more tricky if she has gone forward and has dropped according to the yellow/red stakes.

Thanks JavaNut, you really are the expert.

The ball she dropped was of course with a penalty stroke, but not distance. She was about 80 yards out when she hit the water. And dropped at about 60 yards further.

Would that make a difference for the drop?

Firstly the first ball can never be the ball in play, as another ball has been put into play. So once she plays that one she will be disqualified unless she correct the error and play hole out with the second ball.

The problem is if there is additional penalty with the second ball because it has been dropped in the wrong place. I would say that for it being known or virtually certain, someone on the group should have gone forward to check that the ball did not stop somewhere towards the water, especially as you did not see the ball go into the water. She should then have gone back and dropped where she hit the shot that you thought went into the water and finish the hole from there.

So unless I can't count as you discover the ball that wasn't in the water, she should have gone back to where she hit the shot that you thought went into the water and dropped a ball there, and she would be about to hit her 6th shot. (The shots with the second ball does not count as they have been played from the wrong place).

Actually she might have gone back and dropped a ball and finished play with both that and the ball on the green, and then take it up with the committe when she has finished play, before entering the scorecard. As you are allowed to play 2 balls in strokeplay if you are in doubt about what to do.

If you have the option, in a case like this you should yell: "Rules Official".

is there a thread about coaches? anyone have a recommendation in Orange County or any advice about taking lessons / looking for coaches?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/93...so-cal-511957/

I caught bits and pieces of the AT&T tourney and was wondering what was up with Anthony Kim dropping his club after most shots. I think I recall an announcer mentioning a thumb injury but I could be imagining things. If so did he have this injury while shooting his 62? If not ... wtf?

My roommate just got a set of callaway x-12 irons from a coworker with a putter and a bag but no woods. So just 3-PW, putter in his bag. He playing with a Callaway Diablo the other day and he wants to buy one. He is looking at the promotion they have where you can buy the driver and get a fairway wood/hybrid for free. He is getting the 10º driver and is given the option to get a hybrid or a 13/15/17º fairway wood. If he is only going to have these two clubs to complete his set, which of the hybrid/fairway wood would you choose and which loft? Thanks!

I would choose the 17* fairway, which is probably labeled as a 5 wood. Second choice would be a 19-20* hybrid, labeled as a 3h. Those would be the two most flexible clubs to fill the gap between the driver and the irons.

+1