Not a problem if you are (1) keeping your lead arm relatively straight, (2) are not loosening your fingers in your grip at the top of the swing to achieve this, and (3) are making good contact with the clubface at impact.

I guess another one would be that you are not throwing away your lag and casting in your downswing.

I play with one guy that has very long swing because he is flexible and long-limbed, but he throws away all his lag in the downswing so his long swing is pretty much no advantage, and is probably costing him distance, and for sure is hurting his contact.

Another guy I play with only gets just short or parallel with his swing, but his transition to downswing is under control and he retains lag way better, thus hits it farther and straighter and with better contact because (imo) he has less things in his shorter swing that can go wrong, and his clubhead speed is peaking near impact.

I think it is a given that the length of a backswing is not nearly as important as the size of the angle between the lead arm and the shaft and the end of the backswing, and how far into the downswing that angle is retained. I wanted to say how that angle is held, but that be a bad word with respect to lag.

So, seeing your club out of the corner of your eye may not be bad at all, but it could be a bad sign if you are overswinging to get to that spot.

all just my opinion of course.

It’s a combination of flexibility, arm length, left arm bend, and wrist angle.

The left arm bend is not as bad as it looks because my arms are never totally straight. Even when I do overhead presses, my arms are slightly bent.

https://imgur.com/a/JeGSTyi

https://imgur.com/a/k9iuKvg

Watching Tiger open his new course owned by Johnny Morris, owner of Bass Pro Shops got this old man to thinking.

I grew up in Springfield, MO, where Bass Pro was founded. The shop started out selling bait and lures in the back of a Brown Derby liquor store, Brown Derby had several locations in Springfield at that time. Then they moved into a small space next door where they expanded their selections somewhat.

At some point things got so popular that he decided to build a new store across Campbell Street. But those of us in Missouri had never seen such a building, it was huge and filled with boats. No way this was going to work. But it did, and over the years the building got even bigger to the point where more than once he bought the land next door in order to further expand.

And of course now he has multiple locations all over the place and is known worldwide. But to actually have been in the initial location and remember what it was like way back when is fun.

Springfield was pretty interesting for a not very big place back then. Bass Pro, Bill and Payne Stewart, smokin' hot LPGA pro Cathy Reynolds, Brad Pitt, and Kathleen Turner.

//old man reminiscing.

To be honest that is not a great position at the top of your backswing. Your hands are too close to you head and they should be further away from you. You are not in a powerful position at the top. It would seem pretty tough for you to get anything other than a downswing that is too steep from where you are.

The left arm can have a little bend, but yours is too much.

Try this. Do your backswing and get to where you are in the pics. Then push your hands out away from your head. You club will not be at parallel once you do that, but that is fine. That is where you want to be at the end of your backswing.

Here are two videos you might find helpful. They talk about the importance of width in your swing, and how to get and keep that width in your backswing.

Just turned on the Payne's Valley event, course looks pretty nice.

I get away with it by laying it off and hitting from the inside. The major concern isn’t power, but club head control. Those pictures are without warming up and not hitting any shots. I tend to have to actively turn on the tight left tricep at the beginning of the round, and if I could tighten it up in addition to having a more stable chest on the downswing then I would hit less thin and fat shots.

It looked like a fine course. After the first hole, I expected more though. Which is the nicest course there? Fazio's?

Anybody have golf course recommendations for Outer Banks, North Carolina? I know I can Google it and I did that but curious what people here may have to say. Thanks in advance.

I've played most all the courses on the Outer Banks, but none in at least 8 years. I'm from Elizabeth City, about 30-45 miles away. I'll actually be back there next week and will be playing The Carolina Club next Saturday.

Carolina Club and The Pointe are sister courses, at least they were, and the ones I played the most, but aren't actually on the Outer Banks. They're usually well kept courses and have some fun holes, especially Carolina Club. The Currituck Club in Corolla was the nicest of the lot by far, but it's at the extreme north end of the Outer Banks and farther than I usually wanted to drive. I remember Nags Head Golf Links, Sea Scape, Duck Woods, and Kilmarlick all being nice courses, but haven't played most of them in 15-20 years and didn't really know what nice courses were back then.

The Carolina Club probably was my favorite of the bunch and I'm looking forward to playing it next weekend.

The videos I posted should help with clubhead control, as part of the problem with overly bent lead arm is that a person adds another lever to the swing, and that has a negative effect on clubhead/face control.

I am not remotely pretending to be an expert on this, but based on your pics it was not hard to determine what kind of videos to steer you too so that someone knowledgeable and trained could explain in detail.

GL with you game!!!

I understand the issues that arise from adding a lever, and having a tough time finding the center of the club face that result.

Knowing it and telling my body to do it are different things though.

With the heavier clubs that I can see in the corner of my eye, it’s a problem with having a back swing that is too fast. I know because when I back swing smooth and slow I don’t see the club head. It’s because the weight of the club pulls my arm out of position.

Gotta a window tomorrow afternoon to play. Got a tee time. Just off a lesson to hit the driver straight. All phone calls for people to play with struck out and have to cancel fml

Just play by yourself, or let them pair you with some randoms.

Not good enough. And traumatized from last time I went out solo paired with good players

Just go play.

It doesn’t matter what you shoot, what matters is how you conduct yourself in the course. There are plenty of scratches I’ll never play with and plenty of 20 handicappers I love to play with.

As already said, just go play. And have fun regardless of pairing.

Agree with the other guys. Just go play. If a single ever joins my group I only have two asks. Conduct yourself well, and don't take forever. They could shoot a 140 but if they meet that criteria I'll enjoy their company. Granted shooting a 140 and not taking forever would be difficult...

Funny, I’ve played with a lot of people this year. Only ones that bothered me were these guys:

The guy that critiqued my mechanics as I set up to hit.

The guy that picked up my ball to find out if it was mine (2 different guys did this)

The guy that took forever to shoot an ok score. We had a 2pm tee time and got paired with 2 guys. One of them had a preshot routine that seemed normal until address. Once he addressed the ball he always took at least 20 seconds, Sometimes a minute. We finished with the sunset around 730(minus two holes because we were at the clubhouse as the sun was setting ; both me and my friend had had enough).

However I played with a father and 7 year old son on his 1st round. That’s my favorite memory from this year.

I agree - just go out and play. As long as you don't insist on spending 3 minutes searching for every lost ball or spend a lot of time on every shot, very few are going to care if you play worse than them.

I suck at golf and I've never actually had a bad time when paired with randoms, whether alone or with another friend. Quite the contrary - most people I've played with have been great experiences. At "worst" they don't want to talk/interact much (which is fine obv) and at best they've been awesome company throughout the round and are people I still bring up and talk about whenever the subject comes up.

Hitting the RTJ Trail for the first time next month. Playing Highland Oaks, Capitol Hill (Judge + Senator) and Grand National (Lake + Links) over 3 days. I've heard the Capitol Hill and Grand National courses are great, I'm very excited to get out there, hopefully I don't lose too many balls.

around 20 or so years ago three guys from Portland, OR were matched with a fellow from Laurel, MS on the first tee of Lahinch in County Clare, Ireland. to this day they are hard and fast friends and get together at least once a year on golf trips.
would never have happened if they didn't want to play with random people.

I didnt play.

I shared my story here but last time I went out by myself on a weekday afternoon it was the first time I legit thought there would be a fight in the golf course

Got paired with 2 very good dudes who were flying to California to play a trump course the next week and a quiet nerdy dude who just hit it straight and didn't talk (a twosome and two singles me being one of them).

The twosome who.were good took a while but also hit great shots. Spent time finding their ball etc... I give a cursory 15 second search for my ball and drop immediately. Even if it's in the fairway. If I don't see I drop.

I'm working on my drive. Finally took a driver specific lesson this week but at the time hadn't. I had a slice so sometimes will over compensate to the left. On the 4th hole with a corporate dickhead drunk 4some behind us i over aimed left and pulled my drive about 20 yards from the green on the hold next to us. The guys were visibly yelling ****. I overly apologized and clearly took the blame.

These guys behind us got their dicks up the rest of the round and on a par 3 2 holes later the course was backed up. We were chipping by time the reached the tee box and were yelling at us to hurry up very obnoxiously. One of the two good guys yelled something back and started walking toward the tee box. Then 2 holes later one of their guys was looking for a ball on our fairway and all hell broke loose. No actual fighting but verbal fighting and it was just so uncomfortable. Whole round I just thought it was my fault. It want fun

Thats why I dont go out by myself anymore. When I can sort out my drive and consistently shoot below 100 I will

<3 this story so much

There is the advantage to my home club. 36 holes that never touch each other. One advantage of Florida gold meandering between swamp and housing developments.