Going to rebuild the swing this year in hopes of finally becoming scratch or better. I did some in depth analysis of my swing, comparing it to some of the best in the world and there are some fundamentals that I think will always hold me back. A little scary because I am hitting the ball better than I ever have, but I can see a wall there that I'll never pass with this swing. There are too many compensations going on.

I have a pull swing as well at times and for me it's usually because my arms get too quick and/or my swing plane gets too steep. I concentrate on having a little bit less angle between my arms/club shaft at set-up to promote a slightly flatter swing, taking the club away slower and with a wide back swing, and finally making sure I have a good hip rotation through impact so that my hips are keeping up with my arms.

So during the long days of spring and summer a local course does a 9 hole scramble on Tuesday nights. Money for low score and skins. Tonight was the first night of the season and my team is going along fine, -3 through 4 holes, when I can a LW from 102 for a deuce on a par 4. Make two more birdies, 180 degree lip out on our last hole, and shoot -7. That's normally good enough to win outright or at least scorecard playoff.

We get in and there is a -8. And a good friend of mine holed it from 105 on the same hole I did and there were zero skins out. Pretty f-ing nuts.

Extremely annoyed that none of the 10+ courses in my school's area have opened up their driving ranges yet. It's been 70+ and sunny for more than a week now.

havent picked up a club since i played my last round last season in september (no range or anything)...

going to play after work tomorrow for the first time since then...expecting it to be bad but not sure cuz my first round of the season is usually one of my better rounds. as dumb as it sounds i honestly think its because the months off of golf cause me to forget all the bad habits i developed the entire season prior

Going to the Shell Houston Open again this year which is coming up (week before Masters). I went for first time last year and really enjoyed it but any tips for this time around? Would I be able to watch them on the range? I heard that's awesome.

I can go any day but would have to leave by about 4:30pm if I go Friday. Is going on Sunday worth it, or too crowded? Will get a glance of FIGJAM like I did last year but will watch another group that isn't cluttered with 200 stoked fanboi bros.

i went to the us open in 2003. here are my tips for watching golf in person:

-bring sunscreen, a small folding chair, and something to help stay cool if it's gonna be hot

-find a place to sit and just stay there for a while. following a group is rough for many reasons.

list of sweet places to sit:

-near a green
-behind the tee box on a par 5
-18th green

my favorite was behind the tee box. watching the pros smash drives is one of the only good parts about watching in person. of course the optimal spot is where you are near a green but also behind a tee box but those are hard to come by.

I'm about as white as you Augie so sunscreen is always a must for me. Small folding chair is something I didn't have last year, though we did sit up in some free bleachers on a par 4 green for a bit, which was nice.

We sat at the 18 green as it was the first thing we saw when we entered. We watched some par 5 tee shots which were impressive to say the least.

The one thing we didn't do last year was check out a par 3. Watching par 3 greens will be something I do for a bit this year. We followed FIGJAM last year for like 2 holes then got tired of the brosephs so we followed an uncrowded group (Marino, Simpson, Goydos) for a handful of holes which was kind of cool.

I like it all though, just walking the course and seeing the condition it is in is impressive and beautiful. It reminded me of the first time I saw the inside of a baseball stadium.

Last year one of teh first things we did was stop outside the rope on hole 1 near the approach shots. Nobody else was around they were all walking past this hole. I noticed a ball was in a greenside bunker so we stopped to watch. The dude comes walking down and comes over to start heading into the bunker (I don't know who it was ) and he's like walking toward us about 15 feet away and we're the only two guys anywhere around and he makes direct eye contact with me then heads into the bunker. He then skulls his shot over the green and into the lap of an old dude sitting behind the green and we got the hell out of there. I told my buddy "man now I feel bad for making eye contact with him - I probably threw him off his game. He was probably wondering who the hell we were and why we were watching him." lol.

Steve Marino also looked up in the tee box and made eye contact with me which was the last thing he did before ripping away. It's funny being able to get so close to these guys who are literally working. Stood like 2 feet away from Lee Westwood at a tee box when he was grabbing a snack from the cooler and he looked right at me. He was huge in person. His chest was massive. TV does not do him justice.

I know these stories are lame but I'm getting excited about going again soon.

I've been to a few different events. Driving range and putting green can be average or awesome, all depends how close you can get.

Going to the Memorial in Columbus is one I'd highly recommend. Such a great venue and always a super strong field.

Pay close attention to the websites for the event re: spectator rules and guidelines. At the US Open last year you couldn't bring in much in, including cell phones or any other electronic device. I know other venues had different rules.

For us, it made coordinating really hard because we had a group of 8. Once you split up, you are pretty screwed.

We staked out the green on a par 4 and then sat in the bleachers at 18 and saw the whole field come through twice, which was pretty cool. By the end of the day I could predict with great accuracy where the putts would miss.

Last year they had tents that were dedicated to phone usage. Only a handful of them but they were always out of the way and stuff. But yeah with a large group coordination would be a nightmare - like going back to 1995 or something. lol.

"Meet at oak tree behind 7th green at 2:45" lol yesteryear.

Driving range is pretty good. Worth watching once players have finished their rounds and head back to the range for practice.

If I go to watch golf, I'm going to be walking around. Don't really understand the appeal of finding a place to sit and just sitting in the same spot all day.

Yep, if I visit a top quality course, I want to see every hole, or at least most of them.

I'd usually go 2 days, one walking, one sitting.

Walking the course backwards can be cool as you won't miss anyone

Does anyone know where I can find a good swing or short game golf coach in Austin? I played a lot in high school a little above scratch but haven't played much recently and want to get back into it.

If I go to a PGA Tour event, I'd try to get there early enough to have the time to walk the course and then camp out in a nice spot. If you have the time, you can do both. (Also, if the event's at a course you've already seen or played, there's less reason to walk the course.)

hey guys, is there any documentary on golf? I did watch the one with Rory, and I also came across The Back Nine (can't find it anywhere tho).

Thanks

Anyone have the r11 irons? Golftec recommended the tour preferred muscle cavity irons when I had my swing looked at last year. Standard lie, 1/2 inch short, stiff shaft.

I've been seeing a lot of reputable retailers offering a 5-pw set of the r11s for ~500 and I'm tempted. Reviews online seem good.

going to play my first round of golf in 4 months since having knee surgery, just came back from the range and it was awful, shanked about 80% of my shots, anyone know a cpl of drills to work on before I play 2moro? my swing is heavy in to out fwiw.

Just lifted next to Rory McIlroy for about 45 minutes. He seems like he works pretty hard in the gym.

what was he doing?

He was doing lunges with 1 foot up on a bench with about 105 pounds to start. Did some rows, curls with 35 pound weights, incline chest with maybe 45 pound weights, delt presses with 35 pound weights, some tricep pushdowns with the rope thing, some pullups, some weird exercise with the cable machine where he looked like he was trying to knee someone in the stomach, some weird core exercise where he was side planked with his top leg on a bench, then swung the bottom leg back and forth rapidly. (my explanations are the worst).

I think he was probably there for 10 minutes before me judging by the sign in sheet. He looked pretty cut (in a non bulky way, as I'm sure he's not trying to bulk up), wasn't wearing headphones, seemed pretty laid back.

Anyone getting/reading "The Big Miss"? I believe it came out yesterday.

I'm loathe to give Haney my money for this book but I'm a bit of a Tiger fanatic so I reluctantly shipped my $13 and downloaded the book on Kindle.

I haven't read a page of it yet but I'll probably make a thread about it when I'm done, assuming there isn't already one up at that point.

here's brandon adams' critique:

maybe haney is actually the awkward one and he's mad he had to pay for some carry out and didn't know he was allowed to have a popsicle