Nice score there. Absurd getting a urethane ball for the price of a noodle. Would buy everyone I could if I lucked into finding them.

Back in the day I worked part time on Taylormade's old testing range and got endless free balls that had been hit only a few times by a robot. Miss that.

I'm open to whatever. I live by New Haven, but I'm open to the idea of driving to play. Sadly, I'm only able to drive to play next week.

I played Fox Hopyard a couple weeks ago and loved it (it's expensive, though). I played Fenwick last Friday, which I liked, but it's short and only 9-holes. I really only know what Google tells me.

Feel free to PM me if you're interested, so we don't make everyone jealous.

general question but here goes,

how many non-putter and non-sand clubs do you use around the greens? do you guys use medium lofted clubs like 7i and 8i? do you use a FW or hybrid for chips?.....

seems like watching the pro's that they use something like gap wedge or sand wedge for almost every single shot....... wondering if i should do the same?

here's an analogous point: my barber was talking about his apprenticeship in turkey... he said the barber gave him scissors and a comb and told him to start cutting and combing things i.e. no instruction for first few weeks......... i'm wondering if that's how we should look at our wedges i.e. read less instruction and very more creative in figuring out how to use them. there is a place though for rote repitition and having a couple of go-to shots as well.

I'm going to see how my chest feels tomorrow. As of right now I couldn't swing a club at full strength.

I use my 58 for almost everything around the green. I will occasionally use a hybrid if the ball is sitting weird against the rough. My home course has smallish greens with out a ton of weird features so the shots are basic. I will use an 8 iron if I am at a course with firm greens and I am like 100+ feet away but the green is sloping away where I would typically land the 58, so basically almost never. I would obviously use that way more if I played links golf often.

Use what works for you, there really is no right answer. Hell I will putt from 20 yards short of the green if I am on vacation and the grass is bermuda into the grain.

I usually use my 56 for everything. I think I used my 60 twice today.

I usually use my 58 from around the greens, too. If I have a lot of green to work with, I might use my 52.

58 out of the bunker.

If I am in the fairway, I will bump and run an 8 or 9 iron depending on how I feel.

If it's up against the collar, I'm 50-50 on using a 4-wood or bellying a 52.

Got my Sunday group to play the ladies tees tomorrow. Should be a fun time.

That's unfortunate. I don't see the thrill of playing the forward tees lol.

Shooting 31 is never boring.

It is actually pretty fun used to play a 9 or 2 a month from front tees.

THIS. Actually a good way to get back into the swing of things if you are feeling down.

Being -4 through 12 was one of the coolest feelings ever, I don't care what tees it was from.

I used to only use one club around the greens but now I use any of: PW, GW, 56, or 60 depending on the shot. My chipping game has improved a lot partly because of this imo.

There really is no right or wrong answer. I am pretty good at holding the face from closing or holding it open and can get a bunch of different trajectories with my 58 and don't really need to use a different club. I think the biggest mistake I see, especially younger guys is way over using the high speed flop shot when there is no reason to. I mean when you are 10 yards off the green but have 30-40 feet of green there is no reason to fly the ball 90% of the way in the air.

Either way just practice enough that you are 100% confident in the shot you choose and the reaction the ball will get on the green and off the face depending on the lie.

The woman from the Ship Sticks commercial needs her own TV station or something.

most of my greenside shots are split pretty evenly between 54* and 45* PW. i'll use a 58* if i need to get the ball in the air to carry something, and often will use 7i, 8i, or 9i when there's room to let the ball run (loft depends on how much fringe i need to carry).
that said, i putt anything i can.

Idly curious:

What would you all consider to be your ratio of practice to play? Whether it's by time (time spent practicing vs time spent playing) or by number of trips (to practice vs to play)?

I'm probably 1% practice, 99% play. Other than hitting a few chips sometimes or very rarely a putt or two before a round, I haven't practiced at all this year.

And yeah, that's probably a big part of why I"m not better.

I'm an avid practicer and wish I had more time for it, but with my **** proximity to a good practice area and work hours I only make time like once a weekday to practice. However, I play Saturday and Sunday almost every weekend and will show up an hour to an hour and a half before a round to practice/warmup (whatever you want to call it). If time allows, I'll go through a bucket on the range, work on short game and putt before every round.

There isn't really any good grass ranges within 30 minutes and my home course has no range that I live 2 minutes away from so probably 90 - 10 playing vs practice. If the course has a range I will warm up even if it is on mats. I made the mistake of hitting way too many balls at a range with mats last year. Spring and fall I can actually get to play by myself during the week so I practice a lot on course during those times. I try to chip and putt for an hour a day at least.

My lack of practice is why I suck in tournaments.

If I had a taller ceiling in my condo I would 100% get sky trak and practice much more but as is I can only swing a 9 iron and below and even then hitting the ceiling is on my mind so doubt I swing 100% inside.

It depends how I am playing. I spent about 2 hrs in the last two days on the putting green bc of how bad I've been putting. I go to the course at night and if the course is wide open I'll play if not I will chip and putt.

I try to practice less and less as the season goes on. First few months it's probably 50/50 but now if we go to practice I try not to bother with the range unless something specifically is bothering me; I'd rather just chip and putt. Plus I'd rather just play altogether.

I'd say right now I'm 90 : 10 for play : practice.

I also actually prefer not to hit the range before rounds. I'm much more of a chip and putt a bit and head straight to the tee.

If I put a number of it I would say 90/10 at best. I only practice if I haven't had a chance to play during the week. If I play during the week then really the only practice I get is the 45 minutes before by Sunday game.

If I am struggling with my game then I make sure to schedule more practice time. I prescribe to the theory if it's not (really) broke, don't fix it. I also make sure to read zero articles on tips in golf magazines.

I usually would practice about 10-20% of my time maybe, but this year I joined our country club which has a range with unlimited use for members and I have taken advantage of not having to pay for range balls. I bet this year I have spent as much time on the range as on the course, if not more. I wanted to give myself a chance to work hard on the swing changes I've always known needed to happen this year in case I don't rejoin next year.

Practicing putting and chipping will shave the most strokes if you are only going to practice a little bit.


Best advice EVER.

Anyone know of an accurate way to check the loft and lie angles of your irons without having the expensive loft/lie machines? I have a way of measuring the lie angle which is fairly accurate, good enough for my purpose anyway. The loft is the tough part. Bending all my irons myself and I won't do it unless I can accurately measure the lofts to make sure they do not change.

Stole this from golf wrx



Put the shaft parallel to the ground in a vise. Put a level on the shaft so you know it is perfectly horizontal.

Put a micro level on the club face inline with the groves. Make this level as well.

Put the angle cube on the face, it will read the proper loft.

I like that. Only problem is that the level on the shaft will be slightly off since the shaft is tapered. Just guess about how many degrees the taper is and you'll be within .5* of actual loft I bet. Thank you for that.

I ended up making a jig that holds the club the exact same way every time. It will not tell me the exact loft because I can't be sure it's perfectly level, but... Say I'm bending my 7 iron. I will put my 7i in the jig and measure the loft angle. Then I put in my 8i and measure the difference between the two. Then, I bend the lie of the 7i and put it back in the jig and measure it again to make sure the difference is the same which tells me the loft has stayed the same.