If you have a slice you want a draw driver. I've heard good things about these.

burner draw

golf goals for the future. in no particular order.

(1) pass a PAT
(2) participate in a state golf association tournament
(3) shoot par
(4) play the old course at St. Andrews
(5) pass through one stage of qualifying for anything (mini-tour, some open, some am tournament, etc.)

what are the odds on any of these happening?

St. Andrews is a public course.

i know, but i think there's still 75% chance i'll never play it. hell, there's 50% chance i never go to england.

If you're at all serious, I'd say you could be 75% to pass a PAT, 100% for participate in a state golf tourney, 75% to shoot par, 99% to play St. Andrews and 75% to pass thru a stage of qualifying.

These are all attainable goals imo if you're willing to invest the time (or in the case of St. Andrews the money) to reach them.

I'd be curious as to how you would rank them - most wanted to least. Unless you're planning on getting into the biz, I would think PAT would be lowest but I could be wrong.

i would rank them (1) pat (2) par (3) qualifying (4) tourney (5) st. andrews.

anything that's an actual achievement means more for me. the pat is easier than par (maybe not), so it's more attainable. qualifying i think would be much harder and more unlikely than the other two, so it's a bit further down. a tourney would be cool, but if i do it before my game is ready, i am just not going to enjoy it at all. i get very dark when i am sucking it up. st. andrews is like a vacation spot. it's not really an achievement, just an experience.

thanks.

They didn't have any burner draws at teh store, so I ended up getting a Callaway FT-i 10degree draw.

If you're bored, a thread on wife versus your golf habit.

Anybody have any idea how to cut down on backspin, and lower the ball flight?

The golf store had me @ like 13 degrees-ish, and 3400-4200 rpm. I got out on the driving range this afternoon, and I'm hitting a lot straighter with this draw club, but I'm hitting pretty high which is cutting down on my distance I think.

is this with the driver? i'm gonna assume it is.

my guess, instead of low-kick shaft you probably need mid-kick or high-kick. that makes a more penetrating shot, rather than a high trajectory. of course, you might just need to adjust the lie of your driver/stiffness of the shaft anyway.

edit: by the way, i am by no means a club fitter, but i do know a little bit from reading. your launch numbers do not strike me as extreme by any means. i'd be plenty happy with 13 deg 3500-4000 rpm. maybe work on a little smoother rhythm, more repeatable motion? dunno. just my 2 cents.

I saw the weirdest swing ever today. I thought to myself 6 or 7 times, no he did not do that. But he did, and rather consistently at that. He teeed out a couple of groups before me and had a nice crisp contact with the ball but a rather big slice, which he seemed to be able to play.

I thought about make a video of his swing with my cell, but you can't really post things like that without the persons consent.

I will call his swing a one-and-a-half inverted Eamonn Darcy with a lateral movement.

He would stand over the ball and juggle the clubhead up and down a few times. Then he would make his practice swing, juggle the clubhead and make his real swing. The practice swing and real swing where identical.

His stance and posture and grip looked fairly ok from where I was watching, the rest of the swing not so.

He would start his back swing by bending his left arm (he was playing right handed) and thereby moving the club to the right, the club still parallel to how it was at address, creating a large angle between his left and right forearm so that his elbows were poiting to the sides. His arms and shoulders would form a pentagon.

He would then move the pentagon shape back until he somehow got his right elbow back towards his right side. The club then fairly horizontal above him, but as far as I could tell pointing right of the target. He then started his downswing, the pentagon would reappear as the club came down to impact and through impact until the left elbow would collapse down the left side and he had completed his swing.

Thanks, I'll check out the shafts, and try some of the other suggestions out.

I don't think the #'s are terrible, but probably on the high end of average. The golf ball didn't seem to get a whole lot of run after landing, just kinda dropped.

does anybody know the name of the drill Haney had Chuck do where he puts the club on his shoulder. turn his body. Then lift his arms a bit, and strike the ball from there?

Could be a bunch of things, some club related and some swing related.

Do you remember what your ball speed was? That figures into this equation but assuming you are in the 140ish range (which is probably on the high side of average) your ideal launch numbers are probably somewhere around 15 degrees of LA and 2500-3000 spin. The higher the ball speed the more launch and less spin will be ideal.

What head/shaft combo were you hitting to get those #s?

I believe I was ~145, but I'm not 100% certain. When I got out on the driving range it looked like more then the 13 degrees the screen said at the store imo.

I'm hitting a 10degree Callaway FT-i draw. Dunno about the kick, but the shaft says 350Tip, Stiff flex. Fujikura

I just watched something where Scott McCarron said he wears a MOUTHGUARD while playing. I really thought he was kidding, but apparently he wasn't. Says it makes him more flexible and powerful or something.

Pretty LOL if you ask me.

A 13 degree launch with 4000 rpms of spin is going to have a max height higher then a 13 degree launch and 2000 rpms.

Google sonic boom golf. They have a virtual launch monitor you can play with to get ideal numbers for every ball speed. Just keep in mind that max carry doesn't always mean max distance.

A simple tip you can try to see if you can get your spin down is to tee the ball up higher and make sure the ball is far enough forward in your stance to where your swing has bottomed out just before the ball. Should encourage a level or slightly positive angle of attack which will bring launch up and spin down.

I thought I read something about this device or something similar. If you grit your teeth when you swing, it creates tension, and supposedly the mouthguard alleviates that.

If it's true, I'm surprised that it's not a violation of the RoG.

The exceptions to rule 14-3:

I would think that he would get by on exception 1 as teeth grinding is a medical condition, the mouth guard does help with preventing teeth grinding and he is not getting an undue advantage over other players.

It would be the same as a knee or ancle support or corn plasters for that matter.

TIGERTIGERTIGERTIGERTIGERTIGER

Phil Mickelson has a dinosaur head and you do not:

is hitting a long iron any different than hitting a fairway wood? i am trying to find a good video online but haven't found one yet. i have made huge improvements hitting my short irons and fairway wood, but i haven't gotten too much better at hitting my long irons.

try the fubuki shaft

Any suggestions for a good course relatively near to the Chicago metro area that is reasonably priced? If they have season passes that'd be a bonus. Thinking when I move there next summer I'd like to have a sort of set course to play 2-4 times a week and then play something different/more expensive 1-2 times a week.

This list: http://wegoblogger31.blogspot.com/20...-guide-to.html seems useful to find the really good/pricey courses.

Those numbers are way too spinny. I'd pull the shaft and get something else in there if you like the head. The stock graphites are garbage for the most part.

is a good recommendaion. For a even lower launch with less spin, try the whiteboard. Cheaper routes would include axiv shafts, red or black. I think the red aunches lower with lower spin than the black, not positive though. A lot of people use these as alternatives to the WB. The fubuki and WB are going to run $300 and the axiv should be around $125.