Snowmonkeys1310

You can put a scorecard pencil behind the ball instead. Much easier imo.

It's important to be cognizant of which chips you can be aggressive with and which ones you can't. If you combine a short-sided chip with a green that's sloping away an up-and-down should be considered a huge win. Even for a scratch golfer. Setting yourself up on the proper side of the green ("missing smart") is a lot of this battle. Pros at all levels are masters at setting themselves up for shots that are easier to execute. They hunt for uphill putts and chips and you should too. Having more birdie putts is the undoubted best way to drop your scores. You're way better off with a 40-foot birdie putt than you are with a short-sided, downhill chip. 1. Short pin with a firm green sloping away Since you mentioned "an ideal lie" in your post, that would be be in the fringe or the fairway with nothing in front. In that scenario I'm either putting or taking my best tight lie wedge and trying to land the ball just short of the green and let it trickle on. It all depends on how much slope there is, how much green you're working with, how far off the green you are , etc. For the short one to just trickle on you're just trying to let the ball ride up the wedge face. Don't get "wristy" with it unless you're skilled at that sort of thing. Just make sure that you put yourself in position to make a bogey at worst. Play percentages on these shots. As a right-handed golfer I prefer uphill putts that break right-to-left. Know your game and play to your strengths. 2. Long pin with a firm green sloping away This really depends on so many things. Is it a slope that if you catch it the ball gets to the hole? If so you'll want something with some spin. Let's say the green is 30 yards long sloping away. You're just off the front and the pin is a couple yards from the back of the green. Assuming your fringe is capable of holding a ball that rolls onto it, you should be able to use as a bit of a backstop. You do not want to have a downhill putt after a greenside chip for par, especially if you've got a lot of green to work with. Getting the ball a yard or two beyond the hole should (1) give you a preview of what the comeback putt will do, and (2) give them a chance to go in.

I'm weirdly against Taylormade drivers and very biased towards PING's drivers. I occasionally hit the ball more in the toe with a driver. In the past, when trying Taylormade drivers, I found that toe strikes were so penal I couldn't play them. Drivers were going 30+ yards offline to the right. Meanwhile, a toe strike with a PING lazily turns over. No idea if Taylormade drivers still behave the same, but, if I was looking to replace my driver I don't think I'd even try a Taylormade. Meanwhile I love Taylormade fairway woods. Not sure why they seem so different than their drivers, but, to me anyway, they really do. Also a bit of a fanboy for Mizuno. My first set of irons was a set of Mizuno hand-me-downs from my dad and I've been hitting Mizunos ever since. I have gone through a few fittings over the years and somehow Mizuno wins every time. The closest anything ever got to unseating them bag were the ZX-5s from Srixon.

This is a pretty open-ended question. It depends on how many rounds you're playing, where you're playing, etc. It is extremely easy to overpack and that doesn't do you any favors. Some thoughts though. Backbone: if you've got a soft shell cover for your bag get a backbone to protect your clubs. Protect your clubheads. Take the head off of any adjustable club you have. This will help protect your clubs and your shafts.as the longer clubs are the most vulnerable when travelling. If you bought an adjustable club it should have come with a torque wrench, and all torque wrenches, to my knowledge, are interchangeable. When doing this be mindful of the screws. I put the head of the club, with the screw still in the head, in the headcover itself. I put each headcover in a Ziploc bag (some can be two to a bag while others need their own) to make sure everything stays together. I have 4 clubs I do this with when I travel. All of those clubheads, which are inside their headcovers, that are inside 1 gallon Ziploc bags, fit inside the long pocket on the side of my golf bag. This may sound like a lot, but having a club get broken is an expensive thing I don't want to deal with, especially while travelling. No one wants to go on a golf trip and not have their driver, 3-wood, etc. Shoes/Spikes. If you're going to play somewhere wet you might want to think about a 2nd pair, otherwise 1 will do. If you play with soft spikes it's not a bad idea to change your spikes/bring extras (Amazon has little packages of spikes). If you're bringing extra spikes then it's worth bringing a cleat wrench. Balls. You can definitely bring too few and you can absolutely bring too many As a rule, if there's a ball in your bag you found that you wouldn't play take it out. It's dead weight when you check your bag, and, if you have a caddie it'll be dead weight for them to carry around. If you like playing new balls/ones you can pick up in a pro shop, or intend to while you are travelling, don't bring too many. Clothes. Pack strategically. Make sure you're comfortable when you play. If it's going to be windy, cold, etc. bring the right options. If you're tight on space wear pants on the plane and throw a pullover in your carry on. Suncreen, bug spray,etc. As a fair-skinned individual with a subscription for sunscreen on Amazon (because I use so much of it) I know how important this stuff is. That being said, you can buy sunscreen wherever you are going at roughly the same price you can at home. There are some exception to this (e.g., Hawaii), but make this the last thing you include, if there's room. It's easily replaceable. Ziploc bags. No reason other than they can be very useful to have when you travel and take up virtually no space. Throwing an extra couple in your bag is generally a good idea.

Sounds like the answer may just be to get committed to what you want to do. That's usually the best course of action for all golf shots. If the line helps you get there then you should absolutely use it. If being a bit more deliberate in your prep process before hitting a putt gets you there, then do that.

Yes, I draw a line on my ball. There are times I don't use it on shorter putts (inside a foot or two), but they are rare. Personally, I know that spending time picking and, more importantly, committing to a line helps me. Once I am committed to my line I have taken that variable out. There's still a need to hit a good putt but the line is taken care of. Another benefit to using the line on the ball is that it helps assess your putting game and potential flaws in your stroke or your green reading ability. For example, I had a period where I kept missing right-breaking putts under the hole. I was able to tell that I was opening the face (pointing it more at the hole as I am a right-handed golfer). I was able to be confident in that assessment since I (1) knew where the line on the ball was pointed before setting up, and (2) I had aligned my putter with the line on the ball. There was a possibility I was under-reading putts as well, but, once I was more deliberate in keeping the face square on right-breaking putts I have a had a lot more success.

I'd love some insight on how they calculate strokes gained with different clubs. I like that I can see a number but I have no insight into how that calculation is performed. Someone already mentioned being able to flag a shot as a "recovery shot" and I think that's a good idea. Some way to evaluate accuracy when there are fairway bunker in the middle of the fairway. The same goes for "grass bunkers" which are common around me. These bunkers are in the middle of the fairway so my drive was technically straight (not a left or right miss). The reality is I probably missed either short or long relative to my target but I don't have that option. Not sure if there's a simple workaround for this but seeing a left or right miss in the stats doesn't feel appropriate to me. Edit: Saw someone mention the Grint. The Grint does incorporate maps of the slopes on greens. Having that as an option would be great. Especially when it comes to recommending distances and understanding how a shot is really playing. Example would be a sever false front that makes the recommended shot a little deeper into the green than it would have been otherwise.

Loft matters when putting. The idea of an ideal loft to apply to the ball at impact was the point behind Sik's DLT (descending loft technology). The pencil drill is a simple way to work on applying proper loft. This drill just involves putting a scorecard pencil directly behind the ball. To hit the ball you will have to make a putting stroke where the club is moving upward at impact helping with the end-over-end roll.

Using something like Arccos to track your shots would be a good tool. Stats it can give you, like the number of times you have used a club, will show you what you go to on the course. Having anything in your bag you don't want to hit is obviously a waste of space as you'll just avoid it.

The Z-Star Diamond is a spinnier ball for sure. I've given it a try in the past just to see if I could make it work. There's a time and place where I might want a ball with that much spin, but it isn't very often (my SS is higher than yours though so YMMV). Finding the absolute best ball for you will be super tough, but finding a better ball for you shouldn't be. The ball test results should provide some insight for you. Here are two other things you can do... Option 1: I quoted the post recommending PING's Ballnamic tool as I I found it useful. If you take the time to figure out your numbers it can provide great insight and narrow down some options for you. Option 2: Go through a Titleist ball fitting (you could pick another brand if you want though) Personally I recommend Titleist because I believe they have the best range of options of any company (AVX, Pro V1, Pro V1X, Left Dash, Tour Speed) You will leave that leave knowing you're in the best option Titleist has for you Then, if you're so inclined, you could then take what they recommend to you and seek out offerings from other companies with similar profiles and see if they can beat Titleist's best option for you

Evnroll Midlock for me. Switched recently and it has made a world of difference on the mid-range putts (8-20 feet) over what I was using previously.

Have been gaming them for a while now and they are a solid choice. Previously I used MP-20 HMBs, which I was very happy with. There was the occasional "jumper" that could lead to some small inconsistencies, but nothing too crazy. Had a deal for a free fitting, but wasn't really looking to buy anything. Unfortunately the numbers the 223's were SIGNIFICANTLY more consistent than what I was seeing from my own irons. I say unfortunately because of $, but they've been great for me. When I looked at the soles of the clubs next to the MP-20 HMBs they were basically the same size, which would indicate comparable forgiveness, but the spin and carry numbers were much tighter (for me anyway).

Would advise not getting too obsessed with chasing a perfect tempo, as the golf swing is supposed to be an "athletic" movement. All your tempo needs to do is allow you to make a controlled, athletic swing, and there isn't some perfect tempo out there that you must have in order to do that. Video below is a great example of two elite players with vastly different tempos. Brooks Koepka vs Jon Rahm - Swing Biomechanics.mp4

When a bout of rage results in you then having to fish a club out of a pond... I have never had to do this myself, but I have seen a handful people have to do it. Absolutely hilarious.

Typical course conditions that you encounter matter when choosing the right tools for the job (grass type, fairway firmness, height of the rough, prevalence of side hill lies, etc.). That's a bit nerdy though so if it's working for you then that's awesome. As for brands, it depends on what you want PING is the best all-rounder. The G430 is so, so good. Had the G410 before that and it was great too. Titleist would be my second choice, but they have 3 different lines based on what you want TS1/TSi1/TSR1: Marketed towards slower swing speeds, but that's unfair. It excels at getting the ball up and is the easiest to hit. TS2/TSi2/TSR2: Middle of the road choice that's plenty fast but still has some forgiveness TS3/TSi3/TSR3: Definitely for better players and would be the closest to a driving iron of the bunch in how the ball flies and the ability to work the ball; however, there is a lack of forgiveness that detracts from why you might opt to play a hybrid in the first place... Srixon's ZX is another good option that can be found relatively cheaply