[The Short Game]

9 hours ago, Rob Person said:

Soft sand, lies vary (obviously) and i always use a 3/4 to full swing,  opened stance

  The issue is that I don't always connect far enough behind the ball. Hence the tons of practice!

I like what Dan Grieve teaches(watch his YouTube video, they almost all all have sand instruction).   Square to the target, stand away from the ball with low hands, driver width stance with weight forward.  During the swing keep the wrist cupped to keep the face open.  Rotation speed control distance; I like to think about how fast I need to swing to hit sand to the hole.  
 

not connecting far enough behind the ball is about swing depth and low point control.  Draw a line in the sand, take your stance, and hit the line.  When you do that consistently put the ball in front of the line.  

[The Short Game]

On 11/25/2024 at 8:58 PM, Rob Person said:

Bunkers are my nemesis.  I've practiced ALOT and repeatedly, from different angles, grades, lies, etc.  It is in fact my least consistent shot. Occasionally,  I will get that perfect.out and the ball will do.what it is told. Mostly though,  it's a chunk or a pure ball bladed rocket.   !

 Not being negative, but a LOT of practice doing the wrong thing probably doesn’t help.  Bunkers are link any other shot, you need to understand the lie and figure out what to do.   For example is the lie uphill, flat, or downhill,  is the sand firm or soft,  is the ball plugged or sitting nicely, etc.   

Describe your basic bunker condition and what you are trying to do?   

[The Short Game]

5 hours ago, Wolfstrum said:

But I also see more variety and even conflicting advise between different short game “experts”.  I pick a few things that work for me and keep my short game simple. 

I personally think that is a good thing.   “Conflicting” information is really just alternative ways to do something.  As you said try them all and see what makes it simple for you.   I watch videos by instructors like Grieve, Ridyard, Short Game Chef, and Mayo.  Each of them coach players on the highest tours but if you watch their material you could say they provide conflicting info.   It’s like the info in this blog entry; it advocates compressing the ball and taking a divot in short game; which I pointed out conflicts with the brush the ground approach taught bay the instructors I listed.  

[The Short Game]

not questioning what you have written; since shirt game isn’t my strength,  but not sure everything is accurate with modern approach and my research.  Take this as an example:

Every aspect of my research emphasizes this crucial tip: Hands Forward. This means your hands should lead the club and clubface, positioning them in front of the ball at impact to help compress it. You’ll need to fine-tune your hand position, but remember, hands lead the club.

Instead, hit down and make a divot.

The majority of what I read is the opposite, you don’t want to compress and hands forward/hinge and hold isn’t what should be done.  Short game is about softness, slower ball speeds, and not compressing.  I’d suggest investigating the various approaches and understanding the extremes to see what works for the player.  
I’ve haven’t seen any instruction that advocated taking a divot with the short game; even instructors that teach steep want you to brush the ground.   
 

I could also point you to putting instructors that will say skills trump equipment.  Equipment really is a fine tuning thing that matches up with the skills and player choices about how they want to putt.   I would agree that you would need multiple articles about putting to address the skills necessary to be a good putter.  

[Welcome to the Bogey Ball Society!]

I was very “nobled” when I heard about the new podcast.  
 

Listened to both and enjoyed the interactions and camaraderie between everyone.  For me it’s much better than any of the big podcast in this genre.  Maybe it’s because I know a few of them personally from the MGS outing and consider them friends.  the interaction were genuine and felt like an MGS outing or a community call…laid back and just a few guys sharing their thoughts about golf.   
 

looking forward to more episodes. 

[Fittings: Why They’re Important and Worth Every Penny]

32 minutes ago, Wheelieb said:

So I understand the fitting process, and they use a singular club to make all the lie adjustments for the rest of the irons if it is an iron fitting. But is that the correct way to adjust all the irons? I am not so sure on that. Maybe the one above or below are the same lie angle, but you aren't going to swing your PW the same way you swing your 5 iron. If you are going to get fitted for clubs, more so irons, the full fitting process should also involve getting all irons' lie angle adjusted to you. You maybe 2 degrees up for you 5 iron, but your GW may be 1 degree flat. Lie boards, based on watching videos showing that they bounce up and can impact how a lie angle is marked on the tape, may not be the best but are still decent enough to give an estimated lie angle. We should do that with all our irons to be fully fitted. Of course, that is my opinion, and I have not seen any study showing that to be a good idea or not.

Most fitting adjust the set based on the singular iron. No, it is not ideal but from an inventory perspective it is what it is.   So your fitting with the irons identifies a head/shaft combo that gets your ball launch conditions optimized.   Based on that the specs are then generalized across the rest of the set.   If you buy off the rack there are stock specs. If you o custom order you only specify the general loft lie change and not each club.  
 

Once you get your irons the next step; which most people don’t do, is to do a gapping session that will dial in the loft and lie for other clubs in the set.   You can do this yourself if you wanted to by using a launch monitor and the sharpie test for lie angle and then getting the clubs adjusted.   

[Golf Etiquette]

NOTE: I played with a course employee last year who claimed that replacing divots doesn’t help because the roots have been cut. This employee was on the ground crew and should’ve known better. The reason you replace a divot is so you don’t leave a divot. There have been several rule discussions on divots for good reason. Divots are man-made and can hinder a player’s shot if their ball lands in one. This is why it’s important to repair what you damage on the course; it helps the course recover faster.

 

For the above, I think it depends in the grass you are playing on.  I my area of the country there are not pelts of grass and the removed grass basically explodes apart.  So, we fill with sand.   This of course ties back to the course to provide you with the sand to fill divots.  One course I play has the sand bottles but they are empty and don’t provide sand.  With all the threads about divots I seldom find myself in a divot on a course where there is no way to repair a divot.   I fully agree that we shout repair divots, but sometimes it isn’t possible and the course should be blamed and not the player.    We could also tie this to walkers that don’t bring course provided sand bottles to fix divots.  

[Fittings: Why They’re Important and Worth Every Penny]

3 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Essentially the fitting process for me and for the way I was swinging did not yield a club or shaft which I swung "better" .. as measured by whatever metric(s) the fitter was looking at.

I read your prior comment as it didn’t improve my on course performance metrics. Based on this comment you have optimized equipment performance which is what a fitting tries to do.   

the right equipment doesn’t always translate directly to  on course improvement.  On the flip side wrong equipment can translate to poorer on course performance. I have seen this first hand with clubs during most wanted testing.  

IMO, you have simply reached the point where you need to elevate your skills.  This is where I am with my game; my clubs all perform well but I need to improve performance: stock shot, better face control/contact, distance control, course management, etc.   basically the skills that a fitting won’t significantly improve.   
 

 

[Fittings: Why They’re Important and Worth Every Penny]

1 minute ago, cksurfdude said:

unfortunately I cannot say any of them have been directly beneficial to me equipment wise. That is, none resulted in a club adjustment or club purchase that improved my game.

How are you measuring “improvement”. 

[Fittings: Why They’re Important and Worth Every Penny]

1 hour ago, Erin B said:

For example, my kids are starting golf and they don’t have a consistent swing. They often miss the ball, or don’t make full contact with the ball. They haven’t figured out their tempo or address the ball consistently.

I don’t consider that consistency,I consider what you describe as basic swing fundamentals.  At least I now understand what you mean by your use of that term. 

[Fittings: Why They’re Important and Worth Every Penny]

11 hours ago, Erin B said:

after consistency, look to get fitted and buy some quality player improvement clubs.

What is consistency?   what aspects of a swing make it consistent and why don’t you think players swings that are leveraged for a fitting consistent? 
 

Why does it have to be player improvement clubs; isn’t the point of a fitting to find the right clubs?