revkev

My favorite strategy RR - I'm guessing that our grasses are similar to yours and it's just tough to get it close to front pins - of course it's almost always wet here regardless of what the super does so you are rarely able to bounce it on. I very quickly figured out that the best strategy is to leave something full - somewhere between 100 and 120 is ideal to attack front pins - I don't prefer the 70 of my lob wedge because I don't like to hit it full and it also brings in the possibility of hitting it too far and having the part shot to face. It does often lead to the ridiculous strategy of me hitting 3 hybrid or 3 wood off the tee and a longer opponent hitting driver - 6 years of winning more skins and having a lower handicap index and many of them still haven't figured out that I do this when the pin is up front - I keep very quiet about it. Great job

Frankly it's the advantage of any player with half a brain - I may not be the longest but if the rough is up I can hit it on the green pretty consistently from the fairway at 200 and not so consistently from the rough at 170. Tour pros are another matter - sometimes they will take postion and angle over fairway - if the rough is not up I will do the same - may be far better to be in the so called rough with a good angle to the pin than the fairway on the other side or worse yet in the fairway in a spot that took on the pond.

"Club up, choke down, and make a nice controlled swing" could work all the way round the course!!!!!!!

Good luck today JBones I was supposed to be playing in my league's midseason tournament but the guy that I got to fill in for me is in the hospital - this is the 5th time that I've missed this tournament because of some sort of parish event - wedding - funeral - now this - in the past 6 years - I think I'll just give up on entering it. The good news is that while I'm working to be ready for tonight and tomorrow I'm inside watching the Open rather than outside in what will be a well over 100 degree heat index by noon - I don't really know that I'm ready to be out in that yet so this could be a blessing in disguise.

Amen - and by the way I used to have that shot - now it's more like 175 out and 75 left when I get the hooks going - older but wiser I think.

Agreed with jmiller and will add the following advice. When the ball is below the feet think of sitting on a bar stool to get enough knee flex. If it's pronounced you really have to stay down on the ball and not try and get too much out of it. I also think it's very important to find a spot behind or in front of the ball that is as similar to the stance/lie you'll face and take a number of practice swings to see where the club will contact the ground - that will help you play the ball in the proper spot in your stance and to choke up enough when the ball is above your feet. You want to be comfortable before hitting the shot so that you don't have to think about what you're doing while you're hitting it - I had three terrible ball below the feet lies on Tuesday - I was 2/3 in terms of executing good shots - the other one was complicated by the fact that I was in thick, gnarly rough - at least I got the ball across the hazzard that I had to cross but I didn't get it anywhere near the green - the 2 1/2 inch bermuda just grapped my club and twisted it.

Alright I managed to play 18 today for the first time in over a month. I was very shaky at first but fought my way through 6 at 3 over and then stuff started to kick in and I was even the rest of the way - shot 75 - not bad at all - hit some good shots, got my golf legs under me but did run out of steam the last few holes. I did chip and putt pretty well which is not surprising given that I've had time to practice those parts of the game - no 3 putts, really no missed putts inside of my 50/50 point - made a nice birdie putt of about 15 feet on the back and had lots of other good looks for birdie there that burned the edges. I'm happy, happy to have played golf, happy that I showed signs of playing good golf. Played with three great guys including a guy who's always neck and neck with me for low handicap in the league. He shot 76 so I nipped him. I had to laugh because we don't play a lot and have never really talked about equipment - he works at the course and got a new Rocket blz driver. I asked him if it was the stock shaft and he said, "Are you kidding. Stock shafts are for chumps. This one is an aldila that the pro fit me for and then helped me install. It's 44 and a half inches." I told him about this sight and hopefully he'll join the fun.

JMiller now I understand why you were disagreeing with us about length of a round - no doubt that when you're playing a course that tough the rounds will take longer. I don't know that I would enjoy it all the time though - I really don't - my ideal is course rating right around 72 and slope around 130 - Break 75 and it's a nice round. I've certainly played courses with ratings of 75 and slopes over 140 and had some reasonably good scores on them (and some train wrecks). Since it's been in the news lately Blackwolf run comes to mind - the River Course is 76 152 from the tips (and it's not even 7,000 yards long). The first time I played it I shot 83 and it felt like a billion - it wasn't even that bad a round - my low of 73 there would be like shooting a 68 and the course that I'll play tomorrow - hard to imagine. Speaking of tomorrow I'm really hoping the weather holds - I haven't played 18 in over a month - it's been 7 years since that's happened to me. :(

JMiller now I understand why you were disagreeing with us about length of a round - no doubt that when you're playing a course that tough the rounds will take longer. I don't know that I would enjoy it all the time though - I really don't - my ideal is course rating right around 72 and slope around 130 - Break 75 and it's a nice round. I've certainly played courses with ratings of 75 and slopes over 140 and had some reasonably good scores on them (and some train wrecks). Since it's been in the news lately Blackwolf run comes to mind - the River Course is 76 152 from the tips (and it's not even 7,000 yards long). The first time I played it I shot 83 and it felt like a billion - it wasn't even that bad a round - my low of 73 there would be like shooting a 68 and the course that I'll play tomorrow - hard to imagine. Speaking of tomorrow I'm really hoping the weather holds - I haven't played 18 in over a month - it's been 7 years since that's happened to me. :(

You guys are killing me! I'd just like to play right now - heck I'd just like to get on a range and hit a few - got rained out last Tuesday and Friday, went to practice yesterday, got my clubs out of the trunk and it started raining. Went to work at 7:30 and have to work until 8:30 tonight so decided I would take a couple of hours off to practice today and it's raining. I'm supposed to play tomorrow afternoon - guess what the forecast is calling for? I really feel for the guys who are going to get me as their A player on Saturday - it could easily have been 5 weeks since I played 18 holes by then.

Thanks James - I try to keep that right hand as loose as possible - perhaps I think it's loose and it's not - I will be watching for that. My bad shots are either blocks or hooks - I have no doubt that the right hand is the culprit in the blocks - I believe that my hips are the culprits with the hooks.

I think that might be the case JMiller - my normal shot is a fairly high draw (2 or 3 yarder). I do like to feel that right hand releasing through the ball and have to be very careful to make sure that I'm griping it lightly with my right hand or I leave the ball a bit right (to tight a grip and the release is late.) Interestingly I don't manipulate the club with my hands to hit a fade - I set the club open a bit left of target and then set my stance for the starter line - I have to really focus on pulling the club through with my left hand and letting the open clubface hit the ball high or else I'll get a double cross. Experience has taught me that when I'm trying to hit a fade or a slice it's a block fade or slice and so I have to aim a bit further left. I hit a really nice one on Tuesday with my five hybrid - freaked the guy out who I was playing with because I originally said that I would hit an 8 iron over the tree and then play from 175 into the green - he walked to his ball and on second look I released that I could get my 5 hybrid over the left side of the tree and cut it back thereby getting it down inside of 130 - creamed it and since I hit it so high out of the rough down wind I got it to the 100. Set up a really nice blocked short sided wedge into the trap. I can draw/hook anything about any amount that you'd want either by manipulating the club with my hands or the more traditional way aligning my feet right and closing the clubface - I generally go the hands route because it's so natural for me. I played baseball for so long and was a pitcher up through High School and a catcher as well (into college.) So I just see the ball going right to left and understand the spin axis needed to make that happen really well. (A curve, slider, cut fastball from a right handed pitcher)

I feel your pain RR - I'm 55 - I can't get out of the car and walk to the first tee cold anymore unless I want to risk missing a month of golf. Oh well at least we're still playing and at times playing rather well.

I've got them too but I also have a puzzler that perhaps someone can help me with - maybe even the boss man James. I get bruising on the pointer finer on my right hand - the better I'm striking the ball the more pronounced the bruising. I use a very straight forward Vardon grip that's a shade on the strong side of neutral. Any thoughts on why this would be? Like I said the better I'm hitting it the more pronounced the bruising. Oh yeah I'm a right handed golfer so the right hand is my bottom hand.

That's central Florida RR. It's generally nicer over here on the West Coast - That sun is still strong but we get as many days in the 80's as in the 90's because of the sea breeze - we're stuck in a pattern where we aren't getting our sea breeze which is letting the heat build during the day and then dump once it gets to around 4 - hopefully something will come by and break the cycle. Hope you also enjoyed a few drinks with the guys along with the praise - I still have to be carefull about drinking which made being stuck out on the course for an hour until the rain let up enough to get in the other night a big time pain. But, the nice thing about living in a place like Texas or Florida is that there is always another day to play and in a few months when are buddies here are winding down - we'll be cranking up.

I like James - I keep a club in my office and grip it all the time - I have a two room suite which is really nice - I keep the club in the back room where no one can see me - I also have two mirrors in there so I can do some mirror work - I often put in 12 hour days and this lets me at least hold a club every day.

I've been very busy the past few days assimilating back into work!!! So I went to play in my league yesterday evening. Tee'd off at 3.45 and normally I'll be done by 7:30. I was much stronger than last Friday which was great. But..... not so great because with my reshafted stronger 3 wood I drove it into a trap I normally don't reach with that club on number 1. But.... I putted really well which was great. But....... the first two 8 footers that I ran in were for bogey. But....... the next one was for birdie. But......... it started to thunder, lightening and pour. So I had my lowest round ever - 14!!!!!!!! And I got a rain check to go get rained out again any afternoon after 3 because that's the kind of guys they are at my course. Got to love golf in Florida in the summer.

I can hit what ever you want on the range - on the course it's draws or hooks - usually draws - If I'm in huge trouble I can hit a slice - Fades? We don't need no stinken fades. (Actually I'd kill to be able to hit a fade with some sort of consistency on the course when it counts.) Guess it won't shock you that I have a fairly but not ridiculously strong grip.

The reality is we're all getting older Shambles - expect the unexpected!

Shambles - love you - If you look you'll see my handicap listed here is a 3 but actually I'm lying - since then my index has dipped to 1.8 which puts my handicap at 2 on the courses that I play - Given that I drive the ball 240 I'm not over powering the course so I'm thinking I have some game inside of 150 - I'm not overly impressed by it but when I look online my handicap index puts me in the top 2 to 3 percent of all golfers so it's probably better than I thik. Obviously I don't have a touring pro's game but I have a pretty reasonable game - again it's nothing that impresses me, in fact I'm embarrassed by how many bad shots I hit and how it turns out when the scores get added up sometimes. I think my biggest strength is that I don't fritter away strokes by doing stupid things like shooting at pins when a slight miss could net a bogey as oppossed to leaving a 12 to 20 footer on the safe side that might bring a birdie and will always bring a par. Do what you want, shoot at sucker pins - God knows I have lots of friends that do that all the time - doesn't bother me - it's their game and their score card not mine. I'll always suggest what I would suggest for anyone if they want to know how I shoot the scores I do - always play to the safe part of the green - if the pin happens to be on it then you can go hunting. I'll also always put in the oppossing viewpoint if someone is suggesting that guys with 18's shoot at pins - I don't think it's a wise idea most of the time. I do have a question for James that has to do with coming back from an illness. I've not been able to play for 3 weeks because of pneumonia. I lost about 12 lbs during that time. I hit a few balls on the 4th, maybe 20 to 25 and the doctor cleared me to play the next day so I played 9 after work on friday. I was very weak, hit several really ugly shots left. Went to the practice green on Saturday and hit 100 pitches and chips and then putted for a while as well. Hit balls again today (about 50 or so before I started to feel tired). I hit the ball much, much better except for with my middle irons (6 and 7) which still were going low left and short - In fact I was hitting my 8 iron, 7 iron and 6 iron the same distance 140 - I hit everything else normal - is it just a matter of needing my legs more for those clubs and thus working to get that strength back. Is that a normal phenomena when you're weak and building your game back up?

It's really nice to read about someone with so much enthusiasm for the game FLV and great round RR although winning money would have made it better! That's exactly what I shot the round before I got sick, 74, in competition - I'll be back there in a couple of weeks. I could tell - I hit enough good shots yesterday to know - just hit a few ugly ones and far worse didn't get up and down a single time even though I had three very easy chips and really one pretty straight forward trap shot. I don't get to play this weekend because I have church this evening and don't want to wear myself out and I rarely play on Sundays for obvious reasons - I will take shag bag with to church, leave an hour early and chip and then hit the range tomorrow to hit a few balls and the trap and putting green. I get to play twice, perhaps even three times next week and three times the week after that so I should be up or down to par in a few weeks. Happy to be back in the game regardless - you can't win if you don't play.

Alright made it through 9 - It wasn't pretty 4 pars, 5 bogeys - the body just didn't want to do what it needed to do but it's a start. Had no legs - hit lots of pull hooks - I actually found myself in exactly the scenario we've talked about here - duck hooked a drive into 3 inches of bermuda rough - It was on a par 5 so a lay up was in order - played the 4 hybrid back in the stance and banged it out straight down the fairway to the 100. I would not be able to make that play from knee high rough however.

Just hoping to get the ball airborn and moving in the right direction. I have been to the putting green twice, chipped once and hit about two dozen balls the other day - most of them went generally towards what I was aiming at.

Finally having the stomach to look at this thread because the doctor cleared me to play golf today!!!!! B) I'm so happy, happy, happy! Jim Thorpe - you dog JP - that's awesome - 6 times plugged jmiller - I'd be ranting too. You must be right on the cut line between bent and bermuda - I miss bent grass but we have this new strain of bermuda that only needs to be plugged once a year - not bad when you can play year round. While Rover Rick's advice is dead on in that you shouldn't be hitting anything out of the rough that won't get out of the rough and that the idea behind each shot is to make the next one easier (I really like that) I do believe that hybrids are very easy to hit out of the rough - easier in fact than a middle iron. You need to move the ball back in the stance a bit to make your swing more upright and if there's a lot of grass don't worry about catching it a bit fat - you can chase those suckers a long, long way using that technique - just make sure you aim for a spot that will leave you an easy chip/pitch if you miss the green. What you won't be able to do is hit that shot over a bunker or some other hazzard and get it to hold. Most people make the mistake of trying to hit a home run when a double will do FLV. Try it - you'll like it. Alright weather permitting I'm playing nine holes tomorrow evening (I'd normally play 18 on friday - my day off but I'm starting this comeback slow.)

I'll be anxious to read James' answer but my pro uses a stiff shaft in his 3 wood and long irons and tour stiff in his other clubs. I think it's more common than one would suspect. I use a stiff shaft in my 5 wood, 4 and 5 hybrids so that I can flight them down a bit in the wind. I also notice that more and more touring pros do what I do - they have blades up through their mid-irons but use a cavity back for their 4 and 5 iron. You have to use what works for your game.