DaveP043

This! Proper sequence is the key, in my opinion. If you do things in the right order, you'll get the most out of your swing.

In these situations, you take things one step at a time. As @cnosil says, you take penalty relief from the red Penalty Area (Rule 17.1). Then you have a brand new situation, and if relief is warranted from something else, like the cart path, then you may choose to take that relief. If you're lucky enough that free relief from the path can put you in the fairway, good for you. But remember, the Nearest Point of Complete Relief isn't always in a good spot, it could be back towards the Penalty Area. The NPCR also requires that your stance and areas of swing is clear of the path. You might even have to stand in the Penalty Area to play your shot after taking cart path relief.

I'm sure you're correct, but his primary focus overall is speed. Monte's focus is on swing mechanics. Dave Pelz focused on short game, and did his best to convince everyone that short game was most important. We all see things through our own blinders. Back to the two articles quoted, I found the second one pretty good. Notice that the very first thing mentioned was coming to grips with the longest clubs. Number 1, improve ballstriking! In the first article, most of it was good, if a bit generic. However, this bit I have a problem with: That's just not accurate. Look at this from ShotScope/MGS, https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/shot-scope-case-study/. The difference between a 5 handicap and a 10 is ONE putt per round, and that's about the largest difference for any 5-stroke handicap difference. Maybe the route to significantly lower scores should be something besides putting. Consider, if you spend as much time as possible on putting, does that leave any time for full swing work? I think this is poor advice, the bulk of a player's practice should be on full swing work, tee to near-the-green work. And of course this is a generality, the best thing to do is to evaluate your weakest skills and concentrate on them first, but in general its full-swing improvements that will produce the largest score changes.

This isn't surprising to me at all, the guy who makes his money by teaching golf swing says that golf swing is more important than speed training, the guy who makes his money from speed training says the opposite. I think each one is correct at times, depending on the individual player. My personal experience, as a semi-competent and experienced swinger, my swing DID seem to become more efficient through Stack sessions, and I find I'm hitting it straighter on the course.

From everything I've read, the "difference" between two different levels of golfers is generally about 2/3 full-swing game, and about 1/3 short game and putting. Everything is important, and different players will have different needs, but the biggest contributor to overall improvement for most people is improved full swing performance. Strokes gained stuff can illustrate this a little Go find a SG putting app,, easily done online, and run a few rounds through it. All you'll need is the length of your first putt, and the number of putts on that hole. Use the "tour pro" standards, so you're comparing yourself to someone who's nominally a +5 or +6 handicap. I bet most 15-hndicappers (20 strokes or so behind the "tour pro" level) will end up losing 5 or 6 strokes putting. That means he's losing 15 MORE strokes in the other stuff, driving, irons, short game. But its late for me, I'll read the articles and comment on those tomorrow.

Looks like these cover the rules that impact normal play the most. At something just over an hour, it seems like a manageable duration, and if its being presented by USGA staff its going to be accurate. Everyone can use a rules refresher at times.

In northern Virginia we're expecting about 80% eclipse, between about 2 and 4:30. I'll be serving as a volunteer rules official at a local PGA chapter tournament.

I bought a used iPad just for my review. That was no big deal, since I got the rest of the stuff for the review for "free", but it might make me think twice if I had to add that cost to that of the Stack and launch monitor.

I'm in cut will be at +1 low am Stewart Hagestad

I've just retired. Over the last few years I've become very familiar with the Rules of Golf (through the USGA 3-day workshop, 3 years in a row), and will work as a volunteer rules official for 25 to 30 days this year. I'm working through the state golf association and through the local section of the PGA or America for most of those. Its been fun, it keeps me interested, and its a bit of "giving back" to the game. Rules aren't for everyone, but it might be something to look into.

For me, I need improved ball-striking. I fit the image of a "typical" player, Strokes Gained research suggests that the difference between one handicap level and another is largely ball-striking, with short game and putting having a smaller impact. I'm working on regaining distance using the Stack system, distance I've lost over the past 4 or 5 years (I'm now 68). I need to also make time for range sessions, just working on repeating the same swing every time, improving consistent contact. Those improvements will help me hit more greens in regulation, and get closer when I hit them. GIR has the best correlation to score of any of the traditional statistics. None of this is intended to say that I can't improve my chipping and putting. I certainly can do that, and will use some of my practice time to that end. But the biggest pay-off will come from improved driving and iron play.

I now have 3 pairs of Footjoy Traditions, I love them. I have always felt that Footjoy shoes fit my feet well, where other brands just don't. The Traditions have spikes, which I prefer, I hate to wear out the soles when the uppers are still in good shape. They're guaranteed waterproof for a year, and mine are still good after nearly two years. The sole is pretty lightweight, certainly compared to more traditional construction. And they do come in size 15. In my experience, shoes are pretty much individualistic. They're built on a mold, called a "last", and if the mold isn't shaped like your feet, the shoes won't feel good on your feet, even if they're the right size. Like I said, Footjoy has fit my feet pretty well over a lot of years, but they might not fit yours. Good luck finding the right shoe!

Outside of actually playing golf, I spend a good bit of time volunteering as a Rules Official. Right now, I have 27 or 28 days reserved this year. Does that count as "outside of golf"? Beyond that, I enjoy cooking, and I think I'm pretty decent at it.

IF you're looking for something to install on your home computer, GIMP is a pretty comprehensive photo editing program, free of charge. https://www.gimp.org/ I've been using it for quite a while when posting photos here. Its not super-intuitive, but even an old fossil like me CAN learn to do simple tasks like cropping and re-sizing photos.

I'm back at it again, after holidays and trips kind of forced some time away. My progress check after finishing the Full Speed Spectrum was a little disappointing, but that WAS shortly after one of those extended breaks. The system recommended that I repeat the FSS, and I just finished session 4. Its interesting to compare my weight sets and performance to my first few FSS sessions back in December. The weight sets are slightly different, but the "style" of the sessions is consistent. My speeds were similar to those from the earlier sessions. However, even after those extended breaks, I'm now back to very close to my peaks, and managed a personal best single swing with 195, the first time my eSpeed was over 100 mph. For those just starting, I can say that MY speed gains weren't sudden and dramatic. Its a process, not a quick fix, but the gains are definitely real. I'm seeing it on the course with tee shots, and seeing it with irons. I certainly had slumps, the graph definitely isn't linear, but I've definitely made progress, and plan ton continue.

I have a QOD. It is possibly the most compact when folded, no remote, and I've had really good service, both when it was under warrantee and afterwards. The only drawback, it appears to be out of stock, I don't know when you might be able to get one. https://qodgolfusa.com/collections/qod-motorized-golf-carts/products/electric-golf-caddy-2024

There's not really a Model Local Rule to do just this, but they COULD use MLR E-2, which allows you to lift and clean your ball, but then replace it in its original location. That way, you're not using a rule to get out of a bad spot when you've hit the ball off the fairway, but you still can avoid clumps of mud on the ball.

This simply isn't accurate. Beginning in 2020, the hole handicap indices are recommended to be based partly on the "difficulty" as determined by the rating, but are also recommended to be adapted for a few other factors, and are subject to an individual course's Committee review. We recently decided to revise our indices, and got the recommendations from the Virginia State Golf Association. The first factor is the "difficulty value", defined as the average of the bogey and scratch ratings compared to par. Our 4 par-3 holes ranked as 10, 6, 13, and 18. The 205-yard 4th hole's "difficulty value" was 0.44 strokes higher than the 470-yard par-5 18th hole. All of these factors have a relative small impact on the scratch and bogey ratings, as compared to the actual distance. Perhaps that's a flaw in the rating system, but that's the way it is. But I agree in one way, the Committee is usually very reluctant to assign a really low Handicap Index to par-3 holes, and I'm the same way. Perhaps we're all influenced by tradition.

The Golfer's Journal gear I mentioned is made by Linksoul. I looked very quickly at the Linksoul site and didn't see them, but I could easily have overlooked something.

@Golf2Muchhas provided a pretty good explanation of the rating system. The rating group takes a whole bunch of measurements, and those measurements come up with a Scratch golfer rating and a Bogey golfer rating. The most important factor in both ratings is playing length, with the various obstacles having a pretty small effect. The Course Rating is the Scratch golfer rating. The Slope is a function of the difference between the Scratch and Bogey ratings. Sometimes the various hazard and/or difficulty factors will impact the Bogey rating a whole lot more than they will the Scratch rating, which results in a high Slope, even if the CR (the Scratch rating) is relatively low. This bit from the USGA Handicapping Rules Appendix G list the factors considered: So for you, your "target score" will be Par plus your Course Handicap. CH is HI*(Slope/113) - (par-CR). For you, its going to be about 2 strokes over the CR, so for your course rated 70.6, your target score is going to be about 72.6. As to what happened to your Handicap Index, the scores you post are important, but so are the oldest scores, the ones being replaced. If you shoot 70, but it replaces a 68 (assume the same course), your handicap will go up, even though the 70 is a fine round.

I have a couple of quarter-zip windshirts, from the Golfer's Journal site, with pockets. https://www.golfersjournal.com/product/the-windcheater/ None of this stuff is inexpensive, but its really well made. These are single-ply, so not really "warm", but the perfect outer layer to cut wind. On slightly warmer days, its perfect over a short-sleeve golf shirt, on cooler days it increases the effectiveness of a sweater. AND they have pockets. And if you're a subscriber to the magazine, you get 20% off.

I believe, without any firsthand knowledge, that these situations were a.big part of the decision to allow a Committee to define areas without water as Penalty Areas. Before that change, an area had to at least occasionally carry water to be legitimately treated as a Hazard. This is one of the many ways that expansion of golf to different climates has fueled rule changes.

I never doubted that. I've kind of become the "rule-guy" around here, and just wanted to make sure folks understand the rule. There's plenty of room in golf for all levels of rules observance, from the most casual players making up their own rules as they go, to seasoned competitors who're required to follow the rules when they play.

Just be careful using that feature in a proper competition. For most casual play, I'd guess nobody will complain. But the Rules specifically do NOT allow using a device to: "Interpreting distance or directional information (such as using a device to get a recommended line of play or club selection based on the location of the player’s ball)" This is in Rule 4.3a(1). Again, I don't have a problem with its use in casual play, I just like folks to learn about the Rules.

I didn't see my particular strength in the potential answers. I excel at the post-round drinks and story-telling (lying) in the bar, assuming that I have someone to drive me home afterwards.