alfriday101

I stated earlier that feel and a system are not mutually exclusive. I stand by that statement. I know how far I hit each of my wedges (and 9, 8 and 7 irons) on 1/4, half, 3/4 and full swings. Now, my 1/4 swing may not be 1/4, but it is what I feel is a 1/4 swing and, most importantly, it is reasonably repeatable swing after swing, hole after hole. The distances I hit my shots is based on a flat, good lie. Basically, these are distances I found and practiced on the range. Since I know these distances, I don't have to think about technique or mechanics when playing. I have the information--which is simply a starting point for play on the course. (As an aside, practicing all four shots with each club is a great skill building exercise and an excellent way to improve ball striking). Here is how it works on the course. Suppose the pin is toward the back of slightly elevated green, which slopes back to front. The front of the green is 40 yards away, the pin is 55 yards away. (I do tend to measure the distances as I've found that architects are very good at fooling the eye of the golfer, at least this golfer.) When I approach the ball, I"ll survey the green, my lie, the slope, the wind, etc. Information gathering. I'll usually laser the pin and possibly the front of the green. I'll then decide on the shot I want to hit--high, low, or medium, little run out, a lot of run out, etc. Most of the time, it will be a straight forward pitch--carry the ball half way between the front of the green and pin and let the ball roll to the pin. The shot I want to hit determines which club I will use. I pick the spot where I want to land the ball. So, in our example, I want to hit the ball 45 to 50 yards in the air and let it roll out. For my 55 degree wedge, that is a bit more than a half swing. I have my starting point. The thinking, or mechanical side now shuts down. Feel takes over. I will stand behind the ball and envision the shot, looking at the target. When envisioning the shot, I will swing the club a bit back and forth in my right hand. I will feel the way the club moves through the grass, the wind, all the factors that go into actually hitting the shots. I'm not analyzing, just feeling and anticipating. I call this priming the pump. When my feel matches my intent, I'll step in and hit the shot. By this point, there is no thought of "half swing" or anything mechanical. (That took a lot longer to explain than it takes to actually do on the course.)

I don't think that being a feel player and having a system are mutually exclusive.

https://clubandresortbusiness.com/bandon-dunes-to-unveil-bally-bandon-sheep-ranch-in-2020/ Another article on the 6th course at Bandon. I visited Bandon last September for a week. My group played all 5 of the existing courses twice and the Dunes course three times. They were working on the Sheep Ranch; you could see the work when playing Old McDonald. I would love to go back for a week again. It was a great experience. It's as close to links golf as you can get in the US. The big advantage is the travel time from the midwest and no jet lag. it is expensive, but about 1/2 to 2/3 the price of a trip to Scotland or Ireland. And once you are at the resort, there is no driving. I am the DD for our trips overseas, so this was a big advantage to me. I still prefer Scotland or Ireland, but Bandon is a very close third. It is great for a guys trip. The property for the Sheep Ranch looks exciting and there will be many hole along the cliffs: "The many holes along the cliffs will be the big attraction for Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch. The new course will include a mile-long stretch overlooking the beach and ocean and nine of the holes will be along the cliff—more than at the resort’s three exiting oceanside courses combined, The World reported."

I went to the club today, planning to spend 15 minutes pitching, 10 chipping and then hit the range. I never made it to the range. When I got to the chipping part, I did the one chip, four clubs game. I would set up a chips from various places around the green and then use four different clubs for the same chip--SW, 9 iron, 6 iron and 4 hybrid. I was having so much fun playing around with the four clubs that I lost of all sense of time.

I played the Cobra forged F7 one length for two seasons. I recently switched to the Edel single length irons. I also use cobra single length hybrids. Two big thumbs up on the switch to single length.

A couple of thing to consider: There are plain golf carts, like the ones people are used to renting at courses. And there are modified carts designed for golf and street use. If your wife wants a cart for running around the development, a modified cart might be better. My parents had an electric cart in Mesa. They sold it and went to gas. The summer heat in Arizona was hard on batteries and they needed to be replace every couple of years. My parents were in Arizona only in the winter, so the cart would sit for my months at a time. I don’t know if carts used year round are similarly affected. I have a Club Car that I bought new in 1992 and it has been reliable. I keep thinking about replacing it, but it runs well, so why replace it.

I'm a plus handicap when it comes to photography. My main interest in photography is to shoot large format cameras (8x10 up to 20x24) and contact print the film to create handcrafted platinum and palladium prints. I enjoy controlling every step of the process, from selecting the correct watercolor paper to experimenting with the mixture of platinum and palladium to get the exact tones I want for an image. I enjoy the process of hand coating the paper using a watercolor brush and custom emulsion. I do some wet plate photography and also work in albumen and gum over platinum. Most of my work is in rural scenes around my home town in Iowa. But I also do model work. Humm. Maybe I should think about getting hickory clubs and gutta percha balls?

Re UCF: https://sports.theonion.com/ucf-deserves-a-shot-to-be-utterly-destroyed-in-the-coll-1831232725

This is a timely thread as relates to my game. I ordered an inexpensive 42 inch driver a couple of weeks ago. Our range is closed, but I was able to take it to the course to play a few holes with it at night. I would hit a couple of drives with my standard driver (Fusion Heavy) and the new driver to compare on each hole. The biggest difference was in center contact. Most of my shots with the 42 were in the center of the club face. I had to play around with tee height to get the most out of the new club as it has a deeper face. By teeing the ball about 1/4 inch higher, I got great results. Based on the above, it seemed my good drives were equal, or so close that it did not affect club selection on the second shot. I am definitely more accurate with the shorter driver. I didn't lose much distance on slight mishits, but was in the short rough instead of behind a tree. Good results when goofing around. But how would it hold up in actual play? Yesterday I played 18 with my regular group and used the 42 inch driver. With my standard driver, I hit the ball about the same distance as one of my playing partners. Same with the 42 inch driver. We were side by side on a number of holes. I did miss several fairways during the round. I figured out the problem was my ball position. I was setting up with the ball too far forward for the shorter length. Once I made that adjustment, I was gold with the shorter driver. I hit the last five fairways with the short driver. At the end of the round, I examined the driver face and I defiantly had a better grouping of ball marks around the center of the club face than I do with my regular driver. I have only played one round with the driver, so I hesitate to draw broad conclusions. I plan to keep playing the short driver through the fall and winter. I will probably try the longer driver again at some point, to see if using the shorter driver will translate into more center strikes with the longer driver over time. If not, the shorter driver will stay for next year. One big benefit I can see for the shorter driver is to play it when coming back from the winter lay off, when the golf game is a bit rusty. I'm 6' 2" tall, if that matters. Swing speed is around 95 with standard driver. My Fusion was fit to me at 10 1/2 degrees. I ordered a 12 degree in the 42 inch driver.

Royal Dornoch. If you are going north to play Nairn, you should keep going up the coast another 45 minutes and play the best course on the planet. Cruden Bay is tops on the fun-o-meter and can be played on route north from St. Andrews.

I am reminded of the bishop in Caddy Shack.

Golf: the ultimate concern.

I have had the same experience.

Good suggestions in the post above. Windswept Dunes is 30 to 40 minutes Northeast of Destin and is a very gold course. Take a look at their website.

On Saturday, we got 3 inches of snow. Yesterday we played golf. On number 5, I pulled my second shot left of the green, pin high, right into a patch of snow. The ball sat up nicely and i could have played it. Nope. Treated the snow as GUR and played on. Some lines are just not to be crossed, and hitting out of snow is one of them for me. The course hosted a boys high school match a couple of hours later. Not sure how they treated the areas of snow still on the course.

I have already done this test for myself. I took lessons from pros, did indoor lessons with video monitors etc. I did all the practice that the instructors told me to do. I got better, but it took a long time and the improvement didn't last season to season. The problem was all the lessons were technique oriented, "fix this problem and you'll play better." Albeit, I did have a couple fo playing lessons that were beneficial. Last year I discovered Shawn Clement and his approach to learning the swing and (most importantly for me) the mental approach. I improved dramatically. This year the improvements have stuck and I continue to improve. This year I continue to do the drills that Shawn recommends, but have moved on to focusing on the skill side of things and a strong mental game. The Vision54 books have been eye opening for this. For me, I had enough "fix the swing" lessons; they were a dead end. What's Einstein's definition of insanity? Shawn got me out of the rabbit hole of playing golf swing and on the course playing golf. As always, YMMV.

Floating in the Gulf go Mexico? Slick. Laying in a hole in the ground? Phil. Next to a hole in the ground? Doug. What do you call a dog with no legs? It doesn't matter. He's not going to come anyway.

https://golfsidekick.com/gear/best-golf-hats-sun-protection/

I"m with Tony. The book, "Be a Player" is my top book on developing on course skills to improve your gome. The earlier book by the same authors is also very good: "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose". The two are complementary. I would start with the first book and then move on to "Be a Player." There are three books in the series. The second book in the series didn't help me as much as the first and third. It build on the ideas of "Every Shot", but didn't move the needle like "Be a Player." "The Practice Manual" by Young has a lot of good stuff in it, including lots of specific drills to help you improve skills. It is a bit dense if you are not interested in learning theory, but worth the read. The first section and third are quite good. The first time I read this, I skimmed the theory parts and concentrated on the practical stuff. I later went back and read the entire book carefully. I guess I just wasn't ready for all the theory the first time I read it.

I play in "street shoes", flip flops or Tumi sandals on occasion. The main thing is to get flat shoes, not running shoes which have a padded heel and push weight forward over the toes. Playing and hitting balls barefoot is a great drill. It activates the proprioceptors.

I get it in my left ear. I don't have it all the time--a loud noise will set it off. Unfortunately, occasionally the sound of a drive will set it off. I'll walk off the tee with my ear ringing, but I know I had good contact. It was worse with my old driver. I switched to new driver with a more muted sound at impact and it hasn't been as big a problem.

A good friend of mine was going on a golf trip to Scotland. When the time came for the players to put down their money, one of the players dropped out. The group was looking for a fourth who could commit on short notice. My friend called my house (back in the land line days) to see if I was interested. I was gone so he talked to my wife. Her reaction: "He'd love that." When I got home a couple of hours later, she'd already checked on airline tickets and had a deposit check ready for me to take to my friend. She was so excited about the trip that I just had to go. That was the first of six trips to Scotland or Ireland with my friend.

Please. We're golfers here. That's why they make single malt whisky.

Go to an 8 team play off. Then we can have pages and pages of argument on why X team got into the 8th spot instead of Y team.

The Big Ten Championship Game is set: Ohio State v. Wisconsin. OSU and Mich. State are in the same division. https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/11/18/16673534/big-ten-championship-date-matchup-2017