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Bob Pegram

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Everything posted by Bob Pegram

  1. Done! It was interesting how big the effect was, especially for the minor scuffs. I can understand how a ball that ducks left is going to roll more. However, I was referring to the more than 30 yards roll on the baseline shot which, I assume, was with a new ball.
  2. I hope there is a "defacto coup against the USGA and the R&A".
  3. Narrowing the hash marks actually made pro football easier as did getting the goal post out of the way.
  4. Why do you assume they can adjust their machines to make the "new" balls? The specs of any new ball may not be within the tolerances of their machines. That would mean spending millions to design and have built all new machines.
  5. What kind of course has a roll of over 30 yards?! Courses I play with normal watering have a roll of closer to 10 yards or 15 yards max. With a 248 yard carry I would have trouble getting the total distance to 265 yards.
  6. As many others have said, driving the ball farther demands more accuracy which can easily be countered with narrower fairways or longer rough, or both. This ball change is unnecessary as long as a little greenskeeper creativity or more punitive design takes place.
  7. I agree that the most important reason for moving the goal posts was to reduce the number of severe (brain and other) injuries that were taking place. To some degree this ball change is like the kid who doesn't like how the game is progressing and so takes his ball and goes home. It is somewhat juvenile. If the limits had been put on BEFORE the increased distances we now see, it would be better, but, at this point, it would penalize equipment companies for their continuing advancing club engineering improvements and ball construction improvements. It is a stick in the eye.
  8. I am against the new ball, but, for clarity, it should be pointed out that the new ball is supposed to lose decreasing percentages of distance with less powerful swings. In other words, a golfer who now hits his drives about 200 yards will not only lose way less distance than the pros or other long hitters, but will lose a smaller percentage of his distance. The amount of distance he loses will be negligible. Long hitters will lose quite a bit of distance. I am 74, 6 feet tall, use a 46 inch driver and can hit the ball 270 to 280 on good days. I swing a very heavy leaded club 40 or 50 times every day for strength and flexibility. I will be penalized more for my work to stay in good condition and to stay strong than an average golfer will. That is what we get when amateurs make the rules for the pros (and everybody else) - penalties for hard work.
  9. How could rules for a game be copyrighted? Many predate the USGA as does the game of golf (by centuries). In addition, rules seem like they would be public domain by definition. If I want to play any game I can use any rules I want to use whether with permission or not. The fact that many tournaments, professional and amateur, use the same rules without remuneration to the USGA nor R and A seems to indicate they are, in effect, in the public domain. The USGA and R and A can certainly require adherance by affiliated organizations, but have no power over independent organizations who can make alterations such as local rules not included in the USGA rules. A local golf club could be formed with many, but not all, rules the same as USGA rules. What could the USGA do and why would they bother? Their legal fees are already killing them. In addition, it makes no sense for a bunch of amateurs to make the rules for professional golf.
  10. The lower lofts on irons has a detrimental effect if it causes more half shots at the wedge end of the bag. Those shots are more difficult due to trying to get the distance right. In reality, most golfers, including many tour pros, have ditched the longest iron and added a wedge. In effect the only change is the numbers on the clubs being off by one from years ago.
  11. If you do the math (the ratio of club length to height), with the optional 46 inch maximum club length it is impossible for a 6 footer to swing the same as a 5'9" golfer using a 45 inch driver. The same ratio of 5'9" (69 inches) in height to a 45 inch driver is 6 feet (72 inches) to a 46.96 inch driver. That is probably why a 47 inch driver fits me so well. I don't have an upright swing. My swing plane is relatively standard as far as tilt is concerned.
  12. Parks don't generate income for a city. Golf courses do. Houses sell for more when near (especially facing) a golf course. The difference may be less (or non-existent) than you think.
  13. I agree that the large head size and head weighting adjustments it allows in manufacturing make a big difference. I took a long time experimenting with long drivers. I ended up with a 47 inch driver that I hit no farther than a shorter driver, but I hit it much more accurately because it fit my swing better. I could use my natural swing and was more consistent. My swing is not upright. It also eliminated any back issues because I was turning somewhat more horizontally like the back is designed to perform. My average drive is longer only because I hit more fairways with it and so the roll is more than landing in the rough. I haven't been playing much lately and it is becoming harder to hit straight. It requires regular play and/or practice. A 46 inch driver I made is easier to hit straight. I can't go shorter than that without accuracy and back problems.
  14. The equipment manufacturers, ball manufacturers, pro tours and anybody else interested need to get together and adopt their own set of rules, most likely the current USGA rules, but without the new ball, and possibly without the optional 46 inch club length limit. Drivers longer than 48 inches tend to spray the ball so badly that even that limit could be abolished. In real golf (not long drive competitions) drivers over 48 inches are more of a liability. They would work only for extremely tall golfers - 6'6" or more.
  15. It's time for the ball manufacturers, club manufacturers, the PGA and other tours to tell the USGA where to go. They should adopt the USGA rules, but exclude the ball distance reduction as well as the 46 inch optional club limit while they are at it. I don't know of any other sport where amateurs control the rules for the professionals.
  16. This reminds me of the joke that "My game is so bad I had to regrip my ball retriever."
  17. Ken Venturi said Hogan had very long arms for his height. Venturi said many golfers can't replicate Hogan's positions. They are impossible for somebody with shorter arms.
  18. I used to work for a Golf Digest rated Top 100 Club Fitter until he moved from California to Indiana. I later worked as a fitter at PGA Tour Superstore. In both locations we made efforts to help the customer with his/her swing so we would be fitting their best swing. The reason for that is so that, as they improved with the new clubs, they would be rewarded because their new clubs would fit that better swing. The new clubs would contribute to that improvement. The alternative would have been fitting their inferior swing. In that case, when they improved they would end up fighting their new clubs that were fit to their old inferior swing. By the way, if your clubs are getting too heavy you may want to try graphite iron shafts in your fitting to see if they work better. They are available in all the same flexes and lengths as steel shafts. They tend to reduce the shock of impact compared to steel shafts. That is really obvious if you hit a shot thin on a cold day. In addition, there are other specs that can vary more by graphite shaft model than with steel shafts. The variations can also be more precise. Those include torque and bend point. Torque is the amount a shaft twists. More torque makes the shaft feel softer for the same flex. However, if you square up the face at the last instant before impact the face won't come around as quickly when you turn your hands if a shaft has more torque. Each shaft model (graphite or steel) has specific torque specifications. The other factor, bend point, varies by model for both graphite and steel. There are more choices with graphite since each shaft model can be designed for specific desired characteristics. In other words, graphite allows more exact specs and more variations available due to the way graphite shafts are made. Steel has more limited options due to its physical characteristics. That is assuming the person giving the lessons knows custom club fitting. Many golf teachers do not understand how club specs affect the swing and resulting shots.
  19. The course makes more money when they rent more carts. I like walking beeter too. Play better walking also.
  20. I bought a set of Callaway RAZR X Forged irons several years ago on the Callaway pre-owned site. They had Project X shafts. I bought the set with those shafts because I knew they sell for the most on Ebay. I pulled the Project X shafts and reshafted the heads with the graphite shafts I wanted that were in my old irons. I used to work for a fitter and have the equipment to do it myself. By the way, the heads were the ones Furyk used to shoot 58. I didn't find that out until I had the irons for months. I love the irons.
  21. Why not buy it with the best wrong shaft, get it pulled, get the correct one installed, and then sell the pulled shaft? It is a nuisance, but you would get some of the money back to pay for the shaft you want.
  22. Yeah. I play worse in a cart. It wrecks my rhythm of my game. Walking off the yardage while walking to the ball, having all my clubs with me and not worrying about leaving a club or two behind, having my towel with me, etc., etc. lets me concentrate on the golf, not grabbing things I will need when I get to my ball, having to walk sidewys to my ball, the fast, slow, fast, slow, start, stop of a cart.
  23. I am 73 and always walk and carry my bag. I have run to stay in shape for years until a medical condition that has since been fixed stopped me. Now when I run my back hurts and feels compressed vertically. I can bicycle though. Resting pulse is 55, one more than when in my 20s.
  24. My most memorable round is memorable for an unusual reason. It was in the mid 1970s. I didn't warm up and hooked my first shot into the driving range fence along the left side of the first hole. I had to punch out, hit a wedge and missed the 10 foot par putt. I managed to birdie one hole on the front nine and parred everything else. On the back nine I had one birdie and one bogey and parred everything else. Par 70. Lipped out birdie putt on 18. Would have shot a 69. Santa Anita Golf Course in Arcadia, CA - east of Los Angeles. Because I was concentrating on my game I kept forgetting to ask a guy I had been paired with by the starter about his voice. It sounded very familiar, yet I didn't recognize him. He was built like a body builder but it looked natural, not from a lot of weight lifting. I finally remembered to ask him on the 17th tee. He asked if I had watched TV in the 1950 as a kid. I had. He said I would figure it out. It dawned on me later that it was Clayton Moore, the "Lone Ranger." I hadn't realized how big/broad he was. He was just over 6 feet, but looked like he weighed around 230 and wasn't fat. He said he swam laps every day. Another "memorable" round was playing at Elkins Ranch GC with my Dad when the wind must have been 30-40 MPH. On a 425 yard par 4 into the wind I hit a driver off the tee, another driver off the fairway, and a 5 iron into the green. Two holes later on a 511 yard par 5 with the wind I hit a driver and pitching wedge and was pon high. I couldn't score under those conditions, but it was fun.
  25. I still walk. It helps get me warmed up faster. It also allows me to have all my clubs with me everywhere on the course even at the side of the green. I also get a better survey of the course by walking and I can walk off the distance from a yardage marker as I walk to my ball if I am not using a GPS.
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