Fore! Who's playing golf, yo-

[spook]

I play a lot and modern balls are so durable I'm not sure why your seeing that kind of damage on golf balls. Unless it hits a cart path I rarely see anything that would affect my level of play.

i'm not seeing terrible damage, except for the one the neighbors dog chewed to a pulp. nothing i haven't seen before, although they have a lot of "jardines" (gardens) here that are filled with very course little rocks and topped with boulders and all manner of cacti and other plants. as i noted elsewhere, though, the rough here is really rough, several of the fairways are very narrow and surrounded by trees, or rocks or what have you.

but mostly i'm just talking about balls that have varying degrees of damage to the exterior - anything from slice from being hit thin or hitting hard objects or perhaps being exposed to ecuadorian sun and used for a long time. the sun here is much more intense than say oregon. i'm sure over time it must have an impact.

[skiballs]

Spook , just shove the ball up your ass between holes , then wash it of in your mouth .

[MotherFucker]

Maybe I'm a pussy but I've never damaged a ball with my swing enough to not play it. I'll even play cart path damaged balls as long as it's not ridiculously scuffed. Never though about playing a ball more damaged than that.

Just got back from the range and I fucking hate practicing full shots for more than 30 or 40 balls. Sitting there and pounding balls over and fucking over; I can't see how that's productive for anyone's game. It doesn't even come close to resembling the game and it dicks up my tempo every goddamn time. From here on out, if I'm going to hit balls, it's ONE small bucket then the rest of the time spent on my short game. I need a consistent practice routine.

Got some pictures of the swing I'll post once they're uploaded.

[guroo270]

Spook , just shove the ball up your ass between holes , then wash it of in your mouth .

He does identify with Jerry Sandusky...

[4matic]

Just got back from the range and I fucking hate practicing full shots for more than 30 or 40 balls..

Have you tried headphones? Works for me but I also love practice. With my headphones on I can hit balls for as long as my joints hold out.

[guroo270]

Have you tried headphones? Works for me but I also love practice. With my headphones on I can hit balls for as long as my joints hold out.

I still have no idea what you are talking about with having some sort of fucking "U" in the lower back. Please don't try to explain it though. It wouldn't be a helpful tip to anyone anyways. Headphones, decent tip. As long as you don't go from K-Ci and Jo Jo to Rob Zombie. Switching clubs every shot or two keeps it more interesting also.

[MotherFucker]

Have you tried headphones? Works for me but I also love practice. With my headphones on I can hit balls for as long as my joints hold out.

That might work. When it comes to playing the game, I have full-on ADD and can't do a fucking thing with unnatural noises around me while swinging a golf club. While I hate making excuses for why I hit the ball like shit, staying out on a crowded range is like hitting balls in a sold out Pepsi Center; everything imaginable distracts me then I just get more and more pissed. Guroo witnessed it today. It's not a pretty sight. Once the attitude goes, I might as well pack it up and leave for the day.

Guroo, did you really just reference K-Ci (?) and Jo-Jo? Where the fuck did that come from. lol

[skiballs]

Just imagine what is would be look to play 18 holes with spook .

[4matic]

That might work.

I practice at the Cal home course. All the college kids are wired. I wear them when I play.

[4matic]

I still have no idea what you are talking about with having some sort of fucking "U" in the lower back. Please don't try to explain it though. It wouldn't be a helpful tip to anyone anyways.

It's called an arch. I wouldn't expect you to understand it; you have all the answers anyway. Post your scores and index so we can see how good you really are.

[guroo270]

That might work. When it comes to playing the game, I have full-on ADD and can't do a fucking thing with unnatural noises around me while swinging a golf club. While I hate making excuses for why I hit the ball like shit, staying out on a crowded range is like hitting balls in a sold out Pepsi Center; everything imaginable distracts me then I just get more and more pissed. Guroo witnessed it today. It's not a pretty sight. Once the attitude goes, I might as well pack it up and leave for the day.

Guroo, did you really just reference K-Ci (?) and Jo-Jo? Where the fuck did that come from. lol

I did. I was a big fan of R&B in middle school, 93-97 ish. I used to be half black back in the day. Top Dawg T shirts, Dickies and Ben Davis pants, Jordan's, the whole bit. I still hold quite a huge grudge agains Cisco for single handedly killing the genre when he took Dru Hill in a new direction starting with the thong song. Montell Jordan, Brian McKnight, love all those guys. I still think they heard the thong song from Dru Hill and just said, "Ight, I'm out."

..."cause Alllllll myyyyyyy liiiiiiiife, I pray for someone liiike you." Got it stuck in my head now. Although, I literally like everything. I credit San Jose's school district when they decided to bus kids in from all over the county for all this. I even got asked by one of my buddies if I wanted to join the Family Crips. Before that I almost got beat up one day after school walking through the soccer fields and two big, older Mexican kids came up to me and said, "What's up homes?! You down for blue or red, eh?" I answered, I like blue better, why? I thought they were going to kill me. I found out they really like the color red. Good thing they sagged their pants and I could out stride them.

Just imagine what is would be look to play 18 holes with spook .

No thanks. I think I'm going to make my ignore list 1 longer, with a population of one. I just can't stand how long winded his posts are, and how tortured he seems. It just makes me depressed. I don't really think he's an asshole or anything, I just can't stand anything the guy types.

[MotherFucker]

Here's a shot of the top of my swing from today. Personally, I like the one from last night more.









Here's a couple shots of Guroo's swing.

[guroo270]

Eeessh, i need to lay off at the top a little.

[JaytaeMoney]

Advice please:

I just upgraded my really old hand me down irons that my Dad told me he got in 1986, making them almost as old as me. I got a new (to me) set of SGI irons (Taylor Made Burner Plus, if it matters) and played my first 9 with them the other day after work. I scored pretty well but the clubs just seem kind of strange after using those other old clubs for so long.

First of all the club heads are comparatively huge and look very foreign/strange at address, almost like a hybrid compared to my old sticks, but the clubs themselves are much lighter. I felt like it was hard to get underneath the ball – my shots were going farther as advertised but with a much lower ball trajectory like I was blading everything, hitting them thin. On a couple holes my approach shot landed a few feet short or on the very front edge of the green and was going so fast it ended up rolling off the back side into the rough. Also of note, when I did manage to get underneath, my shots had a pretty strong draw which is a new development.

Also, when I lay the club down to address the ball it looks like I should be opening the club face to get it to line up straight. As is it looks like it is pointing significantly to the left. I got a new hybrid that has the same issue, are you just supposed to know to open the club face or just hit it like that? (I hope this makes sense) I suspect this is what's causing the hooking/drawing.

Have any of you guys switched from old clubs (presumably blades, but I’m not too sure on that terminology) to newer, SGI type irons? Is there anything I should be doing differently when hitting them?

Just to give you an idea about me: I’m 28 and have been “playing golf” since I was like 10 or 12 but never more than a handful of times in a calendar year, some years not at all. This year I bought a pass at the local muni and I have already played more times this spring/summer than in the last 5-10 years combined. I am a high handicapper and have never broken 90 in my life, but came close recently (93) but usually shoot around 100.

[wooley12]

Practice with a purpose or a goal. Hit one ball every 2-3 minutes.

Stance - Feet shoulder width apart. Make like you are going to sit down on a bar stool. Something you should be familiar with. Keep your head up. See the ball over the tip of your nose.

[jfost]

... I got a new (to me) set of SGI irons (Taylor Made Burner Plus, if it matters) ....

you are feeling the effects of the "SGI", strong draw-bias, and huge sweet spot to minimize bad effects of mis-hits. The lofts are strong too, so your "9 iron" will hit more like an old 7 or 8... IIRC they come only in 4-AW, but lofts are more like 3-PW. They are designed to get the ball up in the air so are you hitting them thin? Could be they are new and feel different, so you are mis-hitting it and just seeing better results for your mishits. Did you hit any "pure" that behaved differently?

[JaytaeMoney]

I did notice that the lofts seem screwy, and now I feel like I have a huge gap in my bag? Yesterday I was between 120 and 130 away from the green, did 3/4 swing with the PW and the damn thing went over the green... I'm playing in Aspen at 8k elevation but come on...

When I get a "pure" strike the ball flight is nice but the draw is always there especially with the longer irons. I probably just need to practice with them more, I haven't even hit them at the range yet. Just took em out and started playing.

[4matic]

Advice please:

I just upgraded my really old hand me down irons that my Dad told me he got in 1986, making them almost as old as me. I got a new (to me) set of SGI irons (Taylor Made Burner Plus, if it matters) and played my first 9 with them the other day after work. I scored pretty well but the clubs just seem kind of strange after using those other old clubs for so long.

First of all the club heads are comparatively huge and look very foreign/strange at address, almost like a hybrid compared to my old sticks, but the clubs themselves are much lighter. I felt like it was hard to get underneath the ball – my shots were going farther as advertised but with a much lower ball trajectory like I was blading everything, hitting them thin. On a couple holes my approach shot landed a few feet short or on the very front edge of the green and was going so fast it ended up rolling off the back side into the rough. Also of note, when I did manage to get underneath, my shots had a pretty strong draw which is a new development.

Also, when I lay the club down to address the ball it looks like I should be opening the club face to get it to line up straight. As is it looks like it is pointing significantly to the left. I got a new hybrid that has the same issue, are you just supposed to know to open the club face or just hit it like that? (I hope this makes sense) I suspect this is what's causing the hooking/drawing.

Have any of you guys switched from old clubs (presumably blades, but I’m not too sure on that terminology) to newer, SGI type irons? Is there anything I should be doing differently when hitting them?

Just to give you an idea about me: I’m 28 and have been “playing golf” since I was like 10 or 12 but never more than a handful of times in a calendar year, some years not at all. This year I bought a pass at the local muni and I have already played more times this spring/summer than in the last 5-10 years combined. I am a high handicapper and have never broken 90 in my life, but came close recently (93) but usually shoot around 100.

If the shafts are too light and too soft for your swing that will contribute to a hook and also make it harder to dig the ball out. What shafts are they? The SGI's are an offset club head which are designed to fight a fade so they will also promote a hook if you're not careful.

[4matic]

Here's a shot of the top of my swing from today. Personally, I like the one from last night more.

The most common mistake amateurs make is at the top of the back swing and it's something I'm working on.

Look right at 7:50 on this video and notice the back leg at the top of the swing. It's straight. Not bent:

[guroo270]

It's called an arch. I wouldn't expect you to understand it; you have all the answers anyway. Post your scores and index so we can see how good you really are.

I'm unemployed right now, so I don't feel good about going out and playing, so I haven't gotten to play much this year. 4 rounds maybe? My best this year is 78 so far from the tips. I'm a 5.1 index. Last year I posted my first even round par since high school at Indian Peaks from the tips, 39, 33 (on the tougher 9 by far).

I didn't get to play at all in college or the few years after. I used to be good though. I have two 69's, one at Almaden Country Club from the blues (Par 72), and one at Angel Park in Las Vegas (Par 70). Plenty of 71's and 72's at Almaden CC. Now you just see flashes of who I used to be, then I'll top a 3 wood, leave a ball in the bunker, hit a drive with 60 yards of fade out of nowhere, or have a 3 putt or two. Mistakes I didn't use to make ever. I also placed 3rd overall in my high schools' regional individual championships played at Rancho Cañada with a 72 on the west course. I used to always play with this kid Nate Smith in the regionals, who is now a pro. He was one of my favorite guys to play golf with. I hated playing against Christina Kim from Oak Grove HS. She's a total bitch, which may have changed since she's got a few mil in the bank, but she was the only person who could make the game unenjoyable for me. I've beaten her twice even though she got to play the reds.

I grew up playing as much golf as I wanted, so I never practiced, just went out and played 45 holes a day, 4 days/week. I'm having to transition to a person that practices on the range now. Hopefully I get to go back to the way it was someday.

I'm playing Coal Creek with MOFO on Monday at 4:03 if anyone wants to join us. I just took a 3 week hiatus from playing, so I'm not feeling all that great about my game right now, but I'll be sure to post up my score for you.

[jfost]

GOLF OFF!

which is it going to be, long drive or putt-putt guys?

[guroo270]

I'm 5'7", so putt-putt?

[spook]

i had my best day on this course until the sun went down. can't wait to get back tomorrow.

i love it when people tell me they're putting me on ignore. it's one more childish whine. i'm not tortured although my mental space may torture others. i'm pretty comfortable with it. i'm not calling everybody cunts and fags and douchebags every other post. i'm in this thread to talk about golf and that's it.

[wooley12]

@Motherfucker-- Your divots tell the tale. Over the top and out to in with your swing. Try swinging as if you're hitting a line drive down the 1st base line.

[spook]

just watched a vid of someone at the driving range working with his driver off the rubber tee and there was a box in front of the tee with an automated arm that sets a new ball on the tee. i've never seen one before? are they common?