how good can you get?

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No. 9

Yeah, for the first time in my life I now practice at a range where I shag all my own balls. It has a few very positive effects:

1. You know your yardages.
2. Tighter dispersion. Your aren't just 'swinging'; you are playing a shot to a particular place, and every ball is another shot.
3. For me at least, I hit a lot more 9 irons and 7 irons and I don't blast many drivers. Depending on the wind, drivers go up into the bushes where they can't be found, but I can hit my whole bag with wedges and then go pick them up off the green quickly. I think this has been good for my mid and short iron game, because when I take a 6 iron out now I'm not just thinking 'make a good swing'; I'm looking at a fairly small area around the pin and expecting the ball to go there.
4. Incidentally: ranges where you shag your own balls are usually also ranges where you hit off grass - huge factor.
 
Who needs a range... go find an empty field. I use to do this as a kid. There was a school at the end of my street and it had a soccer field and then a baseball diamonds right after each other. As a kid i would go down and hit ball when it was quiet... i remember smashing my driver as hard as i could and it wouldnt make it to the ball diamond... it think now it would be a little 5 iron and id be hitting onto a major road way..
 
We have a different meaning for the word "shag" over here......

Had me worried for a minute, golfers fornicating with their balls.......:D
 
Austin Powers, baby.

...

Ya...y'all should see my backyard though.....divot hole central. My dad tried to stop me. He may own it...but he knows who's domain that is now. Oh yes. You can't stop this kind of lunacy. (I have a bunker too)

;) :cool:

(u shoulda seen it a few years ago when I was into Brian's "Divot Drill"...)
 
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Hey Birdie,
You should work on the divot drill now out in your driveway...you know clear all the snow doing your divot drill. Maybe your dad would forgive you for the yard.

Jim S.
 

Jim Kobylinski

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You mental gurus are giving me hope because i started at 18 and have only seen brian and had only little bad information before then.

Yay! haha
 
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Ya...y'all should see my backyard though.....divot hole central. (I have a bunker too) You can't stop this kind of lunacy.

;) :cool:

:D

The tell-tale signs of a golfers home:

Divots in the yard, a flag/ hole in the backyard, one huge area of hard pan from beating balls into a net, black marks on the ceiling, broken lights, thinning carpet in the basement from taking divots...

I have a theory that no one really likes golf, instead it is just an occasionally enjoyable obsession.

LoL I sleep with my 58* next to my bed and lust over my blades everyday.
 
Want to be a great golfer for a year? I don't think anyone brought up working the grounds crew. Thats when I played my best. Besides the watching the breaks on putts or how firm the conditions are. Heres what I learned.

1) Lots of rain........you find the low spots on the greens / hence breaks you never seen.
2) Types of soil (not dirt) the greens are based on. Course I worked on had both sand and mud greens.
3) Learn about how much water each day the greens get (lightning kills sprinker systems!) Some are missed if they get fried.
4) Equipment used. (e.g. Triplex vs hand mowed) A Triplex will sometime leave dents in the greens and severally effects break. If you dont look you will never seen them esp. if the greens are wet.
5) How often the grounds crew sharpens the reels, you can adjust quicker, also one mower does not cut the same as others. Meaning greens cutters sometimes do not cut the same nine.
6) Top dressing the greens make the putts roll true (watch out for peebles!) and dull greens mowers blades quicker.......
7) Stay below the hole at all costs!
Should I continue !!!! lol
 
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:D

The tell-tale signs of a golfers home:

Divots in the yard, a flag/ hole in the backyard, one huge area of hard pan from beating balls into a net, black marks on the ceiling, broken lights, thinning carpet in the basement from taking divots...

I have a theory that no one really likes golf, instead it is just an occasionally enjoyable obsession.

LoL I sleep with my 58* next to my bed and lust over my blades everyday.

Amen to that. (all of it...i.e. marks on ceiling for sure...worn carpets yes...put a golf ball into the wall once...etc. lol)

I have a Cleveland 56 RTG beside my bed. (partly for swingin and partly because I am a paranoid mofo)

I also regretfully have 2 windows under my belt lol.

(my bedroom window and the neighbour's across the street that has to be about 10x10 LOL)

You are right...golf is a sickness.

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starret said:
Hey Birdie,
You should work on the divot drill now out in your driveway...you know clear all the snow doing your divot drill. Maybe your dad would forgive you for the yard.

Now you're talking starret. And if I can get myself a Hammer the snow will just explode right out of there. :)
 
Want to be a great golfer for a year? I don't think anyone brought up working the grounds crew. Thats when I played my best. Besides the watching the breaks on putts or how firm the conditions are. Heres what I learned.

1) Lots of rain........you find the low spots on the greens / hence breaks you never seen.
2) Types of soil (not dirt) the greens are based on. Course I worked on had both sand and mud greens.
3) Learn about how much water each day the greens get (lightning kills sprinker systems!) Some are missed if they get fried.
4) Equipment used. (e.g. Triplex vs hand mowed) A Triplex will sometime leave dents in the greens and severally effects break. If you dont look you will never seen them esp. if the greens are wet.
5) How often the grounds crew sharpens the reels, you can adjust quicker, also one mower does not cut the same as others. Meaning greens cutters sometimes do not cut the same nine.
6) Top dressing the greens make the putts roll true (watch out for peebles!) and dull greens mowers blades quicker.......
7) Stay below the hole at all costs!
Should I continue !!!! lol

Interesting. Keep going by all means if you have more.
 
More? ok

8) Chemicals (spayers or spreaders) tend to slow the greens down, some require water. Ball tends to stick more the the blades of grass. How can you tell? Spraying-sometimes sups use dyes to see better. Spreader- some chemicals are soaked on the stuff that covers ears of corn (shreaded fine obviously).
9) See if the greens are single or double cut. Either watch the maint worker cut a green or if there is dew on the grass you can see if they the greens cutter went 2 different ways-tire tracks.
10) Rollers are more popular, if you course uses them you prob notice a difference. Most need to be put on a util cart/trailer or on a triplex.
11) Green in a shaded area or out in the open? Shaded- green should be slower, sun and wind have a huge effect drying the cells in the blades of grass.
12) Ask a maint. worker that you have seen before you tee off what the set up is, most are pretty good if you catch them at the right time.
13) Be warned, putting green is sometimes not the same speed as the course. But if you putt on the opposite end of the putting green, generally the speed should be more consistent where most people dont putt (compaction of soil and blades of green).
14) Putts can break different in morning/afternoon, blades of grass sometimes go the draining part of the course, or tend to follow the sun, even towards or away from mountains......
You can be the greatest putter, chipper, iron player in the world, but you need to digest the information out there- good caddies find this stuff out.
 
Is there a limit to how good a person can get, given enough time and dedication to improvement?

Take a guy who gets to scratch or slightly better without ever practicing or having a lesson, just playing 2-3 times a week. Can he get to say, +4? What about a 5 or 10 handicap in the same circumstances? I guess I'm wondering if the limit is natural or learned.. could you take anyone and make them a great player if they had the time and money? Or is it something where you just have to "have it"?

opinions?
There are two golfers I know about who took up golf later in life and managed to shoot par within a relatively short period of time. It "just" takes lots of practice and dedication to learning.
Richard's Blog
John Richardson's site

Both of these guys started playing in earnest in their 30s or 40s and still learned to play extraordinarily.
 
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