This thread is about golf. Discuss golf here, and/or if you play, how you play, whatever. EDIT: Eh, I don't mind, but.... I guess... keep it more on the subject of the game itself...not the last time you went to Putt-Putt and got a hole-in-one past the elephant, windmill, and waterfall. I don't want the thread to turn into "Hittin' Putt-Putt Golf & Games."
I started when I was around 12 years old. I wasn't the longest of hitters, but I was consistent, which is a quality I've lost since I haven't played a course since that age (I'm 19 now).
I've recently taken it up again, bought some Knight clubs from a quality pawn shop just so I could get back into it. I've been going to the driving range to gain my consistency back, and for the most part, I have.
My swing type is what people would label as "old school," that being turning the hips a lot with my shoulders being turned 90º (back facing target at the apex). I can't stand the current swing type that the media tries to push on you because "everyone on tour is doing it!!!! So should you," which is basically zero hip turn and a "torsion" swing, you could say (twisting the shoulders a lot almost unnaturally to make resistance with your lower body, then releasing it...basically like the same mechanics as a trebuchet). I hold the club with an interlocking grip: interlocking the right pinky with your left index finger. It feels natural and feels like one nice, tight unit of both my hands. I hate the 10 finger baseball grip, and the overlapping grip isn't for me. I'm also a right-handed player.
My clubs consist of: Driver, 3 & 5 fairway woods, 3 iron hybrid "rescue" club (same loft as the same iron, but shaped like a wood), 4 thru 9 iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and of course, a putter.
Within the second day of going to the range, I'd gotten my consistency back. With a driver, I can drive the ball 300-325 yards (driving range's last sign is 300 yards, then about 25-30 yards past that is treeline), but I consistently hit 295-305 yards with a slight draw when I want to keep in tempo and not kill the ball. Long iron game is the weakest link so far, but I'm getting better. Short irons are just fine, high trajectory, the draw straightens out the shorter the club is. Chipping is very nice (range has "greens" with flagsticks peppered throughout it), and I can apply plenty of backspin so I tend to try and overshoot the flagstick a bit and let it bite & roll back. Putting is very nice. I can typically hole putts within 20 feet, but past that it gets bad (the range has two greens with multiple holes in them... they're very slow greens [and out of shape, too...dead grass, mowed unevenly]).
Catastrophic: So, I let my friend try and get into golf and use my clubs- big mistake. He played ice hockey in school when he lived in Iowa when he was younger, and that's how he swings the clubs... always trying to slapshot the [darn] thing and his hands are placed almost in the same fashion as a Happy Gilmore putt, if you've ever seen the movie. He doesn't keep his left arm straight and at the top of the swing, he turns it into a baseball swing. Doing that crap, he has put a crack in the top of my driver right above the clubface and didn't tell me about it. Now, I have tons of scratches on top of it and the crack has totally changed the sound of the driver upon impact; it sounds like a friggin' tin can and I can't drive the ball into the air now. It will always mow grass for about 80 yards or it'll take a super low trajectory... maybe 25 feet in the air and land at around 230-250 with a huge hook (I was slicing a bit my first couple days, so hooking out of nowhere was very strange). To see if I was just sucking, I hit my other clubs and I did just fine with them, so I know it's the driver. To remedy this, I'm gonna buy an '09 Taylormade Burner in the near future.... lighter, stiffer shaft, more streamlined head, and no draw bias (who needs draw bias... come on, just stop slicing), and slowly outfit my whole golfbag to Taylormade clubs.
Hopefully, once I get my consistency on lock-down, I'll be able to visit some courses and see how I do. I predict, with a 7 year break in my game, that I'll shoot....hmm, maybe high 80s (par being 72).
EDIT: Oh yeah, this is a video link to the "Hammer X," the most gimmicky driver (and one that would be illegal for use in virtually all golf tournaments, etc.) ever created claiming a 50 yard increase in your drive and automatic slice/hook elimination, no matter what. The creator of it, Jack Hamm, screams something every time he hits the ball, be it "POOWWW!!!!", "WAAAM!!!", "BOOOM BABY!!!", or "RAAAAAAARGH!!" He is credited as the longest driver in the word (473 yards) and fastest swinger (162MPH clubhead speed), but that is incorrect because Jason Zuback held (still holds) the record at 557 yards (and a 204MPH clubhead speed) before Jack Hamm was even heard of anyway. Anyway, from the beginning to 0:46 is the most hilarious part with him screaming, and the rest is the stupid announcer sounding like he's talking about the newest, coolest board game for kids which is also hilarious. I believe 0:43-0:46 is the funniest yell of the video (also featuring a Mario Golf-esque trail behind the ball to show how 'badass' he is and how far his ball is really going).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg0ef3VN3DA Watch in high quality haha.
"The Hammer Eeeeeeeeeeeeeex"
"DEAD SOLID HITTING Zooooooooooooooone."
