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Hope this is ok in this forum.
Figured we could talk golf, either pro tour or our own games.
I need help.

I keep tugging my wedges and 8-iron. ( strangely, not my 9-iron).
Y'all know the most common causes?

They aren't severe pulls, but I'm off target by several yards, quite often.

Ok, here's a story.

The most amazing golf shots I ever saw live in person, were when I took my wife golfing for her very first time.

She legitimately parred a Par 3 hole.

She got a piece of her tee shot, hitting it to the edge of the green. She used a putter for her second shot (from maybe ~ 40 feet) and hit the ball within a foot of the hole and sank the short putt.

I immediately thought she was some sort of "golf natural".

But, she never, ever came close to parring another hole in her life. (not with me anyway)

One of my favorite golf memories:

I was caddying for my grandpa (I was about 10 years old), which we had a tradition of doing about once per week. He was a pretty serious golfer, and I just enjoyed the time with him, the views, and the snacks.

Anyways, we were on hole #14 of our local club (about a 520 yard par 5). He hits a nice drive about 275 yards down the center of the fairway, takes out his 3 wood and goes for the green. Makes contact, but we lose the ball in the sun on the horizon (it was nearly dusk). We searched for what seemed like 20 minutes. Couldn't find the ball anywhere. He didn't want to just drop one because he wanted to try for a legit birdie.

Finally, on a whim, I joked and said "let me check the hole." ... and there it was. His ball. A double eagle. We celebrated like it was for the Masters. One of my favorite memories with him.

Try playing the ball just a bit back in your stance from the current position you play now. This is an on course fix that will bring you in contact with the ball just a bit sooner preventing you from closing the club face too soon, on the range work on swinging down your target line with alignment sticks or two clubs acting as the alignment sticks.

Heheh ... my roommate took me out to a driving range when I was in college, and I'm not sure I had picked up anything more than a mini-golf putter at the time. We got something like a 5 iron and a few bucket of balls. I put them up on the rubber tee and just kept crushing them, one right after another, straight down the range. He looked at me, almost with disgust and said, "Are you SURE you've never played before??"

So the next day he took me out to the course itself, and by the third hole I was already playing off the second fairway that didn't belong to the hole I was playing. He was like ... "Yeah, you were right, you've definitely never played before", looking like he was going to be in for a long day of finding balls in weeds.

One of Connecticut’s premier sporting events - Traveler’s Championship at the TPC River Highlands course in Cromwell Connecticut starts in less than a week. (August 1-7). The tourney is about ~ 4 miles from my apartment.

It was originally in Hartford and known as The Insurance City Open. Then moved to Wethersfield, CT and was The Sammy Davis, Jr. Greater Hartford Open.



From 1989 to 2002 it was called the Canon GHO. Then for two years the Buick open. Finally in 2007 it was renamed The Traveler’s Championship.

I’ve gone to the tourney 3 times in my 35 years in CT.

My favorite tourney moment was following a golfer named Lance Ten Broeck because he had a wacky caddie who looked like a guru and would do a dance when Ten Brock made a good shot.



Now, from my 5th floor apartment, I have a great view across the Connecticut River valley over which the MetLife blimp sails back and forth during the tournament.



I’ii watch the Traveler’s on my TV and occasionally look out at the Blimp’s progress.

It’s like being there (without all the hot walking, crowds, and over-priced everything)

By the way, my 2016 Olympic golf hero Bubba Watson (the defending Traveler's Champion) will be in town for the tourney before heading to Rio to represent this great nation of ours.

He looks like a young Bill Murray to me.

Have you ever had your clubs fitted for loft and lie? Or maybe if it was a long time ago you could get them refitted? I don't know how to explain the 9-iron thing but it's possible that, at impact with your short irons, the heel of your club is lower than the toe, thus it digs into the dirt first and turns the club face in your hand just a little.

I would get that checked before I started making swing adjustments... if you get that checked and it's all good, then what Tulsa said is where I would go next.

In the meantime, just try to lay up to 9-iron distance off the tee.

All good responses above worth trying.

Also, it could be that you are just slightly over-rotating your hips too soon, usually trying to get too much umph into the ball. Let your hands start to fall on your back swing a little bit more before adding your lower half for power.

I had the same issue and doing this worked wonders for my iron game.

Thanks DC, but I've used these clubs for a few years and never had the problem. I may try diehard's suggestion first. One thing I forget to add is usually when I tug those clubs, I'm not getting the ball as high in the air as I normally do. They're slightly lower in trajectory.

Round one of the Travelers Championship has begun

Boo Weekley - USA, Steve Marino - USA, Francesco Molinari - ITA teed off at 7 am.



From high upon my apartment perch, I can see across the Connecticut river valley. There's a thick shroud of fog above the river itself. The TPC River Highlands is ~ 100 yards from the river (11th, 12th and 13th holes). No MetLife blimp yet.

I’ll miss most of the morning’s action, but I’ll be home in time for returning Travelers Champion (and soon to be Olympian) Bubba’s tee off at 1:25 pm EST

Boo Weekly?

If he has a bad shot please don't Boo Weakly. Every year you should Boo Weekly. (what were his parents thinking?)

Hey Bubba, don't forget your 42 condoms when you head to Rio on Monday.

Oh...Angie's staying home?



Hey wait a minute...Bubba's 6'3"...Yikes... Umm... on second thought forget about the condoms and just win a Gold.

You ever been to a PGA event in person? It is a great time. You might want to consider going next year seeing you are pretty close. I just looked...a weekly grounds pass was $85. A daily $33. That gets you on the course and all public areas. If you want some sort of VIP deal, the costs go up.

Talkin' to me 'peen?

"You ever been..."

You missed one of my posts above which I will now generously share with you once again:

"I’ve gone to the tourney 3 times in my 35 years in CT.

My favorite tourney moment was following a golfer named Lance Ten Broeck because he had a wacky caddie who looked like a guru and would do a dance when Ten Broeck made a good shot."

It was a blast. I was with a group of ~ 20 "party fans" who followed Ten Broeck (an otherwise unexceptional PGA golfer - no PGA Tour wins).

Every decent shot he made we cheered like he had just eagled to win the Green Jacket. Fans at other nearby holes started wondering what was happening.

"He's on the final hole. He's about 455 yards away, he's gonna hit a 2 iron I think...IT'S IN THE HOLE!"

- Carl Spackler Caddyshack

I've been to a couple US Opens, a President's cup, and a number of Kemper Opens when they used to be at Congressional.. my favorite moment was standing behind the practice tee at Congressional many years ago as play was winding down for the day. We were only about 15 feet behind where Curtis Strange was hitting his post-round practice shots. He had a 6-iron and he hit about 10-12 shots with it. Each one was identical, same trajectory, same little draw, I swear if there had been a hula hoop out in the range, every one of them would have landed in it. I stood there and watched his consistency with amazement... after about the 12th near perfect 6-iron, he picked up the club over his head, looked at his caddie, slammed the golf club to the ground and said, "I don't know what the F*** I'm doing wrong."

only if i really did - lol

Maybe he was aiming the opposite direction.

Cool, I missed that. Then you know, it is a great time and atmosphere.

Here's a picture of the MetLife blimp I took from my deck in 2015.

Pretty cool huh?

I took it with my 35 mm disposable Walmart camera. The view is directly east over the Connecticut River Valley.

You can easily see the blimp with the naked eye. But with this photo you can barely make out a white oblong dot (the blimp) centered directly in the middle of photo.

furyk shoots a 58 today! wow thats impressive

58?

I've never heard that golf score before. Not for 18 holes.

he was 11 under through 13

Wow! That's an average score of 3.22 shots per hole.

i cant do it at putt putt haha

It's been done before but not on the PGA tour officially. So now we have Mr. 58. Now he didn't shoot the lowest round ever on the PGA, that still belongs to Mr. 59, Al Geiberger. Furyk's 58 was -12 on a par 70, Geiberger's 59 was -13 on a par 72.

That just means Geiberger had more par 5s which are usually the easiest birdie (or eagle) holes on the course.

Geiberger did it in the 70's playing practically with featheries.

And the course was 6300 yards.

All they had was bullseye putters.

They were playing lift, clean, and place that day.

That only means the course was sloppy, not the dart board they carved up for the tour this week.

Furyk also shot a 59 at the BMW Championship a few years back.

The course wasn't sloppy, the low lying areas in front of the tees that are essentially out of play were sloppy, the course was fine. And oh by the way, he had a Ping Pal putter, not a bullseye.

His woods were really wood and all the shafts were steel. You could knock the balls out of round. What's worse though, he had to play with people wearing golf pants of the 70's. Who could concentrate with that going on? Players today have it so easy and still they can't go as low as Geiberger.

I can't top the pants thing.. you win.

Serious butt-whoopin so far in the Ryder Cup.

Hope the Stars and Stripes can keep it up in the afternoon.

Anybody catch this from yesterday? Mcilroy and some other guy having trouble making a putt. A heckler yells "I could make it"........They bring him out, 1 guy even lays down a $100 bill.

And the guy makes it from where the pro golfers couldn't.

Fun video.

Seen this, Had that been me, I would have curled the cup aand looked like an idiot.

You might have curled the cup, but you already look like a idiot!;)

Patrick Reed Leads Americans to 3-Point Lead Entering Sunday Singles



by Alan Shipnuck
Posted: Sat Oct. 1, 2016Install App




CHASKA, Minn.—Patrick Reed roared. Davis Love III doubled down twice…and came up aces. Lee Westwood got yippy, Rory McIlroy got chippy and Phil Mickelson played his way back from the brink yet again. And now, at the end of a thrilling second day of the 41st Ryder Cup, the U.S. holds a 9½ -6½ lead. Having lost three Cups in a row, six of the last seven and eight of the last 10, the Americans are on the brink of a cathartic victory, which would cap two angst-filled years that featured an unprecedented level of preparation. And yet, having presided over a blown 10-6 lead in 2012 during his first stint as U.S. captain, Love knows the hardest day of golf is still to come. "It's been a heckuva couple of days, and I'm really proud of my team," Love said on Saturday evening. "But if anyone thinks this thing is over, they're crazy."


After losing the morning foursomes 2½-1½, the U.S. rallied to take three of the four afternoon four-balls in a wild session that produced 64 birdies and three eagles. The star of the show was Reed, who in only his second Ryder Cup has already emerged as the heart and soul of the American side. Playing alongside a spent Jordan Spieth, Reed lit up Hazeltine National in a performance that was equal parts dazzling golf and over-the-top showmanship. One down after four holes to the formidable team of Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, Reed single-handedly won the next four holes, the highlight coming on the par-5 6th when he jarred his third shot for a walk-off eagle. Every act of heroism by Reed was followed by histrionics that left Spieth shaking his head and laughing and whipped the massive galleries into a tizzy. Reed may be a goofball, and at times an irritant, but you gotta love the brio with which he plays. Rose and Stenson won 12 and 13 with birdies to claw back to one down but Reed was unrelenting, taking the next two holes with birdies of his own. After the 2 and 1 victory, Spieth relived one moment among many: "We were both screaming. That's how cool it was. I screamed, ‘Let's go, Patrick!' I don't know what he screamed at that point. He did his signature whatever it was that he's been doing, the let's-go fist-pump. What a performance it was. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to be a part of that team."



In a bang-bang finish you could feel in your gut, the U.S. picked up two more points when Mickelson finished off his star-turn and then minutes later Lee Westwood blew his second straight short putt for a one-point swing that sent the U.S. into the night with a ton of momentum. "I do believe that what happens at the end of the day has extra importance," said Love, standing behind the 18th green in a golden twilight. "It certainly sets the tone for the rest of the evening and can give you a spark. Put it this way: I think our dinner is going to taste a little better than theirs."


For Love, the events of the afternoon validated a series of risky decisions. The second-guessing began at 7:35 a.m., when Mickelson went out in the day's first match alongside Rickie Fowler, even though Phil couldn't keep the ball on the planet the day before in the same format and he and Fowler had been very, very lucky to escape with a win. (What's more, Dustin Johnson was riding the pine, even though his long, straight drives can be a massive game-changer.) This time, against Europe's new dream team of McIlroy and Thomas Pieters, Mickelson and his little buddy never led while getting demolished 4 and 2. McIlroy has been a revelation at this Ryder Cup, with macho golf and in-your-face emoting. Once again there is no disputing who is the sport's alpha male; Johnson and Jason Day have nearly as much game but nothing like Rory's force of personality. As for why Mickelson was sent out in a format for which he is ill-suited, Love said, "I didn't do that for Phil. That wasn't a gift to him. I truly believed they would win. You saw me talking to [Bob] Rotella; he's here for a reason. He and Tiger both keep telling me, ‘You gotta go with your gut.' I felt like Phil would bring it."





He didn't, and the ensuing two morning matches were split, as Rose displayed tremendous leadership and typically stout golf in shepherding rookie Chris Wood to a victory over Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker, two major championship winners who didn't really play like it. The revelation in the other match was U.S. rookie Brooks Koepka, who teamed with Brandt Snedeker for a wildly entertaining 3 and 2 victory over Stenson and baby-faced rookie Matthew Fitzpatrick, who played pretty well until suddenly he didn't. Koepka and his partner hit only three fairways, but they never trailed thanks to a palpable chemistry and mad scrambling. "We both had a little inner Seve today," said Snedeker. Koepka's smashmouth golf led to four straight birdies to close out the match, and the dagger was his big-breaking 25-foot putt on 15 to push the lead to two up, leading Snedeker to say, "I can't tell you how good that was. It was unbelievable stuff. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. He's got no fear out there. My job is to make him comfortable, keep him loose, make some putts every once in a while. We had a lot of fun."


It looked certain that the U.S. would earn a split of the foursomes and maintain its two-point lead as in the anchor match Reed and Spieth birdied five of the first seven holes and cruised to a four-up lead through 12 over the neo-Spanish armada of Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrero-Bello. But the Americans bogeyed three straight holes, losing two of them, to let their opponents back into the match, and then Garcia and the notorious RCB produced outrageously clutch birdies on 16 and 17 to square the match. Tense pars at the last led to a halved match, allowing Europe to steal a half point and draw to within 6½-5½. The Europeans swarmed the 18th green to celebrate as if the Spaniards had won the match outright. Fitzpatrick gave Garcia a bro hug and yelled in his ear, "That was f------ special!"


Said Garcia, "I had to take a ton of breaths on 17 and 18 because the emotions were so high. All credit to my partner. First Ryder Cup and he reminds me of a little Spanish guy of a few years ago."


Photo: Robert Beck
Patrick Reed made six birdies and an eagle during the afternoon four-ball session Saturday.



Added Cabrera-Bello, "I've really been loving the Ryder Cup experience. I normally get chicken-skin on the last few holes if I'm in contention. Here I get it pretty much on every walk from green to tee, on every hole, on every putt, and it's extremely exciting."


For the afternoon four-balls Love again made a series of high-risk moves. He benched Snedeker and his 2-0 record, sending out Koepka with Dustin Johnson in the first match against another pair of titanium-denting ball-bashers, McIlroy and Pieters. In this match 320-yard drives were greeted with shrugs. A 356-yard bomb, like DJ uncorked on the 7th hole, barely rated a fist bump. The 382-yard missile that McIlroy launched on 14? Yeah, that was O.K. In the face of relentless and sometimes profane heckling, McIlroy's gestures to the crowd took on an angry, badass edge. His laconic opponents simply couldn't match his intensity, falling four down after 10 holes. Rory ran out of gas late in the match, but Pieters, continuing his hugely impressive Ryder Cup debut, closed things out with a birdie on 17 to run his record to 3-0 playing alongside McIlroy.


In the second match Love sent out two of his weakest performers from Friday, captain's picks J.B. Holmes and Ryan Moore, against two struggling Englishmen, Westwood and Danny Willett. Clarke was captaining with his heart, not his head, as Westwood is his longtime best friend, but his afflicted short game makes him a liability. Love understands the impulse; he had considered benching Holmes and Moore but allowed, "It would've been really hard to sit J.B. and Ryan because I picked them."


Moore was a non-factor for most of the match, but Holmes kept the U.S. in it with six birdies over the first 13 holes and another at the par-5 16th, neutralizing Westwood's uncharacteristically hot putting and some timely play from Willett. The finish was highly nervy, four wounded players just trying to hold on. Moore showed up when the U.S. needed him most, hitting a gorgeous seven-iron over the flag at the par-3 17th after Holmes had rinsed his tee shot. After Moore's conceded par, Willett and Westwood both crumbled, making soft bogeys from the edge of the green to fall one down. They each had downhill birdie putts at 18 to square the match and claim a crucial half-point, but Willett missed from 10 feet and Westwood's three-footer never had a chance. "I haven't had that kind of pressure before," Moore said of what he faced on the 17th tee. "You want to do it so bad, but not only for yourself—for your partner, your captain, your whole team, the crowds here and everyone at home watching. That was pretty sweet, I gotta say."


Sending Mickelson back out in the third match was Love's boldest decision, though given Phil's status as a de facto playing captain maybe Davis didn't have any choice. Paired against Garcia and a woebegone Martin Kaymer, Kuchar carried his shaky partner in the early going, but Phil the Thrill eventually warmed to the fight, making a bomb on 10 to put the U.S. two up and then finishing off the match with three birdies on the final four holes. "He is the leader of this team," Spieth said, matter-of-factly.



And so the task facing Europe is immense. Its four top players —McIlroy, Stenson, Rose and Garcia—have each played four intense matches, while three others less talented Europeans have played only once, including poor Andy Sullivan, who has been benched since Friday morning. The potential veteran stalwarts Westwood and Kaymer are a combined 0-5. Meanwhile, every American has put at least one point on the board, and only Reed and Spieth have played four matches. The U.S. team is deeper, playing with more freedom and has never been more motivated. It seems hopeless for Europe, doesn't it? Vice captain Ian Poulter was presented with this dire outlook on Saturday evening and he recoiled with disgust. "I have one word for you," Poulter said. "Medinah."


That was the site of Europe's comeback four years ago, from a 10-6 deficit. But that was a stronger, more experienced team. For the Europeans, it will take a monumental effort if they are to somehow extend the U.S.'s misery.

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/ry...heading-sunday

Reed's been fun to watch