Archive for May, 2006

Friend have to play the round with their pants down? Get a hole in one on the wrong hole? Play any good golf practical jokes?

These are the stories we, and your fellow readers, want to hear. Getting to Scratch is opening up a new category. Its Golf Stories category. We would like to encourage our readers to put your thinking caps on and think back to some of your best golf stories. These can be from any course, any time, and any situation. Just try and be somewhat believable.

Submit your golf stories to us by writing directly into our contact form or copying and pasting from a word processor into our form. Feel free to add you name, your email address(we won’t post it unless you request it), or a link to your website. Also if you would not like us to use any of your contact information please note that in the body of the contact form where you are putting your story. You can say it at the beginning or end. Again we won’t post your email unless you request it.

So have at it and show us the wordsmith inside of you.

In order for you to get a USGA sanctioned golf handicap you need to belong to a golf club of at least 10 people and you have to have a handicapping committee. Your club doesn’t necessarily need to be stationed at a golf course, it could be run out of your basement, so long as there are 10 people in it and you have a handicapping system.

You do need to follow all the USGA rules, belong to the USGA, and obey all of the guidelines that are set forth by the USGA. This can be difficult for groups that are trying to set up their club not at a full-time golf center (even though your media center TV may be set on the Golf Channel.)

Once you have your golf club that you are going to get your handicap from you need to focus on only a few things. One play golf and play golf regularly.

Once you begin doing that your handicap will actually mean something. At the end of each round you will turnover a signed scorecard (playing by yourself might not get you a legal score depending on your club.) Once you turn in 5 scorecards you can start to get a handicap. Once you play ten times your handicap is a true handicap. Then finally when you play 20 times from then on your best 10 scores out of the previous 20 times out on a course will be averaged and that will be your handicap index.

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That easy. Feel free to use the Contact Form if you want more information or want to submit your posting that way. Also if you want to become a permanent blogger for Getting to ScratchÂ

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Long and Soft Maxfli Noodle golf balls are quickly becoming a favorite among recreational golfers as well as more seasoned golfers.Their extra distance and soft feel make them a good fit for golfers looking for extra roll and distance off the tee and the feel around the green to create ball movement and spin.

Where do you get such great golf balls and how do you find a deal on them. Where else but Wal-Mart. They sell 24 Maxfli Noodle golf balls practice, xout, and overruns, for $12. That’s 50 cents for a great ball that, as mentioned, is becoming one of the best balls out there.

There is no difference between these and the real balls except for the look of the ball. If look isn’t going to bother your game and you can make it out to Wal-Mart we suggest picking up a box.

The ball features a low compression core providing low spin off the driver helping provide that extra distance. The Suryln cover provides a soft feel to a ball that has a core giving the extra soft feel that noodle soft is known for. The 408-dimple pattern allows for a better control in the wind and better ball control in all conditions.

You did all that work, battle your slice on the drive, hit a low worm burning 3 iron from behind the big Willow tree, and used a funky 7 iron pitch to get within 10 feet of the hole. You have chance to save par but you have to remember to putt the ball.

To often during rounds golfers are so worried about their swing, the tempo, the take-away, the follow through, the distance, that they loose sight of where the real money is made. On the putting green.

“Drive for show, putt for dough,” as the saying goes.

Now this holds true on an off the course. When you go to the driving range you may feel you have some self control because you don’t bring all your clubs to practice with. Instead you might bring your 7 iron and your driver and feel like you’re really practicing because you’re focusing on only two clubs. This isn’t a discredit towards you, just that you’re not practicing everything.

Along with those two clubs should be your putter. Nobody likes to practice putting, it’s boring and it takes to much time to putt three balls, retrieve and repeat. Why do that when you can just step up and smash balls at the driving range pulling from a bucket of 50 to 100 balls? Why? Because you “Drive for show and putt for dough.”

Another tough thing to overcome is the thought that while you’re putting you might feel as though you’re putting over the same line so really where is the practice. The practice is in your stroke. So many people think the putting stroke is too easy to require practice. But it’s not. What you want to do is eliminate the stroke variability from your putt so you just have tempo and read to worry about. That comes with practice. Hitting the ball on the same line every time is tough and if you can do that you’re doing something right.

Practicing putting just 10 minutes every time you are at the range or before a round can make a world of difference to your golf game. Why waste an extra stroke on every green when you have a chance to putt yourself into a par.

Have you ever heard someone watching golfers on the driving range say “Look at all the lumber jacks chopping wood.” Do you know why they say everyone looks like a lumber jack or like they’re chopping wood?

It’s because that’s what people look like. They’re using their arms to literally chop at the ball. Tightening their wrists, tensing their arms and swinging down at rather than through the ball.

The golf swing isn’t supposed to be tense or stressful on the arms, leave that for your mid-section and back. The arms are more or less along for the ride, swing as a pendulum would. Think of your arms as a string and wrists holding onto a your hands. If you were to swing that string around your body the string would go tense and the force felt at the hands is just that caused by the weight of your hands and the speed at which you swing the string. You don’t need to add force to make this happen.

That’s what you should feel like when you swing!

Now on to the wrist hinge. As you hold onto the golf club, your grip should be very loose. Just enough to keep the club from rotating in your hands, no more. Now think of that string again as you hold onto the club and your wrists should just go along for the ride. Keeping this in your mind as you take the club back you shouldn’t need to flex your wrists much as your bring the club to the top position, they’ll naturally flex.

Now when you bring them down, resist every temptation you have to tense your wrists. If you allow them to flex naturally and freely they’ll come back to square automatically. It’s physics my friend!:). As you continue through your swing don’t resist as you draw the club through. This is a big problem point where people will leave the club face open causing a slice. Keep your wrists loose and let them flex back and turn over. The club will come back around and might whack you in the back of the head but that just means you’re doing it right.

Just think loose, loose, loose.

In it’s simplest terms club shaft flex is the ease or amount which the shaft of the club bends when a given force is applied to it.

In more complex terms what that means for your swing is a change in accuracy, trajectory, distance, and getting the club face back around to square at impact. Shaft flex can affect all of these elements of your swing.

There are many different flexes that you can get for a golf club shaft but the main 5 are Extra Stiff, Stiff, Regular, Senior, and Ladies. Those flexes respectively go from stiff to flexible. Those ratings are also represented on most clubs by the letters X, S, R, A, and L, respectively.

As one would begin to swing a club from the top of their back swing down through the ball, a club with a more flexible shaft like a Ladies or Senior flexed shaft, the club head lags behind where the hands are in the swing plane because of the flex. Then as you come through the ball your hands and wrists will be ahead of the ball and the club head when it finally makes impact. This allows the club to have more of a whipping action to snap through the ball and also gives the club head more time to get around to square producing a straighter shot. (Note that is if you are unable to control your swing or if you have a slower swing.)

Check back for more on selecting a shaft flex that is right for you.

Golfsmith.com has Outlet Specials on clubs, apparel, shoes, bags, balls, and select accessories. Up to 60% off in some cases!Golfsmith.com is quickly becoming a leader in golfing and tennis merchandise online. They currently sponsor the Big Break put on by the Golf Channel. The post golf and tennis tips, news, and product reviews right on their site, GolfSmith.com. They offer hundreds of apparel items for men, women and children along with clubs, shoes, and bags at very competitive prices.

Golfsmith also has stores located throughout the United States and can be found at Golfsmith Store Locator. Check them out for your next golfing need.