Joe,
Are balls retrieved from water hazards as good as new balls?
Will
Hi Will,
I read somewhere that testing showed the “pond” balls travel only a few yards less than new balls on the average. What these tests did not say is how many yards does any ball lose after it has been used for awhile, even without being in a pond. My guess is that the more a ball is used, the less distance it will travel anyway, pond or no pond. If you have a lot of money, and you want every single yard possible, use new balls. If you are like most people who want to save money, you might choose to use “experienced” balls that you find for free and live with the loss of a few yards, and save some new balls for longest drive contests.
Joe
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Joe,
Thankyou for your wonderful tips. let me tell you that i am a girl playing golf since six months and has a 24 handicap. my game was going fine till 4 and a half months but now i can't see any improvment in my game rather it is becoming worse than before. pl. can you tell me the reason for this?
pal
Hello Pal,
If you have only been playing for 6 months, and your handicap indicates you can already break 100, then you have already achieved more improvement than most beginners. However, I like your attitude that you are not satisfied and you want to improve more. Most golfers go thru periods of non-improvement, and part of this is due to slumps (read Sam’s question from yesterday). If you want to improve more, ask yourself the following questions, and if any answer is NO, then work on that part of the game until the answer is YES. Do you make more short putts than you miss? Do you lag more long putts to within 3 feet than not? Do you get more chip shots within 10 feet than not? Do you get more pitch shots within 20 feet than not? Do you get more greenside bunker shots within 20 feet than not? Do you hit more greens with short irons than not? With longer clubs do you get within chipping distance more often than not? Do you keep your drives in the fairway more often than not? Aside from this, you can lower your handicap to 18 if you can bogey every hole, so keep track of every reason that you happen to score worse than bogey on any hole, and then work to eliminate those specific reasons. Good luck!
Joe
Thankyou for your wonderful tips. let me tell you that i am a girl playing golf since six months and has a 24 handicap. my game was going fine till 4 and a half months but now i can't see any improvment in my game rather it is becoming worse than before. pl. can you tell me the reason for this?
pal
Hello Pal,
If you have only been playing for 6 months, and your handicap indicates you can already break 100, then you have already achieved more improvement than most beginners. However, I like your attitude that you are not satisfied and you want to improve more. Most golfers go thru periods of non-improvement, and part of this is due to slumps (read Sam’s question from yesterday). If you want to improve more, ask yourself the following questions, and if any answer is NO, then work on that part of the game until the answer is YES. Do you make more short putts than you miss? Do you lag more long putts to within 3 feet than not? Do you get more chip shots within 10 feet than not? Do you get more pitch shots within 20 feet than not? Do you get more greenside bunker shots within 20 feet than not? Do you hit more greens with short irons than not? With longer clubs do you get within chipping distance more often than not? Do you keep your drives in the fairway more often than not? Aside from this, you can lower your handicap to 18 if you can bogey every hole, so keep track of every reason that you happen to score worse than bogey on any hole, and then work to eliminate those specific reasons. Good luck!
Joe
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Joe,
What causes slumps and how can we avoid them?
Sam
Hello Sam,To execute a golf swing, your body uses hundreds of different muscles of varying sizes and shapes, all trying to work together at the same time. Every day, each one of these muscles gets stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, in different combinations, depending on how you use them in your daily activities. On any given day, some of these muscles will have a greater or lesser effect on your swing without you realizing it. Trying to make all these muscles work together with precise timing and direction while they are all forever changing in size and strength is a never ending battle. Nobody can ever avoid slumps entirely, everybody gets them, but you can reduce their frequency and their severity by adopting a daily exercise routine to strengthen certain muscles, and to induce “motor muscle memory”. You have to train your swing muscles to behave in a consistent manner. Consider the right handed golf pros who know all the right moves. Does that mean they can play the game just as well left handed? No? Why not, they know all the right moves, don’t they? Realistically, knowing the right moves is not enough, you have to practice them in order to execute them consistently. The more you practice the right moves, the better you get. This goes for everything in life, not just golf. While inducing motor muscle memory, make sure you are training you muscles with the CORRECT moves, because if you induce incorrect moves, they will be much harder to “undo” once your muscles are trained to behave that way.
Joe
What causes slumps and how can we avoid them?
Sam
Hello Sam,To execute a golf swing, your body uses hundreds of different muscles of varying sizes and shapes, all trying to work together at the same time. Every day, each one of these muscles gets stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, in different combinations, depending on how you use them in your daily activities. On any given day, some of these muscles will have a greater or lesser effect on your swing without you realizing it. Trying to make all these muscles work together with precise timing and direction while they are all forever changing in size and strength is a never ending battle. Nobody can ever avoid slumps entirely, everybody gets them, but you can reduce their frequency and their severity by adopting a daily exercise routine to strengthen certain muscles, and to induce “motor muscle memory”. You have to train your swing muscles to behave in a consistent manner. Consider the right handed golf pros who know all the right moves. Does that mean they can play the game just as well left handed? No? Why not, they know all the right moves, don’t they? Realistically, knowing the right moves is not enough, you have to practice them in order to execute them consistently. The more you practice the right moves, the better you get. This goes for everything in life, not just golf. While inducing motor muscle memory, make sure you are training you muscles with the CORRECT moves, because if you induce incorrect moves, they will be much harder to “undo” once your muscles are trained to behave that way.
Joe
