Shell Houston Open and learning to play

ill be there friday...driving in from austin for the rockets game...got some passes friday, i play golf here and there, i still suck or at least am not consistent. Ive learned from my dad telling me what to do and a lesson herer or there, but if ur serious about learning look into lessons. practice is key and getting on the golf course is a necessity

 

Learned to play at Country Campus in Riverside (north of Huntsville). It was a cow pasture that was converted into a golf course. Definitely a POS...but I must have hawked a million balls from the surrounding cow pastures. My friend and I first played there and had no idea what we were doing. There was a 90 yard par 3 that we whipped out woods and fired away. We had no clue that we should have been using a wedge. Fun times!!! And not to mention when the cows broke through the fence and moved onto the course.

 

I won't be going to the SHO, but I've been in the past when it was at the woodlands and damn it was fun.

I don't play golf, but I love to go to the driving range. Never had a formal lesson and it shows, but damn, I love to get out there and whack that ball! It really is relaxing!

 

I learned to play when was little but can give you a few pieces of advice.


1) get some decent clubs if you dont have them already. Can be very cheap but make sure thay they are not some old school (blades - back of club is not recessed) hand me downs with small clubheads. These are hard to hit even by good players.

2) Dont bother with woods or long irons untill you can hit mid-short irons. Whatever do dont mess with a driver

3) find a really cheap range and start beating balls.

4) dont go play a round untill you can somewhat hit the ball. If you go to a course right away you will likely get really pissed off.

5) if you are really interested in playing get some lessons. Be sure to ask around for a good teaching pro because there are some really medocre ones out there.

6) I find its really hard to learn a swing from books but you may not.

 

My Dad taught me how to play as a teen. I gave it up because it wasn't "cool". Then I picked it up again in college. When I went to UTSA I lived across the street from a municipal that was rated as one of the 50 best places "you can play". They had a deal where students could pay $5.00 after 4 to walk and play as long as they could. In San Antonio that was sometimes until 8:45. Played everyday for that summer and got my handicap down to single digits. It has inflated since then...

Went to the SHO last year and followed my hero PDM. Got so close to him and Bones at points that I was concerned for their safety. Some nut could have done anything they wanted to them.
It surprises me how lax security is at the golf tournaments.

Going again this year.
I have a connection that gets me free sponsor parking and gallery passes for everyday of the SHO.


Haven't played in several weeks.

 

I didn't take lesson until long after starting to play the game and I regret it. I've gotten into some habits that are hard to break.

 

It easy to learn how to play for fun. Not so easy to play for real. I really busted my ass practicing for a whole year. I had weekly leasons, went to the range everyday and played at least two to three rounds a week. All that, and I could only get my handicap down to a 12. I got lucky once (chipped in for a bird on the 18th) for a 79. My personal best. Now I just play for fun. I usually shoot around 90 and if I get lucky I can put up an 85. The thing is I know I'm not gonna be a single digit player. It's a nice way to get away from the family for 5 hours and get outside. And by the way, don't worry if you can score as well as the people you play with. As long as you are not holding up the group, no one else is gonna care what you shoot. One of my favorite golfing partners regularly scores 110 or higher but he keeps the pace of play. He is always ready hit his shot in his turn, doesn't try read the greens like his life depends on him making the putt, and he always replaces divots, fixes his ball marks and rakes the traps.

 

the field absolutely stinks this year for the SHO

not worth the money at all, who wants to go watch a bunch of no names?

 

I worked as a pro shop pro for 5 years and taught lots of beginners to get the ball in the air. Just beating balls won't do it,
two truisms about learning golf, feel is not real and practice makes permanent. If you just keep repeating a bad swing you won't get a good one and you may think your swing feels right but it may not be right.

To learn golf #1 - go buy Ben Hogan's Five Fundemetal Of Golf . It's around $15 new (probably a million of them on Ebay) and it's only around 100 pages. Read each chapter and then spend an hour or so with a golf club practicing what the chapter has to say. If at all possible practice in front of full lenght mirror.

#2 - go to the range and get a lesson. It should run around $50 for an hour. You can go cheaper in a group lesson. You'll hear the same stuff but just get less 1 on 1 attention. Many public golf courses offer begiining lessons for free. You should be able to make contact and get the ball in the air after the second lesson.

#3 Now you can beat balls, but your first couple of hours should be spent making half-speed swings with a 7 iron until you are making solid contact. If you can fly the ball 100 yards down the range consistantly, your ready to move to the full swing

#4 Get another lesson, if your in a group, they probably meet once a week so you should have gotten a few hours of practice in between. You should be familiar with the terms: grip,setup, take away,swing plane, holding the angle, inside/out path and releasing the club down the line. You need to do all of those things to make an effective golf swing.

#5 now your are ready to make full swings practicing. Hit 5 or 10 balls with each club starting with the pitching wedge and moving down 9,8,7,6, etc.

#6 In ayour group your lessons you should include on week on chipping and one week on putting. Once you start to play the game you will find that they are equally important to your full swing shots but nobody ever spends enough time practicing their short game.

#7 buy and read a USGA rule book, casual players take all kinds of liberties with the rules but if you want to be able to play with a group of people you at least need to know what the rules are.

Golf is very hard game to play well. 90% of all people who play won't break 100 if they actually play by the rules. Most people who start playing golf give it up, primarily because they are embarrassed and frustrated. I used to tell people that they needed to spend about 40 hours learning how to play golf before they ever step on a golf course but they never do.

The most common errors of beginning golfers are; holding the club in the hands not the fingers, picking the club up instead of rotating away, coming over the top (outside of the swing plane on the first move down) and casting (letting the hands release before contact)

Good luck, don't give up on it too easily.

 

Yeah, but you got to remember the hot chick spectator factor.

 

I'll be there for my 16th straight Thursday. I plan to walk with Couples followed by Daly in the morning and Hank Kuhne in the afternoon; cause chicks dig the long ball.

(dude, does anybody actually pay to go to the SHO? Free hookups are everywhere)

 

Ha! We used to play there when I went to SHSU way back when. It sure is a POS golf course, but we had fun.

One of my buddies hit a ball over the barbed wire fence where the cows were grazing. He went to get it and a Bull started charging at him (must have been mating season)

 

As for predictions: Fred Couples to repeat

 

preach on my brotha...

 

Sounds like once of the places is played in undergrad. Battle Lake in Waco.

The worst course i think i have ever played is San Jac in Pasadena. I actually live on a couse that looks almost a crappy as that, here in Baton Rouge, but have never gotten around to playing it.

 

What about Vijay?

and

KJ Choi?

 

OK, since I picked the Masters, I'll go out on another limb...

The Winner of the 2004 Shell Houston Open will be one of the following (hey I can't decide, OK?):

Vijay Singh
Stuart Appelby
Jeff Maggert

 

I too used to play that course when I was at SHSU! But the main reason we played there was for the cow pastures!

shrooms you know...

 

there are only 3 of the top 25 golfers here


and none of them are named Tiger, Ernie or Phil