Hey Lucky - why do you need golf? You should be practicing football (for those who may wonder, that's actual football, not American). Your team just won the Africa Cup another time, while I never heard of any Egyptian golfers

Hey it's nice to see someone not Arab/Middle Eastern/African following the African Cup of Nations. It was a great win and the festivals all night in the street were even greater.

But that's all about it. I watch important football (soccer for Americans) games, like matches where our team play, or the World Cup and the Euro tournament, other than that I am not interested. I don't watch any leagues, or that UEFA Champion's League everybody is always excited about.

I do play football from time to time, last time was yesterday evening but I played like **** mostly because it has been more than 3 months since I have last touched a ball.

Right now I prefer to keep my ass on the course and practice my swings. Football is just not for me.

I would never claim to be a golf pro but I do know this. There is a HUGE difference between going to the driving range and playing on the course. I have learned that the hard way I think the hardest thing, honestly, is jut being consistent. It is so easy and frustrating to have a bad day on the course right after having a great round the week before. Stick with golf, my uncle played pro soccer for Portugal and he loved it, but I think you'll be able to play golf longer than football

Another game today, was amazing. I finally learned how to do the drive!!

Bandgirl, do you have an idea how the handicap system works?
I understand it's a system that determines how good you play, but I have no idea how it works.

I believe it's computed using your score (how far over/under par), greens in regulation, fairways hit, etc. I think that it's also averaged over several rounds. Other than that I have no idea how exactly it's calculated.

Here's an interesting link:

http://golf.about.com/cs/handicapping/a/howcalculated.htm

That link is a good one To be honest, I don't know it very well. I think Pittsmoker has it about right but I am still learning myself so I am still working on honing my skills before I try and figure out how bad I really am!

A handicap takes into account your score in relation to course difficulty (course rating and slope rating). It completely ignores greens in regulation, driving accuracy, etc. It takes the top 10 of your latest 20 rounds based on its formula. For instance. You shoot 100 on a course with a course rating of 73 (par doesn't matter) and a slope rating of 130. An approximation would be (100-73)/1.3. Its actually a little different than that simple equation. The idea is to equalize your scores over time and adjusting for course difficlulty (a 100 at Augusta National is different than a 100 at your local muni...Augusta is a more challenging course).

To use the system...you have two players who want to play for money, but have different abilities. They would play to the difference of their respective handicaps. If I'm a 15 and the above guy is a 21, then I'm "giving" him 6 strokes per round (stroke play)or one stroke on each of the 6 hardest holes (match play). I conceivably could play Tiger Woods at my club this way and "win" as long as I scored closer to him than the difference of our handicaps (Tiger would be -7, lol).

Because its the best 10 of your latest 20, if there is a big difference between these and your second 10, you have a lower chance of playing to your handicap and are more likely to lose than the guy who shoots the same score every time out. This is my problem. Too inconsistent.

O Man, thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. It's a very mind boggling thing. I'll just wait till my instructor practically explains it.

Went again today, played 12 holes with a friend. I won one hole, tied in two, and lost the rest

I don't know if the way we count the score is correct or not, but we count every stroke we play till the ball reaches the hole. Meaning, if I can get the ball in a less number of strokes than my opponent, I win the hole. Then we count the total number of strokes for all holes. I finished the 12 holes lagging by 12 strokes.

I can manage doing the drive and playing with the irons, but once the ball nears the green, I start screwing. I suck at playing with the P and S clubs, and of course putting is my worst skill.

I will go tomorrow and practice putting in the putting practice area, it's an area of green with several holes where you practice your putts. I won't do anything but putts tomorrow.

that is the basics of it There is a bunch of other things like dropping your ball in the water, losing your ball, etc. but I am sure having your teacher tell you might help while you are actually there to practice. WE have putting greens here too Don't move your wrists

"driving is for show...putting is for dough..."


on and around the greens is where skill and imagination come in...of course, if you can't hit a straight drive or iron shot, it may not matter.

Now that is the truth!! I won't be playing for money any time soon Booze, cigars and fun. That I can play for. lol!

Guys I have noticed something. On the first holes I really suck, I can't even do a correct drive, but on the third or fourth hole I start doing better, also I noticed that I can NEVER do a correct drive or even a swing if someone is talking in the background or if there is noise of any kind.

Do you feel the same??