Johnny Biarritz

Not an idiot. But I would recommend you go with someone who knows a little bit about clubs so the fitter doesn't try to upsell you into some really expensive stuff that you might not understand what he's doing. Getting clubs that are correct for you are important at any level. If you don't want to drop a huge amount on new clubs, copy down the specs that the fitter says you need and check out used club sites, the BST here, eBay, 2nd Swing, etc., and find clubs that generally meet those specs.

Without being there or seeing pictures, it's not possible to answer the question of whether the player should be entitled relief. If it does meet the definition, which I can't say whether it does or does not, then, of course, relief would be granted in accordance with the rule. Which really leaves the question of who can decide. You seem to indicate that the greenkeeping staff has been unable to mark the course for whatever reason and that, perhaps, the GM is unable to render a decision. If that is the case, then the Rules offer no particular guidance on who can be the "Committee" other than to say "the person or group in charge of the competition or the course." Thus, however many of you playing in the league can come together to form your own Committee for that day's competition and establish any local rules necessary for fair competition. Local rules that could include whatever definition of abnormal ground conditions you see fit to establish.

Funny that you say that because I was going to use a similar example. Fitter says "that's awesome, you just gained 25 yards with your 7 iron, see what fitting can do?" Meanwhile, the long suffering player doesn't realize that the "7 iron" has the same loft as his 5 iron and the shaft is the length of his 4 iron, they just stamped a different number on the bottom. So he's really picked up like 2 yards.

The basic answer is yes. As many have said, it depends greatly on the fitter. You pay $125 for 90 minutes in a simulator? That's not a fitting, that's a sales pitch. But it'll probably do some good either way. **Addition: I'd say a solid way to determine if you're at a fitting or a sales pitch is to say you have no interest in buying new clubs and you want to optimize your current set, checking lie angles, checking to see if shafts are correct, etc. If they try to continually bump you into something else, some other clubs, you're at a sales pitch with a guy who either doesn't know how to fit or isn't allowed to fit because of some company policy.

He knows the answer to that. He's asking for ways to find loopholes in rules to swipe back at a player who is obviously irritating him. Yes, if you're fellow competitor wants your ball marked and you don't want to do it, sure, you can say "you want it marked, do it yourself" but that's not really the spirit of the rule. Either way, we're back to the original point which is "cousin, we only have so many days left here on good Earth, what is compelling you to spend your days on the golf course with someone who regularly irritates you?"

I knew a teacher in Florida 10-12 years ago, when someone asked him about Stack & Tilt he said "Stack and Tilt is a great system...if you're a war veteran with an amputated leg."

For bookkeeping, I can understand time limits. My issue with them, as someone who has gotten lessons at GolfTec in the past and probably will again, is the number of lessons in a given time frame. 10 lessons in 3 months, 15 lessons in 6, then 25 or 52 in a year. If a pro or school is trying to something other than fleece people out of money, those numbers are ludicrous. 10-15 lessons is a yearly amount, 52 lessons is 3-4 years worth at least. A lesson every week is wild. Unless someone is practicing a really incredible amount, going every week is just ripping them off because there's no way they've implemented what the teacher told them last week. The number of my only issue, having a time limit isn't bad.

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect for match play. It's loss of hole, not loss of hole being played. You must complete the hole and adjust the match after the hole is completed. Most violations are adjustments after the conclusion of the hole and don't involve just picking the ball up and moving on. (An easy example of this is too many clubs, Player A hits first tee shot, realizes he has 15 clubs in the bag, yeets the club into the bushes, the hole is not over. The hole must be completed by both players. If player A wins, match is all square. If the hole is halved, Player B is 1 up. If Player B wins the hole, he is 2 up.)

He didn't ask a rules question. He knows the rule. What he's asking is basically an etiquette question of whether he's actually required to mark according to the rules or if he can blow the other guy off. Which goes to tatertot's answer and mine...if the guy is doing something that clearly bothers you enough to post on the internet, why keep playing with him? Yes, the player is "required" to mark the ball but, as with pretty much anything, can refuse to do so. In which case, the player is penalized the General Penalty of two strokes. That'd be a fun social experiment, refuse on every hole, shoot 80, take 36 penalty strokes, post 116 for handicap purposes. Either way, we're back to the original answer, why keep playing with someone who bothers you?

When I used to lift weights heavy, we had this principle called Maximum Recoverable Volume. Basically, how much exercise can you do before your body can't recover in a given amount of time. Golf practice is the same. Does the amount you're doing cause back pain, hand pain, wrist, shoulder, etc.? If not, then it's not too much. There are on our televisions each week that play and practice golf for 6, 8, 10 hours a day 7 days a week for years. So as long as you're not in pain, it's not too much volume. Just make sure you have a plan. Some people say "practice makes perfect" but I say that's wrong. Perfect Practice makes Perfect...bad practice just makes you bad. Oh, also, "too much" can also depend on your social life and family life, but you didn't mention that so that's for you to decide.

If it's not a tournament or club competition, you can do whatever you want. Like, seriously. Mark the ball or tell the guy to pack sand and get on with playing the shot, who cares. Find new partners if it's that bothersome. Why continue to play with guys who obviously do things that bother you?

I meant 14% would be a number for me to consider reasonable until I get enough rounds for stats. I'm at 7 rounds right now, which isn't bad, but only a handful of shots with each club.

I was reading the Dave Pelz "Short Game Bible" last night and I saw his Percentage Error Index. I've read the book before but this part never clicked how it did yesterday. What's a "good" shot from 200 yards? The numbers in the book, which are older now, show that the average error for tour players is about 7%. Looking at modern numbers, that holds pretty true today. What's 7%? It's 14 yards or 42 feet. But what does that mean for me? Well, I’d say that it means my shots, with the current state of my game, are almost certainly not better than around double that, on average. Honestly, that’s probably optimistic. So, a reasonable average for me could be around 28-30 yards, or 14%, from 200 yards. 20 yards right of the pin in a bunker? Better than average shot with an annoying result. 30 yards short of the pin but right on line? Worse than average but only barely. Hit to 6 feet? 2% error and, in order for the average to work out, probably going to have something scorched 50 yards offline. Nothing ground breaking, to be sure, given that this book was released in 1999, but gave me an interesting perspective on whether I should say I hit a statistically “bad” or “good” shot. I’m going back through previous rounds to see my miss percentages but it’ll take a much larger sample size to really determine averages.

Driver: Titleist 905R 10.5 Fairway: Callaway Great Big Bertha II Irons: Ben Hogan Apex ca2002, 2-PW Wedges: Cleveland 588 Putter: Cameron Squareback 2

Watching Star Wars The Clone Wars. Roommate has never seen any Star Wars, we started with the original Trilogy, went to Episodes 1&2, not watching a selection of Clone Wars episodes before watching Episode 3.

Friend of mine tells this crazy story...he's from El Paso and was attending UTEP. Went to class with this guy from Ciudad Juarez. They ended up hanging out in Juarez one night, went back to the guy's house, and down the stairs walks El Azul Juan Jose Moreno. He'd been going to class and hanging out with El Azul's kid for the whole semester.