Are Golf Course Green Fees Out of Hand?

Golf is getting more expensive to play. I love the game but the outlandish golf course green fees and cart costs are making it harder to afford. I believe the green fees started to rise in the 1990's. Today it is hard to find a golf course that won't charge you $50 for green fees on weekdays and more on the weekends. These fees are rising ahead of the cost of living.

What happened? I believe a lot of golf courses are being built to adapt to the weekend duffer's game with plush fairways and manicured greens. This over indulgent need to provide perfect playing conditions has skyrocketed golf course maintenance budgets.

Whatever happened to the reasoning of building a course according to the lay of the land with all the slopes and valleys? Where the only maintenance being done was cutting the fairways and watering the greens? Mother Nature was in charge of the fairways and rough. I still play a few of those golf courses in Pennsylvania at $12 for green fees, $6 extra for a riding cart on a weekday. If it's mid-summer you can expect semi-brown fairways. Your game changes according to the course conditions. Isn't that what golf is all about, adapting to the course?

Also, many golf courses are being built to promote real estate in the area surrounding the golf courses. This will definitely add to the rise of green fees. Are you being ripped-off? Another thing that has changed for the worse is the use of riding carts. This is a costly added expense to your golf game and a lot of times a needless or unnecessary expense. Let's take a look at this expense.

Some golf courses make a cart mandatory which added to the green fees will raise their profits. Other courses require carts on the weekends but not on the weekdays. I suppose the thinking on mandatory weekend carts is it will help in speeding up play, which I don't agree. Think about it, with or without a cart, it will take you 5 to 6 hours to complete the round on a weekend. You are being ripped off.

There are too many bad golfers playing on the weekend which will slow down play and make you wait endlessly to hit your next shot. When this type of situation occurs it will only hurt your game. You will tighten up, lose concentration and guzzle beer after beer waiting to hit your next shot. All you are getting out of this round of golf is a buzz-on and sunburn which you could have done in your own backyard at very little cost. My thinking on this is to avoid the 6 hours trying to play a round of golf on the weekend.

The biggest rip-off of all is on those golf courses that a cart is mandatory but you are only allowed to drive it on the cart path. This kind of golf is utterly ridiculous. Let's take a look at this scenario. Suppose you hit your tee shot to the left and the cart path is on the right. Now what do you do? You don't know what kind of lie you have and you don't know the distance to the green for your next shot and it's a long walk to your ball. So you take two to three clubs out of your bag and take the long walk to your ball. After you hit the ball, you take the long walk back to the golf cart. The big problem is that this type of play goes on all day long - for the whole round. So, I ask you, why do you have to pay for a cart when you are walking most of the time anyway? Are you being ripped off?

I would like to add a page to my blog with golf courses whose fees are $25 or less to play a round of golf. Do you play one? If so, it would be much appreciated if you would share that information with me so I can post it for all golfers to see. What I would need is the name, cost to play the golf course (green fees and golf cart fees) and its location (City and State). Any other info you might know about the golf course would also be helpful.

I would then post it by state. It would give other golfers an opportunity to play your course at an affordable price. Please go to this article at Golfineer for more information.

By Walter David

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Get a Grip - Simple Golf Grip Tips

If you're hoping to improve your golf game, there's no better place to start than at the one point where your body touches the club-your grip, that is. If you watch a professional golfer, you might see how he appears to merge with the club, becoming one with it. Golfer and club should function like a single well-oiled golfing machine. Therefore, a good grip is a fundamental piece of a great golf game. Forget anyone else who tells you otherwise. Your grip is key to your playing and if you don't learn it, you might as well stop playing golf altogether.

Now, let's be clear about this. This is not an exhaustive list of useful golf grip tips (there are plenty of books of golf grip tips online and in books). What these are ARE a few quick golf grip tips to help you improve your game by fixing your grip. Did I already say the grip is key?

Establish your grip. The golf club should lay across your fingers (Not your palm! Holding a club in the palm is a common mistake that will cost you power) diagonally; the top-end should rest by the base of your pinky and the head-end should touch the first joint of your pointer finger.

Place your thumb. Once the club is in your fingers, place your thumb on the back side of the shaft of the club.

Check for the V. If you're holding the club right, you will see a "V" emerging from the base of your thumb and forefinger.

I hope you use these tips the next time you play. It can't get any more basic than this, really: improve your grip and you improve your play.

By Rob Jeffries

Rob Jeffries is on a golfer's diet: he lives on greens as much as possible. He runs the popular website MyGolfGameNow.Com as an online resource for those who wish to improve their swing, lower their handicap, or simply have fun on the range. Check out the site today for golf grip tips and more!

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Stop Hooking the Golf Ball Instantly With These 3 Tips

To some golfers the slice is the biggest obstacle to playing golf, but for thousands of other golfers it is the dreaded hook. Hooking the golf ball is something that can be so frustrating that it almost caused the great Ben Hogan to quit the game before he over won a major championship. Now, after Hogan fixed his hook he went on to win 9 major championships, and here is how you can fix your hook to improve your scores.

1.The good news is that a hook is typically easier to fix than a slice. The most important thing about having your ball dive into the left hand rough is to understand why. The ball hooks because of excessive right to left spin, and this also puts some overspin on the ball causing it to crash into the ground.

2. To stop hooking the golf ball the first thing you need to do is open your stance. This means for a right handed golfer having your left foot about an inch further back than your right. This will enable you to swing more across your body which will counteract the right to left spin that you have been putting on the ball. This should help straighten out your shots by reducing spin.

3. Another cause of the dreaded hook is due to an excessively strong grip. This means that your left hand is on top of the club too much, and your right hand is under the club too much. To correct this, grip the club with your left hand first and make sure that only two knuckles are showing. On your right hand you want to be more wrapped around the club, and this will promote a square club face at impact and reduce your hook.

These three tips should help you to stop hooking the ball, and then you can learn to hit a little draw or fade and play the best golf of your life!

By Matthew Lord

See The Exact Methods I Use To Take 5 Strokes Off My Game and Play The Best Golf Of My Life!

Visit The Ultimate Golf Swing Website Here For Instant Access!

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How to Break 100 - Stop the Embarassment Today!

One of the most frustrating things in golf is not knowing how to break 100. This is often the first goal that many new golfers have when starting out, and once you learn to make contact with the ball on the consistent basis, you are not far away from breaking 100. There are really 3 keys that you should focus on in order to shoot under 100, and here they are.

1. The first thing that you need to concentrate on in order to achieve your goals is to make sure that you are able to hit the ball in the fairway. To shoot double digits instead of triple digits you do not need to hit the ball far, however it is vital that you stay in the fairway, even if you only hit the ball 100 yards. To do this do not hit a drive off of the tee. Instead, take a 4 or 5 iron and put it slightly back of center in your stance. This should allow you to hit the ball low and straight, which is great when looking to break this milestone.

2. In addition to hitting the ball straight you need to be able to putt decent. of course you are not going to putt like the pros, but being able to make putts inside 10 feet and get the other ones really close is vital to your success. If you learn to take just 2 putts on each green then you are almost guaranteed to break 100.

3. Your chipping should be pretty good. Often times new golfers struggle with this, but really all you have to do is put the ball in the back of your stance and use an 8 iron. To often new golfers try to chip with a sand wedge or pitching wedge around the green, when is reality the best way to chip is to get the ball over the fringe and on the green as soon as possible. It is much easier to control a shot that is lower to the ground.

These three tips should help you in your quest to learn how to break 100. I have many more tips, but these should get you started and with a little "secret knowledge" You will break 90 before too much longer!

By Matthew Lord

See The Exact Methods That You Can Use To Take 7-12 Shots Off Of Your Score In Just 30 Days Or Less!

Visit http://swing-a-golf-club.blogspot.com For Instant Access!

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Golf Iron Shots - Four Tips to Hit Better Iron Shots

The topic for our article today is golf iron shots. You have hit a good drive and now it`s time to hit a quality iron shot. There are many factors that come into play but, for today, we are going to review four (4) tips that will help us to hit quality iron shots and, in turn, lower our golf scores.

These golf iron shot tips will help you to go through the thought process that will produce quality golf shots. You will be amazed how quickly your golf scores will come down. Just using some common sense can dramatically effect how we play and our golf scores, plus, did I mention, your enjoyment of the game!

Four (4) Golf Iron Shot Tips

1. Stay within yourself.

Don`t try to hit your seven (7) iron one hundred and seventy (170) yards when your best seven iron shot only goes one hundred and fifty (150) yards. Hit the iron that will get to the target with a comfortable swing, no overswinging! Also, when you are determining the yardage for your iron shot, be sure to take into account the position of the pin on the green. By this I mean, even though you are standing at the one fifty (150) marker, you might be one hundred and sixty five (165) yards to the pin if the pin is at the back of a large green, or one hundred and thirty five (135) yards if the pin is in the front. You don`t want to back off of your golf swing but you also don`t want to be grunting!

2. Know how far you hit each iron.

I know you have seen this and it really slows down play. What I am talking about is watching someone pacing of their yardage to the pin and you know, full well, that they have no clue how far they hit each iron shot. So, my point is, that we need to spend some time at the driving/practice range, to find out how far we hit each iron shot. Now, we probably are not going to know how far each iron shot goes, to the yard, like the tour pros do but we can find out within a five (5) yard range. There is nothing more frustrating than hitting a good drive and following that up with a well hit iron shot and the golf ball ends up ten yards short or long. If we expect to hit the correct iron shot, we need to know how far we hit each iron.

3. Play the shot that your lie will allow.

We need to survey our lie and determine how the lie is going to effect our iron shot. By this I mean, if we a playing summer rules, no preferred lies, the lie will dictate what kind of shot we have to play. If the lie is less than perfect, we need to adjust where we play the golf ball in our stance. With a poor lie, we need to move the ball back in our stance so that we will be able to make solid contact. You also need to adjust for downhill, uphill and sidehill lies.

In general, we need to adjust our stance to follow the contour of the fairway for uneven lies, keeping in mind that uphill lies will add loft to your iron shots (hit more club) and downhill will take loft off of our iron shots (hit less club).

4. Play the percentages.

Here's a question. If the best players in the world aim away from some pins then should not we do the same? If the pin is on the side of the green near a bunker, water hazard or out of bounds, it may make sense not to try to hit directly at the pin but hit your iron shot to the safer part of the green. We have to measure, the percentages, our chances of pulling off a shot. The best in the world do it! So, next time you are getting ready to hit your iron shot, stop to think of what is your best percentage play. This alone will shave numerous strokes of your golf score.

Also, remember there is a right and wrong side of the green to miss on. You would prefer to miss the green on the side away from where the pin is placed on the green. This gives you the best chance to get up and down for your par, if you miss the green.

Those are four (4) iron shot tips. There are many more, that we will discuss in future articles. But for now, if you follow these golf tips for your iron shots, you will dramatically increase your pars and decrease those bogeys and dreaded others!

By Mike Lebreck

Mike Lebreck has been an avid golfer for over 40 years. You can find more golf game improvement, custom golf club building and discount golf information at http://golf-swing-plus.net

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How to Improve Your Golf Swing Without Lessons

Are you sick of just playing average golf? Maybe you have a goal to break 100, 90, 80, or even par. Whatever your goal is you need to understand how to improve your golf swing without taking expensive lessons. Here are some tips to help you become your best teacher.
1. You should start by video taping yourself

When you see yourself on camera you can pick out just what it is you are doing wrong and that makes it much easier to fix, then trying to figure it out without a camera. This will be the investment that will make a huge difference in your golf game.

2. Read everything you can about golf except the quick tip guides in the magazines

You need to understand what your swing should look like and what causes the ball to do the 9 different things it can do (the 9 ball flight laws). When you understand these things it is easier for you to under stand why your ball went where it did and what adjustment you need to make to change your ball flight.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

The more you practice the easier it will be for you to learn how to improve your golf swing and become your best teacher. When you are the one that understands your swing the most it is much easier to make adjustments on the course and you will start to shoot better scores. This all comes with practice and you need to practice not only your full swing, but your short game and putting as well.

By Benjamin J. Black

Are you ready to play better golf, hit the fall further and straighter, and feel better about your golf game. If you are, then click here.

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What is the Correct Golf Driver Loft For You?

I`ll bet , like most of us, the last time you bought a new golf driver you hit a demo club at the range a few times, it felt good and you bought it.

This is how almost all of us buy new golf clubs. But let`s take a look at the driver. It is probably the most important club in the golf bag. Playing golf from the fairway is a lot easier than the rough and also, hitting a 9 iron to the green is a lot easier than hitting a 6 iron. That`s pretty obvious, so what`s the point?

The point is that most of us are not playing with a driver that has the proper loft to provide us with maximum distance and accuracy. The simple reason for this is that golf club manufacturers are not making drivers with the lofts that are correct for most golfers.

Here`s an idea of the range of lofts that we are talking about to provide optimal loft: (source: Golf Engineering)

Clubhead Speed............Estimated Optimal Loft .................Category

• 130-150.......................... 4-7 degrees.......................................men long driving champs

• 110-125........................... 8-9 degrees.......................................men touring pros

• 95-105............................10-11 degrees....................................strong men & women

• 85-90...............................12-13 degrees...................................most men golfers

• 75-85...............................14-15 degrees...................................senior men & most women

• 65-75...............................16%2B degrees.......................................most women golfers

As you can see, most men golfers should be using a 12-13 degree loft with their driver, senior men and women even higher and we know that this is not the case.

Also, what this validates is the fact that the average male golfer is better of driving with his 15 degree three wood. We have known this for years but we really did not know why, now we do. It is all about the optimal loft! There are more factors that control golf driver distance and accuracy, other than loft, but for our purposes today, this is one variable that we can easily control.

Now, we know that we are not going to give up hitting the driver. The grip it and rip mentality is too deeply ingrained in us to give up our driver. But, at least now we can give up trying to hit an 8 degree driver and maybe change to a more sensible 10.5 degree or, even better, a 12 degree driver. The fact is that the lower degree of loft has been working against us and we never knew it!

So, stop fighting gravity and starting using a loft that will provide you with the optimal launch angle. Give it a try I think you will like it.

By Mike Lebreck

Mike has been an avid golfer and single digit handicapper for over forty years. You can see more golf information on his blog at Golf-Swing-PLus.

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Why You Should Shorten Your Backswing

I'm sure you've all seen it. Let's be honest, many of you probably do it yourselves. You move up to the ball. You get yourself all balanced. You make sure you're in line for solid contact. Then you start your backswing and wrap that club so far around your head that you can see it on the other side!

And what happens? By the time your club head gets back to the golf ball, everything is so far out of whack that you're lucky to make contact at all. I know Tiger Woods does it. I know John Daly does it. But we're hardly Tiger or Big John, are we? we need our timing to be perfect. We need our body to be balanced. And what better way to accomplish this than by shortening that mighty backswing? I know you'll be worried about distance, but I assure you that once you shorten that backswing and start hitting the ball solidly more often, the little bit of distance you may lose will be insignificant.

I discovered the magic behind a shorter backswing quite by accident. Since I live in a colder climate but don't want to stop golfing just because of the temperature, I'm forced to wear layers in order to play sometimes. Naturally, if you're dressed in multiple layers of clothing it's difficult to take such a big backswing. What I noticed was that I with my shortened backswing I was hitting the ball solidly and straighter much more often. Any distance I lost was more than made up for with accuracy. In the end, my scores were lower than normal.

Now, for those who don't have to wear layers, consciously shortening your backswing may be a bit tricky. You'll have to work out a little system where you can mentally stop the backswing before you usually do. I would suggest trying to stop it even sooner than you may want to because momentum will take you a little farther than your stopping point most of the time.

I know it may not look as cool. And I know that decreasing your overall distance isn't something most golfers strive to achieve. But straighter shots and lower rounds certainly are. The next time you're at the range, give a shorter backswing a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

By Ken McCarron

This simple tip is going to save you tons of frustration on the golf course.
If you're interested in a more complete swing system that could potentially knock 7-12 strokes off your score in a couple weeks, go take a look here... http://masteryourswing.blogspot.com

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Green Mapping - An Essential Tool For Making More Putts

Green Mapping can be likened to preparing for a long road trip. The more thorough your preparation, the better chance there is that you will reach your destination safely and on time.

In putting the same dedication to detail is true. The more you know about the greens that you will putt on, the more accurate will be your reads, and the greater probability you will have of making more putts.

To have any chance of holing a putt you must be able to assess accurately the:

• Slope, particularly at the Hole.

• Line your Ball must take.

• Speed your Ball must travel to the Hole on your Chosen Line.

Certain characteristics of all greens are fixed:

• Shape and Size of the Green.

• Type of Grass.

• Direction of Grain, if any.

• Moundings and Tiers.

Other characteristics change on a day-to-day basis:

• Speed of the Green based on the Mowing Height.

• Moisture content of the Putting Surface.

• Growth Pattern of Grass according to the Season.

• Overall condition of the Green.

For every putt there are always a number of variables that you have to consider. The more you can nail down beforehand basic information about the green and its contours, the less you will have to do when it is your turn to putt.

If you play the same course regularly, it makes sense to get a better handle on how your ball will break on each of the 18 greens. Relying on your memory to recall if a putt breaks left to right, right to left, or is straight is fraught with error.

Professional golfers know that they will putt with greater confidence when they have done their homework before the tournament starts. They make written notes during their practice round of the different breaks at different parts of the green for every hole.

Green Mapping, or green charting as it is sometimes called, involves more than having a sketch of the green. However this is the first step.

On tour there is a yardage book available that shows what is considered to be public information - distance from various markers, depth of greens and so on. For the amateur golfer most courses sell a similar, less detailed, yardage book.

When it comes to the greens the direction of breaks at possible pin locations is not provided. The pros together with their caddie will putt at pin locations previously used for the tournament, either to update their record or to gather the information for first time.

Many of them will use a Putt Reading Device to show the local fall line at each location and the degree of the slope.

For weekend amateurs whose income is not dependent on their putting skill, knowing which way the ball will break in different parts of the green is less essential. That is unless they want to have fewer misreads and hole more putts.

There are a number of GPS systems available to golfers that show distances from Point A to Point B anywhere on the course. They show the hazards and the shape of the greens with depth measurements. On some of the Tours they are now allowed in an effort to speed up play.

However, despite their sophistication the GPS systems don't give you essential information about how your putts will break. This information you must still gather yourself.

This is why Green Mapping is essential to putting better. You should prepare a Green Map for each green and then carry it with you to help you improve your reads and make more putts.

By Neville Walker

Neville Walker has a passion for golf and has played golf on hundreds of golf courses all over the world. His particular interest is writing about how to improve your putting. He runs a web site on the subject which can be found at http://www.better-golf-by-putting-better.com

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Golf - 5 Top Bunker Shot Tips to Help Lower Your Handicap in 2009

Greenside Bunker Shots

Top Tip No.1

Good Lie in Bunker

Open your stance a little by keeping your left foot back ( right handers) and also open the clubface slightly. Swing the club parallel with your feet with an out to in action causing a steeper swing which makes the ball rise quicker and also produces backspin which means the ball will stop quickly on the green. Aim slightly left of target as the ball should tend to fly to the right.

Top Tip No.2

Plugged Lie in Bunker

Instead of opening the face of the club you should keep the club face square.
This shot should be approached with reasonable speed following through keeping the clubface square and therefore digging into the sand behind the ball with the sand and the ball coming out of the bunker together. The very action required to come out of the bunker from a plugged lie means that there will not be any backspin and the ball will roll on some distance.

Top Tip No.3

Downhill Lie In Bunker

If the ball finishes on a downhill lie in the bunker open the clubface and adopt an open stance with the weight on your left foot. The shot should be played near to your left foot trying to follow the slope of the bunker. At impact the weight should be focused on your left foot allowing the ball to be sliced out of the bunker providing you complete a full follow through.

Top Tip No. 4

Uphill Lie In Bunker

For this type of shot you do not need to adopt an open stance or open up the face of the golf club. Instead follow the uphill slope of the bunker and position your body parallel to the slope and swing solidly also parallel to the slope.

The golf ball should come out of the bunker with a higher trajectory and therefore not run on too far

Top Tip No.5

Stating The Obvious!

Whether you are playing out of a greenside bunker from a good lie, a plugged lie, on a downslope or on an upslope or however you are placed in the sand one of THE most important tips is to keep your head still, eye on the sand 1 or 2 inches behind the ball, until the shot is executed.

You could otherwise have an excellent technique but it will probably go wrong if you come up to look for your golf ball too quickly.

This may sound like stating the obvious but it is a very common error made by many mid to high handicap golfers and is often brought about because the player is anxious and nervous about playing bunker shots. Have you ever said "How unlucky was that!? The ball hit the top 2 inches of the bunker face and almost came out!" Now the golf ball is lying way deep down in the imprint of your shoe! Game over!

The fact is that if you had not lifted your head too early you would not have seen the golf ball hitting the face of the bunker. If you had kept your head down until after impact with the sand then the chances are that the golf ball would be heading for the green. Take a look at an image of a professional or low handicap golfer on the TV or pictured in a golfing magazine and you can clearly see that nearly every time after impact the golf ball is travelling upwards towards the green and the golfer is still looking down to where the golf ball had been.

I hope that you found the article to be helpful.
By Roger Thomas Carter

Please take a look at my blog for more golfing information to help you break 80 during 2009
http://playbettergolfnow.blogspot.com/

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Golf Training Aids and Why Mental Imagery Is the One That Will Lower Your Golf Score

Golf training aids, we all have succumbed to the glossy adverts. Buy this whatever new club and you will reduce your score guaranteed,buy this video of golf lessons etc etc. I don't know about you but I have fallen for it time and time again. What happens? well I use them for a while then forget or more than likely try something new I have seen advertised. Is this you as well?

The golf training aid we all seem to ignore is our mind, if things start to go wrong our mind and thoughts just seem to get worse. You know the scenario, you have just played the last hole in one over par so you are flying. You stand at the next tee full of confidence you don't concentrate just swing and shock horror your ball flies off into the trees.

This is where the mind set comes in and the use of mental images to keep your golf game consistent.

You are positive and full of confidence so your pre shot routine probably went out of the window hence the duff shot but if you had used your thoughts properly this would be less likely to happen.

When next on the tee try the following:

- Clear your mind and say to yourself positive affirmations like I will hit another good shot, repeat it over and over. This will clear all the subconscious doubts and your predominant thoughts will be positive.

- Now breathe deeply stand on the tee and close your eyes, now picture your next shot in your mind, concentrate on it, so it burns into your brain. It's very important to have a clear mental picture of your next shot, picture the swing, the flight of your ball and where it will land.

All you have to do now is trust your swing and go for it. It works so believe in it.

This golf training aid is now being used by all the major players, the difference is they have mind coaches. Now you can have a your own personal mind coach.

By Michael Potter

Everyone under estimates the hidden power of the mind and how it can affect your game of golf. Even the top professionals all have mind coaches so what's good for them must be good for you. If you try my new product Golf Swing Mastery I am so confident that it will knock strokes of your score that if after 30 days you are not happy then I will refund you in full, no questions asked. I will take all the risk so you really have nothing to lose.

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