MyGolfSpy Forum: RoverRick - Viewing Profile - MyGolfSpy Forum

We do not talk about the European Tour a great deal here on this site, and after watching the all coverage this morning I can understand why. The announcers are somewhat bland. However, I did not hear them one time pontificating about something they know nothing about. After the coverage they switched back to Golf Channel, and the American idiots were saying, "How would you like to be Bo Van Pelt who has been unable to eat since Sunday and your first meal is in Bulgaria?" They happen to eat a lot of grilled meat and fresh vegetables. Yeah, make me eat that all day long.

But I digress. The purpose of this is not the stupidity of Golf announcers. But the true story of this event is not the golf but the course. I have been to Bulgaria and will be going back. I did not play this course because it was not opened yet when I was there. I played its ugly cousin just down the coast. It really was not ugly and actually one of the prettiest courses I have played. The Thracian Cliffs was not opened yet and all the grass had not matured enough for play but I did walk part of the course.

The Thracian Cliffs is located in North East corner of Bulgaria along the coast of the Black Sea. As a mater of fact you are one slice away from the Black Sea. I am pretty sure that the Players will come back with rave reviews about Bulgaria, because as the American golf anchor made it plain with his tone of voice Americans do not think highly of Bulgaria. Hell, I knew nothing about it the first time I went.

This course is a slicers nightmare with red stakes lateral water hazard on the right hand side of the fairway from hole number 4 to hole number 10. The Euros were saying that this was an exciting course for match play because you had an opportunity to birdie or make a quad on every hole. They would not want to keep score but for match play it was exciting.

Here are some pictures.

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I was just thinking that today was just an average day at the course. Nothing worth writing about in the "How did you play thread?" thread, when I remembered one shot that was worthy. But that thread is about how you played the complete round. Not only that but some people have decided it was for lower handicap people, I missed the memo that said that, and there is also one called hacker's something or other.

But no matter you skill level there is almost always some shot that is worthy of at least Honorable Mention. That is what this thread is about.

So here is the first:

Today, we played 6 man Wolf. 3rd hole, par 5 doglegs right, I am the wolf and in the middle of the fairway 200 yards out. My partner is 2 feet behind me, short knocker , everyone else has hit and there is one that is close to the green but no one is on. My partner hits a pretty good shot but is short sided in the bunker, and I decide to cut a 2 iron around the trees and let it run on the green. So I get too close to the trees and one leave reached out and grabbed my ball. (This is my story and I am sticking with it.) So while three more are hitting I am looking for my ball and can not find it. My partner goes and hits then comes and helps. We eventually find it, about 3 inches from out of bounds under some leaves. So I have to go back and get my cart, and by the time I am ready some of the guys are already putting. They all clear off to the side. I am 70 yards out, can not actually see the putting surface because the false front, and the moguls. I am under a tree, and have a big hump of ground between me and the green and the pin is near a hump on the other side. I hit a waist high pitching wedge that came with a ton of spin, which is just what I wanted. It flies all the way to the green and hits the front edge and disappears from my sight. So I watch the guys reaction. Nothing. All five guys just stood there and did not move or anything. I thought , well it did not check up and went in the bunker on the other side. But I can still get up and down for par.

I drove around there and they were still standing there looking at the hole. I can not see my ball to I grab a wedge and putter and they said I do not need it. They said it was like watching on TV that my ball hit, hopped, went 6 feet past the hole, stopped, backed up and then tracked dead center of the hole for an eagle. I asked why no one celebrated and they said they were already counting the money they won with me almost out of bounds, my partner going to make par at best and them having two birdie putts from inside 2 feet. They had the hole won.

So feel free to list your shot of the day.

I started out to write about the schizophrenic behavior of golf’s ruling bodies. (yes, I am aware that schizophrenic is not quite correctly used, but I like it.) On one hand the R&A and USGA stated that there would be a 90 day comment period about the proposed anchored putting ban. They did state that they expected no new evidence to turn up to change their minds.

The reason they expected no new evidence to come to light because they did not use any evidence to begin with to make this decision. When the PGA of America found out about this and polled it members, they were against the ban. We are not talking about the Tour guys who make millions of dollars and have invitations to play the best courses in the world and have a luxury car waiting at the airport when their private jet lands to take them to the 5 star hotel. But we are talking about the PGA members who are running Pro Shops and giving lessons at the local club. These guys and gals see amateur golfers every day. In March there was a poll of these people and not one of the 27,000 members raised their hands in support of the ban.

I was going to tell how the R&A is fighting mad about the PGA not following in lock step. I was going to say how the USGA now has decided to take up the “Pace of Play” issue because that is a bigger deal to some than putting. I will say that me and another guy played 18 holes in 2:25 minutes yesterday, and two groups let us play thru. Also, I did not see anyone with a long putter. However, neither of these issues are any of the USGA’s business. If it take me 6 hours to play a round of golf this is something to take up with the local management. I do not need USGA President Glen Nager riding up in a cart telling me to pick it up. That is for the local guys to do. This will probably be the local PGA professional who rides out and corrects the issue or someone appointed by him not the USGA.

The R&A meanwhile say that it is not their place to tell Muirfield they must accept women. Since the R&A, itself, does not except women, I guess we can understand their stance on that. I do find it a bit of a disconnect that he will say it is not their place to legislate membership but it is their place to say where you can anchor the putter. Let us not forget that this ban is only on anchoring against the body. It is still ok to anchor against the arm. So the proposed ban is only a partial ban. Also, it is not just the putter. You will no longer be able to chip with a FM or hybrid or any club if the butt of the club is touching the body. This is something that you may only do once a year but if the butt is in contact it will be a violation of the stupid rule. This makes as much sense as striking a dead leaf on the backswing in a hazard is a penalty.

I was planning on really batching (SIC) about these two but the more I read up on this issue, and the more I read about PGA of America president Ted Bishop the more I decided to write this as kudos to him. Apparently, he has been championing the anchored putter cause both privately and publicly. He is refusing to fall into lock step with the R&A like the USGA has done.

Dawson of the R&A has said it is not Bishop’s role to look after the amateur golfer. He says that is what the R&A and USGA are for. How many of you have ever seen a USGA official or R&A official? How many of you see a PGA member every time you go in to the club house? The PGA of America is the link to the amateur golfer.

So kudos to PGA of America president Ted Bishop, sounds like a leader for the coup d'etat has emerged.


Related reading: http://www.golfdiges...rte-report-0506

The other night I was reading my Golf Channel App and it had a quote from Chris DiMarco saying that he thought Billy Horschel would win because Billy was not afraid to go low and make birdies. Horschel did win on Sunday after shooting a 64 -8.

So yesterday, I am playing a different course, and the opening hole is a par 5, 501 yards. I had laid up to about 75 yards and hit my 58* wedge to about 2 feet and immediately thought about what DiMarco said and said to myself. "Yeah, I ain't afraid to go low either." I followed this up with a bogey and was back to even par but this got me to thinking. Am I afraid to go low?

How many times have you made a birdie only to screw it up on the next hole. We call them ABFU's. AB stands for After Birdie, and FU, well, you can figure it out. I really did not make the bogey because of a FU but simply was not familiar with the greens. The two foot putt I had on the first hole did nothing to tell me how slow the greens were. I chipped on the green and it would have been close to the hole on my course but this was sort of like playing on velcro with a wool ball. My chip was woefully short and so was my par putt. But from that point I said to myself, "I ain't afraid to go low."

I will not rehash my round of yesterday or today, but both days I continued to use this as my mantra. I played smart golf, and was afraid to go high but I pretended like I was supposed to be under par. I shot a 66 yesterday and today I should have had 5 birdies in a row. I missed a 6 foot birdie putt, but it was tricky. Very speed dependent, but followed it up on the next hole with a birdie. I shot a 68 today and this is my first time ever to have back to back sub par rounds. Hell, it is almost the first time I have had them in the same month. Usually, I expect to have a bad day after a good one. But not now, because, I am not afraid to go low.

Do not confuse this with going for birdie on every hole. Yes, I have birdied every hole at my club and eagled most of them at some point, but instead of thinking I am playing over my head, I am expecting to hit a good shot. So I hit a good shot off the tee, and a good approach shot, I am thinking birdie. If I hit a bad shot, than I expect to hit a good shot after that. I do NOT expect to hit the miracle shot that puts me back in birdie position. I am expecting to make par and no worse than bogey, however, I do not care what I did the hole before. Or even the shot before. I only care about hitting this shot so I have a reasonable chance of hitting the next one in the hole.

So, are you afraid to go low?

Movable Weight Technology, MWT, as I am sure most people know is the moving of weight around the perimeter of the club to effect the ball flight. This has been around for a few years and is available now with many of today's drivers. I have two TaylorMades and a Callaway that have that now.

This weekend, I changed the weights around on the R9 Super Deep. I simply swapped the 12 g and 15 g weights. I really am not sure that 6 grams of weight change would make a great deal of distance but here is what I observed.

Before this "drastic" change I hit fades 85% of the time and 10% they went straight and perhaps 5% were slices or pull slices. However, the ball flight was high and very little run out. I had gotten the Super Deep because I spin the ball a lot and get no more than about 10 feet of roll with even the driver, unless I hit a low running shot. But a high deep drive did not run at all.

After changing this, I did see the ball flight alter just a bit. It is easier to work the ball either direction now. But the major difference is that I gained about 20 yards off of the bounce of the ball. It now hits and runs. Hitting a draw with this driver is a new thing for me and, well, honestly, I did not have my best stuff this weekend. I sprayed the ball all over the place with my irons and while it is not unusual to hit 13 of 14 fairways but this weekend I hit maybe half of them. This also was from over swinging because I wanted more yards but on the roughly half that I did not over swing I did see dramatic results in spin if nothing else.

So back to my question, is MWT really effective for you or is this simply the placebo effect? Because I think it will be easier to hit a draw, I set up and hit the draw and get the same results even though this is not really enough weight to make any difference.