Leaderboard

I've been golfing so much lately that I haven't had time to post! In the last week and a half I've had 2 league nights and a work scramble, in addition to the two rounds I'll share more about: my brother-in-law and I got to play The Bluffs course at Arcadia Bluffs in Northern Michigan two weekends ago, and this past weekend I played in my first "competitive" round ever, a best ball 18 hole tournament at Thornapple Pointe in West Michigan. I'll talk about Arcadia in this post, and say more about the Thornapple round in a different post. For those who haven't heard of it, The Bluffs is an absolutely amazing course. It's basically right on the water of Lake Michigan, with some really interesting holes and some incredible views. Here's a few of my favorites: View from the par 5 third tee-box: View from the par 5 fifth tee-box: From the par 4 twelfth: From the par 3 thirteenth: Every hole is a unique challenge, with dune grass challenging wayward drives, varying elevation and deep bunkers to consider on approach shots, and firm fast greens with plenty of runoff. Being right on the lake, it's hard to imagine the wind is ever calm. For us, it was around 15-20mph most of the day, which certainly added to the degree of difficulty. I ended up shooting 87, even though I was striking the ball really really well. I had a personal best strokes gained day off the tee, +6.5! But I really struggled with my shorter approach shots and chips around the green. It was a really big adjustment playing a lot more rollout than I'm used to, as well as having to deal with a lot of bumps and runoffs around the green complexes. The course does lend itself to a decent amount of driver holes, and if you can stay in the fairway they ran out for days. After a hot dog at the turn, we had a down-wind and down-hill par 4, which ended up going a very long way: I hit it well, but honestly thought it must have hit a rock or the cart path or something to get that far down. However, the next hole was also playing down-hill and down-wind, and this one we could see bounding down the fairway so no funny business with a lucky bounce: Just don't mind the rest of that hole, it was a bit of a mess haha. All in all, it was an awesome day at an amazing course. Even though I lost some shots on & around the greens, we knew it was going to be a challenge so we weren't too worried about trying to go low. Just enjoyed the golf, the weather, and the views! If anyone is planning a Northern Michigan golf trip coming up, this is an absolute must play!

Played my last Tuesday Exec until June 2nd knee replacement surgery. Really didn’t hit anything well except breakfast which I hit great. I’ll be checking in occasionally to see how you boys do over the summer.

PostScript to that un-fun golf story: yesterday one of the starters told me that that group got a number of complaints (we actually didn't say anything, but the starter saw us waiting) .. and they're not allowed out again until they meet with the head pro!!

Does anyone else find it ironic that in the video the incorrect method is demonstrated using a Cameron pivot tool . I guess just because you can own a Scotty doesn’t mean you know how to fix a divot. The tool itself could be considered poorly designed since it sets up to pry the divot in the incorrect manner.

I’ll be honest I had to use a video. I never really had anyone teach me, we all start somewhere… I will say though over the weekend I did a fine repair job on some premium ball marks

... I am still amazed at how many good players repair their ball marks improperly. The most egregious being lifting the turf underneath instead of pulling from the edges. I have played with high school, college and even mini tour players that dig and lift, breaking the roots and killing the grass leaving those brown spots on greens. The worst part is they are trying to do the right thing but have never been educated. I think it is a good idea to post a refresher every now and then so here ya go:

Kids baseball game tonight, I came in to be the closer… my son is up to bat. So I threw him the heat… little punk hit a line drive right at my forehead… but alas, I have cat like reflexes, so I put up my non gloved hand because that is the smart thing to do… probably the worst mistake I’ve made since turning 39 on the 12th. Hahaha

Since I have been working on my iron swing a lot, I have been neglecting my chipping/pitching. Today I went to the course with the idea of spending most of my time on the short game. The putting greens was full of people and the range was wide open, so I started there with some 7i and driver shots... better results than all of last weekend! Not sure why. The putting green finally emptied as players went to the first tee, so I headed there and chipped for about 30 minutes; crappy, really crappy!! What was killing me on the course, killed me during practice; chunk... then thin. Just not making good contact. For some reason I seemed to have moved my weight from forward on my front foot to middle of my stance. That's no good. I started to get a little better when people showed up again to putt before their tee time, so I switched to my putting practice. That was solid. Right-hand only putting was great which shows good face control. Good speed control on 10-20 footers. Our putting greens is basically flat with not much break on the green from any direction. I wish it had some slope on it that allowed practice on R-L and L-R. Those are the putts that can kill my round; not putts with wrong speed. Finished up with 30 yard pitch shots varying shot trajectory alternating from a front pin to a back pin with my 60º. No issues there.

Some chipping and putting this morning, pretty solid practice session. Doing practice at 7am before the sun is out and its Hella Hot.. best option evah. Need to do that more often. If only I could fit in 9 holes before 8:30am that would be great..

Hit the range yesterday for two buckets and 45 minutes on the putting green. I was working primarily on 8 iron down for distance control and different shots to simulate windy conditions. I hit a few drivers but arccos showed me I lose most strokes 150 and in so I worked on 165 and in for the whole time. Putting has turned into a strength and I did a drill of trying to get to 21 putts in a row from 4-5 feet, I was not successful but did get close. I noticed it was mainly concentration on why I would miss. Did some lag putts and ended with a few 20 footers until I sunk one to go home on a high note. I hope it translates to Thursday tourney and Saturday match.

Okay let's have some fun with this. Pancakes - The Open, for flat ish play brown burnt out awesome along the ground golf we see at links courses. Edit: Syrup can make it messy and sticky just like the weather that can often blow in... And just like the weather it makes it so much better! Eggs (sunny side up) - PGA, for the blazing hot conditions we had at Southern Hills last time around and we are back there this year. Bacon - The Masters, slippery greens (grease), various bumps ridges and slopes and the better the execution the better it is! Sausage - The US Open, a classic that is the hardest to do right. Overdone and it's toast, under and it's soggy and gross... Also can be a little bland at times.

The H4 was delivered today and I was able to get the sensors on and set it up so I could get familiar with it during our league play tonight. I haven't figured out the buttons real well yet and I need to learn how to get the pin placed accurately. I was able to use it consistently for tee shots and second shots. A few times I forgot to associate the putter when on the green. It was very easy to upload from the H4 to the phone app after the round. I was able to figure out how to edit the shots & putts I missed into the tracker using the dashboard through my laptop. I tended to forget to associate the clubs around the green so I had to put in a few chip shots and most all my putts. It's only one use but already I can see making use of the data. Like edingc i had the unit come out of the magnetic belt clip so I kept it in my pocket. I need to find something to use as a case for it.

Played a round this afternoon, which was my first non crack of the morning game in a long time. the ball goes further.

Not an injury .. yet? .. but getting a little nervous about the state of my left shoulder and also right hip... Had the left hip replaced a few years ago and after a lotta PT and exercises, and time, it's good again. At that time the Ortho had said I'll probably be back for the right side... Just wanna make it thru this season whole and able to swing

Hey spies, Cobra supposedly only made 25 of this bag in cooperation with Vessel (I can't verify that) and I won it in a contest "Golfers for Ukraine" I pledged to auction it and donate 100% of the money back to Ukrainian refugees. I know this is a long shot, cause it's a bulky box and sending it to the US is probably not worth it, but thought I would just post it here and maybe some spy in Europe could be insterested as well? EDIT: I've seen some ads selling it for EUR 700-800... for reference. If you got the money, like to collect stuff and want do help those in need, this is a good chance!

A 378 yard followed by a 377 yard drive ... Wow! Must have made all the other 300 yarder's look like runts . A few of you are starting to make me rethink the "is there a distance problem in amateur golf?" part of the debate . That course looks a little like Whispering Straits with the water views, and yeah, it must be a beast on windy days.

Just a little humor … Putin died and went to hell. After some time, the devil decided to give him a day on earth for good behavior. So Putin decided to visit Moscow. He stopped in a bar and ordered a drink. When the bartender arrived with his order, he asked, “Is Crimea ours?” “Yes,” the bartender replied, “it is.” Putin smiled and ask, “And the Donbas?” “Also ours.” His face lit up. ”And Kyiv?” “We got that as well.” Satisfied, Putin downed his drink. “Thanks. How much do I owe you?” ”Five euros.”

I'm planning on trying out manual putting mode. I seem to have a couple of holes that second shots are consistently missed on, perhaps the gps signal is poor on them. At first glance the hole by hole could be of real value to me. I haven't used it much lately due to a lack of golf and playing matchplay when I have got on course, which I decided not to track data on.

Went to the range today and really worked on mid to short irons 7 iron to wedges. Focusing on shortening my swing, ball position and alignment. I’ve also started hitting more of a draw vs a fade which isn’t bad I just need to be prepared to play it. Spend about 20-30 minutes finishing with putting practice. Face and alignment. I have a one way kiss where I tend to miss everything right. Working on getting my eyes over the club more and my club alignment for more of a center strike vs outer strike which my eyes to to allude to me is centered.

Mental Reps watching Tiger on the Putting Green at the PGA Championship

I'm really sorry to hear this. Golf has a funny way of really getting into our heads and messing with our confidence. I just want to encourage you to keep trying and to let you know it'll get better.

H4 mini-review after playing about a week with it: Pros: Exactly what I wanted - a manual, tagging-based system. The integrated GPS is an added bonus and one that I've used surprisingly often. Small and very lightweight. (Also a con, see below.) Synchronization in the mobile app is really simple. Battery life appears to be good, at least good enough for 45 holes or so. Cons: The non-standard "clip" charger is annoying. I understand that USB is not ideal due to debris and water problems, but it would be nice to have some sort of standardized charging interface. Small and very lightweight. So much so that you can misplace it or have it knocked from your belt without noticing. The magnet that holds the unit to the belt clip is not overly strong. You could certainly bump the unit out of the cradle. I've been using a rubber band to secure it. GPS signal takes some time to lock in, though I remember this being the same with the v2 watch. It is far too easy to turn the unit on when you don't want to. A dedicated power button (or at least requiring a long press) would be nice as it would be much harder to accidentally drain the battery (which has happened twice to me now already). Overall, a very solid unit. I have had some course mapping issues and ShotScope has been very responsive to support requests. The dashboard is good, obviously lagging just a touch to Arccos but I really don't care. I don't really look at the metrics too much, I just like to look back on rounds and occasionally score Internet points with long drives .

Peter: He slimed me. Ray: That's great! Actual, physical contact. Peter: I feel so funky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVnE0W-cjgY This popped up on my Google feed... Wow.

Compared to the charger clip on the wifes garmin watch, I don't mind the clothespin like clip on the H4 at all. I was taking it out of my pocket to tag the club so I could look at it to make sure it was on the correct hole for tee shots and to look at the yardage for second shots. I think I will give up on the yardage usage since I like my laser yardages better (unless I can't see the pin). As I gain confidence in it switching holes on the tee and not using it for yardage, I can see just leaving it in my pocket. I was trying to use it in manual mode for putting so I was taking it out of my pocket to figure that out and position the pin. I am worried about losing it between rounds since it is so small. I want to find something laying around here to use as a case for it, the charger and the extra tags. And how does turning it upside down in the belt clip help when you can't see past your belly to read it??!!

... Amen brother and I was one of the ignorant, digging in my repair tool and lifting until I played with a Greenskeeper that went politely ballistic and gave me the lecture on why it is so bad for greens and showed me the proper way to repair a ball mark.

"It's all in the hips." - Chubbs Oh wait... wrong thread!