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Broke out my new hat. It is from Puppies & Golf. The organization raises funds for “No kill” shelters. All profits go to that cause. Amanda Balionis Renner from CBS Sports is championing the cause. My wife and only have adopted shelter dogs. Our current pup, Riley who turns 13 in July, was from a litter that the mom was rescued just prior to being put down. So No Kill Shelters have a place in my heart.

A breakthrough is coming soon, I can feel it. Shot 80 in the Sunday skins, winning three out of the 5 of them for 21 bucks. Mind you, this was an 80 with a stretch of double-par-triple on 14, 15 and surprise surprise... 16. Also had at least 5 legit birdie chances that I didn't capitalize on and two that I gave a hell of a run to. Just gotta get the big ones out of the way and take better chance of when I'm in position and we're back in business soon.

I got to play quite a bit of golf this weekend, and honestly my ball striking is getting really solid. With that I am learning my new yardages, and with high winds it made club selection tricky. Both days, I left the course with scores that I used to be happy about, but now I am disgusted. My "bad" scores are due to a couple holes where I put myself in positions I cannot do much, or I try to do too much. I had a long sit down with my pro, and both of the rounds I coulda should woulda shot in the 70s, and I do not have much excuse now looking back. My game is improving but my scores are not. I sat down last night, while I was grilling steaks, and went through my last 10 rounds, searching for answers. I came to the conclusion, I have invested in great equipment, and training tools, and lessons, but I need a better mental approach and strategy. I have goals written down, but I need to be more focused on achieving them, not just hoping to achieve them. So, I have some more things planned, but I am going to start a diligent practice schedule and have a plan for each day. Saturday MONDAY Score 82 SCORE 85 FIR 6/14 FIR 10/14 GIR 8/18 GIR 9/18 PUTTS 36 PUTTS 35

Such a gorgeous day for a morning 9. Felt like I had the course to myself. Bogey on the opening hole. But for the most part the round was steady. The driver was behaving but it took a couple of holes to find the fairway. Four out of the 7 drivable holes found the fairway. I wont count the 6th hole as my only slice of the day found the left side 3rd fairway, I’ve never been on the left side of the 3rd fairway when I play the 3rd hole. My iron play continues to give me grief. My chipping with my 58° wedge as great except on 9 when I thinned it across the green. Putting was absolutely solid. Zero 3 putts and three 1 putts. Not sure on counting putts if putting from the fringe as 2 of the three 1 putts were after fringe “putts”. Was in the sand once. It was one of the rebuilt bunkers on the 2nd hole. Very very soft fluffy sand. It was quite the change from the very firm traps I’ve gotten used to. But I did get out of a fried egg uphill lie in a single shot, to the fringe. So I’d call that a win.

Covid is no joke. Caught it last week after my 5 year old got it from someone at school. 5 year old was absolutely fine. He is fully vaccinated and had no symptoms. 2 year old never got it. My wife and I haven't been as lucky. I start symptoms last Tuesday and my wife on Thursday. I already received my 4th shot due to the immunosuppressant drug I take But man, 2-3 days of flu-like symptoms and then just fatigue beyond belief. Was finally able to get up and play with the kids yesterday but still need to take breaks after 15-20 minutes of walking around.

Made homemade fries today to go with my smash burgers! Put old bay on the fries and they turned out nicely in the air fryer.

I got out to play nine today and I was really excited to be taking the Mizuno's out on their maiden voyage around the course. I shot a 52, which was the best score I've had in a long time. It could have been better, but I had lost tee shots on 5 and 9. My driver was ok, I can't say I hit too many fairways but I was at least in play on most of the shots. The irons were good, I hit some good shots and a few stinkers. I actually played a 4 iron off the tee on 7 into the wind that wasn't the longest I've ever hit, but it had me in the fairway. I started out the round by hitting a pull hook into the third fairway, proceeded to slice a 5 hybrid to 43 yards in front of the green, and brought out the set GW. I hit a beautiful pitch to 8 feet and drained the putt for par. I don't usually par the first, most of the times I'm in the double bogey camp. I hit all but two of my greenside shots with the GW, both were two tight pins and needed a specialty wedge for the shot. My putter was decent most of the day, I ran the numbers in a strokes gained calculator and actually picked up .48 strokes against my putting handicap and 2.14 strokes against my actual handicap. It did let me down on a couple of 26/27 foot putts where it took 3 shots to get it in the hole. Overall, it was a great day. I had fun getting out and playing the new irons.

8 pretty little ladies, all in a row. Stealth irons, 4-G, Fujikura Ventus Blue 7-S graphite shafts. Can’t wait to play them.

Smoked a pork butt on Sunday for the holiday... And I guess for the rest of the week. Tacos and Sammies at lunch and dinner for the foreseeable future haha. Was too tired from cooking/yardwork/baby to go to the market for buns so we ate them with bread. Homemade slaw and homemade bbq sauce for dressings.

I feel you Norm, I feel you.

I told her we could spend $5 grand on a tub or we could budget $150/month for spa treatments for her and I think we can all agree which won. The ongoing maintenance just isn't worth it.

Dinner last night BBQ beef short ribs with Brussel sprouts with bacon and cranberries. Back to the diet today.

Many years ago True Blue offered a free round of golf if you brought them a course flag from your home area. They wanted to decorate the clubhouse with the flags. Yes I played for free but I asked a few courses for an old flag in decent condition. They usually have boxes of them in a matainience building somewhere. I also have a few hanging in my simulator area and a Masters Flag. Never stole one, that's just not right. When I was building my last green a course gave me cups, a pole, and three flags. All from old inventory.

Last week I was suckered into playing volunteered to play in a tournament today. My wife signed us up; Memorial Day, so it can't be too bad, right? Well, it was a couples better ball tournament. Oh yeah... I had to play from the Blue tees (I used to play from there, but moved up to the White tees this year). Just to make it worse, my wife gave the club my handicap from the White tees, so now we are really screwed. THEN, she injured her right knee over the weekend and could hardly walk. (I was counting on her to play her usually good game from the Red tees). That didn't happen. It started out a chilly 54º and didn't warm up much, but then it rained most of the front nine. The rough hadn't been mowed since who knows when because of the holiday weekend, and now it was wet. Guess who was in it... a lot! I managed to shoot 86 with four Doubles and my wife shot 96; no birdies between us. I have no idea how we placed, but I heard that the couple we played with that had 4 natural birdies; two other net birdies; and a net eagle finished one shot out of the two-way tie for first place. My biggest problem was that I can't reach 3 par 5's and 4 par 4's in regulation from the Blue tees anymore, which is why I moved up. Moral of this story... no more tournaments for me where the men have to play from the Blue tees.

Asked ... ..and Answered!! (which according to the tv lawyer shows is a no-no in court )

$5k might be low at this point. That was about what our tub cost maybe 5 years ago. Friends of ours got one last year and had to wait 6 months for delivery. He didnt tell me the exact $ figure but said it felt like passing a kidney stone when he wrote the check!

I worked some OT yesterday but afterwards I met up with Owen to play at River Heights. He had already played a round with his friends and was actually the person who decided to book for us to play as well. After we checked in we ran into an older friend who works with us, Randy, and he decided to join us, too. Really windy day with sustained winds over 20 mph but otherwise beautiful. Hole one: Pulled my driver left into the treeline separating 1 and 18; about 100 yards out. Pulled out my 21° hybrid and hit it clean. Low out of the trees then it took a left turn at the dogleg and ended up just short and left of the green about 220 yards away. Just an insane shot! Chipped on, two putt; bogey. Hole two: Because of the wind I decided to put the driver away and hit 3 wood the rest of the way. 240 yard tee shot cutting the dogleg and ending up just before the river that separates the green. Pulled out my 9 iron and hit great. Too great, as it was over the green by about 20 yards. Best iron strike I've had in months. Chipped back on, two putt; bogey. Hole three: Long par five. 3 wood into the wind about 180 yards, then another 3 wood about 205 just in front and to the left of the waste area before the green. 9 iron again, this time into the wind for 135 onto the green. Best iron strike I've had in minutes, lol. Two putt, par. Hole four: Par three about 170 into the wind. Pulled hybrid and managed to draw it right onto the green; first time I've hit the green in several rounds. Three putt (sigh) bogey. Hole five: Hit 3 wood about 225 to clear the river then hit 7 iron 145 to go just off the back of the green. Three irons in a row that I've actually hit well! Then sadly four putts to double bogey. Hole six: 3 wood about 220 to clear the waste area and wound up just off the fairway on the right side. Pulled the hybrid and hit it great, hugging the line separating the rough and the fairway. I lost track as it came down but it must have hit and run forever because we found it on the green about six feet from the hole for my first green in two. Drained the putt for my first eagle!!! "He must be Eagle Man!" Hole seven: Short par three, I managed to chunk my 9 iron twenty yards, then hit 9 again over the green. Then I duffed my chip, chipped again, and three putted for a quad bogey. Oof, lol. Hole eight: Absolutely clobbered my 3 wood 275 yards, then mishit my wedge to the right of a big uphill undulating green. Three putts, bogey. Hole nine: 3 wood 225, PW 125 to just over the green. Duffed the chip, chipped again to almost hole it, dropped the putt for bogey. Thats a +9 45 for those keeping score at home. Both Owen and Randy were playing terrible and it was getting a little late, so we decided to just scramble on the back and skipped a few holes. It was clear that Randy especially was not having a good time, but he was more excited about the eagle than I was. He was the guy that got us into the game last year and he's been really excited to watch us progress over time. I'm thrilled to death that he got to be there to witness.

I am a big fan of Rose & Fire head covers. They introduced a new release of head covers today. I ordered one for my hybrid. It was a preorder and I used the promo code HONOR to get 20% off.

Nothing like a quiet range to yourself in the early evening. Cant say I’m too thrilled with the big increase in costs here in comparison to how many nearly smooth balls I found in the bucket, but that’s for another post at another time. Spent a lot of time with wedges just working on 50-60 yard shots before working my way through the bag. I spent some decent time in the practice bunker too since that’s always a problem spot for me.

Update on our "Battle of the Sexes" that I spoke of in my last post....Women won 9 matches, men won 5.....Girls Rule!

I really want some of those denim copper wedges.

We ended up signing on for a Peugeot e 2008 Allure. We got winter tyres included, massive Discount due to it being a demo with 3000 km on it and thankfully don't have to start any payments till our permits come through. Added to that a good deal on our trade in for the BMW which needs a new road safety check in September and after the BMW Dealer looked at it figured it would be 2000-3000 ch for all the parts brake work and time so we avoid that cost and get to jump into a new EV and avoid all those climbing gas prices we continue to see.

Not today but Sunday morning.. Wife said to go as she hurt her back.. So go i did.. get to the course cool overcast light breeze.. Starter tells me go off the back there is no-one out there and I'll be able to play quicker, and he'll fit me in when i come around.. perfect.. complete the 1st 9 ( the back) in 1 hour... shooting a 40, nice.. wind has picked up.. play the front 9 with a twosome.. shoot a 42. for a 82. Played well got done in 2:45min.. what a great way to start my day.. LOL

... It only happens about once every other month but nothing worse than pulling out my rangefinder and no flag in sight because the last group forgot to put it back in. Granted this is muni golf and most likely alcohol induced as on a couple occasions it happened more than once but a real pain when walking. I mentioned this before but I have always been a die in the hole putter and on short putts playing on bent grass greens it works well. But the grain on Bermuda greens calls for a much more aggressive approach because even a 2 footer can veer offline and I have had to train myself to hit short putts with much more authority. Banging the ball off the pin is both a physical and mental comfort knowing I can hit it with enough pace to roll it 2 feet past and it will drop, even when hitting the side of the pin.

After a long week of prepping to sell the house and doing odds and end stuff she officially is ready to list Thursday. Dog threw a real wrench in our plans but we got it done (more in national dog day thread). Finished up casing the windows in the basement and moving stuff out. Thank God for some of the folks from my work coming and doing a cleaning yesterday because I wasn’t going to get it done.

I played yesterday evening with my wife and son at our Florida course- she's a beginner (54.0 index) and he's never played a serious round but wanted to come out. Despite having double coaching duties and playing myself- it was a great time! It's fun for me to see them finally starting to enjoy golf (I've been inviting them for 20 years!) Just the fact that I get to share the game with them was enough to keep me happy- despite my mediocre playing. Wife- 125 Son- Highly questionable 96 Me- 82

I am about 3 weeks out from catching it. Still coughing and get worn out pretty easily. Hope you start to feel better quickly.

May have commented on this prior, but out of sheer laziness i leave it in. Just easier and my putting stats haven't changed any but one way or another.

I always pulled the flag out prior to Covid. Once that was “not allowed” I realized I prefer it in. here and there will pull it out on a short putt but rarely, have never had a ball pop out because the flag was there that I can tell

Catching up on some reading here and it sounds as if everyone that was playing in Florida all winter has headed back up North. Sorry guys. Other than it being hot and the typical sea breeze kick in when you play by the Gulf in the afternoon we had a beautiful, course was in great shape, greens were firm but not too fast, rough was there but not impossible and fairways were perfect. Our new super is doing great. I had a solid 78. Just left a few approach shots right, hole high though so I had some nice up and downs. In a 3 some that shot 78,86,97 and we played in 3:15, riding. It was a nice pace too, not rushed, we watched a funny video at the turn and I played a beautiful Memorial Day tribute that a friend sent me. He’s a retired trumpeter from the Army Band. Brought tears to our eyes. He’s was playing Amazing Grace in the background while showing a picture montage of a funeral service at Arlington.

Played Brooksville country Club today, using my SS for gps only as I famed a set up that did not have tags, Driver: Wilson Triton Fairway: 7W Patriot and 9W Tour Edge Hybrid: 3 H Hogan and 4 H Tour Edge Irons: 6-P Ben Hogan Ptx Wedges: 49/53/57 Ben Hogan Tkt Putter: Tommy Armour Impact No. 3 I shot a 42/44:86 for 5400+ yards Fir 9/14; GIR 8/18; 36 Putts Had 2 birdies and 4 Doubles. I had forgotten how sweet the Hogan irons are. Will probably keep setup in bag for this week. BTW, my Wilson Triton was awesome…..straight down the middle on a course lined with mature trees on all sides.

Well............. We had a tee time at 11:00 on Sunday. We got there and the place was full to the point of parking was almost impossible. There was an outing that no one told us about when making the tee time. That's why we couldn't get an earlier time. We were told it was no problem and we should be just fine because the groups were on their last holes. The front went well and we finished in an hour or so. We made the turn and there was the 2 guys that were ahead of us teeing off on 10. But... there was 2 guys and a woman with a baby waiting in front of us... WTF! I doubt that these guys had ever played golf before. They were on their hands and knees puting tees in the ground. Both of them shanked their shots dead right about 20'... 3 times! We decided to just play the front again, but just as we turned around to go to #1 there were 3 groups in the outing lined up to finish. Ummm.... you told us the outing was finishing just as we were teeing off??? Anyway, we played 9 holes and went back in and got a raincheck for the other 9. He told us that the 2 guys and woman must have played through to be in front of us...lol. Sure, ok. Never mind neither of them could even put a tee in the ground, but yea... they played through . I don't know how we keep having these weird situations every time we play.

Off the diet for the holiday weekend. Chicken legs with a homemade black cherry & chipotles in adobo bbq sauce.

Clearly the course doesn't have the hole laid out correctly!

If there's no "stick", there won't be a change. The most obvious "stick" would be penalty strokes, and that's the way significant events in my part of the world are run. Our state golf association has specific policies around pace of play. The Rules Officials are given a matrix which indicates the time when each group should be finished on each hole. Groups that are both out of position time-wise AND out of position on the course (and that is defined clearly) can be timed, and multiple bad times result in a Penalty. Here's a look at the Pace of Play Policy for significant events in Virginia: https://vsga.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/VSGA-Pace-of-Play-Policy.pdf This obviously requires enough manpower (and communication like radios) to monitor most of the course. The less important events have a simpler policy. If a group finishes more than 30 minutes later than the preceding group, they can be DQ. This works reasonably well for shotgun starts. In theory, most groups should be finishing around the same time, a slow group really stands out, but it can also penalize a fast player who gets stuck in a group of slow players. Slow play in competitions is tough to combat. It requires a mechanism for drawing a line between normal play and "excessively slow" play. More important, it requires a willingness to apply penalties where the policy requires it.

Got out with my Dad for a round for the first time in a year basically. Growing up we played every weekend together, but now live a bit too far apart to make that happen. Dad played solid considering he has not played since that round last year, coming in around 95. I struggled to get going on the front, starting with a messy bogey, missing a short birdie on two, and losing a ball on the par 5 7th. Just not great overall. Back started similar but finally got a little something going on hole 15. It is the longest par 4 (416 yards today) and drove it well but ended up on a bit of a downhill lie and in some longer rough. I was sure that the next shot would come out low with no spin so I took a club yes and it did play as expected. Left a longer birdie putt but was able to knock it down. Next three holes were solid pars and was able to close one over in 36, with the 40 on the front for 76. If I was not able to scramble my butt off it would have been much worse. I was 4/9 on par saves including saving from 30 and 60 yards on a couple holes and a number of bogey saves. Driver was all over the map, so hoping to sort that out after it has been solid the past couple rounds.

Sounds a lot like where I have been/am with my game. I hit the ball well, don’t get myself in a lot of trouble but still get what I feel are too many bogeys or worse. I did the DECADE 6 month fundamentals and learned a ton. That said, my focus has been on improving what he calls the Tiger 5. https://golf.com/instruction/5-golden-scoring-rules-scott-fawcett/ 4 and 5 are my Achilles heel right now.

Happy birthday @Vegan_Golfer_PNW. Have a great day.

Putted (didn't play) on the course for 9 holes .. walked along while my wife played. I was her caddie-coach as she set up for her shots .. primarily checking her aim & alignment towards her target (she tends to setup very closed and then swing across her body) .. and also trying to get her to think more tactically about her targets. Then when she got to the green I'd drop a ball towards one corner, away from the flag, and putt out from there. Well it turns out the practice green was way faster that day vs the actual greens - left 3 different long, uphill first putts way short..! Second putts were all good .. most dropped but did lip out two or three. My wife played decently and pulled off some nice golf shots

I’ve been leaving the flagstick in since 1997. Young punk kid “breaking the rules” but it just made sense to me. I think it was @revkev who mentioned that my favorite golfer, Seve, usually had the stick attended while putting. Gives you something to aim at.

@BIG STU gifted me his Motocaddy M7 as he felt walking his course was not in his future. So I'm going to give my impressions and testing here. I can't say it enough. Thank you Stu. So first off the unit does fold very compact and I was able to get it back to Tennesse with no problem even though the car was loaded from vacation. Three suitcases, a set of golf clubs, two beach chairs, backpack, beach bag, and a cooler. All in the trunk of my Chevy Impala. Being excited to take the M7 out, I headed to the course this afternoon. Probably not one of my better decisions. It was 87, sunny, and humid. I'm usually a morning golfer but I had to many chores to get caught up on after being away a week. But somehow always enough time to get in a few holes. Getting used to the controls was a piece of cake. I took it for a text drive around my yard yesterday to get familiar with it. I was zipping around the course easily. I got to the second hole and this is one of the larger hills. Shorter but steeper, if it made it up this one any doubts I had would be dismissed. Let me tell you. This thing will climb like a mountain goat. It made it up with no problem. Me on the other hand, well I was huffing and puffing when I got to the top. I'm in decent shape but this is a tough walking course. Not one flat hole, every hole has elevation changes. I made it through 7 holes before calling it quits. Mainly due to the heat. My legs were fine but I felt the heat starting to get to me. I did take a video. As soon as I figure out how to get it out of my phone I'll add it. What I learned today. I have to figure out an easy place to store the remote when I go to the green. The built in holder on the trolly is a little cumbersome. Putting the remote in my pocket is not a good idea. I'll get back to that in a minute. Stopping the trolly on the cart path that is inclined you can see that the trolly wants to roll backward. It won't roll back but it did creep a little. So on inclines I just kept the trolly on the grass and angled it a bit. I can comfortably walk and keep up on level 4. It is best to have the trolly a few yards or more out in front of you. When you turn left or right it sort of stops forward motion on harder turns and you can walk into it if your too close. Never run the Motocaddy without the wheelie bar in place. I noticed that on climbing the hills, without it, it certainly would have flipped. The wheelie bar got a work out. Most importantly disconnect the power plug from the battery to the motors when you get back to your car before doing anything else. I put the remote in my pocket and bent over to untie my shoes. Well the bending over motion must have activated the remotes forward motion and the cart ran into me. So now trying to get up, get the remote out of my pocket, and hold the trolly back must have been a site. I realized how much torque that thing has. Glad nobody was in the parking lot to see that fiasco. So if this happened at the green and depending on if you were paying attention to the cart or not it could take off as you bend down to read the green.

Just got home from a weekend away in the Finger Lakes. My wife asked how much to install a hot tub at home

Today, we had a "Battle of the Sexes" match play. -- guys against the gals. 3 foursomes teed off this morning and 4 more this afternoon. I played in the morning group and had to give 13 strokes to my opponent. I didn't play particularly well (very poorly actually), but won 4 and 3. I was the only male that won a match in the morning groups (6 matches). the other 8 matches just started a bit ago.

Look at you, you playah you! What a gorgeous set of irons!!! I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way… you’re the guy here I root for more than anyone. You’re just “that guy”, the one who always has a good word for everyone, is always upbeat, and grinding away at his game working hard to improve. These are the sticks that are going to take you to the heights you aspire to, and we can’t wait to read all about it!

Just got home from my trip down to Myrtle Beach. I played golf with Big Stu which I covered in an earlier post. Then took the family to Top Golf which was fun. I managed to get another round in with my brother-in-law Tim at Crow Creek. We both played better than we did with Stu on Tuesday. We'll chalk Tuesday up to getting the rust out. Tim and I got paired up with another two some (Allen and Tim) Weird two Tims, a Tom and an Allen). I shot even on the front 9 with one bogey and a bird. The back 9 bit me a little. I had a double on a par 3. Just missed left and rolled into a trap. The sand trap was like cement and the ball shot across the green and off. Chipped up nicely but missed the putt. Then another two bogeys some where. The two bogies were stupid I missed short putts on both. But still a very respectable 76 for a new to me course. I did do something that I don't think I have ever done before. I hit from a fairway bunker and put the ball on the green and made par not once but twice in the same round. After a few holes I could tell Allen was a good golfer and he was trying his hardest to to better me on the field of battle. He wasn't that many strokes behind me on the front 9, but the wheels fell off on the back 9. I felt bad as he picked up on two holes after going in the water twice on one hole and something similar on another. But it seemed like we all had a good time and enjoyed each other's company. I was supposed to play again on Friday at Oak Island. We sat around the clubhouse waiting for a break in the rain (HARD RAIN) but it never happened. We waited for about two hours and Pro said even if it stops they will have to close the course for a hour or two to dry up. So we called it quits. But it didn't stop raining anyway. So back to Tim's house to play some board games with the families. Tomorrow I'm taking the Motocaddy on its maiden voyage in the hills of Tennessee to see what this bad boy can do. I took it for a trip around the the house to get used to it. Not bad for a rookie driver. It motored up the hills on my property with no problem. But I'll post more on that tomorrow in the appropriate thread.