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Played my little exec yesterday. One of my best scores there at 63 (1 over). Putt count was decent at 27. Back 9 was a scramble fest with just 1 GIR I seem to have found a fairly consistent extra gear on my driving lately. I'm sure the heat is helping too but in general I'm hitting the ball a good 20-30 yds further than last year and with much more consistency. Pin high drive at 343 yds was never even a thought. It must be my "old man" strength kicking in

I spent a little bit of time in the yard chipping whiffle balls around working on alignment. I was picking out a tree in the woods, going through my routine, and then letting it fly. I have a tendency to align the club decently, but my feet and shoulders are a different story...wide left. I'm hoping I got it toned down a bit before my round after work tomorrow, we're playing 9 at Bear Trace. I'm excited about the round because there's a couple of guys that haven't played in a while that I've been working hard for months to get back on the course. One just went out and got fitted for a set of G425 irons. It's going to be an interesting round, but it'll be fun.

Got back into superspeed yesterday and first time picking up a club in almost 3 weeks. My best play off the tee was when I was doing superspeed and I only got 3 weeks into the first protocol before all craziness started with our house and dog. pumped to get back into it and the swings yesterday felt pretty awsome.

Played a 5 hour and 45 minute round yesterday; waited on every tee and approach shot. I kind of expect this with a tournament, but this was a normal round. I was surprised at how well I played (41/37:78) considering how slow it was. Although I didn’t hit a lot of fairways or greens I was never really in bad trouble. I spent time before the round working on my finesse short game and it carried over to my round. Really feel like I found a movement pattern that gave me good club/ground interaction and a nice mid trajectory shot with some spin. At this point I feel like I am hitting the ball well from fairway to green. A lot of the improvement has come from a little better tempo and a better backswing position. As long as I don’t get quick, ball flight is is pretty straight and my miss is a little thin. With scores starting to drop back into the upper 70s I feel confident that with a little more work, I can get my average down to about 75 and possibly break the 70 barrier for the first time. also spent some time on my putting and that skill didn’t carry over and where I need the work. What I used to consider a big strength in my game is now a weakness. I think my Start line is good but I am missing a lot of shot putts. Need to focus a some more time on the read/start line of short putts as I might be overrating the break. Even worse is speed control. I can’t figure out how far to take the putter back to make it go any distance even on shorter 4-10 foot putts. I am leaving everything short and it has become very frustrating. I guess it is time to evaluate putters and see what putter might give me a little more ball speed to get the ball closer to the hole.

36 hole pairs competition yesterday! Morning was betterball medal, afternoon was foursomes medal. Played really well in the morning, my score was used on 14 holes. I left the driver in the car as I've not been great with it recently so relied on my F9 3 wood off the tee and it didn't fail me. Iron play was good, around the greens was good and putter was on fire - rolled a lot of good, testing putts. Ended on nett 68 - 3 under, 2 off the lead Afternoon didn't go so well but it's such a tough format. Neither of us really got going and struggled finding the fairways so had a lot of recovery shots getting back into play. Putts didn't drop and had some back luck with balls ending up right behind trees. Ended with a nett 77 for the afternoon and out of contention (winners had 139 combined) but it was a great day and the heavy rain that was forecast stayed away.

We will have a post from @GolfSpy_THV addressing this. As our Community Manager he has the most ties with HQ and the process and will update this thread.

If this new place works out. I can walk to the nearest course. It’s 9 holes, and there isn’t a single one that I would pull driver on. Membership is $950 a year for unlimited golf. Sounds like my kind of place.

I played in a scramble Saturday and could not hit the ball at all. Sunday I played a local course I had not been to this year and shot a 76! I've played this course at least 100 times and had never broken 80 before. I almost didn't play because of how poorly I played Saturday, it's a funny game sometimes. On a side note, the honeymoon effect is in full force with my new hybrid. I bought it to be my 190 yard club. I used it 6 times yesterday and averaged 186 yards and dead straight on the 1st 5, with a slight pull on the last.

First time on the range in about a month… Starting all over… Again. Good gracious.

Had my 1st REAL PT session at home this afternoon. Good Kid, he’ll be coming to the house everyday for next 2weeks! Gdaughter sent me Tee Shirt from Sacred Heart University! Not crazy about red but it’s my Gkid.

Owen and I got out to Byron yesterday to play Prairie View for the first time. Probably the best course I've ever played. Definitely the toughest, and the most well maintained. Its a municipal course but they've got plenty of money from the nearby nuclear plant. Greens were hard, undulating, and way faster that anything I'm used to. Couldnt putt to save my life. Overall I played poorly, even by my standards. Course was busy and we were waiting on every tee box. Pace of play was actually decent (we finished in under 4.5 hours) but its slower than we're used to and it really affected me personally. Just couldnt get into a rhythm. My tee shots traveled but were wayward. Whether I used driver or 3 wood, they were mostly leaky right. My second shots were mostly abysmal; lots of chunks. Not a flat piece of land outside the tee boxes. Lost six balls; probably could have found a few of them but I was overly worried about holding up the group behind us even though we had groups in front of us too. It's a mental thing that I really need to do better about. I never settled in and took the time for pre shot and pre putt routines. Irons are still coming along. While my aim and setup is better, I now have a tendency to hook them to the left. But overall they weren't the liability they've been recently. Owen had recently re-gripped them for me and it has made a big difference. I played 51/53 104 (+31) and Owen shot upper 90s. Despite my miserable time we loved the place and would like to get out there again. Definitely a challenge we need to conquer! View from one of the holes:

I don't mind ketchup on a hot dog, although I don't do it. A couple of weeks ago and neighbor and I played a round of golf with some friends of his and after the game was over one of the guys had a hot dog and put mayonnaise on it. I had to look away.

Only got in 1 round this weekend- was striking the ball well and had some good stats. 12 GIR (15 if I count fringes) 11 Fairways hit 30 putts (33 if I count the fringes) 0 lost balls Score- 75 Won 4 bets, tied 1 Walked 7.72 miles Most importantly, enjoyed some great weather with a really good foursome. Can't wait for it to all go wrong next time!

Man, you mean all this time I have been a 1%er and never knew it?

Went to the driving range this afternoon only to find out that it was packed and people were actually waiting for openings to hit. Pretty crazy. I opted for more short game work with chipping, bump & runs, and putting. Feeling pretty comfortable with the short game in practice at the moment, just need it to carry over to the course a bit more.

Went to a Titleist fitting at a local club the other day. Already having the SM8 wedges and the T100S, I wanted to hone in on both of these to find out which wedge grind/bounce options and gapping would be best. For my T100S, I wanted to verify the shafts were correct. Some interesting things came out. When I had first bought the SM8, I did so based on the online fitting from Titleist and came away with the D grind for my 54*. It took me a little to get used to it, but I've been happy with the wedge over the years. I came away with similar results this time around, but was interesting was when I switched from wedge to wedge and you can really see the results change. Not only on ball flight - the D was much more of a piercing trajectory - but also from the turf interaction and just how much of a difference it truly was. I let him know about a large gap in my club makeup. My 54* on a comfortable less than 100% swing can max at 108. While my gap wedge (T100S) can go 128/130 comfortably. He suggested, rather than taking off loft to add a 52* which I was hitting right at 118 and felt great. The only problem with that is figuring out what I'd have to take out of my bag. That would be PW, Strong GW, GW, SW, and LW. 5 wedges. Next for the irons. I tried several different shaft options and let my fitter know that I had been playing fairly well with them, but suffering more from a draw when I previously played a more straight ball to slight fade with Mizunos. We found from Trackman that my delivery was around a couple degrees too upright. This being from Titleist standard sets being around a degree and a half more upright than Mizunos as standard lie angle. On top of that, I had them bent more upright based on historical fittings, but most of that was done by lie board (which I know how many of you feel on this). The nice thing was that we settled on the same shaft I currently have as the best for launch, spin, etc... He then set me in a demo T100S set to 2* flat and automatically the large draw was taken out. When I felt like it was a big pull/hook I'd look up only to see it 10/12 yards to the right, which would still be very playable. Looking back, I wish I would made a better effort to get to the range a bit before this Titleist session. I have been lifting weights a lot more lately so I was pretty stiff and probably had one of my worst contact days of the past few years. However, I had a local club adjust my clubs and went to the range the following two days. Confidence was really coming back and I was striking the clubs very solid with a much straighter ball flight. The ball was only moving a few yards one direction or the other and I'm excited to get out to play.

Not related to golf at all, but .. today, June 6th, is the 80th (!!) anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Was reading a few interesting stories earlier. Thank You!! to all active and retired Navy and Marine people

Kenny, you just have forgotten where I came from… hahahahahaaha

Got out for 9 late yesterday afternoon. The NEO Amateur was played at Windmill over the weekend and the good tee times were blocked off and the course had some s***** pin positions. Shot a 41 on the front. I played as a single behind a 3 and a 4. Pace was excellent but at the turn I sat with the 3 and they didn't even ask if I wanted to join them so I left, which I really hate doing.

Walked 9 on the course - while my wife played her round I was pitching from about 50 yds and then putting .. last week was just putting so slowly starting to recover! Most of my wedge shots weren't too bad .. decent aim and distance control. Onlyscrewed up one short pitch .. just a stoopit mental lapse, I think, where I needed to lob it over a bunker with a tall lip towards the green .. but made the second one count. Putting was really good today* - good distance control on the first putts .. no 3 putts!! .. and a 1 putt on the last hole for an official up & down from about 53 yds Really nice afternoon to be out there! * Putting: was using the MLA Tour XDream today; still really like this putter!! The forum member test was five (5??!!!) years ago... Not sure why this thing has not gotten more recognition... It's a nicely crafted, full-milled putter with adjustable weights, high MOI and a nice solid feel.

Ran out to the range to work on some things today. Pretty annoyed to find out my biggest recent problem was that I had ended up setting up too close to the ball and jamming myself up. Spent some time focusing more on setup and letting the swing do whatever it was going to do. It wasn't the best day, but I worked through the bag hitting a lot of different shots. Struggled with some of those partial wedge distances so that is something for me to work on. A small setup change on driver and striped a couple to end the session. One last 7 iron to finish and flew the target so, it was at least a promising ending. Always feels good to walk away on a few good ones.

Nah! That's nothing... summer is just around the corner.

I have seriously thought about it in the past--- For a while we had enterained the thought of following the Sun Belt Senior Tour around until I got hurt. No way I can compete now even in the Super Senior division. But then again looking at my FB feed a while ago the thought crept in again stuff like a Hickory Tournament in Upstate NY in like September. But then again fuel prices are so darn high.

Finially starting to feel as good about my game as I did last season. I hit 13 fairways and 13 greens in regulation. I have to work on getting my shots into the green closer to the pin. I didn't have any three putts but I should have made more 1 putts. I had a few 8 footers that had potential. Overall I felt really good walking off the course. Three birdies and two bogies for a 70 My two bogies were due to greenside traps. Normally I am a good sand player but I need sand. The traps got compacted from storms last week. Our soil is a red clay base so every heavy rain clay washes in. But my shots bounced off the sand resulting in a skull. But they are in the process of putting grass faces in the traps with better sand in the bottom. The grass faces should hold the clay back. It's a slow process. They did a few last season so now you have extremes. Hard and soft traps. Still great layout and conditions.

As we start the year of testing, it’s noticeable that Major OEMs haven’t been present yet, sticking-out vs most years as we always had opportunities to test the BIG stuff right out of the gate. Curious if this is a trend we’ll see going forward? With other sites testing the “big stuff”, it can’t be the classic “shortage” argument… Anyway. It’s noticeable? Any words from the Mods about where we stand? Thanks!!!

Think it still needs to be noted the test currently out there. Some great runs in process right now. Better than nothing but again noticeable.

I learned my lesson last season. HARD PASS..... My dimples are a little deeper from the sun blisters that peeled off from wedge shots. SPF 50 won't even help, the horror, the horror!

Bit of a weird round on Saturday. Felt like I was hitting the ball decently well on the front nine, but was punished by bad bounces and lies a bunch of times (eg. drive missed the fairway by 2 yards and ends up on a 45° slope). Struggled a bit with putting as well, and made the turn with a 48. Fortunately on the back nine the bad bounces started to go away and my ballstriking improved incrementally, enough to come in with at 38 (my second lowest 9-hole score ever) and card an 86 (net +1).

My wife is guilty on that and on french fries too---- As long as it is Dukes Mayonnaise--- I have been with her some 35 years now so in time I have learned to ignore it

You will be striping it before you know it. Godspeed sir!

I fall more to the pendulum side. I am not as far on the mechanical as Bryson, but definitely favor that side of the feel/mechanical spectrum. Over time, I’ve built the feels for how far to take the putter back/move my hands to get the ball to roll specific distances. I don’t worry about the follow through as it just happens as part of the stroke. What f’ed it up seems to be this LAB putter as I have no idea how far to take the putter back and feel like I am making a huge swing just to move the ball any distance. After leaving an 8 foot eagle putt short, one of my friends laughed and handed me his putter and had me roll the same putt. While I know it is much easier the time hit a putt the second time, the stroke felt so much better. At this point, even though I read about how much everyone loves their lab putter, it is time for me to go back to a “normal” putter.

Sorry, but you have to find the best hot dog at a golf course for @fixyurdivot!!

First round in about two years and first time hitting balls. Played about as badly as I expected. Hit a few decent shots and made a couple pars. Was pretty consistent though, same score on both nines.

41/40, 81 (net -2) 7/14 FIR, 7/18 GIR, 33 putts Played an Arnie design from the tips this morning, was the first person off and was able to finish in 2 hrs 40 min. Scored really well and played really solid all around - even though I took a number of penalties off the tee. A couple 1 stroke hazards I was able to bogey, and just one stroke and distance hole that was my lone double for the day. Had a couple clutch par and bogey save putts, but was easily most excited about my approach play. Finally made some smart decisions club-wise and found myself in a lot of really good places. A number of 10-25 foot putts for birdie (and 1 from 3), got 2 of them to drop. Had my Arccos-best Approach Play Handicap of 3.7, an area of my game that's been a bit of a weakness historically. Finally had a round feel like things all mostly came together, even though I left a couple strokes out there off the tee!

Bit of a disappointing week. I did get out Memorial Weekend for a 9 and two 18s - shot 40, 79, 82. My short game is the savior of my game right now, and I finally did get a lesson scheduled for later this month to hopefully help the rest. The 82 on Monday morning was particularly frustrating, I came to No. 16 one-under on the back and once again my driver let me down - finishing double, triple, bogey on the final tree holes with awful tee shots being the cause. I was supposed to play Tuesday, and then play in both flights of an all-day scramble Wednesday but had some emergency stuff come up at work beginning Memorial Day afternoon that dragged on all week. Had to miss all of my scheduled rounds (super bummed about the scramble) and a planned day off to spend with my wife for our anniversary. Walked 9 yesterday morning and shot a 39, with a triple bogey. Had a bad three-putt for bogey also, but chipped in for a birdie on No. 15 and then hit a good drive and a great wedge to three-feet for a birdie on No. 16. Rained out this morning, but the worst part is that I was asked to play Arcadia Bluffs tomorrow morning, all expenses paid. Can't get away from work tomorrow. The universe is definitely not in my favor at the moment!

OMG that brings back memories of the trucking days---- I was lucky though I never put one in a ditch

... Good stuff. Played with a young guy last week swinging around 110 that thought he hit his driver too high and said "It is about as high as my PW" and was surprised I agreed it was but don't change a thing. Most don't realize trajectory should be about the same for every club in their bag. Obviously some slower swing speed players may have trouble elevating mid/long irons because of a lack of spin but most with reasonable speed should see a similar ball flight. Even then, since a PW is going a much shorter distance it can appear to be higher than say a 5 iron reaching it's apex further away from you.

Very true. It may not even have been considered before. As far as the lifetime bans go, players exemptions are what get them a contract offer from the tour each year. If I understand it correctly, the pga tour doesn’t have to offer those contracts(reguardless of exemptions) therefore they could suspend the players for the rest of this year and simply not offer contracts to those players next year. To go a step further, if DJ has signed a contract stating lifetime exemption to the tour due to his 20 wins then that can muddy the waters even more.

I don't mind the 110º days (yes, we get them; 118º was the highest last June) as long as I can keep my hat and a cooling towel wet. My wife can't do it though. She got heat stroke at a July 4 event one year and has to be careful when temps reach 100. We played in a tournament at the JW Marriott Starr Pass in July several years ago. She was riding with one of our buddies from ABQ from a green to the next tee when they crossed a street near the clubhouse; she told him he could either take her to the clubhouse or call an ambulance to meet us on the next hole. Same thing happened at TPC Scottsdale, but she made all 18 holes... then spent an hour in the locker room.

Man you got me beat. I've been playing summer golf here since highschool (I'm 43) and anything north of 110° I say no sir! That said, 110°+ in windy conditions and no humidity, you're basically playing golf in a microwave. That's a HARD pass right there! I know the humidity isn't fun either and would definitely take the dry heat but there is still a hard line where a good time and bat $hit crazy are standing nose to nose.

Man how awesome that must be! Until now I only know the feeling of a chip in, long putt, and a cranked drive... But I'm yet to experience an Ace. Too many close calls but still chasing that SOB. Jealousy is definitely running high!

I am guessing you swing is a little off?

Took a putting lesson this week and for the first time in 20 years I found someone that made sense. I learned to putt pretty unconventional and was based all on feel. The pro told me to do what feels natural and when I did that he said don’t change anything. Last two days I was under 30 putts and shot 75 yesterday on a course that is over 7,400 yards with a slope and rating of 76.8/154. Have to say putting was a strength for a change.

Went to one of the local courses to use the driving range this afternoon and used my CC to pay. Guy at the counter informed me that there was now a 4% charge to use card so that question has been answered. It was not like that last season so that’s new here.

Yes, It's the 8th hole. A par 5 playing 472 from the white tees. That lone leaning tree on the left, for as thin as it is, it deflects more golf balls than you can imagine. You want to aim at the cart path. If you hit it you can get to the green in two. The fairway turns left a bit . The the green is elevated tucked right with large bunkers onthe left side. The second photo is the 9th hole. Another par 5 that plays 470. Tight drive uphill. You need to fade the tee shot 20 yards to be able to have an opening to go for the green in two. Anything left of center is blocked by overhanging tree limbs or will go out of play. The fairway goes severely downhill but anything on the right side will roll the ball into a low area off the fairway right and trees block your approach. This hole is everyone's nightmare and its the #7 handicap.