Leaderboard

44/41 ESC yesterday and 37/43 -> 80 today. Just didn't have a great swing yesterday for the nine. You can't lose two balls and post a 10 on a hole and score well, either. Started today's round really well but tailed off at the end again with seven bogies and two pars on the back. Lots of tough luck breaks with poor or obstructed shots following decent tee shots. Rolled a putt all the way around and out on No. 16. Just not my day. Still happy to see my anti-cap come down as I've been playing more consistent as of late.

Yesterday was crazy. We had a big storm Friday night that dumped like 4 inches of rain. Yep it was CPO which if it had been a regular members event we would have not have to went that way. But I can see the owners position on that far as course damage. I was going to pull out but one of the owners let me take a cart and ride out. It was not as wet as to the fact I would be slogging and putting pressure on my knee. I decided to play after all. We had a lot of no shows including 2 on my team. One of the owners called Big Bear and myself over and we decided to split us up. Bear went with a mixed group ( ladies and men ) that he knew and I went with 3 guys I knew and had never played with. They know my status and agreed to retrieve any balls I hit in the fairway they did not use. LOL we had a younger player that could flat move the ball and play. I played my course from areas on approach I had never played from before. LOL never pulled the cover off the 7&9 woods all day but wore my 6 iron through wedges out. This guy is so long and straight we putted for Eagle on every Par 5 no joke. With the crappy greens we still shot -9 and never had an Eagle. My 9 thru wedge game was good but his was not bad. LOL after about 4 driving holes I never pulled the driver out of the bag stayed in the cart. The other guys were good players too. On all the Par 5s I would hit the approach first and basically what was a good 3 wood layup for me. With it being wet I did not get any roll but could go about 185 or so straight and give him the green light. On our par 5 14th one of my partners hit a driver off the deck and ran it on the green. man it was fun. Bad thing next week is their regular partner will be back and I will have to play against those guys. Actually they are so good they would be hard to beat even as a 3 man team not playing an extra ball. I see them as the new Power Team. Found out last night that my running partner is not coming down from Pennsylvania. He says he has too much work on his mini farm there. He also cited it was so hot and humid here. But I do know I do have a big hitter good player on board with me and we will do a pick up team perhaps with Big Bear. Right now players are sketchy due to weather and course conditions. And with us being closed in the afternoons and the crappy condition of the course in general some folks have been playing elsewhere and like Fozzy and his bunch liking it. I know some of the neighboring courses have been open in the afternoons despite the heat. One of the Owners Dad and I am not sure if he is an investor or not made the statement yesterday in front of several members. That they were not staying open in the afternoons for a few of the red card members ( like myself) to play $20 rounds. I can see it somewhat from a business standpoint. But he should not have said it in front of the members. He angered quite a few including one of my other Scramble Partners/Members. Several said they were out after this year. There is a Platnum Membership card that has 4 courses in this 3 mile radius including mine. It does cost more and the green fees are more but those courses are staying open and not really having a bunch of afternoon play. One of the guys bristled and told him well they did have certain obligations since they had their hand out for the Membership fees. Now they have been good to me and I love the place but I am having mixed feelings on things in general. This is one of the times I am going to sit back in silence and observe. Did have one member ask me after the shooutout what my opinion was. I told him well that may have been the case from a business standpoint but he should have not been so vocal in front of members. I am sure several will talk to the Majority owner whe he gets back from out of town and I am sure someone will mention I was there when it was said. I am sure I will get a phone call from him since we have known each other for over 20 years

Played horrible today in 90*+ weather. Shot a 45/47:92. I did chip in on a par 3 from 30 yards out for a birdie! Out of 51 players, only 2 birdies held, paying $100 each. Mine was one of them! So, overall, not a bad day. Greens were punched this week…..

I am not a big fan of slow greens either. All I can say is wow when you say you had 14 3 putts. There is a course in my league that has notoriously slow greens; it is just bang it hard straight at the hole because it probably won't break. The only problem is that your brain struggles to make the huge swing for a putt.

Been looking at the PXG Fairways for awhile, as mine are Cobra F8 3W & 5W, Patriot Golf 7W, Tour Edge E521 9W. Anyway, the veteran price had been $128 but all of a sudden it jumped to $174! So I called and they gave me the $128 price……so I now have to beg forgiveness from SWMBO when they show up next week.

51 yesterday on nine but figured my swing out on the last hole. Hit the range after to in grain the feel and I was nearly a club longer according to my prgr. Three putted the first hole because I wasn’t focused. No three putts otherwise and nearly chipped in for par on a whole I made a lot harder than I should have.

Went out today with my wife and another couple. I needed to practice my excuses for the 2022 MGS PNW Golf Outing in 5 days. To start off... Yesterday I moved a bunch of boxes and "stuff" out of my so-called hitting bay so it can be demolished. Not to worry... construction starts on a new addition to the house to replace it. I also had to dig up and cap off underground sprinklers so the heavy equipment doesn't break them. To say that I'm sore is a huge understatement!! I wasn't sure that I could swing this morning. I was -2 after 4 holes with B2B birdies on #3 and #4; the par 3 #4 was almost my 4th ace... finishing 6 inches behind the hole. Then I went on a run of 7 straight bogeys before I got my 3rd birdie on the par 3 #12... missing an ace by two feet. I parred #13, 14, and 15 and then made my 4th birdie on #16 with a 20 foot downhill breaking putt. A par on #17 and bogey on my nemesis hole #18 gave me a +3/+1 round of 76... missing my age by one shot. Best round I've had so far this year, and my only round... ever... with more than 3 birdies. Beware the wounded golfer!! Here are the Yellow Balls of my wife and the other lady in the rough on #10. Aren't they cute! My wife got up and down saving par; I was just short of the green and failed to get up and down for par with my Maxfli Tour X. I'm sure @Yellow Ball will have some snide comment.

Do you think SWMBO is going to believe Foz when he says they were free after getting the PXGs??

Three dozen Z-Star! Used the Dick’s gift card, so I got them for $50!!!

Owen and I were joined by our friends Mark and Randy today to play Hughes Creek in Elburn. Really nice course with some super fast greens. Place was packed on this beautiful day. Poor Randy was spraying from the outset and got into a funk early. He lost a bunch of balls and wound up shooting in the low 120s. Mark was solid and put up a score in the mid 80s. Owen struggled early but got it going and shot 94. I played pretty good, except when I didn't. Driver was occasionally wayward but serviceable. Approaches were a little chunky at times and the short game was solid. Putting, however, was crummy. I really had trouble reading the greens and missed a bunch inside ten feet. Pin location on nine was downright evil. Perched right on top of a ridge; if you missed short it rolled back to you. I four putted and Randy five putted. I went 50/47 97 (+25). Fantastic weather, good time, great company.

Earlier in this thread there was a brief discussion related to dogs. Some here may know that I am also in a car club which supports Leader Dogs for the Blind, which is based here in southeast Michigan. Today our club put on a "Cars & Coffee" event at the Leader Dogs facility, where all the donuts, water, coffee, etc. we donated, and those who attended made a donation for the items of their choice. We also had a 50/50 drawing, and then had a club member volunteer to allow people to sit in his C8 Corvette for a photo opportunity again with a $5.00 donation made to Leader Dogs for that. The event ran from 9:00AM -12:00PM (noon) and we raised a total of $2143.00 total to benefit this great organization. I did take some car pictures, and if someone here may want to view them, shoot me a message with your email, and I can send you the Google photo link.

I played 18 today with a friend from work, his son, and one of his friends. They wanted to come up and play Flagstone (formerly known as Chatata Valley) and they were booked until 2. So we decided to play at Falcon Pointe (formerly known as Waterville, and in my mind after hearing the name they chose...all I hear is Eagle Fang). It was a fun, beautiful day to be out after a bunch of days with the heat index being over 105. Today was 88 and windy, making for a great day to be chasing a ball all over the place. I had a very up and down round. My driver continues to be a weapon, my iron play was suspect, but I'll not complain because I only had two shanks, my wedges were meh, and my putter was atrocious. I think the greens were stimpimg at about a 4 and I had at least 14 3 putts. Shot 56/65 121. It was just a day I couldn't string anything together. I hit my shot of the day on the par five 8th hole after being 263 yards out with my drive I peppered a hybrid downhill, down wind to 51 yards. I proceeded to duff the next shot into the creek and then 3 putted. I nearly killed a guy on the 17th when I pull hooked a 5 wood toward the tee box on 18 and hit the windshield of their cart. I honestly didn't see them as it's downhill from where I hit. Fortunately, one of my partners yelled as soon as the ball came off my club. I pulled up to apologize and saw a guy doubled over and nearly had a heart attack. He wasn't the person I nearly hit, I'm pretty sure he was pouring water on his head to cool off. It was fun playing with a couple of young guys and I enjoyed watching them rip a few drivers. They're both new to the game and once they figure things out, they're going to be good.

Played better than I thought today. I’ve been getting closer to my goal of breaking 90. Keeping all of my rounds in the 90s has definitely been an eye opener for me. I tell myself that, for me, smart golf is better than aggressive golf. Today was going pretty well on the front with one par and two doubles through eight. Nine is a 505 yard par 5 that I have been shooting par on as of late so I was pretty stoked teeing off there. Tee shot in the fairway, second shot into the fairway, wedge onto the green with less than a 3’ putt. Oh boy. Drained the putt for a bird to make me happy with a 44 on the front. Back felt about the same with two pars and no bad, for me, holes through 16 and sitting comfortable. I felt that I did a really good job of keeping the score out of my head which allowed me to relax and make smarter shots. That changed on 17 where a couple of bad shots and a three putt left me with a triple bogey. No big deal. 18th tee shot went left behind trees which forced me to punch out sideways to the fairway. 200 yards to the green for my third shot and this is where the smart golf went out the window. Went with 4 iron which covers the distance but it went left of the green and left me with an uphill shot and another tree. 60° over the tree to the green and then two putts to finish with a double. Check me score for the back……48. 92 total with a triple and a double to finish. Ahhhhhhhh! So close. Still happy with where I’m at and confident that I am on the right track. I love and hate this game at the same time.

I do enjoy testing opportunities, but its not a primary driver for be being a member. I am fortunate to have the ability if I would like to try something, I can buy it lol (think i have a reputation around here). I feel like its generally a pretty tight knit community around here. I like to talk about golf and golf equipment, and very few of the people I play golf with like to talk about golf equipment at the depth we talk about on here. Also, when my wife tells me I buy too much equipment, i can point to other members on this forum who buy even more equipment than me

Got out for the Father's Day round at a top area course that is tough to get a tee time at. It was upper 50s this morning which is crazy given it was low 100s when I played less than 48 hours prior. Drives were a little iffy, irons were great playing with a 2-3 club wind, chipped ok and back to 30 putts after the abysmal performance in the tourney. Birdies on the par 3 #11 and short #13. But penalties on #12 & #14 hurt. Shot 40/38 it was a good morning.

I had a really hard time getting my brain wrapped around hitting it harder. It surprised me they were running so slow, the course came under new management a little over a year ago and they completely resurfaced them and the couple of times I played, they were quicker. Next time, I'll just have to chip them closer.

Got to play again today and kept score. Shot 80 (41/39). I had three bad holes, and didn’t putt worth a dang, missing three birdie putts from inside 10’, one just 4’ away. Ugh. My driver, Stealth 9* with GD AD-XC 7X, was an absolute BEAST today. I hit four drives over 325, and hit 64% of fairways. It was hot as hades, but I really enjoyed getting out again. Z Star was money, so I’m headed to Dick’s to pick up 3 dozen, using a $50 gift card.

As I predicted after yesterday's poor round, better days ahead. Sweltering heat again today. Shot a 38 on the front nine, bogeying 8 and 9. On the back, I had 2 lost balls (both I had a good idea where they were, just never found them) and came in with a 41 (with the penalties) for a nice little 79 for the round. Played the par 3s at 2 under (and almost birdied the last par 3 (2 pars, 2 birds))

Sorry for the length. My experience at Southern Hills is complete. It wasn’t a round of golf but rather an unforgettable experience. As soon as you get to the main gate you are greeted by an attendant in a suit. You pull up to the bag drop and your car is unloaded for you, your bags are put on a reserved cart. You are directed to the men’s locker room and assigned a locker for the day. This was a locker room like no other! Once you are ready to roll and get back outside you are given a caddy. We did about a five minute range warm up and another five on the putting green. A little bit about the course conditions to start. The temperature was 94 degrees and it was windy. You had to wait between gusts to hit. The rough, fairway and greens were still at the tour conditions. In fact most of the tents were still up and a few were in the process of being taken down. Talk about fast greens! Glad we hit the practice green. The rough was about 4 inches deep but it was a soft airy type of turf. The ball would just disappear and you had to be right over it to see it. But if you found it you did not lose that much distance hitting back out as long as you came down on the back of the ball. Trying to sweep though was not an option. The fairways were fast as get out. I now can see why the Pro’s get so much roll. I’m a decent driver of the ball off the tee for my age but the distance increase was welcomed. You easily got another 25 to 35 yards. As an example on hole #13 a par five of 495yards I only had 200 yards left. The course layout was amazing. My only complaint was the sand in the bunkers. It wasn’t sand it was like very small stones. It’s hard to describe but here is a picture. I’m good out of the sand but if you got one of those pebbles between the ball and the club you didn’t know where it was going. And it was all hard packed. The caddy was young but was helpful finding any balls that missed the fairway. Unfortunately some of his suggestions on what yardage to hit on lay ups was a bit off and his reading of the putts for some of the guys was just ok. After several holes I turned him off in my head and just trusted my own judgement. Then I was playing much better. The pars started coming and then a birdie thrown in here and there. This was a challenging layout to say the least. You had to know where to hit and how far to hit and take into consideration the roll you were going to get. On the first hole I learned what not to do. I hit a great drive but it kept on rolling, crossed the fairway and rolled in the fairway bunker. I learned the sand was not real sand and the bunkers are deep. You have to take your medicine and just get out. Now out and going for the green I only had 60 yards to green center. I hit a perfect lob wedge. High and right at the pin. It landed about 3 feet from the pin and the caddy said that was perfect. The ball was just barely crawling toward the cup then the wind picked up and now my ball was 20 yards off the green. Chip back up and two putt for a double. The second hole was the number 1 handicap hole and I made par which impressed the caddy. Not to mention I was pleased with myself after a rough opening hole. I got onto another par three and was the first to tee it up. I hit a great shot into the green and the ball sat about 15 feet from the pin. The other three guy hit but did not get on the green. Then another wind gust came and then my ball was gone. I get around the back side of the green and it was now 40 feet off the back. With the re-design of the golf course they rounded off all the greens to add challenge. Not fun for mere mortals. Another thing that was interesting. I never got to hit a 3 wood or a 5 wood all day. The par fives greens were so well guarded that going for them in two would be a life altering experience. The others in my group tried and failed miserably. I played smart, layed up and made pars. I don’t think I ever played a course with that many bunkers. As we got toward the end of the round I was looking forward to hole 18 after watching it on TV. I hit a great drive on 18 leaving 192 yards to the uphill green surrounded by bunkers. Last hole no guts no glory. I pulled my 7 wood and crushed it up onto the green 15 feet below the pin. My member friend said “in the 16 years I have been playing here with other friends and members, it was the first time he ever seen anybody on the green in two.” After finishing up I couldn’t have been happier with the day and the experience on the course. Let me say that the dining areas in the club house were nice and the food we had for dinner was amazing. I had a filet and it was probably one of the best I ever had (and I have been to a lot of good places). Let me say that this course was no joke. Placement of the ball was critical. The worst round shot in the PGA Championship was an 80. So my goal was to break 80. Did I do it? No. But I was so freaking close with an 81. There were a few doubles, some bogies a bunch of pars and two birdies. The front nine was rougher on the score card due to figuring things out and learning that the caddy was not always right. I shot a 42 on the front. The back 9 I did on my own and pulled out a 39. The yardage was 6306 with a rating of 72.2 with a slope of 134. I think if I got to play it again I could pull off breaking 80 there. My playing partners scores were 109, 101, and 93. The 93 came from another single digit handicapper.

@fozcycle - Congrats; what irons are you going to get?

Wonderful, the clubs were just delivered. They are the correct clubs and nothing is damaged. They live to play another day.

Wow, 4" of rain would put most courses out of commission for days or a week in most locales. Maybe I misread/understood, are they closing in the afternoons due to heat/humidity? Crazy how various parts of the country are experiencing near opposite oddities in weather. We're now just starting to warm up and dry out from an abnormally cool and wet spring. I don't recall seeing our region as green as it is now - almost into July. World weather seems to follow Newtonian Physics.

If you didn't read that as stripper like I did, I don't think we can be friends!

Bought my wife an Epic Max driver, 5W, and 7W from the Callaway preowned store. Next step is to get her to a nearby fitter for irons .... She has just recently taken golf up again after 30+ years of not playing and was using a set of clubs that a female friend gave her that were all senior shafted clubs. While she does need the added length, she struggles with the weight and stiffness of the shafts. She did take my Scotty Cameron Platinum Pro putter and put it in her bag. For myself, I bought...ummm....hey! Nothing! Oh, wait. I did buy some Maxfli Tour X golf balls.

Last year. I apparently went out to dinner somewhere in Iraq. $165 tab. Don’t remember a thing, and as far as I know, I have never left North America. Must have been some really good drugs…

Our greens were punched this week so we decided to go 20 miles op the road to Hernando Oaks. I shot 93 Tuesday then 89 Thursday. Beautiful layout….Boys liked it so much we are going back this Tuesday.

75 today at the Siena club: I’m beginning to realize I’m good for about 5-6 bogeys a round, and it’s only a matter of if I’ll get any birdies to balance those out. Chip-in eagle and a birdie on the back 9 gave me a 39/36. Only 9/18 Gir but 9/14 Fir… got up and down like a boss today 6/9. Plus my wife shot her new personal best of 80!

FOZ!!!! Congratulations!!!! Great job. Hell of a Tournament

I’m pulling for Fitzpatrick as Foz is leading the pool now and he has Fitz and the guy in 2nd has a Zalatoris. They both have Scottie and Keegan as their other players. Id love to see a forum regular let alone one of the OG’s win!!

I don't know where to start. But trying to get home from Kansas City on DELTA Airlines was and still continues to be a nightmare. 1) 4pm flight on Friday canceled when I got to the airport. 2) Next available flight Saturday 5:30 pm. Flight came in delayed. 3) Got on the flight, checked the track my bags section of the app and my bags were not loaded. Could have just been a glitch right? After all it was sky priority tagged. 4) Flight got into Detroit on time but then had to wait before the plane could pull into a gate. 5) Got off the plane and had 4 minutes before they closed the door of my flight to TN. 6) I actually had to run, not walk fast, run 20 gates. Got on with seconds to spare, last one on the plane. 7) I find someone sitting in my seat with the same seat number on their ticket. WTF. Got the flight attendants to straighten out everything. They had to shuffle people around. But finially on my way. why does the number eight turn into a dam smiley face. I'm not smiling. Got into TN at midnight only to find no luggage. Most importantly no golf clubs. Needless to say I've been pissed for 7 hours straight at this point. 9) Go to baggage claim and they said one was on the plane. Here it comes. Oh great just my suitcase with dirty laundry. 10) Filed a claim and they said it was in route to Seattle, then to Atlanta, then to TN. So my scheduled round of golf this morning with other Dads for Fathers Day, I was a no show. 11) Got a call from Delta this morning and said someone tagged the clubs as Mr Johnsons. Who the heck is he. I got several tags on the Club Glove with my name on it, sky priority tags and such. 12) Just got a notice that the driver was on his way to bring my clubs to my house. Should be here in two hours. Let's hope they are mine! There will be hell to pay if they aren't. Missed my birthday with the family, almost gave myself a heart attack running 20 gates. Had a screaming baby behind me from Detroit to Knoxville. Then had 1-1/2 hour drive home. Wake up to find out my son got food poisioning and didn't mow the lawn. Just spent 3 hours on fathers day mowing. PLEASE BE THE CORRECT CLUBS!

And I have found them to be a lot cooler too both function and style. And the ladies love it with my long hair and shades. A bunch of them now call me "Big Sexy" no joke. And yes my wife knows about it and has no problem and so does some of their husbands.

I’m going to be booking an iron fitting coming up I want to see which irons I will play best. I definitely want to go the players distance route especially since it’s the half way between the blades I play now and game improvement irons. I kind of want to hit the t200 and the other game improvement irons

We have not had any real rain for a few weeks and that course is rock hard anyhow and most of our greens are exposed. The reason they stated the last 2 weeks was that they were irrigating etc in the afternoons. but I know just about everybody that lives around the course and some get out on their carts to ride around and hawk balls and a couple told me they had not seen any of that going on. The current story is the heat and humidity and one of my sometimes Shootout partners lives on the course on nearby Blackmoor. He says all last week he saw a few players on the course in the afternoons not crowded by any stretch of the imagination but still foks playing despite the heat and humidity. Even in my current state of health I can play in this weather by being smart and dressing properly and resting and drinking plenty of cold fluids. Now Pops had stated he knew of other courses were closed for the same reason which is untrue. 3 courses more high end resort courses have closed for the summer to do scheduled maintenace work to get ready for the World Am and the fall tourist season. I will admit afternoon play is down quite a bit because of the weather. Now the early general tourist season has been brisk here but as others have said we think we will see it drop off if the gas prices continue to rise. The tale will be told there in a couple of weeks for the July 4th Holiday weekend.

I hate giveaways as well. It brings short term surges in numbers with almost nobody sticking around after, even if they win but when people get chosen to test, most of the time a new member will feel a sense of responsibility to the community, deliver a good review and then stick around because the review had then interact with the community That’s how you grow the community in a sustainable manner

Our greens looked worse than the ones Fozzy Posted. They were slow too. I left the extra weight (lead Tape) on the Scotty I put on last week. I also on any putt over 10 feet went away from my claw grip to a conventional grip. What also makes it somewhat hard for me is the fact by ingrained habit I am a die putter always have been. I grew up on 328 Tifton Bremuda greens which are somewhat slow but adapted fast when I started playing bent 40 years or so ago. I have to force myself to as I call it Ram Jam. I can not ram jam one with the claw grip so I have to go conventional

I wish I had your GIR.

Yeah. There is some sort of insurance on it. I actually wouldn’t care if if all ended up strewn across Interstate 80 so I can get a full claim. Most of it is kids toys. Only on thing I really care about in there.

Found a new instructor and trying to setup a lesson for this week to make sure we are compatible and can start to achieve some of my desired swing improvements. Essentially my high level goals are to: 1. Build a reliable stock shot. 2. Improve overall ball contact by reducing fat/thin/toe strikes. 3. Improve face control. On course measurements will be to increase FW and GIR percentages. I typically hit 8ish FW and greens during a round and would like to see those numbers improve. While FW % isn't really all that critical and I prefer to look at if I am able to advance the ball and have a chance to land on the green I think hitting a few more FWs would be beneficial. I'd like to bump up the GIR to average 11ish per round. My thought is that this would save me 3-6 shots per round getting my scores down to averaging mid to mid-high 70s. depending on how quickly I progress with the lessons, maybe do some finesse and distance wedge work.

Me too but a long, long time ago, after college. Once I quit playing baseball I played a lot of competitive golf (until I got married and had children). I did not do very well. I was a 3 handicap and could not play to it at all. My main issue was that I took it way too seriously. After having children and graduating from seminary I started playing competitively again and loved it. I was in my late 30's, I could still hit the ball fairly long and was a very tough 5 on my home course - so tough that I could even compete when I had a little stretch that brought my handicap down to a 2. My game however did not travel well at all. Then I moved to Wisconsin where the season was very short and my competition was limited to a 9 hole match play league. Then I moved to Florida and at 50 my game really blossomed. For about 5 years I was a solid 1, anywhere I played because I absolutely loved playing competitive golf, loved the nerves of it, loved meeting and competing against new people, loved holing big putts to shoot solid scores, loved winning, loved loosing because I knew that I could come back for another go round. Sadly that ended when I got really sick and then developed an irregular heartbeat - I very much want to get back into playing competitive golf again - my club has games at a great time - I just need to get through the summer and I'm in. Bottom line is I think that the more you focus on enjoying it the better you will do. The biggest mistake that you could make would be to get out of your routine the day of the tournament. If your normal routine is to show up half an hour early, bang a few balls and go putt don't suddenly show up an hour early because that's what the pros do - do what you do. The other three things that I'd suggest that I haven't read (I may have missed them) as yet are: 1. Play all golf straight by the rules from here on out including putting everything out. You will miss some putts that you would have racked away in a casual round, it's okay, it happens, the more that you putt them out, the more comfortable you will be when it counts. When I'm in competition and have a knee knocker I just think about the 1,000 of putts I've holed before. 2. Practice with a purpose. You may be on the range but once you're warmed up, simulate play on the course - if you would normally hit driver down the left side and 8 iron on number 1 - do it. If number 2 is a 178 yard par 3, tee up your 178 yard club and hit it and so on and so forth. A few years back I was going to play a round at TPC Sawgrass. For two months before I went I would tee up an 8 iron on the last shot on the range and hit the island green. Every time I faced 135 yard shot on the course I was picturing hitting that green. On the day that I played the course I had 137 to that back shelf, into a slight breeze and I hit my 8 iron about 15 feet short - it was never in doubt - practice with a purpose. 3. On the days of your tournament slow down. Your heart rate will be up, you will be nervous and excited, like stepping into the batters box if you were a hitter or facing the middle of the batting order if you were a pitcher - unlike baseball though golf can have that kind of pressure for 5 or 6 hours - so slow down when you get out of the car and stay slow throughout. Good luck - can't wait to read how you did - three days - that's a big tournament. Have fun!

Good Shootin----- Hey there are not any pictures or explainations on the score card---- This may sound strange but these days my most fun rounds are those I scramble in. Of course for me it reminds me of my younger days playing. In those days my FIRs and GIRs literally sucked but I could get up and down out of a trash can. I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy my vintage golf so much. Good example I know darn well for a fact I can not hit a 2 iron 220 any more but will try anyhow and come up short by 40 yards or so. Next challenge getting it up and down and another fun factor for me is at least I tried to hit the 2 iron and that is fun within itself. Really now days I do not sweat the score except in the weekly Shootout and there I will try my best and I do have fun. Do not keep a real handicap only one for my purposes which there I do not know why since I do not take golf so seriously any more

It sounds like you had a great experience at Southern Hills and that's a great score, Tom. To be able to get that low with those conditions is a testament of how good your game is. I'm glad you had a good time and I hope you have a safe trip home.

Well, if I can't win, I'd love to see Foz win.

One of these guys needs some of this… they are throwing the tournament away. I bet Hideki wins at this point.

Great choice! I added the Epic Max 3W, Heavenwood, and 9W to my bag this spring. Easiest FWs I've ever hit. I'm also loving the Maxfli Tour X so far.

So, I’m gonna have an extra 5 days from closing till we can occupy. I had to compromise, but the Wife (best ever I may add) is going to let me go play Bandon. I only get 1 day, but looking to book (hopefully) 2 different courses. Haven’t checked yet, hopefully there’s space when I can get there. In return, all she wants is to go to our old stomping grounds in Bellingham for a few days.

Really don’t have much to add to what these guys summed up perfectly. The one thing for me that I love is helping other people understand equipment and how it could help their game. I used to be a guy that thought switching shafts could drop my spin 1500 rpms. Through many years of asking questions and listening to people much smarter than me I feel that I have gained a ton of knowledge that I want to help transfer to others. The main two avenues for that are general discussion and forum testing.

Plan your food and hydration. If you want to play consistently well over 3 days you must fuel yourself well. You need premium, dude! Hope you play well.