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... Played on one of my favorite Mountain courses yesterday that I never seem to score well when playing. Verrado Founders and the mountains really effect some putts but not others. Crazy difficult to read and I only play there a couple times a year so they remain a mystery. My friend took a photo of my 7 iron on the 165 yd par 3 that was one of only 2 birdies. About 8 feet below the flag with no break, thankfully. But I also added 4 bogies to shoot a 74. Most of the back 9 is right up against some mountains that are behind me in the video so you can't see them. One par 4 goes straight up the mountain like a ramp and while it is only 282 it plays much longer. The diabolical green has a huge false front and anything not past the middle comes back down 30 yds and you have another shot where you can't see the bottom of the flag. You have to play long and the comeback putt looks very uphill but you are coming down the mountain and it is actually pretty flat. Easy to roll past the pin and back down the mountain, which my pard did and ended up with a triple bogie. ... There is also an Air Force base nearby and they do two team flyovers insanely low and it looks just like Top Gun! A fun day even if I didn't score well.

Today my wife, Chanin, has been in paradise for 17 years. You know, you get less time for murder!

Played for the first time in a month today. Shot 78 (!) hit 5 fairways and 11 (!!!) greens. Score is 2nd best ever and GIR is best ever. Actually didn’t putt great as I had 3 3 jacks but also had 2 birdies and probably the best sand save I’ve ever had. Had rained most of the week so greens were soft but there wasn’t any fairway roll either so probably evens out. Only my 3rd time in the 70s so I’m feeling great today!

Owen and I played the front nine with our friends Paul and Mark at River Heights today. After a lesson yesterday I was really disjointed today. +5 on the first hole and +10 after three. On the par three fourth I badly topped my tee shot but followed with a wedge onto the green and sank a 30+ foot putt for par. Hot and cold the rest of the way. Putting keeps getting more consistent, wedges and chipping was good as long as I wasn't in a bunker. Irons were better than before. After that atrocious start I wound up +18 54. While looking for Paul's ball I almost put my face right into this guy and his web: Might have peed myself a little... On the whole we had a good time. Owen and Mark played their usual game and Paul had some really good shots.

Quick morning round. Started +2 after four holes and nearly even as I barely missed two birdie putts. Then hit the drive of my life and get excited at a change for eagle being under 200 in on a par 5. Ended up doubling and the rest of the round I couldn’t get back focus. Shot a 48. Driver started to fall apart after that par five. I think because I was getting tired (did super speed before round). up until then everything was straight. Setup the prgr on some holes and avg carry with it was 267 although I don’t think the long one got 44 yards of roll. The fairways here were wet. Putting was better. Only three putt was after a terrible lag put. 0-3 on putts 12 and in. Just pushed them all right. Irons were also good until that par 5 and then I started hitting thin.

Did you not pay attention in Biology class in school? Like a three piece golf ball, I also have three layers. The epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis. All part of my outer layer. In short, thanks for feeling me up! A ball will take all he can get! I also enjoy the way you wash and dry me during the round. The bristles in the ball washer are very invigorating.

Bacon Boyz Friday!! 7:00am still a little dark but that’s OK, big rain last night CP only not so good. We all got of to a poor start but then I started to actually hit a ball 1/2 decent again. I've moved up to 6 iron max and no knee problem, walking back and forth to my ball not fun. Anyway, starting to feel comfortable over the ball and hit some real nice shots. Might even start keeping score, maybe……

... I just wanted to hit an emoji button but none covered "sad but true".

Shot decent, but a few lapses. But, 4 birdies turned a meh day into a decent one. 3 of the par threes and a par 5. Had a few others that missed by a 1/4”, or stopped an inch short. Bad part was the 2 doubles… ***wince***

Just got press credentials for the LIV stop outside of Boston next week. Just need to see for myself what it's all about. My guess is the fan experience is going to be very good, and I'm expecting all the logistics to be fine. It'll be interesting to see how the town of Bolton and the course itself handle crowds, but from what I've read about other venues, it all seems like it's been very well done. They do have some interesting Media Guidelines...

Savage….I want to be you when I grow up would never be able to pull that off right now

My thoughts are the exact opposite. Wife gets sick and I think, great, she won't want to go anywhere and I don't want to catch whatever she has. I'm going golfing for few days.

This is cool John; looking forward to hear what you think of the venue. Not being familiar with typical media related restrictions/requirements, what stands out to you as different? If you happen to see Brooks (after he signs his scorecard of course) tell him Fix thinks he's a bum for stringing me along on the MGS Fantasy League and that I hope he shoots in the 80's all 3 days .

Day on the course is always a blessing

Went to TopGolf in Naperville today and got a lesson with the instructor. First time I'd ever been there; neat place. We have a rewards program at work and one of the things you can get are TopGolf gift cards so I figured I'd try it out. Lesson went extremely well. Adjusted my grip a bit and that really helped. I always had the club more in my hand and now it's more in my fingers. Then we worked on my takeaway; bringing the club straight back a little more and keeping the head out, as opposed to basically twisting it up and around my body, of that makes sense. Still struggling with my arm positioning at the top of my backswing (throwing a sandbag onto my shoulder) and also need to really pay attention in order to open the clubface during the takeaway. Something to keep working on. 8 iron shots went from weak hooks to pretty consistently straight with ball height around 100 feet and carry of about 140 yards. Consistent strike pattern although a bit toe-y. Most of the tweaks carried over to my 3 wood although if I wasn't careful with my grip it would get slicey. Hitting the course tomorrow with Owen and a friend of ours and I'm really excited to see if I can get even some of it to carry over!

Playing lesson today; played 4 holes and made some plans for my remaining couple of lessons. Driving, putting, and course strategy were good. Based on the assessment we are going to work on irons and I am going to work on shots around the green based on what we discussed. During the lesson I was pulling my short irons; which is my miss, so we are going to work on face control. For around the green I am going to start using less loft to get the ball on the green faster and let it roll out. During my lesson, I was much closer to the hole using this strategy vs higher lofted clubs. If I can improve my around the green play, I should be able to lower my scores a bit more. Next couple of weeks will be practice time so I can try to incorporate what we discussed and see how it impacts my play.

So today was an interesting round. Shot 105...But!!!! For those that dont' know, I'm in the middle of having cataract surgery on both eyes. My Right eye was done two weeks ago, my left eye was supposed to be done yesterday but had to be canclled due to an emergency with the surgeon. So I decided to give it a go playing with "one eye" It was interestng. Hitting off the tee was not a probelm really, but hitting off the turf was. First I would often see 3 balls until until blinked a few times and refocused. Still it led to some pretty poor shots that resulted in several penalty strokes througout the round. Putting was difficult at first, but then I found a method that worked ok. Even made some nice 5 to 8 footers, and one 15 footer for par. We're in the stretch run of our league and playoff spots are at stake. So I don't want to sit out the next three weekis. As long as I show up and play I get the points for that, and who knows maybe a "blind squirl" will find a CTP every now and then for some bonus points.

Cherish the time you have with them while they are young. Seems like I turned around and now they are 34, 21, and 19. Your fairytale is my reality. It just took awhile.

A blonde and a lawyer are seated next to each other on a flight from LA to NY. The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game? The blonde, tired, just wants to take a nap, politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The lawyer persists and explains that the game is easy and a lot of fun. He explains, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5.00, and vice versa. " Again, she declines and tries to get some sleep. The lawyer, now agitated, says, "Okay, if you don't know the answer you pay me $5.00, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500.00." This catches the blonde's attention and, figuring there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, agrees to the game. The lawyer asks the first question. "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?" The blonde doesn't say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5.00 bill and hands it to the lawyer. "Okay" says the lawyer, "your turn." She asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four legs?" The lawyer, puzzled, takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references, no answer. He taps into the air phone with his modem and searches the net and the library of congress, no answer. Frustrated, he sends e-mails to all his friends and coworkers, to no avail. After an hour, he wakes the blonde, and hands her $500.00. The blonde says, "Thank you," and turns back to get some more sleep. The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes the blonde and asks, "Well, what's the answer?" Without a word, the blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep. And you thought blondes were dumb.

I’m doing a little experiment. I’ve been looking for older hybrids either a 4h Callaway Steelhead XR or Big Bertha 4h Heavenwood. Found a 4h Heavenwood from 2nd Swing in 9 condition. It has a womens shaft, head and shaft are perfect. Only gave to change grip & maybe add 1” length. I know a lot of guys my age & younger who are using their wives clubs or picked up used women's clubs. I figure it’s well worth the $50 investment. Should be interesting!!!

I am suffering from what I am going to call post lesson anticipation (PLA). I’m sitting at home dialing in to work meetings and have golf playing on TV in the background, but mentally I just want to go to the course to try and practice the various things that were suggested during my lesson yesterday afternoon. Have been playing well based on the tweaks we are making to my game and getting optimistic that my long time goal of breaking 70 might be realistic again. unfortunately , I won’t be able to get to the course until Sunday

Should be interesting to hear your take. Side note as someone who is not a Credential Holder and never has been, what are the interesting points or differences from a PGA event if you don't mind me asking.

So much for creating a positive image for the Saudis, e.g. sportswashing. This is growing the game?

The clubs arrived about 90 mins later, safe and sound. All is well. Def was a buzz kill for a bit, but nothing a good stiff one couldn’t fix.

I do seem to pray a lot there.

... Dayum, 11 of 14 fairways and I am guessing not lay ups with irons and 12 greens! But like the Bug from Dire Straits: Well it's a strange old game, you learn it slow One step forward and it's back to go You're standing on the throttle You're standing on the brakes In the groove 'til you make a mistake Sometimes you're the windshield Sometimes you're the bug Sometimes you're the Louisville slugger baby Sometimes you're the ball

Lol yep, considering I i just posted a 76 and that's one of my best rounds this year. Though I'm basically playing once a week. i'm going to get out Sunday too, so I'm hoping the good times continue.

Oh yeah... forgot to mention... paramedics out on the course is NOT something you want to see. On the par 5 #6 an old gentleman was hit in the temple with a ball; knocked unconscious, but was awake when the EMT's got there; went to the hospital.

Let's analyze this shall we. I'm chilling in the bag. You take me out to play. You actually go pay someone so you can play with me. You place me on a pedestal then swing the club. AND YOU SAY I swing both ways!. Your right, its a business relationship that you might not want your wife to know about. Ohhh I feel so cheap and dirty now.

If your wife gets sick and the first thing going through your head is "looks like no golf this weekend "

I refuse for Ben Johns to be slandered in such a way! HE IS MORE VALUABLE TO HIS SPORT THAN THOSE THREE COMBINED!

Here’s pictures of my 4w and 4h I just got this week if you need a picture fix. I have one round and range session and the results have been postitive so far.

You know you are a Golf Spy if.. your "go to" golf shop sets aside the latest MGS Most Wanted winner - with your name on it... and in your exact specs - knowing you will be in to "try it out" that afternoon.

I didn't realize that you swung both ways I swear I checked and there was nothing there haha I think I need to come clean with my Wife... "Honey, I swear! he meant nothing to me! Its just a business relationship!"

How would she explain this paradise? Congrats on 17!

I wonder what the reaction would have been if roles were reversed and PGA whoever had subpoenaed LIV folk while they were conducting all their backdoor stuff. Crappy part is I truly just want all of this to be over and for golf to get back to being golf and fun to watch without all this background noise which no matter what clouds how I feel about the pro game and unfortunately this is still going to go on for years and years and years.

https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/tiger-woods-and-rory-mcilroy-served-subpoena-by-liv-golf Just wow. Yet LIV has NDAs left right and center and won't disclose contracts. This is going to get way uglier.

I used to be ball forward for most everything; we have moved the ball to middle/back and I am hitting the ball much better. I generally default to using my 54 and sometimes will pull gap or pitching wedge but need to start using the other clubs.

It’s baffling. Putts felt good just couldn’t make a thing. Drove the ball so freaking good today. Still was a great day.

79 12/18 greens 11/14 fairways I feel gross…so many wasted opportunities today.

Played in a charity scramble today which means my team didn’t win because we played by the rules of a scramble. We had 2 young guys in our group so I joked that I would never hit driver because it wouldn’t be necessary - until they said 65 and over were playing up a set of tees. I only missed 1 fairway all day and we used a number of my drives. Just not hitting my irons well at all right now. Taking a lesson on Sunday after church.

I haven't played golf in 10 days. I spent the last two days on the range and practice green working on my swing from Monte's clinic in Seattle a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to play today but my wife and two of her ladies league friend needed a token male. Shotgun start at 8am since the course had a scramble tournament going off at 1pm. The bad news: shot 39/42 = 81. Not bad until you find out that the 39 (+2) included a triple bogey and three birdies. The 42 (+7) included a triple bogey and one birdie. The good news: I was very pleased with my ball striking today. I only missed the fairway off the tee twice (#1 and #3; bogey and triple)) and a couple of drives were much further than normal. The work on a bigger backswing seems to be working. Also, I hit nine (9) GIR... count 'em... 9 greens!! Usual for me is 4-5 GIR. I only had two "not great" iron shots with my Macgregors; both shots were the correct distance but pushed right. No fat shots today!! Three of my birdies came on par 5's; one on a par 4 and all birdies were putts between 10-25 feet. It was one of those "see the line and just hit it" putting days. Woulda, shoulda, coulda been another shoot my age round except for those nasty triples.

Owen and I played the back nine at River Heights today. I started out rough as per my usual custom going double double before getting to twelve which is a short par four. Meh drive followed by a wedge that came up just short of the fringe. Chipped to within a foot for a tap in par. On thirteen I had a decent drive and a horrible 7 iron. I hit my love wedge to the elevated green and it stopped in the fringe just beyond. Managed to chip in to save the par!! Fourteen is the only hole I haven't gotten par yet. After a wayward drive and a recovery out of the trees that rolled forever, I put my wedge to twelve feet and JUST missed the putt for a tap in bogey. (This par is coming soon, I can feel it!) After a poor drive on fifteen Owen decided he was going to fix my swing which lead to me going triple, bogey, triple, bogey the rest of the way. Randomly sunk a thirty foot putt to save triple on seventeen, lol. Finished with a +13 49. Putting is coming along and my short wedge game continues to prop me up. Driver isn't great but hasn't particularly killed me lately either. Irons, hybrids and woods are just abysmal though. Hoping to get some work on that soon.

I haven't posted in a few weeks about how I've been playing recently. But before I get into that, as most of you know I am a dew sweeper. First one off in the morning and you can follow my tracks down the fairway and I'm usually right behind the greens mower and roller crew. I have perfect greens every round. Recently the last two rounds I played were afternoon rounds. What a difference seven hours make. Much more roll in the fairways which is a good thing. But the greens do have many more imperfections due to either careless repair or not repaired at all and the traps are more compact from the sun drying them out. Not to mention some lazy asses that don't rake the traps. Last week was a great round. Partially due to firmer fairways and having nothing more than a 9 iron into greens. I had three birdies and 1 bogey for a solid 69. Yesterday afternoon started off great as well. Lots of roll short irons in and I finished the front even par 1 bogey and 1 bird for a 36. Usually my back 9 score is better than the front. Started off the back 9 with a par on a tough hole. 413 yard par 4 all uphill and guarded by two large bunkers in the front. Then a perfect drive on 11 and 80 yards off the green. Right after I teed off on 11 the phone dinged with a work related email. Some bone head at the office messed up and the customer was complaining to me to rectify the situation. Immediately my mind was not in the game and I was pissed off. Double bogeyed 11, then par, bogey, bogey, par, par, bogey, par for a 40 on the back. I'm not sure when the last time I shot 76 (I know what you are thinking, poor Tom complaining about a 76) was, but what was more important was that I allowed work to get in my head instead of focusing on my round. Hey, but I didn't lose a ball during my fits of internal rage on the tee box and wanting to smash the ship out of the ball! Couldn't focus on the putting. Note to self, Leave the phone in the golf bag on mute or in the car.

Lesson learned today... Don't feed the trolls

That's nonsense, just reveals your bias to rationalize. Like noted above, it all has to do with the total revenues of the sport. Pro golf is great, but it's no where near the $$$ that NFL, NBA, MLB leagues are working with. The NFL annual revenues are about $14B, the PGA is about $500M (which also tells you why $2B in Saudi money is giving the PGA fits. Are you going to tell us the world #1 in pickle ball should be paid the same as Lebron, Steph and Mahomes?

Absolutely. Even casual and non-golf fans are following this train-wreck mini-series. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that someone is already writing the script for pro golf's version of "Tiger King". Question is does Jay play Carole and Greg play Joe Exotic... or vice-versa? Sadly, I think that ship has long sailed Jamie. Now that LIV found way more traction than I ever thought it would, I think the only way this ends, eventually, is with some compromise from both principals. This will be difficult though as it's clear both have deep levels of distain for one another.

Haha, I had to go back to refresh my own memory on my choice as well. Can't wait for the reveal @GolfSpy_APH !!

A year ago I was only using my 60º around the green for all shots (still use it a lot), but based on your suggestion to use less-lofted clubs, I've been giving them a try. With my SGI Bridgestones that was not possible; the face was hot and control was difficult. Now that I've switched to my old Macgregors, the lofts are much weaker and the forged feel makes these shots much easier. My PW which is 48º is now my goto bump and run, whereas before I would hit a very low 60º shot for short pins and more lofted shot for longer pins. I am now starting to experiment with 9i and 8i shots when I have more green to work with. I found out that during the on-course lesson with Monte a couple of weeks ago that I just couldn't bump and run my PW far enough on long uphill shots. I have to practice this shot a lot; it's something I never did before, but I've found that by spending more time on these clubs, I am mis-hitting my 60º more often because I don't practice it as much... always something!!

The only thing holding me up from ordering the Hit Metal right now is. I want to see the Hot Metal HL in hand. I typically don’t need or go for High Launch irons. However, I bet Mizuno will do then a lot better than most companies save for Titleist with the T400. So I’m expecting them to hide all that “weight” pretty well. Shuokd be seeing them next week