Golf2Much

Dough! Great shirt!

Date 12/09/2023 Course Name Key West Golf Club Gross Score 79 Course Handicap 13 Gross Strokes over/under par 9 Net Score to Par -4 Net Score 66 Net Birdies or better 7 Longest Drive 192 SIM Round? Today was one of those days the stars aligned, and I played better than I have in four months! Though I'm usually good at hitting fairways in regulation (around 70% or a little higher), I only missed two today. I hit into a fairway bunker on the second longest hole (still got a bogey) and pared from the rough on another par four. The difference today was seven up and downs and 25 putts. Now the 25 putts looks better than it should given the number of up and down. Still, 11 one putt greens is still pretty good. I can say at least three of the two putts were either on the edge or did a 180 degree trip around the hole. We actually had a perfect day for golf here in Key West for once in the last several weeks. It's been either cool (for us...I know there's not a lot of sympathy) or 25-35 mph winds. Our groups are the first off at 6:50 AM or so. It was about 75 degrees with a whisper of wind. The wind did pick up later during the round, but nothing like we've seen. It doesn't get much better than that! The challenge will be if I can continue the improvements next week. We'll see!

It's amazing how much oxygen has been sucked out of golf world with the ball rollback discussions, debates and arguments. Jon Rahm picked a good time to jump to LIV as he would have been a major topic about him and what it means for LIV and the proposed merger ("money grabber", "good for him", "hypocrite", you can just hear both sides lining up for and against him). Instead, emotions are still flying high about the ball rollback. Now, Rahm's decision to move is just a footnote and he has to be ecstatic! Rahm gets the money without the ridicule and public backlash that other traitors (I mean golfers) have faced. Didn't we learn anything from the R&A's decision in the 1970's about golf ball diameter change? The initial 1970 proposal to converge on one worldwide golf ball diameter standard (from an minimum of 1.62 inches to the USGA standard of 1.68 inches) faced intense debate, professionals and everyday golfers pushed back against the proposal, it was pulled in 1973 after years of discussions. In 1974, the R&A decided just to mandate the change and it went into effect in 1990. This whole ordeal is a marathon people, not a sprint. You may want to save some of that emotional energy as history had taught us this will be a long ride!

Date 12/07/2023 Course Name Key West Golf Club Gross Score 83 Course Handicap 13 Gross Strokes over/under par 13 Net Score to Par 0 Net Score 70 Net Birdies or better 5 Longest Drive 187 SIM Round? OK, I'm expecting a lot of sympathy here, but we teed off early this morning and it was 67 degrees with 20+ mph winds. Brrrrrrr! For those who haven't migrated South, it's amazing how fast your blood thins! For Key West it's the coolest it's been since last early Spring. Throw in the "wind chill" and it was brisk this morning! I had what I would count as a "classic Golf2Much" round. I short 83, with 80% fairways hit, 11% greens hit and 5 up and downs. It should have been worse, however my improved chipping and putting on half the holes made up for some questionable iron approach shots. You know, the kind where you say to yourself "I can do better than that!". Throw in some erratic putting and the round could have been better. Next week I'll be experimenting with a change in eye glass prescription. For as long as I can remember, I've played golf with progressive lens regular and sunglasses. I never really noticed the difficulty with my head position and accurately seeing the ball. My optometrist and optician as well as the online company I ordered my glasses from suggested single vision glasses. So I ordered a pair of REKS Sling-Blade sunglasses with golf optimized Trivex color boosting rose amber single vision lens and a pair very close to my current indoor frames from Hip Optical. My regular Hip Optical glasses arrived in three days, and they fit perfect (and only $79 a pair with my prescription). My distance vision was very good, but I'll need to look under or over the lens to see the scorecard. When the sunglasses arrive, I'll be trying out the new optical package and see if single vision is truly better than progressive lens!

Good guess! I've only been involved in rating golf courses for the last two years, so I can't say for sure if and when they made any changes to golfer's distances. Your logic sounds about right!

Because they have been told to expect no distance impact from the roll back golf balls for scratch and bogey golfers. With no impact to distance, the landing areas stay the same and the existing course rating and slope do not change (assuming the course layout, most common tee box locations, etc. all stay the same).

Today I participated in the year end Florida State Golf Association (USGA/GHIN) course raters meeting where we reviewed 2023 and looked forward to 2024. When we got to Q&A, I asked "I know it's too early to tell for sure, is the USGA looking to make any course rating changes associated with the roll back golf ball?" For those who may not be familiar with course rating and slope calculations, they are greatly influenced by the distances that both scratch and bogey golfers hit the ball, the resulting landing zones and the trouble associated in and around those landing zones. The staff member responded rather quickly that they have been told that the roll back golf balls will not influence the standard distances for full swing shot distances. Using tee shots for example, the standard shot length (carry/roll/total in yards) are as follows: Men scratch golfers: 230 carry, 20 roll and 250 total; men bogey golfer: 180 carry, 20 roll and 200 total; women scratch: 190 carry, 20 roll, 210 total and women bogey: 130 carry, 20 roll and 150 total. As prefaced the question, it's still early and who knows in the end what the implemented proposal (if any) will be. However, for now, the course rating arm of USGA is not anticipating any changes in the rating distances for each demographic and skill level and therefore no impact on course ratings.

Date 12/05/2023 Course Name Key West Golf Club Gross Score 87 Course Handicap 13 Gross Strokes over/under par 17 Net Score to Par 4 Net Score 74 Net Birdies or better 1 Longest Drive 170 SIM Round? Today was not my best round. My driving accuracy was up a bit to 86% (missed two fairways by a total of about 5 yards), but I was consistently short-ish in length. My Greens in Regulation were about I'm used to. However, my up and downs were significantly worse at only one for the round. That was a combination of not great chipping and putts burning the edges of the cup. Unfortunately, my scoring doesn't reflect that I'm actually hitting my test Callaway Paradym X irons better. After seeking professional help (getting a lesson), I've implemented several slight changes that have yielded some improvement. Now it's putting the other pieces of my game together so I can score better.

I understand that the most powerful lobbying organization in the world is moving forward to get an exemption to help their members deal with the golf ball rollback distance loss. Yep, AARP is petitioning the USGA and R&A to allow AARP card carrying members 65 years and older to be able to play golf with the current golf balls without penalty. They look at this exemption as potentially being one the most popular benefits it can offer it's members. Of course, that's after their restaurant and hotel discounts, driver safely program and their Medicare supplement program. As a member for the last 17 years, I can't think of a better use of my membership money! Only kidding (but it does make a little sense)!

It's interesting to step back and look at the social and cultural aspects of this discussion. In my former corporate work life, I was charged with developing and implementing rather significant work process changes that impacted how people approached their jobs. A consultant I worked with once said there's a small, but very vocal part of society that are known as CAVE people. I asked what he meant by CAVE people? He responded, "Citizens Against Virtually Everything!" No matter what it was or how little it may have impacted them, they were always against it. Let's hear what the final proposal is, the impact it'll actually have on the majority of golfers out there and then have a fact-based discussion on the proposal. If ultimately, we lose 10-15 yards on our drives, so what? Welcome to my world! Think of it as preparation for getting older! The governing bodies would be smart to fund each ball manufacturer to give those golfers who ask three free golf balls that ultimately meets the new restrictions so they can find out for themselves the impact it personally has on them.

A couple stories come to mind. First, we were visiting friends in Massachusetts and playing a course either of us had played before. We got paired up with two significantly younger guys (easy for us to say as we both are in our mid-60's). The other two blast freakishly long drives down the first hole. I get up and hit my typical 175 yard drive down the middle. The rest of the round the two younger guys continued to blast the ball, but their drives and subsequent shots were all over the place. Me, I was steady Eddy driving it consistently down the fairway, hitting my approaches, chips and putts. Finally on 18, I stripped my last drive down the middle of the fairway. Frustrated, one of the other younger golfers blurted out "Do you ever miss the fairway!?" I turned around and confidently said "No." The second was is more of the most unusual golf thing I participated in this year andfrom the Lower Keys Golf Association championship this past January. I got paired with three of my friends. We are all range in handicaps from 12 to 24 (with two of us in the teens and the other two in the twenties). This is a stroke play tournament, so every shot counts. We get to our sixth hole, the number one handicap hole. It's 410 yards, with water on the right, OB on the left and a narrow chute to hit through at about 220 yards out. The severely back to front green makes it even tougher! That day, all four of us were unusually on the green in three, but all anywhere from 65 to 40 feet away from the pin. The mid 20 handicapper steps up and drains his 65-foot putt for a par (which he's done maybe twice in the last 16 years). The remaining three of us then proceeded to make our very long putts for par. When the last guy made his, we looked at each other in shock as it's unusual for the guys we play with to have one par in a foursome! It was the first time any of us could remember that everyone in a foursome pared the hardest hole at the same time. We thought for sure the tournament committee was going to have us pee in a cup and have it drug tested! Maybe one more from that same tournament. Because this was the organization's championship, there was no gimmies and everyone had to putt out each hole no matter what. As you can expect, that lead to some high scores! We had 47 golfers with handicaps from +2 to 41. Over 50% of the field posted a net double or worse. Of the scores posted, there were 74 sevens, 34 eights, 13 nines, 4 tens, 5 elevens and a nineteen! The individual who posted the 19 did it on the 17th handicap par three hole. I asked her how she managed to post a 19 on a par three (granted it's partially over water)? She replied "I don't know?!" Then she added "You'd think after I put five straight balls in the water off the tee, I'd go back and get a different club!"

I'm sure I responded to this thread back in March-ish timeframe when this issue first reared its head, but I don't have the patience to search for it over the 47 pages. The passion on this topic is interesting, but not unprecedented. The golfing world has been here before with balls and unifying standards. I'm sure this has brought up but when the USGA, R&A and other golf governing bodies around the world wanted to converge on a golf ball diameter no less than 1.68 inches in diameter in the early 1970's there was major push back by guess who: professional golfers and ball manufacturers. The pros liked the 1.62-inch ball because it...wait for it...flew farther and straighter. U.S. professionals would often switch to the smaller ball in overseas competitions. Obviously, the ball manufacturers were against it because they didn't want to have to retool their ball molds. The after three years of debate, the ruling bodies withdrew the ball standard proposal in 1974. I still have one or two of those smaller diameter golf balls tucked away somewhere in my golf stuff. The world played with two different sized golf balls until 1990 when the R&A outlawed the smaller diameter golf ball and adopted the no less than 1.68-inch diameter standard. So, what can we learn from this earlier golf ball precedence? There were very passionate arguments from both sides for making or preventing the change. Professional golfers and golf ball manufacturers led the push against the change. Their arguments led to postponing the new standard, but ultimately, the change was made anyway. I would add that those average golfers impacted by the size change probably can't remember what it was like playing the small diameter ball.

Sorry, the above got double posted. I took out the duplicate post but had to have some content to save it. So, as a filler and to get everyone in the holiday spirt, here's my golf-related Christmas decoration: Santa Balls! In reality, it's a golf ball jack-o-lantern with a Santa hat. Multi-holiday decoration!

Date 11/28/2023 Course Name Key West Golf Club Gross Score 82 Course Handicap 14 Gross Strokes over/under par 12 Net Score to Par -2 Net Score 68 Net Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 175 SIM Round? Today, things finally started to come back together. I shot the best round in months! With the exception of two doubles, I played pretty consistently. I hit over 70% of my fairways (and again, the misses left and right were within a club length from the fairway. We had 20 mph winds from the North and high 60's/low 70's temperatures (cool for us and what everyone up North would love to have right about now). Almost every drive was somewhat shorter than I typically hit. My 17% greens in regulation was higher than normal due to some nice approach shots. The difference today was better approach shots, excellent chipping and better putting towards the end of the round. The six up and downs were a little higher than usual. If I putted a little better earlier in the round, it would have been higher. I ended up paring five of the last seven holes. Each of those par were a result of a solid chip or close approach shot. The comparison of the shots gained against my handicap peer group tells the story (left is today's round and the other is for the last ten rounds): Today's Round Last 10 Rounds If you discount the poor driving distance day, the balance of the shots gained is pretty good. Today showed about 4.5 stokes gained improvement over the last ten rounds with most of that in the approach and short game. The challenge now is to get back the lost driving distance and maintain the improvement in the approach and short game shots. We'll have to see what Thursday brings!

The part of my game that has been an issue is my iron play. It started before I reviewed the Callaway Paradym X's this year (which I still have in my bag). I sought professional help and took a lesson three or four weeks ago and I'm hitting them a bit better. As I told the instructor, it took 67 years to develop these swing flaws, it's going to take more than 67 days to get rid of all of them! It's funny, during one point of our lesson he asked me if I use my physical limitations as an excuse causing doubt in executing the shot. I chuckled and repliied "no, I expect to make every shot!" At least I know I don't have to work on my confidence! I'd also say my chipping and putting has been a little off lately as well. For me to score, they both need to be really good. When you rely on those two parts of your game, being just slightly off can have a significant impact on your scoring. I'm used to hearing "F*&%ing Norm" from my playing competitors when I chip up close and one putt. Even though I chipped in twice on Saturday, I haven't been that consistent. My putting is off just a hair too. All I know is that I've burned so many edges in the last two or three months, I've made the hole bigger for the groups behind me. I've been experimenting with different golf balls, so that may have a slight impact as well. The downside of living at the end of US 1 is that we have one golf course that has marginal practice facilities. That includes a small putting green, an even smaller chipping green and a 6 or 7 bay netted in area for full swings (about 50 yards long). There's really no where to really work at my game. I'm fighting through it and hope to first get out of GHIN soft cap hell then return to an index I'm more accustom too.