Ben_Howell34
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Posts posted by Ben_Howell34
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2 hours ago, Invader Zim 315 said:
Kind of crazy I started this in January, and here we are 4 months later, but looks like this trip is starting to come together. Turns out it is hard planning a trip for 8 young professionals (any advice moving forward I would love to hear it!)
We decided on Turning Stone in Upstate New York in September. Will provide some insights into pricing, the courses, and whatnot because we still need to finalize, but I'm excited. First boys golf trip!
https://www.turningstone.com/golf/atunyote
Late response to you all but thank you @GolfSpy SAM @CFreddie @Ben_Howell34 for these recommendations last month. Seeing as I fully anticipate to be the point man on these annual trips moving forward (I know my friends too well and it will be me
) I've compiled a master list and these are all absolutely on it.
Man that place looks pure!!!
Yeah, I am that guy in our group. It’s fun, but it can be work too. But easily worth it.
It is fun to see how the trip evolves every year and develops. You learn each trip what works and what doesn’t. One thing we did was basically say “cheap trip” odd years and “bigger trip” even years and it’s made it fun and affordable.
Have fun!
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On 4/16/2023 at 4:35 PM, CFreddie said:
Me and group of college friends have been doing an annual golf trip for a couple years now, so our destinations have been mostly focused in the SE (although that will change in a couple years with Bandon). Here are some options we've been considering for future trips, along with past locations:
- RTJ Trail (Alabama) - courses are affordable, but could be harder to get to from NE- Mississippi (Mossy Oak / Old Waverly - outside of Starkville) - remote, but was a HUGE fan of MO
- Pinehurst - obviously
- NC (outside of Pinehurst) - Pines course (Southern / Mid / Needles) and Tobacco Road
- Myrtle Beach
- Destin
I am with you on all of these. Destin is decent but overpriced in my opinion for what you get generally. Old Waverly is one of my favorite courses I have ever played and the facilities are awesome. Have not been to MB or NC but want to go to NC badly.
If you ever come back to Bama go check out Pursell Farms. Not cheap but is a very unique and awesome course. Also in the middle of nowhere ha.
- Invader Zim 315 and CFreddie
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I don’t wear a glove putting or chipping
- GolfSpy TCB, Javs and GolfSpy_KFT
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Also, if you want a great area with some awesome courses, both reasonable priced and higher end courses, Hilton Head, SC is a great option. To me, it is much nicer than Myrtle Beach and has plenty of golf options (although MB probably has more golf). Great beaches, restaurants, etc.
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I have heard that Ocean City, MD is a great option as well. Since you are in VA and one brother is in Jersey that might be a good option. I have not been there personally though.
I would also consider what type of golfer is going, i.e. do they love golf or do they just like to play and are going more for the social aspect (either is great). However that will go into how much golf you want to play and where you go.
We have a group of guys that do a trip every year. 70% of us I would consider golf addicts, the other 30% have fun but are not that into it. The first year we did 72 holes in 2 1/2 days and those guys got wore out. So we adjusted off of that moving forward. But also the 70% like competing more so the 30% have adjusted to that.
If you do a competition I would encourage a warm up round to begin just for fun as well.
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Played again yesterday, Arccos performed pretty well. Missed 3-4 shots but nothing crazy. I’ve noticed that if for some reason I have to hit two chips it will usually miss one of those (luckily that’s rare, but not as rare as I’d like
). I trashed the Link awhile ago so I’m going straight phone and it’s working much better.
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Those look beautiful!
+1 will be the cut line
+1 will be Tiger’s score after round 2
- Golfspy_CG2, ejgaudette, EasyPutter and 2 others
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2 hours ago, DiscipleofPenick said:
I didn't think about that, but it's true, I don't 3 putt often, but I also don't make many outside7 feet. Here's my Arccos numbers. I know I'm averaging almost 33 putts per round so if I can get that close to 30 I'd be ecstatic. Like I said, I think the way to get that number down is to work on proximity more than my approach to putting. And I know when I have a day that I have 27 or 28 putts it's not because I was on fire, it's because I missed a ton of greens and was chipping it close.
So your putts per hole is good but your putts per round is bad. How is that possible? Ha trying to wrap my head around that.
I feel like it does not take into account good lag putts as much as it detracts from a missed midrange putt (10-20 feet). Like I played a couple weeks ago and on the 2nd hardest par 3 on the course, hit the green but was 60 plus feet away. I lag it to 4 feet and par it. Had a few other good lags as well. Had one 3 putt on the round but I had a couple strokes lost that day. Seemed out of whack to me.
- ejgaudette and CudaKota66
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22 hours ago, DiscipleofPenick said:
I agree in part, now I need to do something with that data. Arccos has shown me what to focus on, so I want to see if I can make those numbers get to where they should be and get all my SG stats to a positive number.
Currently I am +0.5 overall SG vs. an 4 HCP but the breakdown is
-0.6 Driver +0.8 Irons +0.7 Short -0.3 Putting
It says I need to work on my 10-25 foot putts, but I don't know how to improve that. I don't expect to make more from that distance. And my 50-100 yard approaches. I hit the green but my proximity is terrible. I need to dial in my numbers and get it closer when I can attack. I have a better proximity from 150-174 yards (44 feet) than I do from 50-100 (49 feet). I actually think these two things can work in conjunction as my 3-putt percentage skyrockets when I'm over 40 feet away.
I think driving can also be an issue, but it's just a round where the drive get squirrely and I lose a few shots to penalties. I need to figure out what to do on those rounds.
I feel like the SG putting on this can be a little shoddy. Like it seems that it expects you to make a ton of putts or your losing strokes, which just isn’t reasonable to believe will happen.
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I am seeing a theme in these tests: the app is giving confirmation on what we thought our weaknesses are, not necessarily giving us new information.
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On 3/15/2023 at 1:09 PM, LICC said:
Give today's players 1990 equipment and they would hit the balls roughly the same as the players in 1990. You would see minimal differences.
Ehh I don’t know about that. Maybe with 1990 training and thinking, but the speed and strength of these guys is a different level now. They wouldn’t hit it as far as they do now no doubt but I don’t think they’d just be the same either.
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On 3/15/2023 at 12:42 PM, chisag said:
... To be fair, Augusta has the real estate to continue lengthening their course while many others do not. in the last 20 years the AN has gone from 6,985 yards to the current 7,475 yards. The fact that the scores have stayed the same certainly indicate had they stayed at 6,985 the scores would be much lower.
... But obviously the design of the course also play a huge role. Depending on pin placements, #15 dictates a difficult option whether going for it in two or 3. Such a great hole. And #13 can reward the longest hitters if they are very accurate, yet we see so many balls in the trees/pine straw to the right, so far from a bomb and gauge hole. This year it has gone from 510 to 545 yds and it will be interesting to see how that effects scoring.You are right about their expansion of the course, and not all courses have that luxury. After listening to the NLU podcast on this topic I’ve changed my mind somewhat on it and think rolling the ball back isn’t a terrible idea. Still would like to see tougher setups where more thinking is involved in each shot.
What is funny to me is the shorter hitters on tour seem to think this will help them more. It honestly hurts them more than the long hitters in my opinion.
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43 minutes ago, chisag said:
I love watching the Majors because the courses are set up more difficult and the pressure is greater.
To me, this is where they need to address this versus dialing the ball or clubs back. These massive under par numbers happen on the same courses every year. If you look at Augusta, the under par number has pretty much stayed the same, barring weather. Same for other major locations (exception being St. Andrew’s last year, which was due to abnormally beautiful weather that week).
If these other courses would put designs in that makes players think before grabbing driver (i.e. thick rough, narrower fairways, deeper bunkers, water, big elevation changes, etc.) that would be a bigger help to this than going back to the 70s equipment wise.
Great golf to me has almost every shot having to consider the risk vs reward. Seems to me these PGA courses are too set up to where you just grab driver. It’s not the players fault they’ve busted their tail daily to mash the ball.
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2 hours ago, ezloan1 said:
Par 5, dog leg left, trees all along the border of the landing area...heading all up hill to a 3 tier green. After thinking my drive was in the tree line, it ended up in the first cut. The pin was on the second tier and I knew it would take my 3 wood to reach. I flushed the shot, thinking everything depended on the roll out. As we got up to the front of the green, no ball...back and sides, nothing. I was getting in the cart to go back and one of friends decided to look in the cup~~SURPRISE! A double-eagle/albatross.
I remember my hole in ones (5), but I still...FEEL the memory of that shot.
An albatross is way better than a hole in one to me! (or so I’ve heard, have experienced neither) at least it counts for less strokes!
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Played Greystone Founders yesterday. Hit my 8i on the number 4 par 3 within 2 feet. Wind was blowing left to right and played a fade with it, which blew it towards the right pin. Thought it was in for a split second!
- ejgaudette, MattF and JerryB
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Aaron Rodgers darkness retreat to figure out your next decision…
- cksurfdude, MattF, Golfspy_CG2 and 1 other
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1 hour ago, GolfSpy_APH said:
Okay testers, what is your favourite part of the app/dashboard? What has stood out to you in there and have you gone through much of it to find your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
I would say my favorite part of the app is the strokes gained portion, but more specifically the breakdown. My weakness is iron play, but this has really shown me how much weaker it is.
However, as we all have a finite amount of time to practice golf, and I especially do as a working dad with two young kids and no club membership, it is important to know what to work on to maximize our improvement.
I would have told you that I’m decent at shorter irons and terrible at long irons, but Arccos says differently according to proximity to the hole:
So this has helped me A: reset my expectations to know what is actually a good shot or not and B: see what I need to work on in my finite practice time. My current strategy/portion of the test is to focus 80% of my practice time on making great contact with my irons and wedges so that my dispersion in both my distances and direction drops.
Now the other side of this is, I don’t want to neglect the other parts of my game and lose them either. So trying to balance feeding my weak spots versus maintaining my strengths (driving and putting).
- GolfSpy_APH and GolfSpy BOS
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On 2/22/2023 at 1:43 PM, G0al3d said:
I would love to know about this as well with the putting, I had NO idea you can mark the Texas wedge shots as chips how do you do that?! My buddy just got Arccos and was asking me about the putting off the green stuff as well. (Never mind I found it in the putting menu on the zoomed in green)
If you just go to the putt and select it, it gives you the option to turn it into a chip.
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I played Friday and went phone only, I think it missed 2 shots. So overall it went well.
One thing that I have noticed is that the strokes gained putting seems to be lower than I feel I am playing. I am wondering if it takes into account putting from off the green, as I do that a decent amount if it’s flat and fairly close, even if I mark it as a chip on the app. Does anyone else know about that? Maybe I’m not as good of a putter as I think I am
- GolfSpy AFG and G0al3d
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4 hours ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:
@Getoffmylawn it seems you're in good company with some concerns and issues with the link working properly. I normally carry my phone in my pocket, so its not a problem for me, but there are a lot of people who feel the way you do.
Like you I enjoy the GPS side of Arccos, maybe even more so than the shot tracking. I'm curious if this will lead you to carrying your phone with you during rounds, and less issues with the link to spoil your experience.
For what it's worth, Arccos rarely misses a shot for me using my iphone. And I usually just check it as I'm marking the flag stick location. If I need to make an edit it is easy enough walking to the next tee while it's still fresh in my mind.
I have used my phone and had no issues so I have pretty much given up on the link. Hoping to play again Friday so will give an update then as well.
Also, Go Broncos @Getoffmylawn
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Wasn’t great, a windy and wet 88. Irons still my weak link and did not putt well at all. Probably had 7-8 putts either rim out, burn the edge or stop on the edge. Might go see the coach for a tune up on the irons soon. A fun walk though with some good drives and chipped much better than last time.
- cksurfdude, MattF, Grand Stranded and 4 others
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Been streaming The Chosen, it is very good. Also watching Andor for any Star Wars fans out there, it gets better per episode.
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On 1/13/2023 at 11:59 AM, Invader Zim 315 said:
Hey All,
Hope this finds everyone well! So I was very fortunate enough to be an athlete in college, graduated 2 years ago. There is a group of 8 of us that played together and are transitioning over into the golf game! We're split pretty evenly between NYC and Boston, and looking to come together annually for a golf trip, this summer being our first. So two things:
First) I thought it would be fun to document the process of pulling this thing together as a bunch of 24-25 year old amateurs
Second) We would love ANY AND ALL recommendations for where we go on this first trip
I'm probably the biggest golf nerd in the group and know course architecture and the best resorts well across the US. However, it's important to keep in mind we're young and none of us come from much; we're looking to do this thing on a NLU "Strapped" type budget. Not really, but we can't do Bandon, for example.
So again, we'd love to bring you guys along for the ride here. To get started, any big recommendations, particularly eastern half of the United States? My first little shortlist (subject to change) is Northern Michigan and Myrtle/Hilton Head. We'll probably try to make it happen in June or July. Appreciate everything and excited to try and get this tradition off the ground.
Sounds like a great idea! As a former college athlete myself, kudos to you guys for working to keeping the friendships alive with your teammates.
For the golf, I have not been to Myrtle Beach to golf but have been for work and was not impressed with the town at all. On the other hand, I have been to Hilton Head twice, once for family vacation and once for work. It is a great place in general with some dynamite courses that can range from cheaper to PGA stops (Harbortown). I played Old South in Bluffton (right across the bay) and it was great and not expensive at all. I believe you can play all 3 Harbortown courses with stay for around $1k but can definitely do cheaper than that as well. The food there is really good as are the beaches and overall vibe.
We do an annual golf trip and might be going there next year, so if you go there let me know how you enjoy it!
How'd you play?
in The Daily
Posted
The good news - 8 pars
The bad news - 5 doubles and two triples
Fun morning on a tough course at Oxmoor valley - Ridge. But when I missed boy I missed.