Matty 3-Putts

It's getting to be the time of year to plan another trip, and coming back to this thread has me itching to get back to STG! I will have to hit Zion, that was something we never got to do. On a side note, the dinosaur research center was very cool

Holy cow $360 is insane for Wolf Creek. I'd probably rather play sand hollow twice tbh lol. I went in early June, which I was told was kinda the start of their off-season. My experience may not be the best judge for that. I was playing solo so sand hollow offered to move me up to not play with 3 randos. I played through a group on 4 and I don't remember waiting on a group till 10. They let me play through on 11, and I waited on another group on (the) 12th and they let me play through on 13. Was smooth from there out. Copper Rock, it was a rainy (ish) day and there was nobody there, also went out solo. I ran into a couple groups but I was enjoying the scenery myself and taking my time. I probably played both rounds in 4 hours. Wish I actually took my time to do more rubber necking instead of so focused on my golf. Sky Mtn was busier and I was paired with 3 others. It was a little slow, but still nothing like I've had at places in CO

My putting is so bad I've debated putting lefty. Currently gaming a Wilson Infinite "The L". In the market for something else. And yes, the username checks out.

Mizuno has seemed to be going through a tough time on orders. I got a 923 JPX Tour 4 iron ordered to join my 921s. It took 8-9 weeks to receive them. When it came in, it came with a midsize GP Tour Velvet instead of the standard Z Grips I have on everything else. I don't mind it, but bothers me moreso that it's different. My shaft and build seems to be correct at least.

Had a strange bout with my golf shoes as of late. I've been using the Adidas CodeChaos 21s since 2021. Loved the heck out of em and wore em out till the sole was peeling. Was excited to find my local Adidas outlet had them early this year half price at $75. Score! Or so I thought... I'm not sure what's different between the ones I wore for a full season + and these, but I got foot pain and a hot spot on the ball of my foot. After only 2 months in them, I couldn't take it and picked up the new FootJoy Hyperflex shoes. Much improved, no more foot pain or hot spots, and should be ready for my tournament at Ballyneal this week!

Oh very nice, I think that will be a good time of year weather-wise before it heats up too much. Sand hollow is definitely worth the money. Its a premium resort facility and i would highly recommend it. I'd be curious how Ledges and Coral Canyon compare to copper rock, I was blown away by that place as well. If I can manage to get out of STG next time, wolf creek is also on the list. Do you know what tee times are costing there lately? I haven't checked.

My usual playing partners always bring a speaker when we get together for our weekly round. I wouldn't say that I totally hate music playing, but I would say that if I'm playing by myself, putting music on never crosses my mind. I largely prefer a quiet setting to focus and hear nothing but the sound of nature. However, I'm willing to let it slide as long as certain rules apply: I cannot stand it being too loud. If you're next to me in the cart and I can't hear you, or If I can't talk back to the cart behind me to ask their score, it's too loud. I know not everybody has my taste in music, but if I hear the same ZZ Top Pandora station every week, I'm gonna get annoyed and ask to turn it down. For the courses with newer carts, I may throw my music on really low just for the cart drive, but I dont want to hear it when I'm over the ball.

After watching videos from BustaJack and Zac Radford, I knew I had to schedule a trip to the St. George area. I started planning in March and scheduled tee times for mid-June for a 3 day golf extravaganza (my first golf-centric vacation ever). Plan was to drive from Colorado Springs (11 Hrs), play 3 courses in 3 days and drive back. Had to leave some time to do some touristy stuff with the GF. Itinerary was such: Sand Hollow Resort on Thursday, Copper Rock on Friday, Sky Mountain on Saturday. I stayed at the Hampton Inn SunRiver south of STG. Sand Hollow - This place did NOT disappoint. Staff was friendly and amenities were excellent. Even the short drive to the practice area had incredible rock formations, with a top-tier driving range and putting green. Club house is beautiful and a solid pro shop. Range balls were fresh Callaways and plastic tees were provided on the range. Playing as a single paired with a 3-some, they actually let me go off early by myself and me and the gf got to enjoy the scenery together (Didn't even charge me an extra rider fee). The course itself was in excellent condition. There were few if at all GUR areas or scorched fairway spots, but the greens were excellent and the fairways and rough were lush. My only real complaint about the course is the red clay bunkers; these are incredibly difficult to hit out of and due to the nature of native dirt, they were bumpy with small rocks throughout. Very penalizing. The back 9 is certainly where this place shines. While the front 9 had plenty of rock formations and great scenes, the views coming up to and through hole 12 were spectacular. Even the cart ride down hole 12 was like a scenic tour. The Par 3 15th is brutal from the tips, 235yds with death everywhere! I shot 81 from the tips with a few doubles. It's not an overly difficult course, wide fairways and everything is playable if you can find it (no OB on most the course). Very fun course to play, and just a surreal setting. Even the final hole gives you 1 more spectacular view as a classy parting gift. Price: $145, Views: 5/5, Layout 4/5, Condition 5/5 Copper Rock - Starting with a drizzly morning, the course seemed quite empty and we once again were allowed to tee off solo. The clubhouse was small but very nice, with a small pro shop and eating area but with quality goods (their merch was the best of the trip IMO). The cart drive to the practice area and 1st tee was a good distance and worried to get lost, but once again had an excellent practice area with good range balls and tees available. This course really exceeded my expectations. While it doesn't have the flash of Sand Hollow, the setting was unique with the cliff face in the backdrop of every hole. Course was in excellent condition, great rolling greens and nothing to complain about in that regard. I played 1 tee box up from the tips, the course is LONG from the far-back, with many of those tee boxes 50-75 yards back from where I was playing. It was a comfortable distance with the cold weather hurting my distance (been years since I smashed driver and only saw 270 off the tee.. Ball was just not carrying) The layout may have been my favorite of the week. Lots of chances to hit the big dawg and a good mix of strategic holes, risk/reward, and punishing areas. I love a place that isn't afraid to put a short/challenging Par 3 when it's beating you up with distance the rest of the time, like you get here with the 17th. The weather held out for us and got sunny as the round closed. The overall aesthetic of the surrounding homes and structures, course, manmade creeks and ponds really was spectacular. Given that Sand Hollow was the pièce de résistance of my trip, this place was the big surprise to me. I shot 80 with a double to finish and plenty on the table for next time. Price: $88, Views: 4/5, Layout: 5/5, Condition: 5/5 Sky Mountain - In summation, I would describe Sky Mountain as a $50 course with a Million Dollar view. It had the feel more of your normal public muni, lots of people and an outdated clubhouse. I was charged for range balls here, which was a mix of old range balls and other randos in the mix. The putting green was nice however, and the course may have the best view off the driving range of anywhere I've played. I was paired with a 3-some and we played 1 up from the tips. The course is tight and not very long whatsoever, in fact my distance probably hurt me from these tee boxes and I had a hard time keeping it out of trouble. Fairways and greens were okay, they weren't rolling as well as the days previous (big surprise) and ground under repair was a somewhat common occurrence throughout. I got caught in several areas with poor lies due to spotty rough or fairway. I also felt like they didn't really take advantage of the amazing view from the practice area. You pretty much had the opening hole pointing down at the rock formations, then turned away through houses, and came back to pointing at it in the final 2 holes. I personally was not a massive fan of the layout. There were very few "good holes," and while it wasn't a down-and-back city park course, they seemingly added doglegs and obstructions in places to try to make it more interesting, but still came off as bland. It may have been more exciting if I played it first, but I was a little unimpressed after what I had the days prior. This was slightly disappointing in addition to them charging for range balls and the extra rider, which brought the price of the round over Cooper Rock, which they are not even in the same league. That said, I would still consider this a place you must go to just to get the full St George experience. If you need a filler round that shouldnt be as expensive, I would still recommend it. I shot 80, once again with a double to finish. I just can't seem to finish strong out here! Price: $90, Views: 5/5 mixed with some 2/5, Layout 3/5, Condition 3/5 Final notes - St. George may have turned into my new favorite vacation destination! I didn't even come close to playing everywhere I could have, leaving plenty of room to come back. Next on my list to play would be Ledges, Coral Canyon, Black Desert, and I would like to play the Dixie Red 9 hole, but I could not go back again without playing Sand Hollow and Copper Rock. Pricing around the area was very reasonable and cheaper than where I live overall from hotel pricing, food, gas, and the actual price of tee times. On the minus side, Utah really needs to get their sh** together with their liquor laws... Bev carts can't start serving till 11:00, nothing other than 5% beer anywhere you go, and absolutely zero night life to speak of. Thankfully I dont have to drink to have a good time on the course, but with the amount of complaining I heard from other people, it does put a damper on the fun you COULD have if they lightened up. Just play golf all day and go to sleep early and you shouldn't be too disappointed! Just pack your own provisions if you have to.

Hi All, Long time lurker and just getting more involved in the community. Based out of Colorado Springs and play a lot in Denver and the surrounding area. How long have you been playing golf? What’s your handicap or normal score? I started in high school and played 4 years. Went on a 10 year hiatus through college and getting my career off the ground and just got back into it last year. Playing at around a 6-7 averaging around 80, with recent low rounds of 73 and 76. What do you love about golf? It's the most purely fun sport in existence. From practice to playing, no other sport is as genuinely fun as golf. I can also play it the rest of my life, which I can't with other sports I've played. What brings you to MyGolfSpy? Do you already know any other Spies? I keep tuning in for advice, club news, and tests, so might as well join the chaos! Where are you from? What is your home course? From Cañon City but live in Colorado Springs and work in Denver. I frequent Kings Deer, Saddle Rock, Kennedy, but I keep some variety and play lots of different courses in the area. What are the best and worst things about golf in your region? Well, we hit the ball further than anywhere else in the country! But there's not nearly as many courses as there are people who play, so finding a tee time is always difficult. Also our weather is very unpredictable so that makes playing opportunities that much harder for those who work day jobs. What do you do for a living? Architectural Engineer. Super fun stuff... How’d you pick your user name? It was earned by my severe lack of putting skills. I'm a great ball striker and I'd be scratch if I could just putt!

I'm thinking a little less technical since it seems like most other responses here have a much better grasp on stat improvement than I'd be able to provide, but I play with several friends at similar skill levels and here's some things I've picked up that can help. Be honest to yourself about your game where it is today. While it's easy to reminisce about the thoughts of hitting the ball further, that's just not realistic for some. If you just don't have the long game, that's okay, but you need to reinforce other parts of your game to play around that. And yes, like others said, if you can't hit it long, you need a heck of a short game to make up for it. A lot of your practice needs to be focused on this area. Going back to being honest about your game, short hitters often take too little club into the green. Know your real on-course yardages, and don't feel like you're hurting your pride by taking a wood or hybrid in from what you think should be an iron. Your club makeup may also be contributing. I can't imagine you have a large gapping between all your clubs and I'm seeing you have 5 clubs of PW-down. Simplify your club selection and you'll have less nuance to master with that overlapping of yardages. Also, I see little value in laying up to a specific yardage if you can't reach the GIR. Get that ball as close to the hole as possible as early as possible. Dispersion goes down with shorter distance no matter what, even if your short game isn't great. Solid ball contact is always key, regardless of what club you're hitting. Need to eliminate wasted shots like chunks, blades, tops. Even if you dont hit a great shot, advancing the ball towards the hole as far as possible on every swing will keep the big numbers down. (speaking to my buddy who often has to play 3x3 wood shots from the middle of a fairway...) Big numbers for me come when I follow up bad shots with another bad shot. I can always make bogey with 1 bad shot on a hole, but 2 in a row puts you into double/triple territory. If you're out of position, get the ball back to a playable position and keep it there. The amount of birdies you make doesn't lower your score nearly as much as turning triples into doubles and doubles into bogeys. Learn how to miss. Pick a target line on each swing knowing where the danger is that can bring up big numbers. Playing in the rough isn't great, but it is always better than a bunker or hazard. If I'm struggling off the tee, I may pick the edge of fairway as my target line opposite of the trouble so that if my big miss comes I'm still out of trouble, but a double-cross is playable. Find yourself a "safety shot" off the tee. Even if you're losing 15-20 yards to get it, playing short out of the fairway is always better than a lost ball. There's a lot there that I'm sure you can't fix overnight, but even if you successfully employ each of these items just once a round you can be down close to your target score.