RoverRick

In the past couple of months, we have added a new wrinkle to our money games. A deuce pot. Put $20 into the pot, everyone who makes a 2 on any hole gets a share. I didn’t immediately participate in it, but it was pointed out that with my putting, I was a threat to have a deuce every time I hit the green on a par 3. That was true, but I wasn’t hitting the greens on par3’s. So how could I fix this? Practice. But even then, the wind changes everyday. In the previous post 3 weeks ago, I spoke about hitting a few balls at the pitching green. Our par 3’s are 4, 9, 13, & 17. 17 is basically the same direction as the driving range. But I got on Google Earth and laid out some “tee boxes” to practice. So before the rounds if no one is in the way I’ll grab a dozen range balls and go to these areas. This has really help my par 3 scores. Yellow is 4, red is 9, and blue is 13. I’ve only been able to practice 13 twice. But it is similar to 9. So now when I step on to the tee box of a par 3, it is not the first time I’ve hit that shot today. Also, even if I don’t get to practice these that day, I know that certain holes have a similar line and wind direction.

I have played or practiced for the past 10 days in a row. That’s the first time I’ve been able to do that in a couple of years. Actually, I’ve play 12 of the last 15 days. I feel like I improved some aspect of my game or bag every time. Adding loft to the G430LST driver to replace the SIM2 Max, and then the JumboMax grips. Swapping the hybrid for the G425 Hybrid, I thought this was a mistake, until I added the JumboMax to it, but I added loft to it and set to +1° Flat. Mid size grips across all the others. And I’ve switched balls. TP5 was too spiny before but not now. The AVX that was my normal ball is no longer the best, although I have more testing to do.

I am a notorious low-ball hitter. Most of my approach shots are normally 3/4 knock downs. It’s been the long game holding me back. Although, the putts on 5&6 were just lucky. I tried it on 1, 7, and 15 and it didn’t work and they were shorter. Actually, 6 was funny because I wasn’t even trying to make it. Just get it close.

I played this course for real in 2013. It is one of my favorites of all time. That tee shot on number one was straight down hill and a great hole. The panoramic views through out the entire course are the best. Oh yeah, I don’t think I broke 80.

Date 02/25/2024 Course Name Sulphur Springs CC Gross Score 72 Course Handicap 8 Gross Strokes over/under par 0 Net Score to Par -8 Net Score 64 Net Birdies or better 11 Longest Drive 258 SIM Round? First, some business from yesterday. There were 8 deuces, 2 on each par 3, so no skins on them. Only 6 players were in the deuce pot so $57 each. Today was different. Not much wind yesterday, but 25-35 mph today. We had 25 yesterday and only 3 today. There was a large group that were spilling over into our tee times, so we elected to give them all our times and went off the back. We played 10-18, 3-9, and 1&2. No wait, finished in 2:45. I had arrived early and changed my grips. I blow them on and my compressor is broken so I went to the cart barn and used theirs. I noticed yesterday that because of arthritis in my middle, ring and pinkie on my left hand, I had to slow my swing down to compensate and keep ahold of the club. Now that my knees and ankle are better, this was noticeable in my hand. I put Jumbo Max JMX Ultralites S on my driver and 3 hybrid. And midsize Best Grips on the other. I didn’t use my 3 wood today because I will put a JumboMax on it, but couldn’t find my 3rd grip. Okay, for the round. First hole was down wind. I assumed since my drive went 30 more yards than usual, my approach would also. It did not and buried in the bunker. The wind pushed my par putt up the hill, so that old me to play the wind not the slope. Bogeyed 10 and birdied 11 thanks to a wedge to 4’. I had aimed off the green, and it blew perfectly. 12-14 it didn’t blow perfectly. I did have 88 yards straight into the wind on 14. I hit a knock down 124 yard shot and didn’t get to the green. Basically, I bogeyed most of the into the wind holes. I’ll skip the play-by-play except to say on 5 and 6 I had 30’ birdie putts. The slope was right to left and wind was left to right. I putted it straight and both dropped. Then we came to number 9. I shot this video because I wanted to have an excuse as to why I double bogeyed a 130 yard par 3. Keep in mind we could not wear hats because they would not stay on our heads. IMG_5173.mov I shot another video but it failed to upload here, but I got a screenshot of where my roasted knock-down 6 iron ended up. About 7’ for birdie. I played what would normally be dead straight about 6” up wind, and it dropped. This was a fantastic round probably my best ball striking in a couple of years. These grips on the Driver and Hybrid allow me to set up for a draw and swing hard with no worry of going left, or dropping the club. I may end up putting them on all my clubs but no reason too as of yet.

I only played 17 holes today. Pace was slow. Lady Rover had made it plain that I would be on time for my saintly mother’s 82nd birthday dinner. That’s 82 birthdays, not 82 dinners. I said at the beginning of the round I was going in the first group and leaving after my second stroke on 17. We played a deuce pot, and $20 buy in and divided between all players with a deuce. I had 4 putts for a 2 today and made one so I won some money. 17 players, $340. I know there was at least 1 more. I missed having 4 deuces today by a combined 9”. But very little wind. Unfortunately, since everyone I play with can hit the green and make a putt, there were 68 chance.

I’ve had an interesting development. GolfShot uses AppleWatch to track the Statistics of your swing. Tempo, Rhythm, Hand Speed, Backswing, Transition, Swing Path. I downloaded this 6-8 months ago. My stats were horrible across the board, but my transition was up to 50° steep and 22° out to in. This is has been a life long issue and have always been a high spin player. Most of my equipment has been geared towards low spin. Ping G430LST driver, G425 LST 3w on Low spin shafts. I have a SIM2 Max that I absolutely hated because it would balloon. Back to this in a minute. Over the past few months I’ve worked hard to sort out these swing issues. As you can see I have almost ideal swing averages now. Although I could definitely use more speed. A few months ago, the performance of my Ping clubs just dropped off. I didn’t really think it through, just went to the bench and put in some other players. Suddenly the SIM2 Max was out performing the G430 LST. I swapped out my irons and everything but my putter. Wednesday, I decided to take the Pings out for perhaps a farewell tour. The first 2 driver holes were abysmal. Low launch, no spin, bouncers. I mean like 100 yard carry and 120 yards of roll. On one hole I skipped it twice across the lake and still got 60 yards of roll. Then I bounced the 3 wood hole high from 229. It was more like a really long putt rather than a 3 wood. I was amazed..I made great swings and the ball barely got in the air and fell out. This is something I have never had happen. I lofted these clubs to 12° and 16°. The performance drastically improved. It’s still not ideal but after changing to a mid-launch, mid-spin shaft (VENTUS Blue) set to 12°. I’ve been longer off the tee than ever before. This is a work in progress, but it goes to show how important a fitting so that the equipment matches the swing.

I bought new clubs in 2004 Hogan CFT when they were going out of business. I then bought new clubs in 2008. Titleist AP2’s. I will never forget it. I was pulling the plastic off before using them for the first time. I was in the fairway, a lush green area of grass. And had actually dropped a ball because I wanted to hit the 6 iron. I struck the ball and a piece of broken tine that had been buried there for years. Took a chunk out of my 6 iron that had the plastic on it just seconds before. I was sick. My thoughts from that point on is that EVERY CLUB IS USED AFTER THE FIRST SWING. I didn’t buy brand new irons until January of 2024. I got a set of Taylormade P790’s, quite possibly the best irons I ever had and I played Mizuno from 2009 until 2018. The only reason I bought these knew is because like all things Taylormade, the older models are cheaper when the new ones come out. I bought the 2nd generation new for half the price of the 4th generation that had just come out.

I should have said water is the only thing I have drank in the last couple of week, on and off the course.

For the last couple of weeks, my “Go-To Drink” has been water. It sucks.

Wednesday, I played with a guy who paced off every, muttered some formula, did some out-loud calculations, I would not be surprised if he had an abacus in his bag to aid in this. He insisted on pulling the flag before he putted, and after 16 holes I thought, “Why pull the flag? I could lay it down behind the hole across the line and you still wouldn’t hit it. He never hit a putt within 10’ of the hole.” He shot a 105 with 50+ putts. It made me question my “miss the putt left or right by 5’ “ statement. I was thinking if he did the “Three Bears’ Method” he would be a much better putter. Just look at the hole while making a series of practice strokes, one intentionally too short, one intentionally too long, and then a couple that feel just right. And hit it at the hole. He certainly couldn’t have been worse. I firmly believe we would all be better off just relaxing and hitting where it “feels” like we should, rather than spending a lot of effort on reading long putts. Short putts are different.

Date 02/22/2024 Course Name Sulphur Springs CC Gross Score 79 Course Handicap 8 Gross Strokes over/under par 7 Net Score to Par -1 Net Score 71 Net Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 230 SIM Round? I don’t normally play on Thursday but 80° and sunny in February and nothing pressing at work….. It was windy but not as windy as yesterday. They punched the fairways and fringe, and it was piled up around the greens and blowing all over them yesterday. I shot an 86 with 2 birdies one was on a par 3 earning me half the deuce pot and $175. Today, I shot a 79 and won $6. It was still quite bumpy on the fairway and fringe. I had a shot on 6 that hit a clod on the fringe and shot into the lake. Normally, it would have bounced straight and been on the green. Although I had 2 more penalties that were 100% my fault. Short game allowed me to make bogeys so I can’t complain too much. I took the Ping G430LST and was considering trading it for a Qi10 or Qi10Max. I’m not spinning my drives like I used to and while they are running forever, my carry number is horrendous. But I lofted it to 12° and the spin and launch were much better.

Never discount this statement. I use AimPoint to a certain extent. It may have a placebo effect because it is only 1/3 of the putt making formula and perhaps the least important. Line, speed, and stoke. Line For me, I rarely miss a putt by 5-6 feet left or right. In your example you used 4% slope. That’s a huge slope for making a 40’ putt. But even if you under-read it by almost 1/2 (your calculations says 80” and AimPoint says 4 fingers.) your ball will be about 3 feet from the hole, but likely straight up the hill. A very makable 2 putt. Speed Using your same example, you hit your putt starting out perfectly on line, but leave it 10’ short or 10’ long. Now you have a 10’er that likely has a pretty severe slope also. Not near as makable. Stroke Now let’s say you have the 3’er straight up hill. You can still miss it because you pulled the putt or pushed it. The moral of the story, whatever method you use, once you have decided on a line and set up on it, focus on making a good stroke at the right speed. Even if your method is just a placebo, which I’m not saying it is, let it give you confidence to setup and focus intently on the speed.

Actually, I have watched and learned many different swing theories on YouTube. I actually avoided GolfDigest and Golf Magazine lessons for years. It wasn’t until I began to have physical issues with my knees and ankle that I started looking for other options. I tried lessons also but it’s mainly looking for alternatives to make allowance for gimpy running gear. There are no quick fixes but there are several competing theories out there.

Dang it! I read jmikecpa’s post about Peter Finch posting his clubs for the Golfbidder challenge with Rick Shiels and got all excited.

Date 02/18/2024 Course Name Sulphur Springs CC Gross Score 89 Course Handicap 6 Gross Strokes over/under par 17 Net Score to Par 11 Net Score 83 Net Birdies or better 5 Longest Drive 220 SIM Round? I arrived at the course feeling good physically and mentally because I replaced my 3 & 4 irons with 7 & 8 woods. I was going to swing easy with them and play well. Unfortunately, I took 5 penalties with these 2 clubs. They will not be in the bag tomorrow. I’ll also have different wedges because the shafts may be too light in my Taylormades. Although it could just be bad swings. Tomorrow will be a big day for the handicap. I have a 75 dropping off and it depends on what I shoot to replace it with. Currently my next lowest score not being used is an 85. I hope to replace it with a 69, but the likelihood of it increasing is better than decreasing, but I never know.

My opinion is that 3-putts are caused by leaving the first putt 5-6 feet from the hole. I rarely miss the read by 5-6’, but can easily go 5-6’ short or long. Short is worse because at least long means you got to see it go past the hole. You can even align the ball perfectly and hit it exactly on line and leave it 5’ short or even bounce it off the back of the hole. Conversely, a perfectly paced ball slightly off target will still leave you a tap-in. Or at least a very makable putt. I turned all my striped balls with the stripe sideways so as not to focus on it.

A year ago or so, I got a Triple Track putter, ball, and ball marker. I felt I was spending hours (actually just a few seconds) lining up all the lines. I don’t think it helped me make a single putt. I bought a sleeve of these Tour Response Stripe balls a couple of weeks ago. Same story. I line it up from behind the ball, but when I get over the putt it looks aimed somewhere else. In the end it simply changes my focus from the hole to the ball. I look at the hole and focus on it and the distance. I’ve found I putt best when I don’t worry about anything but centering the putter behind the ball and aiming the face at the spot I picked as my target and then focus only on distance. I also allow my subconscious to aim the ball. Almost the 3 bears method. “That feels too much, that feels too little, that feels just right”. The same for speed or even how hard to hit pitches and chips. Intentionally hard, soft, and then what feels right. But the ball itself performed as good as a ProV1, considering it’s been wet, muddy, cold and windy. I do like some of the colors.

I love the concept of the stripe. I tried it and the Callaway Triple Trac, but it just doesn’t work for me. The ball itself is good. Also, for some reason I can find a plain white ball better.

I should have also pointed out that there are a 8 of members, perhaps former members since it has gone outside the forum that I have been in a daily chat group for the past 10 years. Two of whom I’ve never actually met, but still consider them close friends. The others I have met with to play golf on numerous occasions in Vancouver, Tennessee, and a few times in Texas. They have met other places that I have missed. We shared houses and played golf and even gone to weddings. All because of MGS.

Wow. I have been on this forum for 13 years and 6500+ posts and probably only respond to 1 out of 10 threads I have read. So this one is tough to respond to without writing some epic novel, perhaps entitled Rover’s Odyssey, because it really has been a journey. That journey was from a no handicap 120 shooter to a 0.2 handicap index back up to a 13 and back to a 6 as of Friday. It has influenced every part of my game. In just the past year, the 2 threads that have influenced me the most are the LAB Golf putter thread and the Weekly Virtual Tour thread. I was fortunate enough to be selected as a tester for the LAB putter. I selected the DF2.1 because, as an engineer, the design looked like it was the absolute best design made for getting the ball in the hole. It gave no thought to aesthetics and only function. I took it a step further and went with a bright red head and white shaft simply because I wanted to start conversations. It certainly has and at least 5 people have bought LAB putters based on playing with me and seeing it in action. Although I did 2 putt from 25’ yesterday, and a MEZZ1 purchaser 4 putted from 20’ on the same line. It was not the equipments fault. I’ve been a good putter for a decade, thanks to a thread below. The combination of this method and the consistency of the DF2.1 has meant that since last May, have putted 22-33 times every round. The second thread that I have participated in during the past year is the MGS Virtual Golf Tournaments. This has really made me focus on making pars, especially on stroke holes. Often when I’m playing in the regular money matches and I got off to a slow start, and know after 3-4 I’m not going to win the stroke bet. With my group it is rare that a net over par will be in the money spots. With so many in the bet, it is also rare for someone else to not cover a net birdie. The MGS VGT has made me want to “stay in the fight” and play more conservatively so I can post a good round.

Date 02/16/2024 Course Name Sulphur Springs CC Gross Score 83 Course Handicap 6 Gross Strokes over/under par 11 Net Score to Par 5 Net Score 77 Net Birdies or better 2 Longest Drive 207 SIM Round? The good news is my handicap dropped to a 6, it was 65° sunny but a 17 mpg south wind at tee time. The bad news was that by the 7th hole the wind had increase to 25 mph from the north, the temperature had dropped, and my handicap was still 6. The bogeys on the front were some poor chips, but the bogeys on the back were just bad swings. I think the only good swing was the tee shot on 13.

I am vacillating between a SIM2 Rescue 19.5° and a GAPR Mid 18°. The beauty of this Is they use the same adaptor sleeve, so I can have the other head in the bag and swap on the range. The Rescue is higher and perhaps more forgiving, but the GAPR with the flat face is straighter. I’m finding it is course conditions and swing conditions to be the determining factor.

Thanks. I didn’t make it today. I had a work problem that came up last night at midnight and didn’t get it sorted out until 2pm. I usually do send the driver down the middle but short. It’s usually the second shot that cause me all the problems. Also, the key to putting is pitching and chipping. When your 4th shot is within 4-5’ golf is easy no matter how you get there. However, when you are dropping and hitting your 4th shot it is a different deal.

Low 70’s? I have 3 rounds low 70’s since July in gross score. But I am not consistent at all tee to green. I play 4 times a week and usually have 1 round that’s good that I post here and 3 rounds that are horrible. My course handicap has fluctuated between 5 and 13 in the last 18 months. It depends on how my legs are working. I think it will be a 7 tomorrow, but GHIN hasn’t updated that yet. I started out posting a good and bad but soon realized others didn’t want to hear me complain that I didn’t swing well and made 8 doubles or that my legs hurt. I wrote about it in another thread. Today I kept it in play today. I had no doubles and no penalties. You probably do not play with someone that averages 27.1 putts per round with a low of 22 putts and a high of 32 putts since last July. I went the entire month of September with just one three putt. I really have guys that call me One Putt Rick. Others call my putter “Big Red”. If I can avoid doubles/penalties I will shoot in the high 70’s fairly easily. I expect to chip-in with a 9 iron, to sink every putt, and never expect to 3 putt. Of course this is not the case. The problem is while I posted a -1 net last week and a +4 net the week before, I also had some high 80’s, and 2 rounds I didn’t even finish except to play the par 3’s because I couldn’t walk. I also had a smooth 90 one day with 1 deuce where I won a bunch of money. We have a deuce bet that even if I’m feeling bad I will try my hardest to get on the green because I always have an opportunity to birdie with a GIR. With my old set up if I don’t turn properly, because of knees and ankle I come over the top and pull it 40 yards left. There are a lot of bad things 40 yards left of the green. The new setup I hit only draws, and it’s easier on me physically. I’m planning on playing tomorrow because I felt so good today.