HardcoreLooper

BTW - Top Golf has added putt-putt to some locations (like the one in Richmond). An old hotel in downtown Richmond that converted to condos built a really cool, hotel-themed mini golf course in their basement with F&B - Hotel Greene. And it's the best of both worlds, all ages before 5pm, 21 & over after 5. It's a blast.

I'm glad to hear that they're doing the right thing. Arccos is usually fantastic with customer service. And they need to be, if they're going to charge a premium price for their offerings.

Just Platinum Elite here - but stopped dead in my tracks since this time last year.

Oh my god, that's unreal. If I were still in college, I'd be all over that.

I bought the Link so I could stop carrying around an iPhone just for Arccos - the GPS in my otherwise fairly solidly performing G7 isn't very precise. I'll try the Link with an iPhone, but if that's the solution, I don't know that I'll keep it.

We're 15 minutes away from the Top Golf in Richmond, and we go every few months. We absolutely love it. That being said, there is no way in hell that I'd get fitted using the RFID balls. Ours has the little indoor Swing Suite, so they could certainly do fittings in there. I don't see why any location couldn't have a launch monitor available for fittings.

Dr. Neil Wolkodoff did. I can't find the study itself to link it, but plenty of articles cite it. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/critics-of-college-players-usi

I've held off writing anything because I'm frankly so surprised at the poor performance that I'm thinking that either I have a bad unit, or it just doesn't work well with my phone (Motorola G7). I'm going to try to resurrect an old iPhone to see if it works any better.

Look for places that offer replay rates. It keeps the trip price low for people that only want to play 18, but the sickos who want to play 36 can pony up a few more bucks for more torture. Especially when you forget the shoulder season and travel during the off-season. Myrtle Beach in August can be brutal, but it's affordable stay hydrated and lathered up with sunscreen. When it's 92 and 98% humidity in Richmond, is 100 really that much worse? Prioritize fun and frugal over the bucket list. I go to the Shenvalee with a group of guys, and it's a blast. Are the courses great? No. Is the food memorable? No. Do we have fun? You bet your ass we do. And it's not a problem when I propose it to the Ways and Means committee.

After too many rounds with clubs on my back (both my own and others), my back finally gave out. And after pushing for about 15 more years, I finally got a powered trolley. I find myself playing far more emergency nines than I used to now. And I will not let my daughters carry their bags. Your back is too important.

In my classics rounds, I've seen that my absolute best persimmon drives are about 10 yards shorter than my average drive with my F8. The new clubs help, but the ball is so different now. You just don't get crazy side-spin (spin axis tilt) like you used to. Hitting a persimmon driver with the modern ball still doesn't bring back the fear of the huge miss that we had with balata.

I haven't noticed it getting worse after the firmware update, but it hasn't worked very well from the start.

I was fitted into Recoils for my Wilson D7 Forged irons and I love them. Another vote for graphite here. They're much easier on my back and left wrist. I only wish I'd changed sooner.

For those of you that play Ryder Cup style, do you have less serious golfers on your trips that don't carry handicaps? I would love to do a Ryder Cup style event, but there are too many non-serious golfers on my trips, and they balk at the idea. Some of them don't even like the quota game. At the First Tee where I volunteer, we do a one-day Ryder Cup right around New Years when all of the college kids are home. It's always a blast, so I know a trip based on this format would be fun if we had the right group of golfers.

Jeez, I forgot you're in TX. Don't worry about this. Take care of your family.

If you move your ball out of a divot, you're cheating yourself out of one of the greatest thrills in golf when you rip a low screamer with tons of spin out of an old divot.

Oh, I forgot about the Seamus loaner bags that Pinehurst gives you when you play The Cradle. I really wanted to just kind of walk away with mine.

How is Bandon for non-golfers? My wife wants me to do a bucket-list trip for my 50th, but I want to bring the family with me. My girls will definitely play with me, but my wife is going to need stuff to do. And if my mom and dad go, mom's another non-golfer to entertain. We were thinking about going to Cabot, but Canada doesn't seem to be too keen on us Americans right now. And if I had to choose only one to get to go to, it'd be Bandon.

If you want restaurant recommendations, let us know.

It'll be interesting to see if my younger daughter still wants to wear matching outfits in the parent-child tournament. She's 13 now, and I can see her putting the kibosh on this.

Interestingly enough, some of the most interesting ground for golf in the Richmond area houses a nine hole goat track near my house. It's really narrow, and it's generally in awful shape, but it's so much fun to play that I always play it a few times a year. If they knocked down most of the trees, grew some decent grass on it, and built more interesting greens, it could be the Sweetens Cove of the mid-Atlantic. And they have batting cages and go karts.

It's a bummer that the River course is being aerated. I really love it. @cnosil really nailed it. Colonial Heritage is also pretty good, as I remember. If you can work in a round on the way down or back up home, check out Mattaponi Springs north of Richmond. It's a great course, but it beats me up and steals my lunch money whenever I play it. It's worth stopping for. Don't let their janky web site scare you off.

Put me in the family camp as well. I hope you're getting your kids on the golf course. Some of my best memories are vacation golf with my kids - both on gorgeous courses and dog tracks.

Are you staying in the city, or in the burbs? And how far do you feel like driving? I'm assuming you're staying in town. You should; Charleston is awesome. If you're going to splurge and play the Ocean Course, consider going to the opposite end of the spectrum and play the recently renovated Charleston Muni. The architecture illuminati are really excited about it. https://thefriedegg.com/charleston-municipal-golf-course-renovation-seth-raynor-troy-miller/ I intend to drag my dad away from Dunes West out in Mount Pleasant for at least one round there the next time I'm down there. I can second the nomination for Charleston National (also Mount Pleasant). I have a soft spot for DW (my dad and I have a pretty good record in the member-guest), and it's pretty good for an Arthur Hills course. If you can get on Yeaman's Hall, Country Club of Charleston, or Bull's Bay out in Awendaw, do it. Dad still has not gotten me on any of these. I've heard that Patriot's Point and Rivertowne (also Mount Pleasant) are not looking great these days. Snee Farm (also Mount Pleasant) is still private, but if you belong to a ClubCorp club with the ONE add on or Play Away, you can get on there. The Plantation Course at Edisto (Edisto Island) is also pretty cool if you don't mind taking a ride. Eat at the Old Post Office restaurant and get the shrimp and grits.

I might be able to pull off that black-on-black outfit in the article (minus the bucket hat, I look like sh!t in bucket hats), but there are exactly two days a year in Richmond, VA where you can wear it's cool enough to wear a black shirt and warm enough to wear any shorts. The fashion on tour is getting a little better, but the fashion on the first tee at the courses where I play is not moving forward. Linksoul makes stuff you can credibly wear off the golf course, which is nice. I'd like to see more courses give up on collared shirts, although I'm so preppy, it'd be tough to get me to play in anything else. https://www.nationalclubgolfer.com/news/abolish-dress-code-proof/ I did just get a nice North Face hoodie from work, and I could totally wear that thing on the course.