Dweed

Congrats.

I did it boys! MY FIRST HOLE IN ONE!
My only green in regulation the whole night, played awful....but it only takes one! Hard hole, tight, 185 yards, 6 iron. One of the toughest par 3s in our area (Skenandoah). Pitched a foot or so behind the hole and spun back in the hole. I refused to believe it but it actually happened. I've been playing golf 30 of my 36 years on this planet, being around scratch the last 5 years and honestly never thinking it would happen and it happened.
Bar bill wasn't too bad, about $200.

Thank you sir. I'm glad it's getting better as well. I don't sit still well. 

Looks like a nice course and can’t beat that price!  Pay double that around here and aren’t nearly as green as that.

Played Durand Eastman today. This is Robert Trent Jones’ first course and of all his designs, this one is a fun walk through Irondequoit, NY on Lake Ontario. 
 
It’s a county course and in peak season costs $16 to walk. Yes you heard that correctly. 
 
Shot 80, 8/14 fairways, 8/18 greens and 31 putts. 
 
I hit the ball really well but could not for the life of me put it all together. 3, 3 putts is close to becoming the end of days for the broom. 
 
One highlight among many was my approach to 13. 439 dogleg left. I had a downhill lie off a mound with the ball above my feet and hit an 8 iron from 160 to here. Missed the putt which was on brand for me today. 

Some additional photos from today…
 

Good to hear the shoulder is improving Josh. 

It's got to and I just keep working on rehab for it. 

Glad to hear the shoulder held up…hopefully the healing continues!

Shoulder held up well and got a full 18 in. Shot a 4 over 76 with 10 FW and 10 GIR.  Birdied my least favorite hole, the par 5 15th. 

No golf this morning rain and a thunder storm. Tomorrow and Friday look really nice. Hopefully I can shake off the way I finished last round, I must have hit 30 gap wedges in the yard after blading the one OB on 8 yesterday. 

Hopefully those moments are quickly fleeting !  

Attempted to play a tournament last weekend.. Somehow my golf game has left me, other than my short game. everything has been terrible.
Need to regroup, and try again maybe this weekend and get a round in. 

I have been grinding on the range. As for right now Im working on just tempo and hitting different flighted wedges. Some high ones, low ones, full swing and just smooth half pitch shots. My courses mens leagues starts next week so hoping to get that round in. 

I was able to play 9 holes last Friday in preparation of a family outing on Saturday, with a new driver, Ping G425 Max. It neither helped nor hurt during this 9 holes. I hit it mostly solid but could never get it on line. I managed to shoot a 39 (+3) with 19 putts, thankfully, I two-putted each of the par 5s for birdie, otherwise it would have been rough. I narrowly missed a 12 foot downhill eagle on the first, but i hit it about 4 feet by. After that, I gave nothing over 5 feet a decent chance, including a 3-putt from 35 feet on 6, and no giving an 8 footer on 7 a chance for birdie. Iron play was very solid for me, finding 6 of 9 greens.
My oldest daughter (6) begged all afternoon to go to the golf course that day after I got home. We got to the range to found several balls left, so she had field day trying to hit them all. She got the ball airborne regularly, and she carried a couple 50+ yards. I took a few of the range balls to work on the new driver to see if I could figure out the setup to get it on target. I hit probably 15-20 solid shots with my normal mid height fade, but still struggled getting it to start on my intended line. Probably a personal issue as I rarely, if ever, work on setup and ball position. Nevertheless, I felt comfortable with the ball flight. Saturday's round (details below) was not as comfortable with the driver and cost me a few strokes. 
That brings me to our annual Memorial Day family event. We can have up to 15-20 people with us and most play, but only a few of us are competitive about our score. Three of us placed a small bet before starting and we were off to play in soggy conditions with casual water on most of the course. That is close to where the fun stopped for the day, for me. I had good looks for birdie on 1 and 2, short par 4 and short par 5. Left over from Friday's round, I hit these with little conviction. No. 2 was the first driver of the day, and it was similar to the previous day, off line but playable. On 3, I had about 5 feet for par, and I finally had good pace and line. It rolled over the edge for a bogey. Very disappointing to be +1 through 3 with the putts I had missed. Not only did it not get better, it got worse on the front 9. A 3-putt on 5, not a good look for birdie on 6, shortish par 5, OB on 7 and 8, but salvaged a bogey on 9 after 2 chunks to keep from closing with 3 doubles. A 44 (+8) with 18 putts, 1 fairway and 3 greens.
Going into the back 9, I was down $10 and had no confidence in my game. Holes 10-13, I managed to be even, thanks to good shots around the green, and 1 good putt. After this, I was thinking, I can at least make some money back with a short par 4 and short par 5 coming up. Made par on 14, and destroyed my hope on 15 by bogeying going into the closing stretch which is the toughest part of the course, finishing bogey, bogey after a drop, par. I closed the back with a 37 (+3) with 12 putts, 1 fairway and 1 green. 
Not sure when my next round will come, but I need it ASAP, to get the taste out of my mouth and get some swings in with the new driver. I imagine I will figure the driver out, as with any new relationship, it takes some work.

@Sluggo42, I will check our pro shop..99% sure I saw them in there. If so, I could grab a dozen for you and would be happy to send them your way. 

First night of league last night and while we didn't score great as a team, had some solid ball striking and a great finishing hole. We weren't keeping the scorecard as the group we played with was, so I'm not even sure what we finished at. my guess is somewhere between +8-10. Keep in mind, my partner for the scramble league hasn't golfed in about 6 years, so there will be an acclimation period to getting back into it. He hit some great approach shots yesterday which was awesome, and we had a really good time.
On the final hole, which is a shorter slight dogleg left par 4, I hit what is so far the best on course drive with the Darkspeed X. I have never carried the furthest fairway bunker on this hole, so I was absolutely thrilled with the shot. Hit my 60* to 13 feet, then missed the birdie putt by about 6 inches. We've got some better golf ahead of us, and overall I struck the ball quite well. Feeling really good with the direction my game is going right now, and putting for me was much better last night than the day before.

9 hole league night last night was a good luck / bad luck experience.  I had 3 tee balls that worked out much better than the contact would have suggested thanks to a very strong tail wind on one getting me past the dogleg tree line, a nice cart path bounce on another  getting me past the dogleg tree line and the third somehow found all the open spaces in a tree and ended up in the fairway on another dogleg. 
Bad luck balanced those out, in two cases immediately. The 2nd shot on one rolling out right up against the heavy rough collar and the scuff from the cart path being bad enough that you could see the ball flight take a sharp left turn and come up about 10 yards short.  I didn't get up and down in either case as the person doing pin placements needs to understand that pins 5' from the fringe is frowned upon. 
The third bit of bad luck was another questionable pin placement at the top edge of a false front.  I had advance info from someone saying to make sure you are below the hole there on the approach.  I positioned myself perfectly with about a 10' uphill putt from the right side for birdie.  The putt lipped in and then sadly out and had just enough juice on the lip out to trickle 20' down the steep left side incline to the collar of rough/fringe.  So i took a 3 putt bogey there.
The scoring ended up with 3 birdies and only 1 par paired with 4 bogeys and a double to end up 3 over.  As is said here often...thats G O L F.  I did end up winning the match 5 1/2 - 3 1/2 so it was a decent points night to help the team.

Absolute mixed bag of nuts on this one.  Took me 4 holes to sort my damn driver out. So many recovery shots from under 150yd just to get back in play.  My nemesis hole also killed me (18).  I was pretty sore from working on my car for two days lol.

Very nice!!! That was a great jump in progress .. hope it continues for you, but even if it doesn't enjoy the game!!
 
Yeah you probably did - then... But this is now and this is... G.O.L.F. 🤦‍♂️ Good luck!

Wtg!!! Congrats on the PB!  

Like a couple of others have posted, I have the Garmin Approach S20 (love how it works with Garmin Golf App) as well as the Precision Pro NX9 range finder (which I have interestingly enough “left” on the cart a couple of times).  The S20 is great about F-M-B distances, can move the pin for a more precise pin location and gives good hazards distances.  The NX9 is great for precise flags and slopes as well as figuring dogleg tree lines.  Rule of thumb: S20 is always in play as it serves as my recorder of distances covered by the clubs and the NX9 is great for those bends, up and downs especially on the less familiar courses.  

You're right, of course, but it's still my preference.
Back in the Bronze Age, Donald Ross designed our course with NO blind approach shots.
Of course, in doing so, Mr. Ross never imagined some of the places I have hit my tee shots,
many of which preclude using a rangefinder.
Sometimes GPS doesn't even know which green I'm trying to visit.
 
 
 

Like many others I use both -- Nikon CoolShot 20i and Shot Scope V5 watch.  The Nikon was my first piece of golf-related "technology" a few years back 2022 -- still using original battery!).  Recently got the V5 for GPS and shot tracking.
I use the watch on almost every shot and the Nikon for more precise numbers (doglegs, hazards, tricky hole locations).  Don't regret either purchase.

I’ve used both my Garmin GPS watch & laser range finder for years. Since I walk most of my golf rounds, the GPS watch provides me similar information that a rider gets w/golf cart installed GPS. I use the laser to know more precise yardage to the pin on approach shots. I also compare the laser measured yardage to my GPS watch to add confidence to the laser yardage & know the pins location is front, back, or middle. This comparison is especially useful when playing course I’m less familiar with.