[Pics from the course]

To give an idea of how wet my home course is at the moment, this was my tee shot on the lone par 5 on the back nine. Hit a little hook that went into the left rough.

[How'd you play?]

- 47 (+11)

- 1/8 FIR

- 3/9 GIR

- 18 Putts

Hacked my way around the back nine this morning. Seems I forgot how to play for two holes. I was +3 through six holes (awesome start on the back for me), but a quadruple bogey followed by a triple bogey back-to-back will really kill a score in a hurry.

We got MORE rain. The course was as wet as it has been all season. Really tough conditions to play in. **Sigh**

Really struggled translating my success from the range on Friday to the course. Mental, I'm sure. I did hit a couple quality irons shots, and I'll try to build on that.

Putting was as good as it's going to get. Only one bad putt all day, a really poor lag, from 55 feet that caused my only three putt.

Driver was terrible. My opening drive was OK, but short, and the rest were awful. Not the club, definitely me.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

I spent my Friday lunch range bucket working on visualizing driving a nail down my target line. Thin is my major miss, due to my upper body working forward as I start the downswing. If I focus on driving the nail, my upper body stays back and it also helps eliminate early extension.

I hit some of the crispest iron shots of my life today. Always feels so good to pure an iron. I am especially pleased because the range had standing water in spots and anything mishit just a bit was punished with the soggy ground.

Combined with ensuring my back elbow stayed connected to my turn, I saw club head speeds on my 6 and 8 irons reach tour average based on that Trackman chart that floats around. That's been one of my goals for this year. My Swing Caddie even showed 160 carry with my 8 iron, which is a monster shot for me. (Doing this on the course is a whole 'nother ballgame...)

Next thing to work on is allowing myself to complete a full back swing with the driver. I cut myself short, chop over-the-top and lose a lot of club head speed in additional to hitting high weak fades/slices when I'm really off. For example, on 10-plus driver swings today I only hit 99 MPH once. In contrast, my 6 iron hit 92 MPH on a few swings. Definitely something that needs correcting.

"If you are going to hit it into trouble, at least do it with authority."

I read this quote today in the Slicefixer guide I downloaded a long, long time ago. It's a really salient point that I need to focus on more often.

Also spent some time on the putting green as my putting has been really poor lately. Really focused on loosening my grip and removing the tension from my hands, arms and shoulders. Seemed to help a lot with hitting the center of the face. We'll see how it translates to the course, if the rain stops, this weekend.
 

[#CobraCONNECT Challenge 3]

29 minutes ago, bardle said:

...Although...this is a looks thing, I'm already starting to see the finish wear on the wedge which seems odd to me..I hit it alot but I always wipe it off if its wet..I mean its only been like a round and a half that I've used it..Any of you other guys noticing this?

Cobra uses the same DBM finish as what is on my Maltby wedges. It wears, but unlike PVD, it turns more a shade of gray than wearing to plain metal. The finish is actually impregnated into the metal and is not just a coating.

Both of my wedges were new this spring. The leading edges of both are now pretty worn. Not in an ugly fashion, though. 

[Pics from the course]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

On a short getaway with my wife for our 10th anniversary. She doesn't play, but she enjoys walking the course with me. We packed her clubs, and she hit a few balls on the range before the round.

And she literally broke the PW clubhead. I've seen heads come off and shafts break. I can't recall seeing the head itself break:

Play better or worse with the wife along? My wife rode along last week (she would play, but shoulder surgery limited her to just riding), and I think she thought I was a little crazy for how I talked through each shot. Definitely played well, though.

[Pics from the course]

No. 18 at The Royal in Canadian Lakes, Michigan. Long par 5. Our scramble ended up with a birdie. Brother-in-law hit a nice drive and I somehow stuck a 3 wood from 225 for an eagle opportunity.

[How'd you play?]

Played with my in-laws and brother-in-law today in a benefit scramble. 

Shot 61 (-12), which put us somewhere in the middle of the pack. Minus our four "grenades," where we converted pars into birdies, we truly shot -8. Pretty happy with that score. Neither of my in-laws hit it very far anymore, so a lot of the driving and long irons were left to my brother-in-law and me. 

Personally, had a handful of really good shots, including a couple decent drives and a few great approaches. Putting started shaky but was better by the end of the round. 

The course was The Royal in Canadian Lakes, MI. Course was in amazing shape and fun to play. 

 

[How'd you play?]

1 minute ago, THEZIPR23 said:

69

9/14 fir

13/18 gir

28 putts

Not a perfect ball striking day but very time I looked up ball was going where I intended it. 28 putts is a little bit of a farce as I had 8 1 putts and a 3 putt. Of the 1 putts I made 1 from 24’ for par and everything else was inside 6’. Nice to see consistency in my game for once. 

Really nice round! Glad to see the Epic Flash is still a fairway finder.

[How'd you play?]

2 hours ago, ole gray said:

That's where a 5 hybrid would come in handy.      Bounce is ya friend in those soft wet conditions.....

After having such up and down success all year so far with my 54 degree, I moved up to my C300 PW because of the added bounce. Chipping has been soooooo much better in the last few rounds because of that.

[How'd you play?]

1 hour ago, CarlH said:

 

Keep your head dead still until well after impact.

Yeah, I know sometimes that can be an issue with me. I tend to do pretty well with thoughts about dead legs and steady head. Probably need to reaffirm those thoughts.

I missed four putts (one each) on 14, 15, 16 and 18 by a combined total of less than eight inches. Two went about an inch right, one about an inch short and one about two inches left. I was close, just couldn't convert. 

I do need to give myself better opportunities by sticking my approach shots closer. Eleven of my first putts were from further than 15 feet, and five of those 11 were from 30 or more feet. Not a lot of great scoring opportunities from those distances.

[How'd you play?]

43/44 = 87 (+15) back on my home course this morning. Played most of the round in a light drizzle.

If I could putt, this would have been the best round of my life. Had 39 (!!!) putts. Driver was locked in today, mid irons were good, short game was better than Thursday. Just putting, man. Killing me.

[How'd you play?]

In-laws treated me today to 18 holes on a new course for me, The Falls at Barber Creek in Kent City. Absolutely beautiful course. Short, but challenging, especially with the wind.

Went 45/44 for 89 overall from the white tees, which play around 5,500 yards. Recorded my first ever eagle on the 440-yard par 5 sixth, which is a dogleg right with lots of water. I carried the dogleg over the water and then stuck a 9 iron from 140 to 15 feet. Nailed a big left to right breaking putt. What a great hole and so much fun to record an eagle.

Driver was pretty good today, mid irons were good, putting was good, chipping was meh. Sub-50 yards really hurt me today. Probably left four or five strokes out there just around the green.

Hit 8/14 fairways and had 5 GIRs. Definitely above average for me and continues my confidence streak heading into another scramble next week.

[What do you do for a living?]

11 hours ago, yungkory said:

Spartans? My coworker actually graduated from MSU and used to work at the course, but this was a long time ago haha.

Nice. We run an MSP so we're basically sysadmins for a bunch of SMB's. I'm like a jack of all trades master of none kind of deal. Comp Sci drop-out who went to business school and got my degree in MIS. I found that no matter what I was trying to do in life, I always gravitated towards computers after I started building them in high school around 2002 to own noobs in video games. Kind of the only thing I've found any type of passion in other than golf, so I stuck with it and got really lucky to find a bunch of like-minded degenerates to work with. We kind of took everything we didn't like about working at our previous MSP and dumped it when starting ours 3 years ago. Structure is more like a law firm where you eat what you kill, but you still represent one firm, rather than a trickle-down pay scheme where the guys on the bottom are constantly getting dumped on. The consequences so far are making more money and working way, way less. Can't really complain and I count my blessings every day! Gives me more time to lurk the forums when I'm not playing/practicing

Nope, Grand Valley State University. We're a good-sized D2 school, known mostly for football. Notre Dame's Brian Kelly got his head coaching start here. I did get accepted to MSU, and they have the best journalism school in the state, but ultimately ended up here.

Sounds like a nice gig for an MSP. Historically, I've been a jack-of-all-trades as well, but the last two opportunities have been more silo'ed than my earlier jobs. Have done a lot with Office 365 and Exchange Online, and currently work with core infrastructure stuff like backups, monitoring and configuration management.

[What do you do for a living?]

13 minutes ago, GolfSpy Stroker said:

Have worked in IT since 1990... Now at Boston U. developing and supporting data analytics.

Sadly no golf course (city campus) but my kids get free tuition if they can get in...

No kids in my future, but they would only get half. Full-ride to Boston U sounds great.

Me on the other hand, I'm working on my Master's for free at the moment. So I can't complain.

Data analytics? Working with math/stats department? I'm on the core infrastructure side so I'm a little ignorant on things outside of the data center.

[What do you do for a living?]

On 3/7/2019 at 4:17 PM, yungkory said:

 

ONE OF US! ONE OF US! #nerds

Didn't realize there were so many of us in IT.

I'm a IT Systems Engineer for one of the (in my opinion) best public universities in the state of Michigan, and my alma mater. Worked my way into IT after getting a degree in journalism, starting at level one. Spent about nine months doing basic desktop support, six months doing help desk, six months as a desktop admin, and then moved to Wyoming where I was the IT Manager/Network Administrator for the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper for a year and a half. Moved on as a systems administrator in New Mexico for a little over two years and then scored my current gig back home.

Perks of being on a college campus include the university golf course and driving range, where I am a practice member. As long as the weather cooperates, you can find me during my lunch hour hitting a bucket of balls or on the practice green.

[How'd you play?]

Shot 44 (+8) on the front nine before work this morning. Five pars total, which tells the story of my other four holes...

Started fantastic, with pars on the first three holes, including the 507-yard par 5 third hole. Epic Flash connected for a 240-yard opening drive smack in the middle of the fairway on the first hole.

Not entirely sure what happened, but on the fourth hole I hit a bad approach shot from the side of the green. As I was looking up at where the ball went, I think I pinched a nerve in my neck. Both sides of my neck went numb and had searing pain up into the base of my neck.

Needless to say that rattled me a bit, followed the poor approach with a flubbed chip and then just an awful putt from the fringe. Ended up taking a triple bogey.

Played really well besides that hole and a three-putt for double bogey on the longer of the two par 3s. 

Neck is a major bummer because I had previously been fighting a sore shoulder blade muscle and it was finally feeling perfect this morning. And then this happens...

[Midwest: MN, WI, MI, IL, IN, OH, WV]

6 hours ago, ncwoz said:

1. How long have you been playing golf? What’s your handicap or normal score? I've played a little as I was younger, maybe a few times over the summer starting in middle school and high school (8-9 years ago). The last few years I've starting playing a lot more and really trying to improve, which is what led me here! I am currently putting together some full rounds to get my handicap on "The Grint" app, but typically shoot somewhere mid to upper 40's.

2. What do you love about golf? I love the constant improvement and all the intricacies, as well as the social aspect. I was a HS sports person, so now that I'm "grown up" (mostly ) I love that golf gives me something to work on and try to improve, and that gets me active and outside.

3. What brings you to MyGolfSpy? Do you already know any other Spies? Only if they're really good spies, because I don't know of any! I ran across the forum amidst my random internet golf meandering about equipment or improvement or something along those lines. Liked what I saw and thought it'd be cool to be a part of the community so here I am!

4. Where are you from? What is your home course? I'm from West Michigan, and don't currently have a home course. College debt has me basically playing wherever I can manage to find deals, but I end up playing North Kent, Arrowhead, and Candlestone probably most frequently at the moment.

5. What are the best and worst things about golf in your region? Well, it's tough for me to compare because I've never lived anywhere else, but the winter definitely kills a lot of golf activity, that's for sure!

6. What do you do for a living? I'm a mechanical engineer at a design consultant firm.

7. How’d you pick your user name? Well, it's basically my default when I'm not feeling creative, not a whole lot more to it than that!

Welcome to MGS from another West Michigander. I'm sure you'll like it here. Hopefully it dries out here soon. Getting frustrated with all of the rain so far this season.

[MPR: The Single Digit Project]

21 minutes ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

Hitting off a mat is one thing; hitting a partial wedge with you ball nestled down on a little bare patch of mud resting against a sprout of grass is very different.

Are you still very wet up there, too? One of my major frustrations so far this season has been the absolutely insane amount of precipitation. I have yet to play a round this year without standing water on some part of the course. If I'm not on the fringe I can almost guarantee my lie is going to be awful because of conditions like you mentioned.

I've enjoyed following along on the GAME Golf portal. Our GG handicaps are very similar. Thanks again for sharing your progress on here. It's particularly inspiring for me because I can relate to all of the struggles you've mentioned.

 

 

[How'd you play?]

31 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Well it IS an important skill to have! I use my 4H a lot for those situations and it has helped me with some good escapes.

I actually pulled off a ridiculously stupid one on the fourth hole. 115 yards out from the green. Only chance of getting to the green was to start right of one tree and draw left of the tree 20 yards ahead. Hit the 5 iron perfectly, sliced through the window, and ended up on the back fringe. 

Nine times out of ten that shot hits the first or second tree, and I'm in more trouble than when I started...

[How'd you play?]

I took today off to play 18 this morning, but I probably should have just gone to work with the way I played.

49/48 for a 97. Miserable play all around. Practice green was really quick this morning, the actual greens no so much, so round started with leaving everything short and ended with blowing everything by the hole by a mile. 39 putts. Had multiple chips that went nowhere. Skulled a handful of wedges and irons. Pulled everything left with my 54 degree, which I usually am accurate with. Two-way miss with the driver, either a pull left or a high, weak fade short and right. Can't do that on my home course because it's all tree-lined. 

On a high note I am now quite adept at the 5 iron stinger with draw to get out from behind and around trees. Must have hit at least five of those today.

Tried to enjoy the walk this morning, but this was a tough pill to swallow after having two really good range sessions in a row. Oh well.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

14 hours ago, bens197 said:

I Love how much extension you get on your backswing.  

Thanks! It's been a long road to get to where I'm at now, so it's nice to hear that from a low-capper such as yourself.

Big struggle for me now is to get this new backswing be the "default," i.e. engrain some new muscle memory. I have for so long come way too inside (some bad advice years ago about swinging to right field). P3 position is going to be important for me because as of right now my first downswing move is a slight steepening of the shaft. If I can get it a little steeper on the backswing, I think it will naturally shallow better.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

Made a lot of great progress at the range today. My swing is finally to the point where I can work on fixing a huge problem - my inside takeaway. Earlier this season I fought a couple of more pressing issues, mostly poor pressure shifting and head movement. On the range earlier this week I started blocking a ton of balls, which was caused by the inside takeaway.

After a really poor range season last night, I watched a couple Eric Cogorno videos on YouTube regarding wrist angle and takeaway and a few things really resonated with me. Today at the range I really focused on getting the club in the right position at P2 position.

First, screen shots of my swing earlier this week with a six iron:

Today with a seven iron:

The clubhead position at P2 is much improved. I saw a lot of better shots today and no blocks whatsoever, so that's great progress.

Next thing to work on it getting the shaft a little more vertical in the backswing. At P3 my hands are still a little inside of my chest, and my forearm has rotated a little too inside. I think fixing that will add some more clubhead speed and help eliminate some early extension I have.

[Maltby KE4 TC Fw]

Maltby has some gorgeous clubs. I love the M+ Wedges and just got the KE4 FDI. Been meaning to do a review of that once I hit it some more.

Also looking forward to your thoughts!

[What Have You Bought Lately? (CHA - Club Ho's Anonymous)]

Couple of things for me:

After the shout out about the INESIS shoes and pants on the YouTube Live video about the MGS ball testing, I broke down and bought a polo, shorts, pants, belt and pullover from Decathlon, where INESIS apparel is sold. They arrived today and are very good pieces for the price. I paid just shy of $90 for everything and will be ordering at least one more polo and maybe another pair of shorts, and maybe shoes...

Pulled the trigger Monday on a Golfworks Club Pak for their new KE4 FDI Hybrid after receiving a free shipping code for orders over $60. For $79.49, I ordered the 19-degree hybrid/driving iron with a Mitsubishi Tensei Blue stiff shaft, Lamkin Crossline grip and matching Maltby headcover. 

There is one hole in particular on my home course where I anticipate the hybrid getting quite a bit of use. I had been looking at the Ping G400 Crossovers, but the best used deals I could find on eBay were in the $100-$110 range. I have never been a fan of hybrids, so I'm excited to try the driving iron format. 

[Pics from the course]

We've had such cold weather the trees are just finally started to sprout leaves. (Nailed my drive down the middle.)

Plan on playing here again on Mother's Day and hope to see some more foliage!