Grand Stranded

I plan on holding on a lot longer than that Sonny boy.

It should ease up a bit by the time you get down the end of May. We’ll leave a light on for you, Tom. @BIG STUwill agree, I’m sure when I tell you the reason for all the course closings are twofold. First, a lot of the older, privately owned courses are in the hands of the second generation now, and those kids (adults now) have kids who either want nothing to do with the business, or there are too many mouths to feed to make it worth splitting the pie. Second is the building boom. Home prices are going through the roof. It’s almost foolish not to build on the courses now, especially those not making big profits. My condo has gone up over 150% in the last 18 months… which sounds great, but if I sell and want to stay in the area, home prices have almost doubled, so where do you go? The ideal scenario for these course owners is having let’s say 3 nines, closing one and building, or if they have more than one 18, closing one makes even more sense. The problem I see is eventually this bubble will burst and we’ll be back to where we were 11-12 years ago when the real estate market tanked and everywhere you looked there were foreclosures and short sales. I’m getting to the same point Stu and his wife are. It’s gotten really crowded down here and it’s getting worse. If I could think of a place I’d like to move to, I think I’m ready to go. The vibe down here is completely different now, it’s losing that small but edgy beach vibe it had. I loved the old steak houses, strip clubs and golf thing they used to have going on. Alas, those days are gone.

How crazy is it that they want to build off 707? They just finished that big road expansion project for the traffic they couldn’t handle before this boom.

With all the building they’re doing up by me, it’s only gonna get worse. They’re even putting up developments on Water Tower Road now behind Barefoot, and that was the area devastated by the wildfires 12 years ago.

In my Tuesday league, I used to tell them I was a +1 righty and the pro shop wouldn’t allow me to play from that side. Then I’d say once I sized up the group, I figured I could still take their money playing LH clubs. That would go over like the proverbial f**t in church with the guys who believed me.

Kenny, I don’t remember if you mentioned having the shaft shortened on your HW… I was under the impression the shaft was the same length as the one in a 3 wood?

That actually makes sense, as the vast majority of snowbird leases end the last day of February. I’d guess maybe 25%? stay through March, and the peak golf season begins in April.

Both you and @chisaghave spent more than a few years in the Myrtle Beach area, so you know we’re a little unique down here in the fact that there’s always one influx or another throughout the year. Spring and Fall it’s the golf package guys. Winter is the snowbirds, and summer is family on summer vacation. Maybe it’s because I’m in my mid 60’s now, but my preference is the winter crowd. They’re either Canadian or older folks looking for a milder winter than where they live. They’re an early to bed, early rising group, whereas the golfers and families bring the party from Spring through Fall. @BIG STUis a little bit south of me, and it’s a little more peaceful there come this time of year I think?

As @BIG STUor any of the Florida guys like @Rickpwill tell you, everyone living in a warm winter climate has an intense dislike for them, be it rational or not, we can’t wait for them to leave. My friend Frank came down to the Myrtle Beach area for about 4 winters before finally buying a home and moving down full time. He wasn’t “a local” 3 weeks when we’re in his car going over a swing bridge to leave our community. We’re stuck behind two old ladies in a golf cart loaded up for the beach, and they’re going about 10-15 mph. He starts ranting about “these damned snowbirds!!!” Thr guy hadn’t even made a mortgage payment yet and he already hated them.

It amazes me when someone says to me “you know you’re on the wrong side of the ball, right?” Or something to that effect. I mean, do they really think they’re not the 1,084th person to tell me that? I’m a really easy going guy, but I don’t even pretend it’s funny anymore. I give them a look, roll my eyes, and play my shot.

@chisag has first world problems when it comes to golf.

Not a good day boys…. 4 holes into a tournament today, I felt a pop in the back of my leg, just above the ankle and below the calf muscle. Second time this has happened in about a month. My first thought was my Achilles, but I don’t think that’s what it is. It feels like I pulled something though, and I’m limping pretty badly. I tried to play two more holes, but I couldn’t push off the back leg, and was using all arms… Not good. Finally had to WD after feeling a sharp pain when exiting a very shallow bunker. The Ranger came out and drove me to my car. The timing couldn’t be worse. I’m driving 700 miles up to Long Island Thursday. It’s my left leg so at least I caught a break with that, I guess. I’m probably going to leave the clubs down here now, and take a few weeks off.

Baptism of fire this afternoon for the Halo irons… I’m playing the first round of a 2 day low gross low net tournament, and they’re going to be in the bag. They have been terrific so far, but I’m not sure I’ve quite dialed in all my yardages. We shall see…

CPO will only charge you $4.99 for a return shipping label, you cheap old goat!

I ordered the same putter (LH 34”) last night. I was checking out a 35” in the PGASS and absolutely loved the feel also. These double wide putters are fantastic imo. I have been rolling a Kushion 4.0 (which is a similar head) with some pretty good results but the OG was so good!

Dumped the Halos?

Totally unrelated to your post, but every once in a while I see a bag in someone’s sig that is really cool. Yours is one. It just reeks of good clubs, lol. Very nice! (I’d love to see you put this setup in the witb pictures thread).

Very windy day down here today, and because of that I stopped at the range today to see if I could flight the new Halo irons a little lower into the wind. I know the drill… ball back in stance, take an extra club, bla bla bla, but for someone who had been struggling with just hitting a green, things aren’t always that simple. Well surprise, surprise! It worked like a charm with these things. Just a few swings and I was hitting nice low bullets through the wind! These things incredibly easy to hit… like nothing I’ve seen before, and I’m falling in love! The driver was a little off, and I missed a few putts I normally make today. With my PXG’s this would’ve probably been about a 90-92. With the Halos it was an 85. If that’s what I’m going to be shooting when I’m not hitting fairways and 3 putting a bunch of holes, I’m okay with that!

I consider you as an internet friend, so to be honest, I wouldn’t sell them to you unless you were absolutely sure they fit you for the same reason I’m considering moving on from them. They’re obviously a great set of irons, but I think they’re probably best suited to a less seasoned(?) golfer than you or I? Not to speak for you, but I need an iron that elevates the ball quickly, rather than a GI distance club. I seem to get the same, or even more distance now with more loft, and with a much better ball flight.

You spelled *devious* wrong.

DM me. If you decide you do. I might have a LH set of Gen 3 0311XPs Senior flex available.

I think I might have gotten lucky when I ordered a set of Halo Lancher irons… my first round with them was an 82, followed by a 79, 83 and another 79!!! Without a doubt the best 10 day stretch of golf I’ve had in over a year. Just to make sure it wasn’t the clubs, I put my PXG’s in the bag yesterday and shot 88. The Halos went right back in last night. The Cleveland’s aren’t longer than my current set, but they flight so much higher and straighter that I was suddenly hitting greens again from 140 and in. The best part though it’s what I call true distance. Because they land so steeply, there is very little run out, which is exactly what I’ve been hoping to get. I love hitting an iron that lands and stops, rather than having to try to guess how much run I’m going to get. To have one that gives me the same total yardage without the roll is a great weapon imo. Whatever the secret sauce is they put in these things, it’s really helped what was by far the weak part of my game. I don’t think this isn’t a case of “new club magic” either, these things are big and ugly but when you hit them it seems like you’re riding a bike with training wheels. Golf is crazy… in so many reviews I’ve seen people rave about the Hy-wood. I wasn’t a fan. You rarely hear people talk about or see these clubs in a bag, and I can only wonder why?

I feel you Carl. There’s a reason I haven’t posted in this thread all week. Hello everyone!

Iron play is the weakest part of my game by far. My inability to hit greens is what’s keeping me from scoring consistently, and has been for a while now. I’ve had a lot of good results with hybrids however, so I am going to be trying something out in a few weeks. My 18* Cleveland Hy-wood lost it’s spot to a Rouge ST Max, and I had to bring it back to the PGASS before the 90 day playability ended. I really don’t need anything though, the rest of my bag is behaving nicely, so I decided to take a flyer on something. I ordered two Launcher XL Halo irons, a 7 and a PW. They’re supposedly the most forgiving irons out there. If they live up to their billing I’ll order the 8 and 9 also. If they don’t, I’ll simply chalk it up to experience, and deal with the fact I’m never getting to single digits.

I haven’t even read your post yet, but hey… Welcome back stranger!