Grand Stranded

Apparently I forgot to introduce myself this morning… My bad!

PXG Gen3 irons $99 each free shipping 60 money back guarantee is pretty hard to beat right now. @RickpI might have just picked up a set with MMT shafts…

Wassamattu? Owning a home on the water is a good thing, Rick!

I played the second round of our members league championship yesterday. After finishing way back in the first round last week I caught a couple of breaks in this one. First, we played the hardest and longest of the 3 courses we rotate on, and second, after almost 24 hours straight of very hard rain, the course was playing even longer than normal, and it was CPO, which is a grind in the hot, muggy weather. If I ever was going to make up ground, this was the day. I knew a lot of guys would struggle. Blind squirrels find nuts, and I shot an 83/net 70 which surprisingly was good enough for 4th in gross (I’m all but out of that after last week) but I won the low net! The good news is I moved all the way up to 5th in net (still 4 shots back though), although winning iI is doable, isn’t likely very likely. The cream rose to the top today, and the 4 guys ahead of me are all good players. It will be a big ask to pass them all in the final round. My goal is to at least finish top 3, and get a medal, but I’m pretty proud of the way I battled today after last weeks disappointment, and I won a few $$$$ for coming in first today, so there’s that.

@BIG STU if I remember correctly, you were thinking of picking up a new Jones golf bag. They’re having a 30% off sale thru Monday. (if you can’t get the discount on their site, dm me)

Take it slow my friend. You need to feel comfortable with the leg again and get your strength back. Don’t worry about the swing right now, when you get back to feeling 100% it will come back better than ever.

If there’s one good thing that came out of yesterday, it was the fact that my swing is really coming around with my irons. I struggled for a while with that part of my game, and it took a while to find a set that worked. If I can just put my ego aside and not look for sleek and shiny, the Halos seem to be perfect for me. They’re not sexy, but they have really helped me a lot. I mentioned that I moved back a tee yesterday, and even though 6300 yards is really pushing me to the brink distance wise, a lot of my mishaps were approach shots into the green which went a half to a full club long. It’s hard to get upset when you’re hitting the ball so pure that your mistake is going over the back of the green. It kills your scoring, but it feels like you’re doing something right (if that makes sense?). I took my bag out to the fairway by my house today with my rangefinder, and sure enough, I’m hitting my irons and hybrids almost a full club longer. I’ve been working really hard on them and my short game, so it’s nice to see good results, but now I’m starting to struggle a bit with the top of my bag. It’s always something… I rarely get everything working well at the same time any more.

I wish I could regale everyone with how I dominated the field yesterday in the first round of my league championship, but that’s not what happened. The first 8 holes went really well, then I just lost it. Everything snowballed on me after I hit my drive OB on 9. I started pressing, trying to get back strokes that were already lost. I’ve played enough competitive golf to know better than to do that, but I got caught up in the heat of the moment. It turned out two of my 3 playing companions finished on top after the first round, and I got sucked into trying to keep up. I’ve been playing pretty well lately, and over confidence probably hurt me more than it helped. Again, I should know better. Long story short, I put up a nifty 92 net 78. I’m way down the list going into the second round in both gross and net. A part of me wants to just withdraw, but I’d like to think I’m not that guy, so I’ll try to grind it out the next two rounds and see where I end up. It really sucks shooting yourself out of contention on the first day though.

I played True Blue last Thursday, and you’re right, it’s in great shape. This is going to be maybe my busiest week of golf this summer… Playing the Fazio in Barefoot tomorrow, Pine Lakes Thursday, Brunswick Plantation Friday, and back in Barefoot to play the Love on Saturday. Whew! I’m getting tired just typing all that, but it’s been a long time since my back has felt this good. (Knock wood)

Not something I’m thinking about, but something I did that has turned my game around. I’ve had a rough time with my short game the last year and a half or so, and I got some great advice from one of the better players at my club. He told me to take the 54* and 58* wedges out of my bag and replace them with a 56* and a chipper. (Yes, a chipper). Turns out I can do everything with the 56 I could with the 54&58, in fact using just one wedge has simplified things a lot. The game changer though has been that chipper. I tried one years ago and hated it, but the Smart Sole has been money from the day I got it. I’ve had more up and downs the last couple of weeks than I’ve had in months. I’ve even holed out 3 times with it. I’m finally getting it through my thick skull that my game has changed the last two years. I’ve lost a bit of speed, but as long as I can keep my ego in check, and accept the fact that the clubs I’m playing right now might not be the sexiest, but they are the best suited for me, I should end up scoring better than I have in a long time, and getting down to single digits might still be doable. It won’t be easy, but it’s still the goal. My bag from the 4 hybrid down is perfect right now, and while the driver, FW and 3H are good, I really think I can get more out of those spots. If I’m right, and I can figure them out, and get them set the way I think I can, we’ll be in business.

How’s the LAB working out for you? It took me a while, but I’m falling in love with mine.

Tomorrow we start our annual Tuesday Members league championship tournament called The Barefoot Cup. We play the next 3 Tuesdays on each of our Resort courses. The 36 top money winners qualify, no cut, with a gross and net winner. I’ve come close a few times, but have never won. Hopefully that changes this year? I hope I’m not over thinking this, but since I’m thinking my best shot is the net, I’m moving back a tee to get 3 extra strokes tomorrow. I played the same course and tees Saturday and shot an 87 net 74 (it’s a par 71 course) and I’ll probably need to do better tomorrow as that was only good for 6th place out of 20 players in the A flight and didn’t cash. I’m playing off 13 so I’m sort of in no man’s land. It would be a miracle if I could string together 3 rounds low enough to take gross, but this tournament isn’t flighted and there are a lot of high caps from the B flight playing, so it won’t be easy to get net either. This is the only time all year the two flights are together and those guys can put up some ridiculously low net scores. In the A anything around net par will usually cash, but in the B it’s nothing to see 5-6 guys net in the mid 60’s If I had to play in the B flight during the year, I wouldn’t bother with any league play. Their scoring is one of the great mysteries in our club… the same guys seem to go very low every week, yet their strokes never go down… go figure.

Why am I quoting myself? This is more than a little embarrassing, but also kind of funny in a senior moment kind of way, and I think everyone might get a good laugh out of this story. My daughter called me this morning and she couldn’t find the PXGs I talked about yesterday. I was going crazy trying to remember where I could have left them, then I remembered… I sold them a few months ago. The only reason I ended up remembering was I noticed @Rickpleft a reaction to my post yesterday. He and I talked about working something out with them at the time.and If Rick hadn’t left that reaction, I’d have still been going crazy trying to remember where they were! So I guess I owe him a thank you?

I’m going to try something crazy, because I can’t seem to leave well enough alone. After struggling a bit with my iron play, I’ve been playing a set of Halo Launcher XL hybrid style irons this summer and they’ve been working out wonderful. Most people would be ecstatic with the results I’ve had, and content with the difference they’ve made to my game, but apparently I’m not most people. I spoke to my daughter this morning and asked her to box up and ship my set of PXG XP irons down from Long Island. Why? Because I played with a guy the other day who had a set of them in his bag. What’s funny is he struggled with them all day and was intrigued by my Halo irons. I couldn’t stop looking in his bag though, and thinking how great the XP’s looked at setup compared to what I was playing. If he was lefty I could have hit a few balls with them and either would’ve scratched that itch, or realized why I’d moved into the Halos, but that wasn’t to be, so here I am hoping to get the PXG’s back in my bag again by the end of next week. One more thing… I also bought a G410 5 wood this morning because I’ve been shooting darts with my 3 hybrid and we can’t have that, now can we? Why do I (we) do sh*t like this?

I like to see around 5300 - 5500 with a 7i.

Yep, same with my 425 max. It’s really good, but it just isn’t the 400 Max.

I played yesterday in our Members League. For 9 holes it was a continuation of my good play from Saturday, putting up a 41 on the front but my personal “Gauntlet” is the first 4 holes on the back 9 of our Davis Love course. They got me again today, big time. How big? 8 over on the 4 of them, and to be honest, the heat got so bad (we teed off at 1028) I really didn’t care. I just wanted it to be over and be done with the round. It was a total breakdown… from driver to putter. I somehow finished birdie par, which at least kept me under 50 but I ended up with a 49, which added up to 90. Obviously, I wasn’t close to cashing. The plan was to go out and play 18 again today, but this heat has been relentless. After 9 holes, my buddy and I bailed and headed back to the clubhouse. That will be it until Saturday, when the forecast calls for more of the same. Low 90’s, high humidity, heat index over 100. We keep saying this heat wave has to break soon, but there’s no end in sight right now.

I know what you mean about knowing how teams will finish. You play with a group long enough, you just know. I love the layout of your home course, and I’m so happy to hear it’s in great shape now! I used to play in their shootout every week when I only came down for the winter 12-15 years ago ( man, the years fly by). They always had a little breakfast setup, 3 or 4 10’ hero’s and raffles afterward. I loved it! The owners there are locals, and couldn’t be better people. When I played with the Flounders, we would play there 2x a year, because we wanted to support them, and they would give us a free replay coupon each time. As the years went by, the Flounders had a lot of turnover, and the new guys complained about it so much we stopped playing there. I told the guy who runs the league, in my 15 years of playing, when he dropped them from the schedule it was the only time I was ashamed to be associated with the group. Im glad you’re feeling better also buddy. Now if this weather would just let up a bit we’ll be firing on all cylinders!

I’ll start by saying yesterday was my first round with a chipper, and I had a brand new 4H and 56* in my bag also. It looks like I batted 1.000 with all of them. The Smart Sole C was phenomenal. I’d gotten very tippy around the greens, but this not only worked great on the practice green Friday, it was terrific yesterday. By the end of the round I was looking for any chance I could to use it, and there wasn’t a shot I didn’t pull off! I honestly think it’s a matter of when, not if I start holing out a few from off the green. The 4H was like all my other Halo series clubs. Not the longest I’ve ever played, mishit’s tend to come up short but stay online. I get away with murder with these clubs. I took my 54&58 out of the bag and replaced them with a 56 because I needed a spot for the chipper. I only used it twice, once after driving into a pot bunker in the middle of a fairway, and one green side bunker. No issues, but I’d like to have had a few full shots with it, but the opportunity never came up. We played a quota game, and I had to make 25 points from the 5800 yd Senior tees. I had a very good round, shot 78 and was +3 which won my flight by 3 points! The only “blemish” was a double on the par 5 18, I hit a very good drive, but it had started raining pretty hard two holes earlier, and I lost my grip on my next two swings. Both were topped about 30yds. I took of my glove for the next shot, but I had a little red a** by then and hit it over the green. Chip, 2 putts, added up to a wet, sloppy 7. To sum it up, I could not be happier with the round. My sciatica is finally gone, I played pain free, scored well, and love the changes I made to my bag.

Keep this between you and me buddy, but if mine can solve my short game woes, I’m prepared to do unspeakable things….

Hey Rick! How are you doing after the surgery? Yeah, I’ve been frustrated for 2 years now with my short game. The joke with my playing buddies is I go from a single digit player to a +25 once I get inside 100 and put a wedge in my hands. I turn more rounds that should be high 70 to low 80’s into high 80’s than anyone I know. The final straw was in my Tuesday game. My drive was 30 yards further than anyone, and I only had 85 yards in. I skulled a 54* into a bunker in front of the green, hit my 58* over the back of it, and almost skulled my next one back into that bunker again. I two putted from just off for a 7. My 3 opponents had 4, 4, 5. One of them is a 8 cap and he’s deadly with his chipper. He even uses it for 90 yard approach shots with a full swing… I don’t know if I’m ready to try that yet, but it dawned on me that a guy giving me 3 strokes was using a chipper, and here I was too proud to try one? If I had to guess, I’d say it’s ideal for the guy who plays with less than 14 clubs. I’m going to be a little nervous with just a 56* wedge, but hey, if the 54&58 we’re doing their job, I wouldn’t be looking to change anything, right?

So I have to tip my cap to the folks at PGASS and (believe it or nor) FedEx. The order I placed Wednesday afternoon in my local store was shipped and delivered from Orlando to my door by this afternoon. That’s outstanding! I couldn’t resist taking the SmartSole chipper out to the green by my house, and I was really surprised by it. I was using it from 30 yards out all the way up to the edge of the green and it was incredibly accurate directionally. I thought my distance control wasn’t too good at first, but my neighbor was watching me and he was really impressed. So, as usual, I’m my harshest critic. The course was still being played though, so I wasn’t out there very long, maybe 30-40 balls? I wasn’t planning on putting it in play tomorrow, but now I’m going to go back out there in an hour or so and not only use the C again, but try to get an idea of how the 56* CBX2 plays both out of the sand and gapping wise after my DW. If there aren’t any major issues, it will be show time for both of them come morning! @ole gray where has Cleveland Golf been all my life?

If I remember correctly you grew up down here? Unfortunately if you book a 3pm time in the summer in this area, it’s not really cooling down much at all before sunset ( around 8pm now). The big difference here as opposed to Arizona, as I’m sure you know is the humidity. It’s been brutal down here recently.

I’m going out the same time tomorrow in my Saturday league. We’re the first group and thankfully I’m with 3 fast players. Hopefully we’re done under 4 hours. We play two flights, and the slow players in both have really screwed things up for us. We got the first tee times (7am) every week for years, but because of their slow pace of play we’ve recently lost that perk. The rangers and pro shop had been warning us for quite a while to pick up our pace, but you know how that works with the “Harrumph… I’m a member crowd”. What makes it even more embarrassing is that the Women’s league was rightfully moved ahead of us in the pecking order. They play much quicker, and deserve to go out ahead of us.

Yes, those are the ones PXG’s been offering. The Fifty 5.0 is 59g, the 5.5 is 61g. Cleveland uses the exact same shafts in my Halos, but they use blue paint accents instead of green on the PXG shaft. I’m not sure what color Callaway has on theirs… I think orange?