Mtbryant01

I usually stick to Nike, UA, Callaway, and sprinkle in some FJ polos, but lately I've been on a Puma kick. I've gotten 3 polos from them and have been very satisfied with how they hold up in the Alabama heat and humidity. I have not branched out and got some of their crazy color/pattern schemes, but their "regular" patterned polos are top notch.

We got to play one of the six courses here at Reynolds Lake Oconee, The National. If you ever get a chance to try and play out here, it’s incredible. Nestled in a community, each course has its own unique design whether it’s along the lake (Great Waters) or rolling hills through the community (The Preserve). Will be back to play the others when I can.

https://www.reynoldslakeoconee.com/life/golf
The National, designed by Tom Fazio, has 3-9 holes golf courses. We ended up playing the Bluff and Cove course from the Tips just over 7000 yards. Every fairway was pretty tight with rolling and sloping hills. Greens were in great shape and unique designs with the undulations throughout. Some par 5s were reachable, others were not and pretty tough. Par 3s were all downhill and made it tough to judge the distance with the wind. Here are some photos of some of the holes. 

After my trip with @Ben_Howell34 to Big Cedar Lodge (I’ll update on his post about how that trip was….it was incredible) I got to play with a buddy at my local club today. 
I shot a 75 today (my best this year and one off my personal best ever)
I had a chip in birdie and then….. a hole in one! Can’t even describe the feeling of seeing the ball drop into the hole off the tee. 149 yd shot, downwind. Pin is on the front. I played a full PW with the slightest fade. Hit 5 ft to the left of the flag, checked up on the side hill and started falling to the right towards the hole. The anticipation was real as I didn’t know if it was tracking or not. I saw it roll into the flag stick, catch the lip of the cup, do a 180 around the flag before falling in.
Beautiful weather, incredible day. I’ve had many lows while playing, but this is why I love going out again and again. The chase for perfection and today was pretty dang perfect.

Man how awesome that must be! Until now I only know the feeling of a chip in, long putt, and a cranked drive... But I'm yet to experience an Ace. Too many close calls but still chasing that SOB. Jealousy is definitely running high! 

After my trip with @Ben_Howell34 to Big Cedar Lodge (I’ll update on his post about how that trip was….it was incredible) I got to play with a buddy at my local club today. 
I shot a 75 today (my best this year and one off my personal best ever)
I had a chip in birdie and then….. a hole in one! Can’t even describe the feeling of seeing the ball drop into the hole off the tee. 149 yd shot, downwind. Pin is on the front. I played a full PW with the slightest fade. Hit 5 ft to the left of the flag, checked up on the side hill and started falling to the right towards the hole. The anticipation was real as I didn’t know if it was tracking or not. I saw it roll into the flag stick, catch the lip of the cup, do a 180 around the flag before falling in.
Beautiful weather, incredible day. I’ve had many lows while playing, but this is why I love going out again and again. The chase for perfection and today was pretty dang perfect.

With rain in the forecast for the morning Thursday tee times, it’s going to be interesting to see how the AM/PM scores compare to PM/AM. 
Not sure if this has been answered before, but how do players get assigned their Thurs/Fri tee times? Outside of being selected as a featured group, is it purely random or can they ask for a time frame? I’ve seen a ton of “tough luck” for the guys that had a PM/AM at PGA Championship and to go back a little, the Players.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

They just announced who is going to be playing in the first event.
Notable names: DJ, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis, Poulter, Garcia and Westwood. See players list below.

I really like Talor Gooch and it sucks to see him leave the PGA tour. Also, not a good look for DJ based off these comments...


Your move PGA tour.

It isn't entirely random as you will often see some predetermined groupings.  There is also some prioritization with past tour winners getting more mid day times instead of early/late.

With rain in the forecast for the morning Thursday tee times, it’s going to be interesting to see how the AM/PM scores compare to PM/AM. 
Not sure if this has been answered before, but how do players get assigned their Thurs/Fri tee times? Outside of being selected as a featured group, is it purely random or can they ask for a time frame? I’ve seen a ton of “tough luck” for the guys that had a PM/AM at PGA Championship and to go back a little, the Players.

Putter for me. More of a consistency thing. Can have a solid round of making some putts, but that is followed closely by rounds of bad putting overall. I’ve always played the blade, but am reading into some mallet options. We will see.

Putter for me. More of a consistency thing. Can have a solid round of making some putts, but that is followed closely by rounds of bad putting overall. I’ve always played the blade, but am reading into some mallet options. We will see.

Putter for me. More of a consistency thing. Can have a solid round of making some putts, but that is followed closely by rounds of bad putting overall. I’ve always played the blade, but am reading into some mallet options. We will see.

Putter for me. More of a consistency thing. Can have a solid round of making some putts, but that is followed closely by rounds of bad putting overall. I’ve always played the blade, but am reading into some mallet options. We will see.

Played the Links at Baytowne today for the first time after having played golf in Destin for the last five years. I have typically avoided this course because it looked mega tight on Google Earth but I finally decided to try it this week. I will say it is penal off the tee but not *quite* as tight as it looked. You can get away with a little bit but not a ton out here. I did not attempt to hit a driver all day and managed to only lose one ball OB. The course is on the end of the aerification period so the greens were still a bit bumpy. Conditions were decent and not to far below Baytowne. The wind was up on the back 9 which can make some of the shots into these greens a bit harrowing. The greens are quite small in certain areas and overall it is a course that requires a lot of control. Full disclosure I played the course from 5700 yds. There is just no room for error if you play much farther back. Add in 15 mph winds and I think I made the right decision. I played with some older gentlemen (late 50s) that played from 6100 yds and they got destroyed. Nice guys and not bad players but I think between the 3 of them they lost 16 balls. The best part about the Links is it has the best bay views of any course I have played in Destin. There are at least 5 holes that catch some part of the bay which is very cool. If you are super straight off the tee, I think you would enjoy this course. If you spray it a bit like I do, I would recommend playing tees that give you the option to hit hybrid for most of the par 4s. I think I hit 5W 2x off the tee and everything else was 4 hybrid, 5i or 6i for the par 4s and 5s. Also, it was a great value at $55 today whereas Kelly Plantation would have been $130+. Will I play it again? I won't rule it out but it is less fun to play that Regatta, Emerald Bay, Kelly Plantation, Raven, and Baytowne in that order. Just a bit too penalizing for me (even though I played quite well). The main thing it offers is views and value. The actual golf is a bit goofy. I shot a 76 with a double bogey so even from that short yardage I was pleased with my game today. 
 

As @Ben_Howell34 recapped above, 11 of us from Alabama took over Big Cedar Lodge. We played all 5 courses (Payne’s Valley, Buffalo Ridge, Ozark National, Mountain Top, and Top of the Rock) and had a blast! We were a little worried about weather coming in but didn’t have one rain drop on us all weekend.
Here’s my rank of the 3 main courses and then the 2 par 3 courses. Hard to pick as every course was immaculate and worthy of playing over and over.
1) Buffalo Ridge - course has been around the longest of the 3 main courses. I really enjoyed the tree lined holes as compared to the other 2 courses. Really fun layout to challenge yourself off the tee and around the greens. My favorite stretch throughout the weekend was playing 13, 14, and 15. You have to eat the Buffalo dog after hole 5. Such a clutch mid round snack. Ozark National has it too.
2) Payne’s Valley - *disclaimer* I made the poor decision to play from the Tiger tees (7500 yds) in 30-40 mph winds. Performance during the round was not great. The course is incredible though. It has your challenging par 3 and 5s as well as your long par 4s to combat a couple driveable par 4s. Enjoyed the snack house after 9 where I could load up on snacks for free. 
3) Ozark National - another really pristine course as I attempted to do what Phil did on the Champions tour here. Unfortunately didn’t succeed, but had a lot of fun playing it. Really cool layout of holes. The back 9 was the toughest 9 I played all weekend. I enjoyed the challenge of holes 12, 13, and 16. This course had a snack hut after 9 as well which come up clutch.
Par 3 courses
1) Mountain Top - I actually enjoyed this one a little more than Top of the Rock. 13 holes, all varying in distances and elevation. Wind was a little brutal as we played it the same day as Payne’s, but that was a fun element to add into the mix. Really enjoyed it as a walking only course and some really cool walks between holes.
2) Top of the Rock - 9 holes. Every single course was kept in such good condition. This was a great way to finish the trip in the late afternoon and have dinner at the top of the course as the sun was setting. This course wasn’t really a “keep your score and compete” type round. More of a “enjoy with your 7 people” and hit multiple shots into these fun layout of holes. I also was expecting to see the incredible range they used to have, but a sinkhole wrecked that plan. I should have done more research on that, as it happened a couple years ago I believe.
TLDR: it’s worth it. Yeah it’s a little expensive, but it’s worth it. Awesome experience.


 

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Played Windswept Dunes yesterday while at the beach down here in Florida with my dad and bro in law. Weather was perfect in the high 70s and sunny.
I decided to challenge myself and play the tournament tees at 7300 yards. I shot a 78 with a double, some bogies, and a birdie. I had my driver working and some really nice up and downs to help my goal of breaking 80. My double consisted of a plugged ball into the side of a bunker. This was one of the worst I’ve ever seen as I could only see 5-6 dimples of the ball and the letter S from Snell. Avoided disaster by hacking at it and getting it to fall into the bottom of the trap.
I highly suggest playing Windswept Dunes if you’re in the Destin/Panama City area in Florida. I know golf is expensive at the beach, but this course is a little bit of a hidden gem to me. Not on the beach, but still has that beachy vibe. 7 tee boxes to pick from, challenging green complexes, and unique course layout.
Alright I’m done, back to the beach.

Thanks guys, it was a good one! 

Thanks guys, it was a good one! 

Thanks guys!  Wife/Kids treated me to a new set of PXG irons and a Wilson Staff Michigan Ave putter. 

Have a happy one!