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Hello again fellow spies! It's time to gear up for the summer league season, and it's tough not to be excited - even for a middle of the pack grinder like me. The summer league I play in uses an individual stroke play format, applying full handicap in two flights (A/B). The flights are split right down the middle of the handicaps of each week's participants so it can vary. Each week's final results award points to each player to apply to the league standings. The league maintains two standings pools. An overall standings applies all of each players rounds for total points, and a Top-6 standings which uses only each player's best 6 rounds from the season. The Top 20 in the Top-6 standings are the qualifiers for the end of season invitational tournament. The Overall standings Top-20 make up the qualifier pool for the post season Team Cup event. It is what I would describe as a 'competitively social' league that is as much about having fun with as it is competing against the other players. This is my fourth season in the league. Year one was a mess, and I was near the bottom of the standings and didn't qualify for any post season events. Year two I played with a lot more consistency, managed to win my first weekly event, finished 3rd overall and qualified for both post season events. Last year was year 3 for me. We had an influx of a few good new players, and even though I played fairly well, thanks to C-19 I had to skip two events that in the end left me just short of qualifying for either post season event. My goal heading into this year is still pretty modest. My 14 handicap should have me in the upper half of the B flight for most of the year, so I really just want to qualify again for the Invitational and Cup. I think that's doable, but I'll probably need at least two top-5 weekly finishes, and I'll need to play middle of the pack or better in the three 'majors' that count for higher weekly points. To get ready for that, I've continued with regular practice trying to spend more time on short game and putting than full swings. I've found a coach close by that seems to be a good fit, and I'm seeing a lot of things I like with my swing and ball flight after just a couple of lessons. And, of course, I just had a fitting for new long game clubs (D/3W/Hy). It was time to make a shaft flex adjustment, and I think I got a good fit with the choices I made. It's always a wild ride with this group with a lot of groans and laughs along the way. Hope y'all enjoy the journey as well.

Hi All - I recently made an iPhone app for my dad (who is deaf) to help him communicate with hearing people. Did you know that lipreading is only ~30% accurate? My dad is a 5 handicap golfer and I noticed that often times he'll get paired up with other golfers in tournaments or weekend play, and after the other golfers find out he's deaf they'll simplify their speech or avoid talking to him because they don't know what to say. The app converts voice-to-text in real time and all you would have to do is talk into the phone or plug in an Apple earbud and talk into the microphone (which tends to reduce the background noice and get a more accurate transcription). My dad has tested the app in numerous situations, including on the golf course, and so far the response has been great. The new people he meets are able to speak normally and he can follow along with the conversation by reading the iPhone instead of acting like he understands what his going or being said. Have any of you played golf with someone who is deaf or hard-of-hearing and would App MyEar have helped your interaction? Curious to know what you think! Link to a recent interview we did for Rochester news: http://www.rochester...n-duo/861743558 And a link to our Facebook page with more information and video of the app in action: https://www.facebook.com/appmyear/

Club championship season is fast approaching, and I'm getting excited! I've haven't been striking the ball all too well lately, but still been managing decent scores. I feel like I'm really close to everything clicking, so I'm going to spend some serious time on the course this weekend and on the range and practice green next week. I will be working on my review for the Srixon Q-Star Tour ball at the same time, so a good opportunity to kill two birdies with one urethane covered stone. One of my new years resolution last year was at to win a tournament, which I was able to do. It was just a one round league tournament, but I took top honors and won a bit of cash. This year, I challenged myself to win a trophy. Money is nice, but I would love to hold some hardware at the end of the day. I've been putting myself in a lot of pressure situations on the course lately by playing money games with guys that are WAY better than I am (ex D1 college golfers). I've also been going to the range or practice green before work or on my lunch break, and have been putting in solid hours on the course as well. If I'm close to the top on Sunday, my dad said he would sling the bag for me, which would be really fun. Anyone prepping for a club championship/tournament?

-Played in a tournament last weekend for the first time (Had only played in 2 charity scrambles). Hosted by the club I play at over two days and It was a best ball tourny. -Played with my friend who is a 16hcp and I was a 8.9 after two 79's two weeks before, so we got strokes on a lot of holes for him-all but 1. Our playing partners were an 11 and 9 each. - What occurred those two days was a classic example of choking! lol! I went 18over on day 1 . Posted an 8 on Hole #1 Par4; two days in a row and a 9 on #9 par5; and a 9 on #18 Par5. Got an adrenaline spike at each tee box and went into the junk lol My partner went 33 and 36 over both days, we used my score for a combined 29/36 holes. BUTTTT..... The biggest shock of the tournament: ALL THE CHEATING - I saw balls moved out of the lips of bunkers, out of OB, out of Divots, Balls dropped improperly, putts incorrectly counted- incorrect scores. - What was worse was even the twosome playing with us was guilty of this. Saw one of our partners 4 putt and declare a par... -On the last day, finishing off Par-5 #18, See a player from other twosome move his ball twice while taking a practice swing, technically 5 shots on one putt, records a birdie... I miss second shot slightly right, take a practice swing clip my ball a yard (OOPS), chip, 1 putt; 4 on 1 putt- Record par. Player remarks tough to come away from par after good drive- really glad he got birdie. -Partner and I went 1 over combined for the first day after hcp and 3 over the next day: +4 total. The other twosome finished -9. Needless to say all the cheating really got our blood boiling... - Had read some posts about tourneys and being aware of Sand-baggers (very fun to say) and Vanity Handicaps; and about cheating, but still shocked. Granted it is a local club tournament, but where is the integrity? The prizes were not even thousands of dollars. Not how i wanted to be introduced into tournament golf.... - On a positive note- won long drive on the longest whole, Par 5 571yds; 338 power draw! Got a sweet Nexbelt for my troubles. Did get a good Forearm tan as well !

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