How'd you play?

[cksurfdude]

12 minutes ago, invee123 said:

Enjoy this picture from the tee-shot on 18 - it's a 200 yard carry over a canyon to the fairway out in the distance!!

Where's the drop zone?

Beautiful course!

[dback]

Wasn't able to get out on the course this weekend but did spend some time with the Garmin r10 in the garage. Probably a good thing because I'm working through some swing changes and was better to focus on drills and getting reps. Working hard to shallow out the driver swing in particular and nice to do this in a controlled environment without being able to see the ball fly. Focus on the swing not the result. After two good sessions over the weekend, excited to get out to the course this Tuesday and see how it translates!

[Hobert]

11 minutes ago, Sluggo42 said:

This game…

my back is still cranky from my nerve burns, so I’m swinging about 3/4 swings.

Shot a 74, with an eagle and birdy on back for a -1 for that half. Funny how 3/4 strength shots seem to go just as far…

And for me, more on line with my target…

[Tom the Golf Nut]

25 minutes ago, invee123 said:

Had a lot of fun playing a twilight time at the ridge at castle pines in Castle Pines, CO. This course is so pure and the grass is finally looking green for prime season. Played well and was hitting ropes with the driver (had one even go 343 yards) which led to a respectable +14 on a course hcp 13. Still need to work on iron shots while testing these OnCore Vero X2 balls because they have straighter ball flight than I am used to, but overall I'm enjoying the testing. Enjoy this picture from the tee-shot on 18 - it's a 200 yard carry over a canyon to the fairway out in the distance!!

As soon as I saw the picture, I knew the course. I played it twice in golf tournaments (actually came in 1st in one of them). That's a fun course. Took me a bit to get used to the ball traveling further and it is a great finishing hole.  

[richk9holes]

Today's round started with high hopes. 1st tee drive straight but left in rough. No fade to fw as planned. Playing partner was driving, both on the left we realize the rough is 3" long. I picked up 5 balls in a 30y circle, other guy picked up 3. Finally find his up further. I can't find mine. It's an Oncore with blue swirls around the O. Turns out it's in my playing partners pocket. I have my choice of 3 drops because we don't know which spot it was. I have an 8i in my hand based on where we thought the ball came to rest, take the closest drop like a lazy and hit my 8i over by 30y.

7th hole a different player in my group hit my ball from the FW after I seeded a drive. Again, Oncore blue marker...don't touch my ball that's obviously not yours.

 

 

 

 

So I basically quit. Carded 95, no idea what a legit score would be, don't care. We played 1-8 and skipped to 11 because pace was brutal, went back and played 9-10 but I didn't change my gps. More pure irons over greens.

Pickleball equipment only costs like $100. I made a par putt lefty. Hit a good chip 1 handed. I'll post in virtual tour only if we need a 100th score Sunday night.

[ACalling]

Been playing well lately and was able to get out for 9 holes yesterday at Portland Golf Course, local to me in CT. Two Mondays in a row playing the back 9 there, shooting a +5 41 each time. This weeks round had a couple of very tough pin locations making me just aim for center and 2-putt out for pars. Had a double on a par 3, pin was tucked all the way back on the small top-tier of a steep two tiered green and just shortsided myself and didn't give the chips or putts enough juice because of potentially going past the pin and down to the front of the green. The best news of the day is that after entering this scorecard I have moved my handicap down to a 9.7! It still rounds up to double digits but this was a big milestone for me. Hoping to continue to play consistently well and maintain a single digit

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Rough front nine of my VTC round today. Started off with limited warm up (no range) as I beat the club pro there due to a ton of fog, so my iron game seemed just off. Started with a par. 2nd hole had an 18' par lip out. on 3 had a 15' bogey lip out after having to double chip after a thinning approach shot that went long. 4 had a bad tee shot on the long par three, thinned a wedge, then took three shots to get on the green. 5 had a 24' par save lip out (seeing a trend with my putter, the LAB was on fire today). 6 was a straight forward bogey. 7 was a three putt after landing on the green. left my 45' birdie putt 10' short and then pushed the par save (worst putt of the day). 8 took 2 shots to get out of a greenside bunker and had a 10' putt lip out, so double bogey. 9 had a recovery situation and sitting 138 in the fairway for my third, out of no where pulled my 9i OB and had to hit again. Played my original provisional but also hit a couple other balls to prove to myself I could hit the green. Chipped to 7' and holed it for triple bogey (ugh). Overall a 50 today (last week was a 49) and my SS average for this front nine is right around 49.5. Need to improve there. Didn't feel like I was that great from the tee today but SG says otherwise. Another 9 to grind Saturday morning. Also hoping to get out to the range Thursday morning and work on some things.

Also, obviously, I need to start aiming more left. This is my last 10 dispersion with driver. Mostly cuts to push slices. This is why I have thought of either lofting up to close the face or trying a softer tip shaft. Light blue line is 255 yards

[Sluggo42]

Had a nice 75 today, to follow yesterdays 74. Starting to really hit some good iron shots with the “Freddy” swing. It’s basically standing tall whilst just picking up the club, and swinging it behind yer head. Not a lot of turn at that point. The turn seems to start on the downswing where you kind of just fire the hips thru, and the club seems to just follow along… it’s seemingly easy, and I’m not jerking at the ball to hit it hard. I’m just letting the ball be in the way, and it just shoots outta there…

I also started the aim point putting a bit. But my buddies complained that was spending too much time trying to “feel” the fall haha. It’s going to take some time to get this system down…

[Grand Stranded]

On 5/8/2023 at 9:00 AM, cnosil said:

Let me ask you a question.  Why was only hitting one fairway a bad thing?  You still have to hit an approach shot even if you hit the fairway.  Were your drives  considerable shorter and you were hitting significantly more clubs into greens?  Did you have to pitch out because there wasn’t a way to hit an approach shot on the green?  Fairways hit can be an overrated stat 

I’m not into keeping stats but I know which parts of my game need to get better.

I couldn’t agree more with you here about fairways hit. Another one that I never pay attention to is total number of putts. A two putt from 45 feet is completely different from a two putt from 3 feet.

We occasionally have a little side action on fewest total putts in your flight. The first time I won the pot I was missing the green almost every hole, but was usually close enough to still putt. I think I had maybe 21-22 putts total.

 I like to think I’m a good putter, but I’m not that good…  if I’d been hitting greens that day I wouldn’t have sniffed that number.

[chisag]

On 5/8/2023 at 6:00 AM, cnosil said:

Let me ask you a question.  Why was only hitting one fairway a bad thing?  You still have to hit an approach shot even if you hit the fairway.  Were your drives  considerable shorter and you were hitting significantly more clubs into greens?  Did you have to pitch out because there wasn’t a way to hit an approach shot on the green?  Fairways hit can be an overrated stat 

 

... I probably sound like a broken record but where you play just makes so much difference. Back in the midwest in Spring when it rained constantly, the rough tended to be thick and deep. Missing the fairway by 1" was a problem for any shot over 100yds and that was IF you could find the ball. Here in Phoenix there are quite a few holes where the "rough" is faster than the fairway so aiming for the rough, let alone missing a fairway can be more advantageous. Driving is the weakest part of my game and it seems some days I drive it very well and others a struggle the entire round. But irons are one of the strongest parts of my game so fairways hit are almost irrelevant here in the desert. The amount of times I have made par or even birdie from another fairway or even another fairways "rough" is pretty high. 

[Bang60]

25 minutes ago, chisag said:

The amount of times I have made par or even birdie from another fairway or even another fairways "rough" is pretty high. 

Exactly how golf is 90% of the time in Sydney only time you had to worry where your ball is is when your OB lol, lots of trees and water in Sydney which I miss when it's raining cats and dogs in NZ lol which is too often in winter time which is now...

[cnosil]

54 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... I probably sound like a broken record but where you play just makes so much difference. Back in the midwest in Spring when it rained constantly, the rough tended to be thick and deep. Missing the fairway by 1" was a problem for any shot over 100yds and that was IF you could find the ball. Here in Phoenix there are quite a few holes where the "rough" is faster than the fairway so aiming for the rough, let alone missing a fairway can be more advantageous. Driving is the weakest part of my game and it seems some days I drive it very well and others a struggle the entire round. But irons are one of the strongest parts of my game so fairways hit are almost irrelevant here in the desert. The amount of times I have made par or even birdie from another fairway or even another fairways "rough" is pretty high. 

 

My point is that dispersion pattern with driver is wider than fairways and you aren't always going to hit them.  I live in the land of bermuda rough so I am familiar with deep rough and not being able to find the ball so I would definitely prefer to be in the fairway.   My last coach had me track whether I was able to advance the ball toward the green not if I was in the fairway or not.  That said,  if you are always missing in a particular direction you might think about shifting where you are aiming.  

[JerryB]

Owen and I played the back nine at River Heights this morning.  Weather was a touch on the chilly side but warmed up nicely.  Unfortunately, depending on green location, half of the greens were very dewy and therefore slow, and the other half that were in the sun were drier and faster as a result.  All of which wreaked havoc on our putting.  Owen in particular couldn't sink a putt to save his life over much of the round.

I didn't play too badly but I was maddeningly inconsistent.  A double on the par 3 11th because of a really poor iron shot left me under the trees with a bunker between me and the green.  I basically putted with my short hybrid, running it through the bunker and onto the green but still managed to three putt afterwards.  I had a really ugly triple on the par 5 16th where I basically just forgot how to hit the ball.  A birdie look on the tricky green on 17 turned into a bogey.

All in all I shot a (+13) 49, which was actually good enough to beat Owen by two strokes.

[Sluggo42]

Dicks has a sale on the Maxfli’s  tours right now - 4 doz for $119  

you're welcome…

[Sluggo42]

3 minutes ago, JerryB said:

Unfortunately, depending on green location, half of the greens were very dewy and therefore slow, and the other half that were in the sun were drier and faster as a result.  All of which wreaked havoc on our putting. 

That’s something we have every day, being the early birds at our course- we’ve been forced to get used to the different speeds due to the dew- we don’t even think about it anymore- early putts get hammered and back nine get normal…

I could see it being a serious problem if not accustomed to it on a daily basis-

this week was the first week the greens have recovered from punching and sanding. So every morning we’ve been dueling with ground crews either rolling, watering, or pin switching. It’s becoming rather irritating actually…

[chisag]

3 hours ago, cnosil said:

My point is that dispersion pattern with driver is wider than fairways and you aren't always going to hit them.  I live in the land of bermuda rough so I am familiar with deep rough and not being able to find the ball so I would definitely prefer to be in the fairway.   My last coach had me track whether I was able to advance the ball toward the green not if I was in the fairway or not.  That said,  if you are always missing in a particular direction you might think about shifting where you are aiming.  

 

... Personally I have never been a fan of stats or tracking because I know what I need to do. I don't need a stat to tell me when I putted well or putted poorly, drove the ball well or not. I don't need anything to tell me I should hit more GIR's because we all do. For me at least all stats point to common sense: Hit as many fairways as possible or put myself in a good position to approach the green, hit as many GIRs as possible, get up and down when I miss greens, make as many putts as I can. Clearly I am a right brain player as "less organized" has always been my mode of operandi:

"The right brain is more visual and intuitive. It has a more creative and less organized way of thinking". 

[Jim Shaw]

On 5/7/2023 at 6:14 PM, Micah T said:

4 over 75 and 2 over 74 for the weekend: hit a ridiculous(for me) 8/14 and 10/14 fairways. 12/18 Gir and 14/18 Gir.  But 68 putts over 2 rounds is sending me straight to the putting green for some serious practice.

sounds really solid to me, two good rounds for this time of year, I hear you with the putting though, I spent 2 hours on the putting green today as well, hopefully you will find "the secret" 

[JerryB]

8 minutes ago, Sluggo42 said:

this week was the first week the greens have recovered from punching and sanding. So every morning we’ve been dueling with ground crews either rolling, watering, or pin switching. It’s becoming rather irritating actually…

 

That's been our big issue, is always working around the grounds crew.  I'm thrilled they're doing their job but it makes me, as an already very inconsistent putter, even worse.  That said, I'll happily be out there tomorrow morning to do it all over again!

[Jim Shaw]

seems like I always start this segment with " interesting day today" so I will start it again, 

Interesting day today, got off to a  great start, 4 birdies 2 bogey's on the front nine, 34... 42 on the back, 2 doubles 2 bogeys, greens were great, hit my lines really nice off the tee and into the greens, just made a couple of unforced errors on the back that cost me... didnt really do anything bad just not a lot good on the back, my takeaway from today..... go home, have a drink, and relax.... get at it again on thursday....

[Bang60]

2 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Personally I have never been a fan of stats or tracking because I know what I need to do. I don't need a stat to tell me when I putted well or putted poorly, drove the ball well or not. I don't anything to tell me I need to hit more GIR's because we all do. For me at least all stats point to common sense: Hit as many fairways as possible or put myself in a good position to approach the green, hit as many GIRs as possible, get up and down when I miss greens, make as many putts as I can. Clearly I am a right brain player as "less organized" has always been my mode of operandi:

"The right brain is more visual and intuitive. It has a more creative and less organized way of thinking". 

I used to play on auto pilot, I played with mates so it's was all about having a laugh. I was a much better golfer on 9 so I rarely made bad errors lol, just grabbed a club and hit the ball my eyes stopped me getting better because I couldn't read subtle greens...

[cnosil]

28 minutes ago, chisag said:

"The right brain is more visual and intuitive. It has a more creative and less organized way of thinking". 

yep,  we just think differently.  neither way is good or bad or better or worse.  It is just what we do.  

[cksurfdude]

3 hours ago, Sluggo42 said:

Dicks has a sale on the Maxfli’s  tours right now - 4 doz for $119  

you're welcome…

I grabbed a "cube" last Fall when they were running that price - great ball at a great deal!

FYI anyone looking for a really good "value" ball I'd also bought the MaxFli StraightFli to try and been playing it recently - seems to work nicely! Have not hit it side by side vs the Tour CG but I have a feeling the differences are small .. except for wedge spin on the greens where it does seem to spin bit less, but still not terrible especially at the value price.

[chisag]

15 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

FYI anyone looking for a really good "value" ball

 

... I don't want put the cart before the horse but with one round in using the new Kirkland V3 I am cautiously impressed. At $27.99 in the store for 2 dozen, these may very well be a ball for everyone. 

[MattF]

Not a good day yesterday, 45/45 90. The best part was no 3 putts.

[skraeling]

Best round of the year boys and girls.  Started off rough.  Though it was mostly because I was so sore from hitting I think an entire ranges worth of balls sunday.  Took me several holes to loosen up.  Had a 64ft putt that hit the pin and reject out so that was cool.  Overall happy with my iron swing changes.

started on hole 11, finished on 10.  League shotgun start.

Edited May 10, 2023 by skraeling

[DiscipleofPenick]

13 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... I probably sound like a broken record but where you play just makes so much difference. Back in the midwest in Spring when it rained constantly, the rough tended to be thick and deep. Missing the fairway by 1" was a problem for any shot over 100yds and that was IF you could find the ball. Here in Phoenix there are quite a few holes where the "rough" is faster than the fairway so aiming for the rough, let alone missing a fairway can be more advantageous. Driving is the weakest part of my game and it seems some days I drive it very well and others a struggle the entire round. But irons are one of the strongest parts of my game so fairways hit are almost irrelevant here in the desert. The amount of times I have made par or even birdie from another fairway or even another fairways "rough" is pretty high. 

You are right. In Ohio every month is an almost completely different set of conditions April is wet and cold. May everything starts to bloom, so seed heads make the the rough thick and the greens bumpy. Then everything gets pretty nice from June into July. But we can have droughts that start as early as mid-July and run through September. We're going to get a few weeks somewhere that everything is fast and firm, and like you mentioned the rough is faster than the fairway. Then fall golf is great, but you have to deal with 'leaf rules'.

And I'm with you too - Fairways hit isn't a big deal to me. I'm not playing private courses or anything, so none of the public courses have rough that really causes a problem. As long as I have an unobstructed second shot, that's all that matters.

[DiscipleofPenick]

Played with @MattF at our course yesterday. Ended up with an 81. no birdies, 2 doubles. I had the same thing happen that I did on Sunday where I went brain dead for the first 5 holes on the back. Of course then I figured out that I was standing just ever too far away from the ball. I adjusted that and pared the final 3 holes to recover. Putting still sucks, but everything else is improving.

[Shapotomous]

I am cautiously optimistic that I may have finally found a swing that works.  I had a 35 in the 9 hole league last night with only two bad swings.  I made solid contact but only had 12 putts so it may have just been my putter saving me from another so-so round.  I may have to sneak out for another 9 this week to see if it was a fluke or if I really am onto something for this year.

[Blaine Dye]

League night went good in my book just playing Par golf I couldn't get a birdie to drop to save my life I felt like not that I didn't have the chance still missing easy putts to be happy with my game I missed 3 birdie putts but that's part of it hopefully switching to this claw grip I have been practicing will help but ended up finishing level par so no complaints either 

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, DiscipleofPenick said:

And I'm with you too - Fairways hit isn't a big deal to me. I'm not playing private courses or anything, so none of the public courses have rough that really causes a problem. As long as I have an unobstructed second shot, that's all that matters.

I play a muni and I think all of the grass; greens, fairway and rough is Poa Annua.  While the rough is usually kept fairly short, it is definitely NOT easy to hit from.  When it's long, it's had to find a ball.  When I play with people that haven't played our course, I encourage them to just get it back into the fairway rather than try to advance the ball with a long shot to the green... they don't, and they have the same shot again... probably from a sidehill lie.