How'd you play?

[fixyurdivot]

20 minutes ago, TomBomb51 said:

I backed it up! Finished double bogey, bogey to limp in with the win. Had to make a 6 footer on 18 to win by 1, but a win is a win!

Wheeeww, looks like the forums gotta new playa, a boss of the moss, a nerves-o-steel scoring machine.  Nicely done .  

[Shapotomous]

3 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I found this beauty on Friday. Would you play a Pro V1x that was refurbished. Maybe after looking at this you will change your mind.

I like the sand in the paint, i bet it increases friction between ball and clubface giving lots of tour sauce spin!!!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

36 minutes ago, Shapotomous said:

I like the sand in the paint, i bet it increases friction between ball and clubface giving lots of tour sauce spin!!!

Maybe I can finally back the ball up more than a few inches with the extra spin I’ll get from the impregnated sand.

[Mulligan09]

Heading out for 9 this morning with wife and friends. Nice morning 64 right now, no rain forecasted. Will give it a true test

[BallsLeon]

Technically played golf yesterday, but the golf shots were few and far between. I perhaps over did it a bit the night before, and was feeling a little rough . 
Played with my friend from high school, his dad, and another of their family friends, all great golfers. I played as a guest at their club, and really a beautiful course and facilities. I knew I was in for a long day when they said we were playing from the blues, and I checked my course handicap on GHIN, 35. Played match play for the first time which helped keep things fun even as I struggled. Full swing wedge shots, and handful of driver shots were the only things seeming to be firing for me. Posted my raw score below.

There was also a PGA Tour player on the course at the same time, Sam Stevens a local from Wichita. They were saying earlier this year he brought Viktor Hovland out to play with him there.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Shot a course low 90 at my home track this morning! Started with a 47 on the front and finished with a 43 on the back that included four three putts. User error on all of them, putter rolled on line and true each time. Had two three putts on the front as well, so if I can get those under control, a mid 80s round is absolutely realistic. Started the back 9 +1 through 4 holes which was fantastic for me, and drove the ball very well. 6/14 FIR, 7/18 GIR, 4 one putts, 5 pars and only 3 doubles or worse, all of which are personal bests this year . Driver was also as good as it’s been this year consistency wise. Overall SUPER pleased with the round. 

 

[Collinwho]

Shot 90 on a par 71 course this morning. A new personal best. Pretty happy with that, especially considering it is likely my last round of the season. 

[David George]

Played a saturated Bedlingtonshire today. 6800+ off the tips and playing every inch of it today. Shot a very respectable 76 gross off 4 and combined with my one handicap partner Alan for 41 points. The lead when we get in? 49!!!

Playing competitions is becoming such a waste of time.

[fixyurdivot]

1 hour ago, David George said:

Played a saturated Bedlingtonshire today. 6800+ off the tips and playing every inch of it today. Shot a very respectable 76 gross off 4 and combined with my one handicap partner Alan for 41 points. The lead when we get in? 49!!!

Playing competitions is becoming such a waste of time.

Interesting last comment.  I know they say the handicap/index system works if it is used correctly and honestly.  But I have noticed it has become more challenging for me in recent months from a competition standpoint.  It just seems the margin for error gets smaller as one's index drops.  I now get less than half the strokes I used too when we arrived last year.  Many of the higher index players can still putt pretty well and that often seems to be where they get an advantage.  Bear in mind that I never mentioned this as an "observation" until recently .

[David George]

47 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Interesting last comment.  I know they say the handicap/index system works if it is used correctly and honestly.  But I have noticed it has become more challenging for me in recent months from a competition standpoint.  It just seems the margin for error gets smaller as one's index drops.  I now get less than half the strokes I used too when we arrived last year.  Many of the higher index players can still putt pretty well and that often seems to be where they get an advantage.  Bear in mind that I never mentioned this as an "observation" until recently .

"Honestly" is the issue. It's almost become a joke at the club to ask" handicap bandits or just someone having one of those days?". We had a number of members having their handicaps cut at the start of the season becuase their singles competition rounds and supplementary rounds differed significantly from their fourball scores. No argument becasue it's all on computer now. We now have a "five medals rounds in the previous 12 months" requirement to win anything and I know one club where certain people were banned from submitting supplementary scores. It's an ongoing arms race situation as the WHS and club handicap committees play catch up with the bandits.

Personally, I can shoot 79 - 81 at Bedlingtonshire regularly and 74 - 77 occasionally but I will never get my handicap index up from 3.0 to something realistic in what's left of my lifetime.

[fixyurdivot]

10 minutes ago, David George said:

"Honestly" is the issue. It's almost become a joke at the club to ask" handicap bandits or just someone having one of those days?". We had a number of members having their handicaps cut at the start of the season becuase their singles competition rounds and supplementary rounds differed significantly from their fourball scores. No argument becasue it's all on computer now. We now have a "five medals rounds in the previous 12 months" requirement to win anything and I know one club where certain people were banned from submitting supplementary scores. It's an ongoing arms race situation as the WHS and club handicap committees play catch up with the bandits.

Personally, I can shoot 79 - 81 at Bedlingtonshire regularly and 74 - 77 occasionally but I will never get my handicap index up from 3.0 to something realistic in what's left of my lifetime.

We've had lots of discussions about the handicap system recently.  Like most all things, if there is a way to game a system, some will do it.  My point was more that I find it harder to compete with a considerably lower index and wondered if others experience this?  I especially see this on the putting green. 

I've heard it said that many scratch golfers simply will not play in any serious competitions with mid to high handicap players.  I'm not sure if that is reflective of their lack of confidence in handicap systems, that they feel it just dosen't work even if used honestly, or both?

[CLenahan]

Had a rough day after a rough week yesterday.

Shaking off the dust with my first round after this bourt of covid.  Couldn't hit the driver, couldn't putt.  On top of that, play time was the worst I've had in a while.   Took 2.5 hours to play 9.  Finally, had to call it short becasue the auto shop had my car ready and I needed to pick it up before they closed.  Only good thing was that I was hitting greens from 170-140 all day, it was just usually my third shot...

Hopefully tomorrow is better, have a charity scramble and I'm going to put the LeanLock through it's paces.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

1 hour ago, fixyurdivot said:

Interesting last comment.  I know they say the handicap/index system works if it is used correctly and honestly.  But I have noticed it has become more challenging for me in recent months from a competition standpoint.  It just seems the margin for error gets smaller as one's index drops.  

Amen my brother. Although I have been enjoying the match play and virtual tour, it is extremely hard to compete. Your 10 to 15 handicapper can have a good day and be five strokes better than his handicap. Your scratch player having a good day is shooting par or maybe two strokes less. There just isn’t any margin for error. Add in the elements and course condition and just hitting your handicap is a success. 

[Kenny B]

We played at 7:50am this morning; a lot chillier than yesterday.  Body works differently at those temps.   Shot 83 with doubles on 3 par 5's.  Yuck!!  A couple of poor drives here; a poor chip there; and a plethora of putts that were too slow on wet(-ish) greens.  Didn't make many good swings until late in the back nine after it warmed up to low 60's.  

[fixyurdivot]

27 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Amen my brother. Although I have been enjoying the match play and virtual tour, it is extremely hard to compete. Your 10 to 15 handicapper can have a good day and be five strokes better than his handicap. Your scratch player having a good day is shooting par or maybe two strokes less. There just isn’t any margin for error. Add in the elements and course condition and just hitting your handicap is a success. 

So are we saying (suggesting) the handicap system simply dosen't provide a level playing field, day in and day out; particularly if the index difference between players is more than n?  Except for some company league play decades ago, I haven't used a formal handicap or played lots of competition golf.  I have this past year and it's all pretty new to me.

I should also qualify that I see more challenges with non-league competition - with some large differences in handicaps .

[Josh Parker]

9 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Amen my brother. Although I have been enjoying the match play and virtual tour, it is extremely hard to compete. Your 10 to 15 handicapper can have a good day and be five strokes better than his handicap. Your scratch player having a good day is shooting par or maybe two strokes less. There just isn’t any margin for error. Add in the elements and course condition and just hitting your handicap is a success. 

I think you nailed it on the head with this post!  You need to have flights so that it prevents that exact thing from happening.   My putter and wedges were on fire the other day and ended up 7 over but it could have easily been 18 over.  There is such a swing on a mid to high handicapper and you don't see that on low single digit player.  The swing is much less most of the time.  

When I used to play with the "noon groupers" years ago and was just starting I never took more than 1 stroke on par 4's.  I never bet much but I would lose most and won a few until I got better.  Once I got under a 9 hcp I didn't take strokes.  I didn't want that being the excuse with the group if/when I would beat them.  Before I left that town to move back home, I played lights out and shot 2 under 70 with birdie on 9 and 18 the last time I played that course.  The "older" guys were so mad and I didn't collect.  Haha, I had them sign my card and was satisified with that.  

 

[Shlax]

Solid round today. 38 (+2) & 43 (+7) for 81 (+9) with 11/18 GIR. Driver performance was one of my best of the season! However, I couldn’t putt to save my life. Greens were fassst.

4-putted the 2nd hole, missed 2 putts under 3’, my 12’ eagle putt on the 8th hole par 5 burned the edge of the cup and I 3-putted twice on the back nine for a total of 38 putts.

Had a clean round (no penalty) until not finding my 2nd shot in the left rough on the 18th hole par 5… Not in the woods, not in the trees, simple rough… This penalty stroke was though to swallow to say the least.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

6 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

So are we saying (suggesting) the handicap system simply dosen't provide a level playing field, day in and day out; particularly if the index difference between players is more than n?  Except for some company league play decades ago, I haven't used a formal handicap or played lots of competition golf.  I have this past year and it's all pretty new to me.

 

I’ll give you an actual account. I’m in the Pro shop and the shoot out crowd was starting to come in and drop off their cards and would each call out how many under they were (They were all under par). One older gent come in and says 10 under. 
My eyes were wide open and I said I thought they only played 9 holes. Pro said yup, only nine. Then he starts laughing. He said the guy gets 14 strokes for 9 holes. So he gets 14 strokes and comes in at 10 under for 9. 
something’s just don’t add up. 
If I joined the shootout league I would get zero strokes. Shooting a 62 isn’t in the cards in my lifetime and that would only been good enough to tie.

[fixyurdivot]

20 minutes ago, jdparker said:

You need to have flights so that it prevents that exact thing from happening. 

Our men's league typically has 3-4 flights that groups players by index.  They use Golf Genius and one of the tournament directors was recently explaining to me that it is a really great app and helps them organize events and make things as fair as possible.  

2 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I’ll give you an actual account. I’m in the Pro shop and the shoot out crowd was starting to come in and drop off their cards and would each call out how many under they were (They were all under par). One older gent come in and says 10 under. 
My eyes were wide open and I said I thought they only played 9 holes. Pro said yup, only nine. Then he starts laughing. He said the guy gets 14 strokes for 9 holes. So he gets 14 strokes and comes in at 10 under for 9. 
something’s just don’t add up. 
If I joined the shootout league I would get zero strokes. Shooting a 62 isn’t in the cards in my lifetime and that would only been good enough to tie.

I was going to use the laughing emoji for your post but thought the sad one was more appropriate... yay, that's nutzballz. 

My informal (but $$) games on Mon, Thur & Sat are the one's I'm mostly referring to.  But they are also team events and that adds another wrinkle.  But, the guys are really fun to play with and it's not like I'm never winning.

Didn't mean to take this thread off into orbit, I was just curious what others experience.  

[fixyurdivot]

47 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

We played at 7:50am this morning; a lot chillier than yesterday.  Body works differently at those temps.   Shot 83 with doubles on 3 par 5's.  Yuck!!  A couple of poor drives here; a poor chip there; and a plethora of putts that were too slow on wet(-ish) greens.  Didn't make many good swings until late in the back nine after it warmed up to low 60's.  

How many times did you guys visit the beverage cart?   I remember playing in snow flurries this time of year back in MT.  Once at Madison Meadows in Ennis, the pro shop asked me to please take a power cart, on the house, as they didn't want to the liability of me walking with my pushcart .

[Shlax]

1 hour ago, fixyurdivot said:

We've had lots of discussions about the handicap system recently.  Like most all things, if there is a way to game a system, some will do it.  My point was more that I find it harder to compete with a considerably lower index and wondered if others experience this?  I especially see this on the putting green. 

I've heard it said that many scratch golfers simply will not play in any serious competitions with mid to high handicap players.  I'm not sure if that is reflective of their lack of confidence in handicap systems, that they feel it just dosen't work even if used honestly, or both?

I agree. I’m a mid handicap player (currently at an all-time low 8.6) but usually closer to 10) and have struggled shooting below my net par during the virtual match play tournament because my handicap is basically the opposite of that of a sandbagger’s at the moment. If for some reason I was still around a 10-11 handicap, I could definitely have shot net -4 or -5 at some point in the tournament.

Some friends of mine participated in the Word Amateur Match Play Tournament this summer (6 and 8 handicap) and they had real good matches against all of their opponents with handicaps below 12 let’s say. As soon as they hit last year’s winners (handicaps 16 and 26 with 26 being the maximum index allowed), they knew they were in trouble. They knew that despite shooting below their net par, there was nothing they could do against a 26 handicap. They strategically opted to play at the toughest links course around here where if you miss the fairway, you basically instantaneously add a stroke to the hole (if you find your ball that is) so they managed to pull a win.

All of this is to say that I fully agree that the handicap system for matchplay is not perfect and usually advantages the higher handicap player. I don’t know what spread would be considered as the start point of being not applicable, but I fell that an 8-9 strokes difference would be the maximum reasonable spread (if both players have up to date and reliable indexes that is). More than 8 or 9 and I feel like the lower handicap player is doomed.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Ok to get back on track. Played okay today. Front 9 has been good to me all season. Shot two under on the front and one over on the back for a 71. They keep saying the front is harder. But it just works for me.

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, fixyurdivot said:

So are we saying (suggesting) the handicap system simply dosen't provide a level playing field, day in and day out; particularly if the index difference between players is more than n?  Except for some company league play decades ago, I haven't used a formal handicap or played lots of competition golf.  I have this past year and it's all pretty new to me.

I should also qualify that I see more challenges with non-league competition - with some large differences in handicaps .

Yep!  It's why I don't play any tournaments or even play in the daily men's gangsome.  Playing from the Blue tees was just too long for me anymore.  No fun!  There was only a couple of holes where I could use an iron into a green instead of a wood/hybrid or a wedge (wedge being mostly when I didn't reach the green in regulation).  

The past 16 months I've been playing from the White (senior) tees.  My current index is 10.4 but my course handicap from the White tees is 5.  I have probably shot net par 77 maybe 10 times since last year with a couple of 76's in there; mostly 79-81 scores.  I did shoot 77 yesterday, but I think I am about right for the number of times I should shoot net par.  Not going to win anything doing that though.

The reason I gave up on the men's gangsome is that they play from the Blue tees.  While I could play those tees, my course handicap from the Blues is 9.  The rules for the gangsome is that you can play from the White tees if you age + your handicap = 90 or greater.  So, I'm sitting on 85 and I would have to get to a 14 in order to qualify.  I don't want to increase my scores by ~8 strokes so I can play from the tees I'm playing now!!  

[BMDubya]

Played twice this week. I’ve been playing really well all year. Shot 74 Wednesday this week, with a group from work. Today, was an absolute gem of a round. 77, with 31 putts! Now I know what you’re thinking, 77, 31 putts, big deal. Here’s the thing, my putter head actually fell off, like epoxy came loose & fell off, on the 2nd hole. Now we were playing for money, not a substantial amount or anything, and 1 guy did offer for me to use his putter, although I declined not feeling right. The kicker was, I ended up using my driver! I putted broomstick style & I can’t believe how well it turned out. I wasn’t sure if it was even legal, to grip down on the shaft with no grip, but the group all agreed that if I was to use it, no penalty would be called. So I gave it a go! Now I’ve gone back & forth over the past few years between broom & regular. But to have pulled this off, during a meaningful round, was something special to me. My playing partners were in more awe than I was, I think?!?! Crazy thing was, these greens were rolling about 11.5-11.8. They usually have a sign out in the pro shop, I thought it said 11.8, another guy said he thought 11.5. Either way, I was completely happy with my performance. Especially considering that putting is my biggest weakness. Maybe once I was dealt this today, my attitude was like screw it & I was just free wheeling all day? Idk?! So now, I’m currently debating on possibly switching to strictly broomstick, for at the very least, the remainder of this playing season! 

[MattF]

Played with @MaxEntropy at Windmill yesterday. It felt slow but we actually finished in 4h 15m on a Sunday afternoon, which is pretty good out there.

I'm now hitting a draw thanks to the lessons, so that had me flummoxed now and then. Went around 47/45 92, not a good effort but I did hit a drive 282 yards with most at 250 and over.

[Parshooter36]

I knocked off the #1 seed in our club championship match play tournament.  I was 3 over through 16 when I closed him out. Now on to the championship round!

[Blaine Dye]

Went and played a round before the sunday football games and im glad i did finished at +4 defiantly a bounce back from my last round still leaving alot of putts out there so i think im going to take the time i have to play golf and use it on the practice green for a little bit and figure out what changed  

[MaxEntropy]

2 hours ago, MattF said:

Played with @MaxEntropy at Windmill yesterday. It felt slow but we actually finished in 4h 15m on a Sunday afternoon, which is pretty good out there.

I'm now hitting a draw thanks to the lessons, so that had me flummoxed now and then. Went around 47/45 92, not a good effort but I did hit a drive 282 yards with most at 250 and over.

I am not going through a swing change (at least consciously - who knows which idiot is showing up any given day) and shot 44/46 90. I would say it was my C/C- game. Nothing was terribly good and not much terribly wrong. Just kind of meh. My putting has been pretty gross over the last month, so I pulled the StrokeLab off the bench. I feel like I putted a bit better than Arccos gives me credit for as some of the greens at Windmill can be pretty tricky/severe, at least to someone that doesn't play there all the time like Matt.

[David George]

14 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

So are we saying (suggesting) the handicap system simply dosen't provide a level playing field, day in and day out; particularly if the index difference between players is more than n?  Except for some company league play decades ago, I haven't used a formal handicap or played lots of competition golf.  I have this past year and it's all pretty new to me.

I should also qualify that I see more challenges with non-league competition - with some large differences in handicaps .

How interesting is this discussion! My opinion is no, the WHS does not provide a level playing field, and there are a significant number of people effectively cheating the system by manipulating their scores. I play compettive golf ONLY to test myself against the course and not with any thought of winning anything. Well maybe the two sweep . Still aiming to beat my age at some point but probably not around Bedlingtonshire.

[MattF]

1 hour ago, MaxEntropy said:

I feel like I putted a bit better than Arccos gives me credit for as some of the greens at Windmill can be pretty tricky/severe, at least to someone that doesn't play there all the time like Matt.

 

Yeah, depending on pin position, the greens can be fairly treacherous.