I was at Kiawah last year on Thursday. So much fun and so cool to see a major field in action. Fist bumped DJ waking off the tee after he blasted a drive about 30 yards right
Couple years. I'm still hitting my Sim Max irons. I really liked the P790s when I hit them there, but I opted for the more forgiving iron at that time.
But on the other hand, I just played a 9 so bad, I think I'll just sell all my stuff and never play again.
Did you enjoy the experience? I'm working very hard on appreciating any time on the course regardless of how I play.
Thats my #1 goal this year, and it’s so difficult. Ive got a few different strategies adapted from Zen Golf to defeat my “evil caddy” self. 1. Bought one of those score clicker things from Amazon. I click it when I get mad. Based on the pebble story 2. I liked the idea of martial arts, sword training, and shit like that as just an opportunity to practice the bigger picture of being mindful in general. Applied I’m trying to calm down in all every day situations and not let little things bother me so much, and golf is just another way to practice it Much more but I’m day drinking, so I’m sure I’m both rambling and not clear. Uh, good luck man!
I always start to tell my friends when they start getting mad, there’s a reason we are amateurs and you don’t practice regularly…but when they tell me that I want to stab them.
Haha. People don’t like hearing that. There’s always a reason why MY outburst was totally justifiable while I think you look like a jackass for having your own. For me, it’s a matter of this is truly my favorite hobby, and it’s immeasurably stupid to be miserable while doing it half the time. The goal shouldn’t be better scores, but I bet it’s a byproduct. Bonus points for being less of an insufferable dick in regular life too
Par, Birdie, Par, Birdie, Par to start my round and shot 94. Almost threw all my shit in a lake. Fuck. This. Sport.
Yep, most of those resort type courses have had no issues with it and it seemed fairly common at the Pebble courses. They do make you pay a cart fee for spectators though. The only place I’ve ever had that was slightly hesitant was Torrey Pines but I assured them that she has walked plenty of courses and it wouldn’t be an issue so they agreed
It's a cruel and gorgeous game. And as you improve, the personal standard becomes even more sharply defined. At my age, I know my best golf is behind me so it's easier to settle in to the appreciation mode. Life experience also has played a huge factor in recognizing what matters the most.
Pretty sure I would have told Shivas Irons and his stupid ass guru friend Seamus MacDuff to go fuck themselves during an outing like that as they prattled on about being one with nature and painting their shot in the sky (hope someone gets that reference)
I get all these "the experience is more important than the score" posts, but if I shoot 8 over on 3 holes, I'm gonna be in a bad mood.
I know Kiawah is 100% fine with it. And so is every highly rated course in Ireland and Scotland, though that’s all public ground so it’s not uncommon to have friends, family, the caddie’s children, random surfer passerbys, and the local priest randomly follow for 9 holes.
Good post. How old are you if you don’t mind me asking? My biggest internal driver is (hopefully) knowing my 2 year old will be watching my every move as he gets old enough to start venturing out. Can’t exactly sing the virtues of “what truly matters in life” while throwing clubs down the fairway
I shot a 92 today on a 6,800 yard course rated 74.8 / 148 with the stats of: - 10/14 Fairways - 11/18 Greens - 6 3 putts - 1 4 putt - 40 total putts As an 11 handicap I’m thrilled with my ballstriking (have been working hard on it) but holy fuck my short game is an abomination. How do I fix this?
I’m an 11, with a low handicap of 9.7. If I ever play truly terrible, I just put my clubs away out of sight and take a break for a week. Won’t even think about golf. Always works.
Practice is the answer, but it gets complicated in a hurry. Why did you have 40 putts? Bad lags? Missed short putts? Shitty chips? Were you looking at 60 footers on 7 of those 11 GIR? My bet would be on all of that. So what helps most? Do that first. Speaking from experience. Started with devoting more practice time to straight 3 footers, the circle drill, running lag putts to the fringe, and chipping/pitching. Also found a putter that worked better. Face balanced Spider is way easier to keep on path for me Spoiler literally none of this has helped lower my scores
deservedly, he hasn’t stopped talking about it. We are young enough that it’s funny to think that in 20 years he will still tee up on Member Guest Thursday and be the guy who won on an albatross all that time ago.
What are you shooting when you play well? I suck and am just getting the time of year when I can play reasonably regularly. Shot a courageous 45 on Thursday. Had full on Shanks entire round but zero 3 putts!
Yep, it works out great for us because she loves to see those destination courses. We’ve always had great pairings as well which has definitely helped, even when it’s us joining a group of long time friends they’ve been very welcoming and include her as much as possible
Heading out to play with my group of guys that I haven’t played with in about a year. Looking forward to having fun and hear all the gambling and side bets. Will be my first round with the new group on the new putter. No telling how the day is going to go.
To be clear that’s not serious at all. I’m clinging to a ten+ year plan to win a senior city or something similar. It’s strange to think about in time frames like that though. I went from being a little shitty junior golfer at 16 to winning regional and HS tournaments at 18. I realize that’s nothing special but the idea of a similar jump at this age is far fetched at best. Currently playing with a former LPGA mini tour pro who had to medically retire. She figured some things out and was able to get back into it this year. So awesome watching her, but she just broke 80 the first time last weekend since returning. The scoring just isn’t there, and you can’t even recognize it until things are tallied. So odd
I’d start to track the distance of your putts. If all of your 3 putts were from 40 feet, it’s not actually your putting that’s an issue but how close you are hitting it. That said if you are missing a bunch of 3 footers, the path forward is pretty easy. Couple of tour stats for expectation setting: - 2 ft is an auto make - 8 ft a 50% make - 30 ft is a 2 putt If your 3 putts are from 20-30 feet, then work on speed control (ladder drills probably a good start). If you are going 1 for 6 from 6 feet, then park yourself on the practice green in the 6-10 foot range and do some type of clock drill.
Great post. You really have to track your data to truly understand where you’re actually losing strokes. I’m a huge fan of arccos, which does it for you. After every round, I can analyze my strokes gained data relative to whatever my hcp goal is and figure out my strengths and weaknesses. Really helps prioritize your practice time. Here’s and example of what it looked like on my last round: Obviously putting was a big weakness. This course has really tough greens, so it wasn’t terribly surprising, but it let me know I need to improve my putting.
I like arccos but I feel like the numbers quickly get skewed if you forget to set pin location. Which I do 99% of the time
Yeah, you definitely have to pay attention to the pin location and putting distance, so that can get tedious. It relies on other arccos users and where they place the pin, so hopefully if more and more people use it, the more accurate the putting will get over time.
Regarding black clubs, I bought a 60 degree vokey in the black finish and regret it. Only had it for a few months and the finish is chipping off and changing colors, even with cleaning after every round/range session I have a 52 and 56 in tour chrome and love them