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About this blog

The occasional random golf-related thoughts pop into my head. The blog efforts of several other TST members has inspired me to give it a try again. No one should anticipate a cohesive series of blog entries.  I go where the mental winds blow.  ;-)

The photo was taken at Carnoustie as I and my fellow golfers/caddies walk down the fairway. I am on the far left.

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Entries in this blog

Playing

Shooting Your Age

As I approached the age of 70, my thoughts turned toward shooting my age. It sort of becomes a race against time and the erosion of one’s golf skills. At age 70, I managed a 1-under par 71. Close but no cigar. Early this year I was standing on the 17th tee when it dawned on me that I was 1-under on a par 72 layout. “Hey, I can shoot my age!!!” Two bogies later I had a 73 and another failed attempt at shooting my age. Today did not seem like the moment I might achieve one of my goals. I had
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bkuehn1952 in Playing

5

I Am Not a Mudder, Are You?

mudder noun mud·der | \ˈmədə(r)\ plural -s Definition of mudder  1 : a race horse that runs well on a wet or muddy track 2 : a player or a team (as in football) that performs well on a wet field    After my final round of 2018, I was thinking about the course conditions the past month or so.  While we have had relatively mild weather, it has been wet.  I don’t do particularly well in wet and muddy conditions.  I play in all sorts of weather: hot, windy
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28

2019 Rules Changes - Observations After a Season

One of the big changes in 2019 was the USGA/R&A overhaul of the Rules of Golf.  Our Club runs a series of net tournaments for our members.  Our members range in age from 50 to 94 with handicaps of +1 to 36.  I was a bit pessimistic that our members would be able to accommodate all the Rules changes.  After a season of watching our members play in our Tournaments, here are a few of my observations. The option to leave or remove the flagstick has turned out to be a bit of help on pace o
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13

I Hate Scrambles

I hate 4-person golf scrambles. Yes, charities raise a fair amount of money holding these events.  I also appreciate that many non-golfers and bad golfers like the 4-person scramble because there is no pressure to perform.  That’s fine, just don’t call me to round out the team. I did not always hate 4-person scrambles.  For a while, long ago, I actually liked joining my buddies in these events.  Swing out of my shoes, drink some beer and chill out for 5+ hours.  What was not to like? 
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11

Senior Golf - Slow, Rude, Clueless & Angry

It can be Hell getting old, but becoming a senior golfer has its benefits.  Senior rates save one a bundle in greens fees.  People expect us to tee off from the forward tees.  In fact, it can be fairly easy to impress others who assume anyone over the age of 60 should be in a rest home.  I became a minor celebrity one day down in Florida.  As I was making the turn the starter asked if I was checking in.  I told him I was making the turn.  He nodded and said, “Oh, you are the guy who walks and ca
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35

Trees (and Patience Rewarded)

I recently read a short posting by an excellent golf blogger, Charles Prokop.  A link is below.  I highly recommend his blog for short, well-written essays on golf and life in the Texas Hill Country. http://fairwaywords.com/2015/11/06/patience-in-golf-really-does-pay/ His tongue-in-cheek conclusion about the virtues of being patient got me thinking.  I have played golf in SE Michigan for 40 years.  Over those four decades I have played around, over and through a number of trees tha
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28

Golf Balls

The “2017 Snell PGA Championship Prediction Contest” got me thinking about golf balls.  When I first starting playing golf, I pretty much paid no attention to the brand or model.  A golf ball was a golf ball as long as it wasn’t damaged. The only brand/model that I can recall from my youth was the “Wilson K28.”  Someone (perhaps the club pro?) told us that the “Wilson K28” was a good golf ball so every Father’s Day for several years we bought my father a dozen.  He was never much of a golfe
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7

Driver Evolution

I have been fortunate to have played golf for close to 55 years.  A lot has stayed the same in golf during that time but much has changed.  I started thinking about the evolution in my driver (or 1 Wood/1 Metal/1 Multi Compound). My first non-junior driver was a laminated maple, steel shafted, leather gripped brown behemoth.  On those rare swings that I hit it on the sweet spot, I could literally state I had hit it on the screws as it had a screwed in insert.  Through high school and colleg
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9

Looking back, I wish I had …

It is not good to spend a lot of time regretting decisions we have made.  We don’t have time machines so we can’t go back and change things.  What is past is past.  Learn from your errors and move forward.  Still, it is hard not to occasionally think about prior events. Looking back, I wish I had … …saved my first set of golf clubs.  Or more properly OUR first set of golf clubs because they were shared with my sister and then subsequently my younger brother.  The set would certainly no
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18

Indoor Golf Course - Michigan Style

The other day I drove past a large inflatable dome on the side of the highway.  I thought to myself, “Gee, I didn’t realize that they had built a golf dome there.”  As I thought some more, it may actually have been an indoor soccer venue or tennis facility.  Golf domes seem to be going away as more driving ranges build shelters and install heaters.  Also, simulators are big business and take up a lot less room. All this got me thinking about the indoor golf course they built in Michigan bac
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6

The End to Sand Bagging?

Each summer for the past 7 years I have played in a series of 12-14 “net” tournaments with 100+ fellow senior golfers.  Over the years I have enjoyed some success but nothing out of the ordinary.  We typically have 4 flights of 25-30 players with each flight competing against similar handicapped individuals.  Everyone uses their full USGA-certified handicap index to develop their tournament course handicap.  Our prize structure is $100/$80/$60/$40/$20 for the top 5 “net” scores (plus ties) in ea
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23

The Nine Hole Conundrum

It is always fascinating to me how all sports seemed to have developed a structure that tests the participants for a sufficient length of time to separate the wheat from the chaff.  In football one has to play both halves. Remember the Super Bowl?  The seventh inning stretch doesn’t end the game, the 8th and 9th innings must be played. Long ago when the game of golf was being formed, somehow the founders knew that 9 holes would not require the consistency a truly sound golfer must have to succee
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15

Streaks

If the weather holds and I manage to play a round of golf in November, it will mark the 45th consecutive month that I have played golf in Michigan.  The last month I did not manage to play 18 holes was February, 2015.  Yes, I am one of those fools wandering around on the course when it is 35 degrees.  While I can handle cold and wind, I do have some standards as far as conditions.  I neither play when the greens are frozen solid as concrete nor if the course is mostly or entirely covered in snow
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14

“Single Digit”

It seems like most serious golfers, at one time or another, want to be “single digit” players.  Of course, once one has achieved that status it becomes a fight to be a low “single digit”, then scratch, then plus... One problem with this progression is we can’t even truly agree as to what “single digit” means.  I read a post where a player was quite elated to have reached an index of 9.9 and now felt he was a “single digit” golfer.  Another poster quickly added that 9.4 needed to be achieved
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19

Golf Marathon

I received a call from a business acquaintance last December. Over the years we had played golf together numerous times even with his living in Iowa and me in Michigan.  Despite our age difference (I the elder by close to 30 years) and golf ability gap (his index around 1.0 and mine hovering near 10.0), our shared passion for golf made our friendship natural. He wanted to know if I was interested in joining him and his father on a golf trip to Reunion Resort near Orlando, FL. They had a gro
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3

The Older We Get, The Further We Used to Hit It

Getting older is inevitable unless you are a vampire or one of the walking dead.  As a golfer, the aging process becomes noticeable in a number of ways. While many of us senior citizens remain in reasonably good shape and still have some limberness, one can’t help but notice the inevitable signs of getting older.  My physician has started the process of freezing off bits of my head and hands from years of sun exposure.  Hats and sun screen were for sissies back in the day.  Haircuts for we
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14

The Eagle Has Landed

Early in 2016 I asked some of my online friends when was the last time they made eagle. I had discovered, to my chagrin, that while I thought it had been a year or two, it actually had been nearly 5 years.  Many of my online buddies confessed to similar droughts.  At the time I joked that we all had better start taking dead aim. Shortly thereafter, a golf buddy remarked that I was one of the better wedge players he knew.  He said I always seemed to be right in line with the target and usu
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11

Playing in the Icebox

I have always stopped playing golf when low temperatures turn the course into a solid block of ice.  For me, it isn’t fun to watch my ball carom off the green like an errant shot hit into a parking lot.  I don’t mind cold weather but playing on a concrete-like course is not my idea of golf.  So, why was I standing on the first tee at Whitmore Lake Golf Links last Friday?  One of my regular golf partners, Mack, is a confirmed cart rider.  To my knowledge, he has not walked 18 holes in at le
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6

My Day on the Red Tees – My Tee It Forward Experiment

One day last week it was relatively cold (50 degrees F), with overcast skies and a chilly 15 mph wind.  Add to that the fact that the course had been completely aerated and we had a soaking rain the day prior; it was going to be a long day.  It seemed like a good time to experiment with the “Tee It Forward” idea.  While I ordinarily play a set of tees measuring 6,560 yards (par 71, 71.6/120), today it was going to be 5,606 yards (67.1/111). A few years back another site had held a “Tee It F
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3

The WHS

I recently attended a USGA sponsored seminar on the new World Handicap System (WHS).  Our Club needed to have one member certified by the USGA and as handicap chairman, I was the logical choice. As a member of TST and from reading material on the WHS, I was familiar with the general outline of the changes and new procedures.  My hope was that the seminar would fill in a lot of the details.  It did. Two items on the agenda were most interesting to me. Playing Conditions Calculation
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3

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

I suspect I am like many other golfers after a round.  We look at the scorecard and begin to analyze our round with a pair of rose-tinted glasses.  “If I would have just …”  If I could have …”  I should have …”  It is fun imagining how making better club selections, being more conservative/aggressive and taking a bit more time over that putt would-could-should have resulted in a score several shots better. Perhaps this exercise is why we often over value the “mental game” versus the physica
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10

Head Covers

With the advent of metal-headed drivers, some golfers dispensed with head covers for their “woods.”  The thinking is the head is no longer wood and any damage is limited.  I admit the clanging of metal heads hitting together is a bit of a bother to me but not so for the irons clacking.  So I use head covers on just my “woods” both as a noise dampening method as well as a tip of the cap to traditionalism.  A golf bag just does not look complete without a couple of head covers. Many people u
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6

Wildlife Encounters

One of the many reasons I enjoy golf is that it is an outdoor game.  One has the opportunity to view nature up close, especially when one’s golf game is as erratic as mine.  Too often I have opportunities to view both woodland and aquatic habitats while attempting to play golf. Over the past 50 years I have had numerous encounters with our local wildlife.  While I have had to escape a swarm of bees when I inadvertently disturbed their nest with my follow through and watched a golf buddy ge
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15
Health

Dark Thoughts and A Ray of Sunshine

My recovery from brain surgery is just about complete.  The medical team has begun the process of weaning me off the anti-seizure medication. Yes, I have two ½ inch diameter holes on the top of my head but my hair covers them nicely. I am just about as good as I am going to be.  I feel good.  I wish I could say the same about my golf game.  There have been some weeks where I contemplated permanently putting the clubs in the basement and pulling out the fishing gear.  I have never been a go
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bkuehn1952 in Health

6

TST Michigan

The first TST-Michigan outing is in the books.  We exceeded our target with a total of seven TST’ers meeting up in Okemos, MI.  A few observations: It was interesting meeting the people behind the user names and avatars.  My plan was to get to the course a bit early to put out a small “TST” sign to attract the members as we wandered in.  Before setting out the sign, I passed a gentleman a couple times and I strongly suspected he was part of our outing. Why?  No idea other than he seemed a
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6


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