Jump to content
Check out the Spin Axis Podcast! ×
Check out the Spin Axis Podcast!
IGNORED

30th Birthday Golf Trip.

518TitleistX

By 518TitleistX
in Golf Talk

 Share
Note: This thread is 5025 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

518TitleistX Established Member

518TitleistX

Posted
Posted

So, I turned 30 yesterday.

I decided earlier this year that I was going to make an effort to play a quality golf course rather than the local courses and cow pastures pawning themselves off as country clubs as part of my birthday gift to myself. I set out trying to figure out which course id really like to attempt to play, and read a few reviews online saying to try this course or that course or whatever. I just had one course in mind that I couldn't shake and that was Bethpage.

My younger cousin lives in Manhattan, and being my normal playing partner before he moved there, I knew he'd gladly jump at the chance to play Bethpage with me. I asked if he'd be in and surely he was. He told me to leave the reservations to him so he went about getting registered in their system and we waited for the 1 week prior to try and reserve our tee time specifically trying for the Black course for obvious reasons. this brings us to the 23rd. Unfortunately, by the time he attempted to book our tee time, all spots had been filled for the day and we reluctantly accepted a 12:04 tee time on the Red course for 7/29.

Still pumped for the trip though i drove from my home near saratoga to manhattan after work on saturday the 28th arriving around 9pm. got a quick bite to eat then attempted to sleep with not much luck. i mean after all i was still going to play a bethpage course, no matter the color. we got up sunday morning just shy of 9am, loaded the car and were off to get to the course and it starts misting out with heavy overcast skies and every weather report calling for scattered thundershowers throughout the day. not what we were hoping to hear by any means.

We get to the course around 1015 and walk in to check in for our tee time and get situated. waiting in line to check in a guy walks in behind us and asks if we are going to play the black course, i told him that we had a tee time for the red course and were just signing in. he says "do you want to play the black course because my pops just bailed on me cuz of the friggin rain"  UHHHH YUP! he goes through the line, gets his raincheck and we gladly took his tee time at 1pm, relinquishing our spot on the red without hesitating. we pay our in state resident fees of $75 each and headed to the putting green getting the speeds down. after an hour or so we headed to the driving range to warm up some and work out some kinks... i seemed to find more than i worked out but thats for another story. finished our buckets  around 12pm and headed inside for a quick snack and a beer before our tee time. had a chat with the bartender and a few other patrons. one guy asked what i shoot at my home course and i told him mid 70's to mid 80's on average. he laughed and said the course is in PGA tournament condition currently as they are prepping for the 2012 Barclays in a couple weeks and id be lucky to shoot anything under 120 from the front tees. i smiled and nodded at him and we were on our way to the first tee.

i took one look at the rough and started to have my doubts as well. i told myself im here to play the course for all its worth so im playing from the tips just to see how i do. the white tees were as far back as were in play currently which still measured out to over 6800 yards. thats 600 yards longer than my home course. everything was in immaculate shape. fairways were manicured perfectly. the rough was full and thick and treacherous. greens were slick and fast. i was in love.

well, to make a long story much much shorter i made the turn at 51.holy crap. there is no doubt in my mind now how penalizing the rough is here. its a stroke or 2 penalty if it settles down no matter who you are.. on to the back 9 and things got a little better. i told myself that i would not put up a triple digit score for a round. i focused harder. studied my putts longer and took my time on my shots trying to pay more attention to form. i started out the back going bogey, bogey, bogey. not great but +3 is better through those 3 holes than the +8 i was on the first 3 holes on the front. then double, par, bogey, bogey, triple, and missed a 2 foot tap in for par at the last for another bogey. (sonofa!!!) if you're doing the math, that comes out to an eleven over par 46 on the back for a 18 hole total of 97. my cousin ended up with a 51 front, 50 back for a 101 total. the rain held off and it actually got hot and sunny mid round. it truly turned out to be a great experience and im really pleased with my score for the course being in tournament shape.

cliffs: played bethpage black for my 30th birthday, shot 97 from the "tips". loved every minute of it. highly recommend you play the course if you can manage to get a tee time.

regards all

~Travis

  • Upvote 1

Chris Stewart Dedicated Member

Chris Stewart

Posted
Posted
Congrats on such an awesome trip. My 30th is in September, wouldn't mind trying to do something similar.

Driver: TaylorMade SuperFast 2.0 -- 10.5* Woods: TaylorMade SuperFast 2.0 -- 3w 15*, 5w 18* Hybrid: TaylorMade Burner SuperFast 2.0 Rescue -- 4h 21* Irons: TaylorMade Burner Plus -- 5-AW Wedges: TaylorMade RAC -- 56.12, 60.07 Putter: TaylorMade Spider Ghost -- 35" Ball: It's complicated.


Note: This thread is 5025 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up

  • TST Partners

    Carl's Place
    PlayBetter
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FitForGolf
    FlightScope Mevo

    Coupon Codes (save 10-20%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack/FitForGolf, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope. 15% off TourStriker (no code).

  • Posts

    • saevel25
      Width at P4 Has Downstream Effects on P6 and P7

      By saevel25 · Posted

      I would think of it in terms of time. The time it takes to get the arm angle into a good position to deliver the club with proper shaft lean. Another component is rotation, but that is also a matter of timing. It relates to how the body stalls to give the golfer time to hit the ball. If you have to get 80+ degrees out of that right elbow in one third of a second versus 50 degrees in the same time then you have to steal time from somewhere. It is usually body rotation. That does not help with shaft lean.  I agree in that amateurs tend to make the swing more complicated than pro golfers. 
    • saevel25
      My Swing (saevel25)

      By saevel25 · Posted

      I haven't been able to practice like I wanted and won't for the next week.  1. The weather sucks in Ohio this year. I have been mostly inside hitting foam balls. Just kind of my basic stuff.  2. I woke up last Saturday with a left side rib muscle on fire. If I turned or leaned a certain way it would spasm that almost buckled my knees. I have been taking a break to let that settle. I don't want to get a long term injury. I think I pinched a nerve or just aggravated a muscles.   3. I am going on a mini-vacation to Florida (screw you Ohio weather) with a friend, and rolling that into a work conference I have next week. I will be with out my clubs for a week.  I will be back next in two Fridays to hit the ground running with some warmer temps and better weather in Ohio, hopefully. I would really like to get more out on the course and the range.     
    • iacas
      "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

      By iacas · Posted

      Day 580 - 2026-05-04 Played eight holes. Sometimes golf kicks you in the nuts. 😉 
    • iacas
      Width at P4 Has Downstream Effects on P6 and P7

      By iacas · Posted

      I work with a lot of golfers who want more shaft lean at impact, who currently have AoAs that range from +2° to -2°, and who love to see the handle lower and more "in front of their trail thigh" from face-on at P6. And a lot of these golfers try to solve the issue by working on the downswing. They do something to drag the handle forward. Or they just leave their right thigh farther back so the same handle location "looks" farther forward. Or they move the ball back in their stance. Or they push themselves down into the ground to get the handle lower and increase (decrease?) their AoA (to be more negative). The real fix is often to get wider in the backswing. To do LESS in the backswing. To hinge less, fold the trail arm less, abduct the trail arm less. I had a case of this over the weekend. Before, the player had 110° of trail elbow bend, "lifted" his trail humerus only a few degrees, etc. The club traveled quite a bit around him, and he tended to "pick" the ball from the fairways. In the "after" swings below (which are mild exaggerations — this golfer does not need to end up at < 70° of elbow bend. These were slower backswings with "hit it as hard as you normally would" intent downswings), you can see that he bent his elbow about 70° instead of 110° and lifted his right arm an extra ~15° or more. You can't see how much less this moved his hands across his chest (right arm abduction), but it was also decreased. His hands stayed more "in front of" his right shoulder rather than traveling "beside" them so much. The two swings look like this: The change at P6, without talking about the downswing one little bit (outside of him telling me that he tends to pick the ball), is remarkable: Without 110° of elbow bend to get out (which he gets to 80°, a loss of 30°), the golfer actually loses slightly less elbow bend (70 - 50 = 20), but delivers 30° less elbow bend, lowering the handle and letting the elbow get "in front of" the rib cage… because it never got "behind" or "beside" the rib cage. If you look at this video showing the before/afters of P6, you'll note the handle location (both vertically and horizontally) and the shoulders (the ball is in the same place in these frames). This golfer's path was largely unaffected (still pretty straight into the ball, < 3° path and often < 1.5°), but his AoA jumped to -5° ± 2°. I've always said, and in talking with other instructors they agree and feel similarly, that we spend a lot of time working on the backswing. This is another example of why.
    • bkuehn1952
      Bailey Shoemaker's Pre-Shot Routine at ANWA

      By bkuehn1952 · Posted

      We had a member of our senior club who developed a mental block on pulling the trigger. I played with him to see what the membership was talking about. I timed him a few times when he would get over the ball. 45 seconds. He knew he had a mental block and would chide himself, “Just hit it!” Once on the green he was okay and chipping was a bit better. It was painful to watch him struggle. Our “bandaid” was to put him in the last tournament  tee time with two understanding players. We should have suggested to him to take a break from our tournaments. I agree with the idea that when a player realizes they have a problem, the answer is to go fix it and not return until they are able to play at an acceptable pace.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

  I accept