What'd You Shoot Today?

[Sandy Lie]

Played Pinehurst #3 today.  It is Pinehurst’s shortest course at 5,159 yards, a par 68.  With the Donald Ross Juniors here this week tee times for Members were hard to get. #3 is not my favorite but it can bite you you now where! Small greens, elevated greens that can have your ball run off the green anywhere.  It is mainly a target green course.                      
Anyway off we went. A few highlights, first hole plays 283 yards, in the summer you can drive this hole. Soft fairways prevented that, but I managed to be 18 yards with my 2nd shot.  The 8th hole is a short 118 hole par 3. With the wind it played shorter. Hit the gap wedge and drew it in it was going to be close! How close? One inch from dunking it! Spun back and lipped out. Darn it could have been HIN #3.  Front 9 is only 2136 yards, par is 32.  I shot a one over 33.

Back nine is 3,023 yards par 36.  Played well but missed a few easy birdies and settled for a one over 37. Overall a 70.  Back nine has two long par 3’s, an uphill 192yds, the other 186yds.  Had some great up and downs all day.  Had fun.

Today was my 250th round! Taking a break, time to watch some College Football.

Happy New Year everyone!

[WillieT]

Last round of 2021 today…Per the request of my 5yr ole grandson went ventured to another local course (he calls it a real golf course) in Ayden Golf and CC.  Conditions were “wet” as they had a good rain last night so it was cart path only.  Good day to play for accuracy, i.e. keep it cart path close.  Actually did pretty good in keeping it closer to the cart path.  Shot a 94 (46 front / 48 back) - 7 of 14 fairways, only 2 GIR with a couple nGIR, 37 putts.  The greens on this course are the trickiest I’ve played.  No table tops here, very undulating and slick.  Play of the day (and it was an 8 on the scorecard) was on #10.  Par 5 and I had a good PW in for the third. Shot goes up, clips some lower hanging  pine limbs into the bunker.  Okay up and down for par now.  High lip and the pin tucked reasonably close, opt for the 58.  4th shot is heavy and I am a fried egg in the high wall side about mid-thigh high.  Decided to play it back out by going lefty and punching it back to the flat area of the sand or maybe even to the grass.  5th shot comes out as planned and ends up in the middle of the bunker.  6th shot lands about 10 feet past the flag. Two putts and a snowman on the card. I was okay with it as I was successful in getting out the bunker rather than taking the drop.  Grandson loved seeing me work it out.  Best comment of the was from the guys playing just ahead of us when he said, “Your grandson is a trooper. He played all 18 holes and he has such a fluid swing.”  That made the 10,500 steps well with each one.  

[max power]

9 holes, par 31. Hit 3/4 fairways, 3/9 greens, 5 pars, 2 bogeys, 1 double bogey, 1 birdie, 13 putts, 3 over 34. Not great ball-striking, putter saved my round.

[mohearn]

New years golf in NY. Dogwood Knolls, 9 hole par 36. Wet and sloppy, but still good to get out. Missed every green, but scrambled 4 out of 9 so not terrible. First time playing the course.  Would definitely play again, basically the only place open this time of year.

 

[Never3putt]

Shot a 76 on the last day of the year.  Lots of pars, one birdie, and one silly double when I made a really poor decision to attempt to putt from a greenside bunker (something I'd never really practiced).

[Darkfrog]

Shot 79 (39/40) Sunday after a 2.5 hour frost delay, with 15 nGIR/6 GIR, 28 putts, and 2 penalty strokes.

This is what the 5th green looked like when we played it - not sure the frost delay should have been called off, but I’m not an agronomist.

Had a bogey, triple-bogey start, and then rattled of eight straight pars. Got a little tired on the back 9 (probably due to 2 hours of practice waiting for frost delay to end), but still played pretty solid golf.

Strokes gained vs. 5 handicap:

Tee = -1.45
Approach = -3.66
Short game = +1.88
Putting = +1.32

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Darkfrog

[iacas]

I might have refused to play that green. You could do some damage there.

[Darkfrog]

48 minutes ago, iacas said:

I might have refused to play that green. You could do some damage there.

Good to know for the future. Next weekend is supposed to be in the 30s again, so I’ll keep this advice in mind. This is a local muni and the course doesn’t need anything making the mediocre conditions worse.

The first green was also basically frozen solid when we played it (forgot to take a photo), so much so that I couldn’t even stick my pitch mark repair tool in the ground with considerable force. When we approached the green we were wondering if it was a good idea to play it, but we figured course management knew more than we did about these things.

Frost delays don’t happen much around here, this was only second one I’ve experienced at this course in the last 5 years, both recently, so maybe the maintenance folks don’t really know how to deal with it. The course is also in the middle of a management change and they are running on a skeleton crew it seems, so maybe they’re understaffed and underknowledged at the moment. During the previous frost delay, all the greens were thoroughly thawed before players were let out.

[WillieT]

8 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

Good to know for the future. Next weekend is supposed to be in the 30s again, so I’ll keep this advice in mind. This is a local muni and the course doesn’t need anything making the mediocre conditions worse.

The first green was also basically frozen solid when we played it (forgot to take a photo), so much so that I couldn’t even stick my pitch mark repair tool in the ground with considerable force. When we approached the green we were wondering if it was a good idea to play it, but we figured course management knew more than we did about these things.

Frost delays don’t happen much around here, this was only second one I’ve experienced at this course in the last 5 years, both recently, so maybe the maintenance folks don’t really know how to deal with it. The course is also in the middle of a management change and they are running on a skeleton crew it seems, so maybe they’re understaffed and underknowledged at the moment. During the previous frost delay, all the greens were thoroughly thawed before players were let out.

Have been out similarly on a semi-private course, where we had a frost-delay of about 2 hrs. We were the first out and they have one green that takes longer than all the rest to thaw.  It is on the back nine, so the course superintendent knew how long to delay play.  When we got to it, it was still damp but not frozen.  What I’ve done of recent.  If the green is that frozen, play to it take two strokes and move on, no need to do unnecessary damage.  BTW that same course last winter was closed for the day due to heavy frost and their wanting to protect the greens - that defense has helped turn those greens into great playing greens….

[Never3putt]

Round started with a cold, brisk wind and missing far too many putts on the opening 9 holes.  Disappointing round of 84 today.  Thanks to my great leadership skills and awesome ability to shoot over my handicap, I led my 3some to a final position of DFL in our round of two best net.  I'd blame the other guys, but I can't justify that after my own score.  LOL.  On the positive side, I played golf today!

[pganapathy]

Reasonable round today though I started badly.  Played the back 9 (well 9 and then 6) twice since the front 9 has a steep hill climb and didn't want to make it difficult for dad.

Double, bogey x 2, par x 2, bogey x 5, par x 2, bogey, par x 2

[dagolfer18]

I’ve got two rounds to catch up on.

12/29: Last round of 2021 at Duke. Played with my coach, his son and one of their friends. I shot 46 on the front after a poor start and finishing par-birdie, then scrambled my butt off on the last six holes to shoot 43 on the back (made a couple of crazy up and downs for par on 13 and 16) for an 89 from the blues there. Not bad I’d say!

The greens were lightning fast, at least  an 11 on the stimp. It was nice to play there again!

1/6: Played nine holes after I got out from school and shot a 47 from the whites. Not great. The only thing worth talking about is a par on the sixth after a beautiful wedge left me a very makeable birdie putt. I three-putted four times in those nine holes, only one of which I could maybe call acceptable. 

I hit the ball well for the most part, but one of my well-struck tee shots leaked right just a bit, caught a bad bounce and left me in jail. Had to take an unplayable and made triple. Oh well.

 

 

[Sandy Lie]

1st group out on #2 this morning at 8:30.  Very cold, 31* with a feels like 27*.  Why am I out here?  Original tee time was at 9:00 but cold temps had players canceling. Moved up and played with two resort guests from St Louis.  Nice guys, good players.  I went from the car to the 1st tee, no warm up….what an idiot!   How the heck did I par the first hole?  Good hole, bad holes and so on for the front. But managed a birdie on the par 5 8th hole. 39 on the front. Back nine started with a bogey on the par 5 10th. In front of the green in two but bladed my chip over the green, a bogey 6 from 15 yards. How nice! Went on a par run the rest of the way somehow.  The winds picked up and it got colder, wind chill dropped again. Finished strong, only had 28 putts, why? I missed a boatload of greens. Overall a 76. Felt great to get in the car and turn on the heated seat for the ride home.

Got home and I was chilled to the bone. I walked the course, just over 5 miles but the cold weather was brutal.  It just zapped my strength. Gees, I’m from the NorthWest I should be used to this. I guess not.

[WillieT]

88 at Minnesott from the gold tees (just over 5400 yds).  Weather was good - Mid 60’s temp, steady South wind (meant tailwinds going out on 1 thru 5, 10 thru 13, and headwinds coming back on 6 thru 9 and 14 thru 18.  Overall it was quick Sunday afternoon round with my 5-yr old grandson as the course was not super busy.  Life is good when a 5-yr old is all about 18 holes of golf!  
Details - nothing spectacular as I shot 42 on the front, 46 on the back.  7 of 14 fairways hit, 4 of 18 GIR plus 3 more nGIR.  Putting wise greens were fantastic, just had too many that barely missed or lipped by.  Only two Dbl bogies - holes 10 and 11.  Still no worse than 6 on any of the holes, did bogie all four par 5’s, and threw in a couple of doubles on two of the 4’s.  
Good start for 2022.

[WillieT]

 Back to Minnesott today, totally different conditions - front came thru around midnight, dropped about 1/2” of rain, wind shifted from the South to the North, temps 20deg cooler.  My son was with me and it was not a good day for me 97 (47 front / 50 back).  No great shots to report, instead it was a good round to just play - even it it was not my better day.  Using the grip adjustment and setup, most shots were draw-hooks instead of fade-slices.  Game changer?  Too soon to tell. 

[dagolfer18]

A ho-hum 45 on Monday. Hit the ball well for the most part but made a few small mistakes (misclubbing on my approach on the first hole being one of them) that made at least a two stroke difference. Putting was also much better, lipped one out and burned the edge on two or three others, no three putts. Feeling good about my round tomorrow at Greensboro National!

Edited January 12, 2022 by dagolfer18

[Sandy Lie]

FROST DELAY’s

Had a 8:30 tee time today on #2. But we had the delay until 10:00.  We were the first group out so we started on the par five 5th hole.  Didn’t think much about it so we started walking to that tee box.  It was a 1.3 mile walk!  Typically when walking #2 its about a 5.4 mile trek.  So at the end of the day we walked 6.9 miles!  We made the turn on 18, played holes 1 thru 4 the trekked back that 1.3 miles!  It was exhausting!  It’s cold down here (not as cold further North) but we started at 34 degrees, wind hill was 29 degrees. Sun did come out warmed up to 45.  
Bad start, 41 on the front, had a 1 over 37 on the back. 78.  I wish it was 78 degrees!

Playing it again tomorrow, looks to be a lather, rinse, repeat day.

[dagolfer18]

I’m gonna do something a bit different and go hole by hole. Won’t go super in depth on each hole, but will note things that I think are worth noting. We played Greensboro National from the whites (6261 yards, 69.7/128) and started on the back.

Hole 10: Double (+2). Put myself in jail off the tee after no range balls and it just went downhill from there.

Hole 11: Par (+2)

Hole 12: Bogey (+3). This was a multi-tiered green and I found myself on the wrong tier after my approach, leading to a three-putt.

Hole 13: Par (+3). I nearly chipped in here, definitely one of my better holes of the day.

Hole 14: Bogey (+4)

Hole 15: Bogey (+5). Another lousy three-putt.

Hole 16: Bogey (+6)

Hole 17: Par (+6). A good par after only chunking my tee shot about 120. Luckily this par 4 was playing short so I still had only a 7I in.

Hole 18: Par (+6). Another good par to close our front side after never being out of trouble on this one.

 

FRONT NINE SCORE: 42

 

Hole 1: Par (+6). Best shot of the day here. Another lousy tee shot left me about 165 out of the rough to a green where being short at all means your ball is gone. Nailed it 25 feet above the hole, a nice two putt.

Hole 2: Bogey (+7)

Hole 3: Double (+9). This was only after I snap-hooked my second shot OB. My only really awful shot of the day.

Hole 4: Par (+9). Threw a dart here (par 3) but unfortunately missed the putt.

Hole 5: Par (+9)

Hole 6: Par (+9)

Hole 7: Par (+9). Ripped a drive off the tee here and left myself only about a 75-yard pitch. Not a great wedge shot but made the up and down.

Hole 8: Par (+9)

Hole 9: Bogey (+10)

BACK NINE SCORE: 40

TOTAL SCORE: 82 

Definitely one of my best rounds in a while. Although I noted several less-than-ideal tee shots, I hit 9/14 FIR today and 7/18 GIR. 33 putts total. I’m continuing to hit the ball well and putt well, and I’ve got another round to look forward to tomorrow!