What'd You Shoot Today?

[farce]

I shot a 79 a few weeks ago (par 71 course). At the time I thought it was a fluke, but since then i've followed it up with front nine 40 and 41. Needless to say this has me feeling great about my game at the moment. Now to shave off those last 8-10 strokes =P

[neudi]

Just moved into my new apartment and finally got my internet today...so about 5 days ago i went to my home course and played. Shot 32 on the front and 37 on the back for my first ever 69...my handicap is now a +1.2 and im on the right road to where i want to go...hopefully i can start saving up for q school and start doing a lot better in my upcoming tournaments

[cdriver]

Shot 7 over at a pretty easy public course (Slope is 116). One over on the front playing alone and walking - 6 over on the back after joining some guys I caught up with on 10 and riding the cart with them. I lost my concentration. I may have to go try it again next week and play with a friend this time instead of strangers.

[jeffgladchun]

Brace yourselves, this one gets in depth.

So two of my regular playing partners (Timmy, a two handicap, and Longball, a 9) and I go play a round at our home course (75.9/135 from the Golds, 74.3/133 from the Blues, 73.1/132 from the whites) and played the white tees because for some reason the blues were back with the golds and the pins were set up ridiculously.

So the game was Wolfman with dollar skins for all three of us, and Longball and I played a five dollar Nassau.

A little side-note on Longball, he has the worst temper I've ever witnessed, he managed to get me two down after two, because despite two good holes of very solid ball striking from me, my putting let me down big time (I had just played the North Course earlier, which has much slower greens than the south and my speed was wretched, as evidenced by my putting off the green after hitting it in two on the par-5 second hole and into a bunker. Still made par )

I win the third hole, a medium sized par three with a solid up and in from short left. Then a solid par to Longball's bogey on four leaves the match back at square. I push the hell out of my three-wood on the number 1 handicap fifth hole and despite a solid iron approach that clipped one tree then another, I was severely shortsided and could only manage a 6 because of my flop that turned out to be more of a chip. One-down again.

Longball birdies the sixth to my par to go two-up with three to play.

I hit a hard-hit but leaking cut off the 7th tee that finds the water, and I'm unable to get up and down for par and make bogey, so does Longball, I'm Dormie 2.

I hit another cut on 8 on accident and leave myself on the right side of the fairway with a five iron in my hand to go for the green on this par five. I push the approach, but it stays straight and finds a good lie in the right bunker. Longball is short of the green in three and I'm two feet away after a fantastic bunker shot (if I do say so myself). Dormie One.

Number 9 is a very difficult par-3. Downhill about 10-20 feet from the tees and playing 208 from the whites today. By this time, Longball's world-renowned temper, which had stayed amazingly docile for the first six holes, reared its ugly head after he sprayed his tee ball short right. I hit my 4 iron around 200-205 yards when I'm swinging well, but today I completely flew the green with a shot that had to have measured at least 220, leaving me a near impossible up'n'down. My flop shot comes off the club just perfectly, landing in the fringe and rolling down the severe green to three feet below the hole and even though I miss the putt, Longball takes a 5 and I square the front 9 of our Nassau. Thanks to Timmy carrying me for a few early holes, and some good play on the later holes of the back 9, I amass something like 12 skins and find myself in the lead of Wolfman.

I go to town on Longball on the back, putting him away on the 15th hole.

Blah blah blah, keep on playing solid, on to 18.

Having won the nassau, I was now thinking about the skins game that looked like this: Timmy, 17. Jeff, 16. Longball, 7. Longball (who was the wolf) and Timmy kept doubling up the skins on 18, so it was worth a total of 8 for Timmy if he won it alone, and 4 for me and LB if we took it. I hook my drive after the frustration of hitting cuts for the last couple holes and my inability to find my normal draw and find myself near the lip of the bunker to the left. LB puts one right in the middle and Timmy is deep and centercut. I'm forced to lay up with an 8 iron that hits the lip of the bunker and leaves me 170 out on the par 5. Longball slices his 3-wood approach short right, and Timmy flies a 4 iron to the right side of the shallow green with a very steep ridge running right down the middle.

I hook the crap out of my 7 iron, it bounces off the cart part and finds an awkward sidehill downhill lie on a huge mound that divides the driving range and the 18th fairway. Now I'm short sided, with a 45 yard shot and about 8 paces of green to work with. I hit a very nice shot all things considered which stops 3 feet from the hole with some real break between the ball and it. Timmy who is usually an excellent putter (we call him the Enola Gay because he drops bombs all over the place.) leaves his eagle putt right on the top of the ridge and barely gets his second one rolling to see it stop 8 feet below the hole. He misses the come back and I'm three feet away from a lot of cash.

I used a lot of the cup curling my putt in on the high side, but it dropped nonetheless.

I ended up shooting a pedestrian 81, which could have been in the ballpark of 75 had my putting been better, but the exciting thing was I won a bunch of dollar bills and I got the job done with I needed to.

That was my day.

[cdriver]

Nice story, Jeff... Thanks.

[cdriver]

I played at my home course today. Shot 83 from the "signs". I'll explain. A group I play with on Sundays for skins sometimes has as many as 16 in the group and there are varying degrees of skill, age, etc. Some of these guys should be playing the back tees, while the rest need to be on the whites. As a compromise, they decided years ago to play the "signs" which are roughly halfway between the two. I have been trying to get my playing companions to move back to the back tees, but they are resisting it. They prefer to shoot lower scores rather than improve their games. I got them to move back to the signs so far with hopes of getting them further back.

What is so funny about it is that there is about 20 yards difference, but they start swinging harder because phsychologically they believe they have to stand on it or be really short. Once I get them accustomed to this, I will move them the rest of the way back...

Now the Sunday group has started to polarize over this very issue and some of the older members want to play the white tees while the lower handicappers play off the back tees. The lower handicaps say that playing the whites give them too much of an advantage. Being new to the group, I have stayed neutral. I will play from the back either way and take my lumps against better players until I improve if that is what it takes.

I always try to play with players who are better than me every chance I get. It makes me bear down and give it my best effort. I think it has helped me over the 5 years I have played.

[iacas]

Shot a 75 today which was a result of good ballstriking and whatnot. Finally getting back to something resembling form with the driver (again). It's been a real "comes and goes" for me this year. And I made a putt over 15 feet today, go figure. Hadn't done that in awhile.

Only 21% fairways hit (of 14), but I wasn't off by much except on a few bad holes, most of which I parred anyway. 56% GIR and 30 putts.

[pre]GIR 55.56%
Fairway Hit 21.43%
Left Rough 14.29%
Right Rough 64.29%
GIR FWY Hit 66.67%
GIR Left Rough 50.00%
GIR Right Rough 33.33%

Total Putts 30
First Putt 14.3
Putts per GIR 1.90
Putts per M GIR 1.38
GIR First Putt 18.0
Zero Putts 0
One Putts 6
Two Putts 12
Three Putts 0

Scrambing 50.00%
Up and Down 60.00%
UD First Putt 5.60
Sand Save 33.33%
SS First Putt 16.67

Fairway Hit Even
Left Rough +0.50
Right Rough +0.22
GIR Hit -0.10
Missed GIR +0.50

Eagle or Better 0.00%
Birdies 5.56%
Pars 72.22%
Bogeys 22.22%
Doubles 0.00%
Triple or Worse 0.00%[/pre]

[thehillgolfer]

shot a pretty good 83 today. I played the course i will be playing in my tourney monday and i have one thing to say, pete dye is screwed up in his head. It's called the River Course and the remodelling of it (done by Pete Dye) was finished last year so it was the first i've played of the new version. It was kinda funny, the first couple holes were absolute killer, like after the 3rd hole as i walked off the green i said to a kid "this course sucks" (hes actually more like child prodigy, he is 14 and was one off his courses record of 63 the other day playing from the tips) but anyways, the course was a ton different through the whole front and then the back nine was kinda changed but it seemed like pete dye got tired of it and just kinda quit, which was nice for me cuz i shot a 40 on the back (with two doubles)...oh yeah, and i beat the child prodigy, he shot a 84 and was playing the tees in front of me, mine was 7088 yards, par 72 74.2/135.

[The_Bear]

Last Friday i play an individual match, 3/4 handicap matchplay, i play off 13 and my opponent (Bob) off 7, and a good 7. anyway i had 5 shots, 3 on the front and 2 on the back, i play at a par 72 course, 36 each half. Bob shot 36 on the front 9 and i a suprising 37, so i was 2 up. i stood on the 15th tee 3 up with 4 holes to go and still a shot on the 17th, i hit one of the best drives i had ever hit from the tee, straight and long ( for me ) and then i cracked !! i lost the 4 remaining holes, i should have played for pars but wanted to win the holes and blew it. a lesson learned for me. i still played to 13 but what could have been?

[BigAl5150]

Shot 90 today (69.4/131) at a course that just opened in the northern Twin Cities metro. Six fairways, three GIR's and 29 putts (18 front/11 back including eight-one putts) but the FIVE OB just kicked my @#$%!! again. Also found out what a Pro V1 looks like after it hits three different cart paths.

I feel a lot better about my short game and I didn't have anything higher than a double bogey but I really need to focus on not coming through too quickly and hooking the ball OB. Oh, the cart girl was extremely hot so that was good as well.

[cdriver]

Went back and played the 116 easy public course. Shot 75 (4 over). Man, did I have a great front. Landed 5ft off the front in two on the first par 5 and chipped it in for eagle. Chipped in two holes later for birdie on a par 4. Bogied two holes and parred the rest. Played the back in 5 over, but struggled in. The heat was getting to me, it was around 100 with very high humidity.

[Rafcin]

Club championship at my home course. Saturday qualifier - came in 3rd with a 77 (1 triple ), played a 4hcp guy today, A/S after 13 when my putter finally wok e up and I went to card a birdie-birdie-birdie ( 30ft, 25ft, 20ft putts ) to shoot him out 3&2. Semifinal match next saturday against buddy of mine, good player, but so far I "own him" this year - 9-5-2 record (we always play matchplay when we play together). Should be fun, but could be tough...

[cdriver]

Good Luck, Raf!

[thehillgolfer]

shot a rather dissappointing 82 (41/41)...i did feel kinda good because i doubled 2 and 3 and still ended up with a 41. but it was just one of those days....and extremely hot. It was a tourney and i think i ended up getting 5th or something like that.

[Jeepthrills]

I played at Bennona Shores in Western Michigan this weekend. It is a tough little 60 par.

On Saturday we played the back and I shot a 37 with three balls OB. Not bad, +7, when you consider six strokes came from the balls that went OB. Otherwise I was +1 for 9 holes.

On Sunday we played the front and I shot a (+6) 36. Overall I hit it well. My only major blunder came on the easiest hole where I hit a thin 9 iron over the back right of the green with the pin at the front left. I had a 50 foot down hill chip on lightning fast greens. I rolled it 6 feet past and missed the comeback for bogey. My 35 footer for birdie on the next hole died on the edge.

[rodneylips]

I played at Davis Park in Kaysville, Utah. I was only able to play 9 holes and shot a 42. It was the first time I had 2 birdies in 9 holes. But I also had 2 triples to accompany the birdies. That kinda took some of the fun out of things. I was happy that I was able to hit my driver well for the first time in several weeks. Finally think I have conquered the slice. I was standing to close to the ball. Now I just take a half step back and now I am hitting it long and straight again. Now if I could only find a simple fix like that for my short game?!?!?!

[iacas]

I played a semi-tough municipal course around here called Downing. It's a 71.8/126.

Anyway, was -2 on the front until I bogeyed 8 and 9. Was even par on the back until I bogeyed the last three. So, 75. Not too bad, really. It was also 90 degrees today.

I have never hit a driver worse than I did today. On one hole, for example, a 331-yard gentle dogleg left, I hit my drive so short and right I had 190 to the hole. I hit a 4-iron to 8 feet and just missed the birdie putt. It was that kind of day.

So, some work on the driver coming up. I am working on TWO things right now, so I need to simplify that to one thing, nail it, then move on to the second. I can't do this "two things at once" bit.

And it ticks me off that I KNOW I can't, yet I keep trying anyway.

[thehillgolfer]

played in a 4 man scramble this evening...and let me tell you, it was hot and i know what heat exhaustion is now. I played 18 holes this morning (walking) then played this 9. anyways we shot 4 under with some crazy tees (the guy placed them way off the tee boxes, which was pretty cool) and won $25 and i won BOTH closest to the pins and got a dozen NXT Tours. Not a bad haul for $5.