The tank is dry, literally and figuratively.

[krupa]

Literally... From June 1 to July 10 Trumansburg NY was the driest place in Upstate NY.  I have no reason to believe that has changed.  We got rained on for about an hour yesterday and overnight, but not enough to do anything useful.  I've never seen the golf course this brown or the ponds so low... if I wanted to get my feet muddy, I could have grabbed about 10 balls... they were probably all mine anyway.

Figuratively.  I just played my third consecutive terrible round.  Every time I play seems to be the worst round of my life.  They only reason I kept score was because I got a Game Golf belt unit and wanted to try it out.  I like it: I can't count very high without help.  Anywho... I decided t take a week or two off from golf, not touch the clubs, and recharge a little bit.  I may, in that time, do a grossly inappropriate rain dance because hey... you never know.

Edited July 27, 2016 by krupa

[JonMA1]

2 minutes ago, krupa said:

They only reason I kept score was because I got a Game Golf belt unit and wanted to try it out.  I like it: I can't count very high without help.

Ha ha. I thought for a while that I wasn't as bad at golf as I was at counting to 5 (or 7 or 8). Sadly, Game Golf confirmed the high scores are real.

I feel bad for the owners of the golf courses when they get hit by a drought. I guess the same can be said for anyone who's business depends on appropriate weather (farmers, ski resorts). I wonder how difficult it is to bring a course back to shape when it gets that dried out.

[Piz]

You think that's bad?  You should have been at Club Sahara back in the Paleozoic...or one of them 'zoics.  It started with a little sand here, a little sand there, and the next thing you know...there wasn't nuthin' but!  Played merry you-know-what with the dang routing.  You'd set up what you reckoned was a pretty fair nine and then it would get blowed half-way 'cross the continent.  Went on like that for millions of years.  Folks finally just give up...an' moved ta Scotland.

[Patch]

23 minutes ago, Piz said:

You think that's bad?  You should have been at Club Sahara back in the Paleozoic...or one of them 'zoics.  It started with a little sand here, a little sand there, and the next thing you know...there wasn't nuthin' but!  Played merry you-know-what with the dang routing.  You'd set up what you reckoned was a pretty fair nine and then it would get blowed half-way 'cross the continent.  Went on like that for millions of years.  Folks finally just give up...an' moved ta Scotland.

Those folks just didn't wait long enough. As I understand it that Sahara Club you speak of turns pretty green every 20-25 thousand years. They should have stuck around, and waited. Maybe worked on their bunker game. Check my avatar out. The water you see is about a mile away. 30 years ago it was at the top of my beer can. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Patch

[Piz]

There was that whole opposable thumb thing as well.  Who gnu (oops...force of habit) that they would be really "handy" later on?  

[krupa]

1 minute ago, Piz said:

There was that whole opposable thumb thing as well.  Who gnu (oops...force of habit) that they would be really "handy" later on?  

You go sit in the corner and think about about what you've done!

[onthehunt526]

Hang in there, Matt. Everyone has a bad stretch. You really didn't hit it that bad at Conklin... Just some bad breaks... 

I do agree with the take a break for a week or two...

I'm not playing my best... But I'm doing some things better than I was. My chipping sucks, needs work... though I did have a few up and downs at Conklin.

As for the severe drought in Upstate New York, I feel you there, the grass in my yard is biscuit brown...

[Buckeyebowman]

3 hours ago, Patch said:

Those folks just didn't wait long enough. As I understand it that Sahara Club you speak of turns pretty green every 20-25 thousand years. They should have stuck around, and waited. Maybe worked on their bunker game. Check my avatar out. The water you see is about a mile away. 30 years ago it was at the top of my beer can. 

What? I thought sea levels were rising? Unless its the Salton Sea you're overlooking.

[Patch]

2 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

What? I thought sea levels were rising? Unless its the Salton Sea you're overlooking.

Lake Mead. It's down 150' +/-, and still losing about 5' every year. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Patch

[krupa]

7 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

Hang in there, Matt. Everyone has a bad stretch. You really didn't hit it that bad at Conklin... Just some bad breaks... 

Thanks.  My score at Conklin definitely would have been better if I made better decisions:  not hitting a second ball off the tee when I put my first in water, not mindlessly smacking 6" putts (then again and again), etc.  I think those two things alone accounted for about 8 strokes.

But I'm sore all over and not enjoying myself so a week or two of doing other things is going to be for the best.  

[krupa]

We even made weather.com:

https://weather.com/climate-weather/drought/news/drought-northeast-southeast-plains-mid-summer-2016

For the record, Taughanock is pronounced Tuh-GAN-nick

@colin007 Just mentioning you since we talked about this at Conklin.

[Fourputt]

I feel for you.  Here in northeastern Colorado, all of our water comes from wells, 200 feet and deeper.  And even drilling a well is a hit or miss proposition, and a really good well will only pump about 10 gallons a minute - most farmers are tickled when they get 6, the average is less than that.  Crops are not irrigated, farmers grow dryland wheat, corn and millet, with a few fields of commercial sunflowers.

We average 1.25" of precipitation per month all year. Most of that comes in May-July, but even then it's less than 2.5" each month (with 4 days left in July, I've only emptied about 1.8" of water from our rain gauge this month, and I doubt that we will hit our 2.3" average for July).  Also, most of our rain comes in bunches called thunderstorms - we rarely get a soaking rain like you do farther east.  Humidity is low, most days under 35% and can be below 15%, so any moisture that is in or on the ground is sucked up quickly.  We do most of our lawn and golf course watering at night so it has time to soak in before the sun comes up.  

On my home course, the water hazard ponds are reservoirs for watering the course, and they can be several feet lower in the fall because of the draw down.  They are fed by an irrigation ditch from water stored in the mountains west of Denver, and water rights are divvied out by one's place on the water rights seniority list.  When supplies are low, the lower part of the list gets cut off.  One private club a few years back had only enough water for the tees and greens - the fairways dried out to the point where the cracks would swallow a ball.  There was only dead grass and weeds mowed short.  They survived that year and and spent a good bit of money to renegotiate their water rights, but it took a couple of years for the course to recover.

[krupa]

1 hour ago, Fourputt said:

I feel for you.  Here in northeastern Colorado, all of our water comes from wells, 200 feet and deeper.  And even drilling a well is a hit or miss proposition, and a good well will only pump about 10 gallons a minute - most farmers are tickled when they get 6.  Crops are not irrigated, farmers grow dryland wheat, corn and millet, with a few fields of commercial sunflowers.

We average 1.25" of precipitation per month all year. Most of that comes in May-July, but even then it's less than 2.5" each month (with 4 days left in July, I've only emptied about 1.8" of water from our rain gauge this month, and I doubt that we will hit our 2.3" average for July).  Also, most of our rain comes in bunches called thunderstorms - we rarely get a soaking rain like you do farther east.  Humidity is low, most days under 35% and can be below 15%, so any moisture that is in or on the ground is sucked up quickly.  We do most of our lawn and golf course watering at night so it has time to soak in before the sun comes up.  

On my home course, the ponds are reservoirs for watering the course, and they can be several feet lower in the fall because of the draw down.  They are fed by an irrigation ditch from water stored in the mountains west of Denver, and water rights are divvied out by one's place on the water rights seniority list.  When supplies are low, the lower part of the list gets cut off.  One private club a few years back had only enough water for the tees and greens - the fairways dried out to the point where the cracks would swallow a ball.  There was only dead grass and weeds mowed short.  They survived that year and and spent a good bit of money to renegotiate their water rights, but it took a couple of years for the course to recover.

Wow.  Sounds like water management is way more challenging out there.

I don't know much about our water system except that it's from a village well.  I know the course gets/got its water from the village; it's half-in/half-out of the village and so it costs more to water the out-of-village half.  A few years ago they asked the village to incorporate the other half but I don't think it happened.  No one wanted to spend tax dollars to help -- what a lot of people called -- an elitist game.  I wasn't golfing at the time and also felt that we shouldn't spend the money; not because I considered golf "elitist", but because we're a small village and it would be expensive to do with the fairly nebulous "more property tax dollars coming in" benefit.

[RFKFREAK]

5 hours ago, krupa said:

Thanks.  My score at Conklin definitely would have been better if I made better decisions:  not hitting a second ball off the tee when I put my first in water, not mindlessly smacking 6" putts (then again and again), etc.  I think those two things alone accounted for about 8 strokes.

But I'm sore all over and not enjoying myself so a week or two of doing other things is going to be for the best.  

Never having played with you before, I can't really compare it but I do remember some decisions you made that seemed to come from frustration (and I've been there so I know that place) that didn't help you score.  Although, by that time, from what I remember you're telling me about how you score, it was way over pace.

That said, taking time away from the game when it's not fun isn't a bad thing.  I've done it.  I might suggest take the week and get your mind off it and then sometime after that, have a session or two at the range and just hit a few to get "back in the swing" of things. 

[colin007]

Dry dry dry....I haven't mowed my lawn in a month....only things green and growing are the weeds, and I'm not cutting them out of spite. 

@krupa, take a little time off if you're sore, regroup and get back out there. @RFKFREAK and I were both saying on the car ride home how nice your swing looks when you put some good wood (metal) on the ball, beautiful finish and balance at the end. Don't be too discouraged. I haven't hit a good driver in five rounds or so.

[krupa]

30 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Dry dry dry....I haven't mowed my lawn in a month....only things green and growing are the weeds, and I'm not cutting them out of spite. 

@krupa, take a little time off if you're sore, regroup and get back out there. @RFKFREAK and I were both saying on the car ride home how nice your swing looks when you put some good wood (metal) on the ball, beautiful finish and balance at the end. Don't be too discouraged. I haven't hit a good driver in five rounds or so.

Thanks!  All this encouragement is making me want to practice again already.  Maybe some slow swings in the backyard... 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 7/27/2016 at 1:35 PM, RFKFREAK said:

 

Didn't mean to quote this post, but krupa's right before it. Yes, water management is a problem out there. My buddy worked in the landscaping business in Colorado and told me they don't call it the "semi-arid West" for nothing!

14 hours ago, colin007 said:

Dry dry dry....I haven't mowed my lawn in a month....only things green and growing are the weeds, and I'm not cutting them out of spite. 

@krupa, take a little time off if you're sore, regroup and get back out there. @RFKFREAK and I were both saying on the car ride home how nice your swing looks when you put some good wood (metal) on the ball, beautiful finish and balance at the end. Don't be too discouraged. I haven't hit a good driver in five rounds or so.

My back yard is going on 6 weeks! I keep after the front yards, I cut both mine and my neighbor's, but the back yards, meh! I do the fronts just to keep things "evened out"  and looking nice. My grass hasn't frown in forever out back, but the Queen Anne's Lace is doing quite nicely!

And, yeah, once in a while you just get fed up! Best to just set the clubs aside, take a break, and come back with a fresh attitude.