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Posted

I only have the money to practice lately but today I was hitting some pitches from about 20-30 yards. There is one titleist in my shag bag that has a guys name printed on it. Whenever I pull this ball out of the pile, all my swing thoughts go away because all i can think about is looking at this damn name on the ball ( I know the guy). Last week, every time I came across this ball i completely shanked it and every time I come across it now I get bad thoughts in my head and miss it. Today however, the guy whos name is on the ball was giving a lesson on the range which of course made the feeling even more intense of not being able to hit it...

Today it was the only ball pitched into the hole and I did it 2 times while the guy was giving his lesson it was very strange, the second time I laughed out loud

:whistle:

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Triple bounced across a water hazard to end up about 5ft from the hole for a potential birdie.

My worse shot of the week was when I missed the putt!


Posted

Lake Buena Vista in Disney:  hole 7, short par 3 island green...Put it on the back and spun it within 3 feet.

had some great sand saves too, and was crushing the drives!


Posted

Said to myself I want to land near the 150 stone with my drive at the 470 par 5 11th (its a down hill drive with run I don't claim to hit over 300 regularly), actually rolled right onto the stone and had a drop off, played to the green and 3 putted (whoops). Stone is only about 8 inches across so I count that as accurate, certainly never happened to me before.

Taylormade Burner Superfast TP 2010 9.5 - Matrix Ozik HD6 Stiff 44.5" (0.5" tipped, 1.5" butt trimmed reweighted D1)
Ping Rapture V2 3strong wood 13.5 - Diamana 63 g35t Stiff 42.5"
Cleveland Launcher DST 2hy 18* - Ultralite Diamana Red 74 Stiff 40.5"
Mizuno MP-52 3-PW standard loft/lie/length - Dynamic Gold S300
Titleist Vokey Spin Milled GW 52/8*
Titleist Vokey Spin Milled SW 56/14*
Spalding TPM-4 Putter (circa 1988)
Bridgestone B330RX balls.

 


Posted

Had three (for me) great shots, all yesterday playing a 5 hole short course where I took my kids.

1. 271 yd Par 4: I'm not a long hitter, but I got hold of my drive and ended up about 25 yards shy of the front of the green. Gentle wedge into the green, lipped out to couple of feet, birdie!

2. 145 yd Par 3: uphill, next to the clubhouse. First time round I played an 8 iron and put it off the back of the green. Next time I took out the 9 and shanked it. Finally I got everything right and nailed it right into the heart of the green. Best part for me was that I got a bit of backspin (which doesn't happen often) - I could tell from ball position relative to the pitchmark. Two putted for par.

3. 136 yd Par 3: over water, due to some trees you can't see the flag. Great wedge into green, pin high, 15 foot putt for birdie.

I'm normally a bogie (plus) golfer, so 2 birdies in a round feels like a great achievement for me.


Posted

Par 3 playing 148 over water, not much wind.  I hit a beautiful smooth 9 iron with about 2 yards of draw, if that, and rolled it on the edge of the cup to 2 feet.  Won myself a new putter out of the deal for being closest to the pin :D  Cleveland Classic #6

My philosophy on golf "We're not doing rocket science, here."


Posted

17th hole Par 3 151 yards

PW to 3 feet - my one birdie of the day ( and $10 worth of toonies for closest to the pin)

:tmade: SLDR X-Stiff 12.5°
:nike:VRS Covert 3 Wood Stiff
:nike:VRS Covert 3 Hybrid Stiff
:nike:VR Pro Combo CB 4 - PW Stiff 2° Flat
:cleveland:588RTX CB 50.10 GW
:cleveland:588RTX CB 54.10 SW
:nike:VR V-Rev 60.8 LW
:nike:Method 002 Putter


Posted

Choked up on my 56 degree sand wedge to the 110 yard par 3 #7. Hit pin high then took a hop and spun back just a touch to about 3 feet. Even I can make that putt!


Posted

After a medicore, at times bordering on outright terrible, round, I found myself on the last hole at the foot of the upslope leading to the ~5-6 foot elevated green, about 35 yards from the pin, lying 3.  The hole is a 430 yard (or so, don't recall exactly) slightly uphill par 4, dogleg left, and is the #1 handicap hole.  For higher handicappers or anyone who can't draw around the dogleg, it is at least a par 4.5---in fact, it used to be a par 5 but was half-assedly converted long ago.

Anyway, lined up the chip, figuring at least I had a decent shot at ending on an up and down bogey, which is pretty good---I've never parred this hole.  Those hopes evaporated when I bladed my 60° and watched it skittering across the green.  It was on a good line, so I thought helplessly to myself that I'd better pray it at least hits the pin and stays on the green.  Well, it did better than that and from the sound of it just straight buried itself in the hole and stayed there.  Very unique sound, probably the ball rapidly richocheting between the wall of the cup and the pin.

While I'm mostly happy to have ended the round on a high note, I can't help but feeling a little "dirty."  Sure, I have been dying to par that hole, but I really didn't want to par it like *that*.  It was a kind of fun shot, and put a smile on my face... It almost made up for the beautiful 3H tee shot on the par 3 that bounced just short of the green, then bounced dead center of the green, then rolled off the back and most of the way down an even steeper incline.  I felt pretty cheated on that one...

In the bag:
FT-iQ 10° driver, FT 21° neutral 3H
T-Zoid Forged 15° 3W, MX-23 4-PW
Harmonized 52° GW, Tom Watson 56° SW, X-Forged Vintage 60° LW
White Hot XG #1 Putter, 33"


Posted

My best shot of the week was actually last week but I didn't post it. First time playing 18 holes, and I found myself faced with being in a sand trap for the first time. Pin was 25' away. I stepped up to the ball, mentally reviewed my Michelson youtube video on sand traps and took a swipe at the ball. Sand went flying, the ball took off, and went into the hole.

I saved that ball.


Posted

I have 1!!!................with course pictures!!

The hole: (I admit it's not the most visually inspiring hole from the tee, but it plays tough for a par5)

.......a true 3 shot hole for us AM hacks.


552yds....tee shot plays slightly downhill so you can't see a lot of fairway beyond the prairie grass, but the 2nd shot/green is steeply uphill. At first glance, the hole looks pretty wide open, but it isn't. There are bunkers on both sides of the fairway.....trees right and knee/thigh high prairie grass down the left.  The fairways runs out at 300yds so you can't "Dustin Johnson-it" to give yourself a shorter 2nd shot. If the hole is playing downwind, you may need to pull a 3-wood off the tee to lay back. The fairway runs out at 300yds so 250+++ to a steeply uphill green is the best you can do.  Real world translation: 2nd shots average way over 250!!!!...driving the creek is not an option!!!!!!.....3 SHOT HOLE for us mortal hacks.

We can actually see the fairway in person, but the prairie grass definitely dominates this photo. (it defines the course)

View from the tee:

031.jpg

After a good drive:

032.jpg

If you miss this fairway, carrying a huge/wide creek in 2 can become a serious challenge!!  Don't miss this fairway!!!!!  Luckily I hit the fairway and had 265+ to go.......my ball is in the left side of the fairway.  LOL....it's the first time I brought a camera to my course and who'da thunk I'd make eagle here today....LOL...you can see my ball.....

I normally hit a hybrid from here to lay up, but on this day I decided to smash a 3-wood.  The end result was just short of the left greenside bunker:

033.jpg

Our rough is thick/horrible, but I caught the best down-grain perfect lie on the entire course!!!  The pin was back so I hit a simple 60deg pitch over the trap....and I'll be damned if it rattled the stick and dropped!!!!!!!!

YEA BABY!!!.........

035.jpg

It's In DA HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out our green surfaces....pretty nice, huh?

I have lots of golf stories.......LOL

What's in Paul's Bag:
- Callaway Big Bertha Alpha Driver
- Big Bertha Alpha 815 3-wood
- Callaway Razr Fit 5-wood
- Callaway Big Bertha 4-5 Rescue Clubs
-- Mizuno Mx-25 six iron-gap wedge
- Mizuno Mp-T4 56degree SW
- Mizuno Mp-T11 60degree SW
- Putter- Ping Cadence Ketsch


Posted

wow! it's been about 6 or 7 months since i've been on here... so disappointing, but i'm ready to get back!

anyway, yesterday, on the second hole at my home course, i hit my second shot to within 10 feet with a 6 iron. left my putt about 6 inches short, but made par anyway!

going again today to another place near where i live, maybe i'll top it!

In the  Strata Bag:

3 Wood:  XL

Irons: 4-5:  AP1; 6-PW:  XL

Wedges:  Tour Grind, 52°/60°

Putter:  White Hot XG #9

Balls:  Mojo


Posted

This was not only my shot of the week but the shot of my life. I just got back into the game this year after a couple years off. I shoot around 115 to 120 on average (by no means am I good). But I want to be good and I have been going to the driving range a lot, working on my putting and reading anything and everything I can get my hands on. Anyways, I was playing Warren Valley, in Dearborn Heights MI with one of my friends who came into town from Grand Rapids. We were on the 8th hole, par 4, about 310 yards or so. Now I have been playing pretty good up until this point for me. I blast a monster drive about 270 or so yards and I am looking at a nice little chip shot to get onto the green and be putting for birdie. I pull out my PW and hit the shot of my life. The ball landed right infront of the pin and rolled right in for an eagle 2. Coolest thing I have ever done. I ended up shooting (53-59) for a 112. Best score ever. I hope to break 110 soon and maybe be around 100 by the end of the summer.

Driver:  taylormade.gif Burner Superfast 2.0, 10.5 Stiff Flex

3 Wood: taylormade.gif Burner Superfast 2.0 Stiff Flex

Hybrids - adams.gif A4 19 and 22 degree Stiff Flex

Irons - nike.gif  Forged Combo 5-PW & SW

Wedge  - vokey.gif Spin Milled Tour Chrome  60.07

Putter - cameron.gif Studio Select Newport 2, 34 inch & cameron.gifCalifornia Series Monterey 34 inch

Ball - titleist.gif NXT Tour


Posted

My best shot of the week was #9 at Westover Golf Course in Granby, MA.  I crushed my drive just shy of 250 (phenomenal distance for me) and right in the center of the fairway.  I was left with about 290 to the green so I went with a 5i in the hopes of just keeping it on the fairway and giving me a good chance at GIR with a wedge.  That was my 2nd best shot.  My best shot was next.  I fanned the 5i a bit to the right and it drifted into the trees.  After losing sight of it in the trees, I spotted it rolling with quite a bit of speed right back into the center of the fairway.  It seriously looked like someone had picked up the ball and thrown it back into play.  I watched it enter the trees, there was about a 1 or 2 second delay, then it came bouncing out.  Both of my playing partners gave me a "how the hell did that happen???" look and I just laughed and shrugged my shoulders.  Ended up hitting a 9i into the back of the green and got a 2-putt for par.

Sasquatch Tour Bag | '09 Burner driver, 10.5* | Speedline F10 3W | Mashie 3H | Viper MS irons, 4-SW | CG15 60* | White Hot XG #7

 

 


Posted

2nd hole Par 4, 440 yards

Hit my tee shot thin about 140 yards

200 to pin from left rough and had to draw it, smoked a 5 iron that turned perfectly to back of green which rolled back down and stopped around 20ish feet away. 3 putt bogey

Hole 16, 291 yards to green. Drove greenside bunker on the full. Splashed out weak to 20 feet, 3 putt bogey

:tmade: SLDR X-Stiff 12.5°
:nike:VRS Covert 3 Wood Stiff
:nike:VRS Covert 3 Hybrid Stiff
:nike:VR Pro Combo CB 4 - PW Stiff 2° Flat
:cleveland:588RTX CB 50.10 GW
:cleveland:588RTX CB 54.10 SW
:nike:VR V-Rev 60.8 LW
:nike:Method 002 Putter


Posted

I was playing with my Dad on Father's day. There is a short par 5 (only 465 yards) with an almost 90 degree dogleg left. Takes about 270 to safely clear the corner and have a clear shot at the green (over water).  Unfortunately I hadn't been playing very well and I hit a short pull with my driver. I was just short of the corner and on the wrong side of the fairway about 212 out.  I hit a big hooking 5-wood around the corner and over the water - I even hooked it a little too much and ended up on the left side of the green (flag on the right).  Naturally, I three-putted for my par .

In my  bag: 

 Diablo Octane Tour 9.5, 18  -  6DT 19 (3I Hybrid) - 

 Diablo Forged Irons 5-PW -  Tom Watson wedges 52,56,60 - 64 (generic) 

 D.A.R.T. Belly Putter

 B330-RX Balls


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  • Posts

    • Nah, man. People have been testing clubs like this for decades at this point. Even 35 years. @M2R, are you AskGolfNut? If you're not, you seem to have fully bought into the cult or something. So many links to so many videos… Here's an issue, too: - A drop of 0.06 is a drop with a 90 MPH 7I having a ball speed of 117 and dropping it to 111.6, which is going to be nearly 15 yards, which is far more than what a "3% distance loss" indicates (and is even more than a 4.6% distance loss). - You're okay using a percentage with small numbers and saying "they're close" and "1.3 to 1.24 is only 4.6%," but then you excuse the massive 53% difference that going from 3% to 4.6% represents. That's a hell of an error! - That guy in the Elite video is swinging his 7I at 70 MPH. C'mon. My 5' tall daughter swings hers faster than that.
    • Yea but that is sort of my quandary, I sometimes see posts where people causally say this club is more forgiving, a little more forgiving, less forgiving, ad nauseum. But what the heck are they really quantifying? The proclamation of something as fact is not authoritative, even less so as I don't know what the basis for that statement is. For my entire golfing experience, I thought of forgiveness as how much distance front to back is lost hitting the face in non-optimal locations. Anything right or left is on me and delivery issues. But I also have to clarify that my experience is only with irons, I never got to the point of having any confidence or consistency with anything longer. I feel that is rather the point, as much as possible, to quantify the losses by trying to eliminate all the variables except the one you want to investigate. Or, I feel like we agree. Compared to the variables introduced by a golfer's delivery and the variables introduced by lie conditions, the losses from missing the optimal strike location might be so small as to almost be noise over a larger area than a pea.  In which case it seems that your objection is that the 0-3% area is being depicted as too large. Which I will address below. For statements that is absurd and true 100% sweet spot is tiny for all clubs. You will need to provide some objective data to back that up and also define what true 100% sweet spot is. If you mean the area where there are 0 losses, then yes. While true, I do not feel like a not practical or useful definition for what I would like to know. For strikes on irons away from the optimal location "in measurable and quantifiable results how many yards, or feet, does that translate into?"   In my opinion it ok to be dubious but I feel like we need people attempting this sort of data driven investigation. Even if they are wrong in some things at least they are moving the discussion forward. And he has been changing the maps and the way data is interpreted along the way. So, he admits to some of the ideas he started with as being wrong. It is not like we all have not been in that situation 😄 And in any case to proceed forward I feel will require supporting or refuting data. To which as I stated above, I do not have any experience in drivers so I cannot comment on that. But I would like to comment on irons as far as these heat maps. In a video by Elite Performance Golf Studios - The TRUTH About Forgiveness! Game Improvement vs Blade vs Players Distance SLOW SWING SPEED! and going back to ~12:50 will show the reference data for the Pro 241. I can use that to check AskGolfNut's heat map for the Pro 241: a 16mm heel, 5mm low produced a loss of efficiency from 1.3 down to 1.24 or ~4.6%. Looking at AskGolfNut's heatmap it predicts a loss of 3%. Is that good or bad? I do not know but given the possible variations I am going to say it is ok. That location is very close to where the head map goes to 4%, these are very small numbers, and rounding could be playing some part. But for sure I am going to say it is not absurd. Looking at one data point is absurd, but I am not going to spend time on more because IME people who are interested will do their own research and those not interested cannot be persuaded by any amount of data. However, the overall conclusion that I got from that video was that between the three clubs there is a difference in distance forgiveness, but it is not very much. Without some robot testing or something similar the human element in the testing makes it difficult to say is it 1 yard, or 2, or 3?  
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    • Wordle 1,668 3/6 🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Should have got it in two, but I have music on my brain.
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