Best Shot of the Week

[billchao]

2 hours ago, klineka said:

Played a round on Friday with some friends where we played from 6 red tees, 6 white tees, and 6 blue tees. 

Hole 18 was from the red tees, about 275 to clear the ravine in line with the green. Hit driver that never left the flag stick, landed on the green directly in line with the flag about 10 feet short of the flag and rolled to about 4 feet past the flag. It had to have been within a foot or two of hitting the stick as it rolled by. Made the putt for eagle. 

Nicely done. That’s exactly what we were saying about that hole, right? It either needs to be drivable for risk/reward play or it just needs to be much longer.

[klineka]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Nicely done. That’s exactly what we were saying about that hole, right? It either needs to be drivable for risk/reward play or it just needs to be much longer.

Yep, it was quite fun from the red tees and still had multiple ways to play it.

A buddy who hits it shorter hit 3 wood short of the fairway bunkers and had a short wedge in.

Another buddy hit driver between those trees through the cart path and left of the back greenside bunkers. His shot was ~280 or so but still had a really tricky pitch shot due to the mounding in the rough over there plus the slope of the green. 

Then of course you still have the option to hit something like 150-180 and lay way back if you really didn't trust any long clubs that day.

[billchao]

I think I had a lightbulb moment last week with my priority piece because I played really well on Saturday. I was absolutely striping the ball and hit some partial wedges really tight.

• 9i from 150 to 4’
• SW from 95 to 8’
• GW from 105 to 3’
• LW from 80 inside of a foot (almost holed it)

Best shot though was this recovery from the fescue:

Hit my second from deep fescue further into the crap and the ball was sitting up kind of floating in it for my third. I choked down all the way to the shaft and kind of bunt pitched it out and onto the green. Hilariously made the 40 footer to save par.

In hindsight, I should have taken an unplayable after the drive. I was close enough to the rough that I could have gotten a decent lie out of it for my third. That’s something I really need to work on.

[iacas]

I had one today…

15 at Whispering Woods. Decent drive, not a great second but "fine."

I get to the ball, and I'm 68 yards from the hole on the par five. The ball is sitting on hardpan in an area that's "tuft or strip of grass, hardpan, tuff/strip of grass, hardpan." Just a worn area where some resilient clumps of grass are hanging on, but next to them… hard dirt.

Well, gravity exists, so my ball sat down in one of the hardpan spots, with a clump of grass behind my ball and in front of it. I couldn't get very clean contact on the shot and play it at the hole (end of the yellow line above), so I figured I'd abuse the hell out of the "low spinner" idea, or almost hit a "Thai spinner" type shot.

I opened my stance about 50°, and my chest too. I had the ball behind my back foot, with the toe down and the face WIDE open, like pointing even just a little right of the flag. I swung up (which to the target line was WAY outside the ball), and swiped DOWN hard and left. The ball came out with a launch angle of about 22°, flew 67 yards and about 10 yards left of the hole, and almost immediately took a 70° turn from all the backspin/sidespin I had put on the ball, aided a little by the front-to-back slope on the green, spinning to a spot 8' behind the hole and, from where I hit it, just right of the hole.

Crazy, crazy shot that, if I'm being 100% honest, went a little too far and a little farther right than I thought it might, but which I was totally content with since what I thought it might do was very nearly a complete guess.

[GolfLug]

Launched 22 deg off low hard pan, flew 67 yards, grabbed and spun hard right?? Damn. Kinda fringe physics.     

[retoid]

Almost landed a hole in one today, which would have been a first.
Par 3, 140 yards out with a decent gust of wind blowing toward the pin. My ball landed about 5" from the hole.
 

[iacas]

36 minutes ago, GolfLug said:

Launched 22 deg off low hard pan, flew 67 yards, grabbed and spun hard right?? Damn. Kinda fringe physics.     

Probably 13,000 RPM of spin. Like I said, almost a long Thai spinner.

[boogielicious]

12 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Launched 22 deg off low hard pan, flew 67 yards, grabbed and spun hard right?? Damn. Kinda fringe physics.     

Quantum golf.

[GolfLug]

15 hours ago, iacas said:

Probably 13,000 RPM of spin. Like I said, almost a long Thai spinner.

Bro..

'Long Thai' (heavy east Asian accent) spinner and Quantum golf! Brand new terms to the good ol' golf glossary.. 😊. Love it! BTW, had to look up the shot. Takes some serious skills and balls. More balls than skill if in a round of any consequence. Cool as shit.

[billchao]

It's not often I pick a drive as the best shot of the week, but this is definitely it:

It was an interesting tournament, filled with some good shots, a lot of mediocre shots, and some hilariously lucky shots. It rained for two straight days preceding the tournament, leading the first day to be cart path only (rare on this course). The course was soft and some balls we were getting negative yards of roll off the tee. I also slept poorly last night and by the 15th hole today, I was fatigued and my arm was starting to bother me, just generally feeling tired of playing tournament golf (two 5 hour rounds in a row) and wanting to get the hell off the course.

I somehow made birdie on #16 after I hit an awful pop-up 3w off the tee onto the wall of a grass bunker and managed to hit a 3/4 LW from an awkward lie to 7'. I don't even know how I hit this drive but I remember thinking, "Just put the ball in play and get two more holes done." I hit it 280 uphill and into the wind, albeit more across than towards me, leaving myself a wedge in. It's generally a good drive if I hit it far enough to be in that last fairway bunker and somehow I managed to hit it 15 yards past it. It's the best drive I've ever hit on this hole and given the conditions, might be one of the best drives I've ever hit in my life.

I had to laugh when I rolled in that putt for birdie, though. It just felt absurd.