Your Golf Game - The Uplifting Topic

[cooke119]

Had a really nice round of golf today with good friends. I ended up in two fairway traps and hit my 3W out of both of them, something I normally don't do. I picked them off nice and clean, got about 190 yards with each shot, one I was 188 out from the middle and placed it pin high. The other went a little right so I had to chip on, but those are the type of shots that bring me back to this game.

[The Flush]

I parred my nemesis hole today. A double dogleg par 5 that usually eats me alive. I had a decent drive for me, followed by a decent 6 iron that caught a tree branch that overhangs the fairway. I made it past the tree though and then hit my best SW ever that left me with a manageable 2 putt for par. This is usually a double bogey or worse hole for me.

[cooke119]

Played yesterday in our league, we play a best ball scramble so we all can get to the 19th quickly. Anyway, on a par 5 we were on in two and I sunk a ~19 foot putt for an Eagle, great watching that ball follow my line and go into the cup. In total our foursome shot a 5 under par, great day, unfortunately another group came in at 10 under par, but we were in the money which all went into a football pool.

We all chip in $10 when we play, (there are 47 guys in our league), some of the money goes to prize money but most of it goes to help the homeless shelters and a home for battered women in our area.

[The Flush]

I hit the ball OK, but scored poorly today. However my son broke 90 for the first time. 

[Patch]

I like my golf game. I have fun with it. One of the things I like most when playing, is making up new shots as needed. Unfortunately, these days, I don't get to do that very often. 

Yesterday, I played a 9 hole course, that was once a cow/horse pasture. For what ever reason the property was made into a 9 hole golf tract. There was no grading done. The owner just went out, dug 9 holes, and put a cup, and flag stick in them. 

I started playing this course back in the late 80s, early 90s, when visiting relatives in the area. Since then, the new farmer/greens keeper has turn it into more of golf course, with little remnants of the old pasture left over. 

There has always been a 150 yard, par 3 where you would tee off to a green that was in a natural drainage wash, 80+/- feet below he tee box. A bunch of trees provided a full canopy over the green. The fairway provided a way to the green under the leafy canopy. Think tree lined tunnel. The green, and flag were not visable from the tee box. If the green is missed, the second shot is from a rocky wash. Vegitation around the green is thick, natural growth stuff. 

I have always played this hole the same way. That being, hitting a low, 100 yard shot, far enough to reach the downhill slope, that would allow the ball to roll down hill to the pin. The obvious problen was controlling the down hill roll, to stop the ball on the small green, hopefully near the pin. That said, I knew some folks have actually been lucky enough to  make aces on this hole. Myself, I considered myself lucky just to find my ball when I missed the green, which was quite often over the years.

Yesterday, a little light went off in my brain. Why do I keep hitting a hard to control shot on this hole? Why be content with bogey, or worse?

I have in my bag, a 150+/-  yard shot. A shot that is quite high off the tee, that drops, pretty much straight down at the end of it's flight. Why not hit this shot, and let the ball fall through the canopy on to the green? The limbs, and leaves are such, that there is little chance of the ball getting stuck. There is no uncontrolled roll involved. A very long "flop shot" so to speak. 

I played this hole twice yesterday. Using my new found, "canopy shot" I made birdie, and par on this tricky critter of a hole. 

As I was leaving, I stopped in the club house, which was basically the owner's farm house living room, and told the guy about my new way to play that par three. His reply was "yeah, that's how all the locals play it".........👍

 

[JuanTheGolfer]

Played golf yesterday and made all my putts within 6 feet of the hole!!  I have been practicing a lot indoors by putting on a couple of metal yardsticks (one is 4 feet long and the other is 3 feet long).   So everytime I had a putt of 6 feet and in, I remembered how easy it was to putt down the length of the yardsticks, ,,,, so I had a lot of confidence.  And in some cases I would visualize the yardstick, . which gave me even more confidence.   Practicing indoors in the heat of Summer has been great...

 

[ChetlovesMer]

5 hours ago, JuanTheGolfer said:

Played golf yesterday and made all my putts within 6 feet of the hole!!  I have been practicing a lot indoors by putting on a couple of metal yardsticks (one is 4 feet long and the other is 3 feet long).   So everytime I had a putt of 6 feet and in, I remembered how easy it was to putt down the length of the yardsticks, ,,,, so I had a lot of confidence.  And in some cases I would visualize the yardstick, . which gave me even more confidence.   Practicing indoors in the heat of Summer has been great...

 

Great job. I used to putt indoors a lot. I've stopped doing so for the last couple years. Perhaps your story will inspire me to do so again this winter. 

[JuanTheGolfer]

Practicing putting indoors again today.  Two items of interest for those following me: 

First, I eliminated the 4 foot metal ruler, which as 2 inches wide.  See attached picture.  I find it too easy to putt it successfully from one end to another.  So the challenge is gone.  I am only putting off the 3 foot ruler which is 1 inches wide or 50% of the size of the 4 foot ruler.  I am not able to putt everyone off the end successfully, so it makes it more challenging...though not too challenging where I want to quit.  The goal in performance type practice is to find a situation where you are successful between 30-70%.   And the 3 foot ruler is where I am at.  If you are successful more than 70% of the time, then you have to increase the challenge point AKA make it tougher.   The Howard Swash Putting Rail goes from 1 inch wide where the ball is sitting to 1/2 inches wide on the far end.  The rail is raised slightly so the putt must stay on the raised rail from one end to the other to be successful.

Second, I had another day where the feedback from my Blast Motion sensor indicates that at impact I am .1 degrees open from when I am set up to the ball.  Not sure I can EVER get to be perfect... but doesn't hurt trying... and at the .1 level I will not be beating my self up, if after a while I do not make it to a number less than that "0". 

 

[Double Mocha Man]

2 minutes ago, JuanTheGolfer said:

Practicing putting indoors again today.  Two items of interest for those following me: 

First, I eliminated the 4 foot metal ruler, which as 2 inches wide.  See attached picture.  I find it too easy to putt it successfully from one end to another.  So the challenge is gone.  I am only putting off the 3 foot ruler which is 1 inches wide or 50% of the size of the 4 foot ruler.  I am not able to putt everyone off the end successfully, so it makes it more challenging...though not too challenging where I want to quit.  The goal in performance type practice is to find a situation where you are successful between 30-70%.   And the 3 foot ruler is where I am at.  If you are successful more than 70% of the time, then you have to increase the challenge point AKA make it tougher.   The Howard Swash Putting Rail goes from 1 inch wide where the ball is sitting to 1/2 inches wide on the far end.  The rail is raised slightly so the putt must stay on the raised rail from one end to the other to be successful.

Second, I had another day where the feedback from my Blast Motion sensor indicates that at impact I am .1 degrees open from when I am set up to the ball.  Not sure I can EVER get to be perfect... but doesn't hurt trying... and at the .1 level I will not be beating my self up, if after a while I do not make it to a number less than that "0". 

 

I use a 6 foot ruler... with bumper guards.

[bkuehn1952]

I birdied the last hole to take "total" along with the first nine and take a $1 from my golf buddy.  We play $1/$1/$1 for first nine, second nine and total - match play.  So far in 2019, I have managed to pull money from his tight wallet every time.  This time I gave him 3 a side and it was hard.

[Patch]

This is not about my golf game, but something I saw that added a new prospective to the game of golf itself for me personally.. 

I was on a practice (chipping) green with another guy I was going to golf with. Also, on the green was a youngster, maybe 8-9 years old. 

Sitting off to the side was a lady in a chair, reading a book. We assumed she was the youngster's mother. 

As we were chipping, we noticed the youngster having a great fun time chipping balls to a towel on the ground. We also noticed he was using a club that had seen it's best days back in the 1960s. The rest of his bag showed the same age clubs as well.. 

The guy I was going to golf with, struck up a conversation with the boy's mother. She told him the clubs came from a thrift store, that she purchased at her son's insistence. That if he stuck with the game, she would see about getting him an updated set. 

I talked with the youngster about his chipping, which was pretty decent. His goal was to stop the ball on the towel. I asked him where he learned to chip, and "You Tube" was his answer. I told him to keep up the good work. 

Longer story short, the guy I was going to share a cart with asked the youngster if he would agree to swap his irons for his Cobra single length irons? That he preferred the older clubs. 

Man, that kid's eyes lit up, and smile as big as possible showed up on the youngster. However, before he could agree to the swap, he had to ask his mom. Of course she said yes, since she already knew about the swap. 

As it turned out, except for their putters, and some other personal items, they swapped their entire bags. 

This, I thought was one of those times when golf really is the best game in the world. Atleast in the amature ranks. 

I asked my golf partner what his plans were for his new bag of old clubs? He told me the first chance he got, they were going to be replaced with another new set Cobras.

I also asked him why he chose to use single length irons? He told me that he found out Bobby Jones won his grand slam using single length irons. He figured the concept was a visble one, so he tried them out, and liked them. 

As our round progressed, the old clubs took their toll on his game. Of course it didn't matter. He had done a good thing. That, and I was proud to share a round of golf with such a fine individual. 

[Double Mocha Man]

That's a hell of a good story.  Are you trying to make us cry out here?!  That Mom and that kid will return the favor one day.  Big kudos for your partner.  Golf and caring go well together.  Hope the kid's a DeChambeau fan, minus the slow play...

[ALong17]

Pared back to back holes this morning while playing the front.  Wasn't keeping score but definitely was my best game to date!

[GeorgeHiggins]

I'm almost a 70s golfer and I've been playing for just over two years. My best round is even on a par 72 course. My only two eagles were within four holes of each other in the same round. And I'm within the top five members at my course. 

I have high school state in two days at a pretty easy course. I'd like to play well there, but what I really want is to just relax and be able to be happy with anything. 

I probably play 95% of my rounds at my home course but I play almost every day. I wish I had the funds to play more new courses. Hopefully that gets better next summer. I think it would really help my game. 

I'm just playing for the eternal hope of playing shots just how I want and stringing some good holes together and stringing good rounds together.

[cooke119]

Played yesterday, on a long par 5, 165 out, hit a 5 iron put it within 4 feet of the hole. (No I'm not a long ball hitter anymore so this was really good for me). Didn't even feel the ball come off the club, nice a smooth.

[Patch]

My 2018/2019 golf season is about over. I usually take most of October off, as far as playing golf goes. 

I use the the time off to regroup, and let the golf swing parts of my body take a break. I will still do something with a golf club everyday, but it won't be a hard focus on my part. Mostly I will be doing reps with my Kallassy Swing Magic club. 

There's also my Granddaughter's highschool team's night golf shin dig. Looking forward to that, and some her upcoming competitions. 

I am also contemplating putting some practice  time in with my 5W during October. It's my worst club to depend on when I need it. 

This past 11 months have been very good to me, and my golf game. I lowered my hndcp, by playing very consistent low 80s golf. Sure there were some higher scores, but I also managed to break 80 a few times. I played well over 1,800 holes of golf. 

The best thing about these past 11 months was I managed to stay health. No injuries at all. A little soreness due to playing alot at times, but no injuries where time off was needed.

My outlook for next year (Nov 1-Sept 30) is to see if I can scrape up a little more (useable) swing speed on all my full swings. The extra speed is there. I have just been hesitant to use it for fear of injuries to previous repaired surgical areas. 

And of course October will allow to do needed maintenance on my clubs, bags, and trolley. Bad weather, indoord stuff. 

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Patch

[tehuti]

I have probably played more golf this year than in any other up to this point. At least on my “home” courses, par 29 nine hole and par 59 executive , I am starting to play much more consistently. 

The trick is, to see how that translates to less familiar courses. I am fortunate to be able to play year round. So this fall and winter I plan to really work on my game.

[ChetlovesMer]

I want to start this post by saying I've never shot par or better on a full-sized 18 or a full-sized 9. After work yesterday I played 9 holes. Bogeyed the first. Bogeyed the second. On the third (a par 3) I hit my ball long to a back pin location. I'm short sided. But I'll be damned if I didn't chip in for a birdie. Back to 1 over par for the round. 

On number 4 (489 yard par 5) I hit a hybrid to 7 feet, drain the putt. All of a sudden I'm 1 under par after 4 holes. I got GIR's on the par 4 5th and the par 3 6th holes, making par on both. Hole 7 (526 yard, par 5) I crush the drive, best of the day. Hit a 3 wood to just off the green. Damned near chip in again. Knock in the putt. HOLLY CRAP, I am 2 under with 2 to play. 

On the par 4 8th (usually one of my best holes) I leave my drive to the right behind a tree. Hit it out sideways, miss the green, chip on, make a bogey. I'm 1 under standing on the 430 yard 9th teebox. 

I hit the driver dead center. I didn't crush it, but I'm about 185-190 out, in the fairway, with a helping wind. I hit my 5 iron and tug it a little to the left of the green. (Confession time, I aimed it a little to the left because there's a pond guarding the green to the right.) I get to my ball and it's a terrible lie. Not quite in the bunker, but kind of hanging sideways on the grassy edge. My 60 degree pops it on the green, but it rolls way past the hole across the green and leaves me chipping again. I'm now lying 3. I chip the 4th and I have a 5 footer for bogey on the hole and par for the (9 hole) round. 

….. I missed the putt. I really don't think I choked. I put a good stroke on it, but it didn't drop. I made double bogey on the hole and 1 over for 9 holes. So close.... but 1 over.