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It takes no talent to be a nice person. You maybe paired up with someone you have never meet or is new to your Club. They don't know anyone and that person is taking a huge step out of their comfort zone to meet new people by playing golf. By being nice to that person for 1 round of golf can make such a tremendous positive impact in their life. Remember: Life is hard, golf is hard, being nice is easy

You're a PGM student at Methodist. You need to shoot about 160 to pass your PAT there. You shot 194 the first time. ~34 shots off over 36 holes. Lately… You shot 53 on nine holes. You shot 89 (same nine twice). And a 96. You said things like "Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get out and practice much last week but I did play twice." In week 7, you said "I haven’t been doing a great job holding myself accountable for my golf game so far this semester, but all that changes this week!" It doesn't seem to have changed that week. My advice is simple, and I'm going to assume that you actually want to graduate with a PGA Class A membership having completed all the things that you need to do to become a PGA member, including passing the PAT. Your game needs a lot of work, and I don't think you understand how much is needed or how to go about it. You need to do something like this: Review your last lesson or get another lesson so you know what one or two things to focus on. Alternatively, post a Member Swing topic here, and people here will help you out. Practice whatever your priority is. Do so slowly and with specific intent. Change the picture! Going to the range is NOT about just hitting balls. It's not about a "stripe show." Realize that it's only going to get tougher. I don't think you understand what it's going to take to get your game to a place where you can pass the PAT. You're still shooting several scores in the 90s. Learning golf isn't the same as learning your classwork. You can get good grades, and be a good student, but it's a different thing altogether. Golf can't just be about fun, man. You're trying to make this your career. It's going to take work. That doesn't mean it can't be fun also, I'm saying it can't only be about fun. You know what's fun? Playing better. You know what it takes to get there? WORK. P.S. You joined here three years ago. Let's say you were averaging 100 back then, and let's imagine you think you average 86 right now. 14 shots in three years, and if you keep that up, that's around par in three more years. Except golf is not linear. It's exponential. Shaving the first ten shots is ten times easier than shaving the next ten shots, perhaps. Going from 100 to 90 is several times easier than going from 90 to 80. P.P.S. https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/ P.P.P.S. To give you some idea, when my daughter decided to get serious about playing competitive golf, we told her that in order to achieve her goals, she needed to practice at least 45 minutes five times a week, and ten minutes the other two days of the week. She often exceeded that time (45 minutes often became 90 or 120), and even still, it took years of this for her to become a consistent low-70s golfer. I'll do that math again for you: that's a minimum of four hours a week (often six or more) of practice for years. School — getting your degree and your PGA membership — is your job right now.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Let me be clear at least for myself: I don't think there's any sort of "conspiracy" per se. I just think that our "view" of the virus is a bit exaggerated as a country. I'm excluding NYC, Philly, Detroit, and two or three other cities from this, but basically: The mortality rate is lower than most continue to believe. The infection rate is much higher than initially believed. These two go hand in hand. The disease affects older people greatly. They could have been under different restrictions than others. Most areas are seeing massively underwhelming use of their hospital resources. The effects on the economy will last for a decade. Did we over-react? Yes, IMO, we did. But… I was scheduled to go to Pinehurst on a trip at the end of March for a four-day weekend. I said after that weekend had passed (and it was 80° and sunny every day in Pinehurst) that two things were both true: We absolutely made the right call to cancel our trip given the information we had at the time. We could have gone and been completely, totally safe and had a marvelous, wonderful time given the information we learned after the fact. At the time, it seemed likely to most that Pinehurst would also close down, or travel bans would exist state-to-state, or that restrooms would close along the highways… whatever. But after the fact, and having gone to Pinehurst in late April instead for a longer period of time… it would have been fine to go, and was a great mental health boost. In other words, we did and didn't "over-react" because the information we had at the time was that this was a "Very Bad Thing™". Italy, Spain, etc. were being rocked. China was full of shit (have they reported even 1/5th the number of deaths as even NYC yet?). But in hindsight, we could have likely done things differently. We could have: Prepared better. More tests, more masks. This was hampered greatly by the bullshit coming from China. Closed fewer businesses, but had more precautions in place. Masks, customer limits, etc. Done more with restrictions regionally. Many states are big, and Erie ≠ Pittsburgh ≠ Philadelphia. Some good will come of this, too. Some companies are learning that telecommuting can work. Some people are getting to spend more time with their families. We're seeing unprecedented study of corona virus type stuff, which may help fight not only SARS, MERS, COVID-19, but future coronaviruses.

Tier 1 Take appropriate care of the golf course. Replace divots, fill divot holes with sand mix, repair ball marks (properly), rake bunkers (when rakes come back).

I agree completely. The funny thing is, we never look back and say "I had no right to make that 50-footer on the second hole", or "I'll never chip one in from THERE again!" I know I've never said "I shot 75, but it really should have been 80". We take those for granted as well-deserved good results from improbable locations.

Can’t wait to hit 79 years old!

I've finally reached an age equal to the lowest score I ever shot.

It has been a while but I will try and fill you in to the best of my ability. I could do a lot of activities after the surgery but just not many that involved the left hand for me since that is what was operated on in my case. It was about 6 weeks post-surgery before physical therapy recovered. If you have good flexibility and mobility in general hopefully that helps because I had some struggles with physical therapy and I think it was about 9 months after surgery before I tried to swing a golf club. I could be a bit off on this. I felt like I was close to 100% about a year after surgery. I will be forthcoming though in saying I never got full mobility of my wrist back but I also don't really work on it and should. The good news is I am back to playing golf at a greater ability than I was before the accident. I personally would be afraid to do heavy weightlifting after this surgery but your doctor obviously will let you know what you can do. Let me know if you went through with the surgery. Thank you @bkuehn1952 for tagging me to see this as he knows I don't log in all that often. Hope you are doing well!

I probably did something wrong. It says I meet the Recruitment Standard.

You did the right thing with the Wrong Ball situation. People who are honest and don’t take shortcuts are winners, despite what the scorecard says.

^This! I hate making trips to the ER just because it so damn expensive, but sometimes you just need to bite the bullet. I had an issue back in January, where this cough got so bad I coughed up some blood. The diagnosis from the ER was that it came from my sinuses being so dried out that it was tainting my sinus drainage. I also learned that your stomach doesn't like blood, and you will throw up if there is a serious enough issue. Lucky for me, it was not serious. It was scary enough to warrant the ER check.

Tier 1: Start a daily stretching routine. People always talk about fitness but often neglect stretching/flexibility. Not only will positively impact your golf game it also will help you feel better in your day to day life.

I think you summed up the why do use caddies pretty well in three reasons: Pack mule / course maintenance GPS / course scout / game manager Emotional Support / Coaching I think the real question is why do pros maintain a regular caddie as opposed to using someone different each week. I think the answer is obviously NOT #1 and obviously YES to #3. But I think #2 is an interesting issue. I would imagine most tour stops have good local caddies - I must assume that Riviera has some good caddies that really know the course so well they might be an advantage over a regular caddie - think the guy Crenshaw used at Augusta. But I would guess some of the issues with using a local caddie are: 1) there's probably not one for the entire field; 2) how do you know / do you have confidence that you are getting a good one? Still I'm a little surprised no head strong pro has tried the "local caddie" strategy. Maybe because there might be more downside than upside. I don't know if this will work but this links to an article from two years ago where a tour pro talks about what the tour would be like if there were no caddies. Undercover Tour Pro: What If We Had To Play Without Caddies? - Golf Digest Here's the question: What would the World Ranking look like if we had to carry our bags? No caddies. Also, FWIW, there was an interview podcast last year with Webb Simpson's caddie right after he won the Players. He talked about one of the things he does to prepare for a big round is prepare a list of non-golf things to talk about to keep Webb from thinking about golf every minute of the round.

It’s a nice simple method. My hosels are covered with sharpie marks.

Just an update as the golf season has past for this year. It turned out to be a great year of golf and I was able to fulfill one of my wishes from years ago which was to play in the Newport Cup. I was not as competitive as I had hoped, but I am honestly thankful to have been given the opportunity to play in that tournament. I actually found that I can enjoy playing competitively even if I don't play well at times. I mostly enjoyed meeting many of the people I had not had a chance to meet until now. My decision to have the surgery has turned out to be a good one. I don't feel it hinders me a ton even with a little less mobility in it. I played a lot of golf down in NC and I am very please with how the wrist held up to all of that. As I reflect on the season I feel a renewed but cautious desire to work on improving my game. Maybe not at the same level I once did but the desire remains, and that is good. I am looking forward to next season. Oh and @bkuehn1952, i'll get that driver straightened out for next time.

I would say that is a bathroom for men, women, and superheroes who wear capes. I have no issue with this. Most of this crap is just overblown politicizing of a non issue.

If they are single use. Great idea. Why wait when there is an open bathroom. Or have stalls that are completely private...... meh. I'm not too worried about who I wash my hands near. (the signs are stupid, methinks they are trying way too hard to pat themselves on the back - in my house we just call it a "bathroom")

This is such a great story. Good for you.

I just skimmed @RFKFREAK's blog and I have new motivation. It is a little scarry how similar he & I were before he made changes. I'm was pretty much writing off this golf season and just having fun but I think that my lack of goals is not helping. I need to get back onto the weight-loss and golf practice. I'm heading to KY this weekend but will try to get to the range next weekend and actually practice something. I know I'm having some health struggles but that does not mean I should just sit back and let my health slide further. I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow morning and start to get back on track. I know my physcial activity will be limited from what needs to be done but I need to do something. Sitting on my arse isn't going to cut it. Per discussions with both Drs. the foot/ankle is the more sever item since not fixing it will cause additional problems so that will be the first surgery and the knee will wait until sometime after I've recovered from that. I have my "Evaluation" with PT on Aug. 4th for my knee and hopefully that buy some time for the knee. I would really like to make it to next fall for the knee so I can enjoy the summer & golf season in 2024. I'm also going to get myself up to speed on video of my swing and may start Evolvr once my foot rehab is done in the spring.

I've been looking for "StuM2.0" for a long time. Unfortunately, this year I have been looking for him on the course, not on the practice range. I strongly suspect the practice range is where he is waiting to be found.

Well, brace is holding up for now but after a 2nd opinion from Orthopedic I will be going under the knife for PTTD Reconstruction surgery. Just not sure when. I am thinking Mid-October so I will get this golf season in. Then 6 weeks with no weight on the foot followed by 3-6 months PT. Should be good for spring 2024.

Enjoyed your blog.😉

Yea, but so what? That’s not why people blog for the most part. If I only ever posted things because I thought other people would care about it, I’d never post. Blogs are about sharing your personal insights. You never know how others will perceive your thoughts or what they might learn from them. I’m with you, @bkuehn1952. I’m going to make an effort to blog and post more often about things, regardless of how I think they might be perceived.

That strikes me as a sad and lonely way to go through life. What others say can entertain, educate, enlighten, anger, etc. In communicating we can find joy, companionship, empathy/compassion, and all sorts of enriching things. Stuff like Twitter is what you make of it. I think it’s generally a very good experience that has enriched my life.

It is what it is. I have been dealing with issues in my leg, ankles and feet since I was a child. I had surgery to fix a birth defect in my right leg at age 11 and spent the full summer in a body cast from my toes up to my chest (That was a real miserable summer) and had my first orthopedic inserts back in 2003. In the back of my mind I wonder how much the birth defect has contributed to my other issues. You will see first-hand on May 20th if things are better or not. That would be about a month with the new braces so hopefully they work and any residual pain has subsided by then. Worst case, I do the surgery sometime in the future...over a winter of course!

It will work out. I will golf no matter what. Alternative is to sit on my arse and not have a life. Not doing that!

I am now in week 12 of "crutching" around. It seems like forever ago when I could just get up and walk across the room. I got up from my chair one day a few weeks ago and took a step without thinking about it. Thankfully I was able to catch myself on the ottoman before face-planting. Now for the bright side. I am off weight restriction next Wednesday as I can tolerate it, and I can start physical therapy. I'm not sure how long it's going to be before I can walk without assistance, but I'm going to give it my all without over-doing it. It is definitely going to be a balancing act. It's getting tougher since we are starting to have warmer weather. We had a record high of 71* here. It was nice to know that my dad was heading to the golf course to play a few holes since he missed all of last year due to medical issues. That gives me hope.

It was scheduled for last December but was cancelled because I caught COVID. Afterwards I had a big upgrade project at work. Then my dad had lung cancer surgery and other health issues that kept him going from hospital to care facility. He’s finally home and doing well. I have another big project, but I didn’t want to put this off any longer. That’s the short version.

I recommend tracking your stats for a few rounds and see were the easy areas you can save some strokes. Putting, Short Game, Game Management are three areas that can give you a lower baseline and are easily fixable with less effort than working on the long game. With that being said, working on the full swing will be required to break 80 consistently. Those three areas, pending how poor you are at them, you can see a good drop in your score. Cutting out three putting can save golfers 4-5 strokes per round. Making sure you do not leave yourself a 2nd short game shot, and getting short game results inside of 10-FT will cut a lot of strokes down. Especially for golfers who do not hit that many greens in regulation. Making sure you avoid bunkers, hazards, and out of bounds at all costs, even if half your shot zone is in the rough. Penalty strokes are a massive hit to your score. It gets tough to break 80 if you have something like 2 penalty strokes. This ^ A lot of people get great advice for their games by starting a My Swing thread. Knowing how to practice in itself is a skill that has to be learned. The bad habit, that 99% of golfer do, is practice poorly. When ever I go to the range, I will people watch as I get ready. Hardly anyone has even an alignment stick out for set up, or swing path stuff. Most of them just work through their bag, hitting ball after ball. When I say 99%, I do not think I am being hyperbolic about it. Going from 100 to 86 in three years is not unreasonable. Especially if you get the easy stuff knocked out (Putting, Short Game, Game Management). Imagine if you three putt once per round instead of 6x a round. Not saying you do that, but I think most people who shoot around 100 do so. I agree it is exponential. At a certain point, you are looking to save fractions of a stroke that happen to add up to a few strokes here or there instead of find areas to save a bunch of strokes.

Take a break, get better. Golf will always be there, even if you go back and only play sporadically. Golf is like Hotel California, anyway.

The world going to 💩 is all the more reason to do things that work for you.

Here are a few pics.

Skip the driver and get those lessons. IIRC you haven't been happy with your play over the last year or two. Now is as good of a time to get working on that as any.

I bought her… this: It's what she wanted! P.S. She thinks flowers (and cards) are a waste of money.

It is a flu. of course - the Concord is an airplane. A Porsche is a car....... What we're tired of is people purposely misrepresenting this thing for various reasons: to continually and remorselessly and exhaustingly push their pro/anti/etc political agendas (I'm been done with the idiotic rationalization by the fringers to push their shit - this is just a continuation of that - can't expect them to put on hold their sole reason for living the life of total assholiness) to satisfy their desire to under or overstate the situation to blissfully soak in a combination of optimism and ignorance to do what they want instead of what they should (did you guys actual LISTEN to the spring breaker interviews? what a product of today's attempts to brainwash the kids - total backfire - and totally predictable) so the grumble is about human nature be smart - keep your separation - wash your hands - stay nice to others - don't hoard shit other people might need too - don't be assholes. Stop proclaiming what OTHERS should do - just be an example and walk the walk. For me - it's just too much talking. (like my post here). Not enough doing. again, be an example, not a preacher it's not rocket surgery oh - and any time ANYONE quotes numbers - make sure to review your statistics textbooks about sampling, causation, correlation, test patterns, etc. Journalists are NOT known for their mathematical rigor.

A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 — Even in His Young Patients — ProPublica “It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.” The author interviewed a respiratory therapist who works in an ICU at a hospital affected by COVID-19. I'm going to pull some excerpts from the article. Emphasis is mine:

The wheels of change are mired in molasses. Here's a Golfweek article saying they were hoping to break ground in 2020: Drive Shack completes sale of 11 golf courses for $85.2 million Drive Shack closed 2018 by completing the sale of 11 golf properties for approximately $85.2 million in a major step of its transformation into golf entertainment and leisure entity. Drive Shack op…

My yard a few days ago:

So if a bag-piper in traditional garb isn't quite on the level, is he off-kilter?

"Half a bubble off" is what my dad, a plumber, would say when someone was odd.

I use BAM (video delay) IOS app (for apple devices). I use this at home, I mount an ipad on a tripod and setup the video behind me. The app "films" you and then the actual video is delayed (I set it for 3-8 seconds depending on the club) so after you swing you can turn to the ipad (what I use) and see the swing you just took. This way I don't have to stop and press rewind and start it again. Very easy to use.

A player can hit one good shot, but not all of them. A player can have one good hole, but not all of them. The better the player, the longer the stretches of good play continue. A player can have a good round, but its hard to follow that with another good one. The longer the "sample size", the closer the play gets to the overall level of ability.

Oh my oh my! Such an intriguing topic. Demons? I've got enough to make the Amityville Horror look like a Disney movie. I've even come to let myself believe that the golf gods will always keep me in check. I'll be allowed to have a nice swing for a few days in a row...then it's shank city. And I practice very meticulously AND hard. When I'm not working, kids in school, I'll go to my academy (beautiful practice area) and spend 6-7 hours, 3-4 days a week. I take several minutes between each ball...focus, focus. But there are times (usually after a wonderful and inspirational session) when my swing simply will not happen. It's gone. Everything 'feels' the same. I even take notes when I'm hitting it solid to review all my 'feelings and checkpoints' for the next time I'm out. I'm not impressed with tour pros practice dedication at all. If I could make my salary playing golf...I'd practice 8-10 hrs/day and absolutely love it. That is, if I could experience what great golf feels like for more than a few rounds. But I continue to work at it...because there's nothing I enjoy more than golf and nothing I'd rather be good at.

A very astute observation. I vaguely recall a story Gary Player told. A man was watching Gary hit balls and said something like, "What I wouldn't do to hit balls like that." Gary turned to him and said, "That's the problem, you won't do the things necessary to hit the ball like me. I have hit balls for hours each day until my hands bled." As with most things in life, investing time and effort yield results. Golf is not an easy game.

Nice try, buddy. I learned about this scam in my Adulting class.

I just wanted to provide an update on how things are going. Its been about a month since my last post, and I was able to play in the Member/Guest Tournament at The Blessings golf course. Ive been playing the best golf of my life, and if the US Mid Am qualifier deadline was the 1st I would officially be low enough of a handicap to participate. My swing is in good shape and I'm making putts. What started off as a joke and really unattainable, has become reality. I cant imagine walking The Blessings due to the elevation, so I am going to see if a friend will caddy for me during the qualifying round. My first real USGA tournament and I've put in a lot of work. Dropping from a 6.7 to a 3.4 index in a little over a month has just been mind boggling. The whole mental part of my game has changed. When I make a bogey or double, I battle back and make birdies (or even eagle) to get those strokes back.

I could never do that. I don't see that as solving anything.

I manage to limit my muttering to "come on" and "you suck".

Comparing plumb bobbing with Aimpoint is like debating whether a unicorn is faster than a quarter horse.