BugDude

Played a course this evening I've only played one other time. 6500 yards from back tee, rating 71, slope 124. I shot an even par 72. 8 pars and a bogey on the front, 8 pars and a birdie on the back. Had a ton of chips from just off the green for easy up and downs, had a sand save par, and chipped in my birdie from about 20 yards. It was a scrambling round with a mix of good and not so good ball striking. My driver was straight but not long today.

This time of year in Florida, the courses are not crowded, yet there are still pace of play problems. I mostly see two-somes playing and many of them are slower than Christmas. It's not the fault of the pro or the course staff, but the players. I've started off with no one in front of me, flying around the course and then come to a standstill on the 4th or 5th hole. Piled up like a crash on the interstate and it is one group fiddle farting around holding everyone up. I tend to just jump a couple holes and come back and catch those later when there are clear holes in front of the offending group. Based on what I see on the courses I play, it's on the players themselves. I don't play early on Saturday or Sunday mornings anymore because that's when the courses are crowded and play is slow. It just isn't fun. I'd rather battle the heat and humidity in the afternoon than slow play. There's one course close to my house that I never play, and it is because it is always crowded, it is short and a lot of people wait for greens to clear to tee off on a lot of holes, and most of the people on that course will never let a single play through. It's just aggravating to play there. Is it the course's fault that it is crowded or that the people aren't friendly?

I typically play 18 holes by myself in the evenings in 2 hours 15 minutes. That's not rushing or trying to play speed golf, that's just playing. Hit and roll. With 2 people, usually 3 hours tops. With 4 people, I could understand 4 hours, but with the guys I play with I doubt it would be over 3 and a half. I was playing with a gentleman today in his 80s, and there was a 2-some in front of us holding us up all day long. I've never seen anyone take so long to hit a golf ball. Literally 9 practice swings. Stand there over it like a statue, look up again, back down, up, back down, then hit, stand there and watch it, mosey back to the cart wiping off the club and putting it back, getting sand and filling the divot like he was making art, etc. His partner driving the cart would park 10 yards from his ball, walk over, do the same thing stuff as above, walk back over and change clubs, start over, etc. It was painful.

+6, 78. Hit my woods bad on the front but my irons great for a +1 front nine. Then on the back I hit my woods great and my irons terrible for a +5 back nine. This round just showed me which one was more important in my game.

Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, Jack Nicklaus. Too close to call a favorite between those three for me.

It should be 3 hours. That's 90 minutes per side or 10 minutes per hole average. If weekend warriors would cut out the mulligans, 14 practice swings, looking for lost balls, play ready golf, stop plumb bobbing from every conceivable angle, and traverse their way around the course in a logical pattern (taking the clubs you need with you around the green, not going back and forth across the fairway, etc.), there's no reason it can't be 3 hours.

Unless I'm playing someone for money, how they play their game and keep their score is their business. I use to have a regular Sunday 4-some and one of the guys was famous for hitting it 7+ times, throwing his ball from over an embankment by the green, etc. and then when we asked him what he got he said "Par." He ended up "winning" every week and then bragging about it at work. We thought it was hilarious and we joked about getting "Pencil Whipped" and him hitting a "Hand Wedge." I was shooting mid 70s rounds every week and he was easily shooting mid 90s. The rest of us thought it was entertaining, but we also didn't take the game seriously. It was just an excuse to get together and have fun.

Many moons ago I used to play a little 9 hole course in my home town that all of the regulars went to great lengths to keep nice, but the course took a ton of abuse. One Saturday on my 3rd time around, there was hardly anyone else on the course but I noticed the greens very torn up. I was fixing them as I went and when I got to the 3rd hole I saw 3 guys on the green clowning around. As I walked onto the green someone had taken a tee or something and carved a large "W" in the green by the hole several feet square. The next hole they had to pass right by where I was standing to walk to the tee and I jumped all over them and gave them a sermon about the regulars, taking care of the course, etc. They left the course and didn't continue. 15 years later I met a former co-worker of mine at the local Applebee's when I was back home visiting (I had since moved out of state). We were sitting at the bar having a couple drinks and catching up when three guys beside me at the bar started talking loudly about "Remember when that @#%^$ jumped on us about carving a W in the green? I wanted to say, "Dumb@#$ it was an M not a W" etc. I turned to my left and said, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Please allow me to introduce myself: I'm the @#$%^!" Yes, that's right, 15 years ago, Lail's golf course right down here on Hwy 70, 3rd hole, Saturday afternoon, the pin was cut on the front left..." I proceeded to get on my soap box all over again. The 3 of them cut a trail out of the bar faster than greased lightening. So yeah, I would have said something. Inconsiderate and rude people are everywhere.

I missed that one. I'm sure they have all done it and I'm sure they have all acted like pricks at some point. It seems to happen on a regular basis with him, perhaps that's because the camera is on him a lot. I've been to somewhere around 25 or so professional golf tournaments following numerous players around for stretches of holes and it has just been my observation in person too. I have nothing against a person putting together an impressive string of expletives. It can be an art form if done correctly. But having a 4 year old and an 11 year old myself, I don't care for it being done in front of kids. That's just my opinion. As for someone who turns it on for the camera and then turns into a prick when it goes off, Lee Trevino had to be the worst. I've followed him around a number of Champions Tour events and he's all hamming it up with the camera is on and the second it goes off he gets mean. He chewed a little girl out at the Hickory NC tournament last year for asking for his autograph as he walked off of a green. I understand he's working inside the ropes and keeping his rhythm going, but he could have just said "I'll be glad to after the tournament." He ripped that kid (about 12) a new one.

I've never been a big Tiger fan mostly because he has crowds of kids following him around the course learning how to cuss like sailors and slam clubs and throw tantrums on the course when they hit a bad shot. That's just not cool to me. What is cool to me is Fred Couples strolling around the course like he's on a butterfly garden tour regardless of if he just knocked it in the hole from 150 yards or hit one OB. The Sergio thing, I actually have to give Tiger credit for not making a big deal out of it. That shows maturity. Sergio was a whiney excuse ridden turd and the fact that Tiger blew it off just accentuated how childish Sergio was. I personally thought back when the Fuzzy incident occurred the best response would have been, "The next time Fuzzy wins the Masters, he is free to serve chicken. How long do you think we'll have to wait for that???" and then just blow it off knowing he will be choosing far more menus in the future. As far as the other stuff, the benefits of being a high profile pro athlete are fame and fortune. Ride the wave up, but also get torn down by the media and public when you step on your johnson. That's just part of it and you have to accept the bad with the good. It is indeed his personal business, and I don't care about his personal dilemma. If anything, the fact that he was nailing waffle house waitresses made him seem a little less high and mighty and more human in an everyday guy sort of way. So did the struggles with his game. I'm not a fan of his per se, but I do like seeing him get his game back. Like him or not, golf is more interesting when he is in the mix. I grew up watching Nicklaus, Watson, Floyd. They were class acts on and off the course...still are. There are still some class acts in the game of golf...Tiger's not necessarily one of them...not that it matters when he is sitting in his 15000 square foot trophy room.

When someone nails a putt that's going well past the hole, we yell "hit a house" or "spin back". When someone hits an approach that is obviously not going to be anywhere close to the green we say, "Well, you took the green out of play." When someone plays a chip shot with no finesse whatsoever, we say "you have the touch of a blacksmith" or we call them "Shaquill No Feel."

Just for the record (*looking up in the sky*), I wasn't the one that said "The S word"...so don't blame me. A golf buddy of mine back home refers to it as "a low push" out of fear of saying the word.

"A Quacker" = a duck hook "A Chili Dip" = hitting it fat and the ball barely going anywhere, like you were dipping chili with a ladel When you take a big divot and a long solid piece of turf ends up laying in the fairway we call it "a beaver pelt" because it is so big it looks like someone skinned a beaver and left it laying there on the ground. (the turf was different in the mountains and this happened. in Florida, it just flies into a million pieces and you fill the hole with sand rather than replace the divot) When someone would take a big divot we would say "throw a tater in that hole" or "are you digging a well or hitting a golf ball?" A buddy of ours had a particularly difficult day hitting into the trees and after the round we said "He spent more time in the woods than the boyscouts of America" A different round that same buddy hit into more water than any human in history. When it was over we said "He put more balls in the water than the men's olympic swim team." After that round I told him if I were ever stranded in the dessert, I didn't want a divining rod or any other instrument to find water. Just him, a driver, and a Titleist and I'm sure he would strike water within a minute. That course was so difficult, I lost a ball in the ball washer. There's so much water on that course, your caddy is Bill Dance. The greens were slicker than frozen owl snot.

A "Hozel Rocket". I can't say or type the commonly referred to term for this shot for fear of bad karma. Anyone that has ever experienced a bad case of the hozel rockets knows what it is.

I figure it out a couple times a year...just to unfigure it out all over again. I would say my game mostly stays in an unfigured state with brief flashes of figuredoutness. I've just come to accept it and live for the couple times a year when it all comes together knowing that it won't last long.

I'm looking forward to reading it!!! I played with a co-worker a couple weeks ago and he kept asking me, "How'd you do that?" after shots. I kept saying, "I can't explain it. I mainly just visualize the shot I want to hit."

He deserves the "Lucky Monkey" award.

Great post!!! I call it "paralysis by analysis." When we are thinking about mechanics instead of playing golf and we get in our own way. I'm a feel player, and when I get all technical it just doesn't work for me. The bad part about being a feel player is if you show up to the course with the touch of a blacksmith that day, you're in for a long and difficult day. Fortunately my short game makes up for a lot of technical swing flaws.

Shot even par 72 today. 35 front 37 back. 2 birds and 2 bogies rest pars. Course 6400 yards rated 70. Distance wasn't great and irons weren't dialed in (haven't played or practiced the last 2 weeks). Short game made up for it. I had 10 up and downs total (one for birdie). I only missed 4 fairways (and those were just off, still had clear shot) but missed 11 greens. A lot of those were just a couple feet off the green, so easy chips. I had 25 putts (a lot of tap ins given I was chipping a lot). My half wedge shots were not cooperating today. Next range trip I'm working on that.

$474 Total ---------------- Driver $200 RBZ new 3wood $100 Irons $50 ebay Putter $35 new 25 years ago SW $89 Hybrid $ 0 won it in a golf tournament

I started out with Ping Eye 2s "back in the day". After 10 years or so I bought a set of blades off of ebay for $50 (Golden Ram 2i - pw) and my intent was to just use them on the range and practice rounds to improve my ball striking. After about a year, they went into my back full-time and the Pings never again. I've been playing those same Ram irons for 15 years now and would never consider anything else.

A few months ago I broke my first window in 24+ years on a house just off the fairway. I lined up for a draw and it just kept going straight. As I am motoring down the edge of the fairway there was a guy standing in his backyard and he said, "Did you hit a ball over here?" I confirmed I did and he tossed it to me and I confirmed it was my ball. He said, "You broke my window." I said, "OK, I'll give you my name and number. Let me know how much it is and I'll pay for it." He again said, louder and angrier, "You broke my window!" I said, "I'm sorry, I'll take care of it." He said it again in a worse tone and I replied, "Look, you live on a golf course and your house is 20 feet from the fairway. I said I'll give you my name and number and I'll pay for it. I don't carry my checkbook with my on the golf course and I can't unbreak it. Do you want my info or not?" A couple days later he called and I went to his house and wrote him a check for $140 (he had the bill). My personal philosophy is I hit off the course, so I'm responsible for what it does. I now hit an iron off of that tee.

When you skull a ball when trying to hit over water and it skips across the top of the water and ends up dry on the other side, we call that a "Mudskipper."

Many years ago I was playing with two hilarious old guys from England when one of them hit a low rockey 2 inches off the ground. He said (in an English accent), "Oh, I hit a bit of a daisy cutter!" I said "what?" and he replies, "It looks like I hit a bit of a daisy cutter." I said, "Hey man, over here we call that a Worm Burner." These old guys went around the rest of the day saying "Worm Burner" in a very animated and eccentric manner. It was hilarious. At one point they let their cart roll backwards down a hill and they were chasing after it. I also tend to scoop my ball up with my putter, pick up the flag with it, and step on my wedge so the grip flips up. They said, "You do all of these little tricks with your clubs. You learn these? Do you practice?" I said, "No, I'm just too lazy to bend over." It was one of the most entertaining days of golf I've ever had.

For me, only on chip shots and putts. Never with any other club. Never. If I make a great practice swing, what's the chances of me doing it 2 times in a row? I'm also getting to the age where I'm conserving energy throughout the round. Especially when it's hot.