Roody

245 yard par 4. Put it on the back fringe with a 3-wood a few years ago. It was one of those short and tight courses with a lot of hilly undulations. EDIT: Almost forgot, I birdied it.

85 for a low this year. 101 for a high. The slope on the course that I shot the high number is 132 from the white tees. That course ate me alive and spit me out. I'm looking forward to trying it again though. I know I can do better (at least I hope)

Finished in the middle of the pack this year. We've got another week to go, but I don't see our position shifting much. Last year we were in first place going into the final week. We were paired against the team with the best golfer in our league (he's about a 6 handicap for 18 holes). Anyways, riding my handicap I was able to split that round against him even on the points. However, my partner blew up and out of a possible 9 points he could have scored, he only managed to score 1/2 a point. It was his worst performance all year. I think the pressure got to him.

My instructor disagrees. When he has me hitting my driver with a slight fade he always says "ohhh that's a nice shot, hitting a slight fade is a good shot. You can talk to a fade, you can't talk to a draw". I just started to learn how to hit a fade on demand this summer. I will joke with my golf partners and before the shot sometimes I'll call it out and say "I'm gonna fade this" and it's been great because it usually works on queue. I can do it real nice with my 3-iron. Woods are decent, but I can do it better with the irons. It's draw on demand that I can't seem to do. It seems like every time I try to draw it, I only end up pulling the heck out of it. At the moment, the draw shot is not part of my repertoire.

Here's what I did for the 2003 PGA Championship when they held it here at Oak Hill. On the final day, we got there at 6:00 in the morning, and I believe the gates opened at 6:30 if I remember right. As soon as they opened, we sprinted over to the 18th hole and got up to the top back corner of the grandstand there. The reason we went there is because the 18th hole backed up to the 1st tee, and the 14th tee was also visible. Not to mention that the 18th green was also in plain view. We planted ourselves there for the day. And if you remember the shot that Shaun Micheel hit on the 18th hole that final day, the approach shot that he put 3 inches from the hole to clinch the Wannamaker Trophy. I can proudly say I was on the 18th grandstand with a great view of that historic shot. They've called it one of the best clutch shots in major history.

I'm torn on the gameplay for the Tiger Woods games. On one hand, I enjoy being able to pull out the miracle shots each and every hole, and seeing just how low I can shoot (My record 18-hole round in that game is -24. Insane round with a double eagle, several eagles, and nothing worse than birdie). But on the other hand, I wish it was a bit more realistic. One thing I've noticed is you can be playing a tournament, and if your player jumps out to a big lead in the first round the computer will start adjusting the scores of the other players in the next rounds. For instance, I played a tournament where after the first round I was -16, and the guy tied for second on the leaderboard was only at -7. I started the next round, and after completing the first hole I looked at the leaderboard and now the leader is -25. I ended up finishing the tournament at -53, and I somehow didn't place first (I think I was 10th). The computer kept lapping the other players over me after each round. I like hitting the crazy awesome shots, but I wish they'd make birdies and eagles a little harder to come by. That way, when you get one it would feel like more of an accomplishment.

The member that I've played Oak Hill Country Club with up here in New York has been a member there for a little over 20 years. He said when he first joined it was $55,000 for the initiation fee. He didn't know what it was up to these days, but I've heard it's $75,000. One of the guys in my league is a member at Cobblestone CC, which is a decent private club here. Not as nice as Oak Hill, but not too bad. I guess that one is $15,000 initiation, and $500 per month dues and other various fees. I'm looking into joining a club next year. Though the club I'm looking at only has a straight membership fee - no initiation, no dues, no minimum bar tab. I could care less about the social aspect of a club, it's not like I'm a salesman and need to take clients out. I'm there to play golf, maybe take my wife to dinner a couple times, that's about it. I don't need to throw away my money on all that extra crap.

83 on a par 70. 84 on a par 72. 40 was the lowest I've had on 9 holes. Shot a 41 the other night in my league, and that was from the blues. I normally play whites on most courses. I always have more fun when I can shoot that low. Putts were dropping, hitting a lot of GIR's, this is how I like to play golf. I'd like to do better, but I'm content to play this way if I could do it more consistently. It seems like when I play this well, I am at least presented with opportunities to make birdies and pars. Just play well enough that I have the opportunity and I'm happy.

The problem is where do you draw the line? There are some who say poker is a sport too. Nascar I'm divided on. On one hand you're using an automobile to do all the work so I wouldn't call it a sport, but on the other hand driving a car 200 miles per hour in very tight conditions does require a great deal of concentration, and even some athleticism. Those body suits get real hot from what I am told. This is the official definition of a sport from dictionary.com: 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc. 2. a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors. 3. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime. So by that definition, not only is golf a sport, but so is Nascar.

Actually, he does a little. He just hasn't much in the past couple of years. But he's definitely more into things like softball, football, basketball. I think baseball is definitely a sport. It takes a great deal of skill to hit a ball that's thrown at you at 90 miles per hour. I think it's because the faithful ones truly appreciate all the hard work it takes to become a good golfer. Non-golfers tend to think that just because golf looks easy, that it must be easy. Then they try it and learn otherwise.

Hey guys, A friend of mine and I have this long-standing debate going. He insists that golf should not be classified as a "sport", but instead should be considered a "competition". Our little debate has raged back and forth for a while now, with neither side budging. He states that an example of a sport is football or baseball - something where you need to be in good shape, and actually involves some running and athletic prowess. He also argues that golf has the likes of Craig Stadler and John Daly, and if they can be good at golf then it can't be considered a sport. My counter-arguments usually involve something with Tiger Woods, and how good an athlete he is. Also I've said that the golf swing requires athletic prowess, to which he usually pulls the Daly/Stadler argument out of his a$$ to counter that with. I also argue that if you're considering golf a "competition" then that automatically qualifies it as a sport since they are essentially one and the same. So what do you guys think? I thought this might be a good debate. That, and I'm looking for some ammunition to use against my friend.

I personally don't mind him. He's honest, and I think we need a little more of that, and less of this political-correctness you get from the other announcers. I can tell you one person who doesn't like him, and that's Dottie Pepper who co-hosts with him for NBC. Back in 2004, I played in a Pro-Am with Dottie. She was getting ready to retire and was heading to her first year in the booth. We were waiting on one of the tees, and one of the guys in our group starts asking her about her move to the booth. Somehow Miller's name comes up and she literally says "I can't stand that *******". I always get a chuckle whenever I see the two sitting next to each other in the booth playing nice, knowing that at least she can't stand him. I don't know if the feeling is mutual or not.

We have a regular girl who works our weekly league. We know her by name, and most of the guys in our league usually take care of her. And yes, she's a college-age girl who has very nice assets. She's also very fond of wearing clothing that shows off these assets. Guys in the league have repeatedly made jokes about how depending on what she is wearing for the evening determines the size of the tip they will give her. Just last week we had a windy evening for golf, and it was a little cooler than normal. So she came dressed in pants and a wind-breaker. Her lovely assets were all covered up. One of the guys in my foursome says "well screw that, she's not getting any sales from me tonight". Another story I've got about tipping her is one week I had about $8 in cash left in my wallet. She came around and I asked my partner if he wanted anything. He asked for a Heineken, and I was going to do the same. What I didn't realize is that they charge $4 for a Heineken. So she told me the total, and I said "oh shit, I don't have enough to tip you. Let me put the Heineken back and get one of your cheaper beers". She insisted that I keep the two Heinekens, even though I tried fighting her. I then vowed that I would remember this and make up for it the next week. When next week rolled around, I tipped her $5 instead of my normal $1 tip. I used to be of the mindset that it's silly to tip people for doing a job they're already getting paid to do. But I eventually came to the realization that unless I'm poor and hurting for cash, that tipping is a decent way to show that you appreciate the work they're doing. I especially think it's important to tip people who you're going to see on a regular basis.

On Pardon The Interruption tonight, they had a story about how Sabbatini is apparently stirring the pot with Tiger again. Calling him out about skipping the 1st round of the FedEx Cup playoffs and what not. Problem is, I can't find a link to a story about it on ESPN.com.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I appreciate it. At the moment we're still cued up to play TPC Canyons. I was checking their website again the other day, and it looks like they did a re-vamp to it. They've got more pictures and fly-overs now, and I have to say the course looks great. I'm pretty excited to go play it next month. I've still got a couple of weeks until I can book The Falls if I change my mind, but I think Canyons is making a solid case. And as far as price goes, they told me Canyons is going to be $225, while Falls is $275. I guess they really bend the out-of-state people over for greens fees, but oh well. You only live once I always say!

She's not a waste, at least not yet. She's just been very poorly mis-managed by her "handlers" (a.k.a her dumbass father). She has a great swing, she just needs to play some tournaments with women and learn how to manage the mental aspect of her game (which we all know is 90% of golf). She also needs to stop with the freak show of trying to play with the men. And that's more than likely the fault of her "handlers". They're the ones that keep shoving her into these men's events. Even Annika, who was #1 in the world at the time couldn't keep up with the men when she played in that one tournament. And she knows how to win at a high level, it's still not enough.

Yeah, -26 is utter Bull$hit. In these pro-ams I've played in over the years, the lowest I've ever seen is -19 by the winning team. I think the year I saw that score was when Karrie Webb's group won the thing, and the guys with her were a bunch of ringers themselves. And you've got a major-winning pro in the group. Someone said they eagled two holes, birdied fifteen of them, and parred one. Our 14-under that year still wasn't enough to place in the top 10.

Back in 2004, played in a pro-am group with Dottie Pepper and we shot a 14-under score of 58. Then in 2006, played with Angela Stanford and also shot a 14-under at the same course. Other than that, I think the best I've done in a group not containing a professional golfer is 6-under, and that was in a scramble playing from the tips of our league course last month. Playing from the tips makes that course 7215 yards, so I thought it was a pretty good accomplishment.

I've been going at it for about 12 years now, and I'm only a 15. Though I only really started taking lessons about 3 years ago. But I can say that once I started taking about 2-3 lessons a year, I went from a 22 to the 15 I am now. Sad thing is, last year I was about a 13, but something happened that has my handicap up a bit from last year. I think the problem is between my ears to be honest. I'm over-thinking things way too much. So to respond to the topic, I don't think you can get to scratch in a year's time. To become a scratch golfer not only requires a lot of good shots, but you have to hit a lot of good shots on a consistent, steady basis. Lack of consistency is what plagues me, and just about every other mid-handicapper out there. I can hit great shots too, it's just that I sometimes follow up a great shot with a gleaming turd of a shot. Or I three-putt, that usually screws up things too :)

84 (+12) at Deerfield Country Club last summer. Two summers ago I had an 83 (+13) at Webster West Golf Club. Had an 85 a couple weeks ago, but that was on a par 70.

Personally, I think Nike has the golf apparel market with no contest. They definitely make some of the nicest clothing, with maybe Adidas coming in at second place there. When I bought my Ping G2's about 3 years ago, one of the sets I also tried out were the Nike Slingshots. In my personal opinion, I didn't care for them. Thought they felt funny when I swung them. That's not to say they're crap, that's just my personal opinion of that one set. As for Nike golf balls, I have a few Nike One Platinums in my bag. I think they're a decent ball. That was even the ball I used when I had my best round versus par last year - an 84 (12 over). I remember that I didn't lose that ball until hole 16 that day, and that was because I shouldn't have used driver on that hole. I ended up driving it through the dogleg of the fairway and into the tall stuff. I was attempting to play a draw, and hit it dead straight instead.

Because Tiger is their gravy train. If Tiger says "I want a ball made of gold with a core of steel" they do it. You keep Tiger happy at any cost.

This brings me to a question. I was told some time ago that it's improper etiquette to ask the group ahead of you if you can play through. Someone told me that you're always supposed to let them ask you if you wanna play through. What are everyone's thoughts about this? Is that true? I've abided by that credo for a few years now. I never ask, I always wait until they offer to let me play through.

Not sure what my average is, but I'd venture a guess it's about 245 or so. I think 280 is about my max under normal conditions (i.e. no wind behind me, no huge elevation advantage, etc). A couple weeks ago I smashed one that looked like it was pretty good yardage, so I measured the distance with my SkyCaddie and it said 278. I love the distance I get, my problem is my fairway % is too low. Which is part of the reason I'm a 15-handicapper. It's great to get all this distance, but I need more consistency in the fairway. Depending on the course, I seem to lose about two balls per round. Penalties kill my score.

I say if you're comfortable enough, dive right in and go play a round. That's what those executive courses are for. Just don't get nervous when there is a group behind you. I've noticed a lot of new players get nervous when they think that they're making the group behind them wait too long. Just think of two things: - Take your time. They will wait. They have no choice. Don't rush, otherwise you'll only make your game worse. - If you feel they are crawling up your rear on every hole, simply wait on the next tee and let them play through. My wife comes out to play with me a couple times a year usually, and we almost always play a 9-hole executive course. And she still hasn't gotten over the nervousness of having people behind us waiting. I just tell her "Screw them, they can wait, just relax and hit the ball. We'll let them play through on the next hole, but for now don't worry about them".