BioGolfNebraska

I know this sounds really stupid, but I did not think I would get nearly as muddy as I did. I thought maybe a little wet from the splash. I own a pair of golf sandals from footjoy that I was wearing that day, so no wet socks. It was the thick, black, grimey mud in my face, clothes, and hair that was the problem. I honestly thought I could wack it out no problem, too. I think I might try this again if the ball is partly above water. Until then, I might just try to hit it OVER the water.

I think that advantages and exclusivity to classically oppressed groups (such as women, minorities) can be justified, while exclusivity involving the dominant members of our society (white males) cannot. The reason is that a "women-only" or "african american-only" club does not advance this social group into a situation where they have a better lifestyle than the dominant member of society, they would simply be brought a little closer to equality. We are talking about arbitrary differences (gender, skin color) that equate to large differences in perceived value in our society. If these differences really are assigned arbitrary value (which I believe they are), one could imagine any number of situations where any other social group would have less perceived value in a particular society. For example, Donald Trump, while highly valued in this society, is too stocky and unathletic to have been a dominant force in a hunter gatherer society. Therefore, any attempts at leveling out the standard of living (even if it is by way of women-only exclusive membership to a clup, or lack of male-only exclusive membership) is justified and should be encouraged. Why would being privately owned (ie. not owned by the government or the public) revoke any moral obligations toward fellow humans?

Well, I would probably have to agree. But sometimes in golf (and in life), we do things that are not a great idea but are oozing with potential. Either way it makes for an original round of golf and a great story: option 1: I shot a 10 on a par 3 because I was an idiot and tried to hit the ball out of the lake (reality). option 2: I hit the ball into the lake but still parred/bogied the hole. My shot was clearly submerged, about 4" below the surface of the water. I'm pretty sure the shot on the Cialis commercial was at least a couple inches below the surface as well (if I remember correctly- could be wrong). He plopped it right up next to the pin on his shot.

Ever try and hit the ball out of shallow water instead of taking a drop? There is a series of Cialis commercials that air on Golf Channel every now and then where they give tips on rather difficult shots such as bunker shots from a downhill lie. One of the commercial tips was how to hit out of shallow water to avoid a penalty stroke. Recently, I came up short on a 175 yard par 3 where the whole distance between the tee box and green is a big lake. There is a drop box on the right side of the lake about 1/3 of the way across the lake. When I got to the other side to look for my ball, I noticed that it was sitting just at the edge of the lake in about 4 inches of water. Remembering the Cialis commercial (which makes this shot look so easy), my friend suggested I try the shot. We tend to do a lot of friendly heckling during our golf rounds and end up trying to talk the other into playing aggressively: par 5s in 2 even if anything short is in deep trouble/hazard, chips when we should putt, etc.. This water shot needed just a short 15 yard plop and it would be on the green for a chance at an up and down. I thought "what the hell", took off my shoes, and decided to try it. The only tip I could remember from the commercial was to swing hard. I swung very hard and splashed about a gallon of algae water up in my face, not to mention this black mud. After looking down, my ball was in the exact same spot that it was before the swing. The look on my wife's face when I got back home from golfing covered head-to-toe in mud was priceless. Have any of you attempted the shot out of water? Any success? Time to share your water shot stories. Needless to say, I will probably not attempt this shot again.

You strike me as a rather unlikeable person.

I have 10* of bounce on my 60* wedge (which most people would consider on the higher side, I believe). With the higher bounce, I feel like I can hit down on the ball a little bit out of the sand (similar to a regular iron shot) without it taking a huge divot. I will say that if the sand is hard (or if I'm using it to hit off a tight lie on a well-manicured fairway), I have had a bad swing which hit behind the ball slightly, and I can feel the club bounce off the ground and cause me to hit the ball thin. I don't have enough knowledge/experience to say whether this is exaggerated by the higher bounce of my lob, or if it is just something that happens with wedges. My understanding is that a wedge with less bounce in that situation would dig into the ground and cause a big divot before the ball (a fat shot). Either way, I have been using my 60.10 as my go-to club for greenside bunkers and it has been working pretty well. I usually get a nice gentle plop out that gets a little bit of roll towards the hole. Mishits are almost always thinned shots, but, as long as there isn't a huge wall to jump over, I tend to favor a thin over a fat bunker shot (because at least you get out). Granted, you don't want to sail one over the green into the trees/water.

Yes. It is waaaaay easier than a spreadsheet. Having an excel spreadsheet that took into account dozens of different courses with several different sets of tees per course while still keeping all of the statistics in order would be a huge mess. The other benefit of Scorecard 2 is that the creators are active on sandtrap, so there are great answers to questions (as evident by this post).

That was it, thank you! I had my statistical marker set at 5/25/12, so those first few rounds were not included. Thanks for all your help!

Okay, Thank you very much for all the help! It is the best 10 of the last 20, not the best 10 overall. That makes a ton more sense. Sorry, you are obviously correct about the number of strokes. I have no idea what I was thinking for number of birdies per stroke, that makes zero sense whatsoever. I still don't understand how there is only 1 birdie recorded, and where the 252 holes comes from. I have 30 rounds entered. 29 are used for stats. of the 29, 26 are 9 hole rounds, while 3 are 18 hole rounds. 9x26 =234. 18x3=54. 54 + 234 = 288. There are 36 holes missing that are not included in the stats. These must be for 9 hole rounds with greater than 2 weeks between them? I went through and looked and I only have 2 birdies in all of the 288 holes. 1 of them is from a 9 hole round on 5/13/12 (which I followed up with another 9 hole round on 5/15/12). The other is from 8/19/12 (and it was preceded by a 9 hole round on 8/14/12). The 8/19/12 and 8/14/12 rounds are both in green, so I am assuming these are actually logged. Why isn't the earlier round logged in the statistics? If it means anything, when I open the "statistics" window, it lists 25 rounds, and neither the 5/13/12 or 5/15/12 rounds are included in the list. Does it make a difference that these were the first two rounds entered? Does the statistics only use the past 25 rounds? Thanks for all your help. I really do enjoy and recommend the program, these are mainly just problems for someone who mostly plays 9 holes at a time.

The green rounds cannot simply be "one of the better ones". If you believe this to be true in your situation, I am guessing that you have not been a careful observer. I have played 30 rounds according to the program (and my count). There are exactly 10 rounds in green and they are not the 10 best rounds (in neither raw score or differential). I am assuming the 10 in green were the 10 used to calculate my handicap, but I thought that used the best 10 rounds? (When I say "round", I mean "entered round" which could be 9 or 18 holes). All of the entered rounds are not used in the statistics. I have 2 points of evidence against this: 1. In my statistics window, under "RAW scoring" (Eagles, Birdies, Par, Bogies, Double Bogies, Triple or worse), all of the "Overall" values are listed as 1/252. When I add up all the strokes for my 30 rounds it equals 1758. When I add up only the Green rounds, it equals 562. 2. In the RAW scoring, it lists birdies as 1/252, when I have found at least 2 birdies entered in rounds. Yes I have the box checked to use those rounds in statistics. I have not found any information regarding this on the website or forum. Thank you, anyone, for any clarification on this. It isn't worth my time entering all of the statistics if only a proportion of them will actually be used for the stats/graphs of the program. I want the statistics to account for EVERY shot. As is, it only accounts for ~14% of my total shots, and this 14% does not tell me my TRUE GIR, # birdies, etc. Thus, the program seems to be misleading.

Hey, I have been using Scorecard 2 to track my golf stats. I really enjoy it, and it functions quite well and easily. I know a lot of people on this forum use this software, so hopefully somebody has some answers to these questions (I couldn't find the exact answers in the manual). 1. Some of my rounds that I entered are listed in green, while others are in black. Does this mean that they are above or below my handicap/particular score? Are only the rounds listed in green scored as part of the statistics? 2. I play mostly 9 holes at a time, and it seems like the program combines 9 holes to formulate handicaps/statistics (as long as the 9 hole rounds are within a week of each other- per USGA rules, I believe). Is there any way to get around this? I would like to be able to incorporate my statistics from 9 hole half-rounds that were not played within a week of each other, or if 9 holes were played after 18 holes. I would like to have these 9 hole rounds incorporated into my ongoing GIR/fairways hit/# puts/# birdies, etc. just so I know how I am playing. If anyone/the creators of this program have some solutions to these questions, I would love to hear them. Otherwise, I would love to hear any suggestions for software/online options that is better for tracking these stats for multiple courses for mostly 9 holes. Thanks

Sorry if I'm taking this over, but I'm curious about the TRUE shoes (and other street golf shoes like the eccos). Those small nubs don't seem like enough traction and seem like they would wear off quickly. Do any of you have problems with stability or balance in the street style golf shoes? How long do those nubs last? For $200 shoes with non-replaceable spikes, you would want them to last quite a while..

ESPN radio in the fall/winter (football season), NPR in the summer to avoid the baseball season. On a side note, Nebraska can be boring. But what is worse than the boring is the 3 weeks straight of 100 deg + weather that we've had (every public fairway is a nice bright yellow), and the 3 months of straight -20 deg weather we have during the fall/winter. But, it is one of the most affordable places to live/eat/golf, and there are like 12 golf courses in this town of ~250K people.

I heard this on NPR on the way home the other day and it really caught my attention. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/rickie-fowler-convicted-murder-arson-heart-attacks_n_1783682.html Anybody else have to make a double-take?

I could use some shoes.

I play golf for the same reason I switched from listening to NPR in the morning to listening to ESPN radio. It is sometimes comforting to believe that the biggest problem in the country right now is whether the Jets will start Sanchez or Tebow. Similarly, when I'm golfing on a Saturday morning, silly things such as "make it over that tree on the left", "don't slice it into the water", and "don't let this hilly green cause a 3 putt" all seem like the most critical issues in the world. I agree that you can't take golf too seriously, because it certainly makes me play better. But it is sometimes very relaxing to have a lot of interest in the outcome of such silly things (golf, sports, etc.) to take your mind off the stresses of work for a little while. When I do get into work, I have important decisions to make that really do have serious impacts. The golf course is a great place to forget that. When I completely shank my driver hit into a bush that is 15 feet away from the tee box on a 410 yard par 4, I can just laugh and say "that was less than optimal". It really helps the recovery shots and to make it not a "wasted round". Believe it or not, I have done this on this hole and still walked away with a very proud 6.

Bazing! 60 is 20% of 300, but what carrx was looking for was: what number + 20% of itself = 300. Or, in algebra: x + (.2x) = 300. This is why it never pays to be arrogant- when you are wrong, you look foolish. But on topic(ish), I have seen my father-in-law, a single digit handicap, cut an over water dogleg to drive over a green that measured at 305 to the pin as the crow flies. This was in a scramble and was a "what the hell" shot. He said he really muscled his upper body into it and felt it in his shoulder for 2 days afterwards. A good drive for me is 250 yards if I manage to put a little draw on it. If I don't get the clubhead closed on impact I hit a high fade that barely makes it over 200 yards.

What about the Adams idea tech v3 clubs? The all hybrid set has 7,8,9 as hybrids. Even the pw and gap wedge are hybridish. Here's a link: http://www.adamsgolf.com/products/irons/tech_v3.php

I can vouch for the adams a7os irons. They take a little getting used to if you are accustomed to hitting older irons (because they are kind of bulky), but if you get a halfway decent hit on them they will at least go up in the air and towards the target. Good strikes do not have to be directly on the center of the club for maximum distance and accuracy, although you will still lose 15-20 yards if you have poor contact. The 5 hybrid in this set is the easiest club I have ever hit with. If I am not feeling confident I can do 1/3 of a backswing with that 5H and it will loft up nicely for a straight-lined 150 yards.

I tried to make this clear, but apparently did not: this Arsenal brand is not the same Arsenal brand for the football club. I am pretty sure that this Arsenal brand is a subsidiary of Austad's. My only reference to the Arsenal football club was that it took up all of the google search results, making it hard to find any information on these bags without picking up Arsenal Football Club bags. Anyways, long story short, they had identical bags in the store and they replaced mine for free (after 3 days without a bag). Kind of a hassle, but it was nice of them. The bag will probably fall apart quickly, but at least I got a couple free months of use out of it.

What is your go-to club for greenside bunkers? I recently picked up a used Vokey oil can spin milled 60* lob wedge with 10* bounce at play it again sports for ~$50 and it is in amazing shape (still has nearly all of the mills visible). I find the higher bounce on this club makes it extremely risky to hit from the hard fairway, and 1/10 of my shots is a skulled hit that rockets 90 yards. However, when practicing in the greenside bunkers with this club, I hit 20 or 30 shots out of our soft sand bunker within 5 yards of the pin (and left no shots in the bunker). I also found I was able to open the club face without a problem for sand shots and rough shots. I am thinking of having this be my go-to bunker club, or maybe for rough that is just off the green. It is worth keeping it in the bag for just that purpose. I have a 56* Cleveland 588 (I think it is 10 bounce, it doesn't say on the club) that I have very good distance/accuracy control with from the fairway and can choke up if necessary, but I cannot escape sand with this club. Anybody have a club that very rarely fails from a greenside bunker? Do you think it is a good idea to confine the 60.10 to sand/greenside rough and use the 56.10 from the tighter lies, or is there another application that I am missing? (I do not even carry fairway woods so I still have an opening in my bag even with all these wedges)

It took some searching, but I think I found that Arsenal (as well as several other brands that are pushed by Austads) are actually owned by the Austads company. Check these links out as evidence: http://www.findownersearch.com/category-golf%20clubs-brands-7.html?sort=o This shows all the trademarks owned by Austads: http://trade.mar.cx/austad's_golf,_inc. If they own the company, why won't they stand up for their crappy product, and why will it take 2 weeks to know whether they will refund the bag? If anybody lives in an Austads state, please take this as a warning.

As another update, the shop has my bag and said it will be another 2 to 3 weeks before they hear anything back from the "company" which I am pretty sure is Austad's themselves. I cannot find any company information when I look at the tags on the Arsenal bags in the store, only Austad's tags. I think this is just garbage. I guess Ogio is a while known/respected company for a reason. Any suggestions here? I feel that at best I will get a new Arsenal bag replacement, which will only last a few months.

Yah, I was having the same problem when trying to look up the company (if there even is one). As an update, it is 1:30pm here and I have not heard back from the store who still has my bag. I am very much hoping to get some sort of bag by the weekend (even if it is my ripped one returned to me).

Has anyone heard of Arsenal golf bags? My wife bought me an arsenal stand bag (nice, 14 compartment one with several pockets, nice back-pack like straps, insulated water holster) for my birthday because it was a good price at our local golf store (Austad's, it is a local shop that extends throughout this area: Nebraska, Iowa, North/South Dakota,Minnesota; http://austadsgolf.com/ ). I have owned the bag for a little over a month now and it is already starting to fall apart. Several of the seams are ripping and it looks as if it only has a couple more weeks of life left. I took the bag into Austad's to say that they sold me some garbage and that we would appreciate a refund or at the very least store credit. There are several large sporting goods stores in the area (Scheel's, Dick's), so I would think that Austad's would do everything necessary to focus on customer service (this is why I shop there in the first place- very knowledgeable and friendly staff, although they are a bit "commission-hungry"). Anyways, Austad's said they couldn't do anything about the bag but they would keep it overnight and call the next day to see if there was any warranty from the manufacturer that would cover this. I am expecting a call today, so I will keep you updated. In the meantime, however, I was trying to look up this Arsenal company on my own. I am unable to find any such company online, although I admit that it is slightly complicated by search results from the Arsenal Football Club. A friend of mine also purchased an arsenal golf bag as his first bag and it is falling apart in less than a year. He thinks that the company is Austad's brand of golf bags that are cheaply made but with high profit margins, so they push them. My question is: Have any of you heard of Arsenal golf bags? Is this company just the bags made for Austad's? Have any of you had bags that fell apart within a month or two, and if so, did you get any sort of refund? Any experiences similar to this? I guess I might have to bite the bullet and get a more expensive, high-quality bag, but I do not appreciate Austad's pushing the Arsenal brand if it is such garbage (and it is heavily pushed as a "quality, affordable bag").