GeorgiaGolfer

It's not like he woke up one morning and discovered he had forgotten how to play golf. There are still flashes of brilliance, it's just that mediocre and godawful shots are currently overshadowing them. One day soon something is gonna click, and then....hopefully... Can't wait to see some big slices of humble pie being eaten when Tiger's holding a Claret Jug in a few weeks time.

I saw all I needed to see only 2 years ago. And what I saw at Augusta a few weeks ago looked pretty encouraging, too. I think the doldrums are over. He'll go on a winning streak again, and soon. Sunday afternoon is as good a time as any.

This tournament has Tiger's name all over it. I think we are are about to see the next phase of Tiger's career begin this weekend.

Dang it. I'll keep quiet in that case.

Tiger looks like he could go on a charge. It looks like he's playing really well this morning. I'm just hoping that he can string something together and leave himself well placed if he manages to go really low on Saturday.

This has the makings of something great. A sports story of the decade. Tiger doesn't have to play. He made it clear he'd come back only when he was good and ready. The 66 worst ball score suggests he's good and ready. He isn't showing up to miss the cut. If his game was still off he could wait and come back at the British or whenever he chose. Neither is he showing up to be an also-ran. He's gonna win this thing.

- Phil Mickelson going into Augusta in great form. Maybe a perfectly respectable four rounds in the offing, nothing more than that. - Jordan Spieth playing his best golf thus far of his career and a chance to really take over as the face of golf in America. See above. - Rory McIlroy going for the Career Grand Slam and 3rd major in a row. Tries too hard, gets frustrated, bad things will happen; misses cut or utterly anonymous by Saturday afternoon. - Bubba playing well and with a legitimate shot at his 3rd green jacket in 4 years. Bubba will be very prominent on the leaderboard by late Sunday afternoon. - Tiger Woods back A prediction: The 2015 Masters is going to surpass the 1986 Masters.

Quote: There may not be a next time if the USGA has to call on the club pro he has to list as a reference when you fill out the application Understood - sorry, I don't know how the system works. My 14 handicap is unlikely to ever trouble anything beyond a Wednesday afternoon scramble!

Not really interested in cyber-stalking a stranger to work out his golf handicap. Sometimes internet forums can be very judgmental. Some might say that "Vanity handicapper" isn't a million miles away from "Bull*****er." If he can play to his handicap, I hope he does next time he plays in a qualifier.

This from two years ago: http://thesandtrap.com/t/146/whatd-you-shoot-today/9468#post_758294 Sorry, you were asking him for scores, so I looked to see if he had mentioned any here. Not bad for a course of that quality?

Quote: I just watched a few hours of the British Open and my opinion on British Open courses has been the same for the two decades I've been watching golf on TV: they are butt-ugly, boring, in bad shape, and have a very common gimmick to make them more challenging - the impossibly-deep-and-steep-sided pot bunkers. OK, I know this is sacrilegious to many people.... 100% agree. I have zero interest in sentimental "tradition." Golf thrives as a modern game. Show me any British or European course that has features comparable to, say, the Bear Trap at PGA National. Tradition doesn't validate a boring ill-kept track laid down in the 19th century with only the crappy weather to add interest. On a different but similar theme. I think there's a strong argument that winning the [non-major] Player's Championship is a significantly more major achievement than winning the [major] British Open these days.

Quote: Seems to me The Open Championship has lately been sentimental winners (Els, Clarke, Harrington) or nobodies (Curtis, Hamilton). If that trend continues I could see Westwood representing the former group & someone like Jordan Speith representing the latter. I agree with this. Gotta say though - if that trend continues - the British Open will start to look like a novelty tournament. And Tiger's decisive victory at The Players Championship this year will look much more like a "major" win in comparison.

Probably not a popular opinion - but I miss the metal spikes, although the onus was on the golfer to tread carefully and respectfully on the greens. The modern plastic spikes? To be be honest, anyone weighing 200+ may just as well wear New Balance on the golf course, rather than golf shoes. There is no noticeable difference in adhesion. And if you're going to walk the course, the New Balance will be more comfortable.

I agree with the national Championship for the United States logic. But applying that same reasoning, I guess a more contentious question is why "The Open Championship" should not be formally renamed "The British Open" especially as most folks outside of the U.K. already call it that.

I think experienced golfers who head out on to the course with newbie golfers assume a responsibility here. Maybe kinda far fetched to say its like sitting in the passenger seat next to a kid with a learners permit, but it is a little bit like that if you are playing with someone who hasn't got the first clue what he is doing on the golf course. I had the same I paid my money so I will play however slowly I wanna play conversation with a friend who started playing a while back, and who got real mad when I told him to pick up and try again from higher up the fairway after 6 shots that had advanced the ball maybe 50 yards. I told him he was paying his green fee to play golf and what he was wanting to do is not how golf is played.

Perhaps the only solution is to find profitability in cheaper courses. That may mean building fewer upmarket courses spread over huge areas of land surrounding expensive housing developments, and find a way of making money from shorter, cheaper, 9 hole courses instead. Get back to golf for golf's sake, rather than the pre-recession idea of golf as a means for marketing real estate.

In this economy it all comes down to money. I'm grateful there is an Air Force course near where I live that allows civilians to play and is cheap, otherwise I'd have to cut back on my golf. I can't afford $35 green fee, $15 cart fee and all the rest of it at the semi-private courses. The Air Force course charges $15 walking or $23 with a cart. So I walk a lot when it's cooler. I also hope the civilian green fees help keep the course open for the Airmen.

I'll never understand giving an interest-free loan to the IRS for a year. I try and calculate my taxes so that I get a refund that covers my preparer's fee and basically end up each April with $0 refund/money owed. Usually I'm within a few bucks. Worse still is the slimy industry that has grown around refunds for poorer people. "Hey, given Uncle Sam a 0% interest loan out of your pay check; then, the following year, claim that money back - best of all we'll roll the cost of returning that money to you plus an advance on the money itself (i.e. money you already earned) into one big bundle as a Refund Anticipation Loan at a usurious APR and cut you a check. Then you can take the check to the scumbag check cashing place next door (which we probably own, too) and get it turned into cash for a modest fee of 10% of the face value. Hey folks, it's like winning the lotto once a year!"

Can't agree with that last part - have you ever visited the Deep South? Even in 2013, take a drive around on the other side of the tracks and you will see plenty of evidence of deep, residual, poverty. If you look at actual figures in something like American Factfinder via the U.S. Census, it's easy to find plenty of counties in the South where median family income is less than $20,000 per year. Look a little harder and you'll find many more counties where it's more likely between $10,000 - $15,000 per year. How do these people live? Answer: in deep poverty. I don't have a solution to this problem, but I'm certain that there's no incentive to continue to live like that, and I don't believe that all of those people are just lazy scroungers who don't want to work and prefer living in poverty.

I guess if one believes in a "sins of the fathers" type philosophy, then that argument holds water. However, I think the question, "Why should children live in poverty just because they had the misfortune to be born to irresponsible or impecunious parents?" would serve as an adequate rebuttal. Admittedly, it can be very frustrating to witness the distribution of taxpayers' money through entitlements. A while ago, the city where I live suddenly repealed some of its blue law ordinances, and now allows beer sales on Sundays. One Sunday a few months ago, while standing in line at the grocery store, a lady had the temerity to rebuke me for the six-pack she saw in my shopping cart. When she pulled out an EBT card to pay for her groceries, I couldn't help but say, "Well, as I'm spending MY money that I earned, I'll spend it however I please." Which, in hindsight, was just rather unkind on my part. At the end of the day, I was buying beer (a luxury item). She was buying groceries to (presumably) feed her family. The government, in its collective wisdom, has (rightly, I think) determined that the poor ought not be hungry, even if taxpayer subsidy is required to prevent that situation. As regards Phil. Well, I concur with the arguments some others here have stated: be grateful to live in a part of the world where one can become a multi-millionaire through playing golf. Being obliged to contribute a bit more to the communal pot for the good of society doesn't negate that good fortune.

I have no use for belly putters. But then I have no use for a 460cc driver, either. However, if other golfers do like these things and choose to use them, then that's up to them. Not sure how you can attempt to roll back innovation in golf equipment. Sure, you could say that everyone has to play persimmon, blades, and balata - but all you'd be doing then would be rolling back time to technologies that were "cutting edge" in the 1960s, and hence a huge improvement over the hickory of the 1920s or whatever... I guess what I'm saying is that you can't "put the genie back in the bottle." It seems that manufacturers have tried (so they'd tell us) to make this game easier ever since it was conceived. Still difficult though, isn't it? Belly putters, spring-faced drivers, whatever else....none of it really matters, you can't buy yourself a golf game, all you can do is buy the equipment that seems to work best for you and your swing. It's not as though anyone is coming for my traditional-looking bladed putter and forcing me to play with one of those outlandish-looking putters I seem to see in pro shops everywhere these days, so depriving other players of the equipment they choose to use strikes me as an odd idea for leveling the playing field - not that I'm certain the playing field needs leveling.

Quote: I enjoy walking for the exercise. It sure beats running down the road bored out of my mind lol! I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. I love to walk, but here in Georgia there are a few months of the year where it's 100 degrees and 90% humidity every afternoon. If I tried to walk in those conditions the group behind would maybe find me collapsed on the 4th green. Riding is the only option if I'm going to play golf in June, July, August, or September. I have often wondered about the lower scores when walking. I attribute it to better concentration. Walking up to the ball, thinking about the shot. No distraction from playing partners sharing a cart - whether conversation or just worrying about whose ball to drive to first. As it turned out, I rode with my buddies the other day rather than walked - just seemed easier, rather than making a big deal about it. Looking forward to walking as a single player tomorrow afternoon though.

It's a bit cooler in Georgia now it's November, so I've dusted off my pull-cart and am loving walking golf. I'm playing better, too. About 3-4 shots a round. I also play in a regular weekly foursome, and I mentioned to my buddies that it would be fun for them to walk, but they ain't buying it. I'm not going to persuade them out of their carts. Of the four players, I'm right in the middle, typically shooting in the mid 80s. I reckon the other players range from one guy who typically breaks 80 to an another guy who typically breaks 100. Do y'all think it is possible to be a walking golfer playing with 3 guys who are riding and still keep up? The public course we play is around 6700 yards, but there is no substantial distance between any holes - walk off one green and the next teebox is adjacent. Has anyone else tried walking alongside guys who are riding?