Break80

"PING is going to help me be fast and forgiving with the new G Driver and Crossover!" McIlroy -17 Snedaker -8 Woods -8

Rory McIlroy (-8) Dustin Johnson (-12) Bubba Watson (-14) If I Win I'll choose the Red DTX to start my 2015 golf season with a PURE advantage!

There is a decent little 18-hole par-3 course called Assateague Greens that might be good for you and your buddies. There are also a variety of regulation courses for you to check out. Rates will depend on when you plan on playing (morning vs. afternoon, weekend vs. weekday, etc...) Check out most of the public courses here: http://ococean.com/golf I haven't played them all (not even close), but I really like Rum Pointe!

Shot a solid 105, and I wasn't too disappointed with it either. No lost balls/penalties, plenty of 3-putts, and one hell of a good time!!

OK, let me start off by saying I was never 100% serious when I would claim the following (but somewhere deep in my mind I thought it might have an ounce of truth to it): The only reason I am a 12 handicapper and not a professional golfer is because the courses I play on are crap compared to the PGA courses, and they have a gallery and caddie to find every ball, help read, every putt, etc... Well, this past Monday I was fortunate enough to play Congressional Country Club as part of the Media Day for Tiger Woods' Quicken Loans National coming up next month. The course was perfect, they supplied me with a forecaddie, and I was ready to make a run at the course record. And then reality set it!!!!! Despite playing the white tees, which were about 6,200 yards (you know, almost 1,600 yards shorter than the Championship tees), it was obvious on my first hole (No. 11) that I was out of my league. My drive was hit decently, about 225 down the left side and disappeared in the rough. My next shot was gauged out about 80 yards (and I swung HARD) into the right rough, my third was decent, but shot across the green as though it landed on concrete. My fourth was a putt from the back fringe, and I was so scared to knock it off the front of the green, I left it about 20 feet short. My next was of course struck very solidly, and rolled about 8 feet past, then I was no where near the hole with my triple-bogey attempt (though I blamed the caddie on that one). And the pattern continued, balls that hit the rough just stopped and sunk, balls that weren't struck perfectly with an approach almost always ran through, and chips from the rough were a guessing game for me. My normal 7 iron goes 155ish from the fairway, but maybe got me 100 closer if I swung hard from the rough there. Yet the pros are knocking 7 irons close to 190 from the rough with ease. They are spinning and checking shots with their eyes closed. They are averaging 27-28 putts on these linolium-style greens. Oh yeah, and their approaches are coming in from about 50-60 yards further away from mine, even with their rear tees. Just a different game, that's for sure! But, I can't wait to try it again if given the chance!

My temper has improved significantly over the course of the last 5 years. I was never a yeller (OK, maybe I was), but I was a club-thrower, a complainer, an excuse-maker, etc... Some things have changed in my life off the course, and with some medication I have been on for a while, my entire attitude has shifted. I'm still as passionate as I ever have been, but I am am much more cognizant of different aspects of golf (and life). My wife is in management and her favorite quote is "Control the controllables, manage everything else." We can't control everything in golf (especially an opponent's shot, quality of play), so just make a plan, execute that plan, review that plan when done, modify that plan, implement the modifications, etc... For me, the big thing is eliminating the things I can control (3-putts, missed greens from within 60 yards, and eliminate all penalty strokes). If I do that, and shoot an 82 (net 70) and someone beats me, congratulations to them. If I do start 3-putting, flubbing chips, etc... who am I going to get mad at? Of course only me, but what good would that do. Goes back to the old Bobby Jones quote: "Golf is played on a 5 1/2 inch course, the one between your ears."

Aah, that explains it. Actually though, it was a shotgun, and we were the first ones out on 12. However, if you were in 17 fairway, I might have hit you with my massive slice I hit off the tee. I left that part out of the story purposely!

OK, I admit, I didn't hit both shots, so the obvious answer is no. But hear me out ... Backstory: Playing in a scramble, we were put on Hole No. 12 at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Stewartstown, PA. I was playing with my three brothers, and one of them hit the best drive of the group. It was a nice little draw around the dogleg that left us about 185 yards in. I was third to hit, and knocked a nice iron towards the green, which is a somewhat blind shot. Much to our surprise, we got to the green, and my ball was in the hole. We were actually 3-under par after 1 hole! So, I say that anyone can knock a drive around a corner, and the hard part is sinking it from 185 yards. My brothers don't agree, and they ignore my claims of making a Double-Eagle, which I usually only make to get under their skin. (I'm the youngest so, I've got many of years of being picked on to make up for) What says the group?

I held onto my first eagle ball, for approximately 4 minutes ... before slicing it OB into the woods. On No. 10 at Greystone Golf Course, a little north of Baltimore, a pulled a drive that actually ended up in the 18th fairway, about 220 with a clear shot at the green. Hit a 3-wood that was hit well, but a little left, before kicking right off a mound and rolling to about 4 feet. I had been playing around 6-8 years at that point, and was never so nervous over a putt. Luckily, I managed to make it, and was all smiles heading to No. 11, where I had honors and sliced badly. "Hope that wasn't your eagle ball," someone said. But it had never even occurred to me to put it away. I've had a few more since then, but haven't held onto the balls. Still waiting for Hole-in-One No. 1 for that!

Case in point ... http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10682317/josh-gordon-pretty-sure-cleveland-browns-draft-quarterback How in the hell is this a story on the front page of espn.com???

Thanks for the feedback. The original cost in pro shops was $4.99 (of course pro shops get from us way less than that). But I'm just surprised that the concept has been such a miss thus far with actual golfers (going off of feedback here, and lack of re-orders from pro shops). My unofficial surveying has approximately 60% of vehicles having some sort of decal on the car. Is it possible just that the golfing demographic isn't the same as the car-decal demographic?

And don't get me started on "sources". Any reporter can literally say anything they want and attribute it to a source, and are under no obligation to ever name that source (assuming the reporting isn't libelous/slanderous). I bet you if golfchannel.com posted a story that says: According to Sources, Woods Mulling Retirement Because of Bad Back ... every visitor to that site would click and read. Then Tiger's camp would refute it, calling it ludicrous, and the reporter would say something to the effect of "people who are close to the situation" ... yada-yada-yada. Website is happy with all the traffic, athlete could care less, reporter is already moving onto something/someone else, and the reader/fan has learned absolutely nothing!!! But I must say, I would be the first one to read that story, and others like it, so as was mentioned above, I'm part of the problem.

OK, full disclosure, I have a degree in Journalism, and spent 3 years as a sports writer before moving on to the wonderfully fulfilling world of Education. But something happened yesterday that made me realize how much I truly hate today's media. At the NFL owner's meetings, Baltimore Ravens Head Coach (I'm a Baltimorean) sat down for a 1-on-1 interview with a reporter. And then throughout the day, there are maybe 10-12 small articles put out by the reporter. I realized, each article has 1 quote in it from Harbaugh, and then a handful of paragraphs playing off of that quote. That got me thinking. When I went to school - which admittedly was before the 24-hour Social Media craze, but not that long before - reporters would scoop out a good story and then go to the athlete/coach to get a quote about that story. Now it seems there is very little reporting, and more waiting for an athlete/coach to say something, and then the reporters take that quick quote/soundbyte, and turn that into the story. Isn't that backwards? It's not as bad in the world of golf, as it is with the NFL/NBA, but just last week Patrick Reed says he's a Top-5 player, and that one quote turns into nearly a week of stories. Really????? If you look at golfchannel.com (or God forbid espn.com) a chunk of the "news" is a quote from an athlete about a topic or another athlete, and a full story revolving around that quote. If I were a pro athlete in this day and age, I would be as tight-lipped (Tiger!!!) about as much as I possibly could. What good can come out of talking about anything, when it will probably be turned into a story? I remember by Dad telling me that the old Colts (Unitas, Moore, Berry, Donovan, etc...) used to hang out at the local bars, and I've read how close Arnie, Jack, and others were with the media in their hayday. Can you imagine some of the stories that those reporters could have shared if they wanted to? Of course they didn't, because it wasn't "news" back then. Today, it's too hard to go find a story, so let's just ask an athlete/coach a question, and hope he says something he'll soon regret. And then we'll turn that into a story until another one does the same thing in a few days. So is the media to blame, or are we - the sports fans - to blame for reading/listening/watching all of this? Sorry for my rant!!!!

That's one of the ideas we're throwing around. Of course, we'd have to work in partnership with these courses. Adding the logo wouldn't up the cost any, but currently we can kep costs lower with bulk orders. If we added the logos, we wouldn't be able to get the bulk order price (i.e courses aren't going to order more than maybe 100 at a time, where as if there are no logos, we can order thousands and keep in stock). Would most golfers only be interested in displaying what they shot on some of the more nationally-known courses (i.e. Pebble, Sawgrass, Bethpage, etc...), or would the average golfer want to show off their low score at their local club?

Yeah, they are 5' in diameter. The thought was that is would be large enough to be visible from another car, and the oval look just didn't vibe much. We do have the 3x5 oval decals in the religion section. As far as transparency goes, that could be something to look into. Before we go much further with the concept though, we're trying to find out if it's something that could possible catch on. Right now it seems like we're hit or miss, with people either saying they're just not into putting things on their cars, and others loving the idea and product.

A lot of courses will have different types of leagues (i.e. men's leagues, women's leagues, senior's leagues, couple's leagues, etc...). I would imagine most were created that way, and didn't switch from one all-inclusive league to a specific one. I I don't know the legal side of issues like this, but I'd love to be kept informed to see the outcome.

Looks great, just signed up to test it out. Best of luck!!

The number thing is something we discussed. I could picture people contacting us for a "57" or something, because they played an executive course somewhere. But I know amongst me and my group, there's always a lot of pride with our low rounds, mostly because we know we're always playing Par 71-72s. Do you think if we could somehow personalize to include the course's name/logo that might help?

Good Afternoon Guys, I want to thank @iacas for allowing me this forum to ask golfers directly their opinion on a product I developed. I found The Sand Trap last month, and have been a daily visitor and occasional poster. I love the conversations with fellow golfers! Last year, when staring at the back windshields of the cars in front of me and seeing nothing but stickers that say, 'My Kid is an Honor Roll Student', or a family of 'Stick Figures', or 'OBX' logos, or '26.2' stickers, etc... I started thinking, wouldn't it be cool if there was something that would allow you to show off your passion for golf, while bragging a little at the same time? These cars are all doing it, who not us golfers? So surprisingly enough, my wife let me chase this idea, and my brothers and I started a little family-run company called iShot. We started off with strictly golf decals that allow golfers to display on their back windshields, golf carts, lockers, etc... their low round of golf, or Hole-in-One. We've since expanded into other areas as well (hunting, bowling, religion, family, hashtags), but I know just golf, so I stay in that lane. Anyway, golf courses have been accepting of the idea and we have displays in pro shops around some of our local courses, but with the weather being crappy all winter, we really haven't received any solid feedback from actual golfers. Is this a product that you could see yourself purchasing in a Pro Shop, or online? The cost is only $1.99, so I don't think that would be a distractor, but I'm just not sure if enough golfers would be willing to display their low score (or Hole-In-One). The website is www.ishotllc.com . If you could check it out in your spare minute, and offer any feedback relating to what you think of the product, the price, the idea in general, etc... it would be greatly appreciated. Lastly, I will shoot out free decals to the first 10 'Supporting Members' of TST who shoot me a PM w/ some feedback, and I'm also working on putting up a discount code here so all TST members can get a 25% discount if they were interested in ordering any decals online. Thanks ahead of time for the help, it is truly appreciated!

Just saw Bubba has WD. I hate to speculate, because it could be injury or something else, but the more of his antics I see, the more I find him one of the biggest babies on tour. I understand you shot an 83, with an 11 on the card. But you are at Arnold Palmer's tournament, and you stay and try your best for two rounds.

I do find him funny, but mostly when he's not trying to be if that make sense. Not a big fan when he has non-golf celebrities on. To be honest, we can see them anywhere. And I'm glad they love golf and all, but I'd rather see the Jack Nicklaus's, Tom Watson's, Greg Norman's, than the Larry David's or Bill Clinton's. I was about to criticize the current season's guests as being fairly weak, but then I just saw that Mickelson, Harrington, and Furyk are scheduled. That's a combined 9 majors that I'd love to hear more about, and personally, they all seem like decent guys. I wonder just how much they'll let their guard down with Feherty?

Dustin Johnson (-11) Zach Johnson (-6) Rickie Fowler (-10)

Anytime I'm in a situation that is foreign to me or doesn't feel right, I go to my "go-to" shots. Now, I'm a 12 handicap, so I don't mean that I have the game to do anything dramatic to be extremely consistent. But I did spend time "mastering" a baby-fade drive where I choke down a little and have a smooth easy swing. It only goes about 210 yards, but I can control it just about every time. And then when I'm unfamiliar with a course, I like to keep my approach shots as close to the ground as possible. What I mean is that I will play a longer club with a shorter swing (think chipping a 6-iron 150 yards instead of taking a full 8-iron) and play to the front of all greens if they are open. On my more familiar courses, I am thinking about breaking my personal best record every time out (well, at least for the first few holes). On an unfamiliar course, I'm thinking about making no worse than bogey on every hole, and maybe stealing a few pars here and there. Usually a drive in play, and a solidly struck approach will leave me near the green on every hole. Then, it's a matter of chipping and 2-putting or - dare I say - even getting up and down once in a while. This "strategy" also works when I'm not feeling the best physically, or if I know I have a lead in an outing and I want to get back to the clubhouse without any blow-up holes. It is boring, but effective.

I'm a 12, and my goal for this season is to make it to single digits. I think that's why many of us are addicted; no matter what skill level we are or what scores we put up, golf allows us to always improve and set individual goals for us to chase. For a while, it was breaking 90, then it was breaking 80, then it was this, or it was that! I play with a group that varies from 12 to 36 handicaps. Our league uses net scoring, and we all have a fair shot each bi-weekly outing. Of course, when a few of them have a few too many to drink while playing, it does irk me. But no more than I irk them when I ask if they saw my mini-draw off the tee, when I know darn well they just buried one deep in a lake. Some take golf very seriously, and some just like getting out on the weekends, away from the stress of home and work. We're all different, but we're all friends. We all love golf, but probably for different reasons.

I think the whole thing comes down to obliviousness. Or maybe ignorance and apathy is more appropriate. What I mean is that slow players, while knowing they may be slow (because we all tell them), probably don't know why or don't care. My biggest pet peeve is waiting on a tee box while two carts drive up the fairway to one ball, where Player A takes 30-45 seconds to play his approach as Player B watches. Then they drive to Player B's ball (usually no more than 20-30 yards away), where the entire ordeal plays out again. And God forbid they don't knock their approaches near the green, as the whole process will play out yet again. I almost always ride, but spend a lot of time walking to balls while my partner is preparing to play his shot. And also jumping out of the cart with a few wedges and putter when I know I missed the green, instead of making multiple treks back to see what kind of shot I have, what kind of lie is there, what club do I use, etc...