PianoSteve

Guys, I'm pumped!! I know this score is still way high for most of you, but for me, this was the best round of my life by far! 9 holes, 11 over for a total of 47. This is 9 strokes better than my last 9-hole round. And I had a couple of really cool things on this round: 4 pars. This is by far the most pars I've ever had in a round (even more than in any 18-hole round for me!) My first hole was almost a birdie (missed the chip-in by a few inches), but I par'd 1 AND 2 which meant I was standing on the 3rd tee at even par -- something I've never experienced. The other two pars were 8 and 9, so it made for a nice end to the round as well. I had two "blowup holes" -- a triple and a (gulp) quadruple. Those were on 6 and 7. Hole 6 was just some bad luck. My drive found the fairway. My second shot (3-wood) was a bit right, and hit a fence post (small wooden fence along the cart path, about a foot high) and shot back and to the right, landing under a bush where I had NO option but to nudge it out into the rough to set up a long-ish approach toward the green for par. I almost made the green, but overestimated my PW on a hillside lie in the rough and should have taken more club. On in 5 and two-putted for triple. The quad was on a par 3 (I had par'd the earlier par 3) where I simply choked on my tee shot, then hit my PW into the ground without making contact for a wasted second shot. Par pitch ran off into a bunker, on in 4 and three putted (ugh!) for a nasty finish to that hole. But then I par'd 8 (par 5, actually overshot the green on my 3rd stroke, but got up and down for a save) and par'd 9 very easily (barely missing birdie on that as well). I feel a bit like that guy in the club commercial saying "I can turn pro..." ;) (ha!! Just kidding!) But seriously, this is one of those rounds that makes you go, "I can actually improve at this game!!" Basically, for once, I played WAY under my handicap, and it felt so amazingly wonderful and relaxing! And the feeling of being at even par on the 3rd tee, or just being 4 over after 5 holes...I've never had that experience in this game. It felt like I could actually play! For anyone who cares, the adjustments I made this week are: 1. On almost every shot, I put the ball slightly farther back in my stance from where I used to, allowing me to hit down on it more. 2. In conjunction with #1, I tried to put a tad more weight on my front foot so that I did actually hit down more on the ball. 3. I tried just a bit of a wrist-cock (my father-in-law pointed out last week that I wasn't really cocking my wrists at all), which I think did add some distance to my shots, but I didn't try too hard on that. I was afraid to mess with the swing too much without getting to the driving range first (we were actually going to hit balls before the round, but a bad accident [not involving us] on the way tied up traffic and we got there too close to our tee time). Sorry for the lengthy post, but I'm EXCITED!!!!!!!! Can you tell??? (Hitting essentially 14 below your handicap in a round has a way of doing that!)

Yep. Thanks! :) You can close the thread if you want. I sure didn't mean to bring up something that would lead to debate. My original question was straightforward, and both of you gave straightforward answers to my question. Thanks, both.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I think Erik is right that you can proceed the other way, too. Although I agree with Rick that marking/lifting first seems to remove any question as to where and how the ball should be placed to finish. And Erik, you were right that placing the ball back there without momentum meant that the ball stayed without any problem. All in all, my son got a HUGE break on that hole with the branch stopping his ball. The momentum probably would have brought the ball back to the fringe. As it was, he had about a 3-footer and made it. Thanks again, guys.

Yes, yes, yes!! I agree totally. I think a lot of us could learn so much by hearing those conversations, rather than commentators guessing about what the guy is thinking. On the flipside, I wonder if making those player/caddie conversations audible would lead to a sharp increase in fines for onscreen profanity

Had this come up in a round yesterday with my son. I've never seen anything like it, and can't seem to find any information applicable. So I'll open it up to you guys -- how would you handle this, or is there an applicable rule? My son chipped onto a sloped green. His ball started trickling down the slope, but was stopped by a branch that had fallen on the green prior to us playing the hole. I know how this works in the fairway -- if you move an object and your ball moves, it's a penalty. But is it different on the green? After he and I talked about options (we were almost certain that moving the branch would result in the ball rolling more), we settled on the following: He marked his ball and lifted it. Then, he moved the branch. When he was ready to putt, he replaced his ball (it didn't start rolling when it was placed) and finished out the hole. Were we right to mark and lift in that case? The ball HAD stopped moving, but only because of the branch in its way. I'm curious for feedback on this. Thanks! steve :)

I can't decide in reading this thread whether to laugh at it or feel depressed. I just hope I don't ever get paired up with most of the people posting in this thread for fear I'd accidentally say something nice and be thought of in the way promoted here. As a very high 'capper, though, I can say that it goes both ways, and this is one reason I hate being paired up with strangers. At my level of play, just about ANYONE I get paired up with is going to be better than me. So I have to endure the extremely condescending "nice shot" comments whenever I get the ball in the air. Little do they realize that I'm not playing even to my own potential because I'm intimidated by their playing. Several weeks ago, my son and I were playing in Myrtle Beach on vacation, and got paired up with a married couple. I struggled the first four holes, but then on the 5th, my drive was center of the fairway, I hit the green in regulation and missed my par putt by about an inch. What does the other guy do on the next tee? "You've found your groove now. Show us what you've got." I couldn't hit another shot clean the rest of the day. I wish he had just kept his mouth shut. Say "nice putt" on the hole previous, but don't say something on the next tee!! So you guys are so good players. Congrats. We high 'cappers respect and admire the work you've done to get there. But the minute you start to act like you're "all that", I lose my respect. And it doesn't make guys like me feel very welcome to the game. My vote? Say "thanks" and get over it. But you can bet after reading this thread that I'm going to be just pretending I don't even know my playing partners exist. That seems much safer than being thought stupid for trying to be nice.

I'm embarrassed to post this. But today, I shot a 135. :( :( :( It was raining pretty hard for part of the round, and we had to take a 40 minute break on the 9th hole (had just hit our tee shot) when the course manager asked everyone to clear the course because of potential hail in the area. Despite the enormously high score (I'm usually more around a 113 -- still way too high), I had a couple of positives: 2 different holes required me to hit a PW over water to the green. I've been terrified by water in the past and usually shank it right into the pond. In both cases, I hit nice arcs right over the water and landed nicely on the green. My putting was good and consistent today. I averaged just barely over 2 putts per hole (2.222222... to be exact), so that's definitely not my issue. I bogeyed the two par 3s on the front 9. That's really good for me because I usually end up doubling (or worse!) on par 3s. My green reading was so much better today (I'm just starting to get serious about reading) and I actually had three putts lip out today, showing me I had read it perfectly, but just had a bit too much speed. So with that good putting, why the 135? Well, because it was pouring rain (and had rained very hard yesterday), the fairways were very soggy, and I couldn't seem to make solid contact in the fairway. That and three whiffs in the round (I HATE those!!) just kept adding up. My son (almost 16yo) shot a 105. Gosh, I hate getting beat by my son like that :( Especially 30 strokes!! ;)

I actually found this forum searching for this very issue. I had decided to just drop and add a stroke, but wondered if others had opinions on it. Boy was I surprised to find this thread addressing that exact question! :) Today, I played 18 with my son. Three times (on three different holes), I wasn't sure I'd be able to find my tee shot (blind shots and they looked like they were going into the rough). Ironically, the first two times I reloaded and yet found my first shot sitting solidly in the fairway! On hole 18, I didn't reload, and couldn't find the ball. No one else was anywhere in sight, so I did go back to the tee and do it properly with stroke + distance. Someone above mentioned adding TWO strokes when dropping to replace a lost ball. I never thought of that, but you are correct. It probably should be two strokes.

I'm a musician (pianist/keyboardist). I work at the University level, accompanying students in the school of music at Appalachian State University. I'm also involved in musical theatre. I've been the music director at Blowing Rock Stage Company and am also about to do my first show (playing keys, not music directing) at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA. And I'm a recording artist, as well. I also do web application development freelance on the side. So, a little bit of everything ;)

I never understood ESC until reading this thread. I don't have an official handicap yet (listed mine as the max because honestly, I've never broken 113 on 18 holes yet, although I did shoot 50 on 9 once), and haven't even played enough rounds yet to have 20 to record, but hope to one day. Now that I understand ESC, I'll definitely be using it when I record rounds. I'm almost anal about playing by the rules, and definitely want to do the right thing in calculating my handicap when the time comes. Having said that, in response to the actual poll, I will continue to hole out (see my "anal" comment in the previous paragraph! hehe) but will record the ESC score if necessary. Thankfully, I seem to have reigned in most of my absolute worst holes, and now rarely get anything above a 9 so ESC may not factor in much at all. The odd thing is, I've actually managed to score a handful of birdies and even more pars. But a birdie or par is almost always followed by a snowman or worse.