Hardspoon

You're thinking about it all wrong...you're trying to connect quality of the shot ("ball just off the fairway") with expected results. Sometimes, in golf, the perfect approach shot hits the flagstick and spins into the water, while the topped shot bounces off a rock wall and lands on the green. Golf isn't supposed to be fair - it's just supposed to be equitable. Losing a ball in a hazard, since you know exactly where it ended up, lets you play a new ball according to a specific set of options. Having absolutely no clue what happened to a ball forces you to play by another (more penal) set of options. That's equitable. The quality of the shot ("just off the fairway" versus "way offline into the native grass") is totally irrelevant.

This is actually a good idea. But...why not keep three? A typical round for me would be: "Real" score: 91 Imaginary score (eliminate bad breaks not in my control): 82 Imaginary score (also eliminate good breaks not in my control): 91 Oh, crap...look at that! 😉 Seriously, though...after reading the first two paragraphs, I though this was the stupidest thing ever. But... ...this does make a bit of sense. If you're using your "imaginary" score as a mental trick to keep your confidence up when things go off the rails, that's not really a bad thing. However, if you're deluding yourself into thinking you're better than you actually are because your bad holes are due to bad luck or lack of course knowledge, you're probably hurting your own chances at improvement. Just my two cents.

I don’t see that on the “Strokes Gained” chart...

It really depends, as @iacas says. Could be as early as October...or could be golf weather through Christmas. More importantly: make a stop at Fallingwater. It’s worth it.

If so, that is a heck of a wide-angle lens.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/Hardspoon/round/2385613 Good round today, despite an awful start. 48-43: 91. We had the second tee time, played through the threesome in front of us on 7, and finished in 2:40. And...back-to-back birdies: I've been driving the ball really well lately. Today, according to GG, I lost less than one stroke to a scratch (!) golfer off the tee...and less than three strokes average over my past 3 rounds.

I don't think the current system is that bad. My concern, if any, has nothing to do with the FedEx cup winner; I just don't love that the final tournament of the season has such a reduced field that winning it doesn't include all of the best players in golf (see: Spieth, Jordan). I think the proposed solution is weird as hell...it's very much outside of anything elsewhere in golf. It seems stupid. I'd love match play, but that's probably not happening. I'm intrigued by @Eric C's suggestion of an aggregate stroke play over 4 weeks, but I think that has too high a potential to be a blowout, and it doesn't work well if people want to sit out a week.

Sigh. OK...what you describe is prohibited by Rule 14-1: 14-1. General a. Fairly Striking the Ball The ball must be fairly struck at with the head of the club and must not be pushed, scraped or spooned. So, it’s as legal as it is useful.

FWIW, when my wife took a golf lesson, her instructor used the "turn in a barrel" feel (I believe he called it "turning in a garbage can") only to help her avoid swaying backwards during her backswing. He never explained it as having anything to do with the downswing.

If it were me on the Committee, since it was a "fun tournament", I would have DQ'd him but then offered to let him play as a non-competing marker. At least that way he still gets to enjoy the rounds, but is not part of the competition. (I'm the "Something else" vote right now, even though technically it falls in the first category) I can at least see an argument for changing this rule...but that's not the topic of this thread. Given the circumstances, I think there was absolutely no choice but to DQ the player...I think mostly because of this: It's just too much leeway and gray area.

Yeah, for sure, I get that. I should be clear: my only frustration is the stuff that SHOULD have nothing to do with practice. Any normal person should be able to not play/practice for a year and still two-putt from 10’, or get on a green in less than three shots from 25 yards. That’s all I meant...stupid crap like that is COMBINING with the normal results of lack of practice to make my golf particularly poor right now. But...no big deal. Still enjoying playing, and hoping to get better.

Well, coming off a month or so of basically NO focused practice, I'm feeling pretty shitty about my game. All sorts of things that should be relatively easy, even for someone at my level, aren't (I'm three-putting from 10', and duffing chips regularly). The only positive right now is my driver...not that it's necessarily GOOD, but at least there are signs that it could be. I'm still way too inaccurate, but I feel like I have a swing that's generating enough center-face contact with good clubface control to get decent distance. Out of 12 drives my last round, 7 were over 240 yards, with three over 260. I mean, it's easy to say "I just need to start practicing more", but unless I actually do it, I'm not gonna get any better. Meh.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/Hardspoon/round/2370189 What a terrible round. It was hot as hell, I slept for about four hours the night before, and I just felt uncomfortable the entire time. Tons of poor contact, both with irons and on short pitch shots, and poor putting. Blech.

Haha - "questionable"?

In most cases, if you think something was "better in the good old days"...you're probably wrong. Maybe he just didn't realize that it wasn't OK to play music until you said something. I tend to try to give people the benefit of the doubt.