aaronwright21

I get to play Port Royal in about 3 weeks! Super pumped! The 16th hole has been giving me nightmares. 230 yd par 3 with ocean breeze!? Gonna be a tricky one... Hopefully they don't keep the same pin placements!

Yeah that's crazy that it was for the win! Looks like he won the Junior-Pro by 2 strokes. If that doesn't hole out he could easily be in the rough, scrambling to try and take it to a playoff.

Nobody cares besides the maintenance men. It happens on 90% of shots so whats the difference if it's from a practice or real swing. Obviously don't go hackin away at the fairways, but if you chunk a practice swing, don't worry about it! Not a big deal at all.

I agree. My pet peeve tends to be more when people say nice shot while the ball is still in the air. Of course the ball usually hears them say this and decides to dip down right into the green side bunker. Balls have feelings too. You have to be honest and respectful to your ball. Happy Gilmore can attest to that. That ball didn't go in his home because he didn't ask nicely. All jokes aside, you can hit a good putt/shot without the results being good. That is golf!

Found a Prov1 in the parking lot before my round of golf yesterday. Decided to play with it just in case it was a magical ball (Like Mike anybody?). Turns out, I was right. Ball of destiny. I never hit the ball OB once during my round (only done this 1 other time) and shot a 40 - the best 9 hole round of my life. I'm playing in my first tournament on Saturday and I plan to use the magical ball. I will post results later But anyways, this got me thinking. Do any of you guys have specific superstitions on the golf course?

Honestly I don't know why more people don't play with rain gloves to help grip the club in humid or hot temperatures. It is night and day difference!

+1. Discovered this bit of knowledge this year and it has helped tremendously!

Yes I was fitted. And I have short arms for my size anyways.

Yes we have 1 course rater position in GAP. I've been on a few ratings and they are awesome. Almost always get to play the course after. Don't know how it's considered a real job!!

Yes but the "experienced" 3 people sometimes consist of interns and volunteers.

Quote: On a side note we are both correct because the USGA Course Rating is the Scratch Golfer Rating for the course. Haha, makes sense now that I think about it!

Thats not true. The slope rating is the difference between the Bogey Golfer's rating and the Scratch Golfer's rating. A lot of this has to deal with distance and if there are forced lay ups, forced carries, etc. I believe bogey golfers can hit a maximum of 180 on their 2nd shots and scratch golfers can hit 200. Not positive. But a course can have a very high slope rating and a low course rating if the distances work out like that. I just learned this recently!

David, I've been on a few course ratings as part of my internship with Golf Association of Philly. The sand shouldn't make too much of a difference. The only thing I can think of is if your course has modified the bunkers to make them deeper. If they are more than 5 feet elevation they will get a higher score than if they are 4 feet or less. Other than that, the only other thing that could possibly affect the CR would be the actual rater. The entire process is just a bunch of opinions of the rater. Some might feel trees could be a problem while another rater could feel that the trees are far enough away from the fairway, green, etc. that they shouldn't affect a shot. If there is a new course rater for the Florida State Golf Association this could be the reason. Now that I think about it. I wonder if they have added any new sets of tees? The main factor in the formula for CR is distance. Everything else factors in but only changes it a little bit. Distance is by far the most important factor.

My suggestion would be to get out to the range when you have a hour or two and go through your bag hitting all your irons starting at about 50% speed. Make sure your hitting them good then go up to 75% then 85 ect... When I got my new irons I was looking for results and ignoring fundamentals. Those clubs are awesome stick with em. Jakester - Thanks for the response. Where at in Wisconsin? I'm originally from NW Suburbs of Chicago. If you aren't too far away from there we should get together next season and hit the links! I thought I saw you post something similar in the Wisconsin thread. That's funny! I didn't even check this message and that's exactly what I did yesterday. I tried to slow my swing down a lot and just focused on the ball at impact. I just need to become familiar with the new length and then I can start to get the finer details figured out.