sjduffers

Just like I just said "Sure", agreeing with you. Not in a snarky way or anything. I think you misunderstood and/or I didn't explain myself properly. We do agree, ok? Last I read was that some recovered patients in China (meaning they were tested negative) were testing positive again, so if that is true for the general population and not just a few isolated cases, the acquired immunity after getting ill may be short lived, which would of course be a nightmare scenario. Note that I put a lot of conditionals in that statement. I don't know and neither do any of us. Let the scientists inform us.

Sure. But even at the lowest number of 40% immunity cited before this thing peters out, we are talking about 130 millions people and with a CFR of 1%, that's 1.3 million dead bodies. We have a long way to go.

Nowhere near enough to get to herd immunity and slow the number of new infections though: that is achieved with around 70% of immune people. The problem with asymptomatic cases in that they are still infectious so transmission from those individuals is really hard to avoid, unless they stay well away from anybody not immune yet. Not currently being able to do surveillance testing (e.g. semi-random testing of the whole population, just like polling) means we don't know how many of those cases there are and where. That's why the botched testing situation in the US is really harming the fight forward...

A lot of things appear different in different areas of the country because things are delayed from one another. Obviously the entry points into the US from China are mainly on the West Coast and NYC is the main entry point from Europe (Italy amongst other places), so naturally the spread from those points started earlier than the rest of the country. The virus does not propagate on its own: it needs new hosts all the time and the hosts are the ones doing the traveling... Short of enacting a shelter-in-place at the national level, the virus is going to find its way to everywhere currently closed after those locations re-open, from people traveling from the places that are currently open. And you can't judge in real-time either because the inoculation period is anywhere from 1 to 14 days. The number of cases currently experienced in one location is only a function of transmissions that occurred 1 to 14 days ago and the number of people that have been tested, and since we are currently not testing anybody who is not symptomatic (except VIPs I guess), we have really no way of knowing the true extent today: we'll only know in about 2 weeks from the people that are really sick then how many cases we have today, more or less. Until the growth of the number of cases day over day is in the low single digits, we are not out of the woods. FYI, Italy is still in the high single digits, like 8.5% growth day over day. To make things worse, about half of the people with the virus are asymptomatic and can still transmit it to someone else, so the real situation is much worse than the current numbers show, and those numbers are really not good. The US just became #1in number of reported cases, surpassing China (I know, China may not have fully disclosed, etc...), but the situation is going to get much worse, everywhere, and specially in the states/areas where measures to restrict transmission have been lagging: are you listening Mississipi and Florida? No, they are not. Science be dammed, and ideology drives everything: after all MS is not China, you know (straight from the Gov.'s mouth)...

I am in one of the six counties that have just been ordered to shelter in place until at least April 7th, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It appears that it is the strictest protocol in place anywhere in the US so far. This can be enforced by the sheriffs and PDs. The only exceptions are for getting groceries, medications, etc... And not just the over 65 crowd as the governor suggested just yesterday, but EVERYONE (except a long list of crucial workers)! So, no more golf for the next 3 weeks at least. And maybe no more food either as the local supermarkets look completely empty of the basics such as eggs, ground beef, dry pasta, etc, not even mentioning TP.

I had an eagle chance on the par 5 #17 at my home course, but the ball ended above the hole on a steep slope, maybe 12 feet away. I barely touched the ball and it rolled 7 feet by and I missed the comeback too. So, on the spreadsheet, I still have a 0 in that spot... Argh!!!

Ditto. And why would I even consider playing lefty? And incur the expense of a second set of clubs?

Yup! 👍

Great! I was just going to ask about that, being that I already have 9 holes covered (compared to only 2 in my designated course). Thanks!

I am happy to report that after 6 rounds, I knocked off all the pars, including those holes where I usually take a bogey... I also managed a couple of birdies so far as well. Now it's on for the real meat of the birdie challenge.

Some courses may have slightly different difficulty (and hence, ratings) on the front and back nines and to get those you have to look up the actual data on the USGA web site. However, a close enough approximation is to take half of the course rating for 18 holes, ie 34.2 in this case. This is the average score that a scratch player should score for nine holes, front or back.

I have found a bunch of clubs, head covers, towels, one wallet and a bunch of wrappers, score cards, paper towels and other unpleasant things flying out of carts, and except for the latter items, turned everything in or found their owner a few holes ahead. I did leave a rangefinder in a cart after a round, and the course claimed they never found it, meaning the cart guy took it. I lost a club once at Poppy Hills and drove back the 50 miles or so each way to get it back a few days later...

In January, I had 7 other birdies on 6 different holes in 7 rounds, besides the one birdie I recorded in the spreadsheet, at courses different than the one I picked for this challenge. Oh, well... Too bad I don't have one at #14 anywhere, as I would have gladly given it to @mvmac to complete his monthly challenge, lol!

100%. It also helps if you get your drive past theirs: then you have to time to catch up to your ball while they hit their approach. The only time I really have to work hard to keep up is when there is a somewhat competent single in a cart and me walking. Especially when they floor the gas pedal on the cart. I typically find myself rushing in that case.

Iced water in my Yeti 32oz bottle. I refill it at the water stations on the course, if needed: the ice usually lasts until the end, so the water is always cold. In the summer, I can be downing 3 or more of those. On those days I occasionally add a Sprite bottle as well.