sjduffers

True. Also for hackers and duffers (and mere mortal hackers and duffers), any birdie is a cause for celebration. 🙂 Perhaps I have graduated from being a duffer, as I am averaging 2 birdies per round in the last 8 rounds (including 2 rounds with no birdies at all). Still, adding to that spreadsheet at this point is no trivial task.

I manage to get #9 today: a straight par 4, 420 yards, lined by trees on both sides, with a somewhat sloped green but no bunkers. I had a good drive, about 240-245y, in the middle, then a 4 hybrid from 177y that went just a bit behind the hole and left, and made the slightly downhill slider 15 foot putt, dead center. Again, it seems easy when said that way, but I didn't get that one last year, either... Only 2 left now, including that par 3, #2: I was on the green pin high today but couldn't convert.

I added the tough (for me) #8: 450 yards straight, downhill: it was good drive for about 260, followed by a 5 wood 20 ft above the pin. I rolled the putt in with a slight double-break. Seems easy enough, but I didn't birdie it last year... Only 3 left now. 2 of those are pretty hard but I am not sure why I haven't gotten the other (a 192 yards par 3) as I am usually on the green or real close.

It took me almost 3 years of playing 9 casually Friday afternoons after work to make my first par. Yes, I sucked, really bad, and was on the green in regulation very rarely, maybe once or twice at most per 9 holes, but I could never get down in 2 putts for all this time, whether from 50ft or from 10ft (... and I never got closer until that one day)! I'd say my handicap was my putter, tongue-in-cheek. 🙂 Later, I became more serious about the game, improved everything (ball striking and short game) and turned my putting weakness into my strength, FWIW.

Not sure about easier: the one away course I play the most has a 110 slope. 🙂. There are still some difficult holes though, long into the prevailing wind. Also, I use to play about equally on the home and away courses, but this has now shifted a bit, with more rounds at the home course. That said, it's good to know you are on the mend and getting back to more and better playing. Go get'm Tiger! Just the one hole, number 9, or the whole 9 (front or back)? One is easier than the other... 😉

If the shot calls for a pitch, I'd do just that. You don't have to take a divot with those shots: that's why the bounce of the club is there, to glide on the turf. It would barely leave a scuff mark, that can easily be tamped down.

There are three skills involved in putting: read, beed (hitting on the chosen line) and speed. Those skills can be practiced somewhat independently. The last two are what most people work on on the practice green (or as a warm up before the round). Get the right speed, and hit the ball on the chosen line (with gate drills, etc...). Practicing reads is more difficult to do as you typically need to never have seen the putt in order to really read it, otherwise you'll build on what you have seen a ball do on that line before. In particular, if you tend to roll more than one putt from a position to a hole (like most people do on a practice green), you are not reading the later ones: you already know the line. Now it's a matter of hitting a ball one that line at the right speed. At least, that's how I think of it. YMMV. ETA: As far as replicating how I putt in a round during a practice I don't. I might do it a few times with a single putt to a hole a long way aways (more than 30 ft), but on the second try, I won't go through the whole routine and just react to what I see (and now know). To me putting is more a reaction thing than a deliberate process, once I am confident in my ability to hit my line at the right speed (ie the skills that I can and do practice). In other words, less thinking and more doing!

Total yardage is not necessarily the most significant factor. Are they 2 (or more) really short par 3s (say 100-130) in that total of 6500? That means the average hole is going to be longer to make up for the close to 100 yards "lost" on the short par 3s. Is the course less than par 72? A par 70 with only 2 par 5s is probably playing 300 yards longer than the stated total distance (compared to the same distance course as a par 72). Are there forced lay-ups (in front of ponds, creeks, barrancas, etc...)? That makes up for longer shots following the lay-ups? I am sure they are more ways to make a course feel longer, weather, altitude (or lack thereof), and steepness of terrain notwithstanding. I say play whatever feels good, and maybe adjust for your next round, if it was too long, to too short. Variety is the spice of life as they say...

Obviously I didn't get 12 pars, with 6 bogeys and 3 birdies. Just 9, of course... Duh!

Another 3 birdies round (to go with 6 bogeys and 12 pars), but they were all duplicates. Darn!

Congrats on the birdies, including #18. Did you know that one guy recently scored a 2 on that par 6, yes 4 under par, called a condor? The ball went all the way down to the bottom of the hill with some lucky bounces and back up the other hill into the hole for his second, with witnesses too!

Got my first eagle in about 4 years (the last one was a hole in one)! It was on a 510 yards par 5, I was left with a 61 yards pitch to a back pin, landed it at the front of the green, the ball started rolling like a putt, took the break towards the hole, hit the flag and went down. That was nice to see.

That, and to boost sales of, say, ProV1? You gotta make sure you have enough of the same ball type in your bag before starting a round, you know... 🙂

Thanks for that. But why a 2 strokes penalty per hole for unintentionally playing the wrong type of ball, until the mistake is discovered and rectified, while at the same time the penalty for unintentionally playing with too many clubs is capped at 2 strokes penalty for 2 holes maximum (only). What is different between those two, and how does that make any sense? I agree that one is a general rule applying to all golfers and the other is a local rule applying to high level competitions only. Is that it?

Indeed. I stand corrected. Thanks. I knew about this 4 strokes maximum in the pre-2019 rules, but with this ruling of two strokes per hole for 5 holes for using the wrong ball, I would imagine (and apparently, I did imagine) that the same would apply to too many clubs. I see that's not the case, and now I am even more confused. Why or why not? What's the difference? In both cases, improper equipment is being used (and most likely not consciously in both cases): why penalize one case with 2 strokes per hole until corrected, but only for a maximum of 2 two holes in the case of too many clubs? SMH...

For me, this highlights the 2019 rule change that no longer limits this type of penalty to 4 strokes (or the error/mistake being active for 2 holes), but instead carries on, per hole, until the problem is corrected. That is something I just learned now, so thanks, I guess? FWIW, this means that if you forget a 15th club in your bag and play the whole round with it, you need to add a cool 36 strokes to your (let's call it not great to begin with) 95, to end up with an absurdly high smooth 131! Wow. The only silver lining I see is that since you get to only record a net double for handicap purposes, that round may end up being recorded with ESC as a 104 instead... 🙂

I don't tweet (or Facebook, or Instagram, or tik-tok, or Pinterest, or ... You guys are lucky you have me here, lol!), but here goes. Keeping the ball in the fairway is at a premium at the US Open, so, I'll go the old-fashioned way: FIR. This is similar to Strokes Gained Driving, but the later allows for good outcomes off the fairway, whereas FIR is strict (and normally not a good indicator).

Today was a good day: my first 4 birdies day ever! I had managed 3 birdies many times before (maybe 12 or 15 times), but never 4. And that included two new ones on the spreadsheet: #13 and #15. I also chipped in on #12 and had a chip left (to close range for a 3ft birdie putt) on the par 5 #17. A pretty good back nine at 35 (par 36), after rinsing a ball on the long par 3 #11 for double and getting into a greenside bunker on #18 with a bogey finish. That was also just 11 putts on the back 9 in total. After a relatively poor 40 on the front (par 34), it was still a good (for me) 75. I'll take it!

The condor is the biggest bird (that flies): up to 10 feet of wingspan! The names look to have been chosen in increasing size of birds, starting with the little birdie. I guess for a hole in one on a par 6, we'd have to dig up the name of one of these flying dinosaurs? Or maybe call it an ostrich? LOL.

Despite knowing that it's bogey (or bogeys), I call them "buggers", as in "here is another bugger!" See: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bugger. (NSFW)

Shutdown for aeration? Don't know what that is! Around here the munis do the aeration over a day or two, while play is ongoing. They provide a temporary "green" (i.e. a circle with a hole in it in the middle) in the middle of the fairway, about 50 yards from the actual green while they are working on it. Sure the greens may take 5-6 weeks to recover, like any other aerated green, but they won't lose a penny in revenue due to the courses (or half of them) being closed. Most courses don't even have discounts during those aeration days, or in the early days post-aeration.

Yup! 👍

It was a sweet 3-birdies day at the home course today. I added #11 and #12 (yes, back-to-back!) to the spreadsheet and repeated #1. 👍 #11 is a hard one to get, being a 200-ish yards par 3 over water, uphill, into the wind with an elevated green. I flushed a 3 wood that pierced through the wind and ended up with a GIR maybe 40 feet above the hole... and rolled it in perfectly. #12 is a short 325 yards par 4 uphill against the wind, and I can't believe I didn't already have it. Anyway, it's now a done deal with a downhill 10 footer that curved in nicely.

Lose all the memories and make new ones. Now, what was the question?...

I have the same types of clubs as you do, plus the 5W (you only carry 13 clubs, I and have the full 14 set). The 5W is actually my favorite club and the one I use almost all the time to advance the ball in the fairway. Pretty much the only time I might use the 3W in the fairway is if it would get me to the green and the 5W would not, so another 10 to 15 yards past the 5W range. I don't mind using the 3W off the tee, but from the turf, the 5W is almost as long, typically goes higher and stops on the greens much better. In other words, I have the same type of approach to those clubs as you do, but my 5W is 180-200: I would love for my 4H to go 210, lol!