JCDot33

My in-laws have rented a beach house on Sunset Beach for the week at the end of the month. My wife and I are driving down to spend the week there with them. Anyone able to suggest some nice local courses that I could play? I would like to stay away from the "resort" coures and just play some "nice" courses in the area. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Ugh! I can't stand Dick's Sporting Goods! Luckily I have a great local retailer for all of my golfing needs, and becuase of mandated pricing I pay the same there as I do at Dick's for clubs and such they even beat Dick's pricing on golf balls AND, unlike Dick's, they sell individual sleeves of balls (I'm gonna beat the first wise ass-who says anything about this post containing 'dicks' and 'balls' ) ... I wish I could go back to the range today with it, but I have to get to work, and it's raining .... F'ing AGAIN!!! I am pretty excited to hear that many of you guys like yours! If it works well for me I might pick up another 3DX to increase the distance of my 4i (maybe a 21* loft instead of the 18.5*) a little bit more (as now I have a 190-215 gap in my game - my 4i I can muscle it to 190) so if I could get that to like 210 that would be awesome!

See, I don't see this as a replacement to my fairway woods, I see it more as a completment to them. Like I said I am hitting this thing 210-220 and I can hit my 5 wood 225-235 so right now it fills a really big gap in my yardage (my 4i I have to kill to hit 205 normally I hit it about 195) ... I don't think I am going to replace any of my fairway woods ...

I had a stretch last month where I played very, very poorly ... it started with one round, and then mentally carried over to another, and another, and then my confidence plummeted totally ... I was shooting in the high 90's consistently (on courses that I was shooting in the mid to low 80's on mostly because I was trying to force shots and make things happen that I never should have tried in the first place) and I was really beating myself up over it and I kept making more bad decision round after round ... I put the clubs in the closet for two weeks and walked away ... then went back at it slowly ... starting with only putting ... then, putting and chipping/pitching ... then back to the range with short irons and I slowly built myself back up ... everything seems to be OK again ... I am not suggesting that you do this, I would however, suggest that you put one round out of your mind and not let it bother you the next time out ... MENTAL TOUGHNESS is more important in this game than most other factors.

I think a lot of the courses need to get back to having caddies ... none of the courses in my area have them ... caddies are a lost relic that need to come back to the game ...

Mine is 24 weeks today ... you guys must be due right around my birthday 11/24 ... Beers (or beverage of choice) on me if your wife gives birth on my birthday ... we are having a little girl as well, we are due 10/26 ... it's very exciting times here ... If the old adage is true, and my child does add 5 strokes to my handicap after she is born then I am screwed, cause she's already added 4 and she's not even born yet...

I would agree, once in my life for PB would be enough, I think I'd like to play Spyglass too ... that's cool ...

I get a text message from my brother-in-law last Tuesday that said, "just teed off of #1 at Pebble Beach, HAHA!" He just graduated with his MBA in Accounting and he and his buddy took off on a coast to coast road trip and got onto Pebble and Played a round (cost like $400 a piece, or something crazy like that ... ) and he ended up shooting 112 (which, doesn't take anyone with an MBA to realize he paid about $3.50 a stroke ..) I have the pictures of him playing so I know he did and this wasn't a joke ... he was at least really nice and brought me home a towel (that I can't use, ever! I will just hang it up somewhere in the house). Needless to say, I was green with envy ... has anyone played there, what you shoot, and would you go back an play it again? Is the course worth the hype?

So, I have had to dodge raindrops (and hormonal pregnant wife) to be able to play, and even hit balls, lately ... I got a chance today to get over to the range today! And I am pretty happy that I did ... I went in and was looking around at the clubs and everything and something caught my attention in the "bargain barrel" there was a Nickent 3DX ironwood (it's a 3+ iron with a loft of 18.5*) with a stiff UST V2 shaft and the thing looked like it hadn't even been hit (no pop-up marks, no scuffs on the sole plate ... it was clean)... I am looking at it for a few minutes then the owner says, "do you want to hit it?" well, I've been looking for a hybrid for a while now so I say "sure" and take it out to the range ... HOLY CRAP! Swung like a short iron with the distance of a 5 wood .. I was hitting this thing 215-225 on the button ... I was able to work the club with my natural fade the same way I like to work my irons ... and it was landing softly on the greens and STICKING (granted we've had about 2 weeks of straight rain, but the shots, I think, would have settled pretty quickly with normal greens) ... I hit about 40 - 50 balls and was sold without even knowing the price ... So I take it back inside and the owner asked me how I liked it and I told him my thoughts and then I asked why it looked so clean ... "old guy bought it, self-provisioned the fit of the shaft and really didn't need a stiff, traded it out a week after he bought it cause he couldn't hit it." (I know this sounds like the "little old lady car story", but this club was clean ... so I believed him) ... "how much?" I ask ... "for you, a rainy week special deal - $30!" I plopped down my debit card ... Anyone else here have one of these? How do you like it? How has it helped you and you game ... I'd like some feedback from you guys, since I trust most of you.

Drove my first green, on a par 4, ever yesterday ... The signage said 315 from the back tees and the hole goes up over a crest of a hill, and the green is in the valley ... I hit my tee shot (and I knew I had hit it pretty well) and walked up over the crest to look for my ball, couldn't find it, couldn't find it (was getting pissed, cause I knew it had gone straight) and then the foursome on the green started waving and pointing ... and there was my little white sphere right there on the front edge of the green ... 3-putted from like 70 feet though ... *grrrr*

Well aware of this, these were the boring details I didn't want to get into ... and depending on the camera itself (and manufacturer) the shutter curtain travels either vertically or horizontally which will create slightly different "motion blur" effects. None, of which, happened in your image of the club ... that was all pure power right there ...

Modern CCD/CMOS sensors in digital still cameras work very much like good old film ... they have a light sensitive layer that reacts to light very much the same way that the silver would react on the cellulose. There is no "scan" in a still image, unlike that of a video camera ... I am not going to thread jack with horribly boring details, but Erik's shaft flex looks like common motion blur to me so I think that it really is happening that dramatically ...

Nice practice round, but it shouldn't factor into your handicap, besides - that score just might come back and bite you in the ass if you put it in there.

I have to agree with Ben on this one ... play YOUR GAME AGAINST THE COURSE and don't worry about the other guy as much as you possibly can ...

I wasn't arguing, merely keeping the discussion going here ... but because of the picture in this post, and your wording around it ... +1 I laughed my ass off! Yes, posting season is open, and this course is playing normally in all other areas on the course ... Amen my brotha - amen!