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!

Shindig, you are too nice. I firmly believe that the 6 year-old here, in question, was only mirroring what he sees his daddy doing ... tough daddy is probably hitting the ball into the woods unintentionally on the golf course! In all seriousness, it's awesome that he wants to hit balls and wants to play ... Sounds like you have a great kid who just wants to play golf, I mean, really, what more could you want?

Can't we leave Barry Bonds out of this conversation please? Ok, let me pose this question a different way ... and mind you this is all for fun and discussion purposes ... Let's say we were talking about a par three and this is a hole-in-one situation ... let' say normally it's a 175 yard par 3 and we were forced to tee off on the 125 yard tees ... would this still be a discussion? Or would it be a hole-in-one with an "*"

So let me just play Devil's Advocate here for a second ... The tees that I played on this hole were "official tees" and the par form that tee box is a 5 ... I holed the ball out in 3 strokes ... so why can I not brag about this one? I am starting to think that this is legit and you guys just don't want to give it to me ... Great! There are like 25 of you who are just like my buddies on the course ...

The three main courses I play do it one of these two ways ... it's pretty common ...

Technically it's not a "temporary tee" it's officially the most forward tee box on the hole (usually the ladies and the really old guys play them). I am still going back and forth on this one, and the lot of you haven't really helped me out here either ... thanks! So, I guess I will just put into my memory bank that I had a 3 on that hole and if I have done it before I can do it again ... just next time instead of that sand wedge I'll have to plop it on 12 feet with my 5 iron ...

So on my home course our 16th hole is a 494 yard par 5. There are elevated tees but deep depressions in front of the tee boxes that are still flooded (from the winter thaw) so they have the tee boxes (tips and men's whites) closed off an everyone is hitting from the forward tees that are about 150 yards forward of the other tee boxes ... Today I hit driver/sand wedge into the green and left myself about a 12 foot putt which I proceeded to make ... it's a 3 which means that on the card it's an eagle because the par for that hole, from all tee boxes, is 5 ... but can I really take pride in that eagle considering that there really was one less shot on that hole due to the placements of the tees? What say you guys?

41 on a 36 (34.6/122) just a qucik 9 for practice and getting used to the course before my league starts next friday ...

Wow, why you guys have to be hatin' like that? Red Sox are the oldest team in the Majors this year, I don't expect them to win the Series this year, especially with what I have seen over the first 15 games or so. The Patriots are in the same boat, too many old guys, with too many young guys ... and who knows how TB is going to be coming back from missing a whole season. KG is out for the playoffs, so not liking him is a mute point ... the rest of the team is still of Championship caliber ... but, with out KG they aren't as strong. All I got this year is the Black & Gold ... well, at least there is going to be 1 Championship Parade here in New England this season.

I am right there with you man, mine starts next Friday night (5/1) and I can't wait ... Already have 6 rounds under my belt, but would like at least 2 more at that course before I feel completely comfortable ...

OH $HIT ... Good catch, and now it's too late to go back and edit it ... man, I look like a meathead right now ....