unabowler

Yeah. I'm not sure I understand why there isn't a mostly quantitative answer to this question. Multitudes of LPGA players play numerous rounds on courses whose ratings are known or which can be reasonably estimated. Lydia Ko has a 69.5 stroke average on those courses, the women around 50th average over 72 and women around 100th average over 74. I've never had a handicap and I'm not versed in how to compute one but I surmise the ones who average 74 would be pretty close to scratch.

Brandon seemed a little abrasive in his interview sessions last night, and he showed a bit of temper after a shot he didn't like, too. He didn't seem that most of the time, though.

I'm into cycling nowadays and I've been away from golf for a while, only coming in here to read comments on the Big Break finale. Interesting article but the two activities aren't really interchangeable. I had gotten away from golf when the opportunities to play were reduced after a move and job change, and I took up cycling sometime later. I never did break 100 in golf but I got managed to bike 100 miles a couple times.

Sure he should pay, that sounds like it was his fault. But he should only pay the reasonable value of the GPS, not $475 if that's what a new one costs.

Yeah. It's not shaping up to be a good show because I don't think Fiamma has a prayer.

There were only a few years where I played regularly and I seldom play any more, but I follow the pros. I watch the majors and at least a handful of other tournaments (like The Players this past weekend). I watch the LPGA sometimes and I've followed The Big Break for a few years. I didn't always think so, but golf is good TV unless someone is really running away with the tournament.

I played there a lot when I was stationed at Wright-Patt, when it was called the Kitty course, it was great for the level I was at. I played Hara Greens occasionally, too, but it got in horrible shape one year and probably never came back. The 9-hole course on base was good, too, and just a little longer.

When I was starting I had the advantage of having a couple of nice executive courses in the town I was living in. One par 3 and 4 holes, with the par 4s being up to about 300 yards. The other was a par 3 course, but the 9th and 18 were par 4s (about 330 and 400 yards, respectively). About half of the par 3 holes on the second course were over 200 yards, so they played like par 4s (at least!) to the people who played there. Those two courses were great for a beginner, very low pressure, the other players were nice and most of them were almost as bad as I was. It was much better than the courses where every hole is around 100 yards. I played those two courses at least once a week for a few months and then played some full-length courses. In the next place we lived I got away from the game and unfortunately haven't played much since. But those were great little courses to learn on.

As a really bad golfer I can't say this idea appeals to me because most of the frustration in golf arises as you hack your way down the fairway to get to the green. Most bad golfers don't putt into the hole anyway, they get to a point they figure is close enough and call it good. I could see something like this working as a stunt maybe, a promotional event. At best.

I'm no fan of Mary, but I don't see how two birdies in two holes of the elimination challenge is a tailspin.

In picking the teams and then setting the order for the flop wall, we saw what the girls think is the pecking order. They thought it was nuts to pick Jackie over Sedena, and Jackie, Sedena, and Tonya were quickly selected for the last wall. They didn't think it was smart for Mary to go first, and picking Renee last and making her hit first showed they didn't think much of her.

Calvert and K12 are two very rigorous, thorough homeschool programs. Depending on which state you live in you might be able to enroll for free.

When I was stationed at Wright-Patt I played a lot more than I have since I left there. I liked the City of Dayton courses a lot, and I agree, all are pretty forgiving for hacks like me. I think I liked Madden the best. I liked the courses on base. I played Hidden Lake 2 or 3 times, not sure why but it didn't really click for me. I thought it was a little undermaintained and I thought it played harder than it looked. I liked Cliffside right down the road, though. Up in that area I thought Sugar Isle was the best. WGC in Xenia was one I liked, Sebastian Hills in the same area killed a hack like me (but it was nice). Beavercreek was another nice-but-tough course I remember. I loved that area and I thought there were a lot decent but inexpensive courses.

Jason was lucky to survive elimination day. Everybody that's still on the show except Chad seems pretty solid so it ought to be interesting from here on.

They kept showing Rob talking about how he's not a team guy, and he really seemed like a jerk. But when his teammate Matthew blew a the strike challenge to give that team its third strike he sat Matt down, told him not to worry about it and said his career isn't going to be decided by one challenge. He said that when he knew at most one of them would survive elimination day. I think in the interview process they get everyone talking for a long time and choose interesting stuff to show even if it's not an accurate portrayal.

No doubt putting is not her only problem. But according to her stats she's 51st, in putting and by your admission she's only that high because she misses too many greens. Being somewhat worse than 51st (and maybe considerably worse) in real putting ability is going to put a very low ceiling on how well she'll ever do on tour.

The reason it's not fun to play rounds of golf slower than necessary is that the extra time is spent waiting rather than doing what you enjoy (playing). It's fun to play longer if you PLAY more but not if you WAIT more. I'm an awful golfer and I play solo most of the time and I can walk 9 in about 1:15 without rushing at all. If I walk 18 it takes more than double because I get tired and slow down, but it takes about 2:45 if I don't have to wait.

I play by myself but to avoid waiting for foursomes I play when there aren't many of them around. Late afternoons on weekends is a good time.

In The Rules of Golf, there's a ruling on that. If I recall, you don't have to take the penalty.

When I was playing regularly I shot about 110. It took me a while to get to that crummy level and I couldn't improve. I usually walked and I was relatively better when I only played 9, likely due to fatigue, I could get 50-53 for 9 if I was on. I'd play muni courses and whenever I got paired with someone I'd say it was more than likely that they were better than I was, Not always, though, there are plenty of us horrible golfers out there. When I played by myself I was pretty goood about the rules but I didn't always pull the pin out on the green and doing that I could play 9 in an hour if the course was wide open (and I chose times when it would be). When I played with people I would go with the flow with mulligans and other stuff (although I still putted out most of the time). From what I've seen I'd say the average golfer shoots a little over 100 and writes down a little under. That sounds awful but it is what it is. It's a hard sport.

Actually that was a pretty good rant. If you've been watching the show you probably have all the context you need. It WAS pretty rough putting Kelly straight in elimination and they haven't done that too much in the Big Break serieses that I've followed.

If you play at munis (which I do) you won't see much more of a dress code than shirt-and-shoes. At one place I've played, they didn't enforce the part about the shirt. If you want a different mode of dress play somewhere else.

I really enjoyed Big Break series this time around. I know some of the women are on the LPGA Futures Tour (eg Nicole Smith, Mallory Blackwelder) and are in the finals for their Q school. I had a sense that the men in the finals (Julian Trudeau and Mark Murphy) were not as close skill level needed to earning a card on the PGA tour. I wonder if anyone has seen it and could estimate about how good those guys are, and whether they have a realistic shot of ever making it to the next level?

In a way I wouldn't mind seeing Yani play in a men's tournament on a sponsor's exemption. She would learn more from playing them in a competitive situation that she would by just watching them. But like some have said, what she would learn is that she's not that good compared to them. As far as I can tell, Michelle Wie is intelligent, her parents are college professors, and she probably got into Stanford on merit. It's quite possible to be intelligent and still come across as an airhead, using the words "like" and "you know" in just about every sentence in an interview.

It sounds like you might be too slow. The way to tell is whether or not you keep up or whether you slow down the groups behind you.