cbetofop

It can cut both ways though. As a high handicapper I'm very aware of the effect "overplaying" can have on others, especially a good player paired with me in a competition. I do all I can to be ready to play, and if playing a bad shot using my handicap to get back on the fairway, instead of trying to pull off impossible shots from the rough or trees. It is very demoralising then, when a good player behaves as if you're not there, walking ahead to the tees, walking off greens, only looking after their own ball and quietly disapproving. Even worse if you are in a 3 ball with 2 good players who know each other. Etiquette goes both and all ways

I'd go along with this. You are a much better golfer than I, so don't take it the wrong way, but I have always struggled over the back 9, hitting between 9-13 more shots than on the front, so I experimented and started at the 10th a few times......and still shot more on the "back" nine! Could be just a bit of tiredness and the mental watershed of the 9th hole, moving on to ANOTHER 9 could be doing it....play the course from the 1oth and see what happens

Bloody awful result. A real anticlimax. Just like the Masters really. Most of the gallery will have gone home by the time of the presentation! I've turned over to ESPN

Looks like a god awful result in the open, a true legend of golf beaten. What a terrible disappointment

Well, it's 8 a.m here.....coverage has just started and I'm hoping for a Watson win. Weather is predicted to be OK with showers not long after Tom starts his round, with a 21 - 25mph wind. Should suit him perfectly! http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/...t_weather.html

Kaymer for me. More controlled and less expectation on his shoulders. I fear Rory could blow up in the next few years, but I hope I'm wrong

Tom Watson at 6 under

I don't envy Tiger his unofficial entourage though. On the BBC coverage a well respected commentator, Peter Alliss, said that in years when he played (1950's 60's) when a ball was lost the spectators would fan out and search methodically. Most of the half-wits today were trying to "talk to Tiger" instead of helping the man find his ball! Vicarious fame, I ask you! How he concentrates on any shot with cameras clicking, people moving about and f*****g idiots shouting "in the hole!!!" on the tee shot of a par 5, I'll never know. These morons should be banned from golf courses. Some of the crowd at the US Open were a disgrace.

I'm watching the Open with great interest. I hope Tom Watson goes on to win this. What a magnificent golfer and what a magnificent man in the way he conducts himself and calms others down. A lesson for all of us

When you won't break your'e round even when your'e desperate to poo.....(and they provide toilets on the 9th tee)

I think in club comps the rules are paramount. But I think in informal matchplays between playing buddies some rules can and should be relaxed, if only to speed up play, depending on how busy the course is. Trouble with advice..... although I am off 25, there was a time it was 16 and it is frustrating to play with someone who declares an "about 14" and then basically ignores any difficult shot whilst telling you what your'e "doig wrong"! I usually ask which club they belong to and what their exact h/c is, that cures it

Although she retired in 2004, there has never been anyone more elegant on a golf course than Marie Laure de Lorenzi.

On Sunday had the kind of round a dog would curl it's lip at, but it rained during the round and I ended up in a bunker which had the consistency of thick porage on the 17th.......used a 9 iron and dug the ball out to within 3 feet and potted to get 2 points (stableford)

Good Topic! I can relate to so many of the things written here. For me it's not knowing why one shot is really good and solid, and the next one, feels no different but doesn't produce any kind of result. That and lost balls that my playing partners and I have watched land in the fairway, and when you get there are just gone. I hate looking for golf balls after a good or reasonable shot.

New Zealand

From yesterday's round I learned that I really suck at golf!!!

Best Front: - 41 Back - 46 Worst: - 1000's - card in round cylindrically shaped receptacle

I hate them. I think you should be able to judge distances without a GPS/Rangefinder or withour a Caddie walking the course if you are a pro. But........they are legal and probably here to stay, so like other technologies they will become part of the game.

You should have summoned up a very loud fart.... and then said No Hablo Ingles!

I have never understood why course that start with a par 3 or shorter par 4 don't have a rule that you don't tee off until the green is clear and the preceding game has moved to the 2nd tee. Yes, you might wait a while on the 1st but it will get things moving and hopefully you can pace yourself on the game in front. Last week I got into some trouble on the 1st and it took a few minutes to find a ball which then had to be dropped for a penalty......no big deal, we are talking two minutes max. The group behind teed off and we had 8 people playing the 1st fairway....all getting frustrated. Consequently my group rushed the next hole and then stood aside and let the game behind through on the short 3rd They then lost two balls OOB and DIDN'T CALL US THROUGH!!! Etiquette and manners is what is missing in the game sometimes. There's more to golf as a game than just hitting shots and making scores.

Later this year I'll be visiting the Caribbean on a cruise trip, visiting BVI USVI Cayman Islands Netherlands Antilles Bermuda Barbados Puerto Rico Ft Lauderdale (Yeah I know Fla.) Anyone ever played in any of these places? There's a plethora of info on the web, but 1st hand knowledge is always best IMHO Cheers

Having just begun playing again - Get my handicap back to where it was 20 years ago (16).....might take more than just a year though!

Putter - An old Fazer Tour Touch III, circa. 1987

It could only be the open. No offence but due to money and more global "weight" the game was changed by the USGA - bigger balls, different size holes and rule changes from the original Royal and Ancient, and for me it's always been unclear why. For me that kind of invalidates the othe Majors. Imagine if the UK or better, Europe took up gridiron football and decided that ther would be no forwrd passing and banned offence / defence team changes....and because of money, more players etc declared their championship more important than the Superbowl. Mind you on a 'political' level I'd rather see the Ryder Cup played between the US & UK v the Rest of the World......why we get lumped in with Europe is beyond me!

Yes. Some years ago at a municipal (public) course in Allerton, Liverpool. I was caddying for a senior player drawn against a low handicapper. The LH holed on a par 3 of about 150 yards. The senior walked up and down for several minutes just staring across at the flag and then promptly walked up, took his shot, 1 bounce and it holed. After that his opponent, although the 'better' player just fell apart and the senior won the match 3 and 2.