Fairway_CY

Providing the 16 handicap doesn't give up before the 30 years... they're going to win that bet. I play with a lot of different handicaps. About 17 years ago, I was a really bad golfer with a handicap that hovered around 20 or so. I got in a tournament at a local course where we had a qualifying round to flight and seed players... and then match play. I made it to the finals in the C Flight which was supposed to be players who were between 8 and 12. I was right around a 20 and was supposed to be in the D Flight, but they didn't have enough players, so my options were to play down a flight or not play at all. It was flighted, so no strokes in the match play portion. I beat a 12... a 9 and then hung around for about 24 holes in the final before I got beat pretty soundly by an 8. Granted, that was match play... but in those matches, I'd have beat the 12 and the 9 in stroke play as well. Granted... the disparity between a 3 and a 16 is WAY greater, but... bouncing back and forth over the last 3-4 years as low as a 5 and as high as a 13... I know how both of those players are capable of playing, both the good and the bad. No doubt in my mind a good day by a 16 and a bad day by a 3 could see them on opposite ends of the podium. CY

So... it's been awhile. Life has been busy and I've been playing but not really talking about my game at all. It's time I get back out here and contribute again. 1. Average less than 24' from hole on greens hit in regulation. I've been keeping this stat since 2015 and I've only ever averaged less than that on time, in 2021 when I averaged 22.90' that season. Clearly, closer proximity will lead to more birdies. I need to get better at hitting greens and giving myself more makeable birdie looks. 2. Play 50+ rounds of golf. For the last 3 years, I played at a club. I was able to play between 80 - 115 rounds each of those years. I'm leaving the club at the end of January which means less access. Still... my hope is to play about once per week just to keep things moving forward. 3. Maintain a single digit handicap index. I began 2022 with an 11.9 index. By the beginning of April, I had it down to a 9.8 index. I got it as low as 5.8 in the middle of August before it started creeping up again. I currently sit at 9.8 (with a soft cap) and I would like to keep it in single digits for the entirety of 2023. 4. Win at least 1 tournament and qualify for the National Championship in October. I will be returning to tournament golf via the Golfweek Amateur Tour this season. I believe I need to finish in the Top 10 of the point standings to be eligible to play in the three day National Championship in October. I'd like to find my game early and win a couple events, but... realistically, my goal is to win at least 1 this season. 5. Hit 50% of fairways or more. The highest percentage I've ever hit was in 2017 when I hit 46.64% of fairways that year. It's something I've struggled with since I began the game. I feel like hitting more fairways should be something that comes with playing more golf, but... in reality, it's just something I battle. Often times, if my tee game is solid... my score is solid. If I struggle off the tee... I'll throw up an ugly score. 6. Average 1 birdie or more per round. This past year was my best year of my life in terms of making birdies. With 4 days to go and 1 or 2 more rounds to go before I end my season... I've made 112 birdies in 112.5 rounds. I'm inconsistent when it comes to making birdies, however. Multiple times in 2022, I went 3.5 rounds without making a birdie. Currently, I'm dry for my previous 2.5 rounds. I make up for it by making multiple birdies in 28 rounds, but it's discouraging to have a dry spell. I'd like to score better when opportunities present themselves. Whether that's on short holes or attackable par 5's... I don't really care. I just want to average more than a birdie a round in 2023. That's it for my goals. I'm hopeful it's a successful season on all fronts, but... I'm just glad to be back in tournament golf and glad to be back here posting! CY

I'd have to say it was back in 2009. I was playing in a county run match play event. To set it up, everybody had to play a stroke-play qualifying event. There were supposed to be 4 flights (A, B, C & D)... but due to a lack of interest, they cut it down to 3 flights instead. With my course handicap at 29, I went out and shot a 91 in the qualifying round. To that point, it was easily one of the best rounds of my life. I had fully expected to finish dead last in qualifying. In what was supposed to be a 16 person bracket... only 11 players got entered in to C Flight. Like I said... I was supposed to be in D Flight, but... they had eliminated that entirely. Of the 11 players in C Flight... I had qualified 5th, which meant I got a bye in to the second round of match play. In that second round, I was playing against someone with a handicap right around 18.0 or so. My handicap at the time was 26.4 after having shot the round of my life. As I left the house that morning, I told my wife it would probably be a pretty quick day because it was straight up match play. No strokes. Since it was flighted and the index range was supposed to have been 14.0 - 18.9 for C Flight... the flights all played straight up. I figured I'd be done by the 12th or 13th hole. Instead, it ended up being (to this point) one of the more memorable matches I've ever played. I jumped out to a very quick 3 up lead through 3 holes going par - bogey - par. We halved the 4th hole with bogeys and he beat my par with a birdie on the 5th hole. I was 2 up at that point. I went on a run of bogeys at that point. I won the 6th with bogey (3 up)... lost the 7th with bogey (2 up)... halved the 8th with bogey (2 up) and lost the 9th with bogey (1 up). Making the turn... I knew I was going to need to continue playing fairly well to have a shot. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen. I conceded the 10th hole after my 8th shot (all square)... bogeyed the 11th hole (1 down) and then doubled the 12th hole (2 down). My nerves were all over the place at that point and I was beginning to get down. I caught a break on the 13th when my double beat his triple to get me back to just 1 down. I then made a great par of the 14th hole to get the match back to all square. My bogey on the 15th put me back 1 down... and then a par on the 16th got the match back to all square again. The toughest hole on the course (for me) at that point was the 17th. It was a straight hole, but the tee was tucked up against the woods on the left side and I played a big fade (slice)... so, I never really scored well on that hole. The same held true there as I put 2 balls in to the woods off the tee (1 left and 1 right) before conceding to my opponent who had hit his tee shot dead down the center and was inside of 100 yards. Back to 1 down with just the 18th to play. On the final tee, I hit my 5 iron in to the fairway and left myself about 115 yards to the hole. My opponent cut the corner over the pond and had about 60 yards to go. My pitching wedge was pushed right and landed in the bunker. His approach was thin and went over the back of the green. He was away. His chip from the back of the green scared the hole but ran past by about 11 feet, leaving a pretty easy, uphill putt. I had nowhere to really land the ball to get it anywhere near the hole. I knew my best bet was to just blast it out and let it run left of the hole which would leave me an uphill putt as well. I managed to get it out of the bunker, but it caught the rough just before the fringe and killed it. I only had about 10 feet or so... but it was a curler from above the hole. My opponent missed his par putt meaning I needed to make mine to continue the match. With all the pressure on me... my ball never had a chance to miss and we went back to the 1st hole. From there, it was pretty quick work for me. I hit a 3 wood in to the fairway... a 9 iron from about 120 to the right side of the green... and 2 putts gave me a par while my opponent struggled to get the ball up & down from long & right. The magic continued 6 days later when I beat the #1 seed (who was a 14.5 index) by a 5 & 3 final margin. In the 36 hole final just about 2 weeks later, I held my own through 18 holes, but then fell apart. The #2 seed beat me 6 & 4 that afternoon. I was 2 up through 7 holes, but I gave up the lead on the 11th hole and never saw it again. Still... going on 12 years later, I remember the first match of that event vividly. I've still got the scorecard (which helped in writing this post). CY

After dealing with COVID over the last few weeks (not fun, by the way)... I was able to get back out to the course for nine holes twice over the last week. In both cases, I played just the front nine. In both cases, I played awful golf. In both cases, my highlights were at the 8th hole. On Thursday, it was playing 142 from the back tee. I hit a solid 8 iron that started just left of the green and drifted back, catching the green and leaving me about 6 feet for birdie. Although it was a tough putt (left to right, running away)... I drained it for my first birdie of 2021. On Sunday evening, as the chill grew and the sun dropped... it was playing 152 from the back tee. I clubbed up and hit a 7 iron that never left the stick. It pitched about 4 feet in from of the hole and ran over the right edge of the cup... stopping 2 feet away. This was an easy, uphill 2 footer so it was essentially a tap-in birdie. Neither round has been good, but I've felt some good swings in there after having not touched my clubs for nearly three weeks. Looking forward to seeing what this week brings! CY

I didn't participate in the challenge last year because I wasn't sure how much I'd play, but... I'm in this year. I did keep track, though... and I birdied 13 of 18 (all of the missing holes were among the final 6 holes of the course, so... I guess you could say I have problems closing)! I've played the front nine twice so far and I've birdied the 8th hole both times. Nothing even close outside of that. Looking forward to checking them off! CY

I did something similar in Kiawah last summer. I was tied for the lead standing on the tee of the 35th hole (8th hole at The Ocean Course) in a two-day event. The guy I was tied with and I had both hit tee shots that came up short of the green of the par 3. I was a little closer to the hole, so he had to play first. We both brought a few wedges and our putters to the front of the green. As he debated on what to do, I already knew that putting was the correct play. I'd played the course a few times previously and I knew that a poor chip was going to come back to my feet. With that in mind... I took my highest lofted wedge and began going through the routine like I was going to chip the ball. I went up on to the green and straddled an imaginary downslope. I even slightly bent my left knee which was on the 'opposite side' of this downslope to make it appear that I was leaning a little bit. He had his putter in his hand and, at the last minute, changed to his wedge because, as he audibly said... he was going to "need some spin to stop it once it reaches that crest". Anybody who has played on those paspalum fairways knows that chipping is extremely difficult and you need to nip it just right. He did not... and the ball barely got to the green before trickling right back to his feet. He then blasted a chip that finished 40 feet or so from the hole. I put my wedge down and putted the ball on to the green. I gave it a little extra to ensure it was going to make it up the slope in front of me, so the ball finished about 25 feet away. He was on a very similar line to mine and he hit an aggressive putt that got about 6 feet past the hole. Seeing the line from his putt, I drained the 25 footer for par... he missed the 6 footer for double and took a triple. I took a 3 stroke lead to the final hole and won my first ever multi-day event. It was subtle... and he could have made that decision without me doing a thing... but I like to think I got in his head just enough to cause him to make a poor decision. CY

I'm not one for gamesmanship... but when I see it play out on someone, I can't help but smile in appreciation. Unfortunately, it's worked on me a time or two. One of my favorites happened a few years ago. I was playing an early season round with some friends. We arrived at the turn and I was playing pretty well and was thumping them pretty soundly. As we stood on the 10th tee waiting for the fairway to clear, one of the guys who had played there with me a handful of times knew I had a bad habit of trying to cut the corner of the dogleg... and on more than one occasion, I'd blown it way right into the trees. He saw an opportunity and took it. All day, I'd been hitting a nice little fade off the tee. There's probably 120 yards from the corner of the dogleg to the out of bounds on the other side of the hole. Just so much room it's ridiculous. My plan was to start it at the bunker up the outside of the dogleg and let it peel back in to the fairway. Executed properly, I'd be left with 150 yards or so to the center of the green. As I put my tee in the ground on the right side of the tee box... my buddy pointed out the hawk sitting at the peak of the tree on the inside of the dogleg. "Hey... careful now! Looks like it may have some babies in the nest up there!" Up to that point, I hadn't even looked in the direction of that side of the hole. I laughed, knowing what he was going for... and then proceeded to just about knock the hawk out of its nest! My ball disappeared in to the hazard and I could do nothing but smile and laugh as I went to the cart to pull a new ball out of my bag to finish the hole with. Another time, I was visiting a friend in Arizona. He took me out to Quintero to play. I was in a different world. I'd never played desert golf before, so... playing at Quintero for my first round out there was a treat. The second hole is a par 5 with a tee set back a bit. As we walked back and turned around, there was a massive cactus just off the front, right side of the tee box. It was littered with balls embedded in it. As I teed it up and took my practice swing, my friend pointed out that cactus and asked if I thought it was in play. "Nah... I hit a fade so if I hit that cactus, I made a really bad swing." There is now a TaylorMade TP5x with an orange, stenciled turtle embedded dead center of that cactus about 24" from the top. Oh well. What can ya do? CY

For casual rounds (typically played alone)... I'm usually slamming the trunk, stepping on to the first tee, taking one or two swings at nothing with my driver to loosen up and then heading out. Unless I happen to get there early or something, in which case I'll hit a few wedges at the range. For rounds where I'm playing for something... I'll show up 20 minutes early to hit a few balls. In that case... it'll be a few 9 irons, a few 6 irons and if I have time, a few drivers. If I still have 5 minutes or so, I like to hit a couple 10 footers on the practice green. For competitive, tournament rounds (pre-COVID)... I show up 90 minutes early. I like to get my pockets set up (tees, ball marker and club cleaning tool in my right pocket, sunscreen chapstick in my left pocket and my ball mark repair tool in my back, right pocket). I'll typically hit balls on the range for 30-45 minutes, working from wedges up to my driver. I'll then take a few minutes to relax in the shade (or in the clubhouse). I'll head back out and putt for 20 minutes, starting with 10 footers to get the pace right and then moving to 6 footers to get some confidence. If there is a chipping area, I like to spend about 10 minutes there before heading to the staging area and socializing for 5-10 minutes before we head out. With COVID... I try to keep it as close to the same routine as possible... just shorter. We're only supposed to show up 30 minutes prior to tee time which really condenses things. I hit balls for 15 minutes, putt for 5-10 minutes and then head off to the first tee. CY

1.3 2.2 3.3 4.2 Just because of the layout of the course I play at most frequently, I yell more often than if I'd play elsewhere. A lot of parallel holes early and late in the round. Early... people haven't warmed up and are figuring out their swing (plus the second green is reachable from the tee and is directly next to the third tee). Late... people are tired (or not as sober as when they'd started). I hit someone about two weeks after joining this club. He was walking out of the trees down the left side... I hit a quick hook... I yelled... he tried to jump over the ball and it caught him in the shin. Two days later, I almost hit someone else on another hole. It's made me very vigilant and a little 'quick on the draw' when it comes to yelling fore! CY

I've recently had a desire to play the front tees from time to time when I'm out alone and just looking to do something different. I typically play from 6418 yards (69.5/130) but the forward tees are just 5223 yards (63.7/107). My goal is to shoot even par from those tees... then (if I ever achieve that) move back another set and see how close I can get to par. I've only played 2 full rounds from those tees and my scores have been 82 (+11) and 78 (+7) in those rounds. For the most part... it just makes the course shorter where I play. There are a few holes where I need to hit less than I'd hit from my tees just to avoid hazards, but... that only comes in to play on maybe 4 of the holes. It gives me a lot of practice with my wedges, which helps my overall game as well, so... I look at it as a sort of drill. CY

Played nine holes of 'glow golf' on Saturday night and it really messed me up. I played a tournament on Monday where I was just off all the way around and I shot a 51 - 45 = 96. Yesterday... I escaped for nine holes at my home course and the poor play continued. I topped four tee shots and a number of other shots throughout the round en route to a 49. I decided it was time to hit the range following there and I got my swing under control. Today... I took my daughters (13 & 14) out for nine holes. Although it wasn't anywhere near what I need to be, I was able to knock the ball around some. I finally birdied the sixth hole which clears the front side for me. I still need birdies on 10, 13, 14, 16, 17 & 18 to get 'em all this year... but I'll keep plugging away. Anyway... posted a 43 today. That's about two strokes higher than I need to be but I attribute it to a poor short game today. Might take tomorrow off before playing Friday in the rain. CY

It took a few Jameson's too take the sting out of it, but... it's more of a funny story than anything, so... I just hoped they'd win the event. The next year, my wife and I went out with a group from the club for dinner one evening and he and his wife were there. I got to relive the pain once more, but... this time, he was buying the whiskey! CY

I was playing a best ball event that lasted a majority of the winter months a few years back. It wa a double elimination tournament. My partner and I had lost our opening match (in part because their 'B' player was on fire and even holed out from 191 for an eagle)... but then we worked our way through the losers bracket. Late in the tournament, the team that had beaten us also lost, so we were going to face them again for a chance to make it to the championship. It was a tightly contested match. We got to the 18th hole all square. I was our 'B' player and the 18th hole was one of the more difficult on the course. I hit a solid tee shot, leaving about 115 to the hole, cut on the bottom tier of a green with a massive ridge running across the middle. My approach hit that ridge and funneled down to the proper tier, about 20 feet left of the flag. My partner and their 'A' player both struggled. Their 'B' player was left off the tee but hit a good shot up on to the back tier of the green. Essentially, there was no way to stop the ball from rolling off the front of the green. My partner and I were excited because I was definitely going to two-putt and it was going to be a miracle for their 'B' player to make a par from up on top where he was. As he lined up his putt, I tended the flagstick (this was in 2017). He was lined about 80 degrees right of the stick. His putt was hit to the top of the ridge where it stopped. When I say stopped... I mean, it was done. His ball was not going to roll down that slope, somehow. He put his hands on his knees for about 5 seconds then began walking to mark his ball. As he got about 5 feet from the hole... the ball began to trickle. I knew immediately it was going in... and it did. He made this crazy putt where the ball had fully stopped for at least 10 seconds before resuming it's roll down the slope. I could only laugh as I puled the flag stick and watched it trickle in. My putt was now to tie. From 20 feet, it curled in from the left side and just sat on the lip. At least half of the ball was over the edge but it would NOT fall in. I tapped in for a par and we were eliminated. To say I was devastated would be a lie. It was so comical to have THAT guy come up so clutch to beat us twice. With that putt... it was a totally deserved win for them. Still... I hated to see it! CY

Great finish and a fun way to win a match, for sure! Certainly... but I bet there's a story. CY

Yesterday, I decided I needed to play golf to prepare for an event this weekend. I found a good deal of Golfnow and headed out. I had the first tee time in the morning in hopes that I'd be able to beat the impending rain. Once there, I realized that someone else had booked the same time slot. In a twist of fate, it happened to be someone I knew. He's a better golfer than I am by a fairly large margin. We played the front nine with both of us showing some rust. I was playing from a set of tees one further back than I should have been (approximately 460 yards longer)... but it wasn't a huge factor. As we finished the 9th hole... he asked me what a good score would be for me on the back side. I told him that, from the tees I SHOULD be playing... a 43 would have been considered a good score. He then told me that a good score for him would be 39 and challenged me to a 'beat your target' game. His target being 39 and mine being 43, even from the longer set of tees. I accepted figuring it'd be good for my game to play for something other than fun. We both played better on this side: Hole # -- My Score - His Score #10 -- Par (4) - Par (4) #11 -- Par (4) - Double (6) #12 -- Double (6) - Bogey (5) #13 -- Bogey (6) - Par (5) #14 -- Par (3) - Bogey (4) #15 -- Bogey (5) - Bogey (5) #16 -- Bogey (6) - Par (5) #17 -- Par (3) - Par (3) #18 -- Bogey (5) - Bogey (5) Total -- 42 (+6) - 42 (+6) I ended up beating my target by a stroke, but what I felt even better about was that I tied him... playing from tees further back than I'd typically play... knowing he's a much better golfer than I am. I know he was rusty... and on most days, he'd mop the floor with me on the golf course, but it certainly felt nice. Overall... I posted an 88 that included an ugly triple on the 7th hole when I topped my 3 wood into a hazard. Not the greatest score for me, but I felt like things started to click again. I've got to get some work in on my alignment. I'm finding a lot of misses are pushes. I've spent the better part of the last 7+ months battling a hook. Now that it's straightened out a bit... I need to get my alignment proper so I can start finding fairways and greens. Anyway... what's your 'beating a better player' story? I've got a few of them, but... this one felt good because it wasn't expected. CY