gbogey

It's from "Every Shot Has a Purpose" which was co-written by one of Annika's coaches. Decent read about reducing uncertainty and committing to the golf shot.

I think there's a difference between taking time over the ball and taking time to play a shot, at least IMO. One thing I've noticed in a few guys I play with who take a long time over the ball to pull the trigger, is that their backswing is really fast and I think it makes it harder to have a smooth rhythmic down swing. It's almost like they take so long to swing that when they do they speed to catch up. Doesn't lead to good golf IMO.

Yeah, I probably should add something like, "don't give advice on how to hit a shot that's unusual due to the stance, lie, or wind conditions.

My wife is a very casual golfer and only started keeping score in the last two years as the club told her she needed a handicap. Besides playing with me and a few other couples, she plays with a few girlfriends, almost all of whom are newer golfers. The other day at a ladies event they emphasized certain golf rules in a heavy handed manner. The one that upset the ladies was the "no advice" rule because to these ladies the conversation on the course is just as important as their score. Of course, the event leaders forget to mention that "no advice" doesn't apply to team events and the event that day was a scramble. So I'm trying to give my wife practical guidance on advice on the course to make things simple. Keep in mind that these ladies all have 30+ handicaps, are distance challenged, and at this time would never enter an individual competition. The only ladies events they enter are team events - they are keeping golf social as maybe we all should. So for casual rounds playing for individual score, I come up with the following: Don't Help each other read their own putts; Give advice on whether to lay up or attempt to cross a water hazard; Give advice on whether to chip or putt when just off the green. Do: Give advice on distances Give advice on rules I'm purposely ignoring the "what club did you hit?" because quite frankly in a casual round I don't think that information is helpful to any of these ladies. Any other thoughts?

I must agree that I've had more ennui about playing golf in the last two years, some of which is driven by a long term slump and some of which is IMO the result of living in a place with pretty much year round golf. When it happens I will occasionally skip a round or two, and usually the following week I am itching to play. Another thing is just going to the range, hitting a few balls, seeing how good it feels, and then again I'm itching to play.

In that case I double down on my comments - I'll take the single guy and I know if I'm in that match against two similar players I'm pretty confident that I'm the favorite.

I'm confused - the team of two is playing a scramble but the single player is playing best of two balls or is he playing a one man scramble with two shots? If the single is best of two balls, then I'd bet on the pair playing a scramble everytime. If it's a two man scramble versus a single person scramble, I'd take the single, at least until fatigue was a factor. Give a regular play two shots and I think he is going to play better than the other two guys. That said, probably works better for the solo for 9 holes than 18. If the solo was smart and self aware of his game, and many of us are not as aware as we should be, he would conserve his energy and not play a second swing after a good shot.

Just realize that you're not alone. I worked my way out of a slump only to have an injury in August. Since coming back my game has deteriorated right back into the slump - inconsistent contact and loss of distance. I'm finishing up a competitive match play tournament and assuming I lose, which is likely given recent play, I intend to take two months off from tracking scores just to work on my game even though I live in a year round golf location. Sometimes you have to take a break and reset.

In a nutshell at a municipal facility, no. Perhaps they might mark GUR for your club championship, but they are going to focus on providing a facility for the public to use and enjoy. Whether they play by the rules is up to the player. Hopefully they provide some sort of outreach program to grow the game, which typically includes teaching the rules of golf.

Yes, of course, but in one specific example, the ball was buried in the fescue to the point where your only choice was to take an unplayable or try to hack hard and get it into the rough/fairway but no control (and obviously a hack could easily leave it in the fescue). But the individual was allowed to place the ball within one club length into a playable spot where he was able to get a wedge onto the green and then two putt for bogey, when he should have had at least a double or triple. I saw this happen to this player three times in one round, where LCP turned a probable double/triple into a bogey. But to be clear, the rules of that competition allowed it. But whenever the pros play LCP, it is always only from the fairways. BTW, I should add that my club has adopted LCP from the fairway whenever conditions indicate cart path only.

My experience is that even for a well maintained private course it is difficult to keep up with GUR unless it's for a special event like a club championship or member-guest. I've seen the competition organizers issue instructions for how to identify GUR and leave it up to the groups to police themselves appropriately. Lift, clean and place - don't get me started. I played one year in a competition group where due to wet conditions every round was lift, clean, and place, except it was allowed EVERYWHERE, not just in the fairways. I finally complained to the director that good players were being penalized because guys were hitting it into really thick fescue only to LCP into a playable lies. So they the changed the rules for last couple of events. Long story short is that I won my flight for the year by winning the tour championship and I won't forget hearing my two main competitors moan out load about not being able to clean their ball in the rough. To paraphrase Pete Dye, "if you want to complain about playing out of the rough, don't hit it there."

I agree with the sentiment (about walking) but it’s uncalled for to make such a public comment - if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything, at least that’s how I was taught. Perhaps it was meant for private conversation and was mistakenly made public – I’m just a little younger than Faxon and I could easily make that mistake. At least in the last two places I’ve lived, there’s a certain sub-culture of the golf population that despite being younger would never consider walking (and usually drinks heavily while playing). It’s more about hanging out with the Bro’s in the outdoors than playing golf. I don’t have a problem with that, except that they often are less knowledgeable about golf etiquette and fail to let faster players through. As an aside, when I lived in TN, my main course was cart path only from December through March. It was a short, flat, very walkable course. It drove me crazy that all these fit young guys wouldn’t even think about walking, never realizing that they were probably walking just as much as I was and that they were playing slower.

Interesting post - I was actually thinking about this during a round recently as I considered changing tees at the turn, but one reason I didn't was that I assumed that GHIN would treat it as two scores.

I'm a HUGE believer in being golf ball loyal and really believe that anyone who's serious about golf (or too serious about golf like me) should use the same ball all the time. For the last 10 years or so I've played Bridgestone RX. As part of trying to break out of an extended slump, I decided to try some new balls out. Now I know that the slump was caused by the golfer and not the balls or the clubs, but I have decided that either the newest version doesn't play as well around and into the green or more likely, the Bridgestone is not the best ball for the courses at my club since my move last year. Regardless, I'm now between Srixon Z-Star Diamond or a Z-Star. I think I like the Diamond better, but it doesn't come in yellow and I sometimes struggle to see a white ball.

When I played in a golf league, there were separate CTP's for the Senior and Regular divisions. Basically, two par 3's apiece. On the other hand, I was part of a golf group for a while where you typically had 20 players on the weekend. Players were allowed to pick their tees and since all the bets were based upon net score there were no issues. CTP, however, was the same for everyone. There was guy who was a pretty good golfer with about a "5" or so index who always wanted to play from the senior tees. He certainly had the distance to play from further back as he was just as long as me. I eventually figured out that he did it in order to have an advantage on the CTP contests.

I played Atlantic Dunes last month and I thought it was very enjoyable. It was my third course done by Davis Love. I must say that all three have been very fun to play with a good mix of challenge but not overly penal.

Seems to work for both of my 9 hole scores so it’s probably correct. What it also says is that according to the USGA your average differential is your handicap X 104% +2.4. Seems a tad high in my experience.

I guess I was just struggling with how much the relief granted me as opposed to a normal situation where a difficult might be made easier, in this case no shot was given a shot.

I think I know the rule so this is really what would you do? Today on our 4th hole I hit a ball right next to the water. Due to a tree, I had no shot at the green, but I had a stance and I could advance the ball maybe up to 100 yards forward to the green (I was around 165 away). From there I expected to have an easy wedge to the green and more likely than not a two putt for bogey. As I'm lining up my shot, I look over and there's a decent size gator, probably +6 feet, about two feet away from me in the water looking right at me. Although I know it's very unlikely it would go after me, it's unnerving, so I took my allowed free relief and move my ball to a safe spot 15 feet away. From 170 I now had an opening to the green, I hit a nice 6i pin high and just missed the putt from 20 feet. I'm allowed free relief so I made par, but it doesn't feel right to record as a par? Thinking I should post a 5. Thoughts?

One thing that isn't straightforward is that your differential won't necessary match a golf score. For example, on the course/tees I played last weekend a 79 is a 6.9 differential and an 80 is a 7.7. We had to stop after 15 due to lightning and my differential was a 7.3, which is the equivalent of shooting 79.4. Statistically it makes sense but intuitively it took me a minute to get it. Of course, the USGA may be aware that occasionally I don't finish my putting stroke.

I voted dry weather. I don't like to play in steady rain more because of the hassle of keeping clubs dry than myself getting wet. Temperature wise I mainly play attention to the heat index as opposed to the air temp, but generally from 45-115 I'm playing and I'm usually walking up until 105/110 heat index. Fortunately that happens less often in SC than in TN.

Joining late but aren't we talking two different things here: aiming and aligning? I know that I'm fully capable of aiming correctly ands then setting up in a total misalignment. Seems to happen more with the driver than shorter clubs, but it does happen, probably influenced by lie and how my back feels on a given day. I find the best way to aim is to pick a target a few feet in front of the ball and aim the club appropriately. Alignment, I'm still figuring out. When I use an alignment stick I generally place it outside the club path for my backing - my problem is bringing the club inside the line - and this helps. But would I be better off using the alignment stick to align my feet?

I've only seen one positive PCC since it began, a +3 during a tournament on a tough, firm course with the wind blowing at least 30 mph. A scratch golfer got so frustrated he pulled out after 9. Sadly, the +3 did nothing for me as I was a good 10-12 strokes above the score counting. Currently 3 of my last 7 scores have a negative PCC. Of course, all 3 of those are in my best eight. I'm puzzled, as the wind was blowing pretty good on at least two of those rounds.

I never understand this aspect of golfers. If you are serious about golf, and I know that the writer is, the golf ball is the one piece of equipment that you use on every shot. Why wouldn't you use something you're comfortable with? And don't even think about using a water ball to go over a hazard. If you don't have confidence to use your regular ball, why attempt the shot? Show your ball some love and it will return it. Well, occasionally.

I have to steal #1. By my own admission I take my golf too seriously. Sometimes it makes you wonder why I like it so much. So I need to enjoy it more and appreciate that I'm a decent golfer. Keep my index below 6.5. I moved last year and joined a club where the courses are much harder than I'm used to, so I need to adjust my game appropriately. To do this I will: Better course management - lower DBs/TBs to 1.5 or less per round (currently 2) Decrease unplayable drives to 1 per round (currently 1.7), probably by utilizing my 3w or 5w off the tee more often. Keep my weight below 185 - that's when I play my best Play at least 6 new courses way from my club: 3 bucket list type courses - first was Ocean Club two weeks ago; next one is scheduled for April Play 3 local publics that I haven't played yet.