Beastie

How far do you hit a modern driver? I still have persimmon woods and they all hit it shorter than my modern driver( the main deficit being on off centre strikes)

Yeah, it’s a good way to cleanse the mind too. When I am (rarely) practising, it’s good to focus, and on a good day it can be quite zen like. I find fly fishing has the same effect. I might be thinking about technique or catching fish but it also helps process lots of other thoughts.

I think you are right, he was a keen golfer.

An interesting look into one of golf’s good guys. I grew up playing golf at Banchory when Paul started as an assistant. He’s done a huge amount for golf in the NE of Scotland.

Just one small problem…. Not a links course!?

1. Mercedes Benz SLK full on the windscreen with a block slice 3 iron 2. Rabbit @80 yards with a knifed 1 iron 3. Greens keeper with a 5 iron on a 200yards downhill par 3. We were waiting and he waved us to play, I hit it straight at him and he just started strimming…..hit him full on the head and came back 50yards. I SCREAMED fore! But he had ear defenders on. Dude didn’t even break stride, just waved and carried on strimming.

What a nice place to live! Some cracking houses around the property. Also a really nice course. We went and fetched the families after our second round and we all had a nice lunch in the clubhouse. Weather was great last week too. We just got back to the North of England and it’s about 40 degrees.

I realise this a bit of a thread resurrection, but I have just returned from a trip to Orlando with the wife and kids and another family. I played Celebration and Falcons Fire( twice each). Chose these courses for the simple reason they were less than ten minutes from our apartment ( Regal Oaks in Kissimmee). Played all our rounds at 7am ish and both courses were pretty much full all morning. (Celebration was completely full both days) FF was in good overall condition apart from two greens which were recovering from some disease and had been partially re-turfed. Apart from that it was presented nicely. Greens were slower than I expected( I guess about a 9-9.5) Celebration was in fantastic condition, the greens were smoother and faster than FF( about a 10.5 ) and they sped up more as the sun sparked up. They were slippy by the back nine. Everything was just a bit more pristine. I played each off the second to back tees the first time and each off the tips the second time. I preferred Celebration, but that’s maybe because I holed a shit load of putts both times. Celebration was $30 more a round, and I reckon that’s a fair premium. Both good mornings out and still time to meet the family for an afternoon at a theme park. My favourite part of the trip was non golf related. I dropped off the youngest and the wife at Disney then spent the day at Kennedy space Center. Awesome!!!

Instant Classic!! What a game! That second goal for Argentina was fantastico! Best World Cup final I’ve seen.

I saw this the other day… didn’t help Kane though⚽️ England take note - this is how to score a penalty - BBC Sport BBC Sport and Opta analyse the 279 World Cup shootout penalties to see the best ways to score your kick.

Unbelievably, I am already aware of this tour! My friends son has played a couple of events. Anyhoo the current leader of the Mena Tour money list is currently about 570 in OWGR, so even Pat Perez might make the cut.

As Jack Black says “well you’re not hardcore…..unless you golf hardcore… etc “

That’s a bit dismissive. Many in Europe have heard about him. He’s a multiple winner, and a multiple top ten finisher on the European tour.

Well I’m your side of the pond, and whilst I feel the Queen was deserving of respect and was clearly dedicated to her position, now would be a good time to have a discussion about down sizing the monarchy and removing a lot of the undue influence it wields.

The late pro at at my home club was asked by a member where he was going so wrong. The reply “I’m not sure Willie, but I think you’ve got a swing in your flaw “

Absolutely correct. Part of the reason that I love watching golf is that it is a cutthroat sport. Miss a putt, lose the tournament, hope a chip win big. My friend from school was playing in the Dp World tour event in Wales last week. On Friday he bogeyed 16 and 17 to sit one above the cut. Then on 18 he hit his second from 265yards to 6 feet and holed the eagle to make sure he was getting paid that week. Loads of pressure. The LiV tour is like watching an exhibition. Boring. The Womens open finale was cracking, and Muirfield is a great course for big tournaments

Bernard Gallacher fears Greg Norman will not reach a compromise over LIV Golf A conversation needs to be had and a compromise reached, but Im not entirely convinced that Greg Norman... I’m not sure how much the PGA and DP tours want to cut a deal, but if they do then as Gallagher says, Norman ain’t the man for that job.

Not so cheap now, but still reasonable

So Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, The Canaries(still Spain) Thailand, Australia, Jamaica, Mexico, Barbados, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, St Maarten, United States, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia. top three—Scotland (obvs), Costa Rica, Spain. (This may change after I go to Florida in the winter)

Well I had a great day out yesterday at St Andrew’s. The course was incredibly hard under foot, even after the mornings rain. We spent time on 3,4,15,16,17 and walked out to the 11th green to watch the leaders come through. Watched the last hour back in the beer garden, it’s hard to see enough on the course to figure out what’s going on. Great atmosphere and I spoke to a lot of Americans who had combined a golf holiday with the week. One group were on a golf cruise around Scotland - I did something similar around the Caribbean 20 years ago when I worked on the cruise ships. They were loving it.

No watering on the fairways. And no desire to pay for it either.Here is Banchory GC in 2017 ( Normal summer conditions), an inland course but sandy soil. And here it is the next year(drought conditions) The greens were in good nick though.

He forgot to pack his socks.

Course is looking good this morning - fairways like lightning, greens a bit slow. The rough’s up but wispy so playable. No wind. On the minus side Poulter has just holed a 50 yard eagle putt to go top🤮

It’s been dry and hot (relatively)the last few weeks. The course is gonna be very firm, and the rough looks pretty decent. A mid cap player with no links experience would probably get destroyed the first time they played the Old Course. So many hanging lies on the fairways, the fiery bounces and tight lies mean playing over obstacles is very tricky. This is one course where playing approaches to the right parts of the greens is important, and the pot bunkers at St Andrew’s are horribly deep. The amount of borrow on chips and pitches is pretty savage. On the plus side, on half the course you can tee it up and just blaze away. Unless you are my old man- he went OB on the first hole- on the other side of 18. Visually it’s pretty nondescript- it’s so flat. For any US Sandtrappers, if you come to Scotland you should definitely try to play the Old Course, there is nowhere else quite like it.