Norm66

I don't know about this specific club, but certain grades of steel are actually designed to rust. It creates a protective coating impervious to the elements over the surface of the steel. The USX Tower (Steel building) in Pittsburgh is faced with a steel like this. Several years ago they had to pay all their neighbors to clean the rust off their buildings that had come from the Steel building.

Sounds like it might work then. I was picturing a smaller congregation, but you're looking at probably 1500-ish of which maybe 150 (10%) are golfers so even if only half play it'd be a pretty good turnout.

Congrats on the eagle and the Ace!

Just off the top of my head (and not to discourage you) what I see is that a fund-raiser for a small church-based preschoool is likely to draw participants only from those closely associated with either the church or the pre-school. Would there be enough golfers in that population to make it worthwhile?

345 yard par-4, my drive drifted into the trees on the right. My 2nd shot I overcooked a hybrid chip shot and it went over the back of the elevated green and almost into the weeds. Third shot I flubbed my chip and didn't make the green. Fourth shot I chipped in for par. Still couldn't salvage the round though. :0) My best one though was a chip-in for birdie after slicing my tee-shot up onto a big hillside, but that's a different thread...

ok, so I did it backwards. I still won, but it had more to do with my buddy's bad back (he shot 40 on the front and 54 on the back when his back tightened up on him) than the strokes. Thanks guys.

Thanks guys! In our case, he consistently averages around 10 strokes less than me so I arbitrarily assign him a 10 handicap. That means we each get a stroke on the 10 hardest holes. Those will cancel out so that leaves 10 strokes I get on the holes listed 11-18 and 1 stroke on the first and second hardest. Does that sound right?

I don't have an opinion about the plus handicaps, but Congratulations for reaching scratch. Quite an accomplishment for sure. Cheers!

A guy I play with is pretty consistently 10 strokes better than I am. I've got an un-official handicap of 21.3, but my buddy doesn't even have that. We're playing today and I'd like to maybe get some strokes and play an actual match just for fun. Would it be as simple as simply giving me strokes on the 10 hardest holes or am I missing something? Thanks.

I have trouble arranging a foursome. Fortunately, the guy I share an office with is in charge of our company scramble twice a year. We're not quite up to 50 players, but close with 10-12 foursomes. He just asked folks to send in their average 18 hole score (or whether they're a golf newbie) and they make up the teams based on A, B, C & D players. Last fall I was a D, having never played. This year I'm a B. Progress! Anyway, some courses will deal a little bit, but others just charge whatever their normal fee is plus for whatever food you arrange. I was surprised they didn't come down very much at all considering it was 40+ rounds of golf involved. Let me know if you have any questions. If I can't answer, I'll ask my buddy.

I think Woody told the truth. Fluxcapacitor- I believe that if you intend to hit the ball, but whiff, it's still a stroke. When it wouldn't be a stroke is if you accidentally knock your ball off the tee during your setup or waggle. But still, if you take a full swing and mean to hit the ball but don't, it's a stroke. Also, your double hits (I'm pretty sure) are two strokes too. I'm not entirely sure whether it's two strokes or if it's a stroke and penalty for hitting a ball not at rest.

That's just crazy Silli. Everyone's got their own preferances, but to call them pigs is insane. What's your idea of a pretty girl?

I think highly of my Adams OS2 3-hybrid. Since I learned to hit it, it's been my "When it absolutely, positively has to be straight" club. And they're $100 pretty much everywhere nowadays. I kind of wish they had a 2-hybrid in that series, I'd love to use it instead of my 5-wood.

My first year of golf ended a couple weeks ago and it's gone pretty well by my standards. I started at a company scramble last August, and was scoring 120-130 on 18-hole courses even with a few mulligans. Nowadays I'm playing as completely by the rules as I can (no mulligans, proper penalty strokes etc.) and am consistently scoring between 90 and 95 with my best score 87 and multiple scores below 90. My current handicap is in the neighborhood of 21. The big thing I wanted to improve this year was the wasted shots. You know, the fat ones you dribble 20', the thin ones that bounce over the greens, the 2' chips when it was supposed to be 10', the sliced drives into the next fairway etc. I still get those shots, but they're a lot less numerous. Next year the focus will be on the short game. My handicap goal for next year is 14.

HarlDane- Olaf looks just like a dog that's often in the backyard behind #11 on my local course. Beauty! My favs are too many, but I own a golden retriever. I also love Labs, GSDs and most mutts too. In general I prefer dogs to people.

from "The Contest": Kramer: "I'm out!" while slapping downt he money five minutes after the bet was made. It's amazing how many times in daily life Seinfeld references are useful.

My best was 87 two weeks ago at what I normally consider a very difficult course. It's short, but the fairways are narrow with hills on both sides leading to woods on the front and tons of water on the back. My worst was 113 on a total blow-up day at a new to me course playing from the blues. 26 shot swing.

Sweet! Very cool looking. I'd like to give it a swing or two before I decided if I'd want to play with it, but it definitely looks cool.

Almost all of the courses I play on have bad sand in their bunkers. A lot of the guys I play with say it's unfair to have to hit out of them (?) in that condition and want to pick their balls up and play from behind the bunker instead. I say we're all playing the same course so it's an even hassle to all of us.

Every once in a while, but usually the big names get reviewed. There was one review here a while back of a Pine Meadow hybrid I believe, but it's rare. Truthfully I don't find club reviews very helpful anyway. Tastes and preferences vary so widely from person to person that they're of little use. Don't get me wrong, I still read them, they're fun. :0)

No, there is no secret, but all the tips and "fads" you mention are really just different ways to achieve most of the things you laid out in your post. If there's one thing I've learned in my first year of golfing it's that different people learn different ways. What worked for me doesn't make any sense to my wife or my golf buddy.

I usually drive, except for one of my buddies who doesn't like my driving. He's 20 years older than me so I call him Grandpa and give him crap about being a geezer. :0) I actually prefer riding to driving if the other guy knows how to do it properly. I never let me wife drive if I can help it because she doesn't get it quite yet.

Balls that were hit into water hazards. Guys go in to fish them out and sell them at a discount. It's commonly believed that water-logged balls do not perform as well as non-waterlogged balls. I've bought used balls, but if it has a yellow tinge, no thanks because I think that's a telltale sign of a water-ball.

I've been a fatty-hitter since I started golfing. Recently I discovered that if I don't let my front (left for a righty) knee break down on my backswing I make much better contact with all my clubs. I guess if your knee bends inward it's just one more thing that has to get back exactly to the same place at impact for it to work.

I scored an 87 Saturday beating my previous best by two strokes. Yesterday, my wife and I were able to card an 80 playing a two-man scramble format which beat our best score on that course by three strokes. Pretty good weekend for golf. :0)