Outfoxed

I hear ya OP!!!!!! I started playing last year, averaging 2 rounds per week. However, for the last 3 months, work has squeezed out all my playing time. So this weekend, in serious need to swing a club, I played a round expecting my swing to a sloppy mess. Yeah, at times, it felt loose. But I actually shot my handicap. LOVED IT!

I'm not sure I have advice as I just took my wife out for the first time last week. Similarly, she had been swinging her clubs on the range, but this was her first time playing a round (9 holes). It was mid-week, mid-day, and the course was nearly empty. We started at the range where I only let her hit 5 "good" shots, really just making good contact. Then we went straight to the 1st tee. Yes, she was stressed, even though she was hiding it well. However it was very obvious when she first dealt with a ball above her feet. It was so tempting to dive right in with ALL the ways to change her swing and stance for the shot, but I knew it would go in one ear, and out the other. So I chose just 3 things to help her with; keeping her head still, width of her stance, and alignment of the club head before the swing. But for the most part we tried not to talk about swing, and really focused more on basic strategy (reading fairways and greens). By the 3th hole, she finally relaxed and the rest of the round was a bunch of fun. She tried to keep score, but I shut it down saying, "Let's just enjoy being out." At the 8th, she was so relaxed and hitting the ball well that she bogeyed the 170yd downhill par 3. It was a lot of fun to surprise her with the news. She is ready for our next chance to get out. But as we have 2 kids under 5 years old, both of us getting out are few and far between special days.

OH-IO! Go Bucks!!! If you go to a M vs OSU football game, you will know it's the best rivalry in sports. It's awesome. And you can't dismiss the best marching band doing their famous Script Ohio. I loved my 4 years in Columbus. Go Buckeyes!!!

It felt that way for me, too, until I actually started to win $. I play in a weekly $15 skins game that can get up to 30 players. So a single skin usually doubles your money. Good fun!

I pulled the trigger on a Bushnell 2 months ago. It is awesome. Love being able to shoot a distance to a certain part of the green.

You will love the Split Cavities. I love mine (5-P).

Just started playing with the Z-star and I'm loving them. They are tough and fly very far. I may just be hooked on this new ball.

Just flew AA last week with clubs and bag checked. Going out to FL from CA, they charged me $60. Coming home, I had an option at the check-in kiosk to upgrade to 1st class for $90. Here's the kicker, the bags were free and got priority status. And of course, the meal and drinks made the upgrade very worthy, in my mind.

+1 for the Nike Split Cavity irons. Been playing them since Jan and I'm loving them. What ever you get, get them fit to you. It will make a big difference in your confidence with the clubs.

Thanks to this thread!!!! Played OCN and Grand Cypress last week and both were great fun! The abundance of golf at Grand Cypress wins the horse race for Best Course. But, so far, it's a two horse race.

Finally home after a long work/wedding/golf trip in the Orlando area. And the golf was great! Seriously, I started at Orange County National. Unfortunately, their Crooked Cat course was closed for modifications. But the Panther course was a fun course. The bunkers were magnetic for my ball, so I had lots of sand "practice". At OCN's Panther, I shot a 94. After the round, I had a look at the map and saw a course right next to Disney, Grand Cypress. So I drove there to check it out. A handful of people had recommended this course as their favorite in the area. And it was abundantly clear to me why why they liked it right from the drive onto the property. It may have been the tall tree, shadowed, two-lane road that blocked almost all light except the bright, radiant green that bounced off the adjacent fairways and greens. After some great advice by the guys in the proshop, I booked a room for the night and readied myself for my first day of 36 holes of golf. I figured that by teeing off at 7:30, I should be able to play both rounds, drive to the airport, and catch my 6:30 flight back to CA. I woke before my alarm I was so excited for the day. After the short walk to the clubhouse, I got to the proshop just as they opened up. I was still early so I told them I was heading to the practice area for a small warm-up. To my surprise, as I walked out of the clubhouse, there were my clubs, sitting in a cart with water, towels, and all the goodies. So I headed to the practice area where I just wanted to wake up a little more. After feeling a good swing with 10 balls, I hit a couple drives that went crazy. Uh, oh! So I slowed it down and things went better, but without good distance. Seeing as how I was about to play a lot of golf, I quit the swing practice and headed to the putting green. There I was met by the starter that had a great question, "Did I mind playing with a member that is playing on the Futures and Canadian LPGA tours?" Hmm. I gave it a long, thorough decision of .116 milliseconds to say yes. So I was soon introduced to Miss Vanessa Vela. We started playing Grand Cypress's South and North courses. It was very challenging, with elevated fairways and greens that ungulate as much as the bunkers. We played well, ok, she played well. I tried not to embarrass myself. But I did manage to out drive her twice. And I even put a couple approaches close to the stick. But my putter was nowhere to be found because it definitely wasn't in my bag. Instead I was using this pretty Odyssey hunk of metal that I held with hands made of Jell-O. Regardless of my play, it was a blast to play with Miss Vela. She gave me several good course management tips and even a couple swing tips, too. For this round, I shot a 95. Vanessa and I played the South and North courses in 3.5 hours, so it was looking very likely that I would be able to get in the second round. So I quickly dealt with my room, bags, grabbed a quick lunch from the bar of turkey on croissant with cranberry BBQ sauce, and headed out to more golf. Grand Cypress's New Course is the first links course I have played. And it was easy to see why people love this kind of golf. The first hole had to have been nearly as wide as it was long. Incredible! And as luck would have it, I only spent a little time in the 100+ bunkers. Half-way through the round, the lightning warning siren sounded, only to reveal a storm travelling away from the course. But it made for a pretty backdrop as I teed off for the next couple of holes. Seeing as how their weren't many golfers on the course (may have been the 11:30 start with temps in the low 90s and high humidity) my leisurely pace still only took 3 hours to complete. I could play this style golf all the time. On the links course, I shot a 86. Before I left, I was outfitted with a shower and drink. The service was top class. And I even made my flight to CA with time to spare. I will definitely go back to Grand Cypress. It is an amazing place for golf.

I've quit rounds at my own club, but never anywhere else. As a matter of fact, last week I quit my round after 11 holes. I missed every chance to get up and down so badly that several holes were on in 4 with 3 putts. So after holing another 7 on the 11th, I shook all my playing partners hands, paid off the bets, and scurried to the practice area for 1+ hours of short game shots. This was much better time spent in my mind than trying to work it out on the course.

(Robot voice) Does Not Compute, Does Not Compute...

Just like the above posts, for a practice round, I have no problem with people playing a second ball to re-hit a duffed shot. We are all trying to improve our game. Just be prompt to pick up your second ball. The interesting part of playing that other ball is that usually you get two results, either the same duff, or a pretty ball that lands right in your target zone. They both suck to watch after a bad hit. The repeat shot tells your how bad your setup really was. And the pretty shot tells you how you suck under pressure. Of course, by you, I mean me.

+1 for Nike Splits. I had mine custom setup and love them. They have quickly become my most confident clubs, all of them (4-PW).

That kid looks impressive for his age.

Sounds like fun. I will definitely play there. Google maps shows a lot of construction going on around the course. Wonder if that is still happening? Thanks again for the advice.

I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while. Thanks. And this visual made it even funnier.

We are in the same boat, Thwak. My scores range from 88 -103. However, in the last two weeks, my game has been more consistantly around 90. A month ago, I started tracking my scores with the Scorecard software. It didn't take very long to see that I was blowing a bunch of chances to get "up and down". So, I'm really focused on my short game now. Before using the score tracking, I would have continued my range sessions with "balanced" time of full swing vs. short game. Now, I have doubled the short game time by really adding chipping practice every time. Glad to know there are more people on the USS Inconsistent than I thought.

Thanks Stix. Both of those courses look fun. What's the story with Duran? Is it links type(as an old cattle ranch)? I'll have to see if Port St. Lucia will "work in the schedule. Thanks for the ideas.

Today I played with the Men's group, which means I bring the age norm down, hardy, har, har. Anyways, before the round, I swung by the local Big Box sporting goods for some balls and tees. A surprisingly savvy salesman saw me eyeballing hybrids. Here's my situation. My new Nike irons are doing great, up to 165 yards for me. And my 3W is working great from 205-220yds. So today, this salesman had me compare a Nike 3H 21* and a 4H 24*. And boy, did the 4H feel right. It only took 3 swings to feel a square, solid hit from the mat. So I pulled the trigger and took it to the course right away. A foursome from my Men's club was ready to tee-off when I drove up to the course. After a "truncated" warm-up, my first drive left me well short of a typical drive. So funny enough, I was left with 180 yd shot to the pin. With less than stellar contact, the new 4H still smacked the ball 170 yds, leaving just short of the fringe. The amazing part was that all of this was into straight-head wind. I had one other chance to the new club, on the 9th, a 170 yd., uphill, par 3 that usually plays into a left to right headwind. This time, with really good contact, I sent the ball well down range, only to watch the wind grab it like a kite and throw it down to the side like "little people" wrestling. But it still had the right distance. So, the jury is still out for being the "upper gap" club. But it sure feels like it might fit the bill. Today, I shot a 91.

More Nike Tour balls and tees. This swing change is costing me a lot of lost balls. But when it goes right, it goes really right. :)

My Bushnell Tour V2 came in the mail this week. And after playing 2 complete rounds with it, I'm really enjoying it. In my weekly game, there are 2 GPS in our foursome. But the laser showed it's accuracy on the par 3s and 5s when it showed the actual distance to the pin or long range targets ("that tree is 250yds away"). Yeah, the Tour V2 had trouble picking up 1 flag stick out of 36. I'll take that margin for error compared to standing over a ball and watching the GPS change numbers.

"Don't ... ." It's a magnet for me. I'll tell myself, don't let it leak, set up for a slight draw. And pow, there it goes right. But the opposite seems true, too. Water on the left, so I tell myself, don't let it draw. And pow, my ball is looking like a dead duck.

Here's a post for all the folks that think that high hncp are sand-baggers. Today, in our weekly skins game, I started the round with several 6s or 7s. But then as we played the 7th, I felt like everything was lining up. I finished it with a par from the results of a good, 165yd 3rd shot on this par 5, that left it 15 feet from the hole. I finished the front with a 50, even though it felt like a 45. So, at the turn, I didn't even calculate my score. I walked up to the 10th tee and smacked a "safe" 250yd drive. Turned out that in the head wind, my drive won the bingo. But as we all faced a 2 club head wind, it was safe to say that big length was a stretch for of us. And then it happened. The shot that I always hope for, the shot where even a 2 club wind cant stop. This was a 205yd, upwind, 3W, that landed 6 feet from the pin after flying the sand 20 feet from the action. I birdied this hole, and it's the #1hdcp. The round continued with bogey golf that was from one side of the fairway to the other. But it was bogey golf, none the less. Then on the 15th, it all tightened up. After a good U/D from a 25 ft putt, the 16th was similar, but a bit more left and right. The 17th was a blind downhill 460yd shot. With my best tee shot of the day, I hit it a little right, but it ran down the hill, leaving it 70yds short of the green. Here's where my new Nike wedges come in. With 4 wedges from P-L, my gap wedge was the one called up. With plenty of downhill lean, my new A wedge sat the ball 4 feet from the hole. Then, on the 18th, after leaving it short on a 170yd par 3, my chip put the ball 2 feet from the pin. This was good enough for all the last 4 skins plus our little Bingo-Bango-Bongo game of our foursome. Today, I shot a 88, and took enough money for the family to have steak dinners.