rvanculin

I am as big a proponent of manual transmissions as anyone, but if you drive a lot in an urban or hilly environment, you may rue it over time. I live in a rural area, so I love manuals.

In all of the different vehicles I've owned (many), I've found that nothing rides like an Audi. I still miss mine and hope to get another one when my kids move out, haha. If I was in the market for a new vehicle for just me and the family wasn't a consideration, it would be an Audi. I enjoy my Hyundai Sonata. It's the 2.0 turbo sport model and I think it has 245 hp. It's peppy, and, when in Sport mode, the turbo spools almost instantaneously. On the lease vs buy argument, the miles end up being limiting for me. I do about 25k miles per year on my car, unfortunately.

This was a tough one. Like many have said, for me it is a spectrum. I live in VA but have family in Ohio and Philly, so I visit both places regularly. If I'm only going to be in the area for a few days, I would lean towards playing a course I know and like. If I'm going to be in the area for more than a few days, I would try a new course, and if I don't like it, I can follow it up with a course that is a favorite of mine.

I like the rule where everyone uses the same ball. I think it would be cool to have a tournament where everyone uses all the same clubs. You show up, and have a finite amount of time with your clubs on the range to figure them out, then play. I don’t care if it’s not fair to everyone, golf ain’t fair. Also, I would like to see them make the driver heads smaller, about the same as fairway woods. No more unlimited forgiveness so you can hit it 315 off the end of the toe.

Come to think of it, I have witnessed a fist fight on the course caused by slow play. It was a few holes ahead in different groups. This was a few holes after the slow play afforded a few guys the opportunity to share some drugs during the wait time, lol. That’s what you get for booking a single in NJ and getting paired up, haha.

So, the book is on the way, thanks to Darkfrog, but what about when you start way behind a group and catch up? Should I just play slower? I played in a 3-some today and we played through another 3 at the tune. Course is wide open in front of us. By 13, we catch another 3, and they take 15 minutes to play a 125-yard par 3 with no really hazard. That kind of stuff ruins my day. You lose all flow and rhythm. What are you supposed to do?

I’m going to read this, then gift it to the head pro at my club, lol. Required reading for all new members.

It is definitely unnerving. And I definitely hit it super-thin because I was worried about taking a chunk out of the putting green, haha.

The longest I've played from the tips is 7,270, at Moraine CC. The cool thing there is that the back tees on the first hole are on the back of the practice green. So, you have to ask everyone to get off the green so you can tee off. The longest hybrid setup I've played was around 7,400 yards, at the Pete Dye River Course at VA Tech. It's 7,685 from the tips, and 7,180 from the one-ups, and we played half of each.

I would agree with most and say my longest iron, which is a 4-iron. I've played some courses where I had to hit hybrid into par 4's, and that makes for a long day. To decided which tees to play, I look at the total yardage compared to the par 3 yardages. I played a 6900 yd course that was miserable because I was hitting 3H into par 4's and 9i into par 3's. I really enjoyed a 7400 yard course where I was hitting 3H into the par 3's and never hit longer than 4i into a par 4. Also, on the latter, the par 5's were usually reachable in 2, which if fine by me.

Historicaerials.com is a great resource to see what a lot of golf courses used to look like. Obviously, you have better luck in more populated areas. I’ve always felt like Piqua Country Club has a good Ross feel to it. He really only did 9 holes, then Jack Kidwell did the other 9, then it had to be moved a little for the I-75 expansion. But, you can see the original layout on that website.

I think this concept makes sense if you think of it like merging on the highway, when you go from 3 lanes to 2, or similar. If everyone could just zipper in at, say, 55 mph, you're still slowing down, but it's much better than when people try to slam into a spot where there isn't room, everyone slams on brakes, and we're at 15 mph.

My issue with playing through on a par 5 is that the group who let you play through will then stand in the fairway with hands on hips for 300 yards so they can go for the green in 2. So the group behind them waits on the tee while they wait for you to finish so they can top their 3W from an unreachable distance.

I always prefer playing through on par 3’s, and never on a par 5 or driveable par 4. I think the following works best: Group A hits tee shots to green. When Group B gets to the tee, let them hit tee shots. Both groups go to green, where Group B finishes and heads to the next tee, while Group A finishes.

I’ve found that the best and most true Golden Age courses are the ones that just never had the money to be re-invented. I played 2 excellent DR courses last week, that I believe are pretty true to the original design. Both are in Philadelphia. The Union League at Torresdale and LuLu Country Club. Both also have greens that no architect would build today. I would love to see more courses like they used to be, but unfortunately, today’s green speeds require greens to be toned down.