Esox

Back in the persimmon wood days I not only reached a par 5 in 2, I holed my 4 wood second shot. Talk about luck............ At 62 there I can still reach some par 5's I play regularly in 2, the longest being 515 yards, but the second shot is 25' downhill.

I once saw a team of blatant cheaters get their butts whipped and their clubs broken/stolen at a Detroit Muni. People were less tolerant of being robbed with a pencil in the 80's.

I miss Gary McCord. He made watching golf fun. Always loved Johnny Millers brutally honest assessments of what was happening / had transpired.

Sunday I was with my kid, 545 yd par 5. His drive ended up in a divot 261 out. Most club he could get on it was a 5 wood. I told him hit, he said no, he was waiting till they were off the green. I chided him. He hit. He was right. I apologized, guys couldn't believe he got home from there under any circumstances.

We got a good bit of rain in Metro Detroit Monday night. Fortunately the location of my Tuesday night league (Pine Valley in Romeo) was in excellent condition, Greens were receptive but not soaked. Only saw one casual water relief all round, and that was in a bunker.

That was my first thought! Finishing without injury would be an achievement if he really tried the whole way around.

It's funny how well we could score back in the days when one judged distance to the pin pacing off distances to out ball from known yardage markers. Those of us who were better at estimating the radius of any said markers distance were better at clubbing ourselves. Not knocking GPS devices and range finders, it just astounds me how well we did without that stuff. Not that I want to give any of the new stuff up! My estimating eye had also gotten lazy. I found myself pulling the wrong club a couple times last week before a look at the watch told me I was being stupid. Once from only 80 yards, I was thinking more like 60.........

Played a local parks 18 hole par 3 course between rounds of storms yesterday. Didn't use a tee, just tossed it on the ground and played it where it lay, this is supposed to be practice after all. Hit 14 GIR, made 4 birds, had one 6 on a blowup hole I smacked my first shot on the forehead into a hazard. Still managed to shoot 9 over 63 because the greens were absolutely horrid, lumpy, spotty grass, impossible to get a roll, more of a hit and pray as the ball bounced along........

After a great drive on a long par 5 I found myself 237 to the front into a 5 to 8 mile an hour breeze. No 3 wood in the bag, I tried to hit a low running draw with my 5 wood. Overcooked it and hit a tree well short and left, bouncing backwards into ankle deep rough. Got lucky and found the bright red Vice Pro nestled way down in the rough, 101 yards out. Took a mighty slash at it with my recently purchased 44 degree Cleveland CBX wedge I got because I wasn't happy with my OEM Titleists ability to spin the ball. The ball came out high and straight at the pin. Hit 3 feet short of the hole. Stopped 6' behind it. In an unusual turn of events I made the putt. Best bird of the season thus far.

I was a + 1.5-+2 in my 20's and 30's, Broke left wrist for 5th time around 2000, and could no longer hit the ball. A couple years ago my youngest was helping me clean out my office and the basement. He was intrigued when we threw out rewards for 5 aces I had gotten and a bunch of other trophies and certificates because I never talked about them and he didn't know I could once really play.. He took up the game and got me back into it shortly thereafter. At 62 and riddled with arthritis I am awful now, but very streaky. Like last Sunday I shot a 54 on the front, FUGLY. Turned around on the back and made a 10 and a 9 on the first two, repeatedly shoving the ball OB, then finished with 7 pars after the sun came out and my back loosened up. Accepting that I suck and my body is half the issue makes it easier to accept being bad. I love going out with my friends and family.

Yesterday, 2nd shot on a long par 4 178 yards from pin , green is 21' uphill, and slightly down and across an 8-10mph wind. Pull the 9 wood and hit a towering, lazy, ride the wind fade starting about 10 yards left of the green. It hits the green on a downslope, and continues back and across towards the pin. Comes to rest 4' behind the pin. Left the downhill putt 6" short. Of course......

I only used a 3 wood for tee shots in recent years. So instead of a 3 wood I recently started carrying two drivers on a couple of my regular courses, a 10.5 degree Ping G425 and a very spinny, high flying, quick stopping 12* Mizuno STX220 set to 13.25*. Fanning it open a bit at address keeps it from drawing too much. It is a fairway finder and works great on some uphill tee balls and tree lined doglegs I like to carry.

Wasn't till I got well into my 20's that I developed the discipline to avoid attempting the heroic shot after a bad shot. Take your lumps and avoid making a scrambling par or bogie a double......... 40 years later and I am happy to break 80. LOL

5W, 5W, Wedge.

I have a set of VAS irons on the rack in the basement. Gamed them for less than a year. Only cast clubs I ever bought till I got my T300's. I do currently bag a 44* CBX Zipcore and two RTX Zipcores to go with one SM7. Love the Cleveland wedges.

If I were to take a blind stab at an answer, I would first look at your AOA, Most beginners tend to play the mid and longer irons too far forward in an attempt to launch them higher. This causes them to hit it a little low on the club face, hence the low launch and low spin numbers..

On days when my arthritis is acting up, I can be as bad or worse than your worst nightmare. But I can be that bad and still keep pace...........

Kid and I got paired with a couple of yahoos at a resort course. Dressed to the 9's. New top of the line players gear. They insisted on playing from the tips, a bit over 7200 yards. We played at the tees that made it 6650 or so yards. Thing was, these guys SUCKED! Either one of them was lucky to carry one of their banana tee shots over 200 yards. Crooked. I think both of them lost at least onea ball a hole on the front. scored 8's and worse on every hole, including the par 3's. Refused to let following groups through. We quit at the turn and informed them why in the pro shop. From what I heard the next day, they were asked to leave the course at the 12th when they got belligerent with a ranger. Our round the next day was free.........

Freddie still has one of the smoothest swings on any tour.. I want to be like Fred. LOL

Worked on hand and forearm strength swinging a mattock, pulaski and adze all morning. Shoveled stuff like asphalt and dirt all week long. Went to the range and worked on flighted wedges and tried a few different driver head/ shaft, sleeve configurations. Hit mid irons, concentrating on the drop off the tabletop 5 yd fade. I have been turning them over lately, and I hate drawn mid irons, too hard to dial in distance.

I did once in the 80's. Got the rest of my clothes covered in wet clay and silt. Never again.

A couple rounds in and I am sold. Not quite as forgiving on bad misses as some other clubs, but the club is definitely a fairway finder on my average misses.. And it really does tame the runaway push slice I can get when my wrist is acting up, but isn't a hook monster when I am swinging well. Interesting how they did all this with a club that sets up square.

Absolutely horrid ball striking day today, thanks to an arthritic spine that refused to be medicated. I couldn't hit a ball over 200 yards at all, and those were crooked. . On the bright side. The M-Craft 3 was superb. Despite numerous putts over 40' and a few over 50', I had no 3 putts. While I didn't make any cross country putts, My lag putts were all within 3', most within 2' . Shot 97 on a course I should be in the low 80's at the worst.

Played a course between L Huron and L St Clair. All day we had lake effect snow squalls carried on 2o mph winds blowing through, The greens would get covered in ice pellets, 20 minutes later they were just wet, repeat. Putting was impossible, sometimes like rolling up a snowman body section with the ball as the core. Sometimes the greeens were just soaking wet,. Balls were, lost disappearing mid flight into the wind driven snow. We quit scoring on the back, but I had an even 50 on the front with lots of 3 putts and a 4 putt and two lost ball penalties... . I'd do it again.LOL

Why we are playing two man scrambles tomorrow. Hopefully one drive won't disappear, completely embedded into the muck we are calling soil in the spring.....