The Flush

I haven't played in almost 2 months. I have been working on a kitchen remodel and just wanted to focus on that, so I haven't even chipped a ball in the back yard until last night, when I hit 2 chip shots. The end of the remodel is in sight with countertops scheduled to be installed in 2 weeks.

The last time I did it was to keep the ball under some tree branches. I successfully topped the ball back into the fairway.

If my ball was loyal to me, I would be loyal to it. But it only goes where I hit, not where I want it to go, so I see no reason for loyalty.

I enjoyed this one from Drumeo

I had a L4/5 discectomy about 25 years ago. In my case the disc had ruptured on both sides of my spine and pinched nerves on both sides. I described my pain as someone was always walking behind me stabbing me in the back of both legs with an ice pick or pouring acid down the back of my legs. My whole lower body would go numb and I frequently tripped over my own feet because I couldn't feel them when I walked. It sucked. I tried PT and chiropractors, neither of which helped. Never tried the steroid shots though. I suffered for about 9 months before I finally had surgery. I knew as soon as I woke up that I was better. Within a week I was walking 3 miles a day. My only real restriction was I was told not to sit in a chair, so I could work for something like 6 weeks or maybe even more. I assume current techniques are better and the return to work is quicker. Unfortunately I did not play much golf afterwards, mainly due to our first kid being born about 9 months after surgery. I didn't play much until my youngest got into golf when he was a junior into high school. My back had nothing to do with me not playing. Since surgery, I have played golf, snow skied, and lifted heavy weights with the only thing holding me back being my overall poor fitness. I have had a lot of other problems (hernias x3, gall bladder, pulmonary embolism, basal cell carcinoma, etc., but none of them related to my back. YMMV

I voted decent weather golfer. Generally it needs to be over 50 and sunny with no wind or over 70 if there is wind or rain. I generally don't play in the rain or when it is over 95 unless it is league night and I can't reschedule or some type of event. Most of the time that I have played in the rain is because we just got caught in the rain, almost never tee off in the rain. We did tee off in the rain the first time we played at Eaglesticks, but it was warm and there was not much of a chance of rain and while it absolutely poured for a while, it stopped after 4 or 5 holes.

The short version is that many people think they are aligned further to the right that what they really are and that they compensate with an over the top move to hit it more left.

Any validity to this?

Jack is clearly the best!

I went to watch my son play in a tournament at Eaglesticks on Sunday, and then drove up to my daughter's house in Cleveland Sunday night. We had a great view of the eclipse from her front yard. I was amazed at how dark it got and how instant the darkness came. No traffic problems leaving Cleveland until we got almost to Columbus. Then traffic was slow until we hit I-270. Son said they was a mandatory stoppage in play from 3-3:30 and they handed out eclipse glasses to the players. He said it was too long of a delay and felt it contributed to him going from -1 on the front to +5 on the back. He finished +7 (T9) for the tournament.

I was at Eaglesticks today to watch my son in a college tournament. Course is in decent, but not great, shape for this early in the season. Greens look nice, fairways were ok, couple rough spots in the rough. Bunkers were a disaster and were considered GUR. LCP in the fairways with several plugged balls. There was significant flooding in the area this week, so I assume that affected the bunkers a lot. However, the bunkers have not been in good shape any of the times I have been there.

Looks like Pure is officially gone now. They were advertising 90% off of whatever they had left yesterday.

I was a little disappointed in Eaglesticks the 2 times I have played it. While it is generally a much better course than those I usually play, the bunkers were in terrible shape the first time in 2021. I attributed that to heavy rain at the time, but it was not any better when we went back in 2022. The rest of the course was fine. A grounds crew guy stole my son's ball that wasn't even that far into the rough and was very findable, but he was over 250 yards away from us and it wasn't worth chasing him down. We only paid $25 with cart via Group Golfer (went up to 27 or 28 in 2023), which more than made up for the suboptimum condition. The 2 hour drive was worse than the bunker conditions though.

I did play more golf this year, but I didn't avoid another surgery. Fortunately is was just a Mohs surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma. I did pass on an offer to play a scramble a couple days afterwards, but otherwise didn't miss any golf.

75% off now, or at least for Black Friday. Looks like only bright colors with no logo left.

A friend of mine's son got knocked out cold in a HS soccer game by another players elbow when he was attempting a header. His concussion was so bad he couldn't stay in a room with the lights on for about a month. You have to wonder if the big event was compounded by a lot of lower impact headers over the course of years. My son wishes he had started golf sooner. While he had a set of clubs and played a couple times per year, he didn't really start playing until his junior year of HS. He played soccer and kicked for the football team. Golf, soccer, and football are all fall sports here, so it is hard to do them all at the same time. While he had symptoms for a couple of years, it wasn't until the week after his last soccer game of his sophomore year that he was diagnosed with atrial flutter which caused a blood clot in his heart. Doctors wouldn't let him play soccer because he was on a blood thinner. Somehow he talked them into letting him kick in football by promising not to get tackled or try to tackle anyone, which he was mostly able to do. Pat McAfee once retweeted a video of him doing a drop kick during a game. Anyway he played golf his last 2 years of high school and still kicked in football and now plays golf at an NAIA college. He kind of wishes he had played golf earlier instead of playing soccer. However he is really glad he kicked in football and he knows that he probably never would have done that if he had not also played soccer.

Man arrested in death of hockey player whose neck was cut with skate blade during game Police in England have arrested a man on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut by...

Not a lot. Mostly bright colored wrap style grips and a couple other types.

70% Off now.

Good value ($) seems like a combination of good conditions, good architecture/use of the land, good pace of play/flow, and price. There is a difference between value and price in my mind. I chose good value as a surrogate for low price. But there is a limit to it. I am usually play the only course in my county and it kinda sucks. I would pay more for something with better conditions. I don't know that it is a good value, but I just don't feel like driving further very often. I also chose pace of play and good company. Those are reflections of the experience not the golf course. I can have a good experience on a not very nice golf course.

My first set of Pure grips are only 6 months old, but I just ordered 2 more sets just to have for the future. One set my go on may son's clubs, the other will just get stored. Speaking of storage, I assume it is better to keep these in a climate control environment instead of out in my unconditioned shed?