PooN

If you mis-hit your tee shot and don't get your ball past the ladies tees then proceed to take your next shot without pulling your pants down... you are a non-golfer.

Have a great trip. The weather should be almost perfect for you guys (sans Sunday morn TStorm). We played 2nd from back tees and I feel like if you can hit it 270-ish plus you'll be just fine. We will want pics.

A bit harsh... perhaps you meant naivety.

You know what's funny? If GN just added the $2.49 to their price on every Hot Deal, and didn't have a fee, there would be no issue. But since they tack a fee onto the discounted price it feels like they are trying to nickel and dime me. They could've disguised their price hike better. But perhaps (I am assuming) they do this because they have to pay a percentage of their price to the course, and the fee on top of that they don't have to give the course any cut. Either way, I feel it is a bad business decision and as a consumer I will show my disdain by heading elsewhere to find a similar product with a lower price - and hopefully enough people do this to force them into reconsidering their pricing/fee structure.

My point exactly.

To make close to $30M to run a website is simply absurd! I can see ~$1 per transaction (not per golfer) and still raking in a couple million to offset their cost of doing business and put some money in their pocket... but raking me over the coals to do so is bad business, and I (and many others) will simply stop using them to let them know.

I agree, the fees are garbage. The issue is with Comcast - who owns GolfNow/Golf Channel/NBC Universal. GolfNow booked over 11 million rounds in 2013 (source: wikipedia). Just think how much money they are bringing in with $2.49 fee on each round booked! Do you think they need that kind of revenue to run a website or advertise (heavily I might add) on the same channel that they own? I sure don't think so. Pretty sure they should be able to supplement whatever revenue they need to survive - no, let's say 'thrive' - from sponsors who would like a part of the 11 million rounds of traffic coming through the website. Shame on you GolfNow/Comcast.

Make this your starting point... figure out what your 150 club is (150 after the ball stops, not how far you fly it) and work from there. If it is your 7 iron, start there and go 1 club up/down for every 10 yards. So if you are 160 out you would use a 6 iron, 170 out a 5 iron, so on and so forth. Also, any time you are playing an uphill shot, choose 1 more club than the distance. Anytime playing downhill, choose 1 less than the actual distance. If severely up/downhill... play 2 clubs more/less. Same for strong head/tail winds. Lastly, always figure out the distance to the middle of the green and aim only for the middle no matter where the pin is (when using your irons). Do this until you break 100 consistently and then you can start aiming for the quadrants nearer the pin. If you feel like you are getting consistent ball striking and distances, you are almost there!

It all comes down to a repeatable swing that gets the ball in the center of the clubface. The more you practice/play, the more you strike the ball out of the center. Also the more you practice/play, the more 'in tune' you become with your swing and you'll start to figure out the 'too steep', 'too shallow', 'too outside' and so on. The only plateau there is with golf is if you don't play enough.

I think it should be a major, and I think the players already act as if it is. The fact that you get the top 50 players, a 5 year exemption when you win (just like the 4 official majors), and the most prize money out of any tournament signifies this is a big deal tournament.

Probably just as unlikely as a church group at a hotel. Regardless, if there is a shooter on the loose he could run in any direction... an open field with lots of trees and no roads (and perhaps a getaway golf cart) isn't anywhere near out of the realm of possibility, or even probability at that point. Don't worry though. Nothing could ever happen to you.

Even at full price you will not be disappointed. The views alone are so spectacular and different from any other golf course you'll ever play. I only played the Straits Course, but I'm assume you will be hitting at least one of the other courses (Irish, or River or Meadows at Blackwolf Run)? I/we expect pics and a report when you get back. Good luck and have a blast!

My regular playing partner - my brother-in-law and I always play match play for who's buying dinner (for us two as well as my wife and his two kids and sometimes mother-in-law). Usually ends up being around $30-50. I've been eating for free for a couple seasons now. hehe

Steve Stricker Steve Stricker Steve Stricker Rory Sabbatini Rory Sabbatini Rory Sabbatini

Better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it. -Gas station robberies could and do happen everywhere at any time. -Some parts of town can see some strange activity, near campuses thugs are out mugging/raping/shooting people with much regularity (Marquette and UW-Milwaukee campuses are regularly in the news for such events) -Road rage happens all the time. If some psycho with a death wish gets mad at me for accidentally cutting him off, I'm not losing my life over it. But he may. -Random random random. Mall shootings, Movie theater shootings, etc. In Brookfield, WI - an above average income town, we had two mass shootings within a seven year timeframe and less than 1/2 mile apart. To drive the point home even harder, there are two golf courses that LITERALLY share borders with these two locations. A golf range is less than 1/4 mile away as well. Any law abiding citizen knows that you don't brandish your firearm unless the intended use is to protect you and yours. Just because you (and I, and everyone that I associate with) care about life and have high moral values, doesn't mean everyone feels that way. Thugs/druggies/psychos could give two sh!ts about you or anything you love if it means they feel disrespected or if you are in their way for something they want. I don't need you to judge me for carrying the gun, but I may need you to judge me for using it... which leads me to another useful phrase, "it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six".

Here's my pics thread: http://thesandtrap.com/t/81866/whistling-straits-straits-course-trip-2015-pic-heavy Truly an amazing experience. I don't know how anyone could make this trip and leave feeling anything but fulfilled at the end of the day. Worth every penny.

Someday I will do Bandon Dunes... hopefully I'll be half the man I am today before going. Although, us Wisconsinites are getting our own Bandon Dunes in the next couple years!! Sand Valley Golf Resort will be developed by the same guy that did the Dunes. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw will be architects for one of the courses. Another course will have an architect who's firm did a course at Bandon Dunes and St. Andrews Links Castle Course in Scotland. The site is big enough to fit 5 courses, but will be years and years out from adding more than the initial 2 courses, as long as they make money on the first 2.

This is a great plan for a trip. I was planning almost the exact trip for the PGA Championship weekend (only in reverse order). I would consider SentryWorld instead of Northern Bay, though. I've played NB and didn't think it was all that. My plan was to go from home (Waukesha) to Wisconsin Dells and play Wild Rock on Thursday afternoon, then drive up to Stevens Point and spend the night. Wake up Friday and play SentryWorld, then travel to Lawsonia and spend the night. Wake up on Saturday and play both courses at Lawsonia and spend the night. Wake up on Sunday and drive to Kohler for the final round of the PGA Champoinship. Drive home totally wiped out but with a full perma-grin for the rest of the summer. Pete Dye is an a-hole. Play his courses (off the fairway) and you'll know what I mean. I just enjoyed a quick trip to The Straits yesterday. http://thesandtrap.com/t/81866/whistling-straits-straits-course-trip-2015-pic-heavy

Heh... the design of the course is such that pretty much every hole is either North-to-South or South-to-North... so it was either a 3 club headwind or 2 club tailwind. My problem was my back was stiff after the first couple holes, so more often than not my driver was not finding the fairway. Playing a Pete Dye course off the fairway is like nothing I've ever experienced before... just shot after shot with ball WAY above or below your feet, blind shots over HUGE berms, or crazy long bunker shots. We had a 2, a 5, a 10 (me), and a high handicapper. The 2 shot a 78, the 5 shot an 85, I shot a 96, and we never tallied up the high capper's score. He tipped the caddy well. :) I would've 'easily' shot in the 80's if I wasn't so tired. At 5'8" and 270 I prefer to ride in a cart after each shot. hehe

We played it at the "May Special" rate for $150 green fee. $65 caddie fee and $40 tip. So $255 for the most fun I have ever had shooting a 96.

It would be a wonderful 150... maybe I would liken it to having the most intense hour-long sex of your life with Salma Hayek [or insert your preferred smokin hottie here] and having a heart attack right at the final moment. Here's my thread if you guys are interested: http://thesandtrap.com/t/81866/whistling-straits-straits-course-trip-2015-pic-heavy#post_1139418

My only par on the back (my ball is sitting nicely 6 feet left of the pin - barely missed my birdie again) A rare fairway on my back nine. Hole 17 (Pinched Nerve) which is what my back was after walking so much: The walk between 17 and 18: 18 Teebox (Dyeabolical) - It's a 490 yard par 4 with a forced carry approach shot over a huge ravine. Even on a perfect drive (which one guy in the group hit right to the end of the fairway) still had to play it short and right in the landing area in front of the green. I mean, come on Pete, have a heart.

A view from the turn of the 18th hole Hole 11 (Sand Box) - Pete Dye has a knack for visually beating you senseless. Never easy to pick your line since there isn't a straightforward landing zone. I ended up going right down in the pit. Flew the green on a nutted shot and ended up in this deep pot bunker behind the green: Barely missed my sand save.

Hole nine (Down and Dirty). Found myself in a greenside bunker... A closer look... Pete Dye is an a$$hole. Absolutely no stance - picture does it no justice... it's like verticle so I had to play the ball at chest level. I hosseled the ball over the green to another bunker with a bad stance and ended up 3 putting (only 3 putt of the day!)

Went right on my tee shot on hole six (Gremlin's Ear) and found myself here: and smacked a perfect shot to 6 feet. (Missed the birdie putt): Cool dugout rain shack: Our caddies Matt and Zack: Hole seven (shipwreck):