Golfing

I read the earlier posts on course management. Of course playing for bogey is the smart way for us higher handicappers (to be polite) to play a round. But it's NO FUN!!! Trying to do your best and better than your previous best is part of why sports are enjoyable even for those who suck at them.
There are limits. If you're in the woods, or rough, then Phil Mickelson imitations are stupid. But in the fairway? Man (or Woman), take your best shot.

 

I only put the course management stuff out there for the people who wanted the easiest way to break 90. IMHO, if you want to accomplish that as the primary goal, eschewing smart course management will lead to plateauing with very little chance of breaking 90.

Not only 90, but breaking 100, 80, 70, the BEST way to do it is short game, short game. Putting, chipping, pitching. However, I understand getting up and down from greenside is not the same as pureing a 5 iron from 180 to pin high. Unfortunately, its the likely same score but not as memorable.

 

Again, qt, you are right. But the problem is, rotten golfers like myself have to spend so much of our limited practice time trying to keep our swings from disintegrating altogether that we have limited time to practice the short game. Ironically, mine has improved from its horrible nature when I was younger and stronger just because my body won't let me swing so hard at anything, so my touch has improved despite itself. I'm sure you have, as I have, played with several senior citizens who can't hit the ball further than 150 yards but are deadly with anything less than an 8-iron in their hands. They're my new sports idols.

 

I spend three times as much time on my short game at the range than actually hitting balls. I hit maybe 15 balls just to keep the swing going and head straight to the chipping and putting greens. I like to start off with six spots about 3' outside the cup and keep putting until I make 18 in a row and then I do the same with chipping from different lies and distances.

I still need to keep the one or two blow up holes off of the card to really have a round worth talking about.

 

The good news is that a bizarre March 'heat wave' (we don't get high 70's before Easter like that ever) meant the courses in our area opened up earlier than they have in history. I was going to get a membership to one of the cheaper ones, but then I had to pay for multiple unscheduled car repairs and there went my tax refund. Still, because I'm a single guy in a small town and I have a co-worker who takes classes at the local university and can get on for free, I'll probably play 10-12 times this year at minimum. May go out Sunday if the weather's OK.

The problem with me is that I'm bad, and I know I'm bad, but one in every 20 shots, I catch it flush (normally when I'm aiming to one side to compensate). Just don't have a consistent miss and I'm wild. At a previous job, I worked for a golf addict, so I was out there like twice a week. Nearly killed him when neither of us realized he'd pulled ahead of me, I hit a 7-iron off the hosel, it hit the inside of his windshield and grazed him - he's a pretty easy-going guy, so he just mocks me for it relentlessly.

When I get my proverbial crap together, I can approach or break 100, but didn't have a very good (or active) season last year. I don't know what it is with my swing, but I tend to hit a lot of high-topspin two-hop grounders to short. I think I'm hitting too high on the ball. But when I catch it clean, it goes far.

 

Played in a tourney yesterday and two, yes two, guys in my four played nothing but woods. It was surreal watching these guys hit nine woods from 120 out of the fringe, and I thought of Moddy.

 

QT, I'm a stickler for playing from the whites. The only time I don't is on this executive course I play from time to time that tips out at 6,000 yards. My biggest golf beef is idiots who insist on playing from the tips. Stupid and counterproductive. The game is hard enough; why make it harder?

My course management is usually pretty good. These aren't the issues. It's inconsistency and fixing the swing flaws that I know I have.

 

Went to the range and swung a club for the first time since last October. I was real hesitant on going and swining my MP 30s when I'm going to be playing Di11s this summer, but it just felt good to get out there. Hit some real nice pure shots and had some shanks. Oh well. My swing is still in a rebuilding process, but feel with a slower tempo, I should be good this summer. *knock on wood*

 

September 2, 2012

209 yard 109 yard par 3

9-iron

Saved the ball, which I had found in someone's back yard two holes earlier, and the scorecard. Used a broken tee that was lying around the tee box; didn't even occur to me to save that. Doubt that I would have kept it anyway.

 

My only ace was almost 20 years ago, but I can still remember it so clearly.

153-yard par 3... No. 13 at Gordon Lakes Golf Club... hit an 8 iron (lynx) and a Titleist 100 No. 4. Bounced once, and spun back into the cup.

couldn't really tell that it was in from our vantage point. I had birdied the previous hole, so I had the honors and was walking. Had to wait until the other three guys hit. I had just joined up with them on the previous hole after making the turn by myself. Good thing, too.

Got the ball and scorecard. And a gold putter with my name engraved on it, a gift from the local beverage company.

 

It did seem like I was missing something. I'm sure my gold engraved putter is in the mail.

 

Somewhere, my parents have my stepfather's gold putter. About a 140-yard par-3 ... hit his hybrid club, which has a small head but I believe is about a 3-wood loft. Keep in mind that he hit his drives maybe 175 yards on a good day ... worse, his perspective on the game was much better than that of his two ultra-competitive playing partners.