Thanks! I was somewhat kidding with my original comment. My tormenting son will always find a way to, well, torment me, because...he's 15, and that's what teenage boys do to their dads.Heh. Short answer: decide the extent to which you want to play within your limitations or try to improve. There's nothing at all wrong in putting from 10 yards off the green (links course or non-links course) if that's the shot which feels right to you, and you should definitely ignore any peer pressure to the contrary. Over the long term, learning how to chip better - and pitch better, and hit full shots better... - will give you the best chance of the best results, but knowing whether those are leaps you will be able to take is important in figuring out the right course of action for yourself.
Well choke down and there's your 60 yarder. Shorten the backswing and there's your 50, then slow it down for your 40. There are a bunch of ways to take distance off w a wedge. You just have to pick the right one.a full 60 degree wedge.
70 yard choke down punch w a sand wedge. Landed about 7 feet short, broke right, and trickled right in. It was a par three course but at least an old lady didn't come out of nowhere and Jennie Finch it to me. How embarrassing.Fucker. No, it was like 125 yards way downhill to a 2 tiered green. It took her some time to walk from 12 tee to 11 green, reach in the hole and grab my ball. By then we had walked down the hill to the edge of the green. Now tell us about yours... well, we're waiting!
Idk if this helps but I'd take free golf over a driving range. I think I've spent over 150 at the range alone this year. How is that deal even possible?In central MA, you have a 50/50 shot of finding a course with no range. Ok, now that I think of it, maybe 40/60. I think I mentioned 6 months or so back in this thread that I got a deal on a membership at one of those "no" courses, that was too good to pass up... it was $150 for 3 years. No, I didn't drop a zero. One Fiddy. After June of this year, I have been playing with house money.
Is it the best course? No. But golf is golf, and free golf is even better. And playing a lot has helped me with my game. I am by no means a bomb and gouge player. When I was a youngin', I modeled my game after Corey Pavin (mainly because my short game is all I could practice in the back yard... for some reason my parents wouldn't let 15 year old OGG hit drivers over the house across the street. Very unfair). But there are only a handful of driver holes at this course... and positioning is key... so to me, it plays into my strengths.
Ok, that was a long answer to a short question.
LOL that's a great story.Thanks! I was somewhat kidding with my original comment. My tormenting son will always find a way to, well, torment me, because...he's 15, and that's what teenage boys do to their dads.
Or do something stupid. Like this morning - playing downhill par 5, with, about 530 yards, ponds on each side of the green as you approach (15-30 yrd short of the green), with a small strip of land fairway between them. Wife, son and myself. The pond on the right is basically an empty hole because water being used for irrigation. Its level will change throughout the season. The boy hits drive to about 215, and puts a 4 iron on to front of the green in two. I manage to get the ball to about 130 after 2, and hit my 7 iron decent to be on the green, but 50 feet away. Wife hits her second in the aformentioned empty pond. I am using power cart, so I drive around the left side of the left pond to park behind green, far away from the empty pond. As I look back, I see my wife pulling my son up out of the crater from 10 feet from the edge. He apparently wanted to do mom a favor and get her ball. He was not aware of the concept a recently empty pond could be quite muddy. This life lesson also missed my wife. And I was driving in the other direction and too far away to intervene even if I did see this happen. He makes it out of the pond, but went up to his ankles in mud. So he strips down the bare feet, and throws the socks and golf shoes on my cart, which quickly start to smell like low tide. The guys playing the nearby 6th hole are watching this in awe and laughter. After a typical "WTF" discussion with the both of them, he three putts for part from about 40 feet. I left my first putt short about 10 feet. The boy says "You're still going to do worse than me even after I got stuck in a pond." I drain the the par put to tie him.
I play my best when I play with spite, apparently. And he does play better in golf shoes, as the next 6 holes indicated.
While this is generally correct, don't try it on the course. There are a LOT of ways to hit a 50 yard shot, but it really depends on what that shot needs to be. My advice would be to pick a goto shot that you can practice on the range, in your yard, in a field, whatever. When I go to the range, I hit at least the first half of the balls at less than full swings. Getting on the green and/or close to the pin is the surest way to lower scores. Even on tour, the number one correlation to scoring is "distance from pin".Well choke down and there's your 60 yarder. Shorten the backswing and there's your 50, then slow it down for your 40. There are a bunch of ways to take distance off w a wedge. You just have to pick the right one.
And you're giving me shit? It doesn't count on a par three course and it doesn't count from 70 yards. I look forward to the story, someday, of making an actual ace. It's a rewarding feeling70 yard choke down punch w a sand wedge. Landed about 7 feet short, broke right, and trickled right in. It was a par three course but at least an old lady didn't come out of nowhere and Jennie Finch it to me. How embarrassing.
You asked! And trust me when I do eventually get one I won't need a woman to get the ball for meWhile this is generally correct, don't try it on the course. There are a LOT of ways to hit a 50 yard shot, but it really depends on what that shot needs to be. My advice would be to pick a goto shot that you can practice on the range, in your yard, in a field, whatever. When I go to the range, I hit at least the first half of the balls at less than full swings. Getting on the green and/or close to the pin is the surest way to lower scores. Even on tour, the number one correlation to scoring is "distance from pin".
And you're giving me shit? It doesn't count on a par three course and it doesn't count from 70 yards. I look forward to the story, someday, of making an actual ace. It's a rewarding feeling
Right? It is new management, so I think they were hoping to pack the 18 holes, plus the 19th full of people. Instead, we have 10 minute tee times(which I love... playing 18 holes on the weekend in 4 hours is a novelty) with a restaurant that just opened last week.I think it was a perfect storm of bad timing for that deal. Some fairways are a bit burned out.. but again, bad timing,,,it has been really dry here.Well choke down and there's your 60 yarder. Shorten the backswing and there's your 50, then slow it down for your 40. There are a bunch of ways to take distance off w a wedge. You just have to pick the right one.
70 yard choke down punch w a sand wedge. Landed about 7 feet short, broke right, and trickled right in. It was a par three course but at least an old lady didn't come out of nowhere and Jennie Finch it to me. How embarrassing.
Idk if this helps but I'd take free golf over a driving range. I think I've spent over 150 at the range alone this year. How is that deal even possible?
I don't think that would have counted as an ace (obviously). When I was a kid I worked at Hillview Country Club in North Reading. The 2nd hole was a par 3 and, since I wasn't old enough to drive myself home and was responsible for picking the range, I would take a trash barrel full of range balls down to number 2 while waiting for a ride home and hit ball after ball (and fixed so many pitch marks). More than once I went up to the green and found a ball in the hole (it was blind), but I never considered any of them aces. Though I guess if a 70 yard shot on a par 3 course counts then maybe those do too!When I was 12 or 13, over my spring break my father took me for the first time to the Monterey Peninsula, and we stayed at the Inn at Spanish Bay. The course at Spanish Bay had only just opened within the last year or two, and I guess security was lax, because I kept sneaking out onto the course every evening long after the last group had gone through to play as many holes as I could play - which was quite a few - and nobody ever batted an eye. I was still playing off the forward tees at that age, and the 13th hole at Spanish Bay from the red tees was and I believe still is only 99 yards long, which was so temptingly short that one evening I got the idea that I would just hit that tee shot over and over again until I knocked one into the hole, so I could claim my first ace. Believe it or not, that trick didn't work. (I did repair a LOT of pitch marks that evening...and in retrospect, really, what the hell was I doing???)
I have made four legitimate aces since, FWIW - on four of my favorite golf courses in Scotland - but I'll keep those stories in my pocket unless anyone really wants to hear them.
Yikes, might want to rephrase thisYou asked! And trust me when I do eventually get one I won't need a woman to get the ball for me
Just to be clear, that definitely would not have counted as an ace - not a chance. (I think I knew as much at the time, but still.)I don't think that would have counted as an ace (obviously).
Did you get it in the clown's mouth?Just wanted to throw out that I think I had my best 9 ever tonight in my neighborhood fuck-around 9 hole league. It wasn't from the tips and was on a pretty easy course, but hey, a 31 is a good score on a legit golf course, especially in the wind and rain we had tonight. 5 birdies, 4 pars. 1 putt of 15 feet on 9, nothing else over 6 feet. Missed a couple 6-8 footers for birdie too. It's such a surreal feeling when you just know where the ball is going.
Hah, I've actually started building an app to let people do just that. Conceptually it would even time shift the scoring so you couldn't see what I shot on a hole until you completed the hole. Hopefully I'll have more time to work on it over the winter, but I've got a lot of other ideas for it as well.What would be kinda cool is if a bunch of us all played on the same day. Obviously different courses all over the country (and world even). I don’t know how to do the proper math but if we kept our own scores and took photos of the scorecard and posted them and someone smarter than me calculated them against the slope and rating and such and we had a little “tournament”. Taking handicaps into consideration of course.
Could something like that work?
Oh that would be super cool.Hah, I've actually started building an app to let people do just that. Conceptually it would even time shift the scoring so you couldn't see what I shot on a hole until you completed the hole. Hopefully I'll have more time to work on it over the winter, but I've got a lot of other ideas for it as well.
And as high as 10 men while cranking a vintage Dead show?I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
That's crazy, in pretty much every sense. Congratulations!I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
Congrats! 70? That's playing.I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
What course? Sounds typical for someone from Missoula.I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
Yes indeed! Well done! And done well.I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
It’s not a bad course.He forgot to mention it was a par 3 course. Great round though!
That's beautiful.
On the "ace/not an ace" thing, are some of you suggesting that an ace has to be part of a full round with other players to be "legitimate"? My first ace came at Cruden Bay in the northeast of Scotland - I was in the middle of a 36-hole day, playing alone but keeping score seriously and playing by the rules, and when I finished the 10th hole of my second round there was a twosome on the tee of the par-3 11th who asked if I'd like to join them. The first shot I hit with them went into the hole; I never thought that was an illegitimate ace in any way, but now I'm really wondering if some of you might think differently. (I play enough golf on my own that I'd consider an ace to be legitimate - but incredibly unfortunate - if I made it in a solo round as well, as long as I was observing the rules and not hitting multiple balls per hole, etc.)
$8k?!?!?!? Seriously? I hope you won that Calcutta. I just witnessed an ace on the third hole of a member/guest out in Portland, Or. It was a beautiful shot but he's a lucky bastard. The course was 100% full but the beverage carts were all included as part of the tourney so he ended up not having to spend a dime on drinks. It was his first and only ace.That's a legit ace as far as I'm concerned. My first ace came when i was on a course for like the 10th time in my life. A par 3, 201 yard hole, at a little 9 hole course in Lexington. I went out as a single, but got paired up with a 3some on the 1st tee, so I had 3 playing partners. I hit a terrible worm burner that rolled about 40 yards up into the cup. In addition to the 3 guys with me, the 4 guys on the green (they waive the groups behind up when they get to the green there) all saw it go in. My name is on the plaque in the clubhouse, so it counts.
My 2nd one came in 2012 at the now bankrupt and closed International in Bolton/Hudson/Stowe, whatever town that is. Par 3, 194, hit a perfect 5 iron, one bounce and it rolled about a foot right into the cup. We were there with 40 guys for our annual Calcutta, so that one cost me $8,000 that night in booze. Not the best time to hit one for the wallet, but oh so worth it. Fortunately, the 1st one I hit in Lexington doesn't have a bar, so I got out of that one with like 3 hot dogs and a couple of sodas.
Didn't win that year, but won like 36k the year before. It's a pretty crazy group of guys, to say the least. We had the Calcutta for about 10 years, and the prize pool after the auction was usually between 90k-110k. We would take a party bus to the course (we played a bunch of places, Turner Hill, Pine Hills, International, etc.) and then head to the city for dinner/debauchery from the course in the bus. So yeah, it got expensive, but I'd do it again for another ace.$8k?!?!?!? Seriously? I hope you won that Calcutta. I just witnessed an ace on the third hole of a member/guest out in Portland, Or. It was a beautiful shot but he's a lucky bastard. The course was 100% full but the beverage carts were all included as part of the tourney so he ended up not having to spend a dime on drinks. It was his first and only ace.
A lot of clubs and men's clubs do this too. It's hole-in-one insurance. If you make an ace and it's a slow day you take home some cash. If it's a busy day, you get to buy drinks without spending much out of pocket.The group of guys I play with regularly at our home course has something called the $400 club. Basically, everyone in the club agrees to pay $400/man to whoever makes an ace in your foursome. So if you hit one, you're guaranteed $1,200 from the group, which would usually cover the drinks that night at the club.
My club does this, which is less of a hit - you pay a certain amount of money in beginning of the year (wife pays that bill, so I don't know the cost), and every time someone gets a hole in one, you get a free drink. If you don't use it within a week, the money goes to the Jr. golf program.A lot of clubs and men's clubs do this too. It's hole-in-one insurance. If you make an ace and it's a slow day you take home some cash. If it's a busy day, you get to buy drinks without spending much out of pocket.
This is separate from the insurance for the club. The insurance that is run by our bartender is only $20/year per person. So if you hit a hole in one, and you have to buy drinks, it's covered. Theoretically, the $400 club is bonus money to the person that hit the ace, paid solely by those people in the foursome, which could be used towards drinks if the player didn't have insurance, but everyone has it because it's so cheap, and usually, the bartender makes a killing each year.A lot of clubs and men's clubs do this too. It's hole-in-one insurance. If you make an ace and it's a slow day you take home some cash. If it's a busy day, you get to buy drinks without spending much out of pocket.
That's incredible. Congrats! What course?I don't know why I don't post in this thread.
Got my first official ace yesterday (no witness on the first one a few years ago). 131 yards into 15 MPH wind. Played a pitching wedge and hit a low punch, 3 yard draw between the bunkers protecting the front of the green. Never saw it go in. Found it sitting in the cup once at the green. With the current rules, there is a Styrofoam piece in the bottom of the cup and you aren't allowed to remove the flag so the ball was visible in the top of the cup.
It was my best round this summer. Shot 70. That 1 on the card looks oh so pretty.
Oh, and I was wearing Birkenstocks and playing all of the greens barefoot.
He hit a 9i into a par 5? Damn, Hercules!I played with Southshore sox fan yesterday and he had the closest shot to an albatross I've ever seen. Hit his drive right down the middle and hoisted a 9 iron up to within 2 inches. It took a small bounce over the hole and stayed within a foot. I thought we were partying. I tried uploading a pic but this site is fuckered
https://i.ibb.co/K7WpfSr/Screen-Shot-2020-09-01-at-6-16-35-PM.png
Is that abnormal? There are lots of short par 5s. I hit 8 and 50 into 2 par 5s tonight and I know there are bigger hitters on here than me.He hit a 9i into a par 5? Damn, Hercules!
Depends on the tees yeah? Those details are always left outIs that abnormal? There are lots of short par 5s. I hit 8 and 50 into 2 par 5s tonight and I know there are bigger hitters on here than me.
Of course. Tonight was just my neighborhood fuckaound "league" with a bunch of high handicappers and total beginners so we play a set of up tees. The longest par 5 is something like 540 if you don't just hit over the lakes.Depends on the tees yeah? Those details are always left out