2020 Golf Thread

Doug Beerabelli

Killer Threads
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That's an awesome tale, and a great ending.

Hopping on your 9th hole putt, I've been burning more lips than Marquis de Sade. I made a minor change to my setup (toe of the putter in the air, essentially to stop me from hooding every put) , and I am rolling the ball great. I think it was Jack who said "I didn't miss the putt, it just didn't go in", and I am feeling that way. I am hitting the ball with the speed I want, on the line I want...it just isn't dropping. It is frustrating, but encouraging at the same time.

For putters, I grew up using my Dad's old high school clubs (Spaulding Blades) As I was generally short and crooked off the tee, making up shots on/around the green was the only way to keep up score wise with my brothers. My putter when I was younger was similar to this. I have tried on occasion mallet putters, and I just don't feel like I have the feel with them. So, as stated above, putters are a very personal thing.
When you said "Spaulding," I was expecting this to be the ole' Billy Baroo!
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,947
So I'm officially back. For those that may not remember, I quit golf 6 years ago, just emptied my locker into a trash bag and quit after our 3 day member guest. I didn't even remember I left my clubs there until over 2 years later, when they called and asked if I was ever going to pick them up. I was a 9 handicap (around a 7 index), and got the shanks with my irons so bad that I couldn't break 110 for 3 months. I couldn't take it anymore so I quit.

In August of last year, I decided to start playing again, rejoined the club this year, and all of those "restricted" scores went in, so I opened the season at a 17 index (20 handicap) and consistently shot 85-90. My index had dropped to a 12.3 going into last weekend, and then I shot a 79 on Friday and a 78 on Saturday (with 4 3 putts, and the putter is the best club in my bag, by far). I'm now down to a 9.2 index. Yep, I've basically cut my index in half in 2 months, and I've made a small fortune in the process, which is nice.

The irons? I started focusing on turning and just swinging and and I'm absolutely striping them. Even when I was playing good, I was a guy who might hit my 6 iron 170 yards when I hit it good. Now, I'm playing 6 iron anywhere from 185-195. I'm htting 8 iron 160. I'm a guy who hits driver like 250 when I absolutely hit it on the screws, so it's not like I'm some sort of Cameron Champ out there either.

The one part of my game I haven't been able to figure out is dialing back the wedges when I need to. I carry a 60 degree that I hit about 90 yards, a 54 degree that goes about 100, a 52 degree to about 110, and my pitching wedge can go upwards of 135, but when I try to take anything off any of those clubs, I either hit it off the hosel, or I pull the shit out of it so I don't fire a hosel rocket dead right. If I can figure that out in the next few weeks, I'll be better than I've ever been, because I've always been pretty accurate with my driver, and I'm great around the greens. Now that my irons are solid, I need to figure out how to stop giving away 3-5 shots per round with the wedges.
 

voidfunkt

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SoSH Member
Apr 14, 2006
1,461
/dev/null
I quit golf 6 years ago, just emptied my locker into a trash bag and quit after our 3 day member guest.
That's quite the rage quit haha. I had something similar happen to me last year though I'm nowhere near as good (14 handicap). I was playing fine up until late May and then I completely "forgot" how to hit a golf ball... like every 9:10 swings was producing a shank. This went on for like 2 weeks before I grabbed a club Pro for 10 minutes as he was passing by on the driving range.

Problem: I was trying to push the ball more and had managed to start setting myself up too far away and also what I thought I was trying to do to swing more right of the target was actually causing my wrists to add loft to the club and trying to uppercut the ball. All kinds of nasty stuff that causes shanks.

Totally worth it to grab a pro and pay for a single lesson if this kind of thing happens. It's usually something dumb.

Now when I start feeling like I'm doing funky things with my wrists I have a drill that I use to complete take the wrists out of the swing. Just bring the club straight up at the start of your swing so your wrists are cocked and the top of the shaft is pointing at your crotch. Then you just need to worry about hip rotation. If it didn't look absolutely ridiculous I'd swing like that on the course because it removes a huge variable from my swing.
 

uncannymanny

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 12, 2007
9,080
Ugh. Sorry man, didn't mean to be insensitive. Just sounded like you forgot where you put 'em. Hope you're back on your feet
No don’t sweat it at all! I’m well past the emotional anguish stages at this point anyway and we had insurance, got a new place last August. Yeah, it’s hard to word without explicitly talking about it, I’m sure it sounds odd. I’m forgetful but not that much.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
So I'm officially back. For those that may not remember, I quit golf 6 years ago, just emptied my locker into a trash bag and quit after our 3 day member guest. I didn't even remember I left my clubs there until over 2 years later, when they called and asked if I was ever going to pick them up. I was a 9 handicap (around a 7 index), and got the shanks with my irons so bad that I couldn't break 110 for 3 months. I couldn't take it anymore so I quit.

In August of last year, I decided to start playing again, rejoined the club this year, and all of those "restricted" scores went in, so I opened the season at a 17 index (20 handicap) and consistently shot 85-90. My index had dropped to a 12.3 going into last weekend, and then I shot a 79 on Friday and a 78 on Saturday (with 4 3 putts, and the putter is the best club in my bag, by far). I'm now down to a 9.2 index. Yep, I've basically cut my index in half in 2 months, and I've made a small fortune in the process, which is nice.

The irons? I started focusing on turning and just swinging and and I'm absolutely striping them. Even when I was playing good, I was a guy who might hit my 6 iron 170 yards when I hit it good. Now, I'm playing 6 iron anywhere from 185-195. I'm htting 8 iron 160. I'm a guy who hits driver like 250 when I absolutely hit it on the screws, so it's not like I'm some sort of Cameron Champ out there either.

The one part of my game I haven't been able to figure out is dialing back the wedges when I need to. I carry a 60 degree that I hit about 90 yards, a 54 degree that goes about 100, a 52 degree to about 110, and my pitching wedge can go upwards of 135, but when I try to take anything off any of those clubs, I either hit it off the hosel, or I pull the shit out of it so I don't fire a hosel rocket dead right. If I can figure that out in the next few weeks, I'll be better than I've ever been, because I've always been pretty accurate with my driver, and I'm great around the greens. Now that my irons are solid, I need to figure out how to stop giving away 3-5 shots per round with the wedges.
That's quite the rage quit haha. I had something similar happen to me last year though I'm nowhere near as good (14 handicap). I was playing fine up until late May and then I completely "forgot" how to hit a golf ball... like every 9:10 swings was producing a shank. This went on for like 2 weeks before I grabbed a club Pro for 10 minutes as he was passing by on the driving range.

Problem: I was trying to push the ball more and had managed to start setting myself up too far away and also what I thought I was trying to do to swing more right of the target was actually causing my wrists to add loft to the club and trying to uppercut the ball. All kinds of nasty stuff that causes shanks.

Totally worth it to grab a pro and pay for a single lesson if this kind of thing happens. It's usually something dumb.

Now when I start feeling like I'm doing funky things with my wrists I have a drill that I use to complete take the wrists out of the swing. Just bring the club straight up at the start of your swing so your wrists are cocked and the top of the shaft is pointing at your crotch. Then you just need to worry about hip rotation. If it didn't look absolutely ridiculous I'd swing like that on the course because it removes a huge variable from my swing.
God these speak right to my soul. I have always battled the shanks and for the last couple years I was terrified standing over every iron. Its all caused by opening my clubface wayyyy too early, going back to my baseball tendencies, and my wrists completely break down at the top of the swing. I finally got over it and this year I’ve honestly been flushing my irons. Similar to what DOTB described - condident, striking the ball solid, picking up 10-15 yards of distance as a result. I even went to the range last week to work on some stuff and had one of my best range sessions ever. Everything just center of the clubface.

And now, I just finished a crazy Pinehurst weekend 8 rounds in 5 days (I’ll do a full write up on that soon). About halfway through, I completely forgot how to hit a golf ball and erased all my progress. At one point I hit 5 shanks in 4 holes. I was shanking irons, wedges, punch shots, even shanked a hybrid shot once. I’m now back to where golf is really not fun and I have physical anxiety standing over an iron shot. Good thing I have a member guest to play in this weekend...

I’m hoping I can go back to literally a week ago where I couldn’t wait for par 3s. This game just blows my mind sometimes.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,947
That's quite the rage quit haha. I had something similar happen to me last year though I'm nowhere near as good (14 handicap). I was playing fine up until late May and then I completely "forgot" how to hit a golf ball... like every 9:10 swings was producing a shank. This went on for like 2 weeks before I grabbed a club Pro for 10 minutes as he was passing by on the driving range.

Problem: I was trying to push the ball more and had managed to start setting myself up too far away and also what I thought I was trying to do to swing more right of the target was actually causing my wrists to add loft to the club and trying to uppercut the ball. All kinds of nasty stuff that causes shanks.

Totally worth it to grab a pro and pay for a single lesson if this kind of thing happens. It's usually something dumb.

Now when I start feeling like I'm doing funky things with my wrists I have a drill that I use to complete take the wrists out of the swing. Just bring the club straight up at the start of your swing so your wrists are cocked and the top of the shaft is pointing at your crotch. Then you just need to worry about hip rotation. If it didn't look absolutely ridiculous I'd swing like that on the course because it removes a huge variable from my swing.
Oh, I didn't mention I spent no less than 40 hours on the range with the pro over the 3 months I had the shanks. If you saw me on the range, I looked like a fucking Tour Pro. Then I would get on the course and dead shank, hosel rocket, one after another, every iron from the wedges to the 4 iron. It got so bad that in my last round, I got up on a par 3, 135 yards with a choked down 5 wood that I normally hit 210 yards, just so I wouldn't have to hit a goddamn wedge or 9 iron. After that, I was like "I can't fucking do this anymore," and that was it. Fairways, rough, bunkers, shank, shank, shank. It got so bad my friends wouldn't watch me swing because they thought it might be contagious.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
Just to get a sense of how people hit their clubs...

My biggest strength: distance and elevation (I hit my irons high).

My biggest weakness: putting. I can run hot and cold but my god I miss a TON of 3 footers. Typical round against most of you, I’d lose 3-5 strokes on the green. Would hope to make it up with length and ball striking and chipping but I’m almost guaranteed to lose shots to you guys with the flat stick. The day I shot 75, I drained everything, which made all the difference in the world.

Club distances...

Driver: 240-310 - typical is about 275
3-wood - 240-260 - but I hardly ever use it
3-iron - 220-230
4-iron - 205-220
5-iron - 190-205
6-iron - 175-190
7-iron - 165-175
8-iron - 155-165
9-iron - 140-155
PW - 100-140
SW - 60-100
LW - 20-40
 
Oh, I didn't mention I spent no less than 40 hours on the range with the pro over the 3 months I had the shanks. If you saw me on the range, I looked like a fucking Tour Pro. Then I would get on the course and dead shank, hosel rocket, one after another, every iron from the wedges to the 4 iron. It got so bad that in my last round, I got up on a par 3, 135 yards with a choked down 5 wood that I normally hit 210 yards, just so I wouldn't have to hit a goddamn wedge or 9 iron. After that, I was like "I can't fucking do this anymore," and that was it. Fairways, rough, bunkers, shank, shank, shank. It got so bad my friends wouldn't watch me swing because they thought it might be contagious.
I wrote about this in my book, but when you come to Scotland and go to the bathroom, you'll see the word "Shanks" absolutely everywhere on toilets and urinals - usually as "Armitage Shanks", one of the largest companies in Britain to make bathroom fixtures, but sometimes just as "Shanks". I think it's a reference to a shank of porcelain, but it has to be more than a little off-putting for some golfers to make the trip of a lifetime to Scotland and be forced to stare at the game's unholiest swear word in pretty much every loo.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

has big, douchey shoulders
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
God these speak right to my soul. I have always battled the shanks and for the last couple years I was terrified standing over every iron. Its all caused by opening my clubface wayyyy too early, going back to my baseball tendencies, and my wrists completely break down at the top of the swing. I finally got over it and this year I’ve honestly been flushing my irons. Similar to what DOTB described - condident, striking the ball solid, picking up 10-15 yards of distance as a result. I even went to the range last week to work on some stuff and had one of my best range sessions ever. Everything just center of the clubface.

And now, I just finished a crazy Pinehurst weekend 8 rounds in 5 days (I’ll do a full write up on that soon). About halfway through, I completely forgot how to hit a golf ball and erased all my progress. At one point I hit 5 shanks in 4 holes. I was shanking irons, wedges, punch shots, even shanked a hybrid shot once. I’m now back to where golf is really not fun and I have physical anxiety standing over an iron shot. Good thing I have a member guest to play in this weekend...

I’m hoping I can go back to literally a week ago where I couldn’t wait for par 3s. This game just blows my mind sometimes.
I'm prone to the shanks, and have gotten them at some really inopportune times. I've gotten them where it isn't just one every few holes, but rather every single swing with an iron. What I finally learned was that I tend to bring the club back too far outside, and that leads to my shanks. So I can now adjust and start the club on an almost exaggerated inside path. It feels a little weird and looks a bit like a slap shot, but it gets rid of the shanks immediately.
 
There's a wonderful links course in Fife to the south of St. Andrews called Elie - in normal years, there's a great open competition there in which you play 18 holes in the morning and then they have an impromptu cut before the best players make it through to a second round in the afternoon. The course is famous for its blind opening tee shot and the old submarine periscope that has been installed in the starter's hut to let you see over the hill and know when it's safe to tee off, but it's a really fun course to play, and the par-4 13th around the beach at the far end of the course is one of the better par 4s in Scotland. One of my favorite putters I've ever owned has been rusting for years in tall grass on a hillside behind that 13th green: I'd made the cut in the morning of that open, but my putting stroke was falling apart throughout the day, and after I missed one final short putt at the 13th I went behind the green and flung the putter as far as I could into the dune grass. That putter had reached the end of its natural lifespan, I thought; I finished the rest of the round putting with my 2-iron, and bought a new putter the next day.

I mention this because I've had similar feelings about my current putter (a new model Ping Anser 2) for the last week or two, and they came to a head this morning at Dunbar. I did actually make two putts of 10 feet or more, but nothing feels natural at the moment at all, even after spending a few days practicing on the artificial grass in my backyard. But for the moment, I'm giving a new grip a chance - one of our assistant pros was able to fit a new, slightly thicker grip on the putter within 15 minutes of me finishing my round today, and the old grip was getting seriously tatty, so I'm hoping maybe that will make a difference before more extreme measures need to be taken.

FWIW, I shot a 76 today in a fairly strong breeze - I hit the ball really well for about 13 holes, but then I rather ran out of gas and bogeyed four of the last five holes. C'est la vie; about what I deserved, in the end.
 

Mooch

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
4,494
I'm prone to the shanks, and have gotten them at some really inopportune times. I've gotten them where it isn't just one every few holes, but rather every single swing with an iron. What I finally learned was that I tend to bring the club back too far outside, and that leads to my shanks. So I can now adjust and start the club on an almost exaggerated inside path. It feels a little weird and looks a bit like a slap shot, but it gets rid of the shanks immediately.
I actually use this same fix: I've incorporated a Chris DiMarco pre-shot routine where I check my backswing to make sure that it's inside and flat enough on takeaway. Usually leads to better iron play for me.
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
Shot a 39 this morning, first time breaking 40 in a long, long time. Felt good. 2 3-putt bogeys to be cleaned up, but otherwise not really disappointed in any shots I hit. Played miserable on Thursday when I played 27 and shot 99 and 53. Nice turnaround.
 

4 6 3 DP

Member
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Oct 24, 2001
2,370
Funny, I've always fought the snap hook, never the shank. I've weakened my grip significantly through the years trying to manage It but that's always been my battle...
 

Over Guapo Grande

panty merchant
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,461
Worcester
I actually played a par 5 smart, and it paid off. I hit an Ok drive, but tugged it left. With 260 or so in, with trees somewhat in the way, I said to myself "knock it to 100, then wedge in". Note I usually say this to myself.. but this time I hit a solid iron, and left myself 103. Hit a wedge which had one bounce, hit the pin, and then settled around 13 inches from the cup. Best shot of the year for me(and probably top 5 life time). Of course, the next hole I snap hooked a ball across the road...
 

Over Guapo Grande

panty merchant
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,461
Worcester
That could probably go in the "What is your bit" thread. The "roughly [specific number, usually to the decimal], give or take'. I do it now without even thinking/knowing about it.
 
I was back out at a windy, fiery Dunbar this morning - it hasn't rained much recently, and it's looking pretty shiny in places. (A bit reminiscent of how a lot of the greens looked at Muirfield Village this weekend, actually.) On the first hole, I had a three-foot putt which I hit decently enough, and it was going into the left center of the hole but hit the pin and bounced away - the second time that's happened to me in a week. Rattled, I proceeded to miss two more three-footers in the first seven holes, one of which hit something and took a 45-degree detour, and the second of which I thought the pin was lying in such a way that I only had two-thirds of the hole available to me. I had 20 putts in total on the front nine, which is as many putts as I can remember taking in nine holes for a long time - and then I started bogey-double-bogey on the back nine, to be +8 through 12 holes with six tough holes (mostly into the wind) ahead of me. But I figured something out in my swing, and I shortened my putting stroke, and I managed to par the last six holes to break 80, including a sand save and eight-foot putt on the 18th. So that was a morale-boosting finish ahead of my first competitive round of the year this Saturday: I'm really looking forward to playing tournament golf again, although I'm really not looking forward to have to keep the pins in the holes for every putt in competitive play, to say nothing of the sorts of lies we might see in the bunkers with no rakes back on the course yet.
 

ezemerson

Member
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Jan 19, 2013
1,541
what a jekyll and hyde round today for me....you ever love a course you play over and over but can never post a good score, well that's where i went back to today. Played the back first (3 par 4s, 3 par 5s, 3 par 3s) and shot a 46.....good not get my right side through, it was like i was babying every shot just wasnt aggressive enough at the ball. couple of doubles on 2 of the par 5s didnt help.....then off to the front 9 (traditional 2 par 5s and 2 par 3s) where i finally made some adjustments......had so many birdie looks and shot 39 with a double....wish i couldve started that way....oh well until next time.
 
I've finished my first competitive round in a long time, on a blustery, showery day. If you're watching the final round of the British Masters on the European Tour right now, that's basically the wind I played in - Close House is only a couple of hours away from Dunbar - so it wasn't easy out there. I had a very weird birdie-bogey-par-bogey-birdie start, with my irons working much better than my drives; I bogeyed the 8th to go out in +1, then played the three tough holes after the turn in par-bogey-bogey, so at +3 through 12 I was feeling OK. And then we had a sharp shower on the 13th: I hit a good drive and was in perfect position, but as I got ready to hit my second shot on the par 4 with a 5-iron, the rain was coming down as hard as it had all day, and I rushed my pre-shot routine somewhat...and promptly shanked my ball into tall grass on a hillside. I haven't hit a shank in literally a decade; there must be something in the fact we were talking about shanks in this thread the other day!

I hit a provisional ball to the edge of the green and managed to make a double after failing to find the first one, but at +5 with five tough holes into the wind still to come, I figured I was in serious trouble. But after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker at 14, I managed to par the last four holes and hit several very good shots along the way, the best being a putt of at least 100 feet from short of the 18th green to within six inches of the hole for a closing tap-in. So I finished with a 77 (+6), which is a pretty fair score that could see my handicap go down by 0.1 (and at worst will keep it as it is), and I'm very pleased with my mental strength in closing out the round like that despite having every reason to go into the tank.

By the way, we were allowed to take preferred lies in the bunkers (moving the ball a maximum of six inches in doing so), a concession to the lack of rakes on the course. Also, we each had to mark and sign our own scorecards - I kept the score of my playing partner, and we compared notes at the end of the round before turning in our cards in the clubhouse, but I never even looked at his card after the round. (I showed him my card after I'd signed it, but I didn't demand to see his.) So that was all very different.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
Ok on a muuuuuuuch lesser note.... took my adult daughter golfing for the first time a couple of days ago. She’s the college basketball player and a good athlete. Went to an executive course because I didn’t want to overwhelm her. She must have swung and missed 50 times in 9 holes. But she also made good contact a handful of times and even sank a 20 foot putt for, ahem, “par” (not counting six swings and misses on the hole).

I played pretty well... just three over for the nine holes without a single birdie. Just six pars and three bogeys. Fun to bomb a six iron 185 yards and have her go “wow!”, because she’s never seen that before.

She’s competitive enough such that she wants to play again and try to get better. I said ok..next stop...a driving range.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
I'd take it a step further and get a few lessons to start the right habits early.
Yeah...torn on that. Obviously you make a great point. But lessons = $$. Not positive I want to invest that money if she's not gonna get into the sport. I know I can at least help her on the range with the basics of the swing, without the pressure of having to actually perform on the course - especially with a group behind us.

On the first tee, there were 10 people watching us hit. Talk about nerve-wracking. I thought it would be empty at the time of day we went. Was I ever wrong.
 

patinorange

Member
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Aug 27, 2006
30,660
6 miles from Angel Stadium
Yeah...torn on that. Obviously you make a great point. But lessons = $$. Not positive I want to invest that money if she's not gonna get into the sport. I know I can at least help her on the range with the basics of the swing, without the pressure of having to actually perform on the course - especially with a group behind us.

On the first tee, there were 10 people watching us hit. Talk about nerve-wracking. I thought it would be empty at the time of day we went. Was I ever wrong.
Here in So Cal, I have never seen the courses so crowded. Tough to get a tee time even during the week. My usual driving ranges are packed 7 days a week. Looks like a lot of people off or working from home combined with its one of the few recreational things you can do.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
SoSH Member
Oct 1, 2015
24,375
For sure, people just want to get the fuck out of the house (and maybe get a break from the family for a min).
Totally agree. It was just that it was 92 degrees in the smack-dab middle of the day, sun at its peak, on a little executive course. Just didn't expect to have a packed tee. My poor daughter was petrified. Part of the fun, I guess.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
Yeah, I've found a very lot of both beginners and those that either dropped the game entirely or were once a year types have taken the game back up. It's one of the few safe ways to get out, get some exercise and get some sunshine, all of which are important to general health. I've also seen a lot more couples and women on the courses this summer than ever before. I wonder if fishing spots are overrun as well?

Edit: I can't even imagine what the round times look like in Boston. People bitch up a storm if a round takes more than 4:20 here. I remember 5+ hour rounds being the norm when I lived back east
 

voidfunkt

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 14, 2006
1,461
/dev/null
Shot a 38 on the front 9 (3 over par) and then a 47 on the back nine today while limping in to my 85.

Went from hitting everything nicely to... big banana slices with the driver.

When I get tired my swing falls apart, but also I'm having real issues closing the club face and it's causing baby fades to progressively turn into monster slices.
 

FL4WL3SS

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Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
I'm playing the Washington state amateur qualifier on Wednesday. This is notable to me for a few reasons. First off, I played last year at the same qualifying site and ended up missing the cut by 1 in devastating fashion. I played awesome all day, got to 16 at +2. I ended up missing a make-able birdie putt on 16 after being just short of the green in 2 (hole was a par 5). I then proceeded to snap hook a 3i off the tee on 17 OB to make double followed by a double from the middle of the fairway on 18. Went from possibly being +1 on 17 tee to shooting 78 and missing the cut.

Having said that, it was probably for the best. Which brings me to my second point. During the fall of 2014 (at 31 years old ugh) I developed paroxysmal AFib that gradually worsened each year. I ended up on medication to slow it down, but I generally felt like shit most of the time and especially while I was on the medication. So the reason I'm saying missing the cut was for the best was because after that round my golf game fell off a cliff and I struggled with enjoying golf and feeling well. I would have most likely finished near the bottom and embarrassed myself - which I did later in the year at the mid-am. I touched on this earlier in the thread, but I played so bad they asked me not to play this year (you need to shoot within 15 strokes of the course rating each day). Our club championship was in the beginning of Sept and I shot mid 90s all three rounds participating in the champ flight. I was broken and I was unwell.

On Sept 26 I made a trip to Brigham and Women's to see the best electrophysiologist in the US and had a procedure on my heart to (hopefully) fix the AFib. It's been almost a year and I haven't felt this good in years. My heart is staying on beat and my energy levels are back. I feel like myself again. My golf game immediately started coming back this spring and has culminated in a recent run of strong golf to get my back to a 4 HC.

I'm not sure I expect anyone to care, but I wanted to share with people. I don't typically share personally here, but I've gotten to know a few of you (and consider at least one of you like a brother). And yeah, I signed up for the mid-am anyway this year. Let's see how good their bookkeeping is :)
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
I'm playing the Washington state amateur qualifier on Wednesday. This is notable to me for a few reasons. First off, I played last year at the same qualifying site and ended up missing the cut by 1 in devastating fashion. I played awesome all day, got to 16 at +2. I ended up missing a make-able birdie putt on 16 after being just short of the green in 2 (hole was a par 5). I then proceeded to snap hook a 3i off the tee on 17 OB to make double followed by a double from the middle of the fairway on 18. Went from possibly being +1 on 17 tee to shooting 78 and missing the cut.

Having said that, it was probably for the best. Which brings me to my second point. During the fall of 2014 (at 31 years old ugh) I developed paroxysmal AFib that gradually worsened each year. I ended up on medication to slow it down, but I generally felt like shit most of the time and especially while I was on the medication. So the reason I'm saying missing the cut was for the best was because after that round my golf game fell off a cliff and I struggled with enjoying golf and feeling well. I would have most likely finished near the bottom and embarrassed myself - which I did later in the year at the mid-am. I touched on this earlier in the thread, but I played so bad they asked me not to play this year (you need to shoot within 15 strokes of the course rating each day). Our club championship was in the beginning of Sept and I shot mid 90s all three rounds participating in the champ flight. I was broken and I was unwell.

On Sept 26 I made a trip to Brigham and Women's to see the best electrophysiologist in the US and had a procedure on my heart to (hopefully) fix the AFib. It's been almost a year and I haven't felt this good in years. My heart is staying on beat and my energy levels are back. I feel like myself again. My golf game immediately started coming back this spring and has culminated in a recent run of strong golf to get my back to a 4 HC.

I'm not sure I expect anyone to care, but I wanted to share with people. I don't typically share personally here, but I've gotten to know a few of you (and consider at least one of you like a brother). And yeah, I signed up for the mid-am anyway this year. Let's see how good their bookkeeping is :)
Thanks man, I like you too!! (j/k) Good luck. What course is it?
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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I'm playing the Washington state amateur qualifier on Wednesday. This is notable to me for a few reasons. First off, I played last year at the same qualifying site and ended up missing the cut by 1 in devastating fashion. I played awesome all day, got to 16 at +2. I ended up missing a make-able birdie putt on 16 after being just short of the green in 2 (hole was a par 5). I then proceeded to snap hook a 3i off the tee on 17 OB to make double followed by a double from the middle of the fairway on 18. Went from possibly being +1 on 17 tee to shooting 78 and missing the cut.

Having said that, it was probably for the best. Which brings me to my second point. During the fall of 2014 (at 31 years old ugh) I developed paroxysmal AFib that gradually worsened each year. I ended up on medication to slow it down, but I generally felt like shit most of the time and especially while I was on the medication. So the reason I'm saying missing the cut was for the best was because after that round my golf game fell off a cliff and I struggled with enjoying golf and feeling well. I would have most likely finished near the bottom and embarrassed myself - which I did later in the year at the mid-am. I touched on this earlier in the thread, but I played so bad they asked me not to play this year (you need to shoot within 15 strokes of the course rating each day). Our club championship was in the beginning of Sept and I shot mid 90s all three rounds participating in the champ flight. I was broken and I was unwell.

On Sept 26 I made a trip to Brigham and Women's to see the best electrophysiologist in the US and had a procedure on my heart to (hopefully) fix the AFib. It's been almost a year and I haven't felt this good in years. My heart is staying on beat and my energy levels are back. I feel like myself again. My golf game immediately started coming back this spring and has culminated in a recent run of strong golf to get my back to a 4 HC.

I'm not sure I expect anyone to care, but I wanted to share with people. I don't typically share personally here, but I've gotten to know a few of you (and consider at least one of you like a brother). And yeah, I signed up for the mid-am anyway this year. Let's see how good their bookkeeping is :)
Good luck! Pulling for you!
 

FL4WL3SS

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Jul 31, 2006
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Thanks man, I like you too!! (j/k) Good luck. What course is it?
There are 3-4 qualifying sites. I'm playing the Home Course in Dupont which fits my game nicely. You can spray it a bit off the tee, so I can take advantage of my length without getting into too much trouble.

They also play at Gold Mountain which is a fantastic, but much harder course and Wine Valley which is way out east near Walla Walla. Super fun course in the middle of nowhere.
 

jercra

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Jul 31, 2006
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Arvada, Co
Nice. I don't know Home Course but have played Gold Mountain and Wine Valley and both are great tracks. I'm going to look into playing in the CO state Am next year. Sounds like fun and I just assumed it would take more like 67 to qualify. If 78 misses the cut by one then I'd have a great chance of making it through.
 

FL4WL3SS

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There are 19 spots at this qualifying site with 102 golfers. A few will shoot under par, but mid to low 70s should get you in.

You should look at the mid-am too. No need to qualify and you don't need to play against a bunch of college golfers as it's 25 and up.
 

FL4WL3SS

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They do it through golf genius, so yes. I can post it here when I get the link if I remember. Basically there's a person standing off the green every few holes and you give them your scores to update. So it lags behind a few holes.
 

Zomp

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Ah. In Rhode Island they’re having golfers update their score on an app that goes to golf genius. I forget what the two day total was at the am to get it to match play. I think 6 over was the cut.

Yeah link it if you can think of it. Would be fun to live track.
 

FL4WL3SS

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It's better not having to worry about it honestly. It also takes out the possibility of someone false reporting which could impact how you play if you think you're ahead/behind where you really are.
 
I had lovely time on the course this evening (6:03 p.m. tee time) with one of the better players at Dunbar today, a two-handicapper who used to be a teammate in our East Lothian Winter League team. (He's also one of the two players I've ever defeated in the matchplay portion of the Dunbar Club Championship - I was even par for 17 holes and beat him 2&1 - but I had the grace not to remind him about that.) I started with a two-putt birdie at the 1st, then stiffed a 5-iron to three feet at the 2nd...and left myself probably the toughest three-footer I can remember, downhill and downwind and with enough left-to-right break that the ball had to start outside of the hole. I easily could have hit it 10 feet past the hole, so of course I missed it, and wound up missing two other three-footers in the next 10 holes; the rest of my game rather regressed from there as well, apart from the 8-iron I hit to gimme range for a birdie at the 8th, but it was still great fun, and my partner - amidst a few squirrelly shots of his own - had four or five birdies himself. The funniest part was pushing a drive on the 18th which landed just inside the out-of-bounds wall on the right: I figured it was likely to kick off the wall and come back into play, and as we walked up the fairway I was joking that one of these days I was going to hit a tee shot that bounced through one of the small gaps in the wall - which exist mainly to let people fetch their balls on the other side - and went OB itself. You can probably guess what happened next.

Incidentally, I wound up finishing T13 scratch and T19 net out of a field of 144 in that competition on Saturday - not bad at all, but scores were a bit better than I'd expected. And another five-handicapper like myself won both the scratch and net events outright by shooting a level-par 71 (scratch) despite playing the last five holes in +4. So he was -4 through 13 holes, which in those conditions is pretty sick.
 

FL4WL3SS

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No bueno in the qualifier this morning, shot 84 (45-39). Was out of it EARLY when I took a 9 on hole 3. I hit the ball really really well, just had some bad luck with bounces.

I'll spare most of the minutiae. It basically came down to three big numbers. The first and second hole were identical, hit a good iron off the tee followed by a good approach to 12-15 feet. I proceeded to power lip out to 4-6 feet and miss the come-backer... Bad luck. Hole 3 was a combo of shit luck and the only bad swing of the day. Hit a draw 3i off the tee that hit the left side of the fairway, but the ground was so hard it trundled into the fescue. Hit my provisional hook left OB, then my second provisional down the middle. Couldn't find the first one unfortunately and that was that. +7 after 3 holes.

The 39 on the back was with a triple on 11. Hit what I thought was a great PW into the hole, just left. Turns out, you didn't want to be left of the flag, there was a huge drop off that swallowed my ball. Ball hit pin high 4 feet left of the pin and turned into triple... Oh well.

84 with a 9, a triple, and a double? Not too bad I guess.
 
My condolences - that sucks. Only question: was it really bad luck that you hit two straight putts of between 12-15 feet that finished 4-6 feet past the hole? Even with power lip-outs on both holes, it seems like you must have jacked both putts much faster than you should have done. (I almost always putt relatively tentatively on the first few holes of a round, while I'm still getting used to the speed of the greens.)
 

FL4WL3SS

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Felt like bad luck. Put great rolls on both putts, both looked to be going in for birdie with the potential to finish 1-2 feet past the hole, but the lip out gave it a bit extra.

Missing the come-backer both times was unfortunate, but with a bit of nerves early it wasn't unexpected.

Edit: also, putting tentatively isn't my thing. I like to putt with confidence and a bit of speed.
 
Felt like bad luck. Put great rolls on both putts, both looked to be going in for birdie with the potential to finish 1-2 feet past the hole, but the lip out gave it a bit extra.
By the by, you've intrigued me about the science of lip-outs, and whether a lip-out can actually add speed to a putt. My inclination would be that it can't - unless the lip-out redirects a ball onto a downslope, in which case the speed gained is actually from the slope and not from the lip-out itself, and a half-assed internet search finds a few forums which (eventually) agree:
https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/comments/9bx8zt/can_a_lipout_add_speed_to_the_putt/e56v402/https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=44458.0But perhaps any smarter and more physics-inclined golfers here might disagree?
Edit: also, putting tentatively isn't my thing. I like to putt with confidence and a bit of speed.
Fair enough.