SoSH Golf, 2022

[petefungtorres]

Best part was my forecaddy (the junior club champ) had my 14 year old son ride around with him for 3 days, teaching him forecaddying, but it also got my son a chance to watch real, actual competitive serious golf in person with his dad and his friends. My son is really into the game now, but he hadn't really been exposed to that level of competition among adults. He's been playing junior PGA for years, but those are scrambles, and his buddies are there, etc. He had a blast watching us, and did a great job staying out of the way, etc.

This is fantastic - and a great way to get him even more experience with the game. I played with my son at our local men's league Tuesday night and it was an absolute blast. It's nine hole, two man better ball competition where you earn points for wins, half a point for halves. We're in the A flight and our opponents are always good players - I typically get one stroke, my son never gets any unless we're playing the guy who is a plus 2.5. We both bogeyed the first, opponents made birdie. Son made birdie on two to square the match. I made the par on the third to halve the hole. My son birdied the fourth and fifth holes to take us two up. I birdied the sixth to go three up. Solid pars down the stretch gave us the match with us three up. Team gross of 33 tied for the first place money. Such a fun match and so awesome to share with him.

 

[pappymojo]

Any suggestions for courses within an hour of Boston (ideally west of Boston on 495) that rent clubs for 10 year old kids and that have a clubhouse with outdoor seating for a burger and lemonade afterwards?

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

I don’t have a recommendation, but I’m guessing you might be able to find a set of uses starter clubs for a 10 year old for the costs of a couple rentals. Although might be hard to find those these days.

 

[RedSoxFan]

Facebook marketplace is a good option to try to find jr. clubs at a decent price. If you have a Savers nearby, may want to give that a try to see if they have anything there as well.

Question - I recently upgraded my irons to a used set of Ping I3 O-Size. However, the 5i I had to buy separately and I noticed that it has a different color dot (black) than the others (orange). I didn't know about offset until after I already bought them (and of course re-gripped them). Plus Ping seems to have a few different color codes out there making it all the more confusing. Is this something I need to be concerned about? FWIW I'm about a 25-30 handicap right now but trying to improve.

 

[bsan34]

Black is more upright than orange. What that means is that it’s more likely to draw (curve from right to left), while orange dots are more likely to fade (curve left to right). If the 5i behaves noticeably differently than the others, it’s an easy repair at any golf store.

Ping is also pretty great about repairs to even old models like these. Measuring yourself to see your ideal dot color takes about 2 minutes with a tape measure. +/- one color won’t make a noticeable difference. But if you’re a few colors off, you could send them to Ping and they’ll adjust them for you. Any golf store can help with the logistics here too.

 

[dhappy42]

Facebook marketplace is a good option to try to find jr. clubs at a decent price. If you have a Savers nearby, may want to give that a try to see if they have anything there as well.

Question - I recently upgraded my irons to a used set of Ping I3 O-Size. However, the 5i I had to buy separately and I noticed that it has a different color dot (black) than the others (orange). I didn't know about offset until after I already bought them (and of course re-gripped them). Plus Ping seems to have a few different color codes out there making it all the more confusing. Is this something I need to be concerned about? FWIW I'm about a 25-30 handicap right now but trying to improve.

Orange is two degrees flat from black. A golf store can bend the black head to orange for a few dollars. (Or all of the clubs to black.) Or you can do the Ping measurement, as @bsan34 suggests and have the entire set bent to your proper color. Within limits.

 

[Pablo's TB Lover]

A player in my golf league aced a par 3 this evening, very happy for him! It was two foursomes behind us and we heard the yell, then received a call shortly thereafter. I ran my tee shot right by the cup on the second par 3 in an effort to make it a couple in one night, of course I had 5 feet STRAIGHT DOWNHILL left so tapped it and just ran by the lip for a disappointing par. The free beer afterwards tasted great though.

 

[jercra]

Oh, hey, that reminds me. I got my third ace last Sunday. Something like 15 years between my first and my second and then less than 4 months between my second and third. Golf is funny.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

Congrats! I've had many many almost hole in ones.

The funny thing is, I've holed out from the fairway probably 15-20 times.

 

[Oil Can Dan]

Well after not breaking 90 before this season I've done it five times now, with my best being an 85 at Widows Walk. Had two birdies, six pars, five bogeys and five doubles. A weird but awesome round for me. My handicap is down to 15.7 now from 19.9 to start the season.

I am trying to let go of some of my many swing thoughts. I'm basically down to:

- shorten your backswing
- step on your left leg when starting your downswing (I've had issues where I sway to my left on my backswing which makes my swing all arms)
- follow through/finish

Oh, and don't sway.

And watch your tempo.

That's it.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

What would y'alls suggest for the best public courses to play in area of Upper Cape and Plymouth? I'll be based in Falmouth area for a few days next week, and perhaps looking to get a round in with the boy and siblings/father.

Course I've already played and familiar with: Falmouth CC, Cape Cod CC, The Cape Club (when it was called Ballymeade), Quashnet Valley, Old Barnstable, Brookside, New Seabury (which is now completely private). Not looking to head to Hyannis area, but Mashpee/Sandwich/Bourne to Plymouth.

Plymouth has a quite a few nice courses, so I'm wondering what the faves are out there. I played Waverly Oaks a long time ago, but none of the other ones. Of the ones I listed, I'd say Cape Club would be preferred to play again.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

What would y'alls suggest for the best public courses to play in area of Upper Cape and Plymouth? I'll be based in Falmouth area for a few days next week, and perhaps looking to get a round in with the boy and siblings/father.

Course I've already played and familiar with: Falmouth CC, Cape Cod CC, The Cape Club (when it was called Ballymeade), Quashnet Valley, Old Barnstable, Brookside, New Seabury (which is now completely private). Not looking to head to Hyannis area, but Mashpee/Sandwich/Bourne to Plymouth.

Plymouth has a quite a few nice courses, so I'm wondering what the faves are out there. I played Waverly Oaks a long time ago, but none of the other ones. Of the ones I listed, I'd say Cape Club would be preferred to play again.

You nailed them all, really. There's not much more than that on the upper cape.

Edit: I guess if you want to drive to Plymouth, you could play PineHills

 

[cshea]

Crosswinds in Plymouth is a 27-hole layout basically right next to Waverly Oaks.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

Debated even posting this because who even really cares, but won the member/member tournament at my club this past weekend. Probably the most fun I've had for two rounds of golf. I play with one of my really good friends each year (last year we won the horse race and almost won again this year) and we just go out, drink a bunch of seltzers and have a blast.

I started +4 after the first 3 holes on day one and then went on a tear to shoot 74 and we were second in our flight and third overall. Day 2 I started with a double and bogey before settling in and shooting 75. My partner played round 2 bare foot because he's crazy.

After I went back to back birdies on 15/16 in round two, we thought we might have a good shot at winning. We stepped up to 17 (par 3) and after I pumped one over the green and into fescue, my partner stuck one to 10 feet and we made par. I ended up getting up and down for birdie from the sand on 18 (par 5) in front of dozens of people and immediately walked off the course to a giant party. The trophy was a glass jug that I filled up multiple times throughout the night. It was pretty epic.

Two months ago my handicap was the highest it's been in ten years. I completely lost my swing after a wrist injury in September to the point where I couldn't break 100 for two straight months. I've dropped my handicap from 7.7 to 3.2 in the last month and my average score is 78 right now. It's been a wild ride.

 

[Koufax]

Congratulations! That sounds like a lot of fun.

 

[Conigliaro's Potential]

Debated even posting this because who even really cares

I mean...if you were averse to posting that, you must have a pretty low opinion of the content I've posted in this forum.

 

[Conigliaro's Potential]

Quashnet Valley

I finished T2 in the (one-round) Greater Boston Championships when it was played at Quashnet Valley, I think in 1994 - my best collegiate finish. I shot an 83. I think the second-best score on my team was 89, and one of my friends joined the Century Club. "Quashnet" is still a swear word among my old teammates; maybe it has been softened a bit since then, but we played it on a windy day in April, and it was borderline unplayable.

(We used to play a 36-hole tournament at New Seabury as well - IIRC, that was the first college tournament I ever played in, and I remember watching a game of the 1992 World Series in my cabin there. Interesting to hear that it's gone fully private.)

 

[Conigliaro's Potential]

By the by, a tip to potentially pass along from the few holes I played this evening - I've been having issues blading shots from fairway bunkers (and hitting the lips of them, these being proper Scottish bunkers), and today I decided to grip my club a bit higher on the shaft, so that my left palm was basically off the shaft. That little bit of extra length in my arc made all the difference - I hit a couple of really nice shots with short irons out of bunkers that I'd normally be inclined to just splash out of in tournament play, for fear of catching the lip and costing myself a shot. (YMMV, but hopefully that's helpful.)

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

I finished T2 in the (one-round) Greater Boston Championships when it was played at Quashnet Valley, I think in 1994 - my best collegiate finish. I shot an 83. I think the second-best score on my team was 89, and one of my friends joined the Century Club. "Quashnet" is still a swear word among my old teammates; maybe it has been softened a bit since then, but we played it on a windy day in April, and it was borderline unplayable.

(We used to play a 36-hole tournament at New Seabury as well - IIRC, that was the first college tournament I ever played in, and I remember watching a game of the 1992 World Series in my cabin there. Interesting to hear that it's gone fully private.)

I played it in the afternoon in the summer a while ago. My nickname for it is Mosquitonet Valley. Not fond memories.

 

[Comfortably Lomb]

I played Quashnet about a decade ago. I... wouldn't recommend it. I didn't experience the mosquitos but with Olde Barnstable and Hyannis Golf Course a couple miles down the road and only about $10 more expensive I don't see a reason to play Quashnet. Both are significantly better tracks. I'd rather play the par 3 course behind the conference center in Hyannis, actually.