Golf Thread

Club champs this weekend - my goal was to make the cut for the second day, and I did that :)

Saturday - challenging conditions, fairly windy and bone dry course - came in with a disappointing 92. +6 through the front 9, then tripled the 10th, doubled the 11th, tripled the 12th..dropped 8 shots in 3 holes :eek: Managed to tidy up a bit. Looking at the other scores coming in, I wasn't the only one to struggle thankfully!

Sunday - played much better - less wind! Was +3 through 11, then I got overexcited and smashed my tee shot OB on the 12th. 3 off the tee, into the trees, couple of attempts at punching out, next shot into a bunker...walked off with a quintuple bogey! Reasonably steady for the rest of the round, a clumsy triple on the 18th, walked in with an 85.

Overall fairly pleased, bit of work on the mental game and getting off the tee a bit more cleanly, but goal achieved, onto the next! A couple of new courses this week, looking forward to it :)

(I can also attest to @Maccy hitting driver straighter and further)
 
Played on the weekend, very average, just couldn't get the speed of the greens as they had slowed down significantly since the baking sunshine. A mate was telling me of a corporate golf day he played last week, best 2 stableford scores from 4, his team came 3rd with 94 points, 2nd place was 95 points, 1st place was......... 109 points, with one "24" handicapper getting 49 points individually. :D That's why i don't bother with corporate golf days unless it's a decent course i want to play.
 
Yesterday was the Mens Open for my local club, decent sized field, early start, just hoping the weather held off (it mostly did, at least for us :p)

Unfortunately my score was basically done in the first 4 holes! Didn't even feel that bad for the first 3 but then just topped it off with the 4th...

1st hole it's a par 5 but I like taking about a 7 iron ish into it cause the tee/second shot is awkward. Pull my 7 iron into some trees, all I can really do is punch out ~30 yards. Hit a good 5w for my third and take a 7 iron aiming to be short of or maybe if I catch it right just rolling onto the front of the green for my fourth shot and hit it really well which ended up rolling out the back, a more awkward chip, that shot turned out to be 198 yards with a traditionally lofted 'players cavity' 7 iron!!! Anyway, chipped on, mediocre 2 putt, hello double.

2nd hole, bit weak off the tee leaving me too far in to sensibly attempt it in 2 so laid up. Probably should've gone shorter with my layup as had a partial wedge at ~60 yards out which I left way short. Chipped on and another mediocre 2 putt, double number 2.

3rd hole, terrible tee shot, chunked a 7 iron and left myself way short. I think trying to avoid being short with the partial wedge pitch shot like the 2nd hole I hit it harder and went over the back, semi-duffed chip and at least this time it was a 'decent' 2 putt.

3 holes in, 3 double bogeys. Great.

4th, awkward par 4 where the safe strategy is to lay up to ~110-120 yards, which I tend to prefer doing with a 'chippy 8' as there's power lines above which can catch a full wedge. Except if you're doing a 'chippy' shot and hit the ground first it goes exactly nowhere. 25 yards to be precise. Fine. Walk up, grab my 6 iron and hit a beatiful shot, over the trees in the middle of the fairway and with a nice draw, should be fine. Can we find it? Hell no. Walk of shame back up the fairway but left my bag where it was and just took the 6 iron, hit again, push right, almost goes OB, ball is nowhere near my bag so rather than waste even more time I try a chippy 6 iron, left it short, chip on, 2 putt. Quadruple bogey.

So now I'm +10 through 4, playing off 14, that's all folks. Stupid game. :p

Did at least continue and it picked up a bit after that, no birdies but 5 pars and 5 bogeys, still means a further 4 holes that were double or worse for a pretty terrible score but the damage was really done in those first 4 holes.
 
kefkef said:
Played on the weekend, very average, just couldn't get the speed of the greens as they had slowed down significantly since the baking sunshine. A mate was telling me of a corporate golf day he played last week, best 2 stableford scores from 4, his team came 3rd with 94 points, 2nd place was 95 points, 1st place was......... 109 points, with one "24" handicapper getting 49 points individually. :D That's why i don't bother with corporate golf days unless it's a decent course i want to play.
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Best two from four? So the other play scored 60 points :cry: This can't have been regular stableford scoring.
 
Main club matchplay comp last night - last 16 round.

Giving away 6 shots.... Played well, really mentally tuned in, and played the player, not the course.

Was level at halfway, I won 11th then he won 12, 13 with a shot, and 14 to put me 2 down. Giving a shot to him on 15th (par 5 but reachable) - Anyway - I'm front of the green in 2. He's hit provisionals off the tee, then a provisional from the fairway etc - Think he had about 8 shots in total but found his first ball and ends up with a 5 net 4. I hole a good 4ft putt for birdie for the half.

I won 16 so I'm 1 down with 2 to play but he has a shot at 18th.

I won 17th with a solid par 3. All square now.

Up the last, par 5, not reachable in 2. I hit a superb punched 8 iron for 3rd shot to about 6ft below the hole. He then nearly holes his 4th, but it's a gimme par 5 net 4.

Leaves me with a 6ft up the hill right to left putt for the birdie and the half to go to extra holes.

I stood over it and remember a very famous quote - "pressure is a privilege" (Billie Jean King) - Hit a super solid, middle of the hole putt. Really pleased with that.

Extra holes - I pumped probably my best drive of the year up the 1st to leave 7 iron in. He made a bit of a mess of it and left me with a 3ft putt to win - which I did.

Really pleased with the mental side of the game - loved the pressure, buzzing after it. Great match - on to the next round.

Also - The previous Titleist video I posted with Tom Hoge - Tried the left hip high tip and I hit the ball SOOO good off the tee - driver was unreal last night.
 
Forecast to be in the 30’s this weekend therefore I’m looking to get out early doors. Can’t imagine what it’ll be like playing after midday.
 
New course last night - Chalgrove near Luton.

Front 9 - 1 over par :eek: BUT - I was warned that the front 9 is where you score, then the back 9 is where you hold on for dear life :p Walked off with an 83, 11 over par. They weren't wrong!

Verulam tonight after work :cool:
 
So, today is the day. The first time I finally break 100!

Left three birdie putts short by a cumulative 2 inches as well. Nothing spectacular on the way out with 55 and a couple of lost balls, then something clicked and my driver was sensational. 44 on the way back, 3 near birdies and a pint in the sun to celebrate.

When it's not the most frustrating game in the world, it's bloody good at times.
 
Maccy said:
Out at 6:04 again this morning, managed an 89 even with a few bunker shots and a lot of putts just slightly off line but good for pace - frustrating game this!
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Putting is annoying :p

Went to Cumberwell Park yesterday for the regular networking meeting and I played decent, 87 gross, 38 points, one pickup hole. But... Putting, different problem but I can recall a good 6 times where I hit the putt exactly how I wanted to but my read was just slightly off, usually reading too much break into it but the ball ended up ~1 foot away each time cause it was a good putt, just a bad read :( :p

In other news after several rounds now with my new Takomo 301 Combo set I'm happy with them and don't feel like the lack of forgiveness is affecting my game all that much. Yes, they aren't as forgiving, but more than I kinda expected, yes a thin or toe is worse than GI they're actually not that bad and obviously the really bad strikes are still really bad :cry: If anything the much better ball flight (higher with more spin) makes up for or even completely offsets the downsides, e.g. the 3rd hole yesterday was a par 3, 9 iron, bit thin but all good on the green and the biggest bit is it hopped and stopped less than 5cm from the pitch mark. With my old irons that shot would've gone at least 10 ft from the pitch mark, at least.
 
Went to a simulator today to try and do a gapping with the new irons, not sure it really worked tbh :p I wasn't really striking it great which is something of a theme recently in simulators/off a mat and the distances seemed a bit low, which I know sounds like the usual excuse but I've played several rounds with the irons now and for example know I can fly my 8 iron ~135-140 yet in the sim I got an average of 115... New to the trackman stuff so didn't know where/how to check the weather settings, and obviously that's a big one right now given it's boiling and has generally been 'hot' (20+) and dry for a good while now, regret not taking one of my old Dynapowers to get a bit of a gauge to compare against.

Spin though, noice, that 8 iron was regularly >7500 spin, the 7 iron actually wasn't too different at ~7200, PW even got up over 9000, whole different world to my old irons in that respect. Just not sure I trust the numbers :p

Not the weather to be using a sim either, not sure if being outside or inside is better but either way hitting ball after ball for ~45 minutes was hot work!

In other news finally got the TM vouchers from winning the events a couple of weeks back, with some caveats, of course :p I knew I needed to get it from the TM website, that's fine, but also found out I can only use one voucher per order which is a bit meh as I've got a £250 and £100 voucher. But still wouldn't be a problem as I'd pretty much decided on 2/3 wedges now I've got the new irons but then the real problem hits, they've delisted the custom 'MyMG4' wedge, just the Hi Toe 4 left and MG Proto. So guessing they're prepping to launch the MG5 'soon' (hence the proto) but bad timing :p

I had decided, ish, on an MG4 gap wedge probably going to the nth degree and getting a 50 degree weakened to 51 (4 degrees from my PW) with a stiff shaft for full shots. Then a Hi Toe 4 60-degree, probably wouldn't bother matching loft with this and just go full 60 but yeah. Then probably, but not as certain, an MG4 ~55 degree but probably more of a regular/wedge flex.

Yeah they cost £199 a piece but man mathing the whole £350 in vouchers thing. But now I can't go down that route, well I could use one of the vouchers on the Hi Toe lob wedge but now need to decide what I'm gonna do about the other two. It's never easy! :p
 
SKILL said:
Went to a simulator today to try and do a gapping with the new irons, not sure it really worked tbh :p I wasn't really striking it great which is something of a theme recently in simulators/off a mat and the distances seemed a bit low, which I know sounds like the usual excuse but I've played several rounds with the irons now and for example know I can fly my 8 iron ~135-140 yet in the sim I got an average of 115... New to the trackman stuff so didn't know where/how to check the weather settings, and obviously that's a big one right now given it's boiling and has generally been 'hot' (20+) and dry for a good while now, regret not taking one of my old Dynapowers to get a bit of a gauge to compare against.
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Was it a dedicated simulator or a Trackman range?

My home course has a Trackman range and when using the range option there is a convert option that gives you a more realistic result based on what a premium ball would do based on the flight of the range ball

My instructor has his own Trackman unit that shows my 7i around 170yd carry and this is what I see on the course and on the range when using the convert option so I trust it

When playing courses on the range it automatically gives you the numbers for a premium ball, unlike TopTracer which only gives the numbers of the actual ball flight, so if you have crap range balls you get crap numbers

Got the next round of our pairs knockout in the morning so I went to the range tonight as I have been ill and not hit a ball for over a week - all I will say is I hope my playing partner is playing better than I am based on tonight and what I was seeing
 
TheCSSDoctor said:
Was it a dedicated simulator or a Trackman range?

My home course has a Trackman range and when using the range option there is a convert option that gives you a more realistic result based on what a premium ball would do based on the flight of the range ball

My instructor has his own Trackman unit that shows my 7i around 170yd carry and this is what I see on the course and on the range when using the convert option so I trust it

When playing courses on the range it automatically gives you the numbers for a premium ball, unlike TopTracer which only gives the numbers of the actual ball flight, so if you have crap range balls you get crap numbers

Got the next round of our pairs knockout in the morning so I went to the range tonight as I have been ill and not hit a ball for over a week - all I will say is I hope my playing partner is playing better than I am based on tonight and what I was seeing
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It was a proper indoor simulator, using a new Callaway white ball so no markings or anything although don't think they would/should affect a Trackman anyway as it uses radar iirc.

I kinda expect weather settings to be the most likely thing as it looked to be getting reasonable numbers for club/ball speed and spin etc just distance 'seemed low' compared to what I've seen in the real world. But if it was set 'cold' or something that could explain some/most of the difference even without wind...
 
Absolute rubbish this morning, only consolation was I didn't lose a ball despite my best efforts :p Took an iron off the 1st tee for safety, made 9. Then bogeyed ten of the next eleven holes. First par came on the 16th, followed by another on 17 before a double at the last.
 
Weird day...

ROASTING hot - like 25/26 degrees

Doubled the first after finding a shocking lie from the tee...

Great bounce back birdie at the 2nd.... Put driver / PW to 1ft at 4th for another tap in birdie (that's 35th and 36th this year)

Stiffed 8 iron to 2 ft at the 5th to recover a great par after driving into the bunker off the tee.

Parred 6/7/8 - on cruise control.

Great tee shot up 9, pulled 2nd in to the bunker - under the lip.... couldn't get it out or move it at all... Took 4 to get it out - tripled bogie...

Normally solid out the sand but literally had no shot - nothing even sideways or backwards.

Doubled 10th - so that's 5 shots gone in 2 holes.

Anyway - played ok from there until 18th.

Standing 18th - just about to hit - A general shout of "fore" but not very loud - I start to duck and see a ball in my peripheral vision and smash - hits me after one bounce on the top of my arm/shoulder at full tilt...

Bloody hurts I tell you.... Guy wander over - made what I thought was a fairly half hearted apology... He's hit it at like 45 degrees in the wrong direction from about 80 yards away - literally should NEVER be in the line of his tee shot.

9-12 inches higher and it's the side of my head it's hitting. A bit shaken up going up 18th but glad to be in one piece

First time ever being hit by someone.

Anyway 81 for 74 - irons were unreal on front 9 but just one slightly bad shot cost me a lot today.
 
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After a rough range session last night, the match today couldn't have gone much better. We never lost a hole and won 4up in the end

Playing partner chipped in on one hole to get us a half and I rolled a number of putts to cancel out some of the shots I was giving up and even win a couple holes

Next up is the semi final
 
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