Golf Thread

Yeah I prefer to just say no gimmes at all. Much easier and I prefer it for myself as well. I like the satisfaction in knowing I actually did finish the hole. People giving 2-3ft gimmes... just no. Some of the greens are tough and they are totally missable. I should know. ;)
 
The more I think about it, the more I think I would honestly enjoy Golf playing on my own, at least for now, whilst I am in the phase of being very new to it. I just find literally everyone I play against is better than me, to the point where I can tell I am holding them up and they just have no interest in my enjoyment of it after a few holes. I had several of my putts just hit back to me the other day as "gimmes" without my approval because I was within 4 feet and on like a triple bogey. For me, a triple bogey on some holes is an achievement and to hit it back to me as a kind of "yeah oh well, nice try" is totally demoralising. I want to finish the hole and get that triple bogey for real so I can score myself and monitor my progress. People also just walking off straight after I've hit my Tee shot into the water or off the course... what if I want to take another from the tee rather than a drop up further. I find Golf annoying the more people you play with as everyone becomes about themself and is less tolerant to those having bad rounds or the less good players. Just my experience though.
 
ArcticHeron said:
Think it's just a subconscious adjustment to one area or another. Golfs hard and consistent golf across clubs is even harder when you can only practice/play once or twice a week.

Think everyone here will be able to relate. I've mastered the flop shot but can't hit a driver to save my life... utter madness.
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It's nuts - I had a rotten shot last night where the flag was right on the edge of the green and between me and it was a huge bunker. Went full Phil Mickelson and hit an absolute beaut of a flop shot that landed a couple of feet away. My mate jokingly said he didn't like where I was going with this shot beforehand which was followed up by all sorts of expletives once it landed. :D

That part was more enjoyable than the shot itself.

Normal service then resumed when I topped my driver on the next tee about 50 yards in front of me.

@jaybee We only ever do gimmes if it's a few inches from the hole and only if it's for anything over a bogey, everything else gets sunk.

Also, on the post that's just popped up...

Do you play with the same people regularly or do you get paired up with randoms? I've found playing with the right people makes it 100% more enjoyable.

It's much, much more fun when it's just the two of us. There's another guy who joins us sometimes who can be a nightmare - he's so loud on the course when he talks and doesn't really pay attention if people around him are putting/teeing off, he's like a foghorn (handy for shouting fore, right enough) but we don't really want to tell him be quiet. He swears by the gimme as well, he's about 5'7 with a putter that's the same length as mine and I'm 6'5 which we're convinced he got it jus to extend his gimme range by a couple of inches. He does the same thing as well when it's a few feet away, just walks up to it and whacks it back to and says 'take it away'. He took offence one day when he passed the ball back to me and I placed it back down and hit the shot to make par. I actually get a bit of a downer when he plays with us.
 
jaybee said:
The more I think about it, the more I think I would honestly enjoy Golf playing on my own, at least for now, whilst I am in the phase of being very new to it. I just find literally everyone I play against is better than me, to the point where I can tell I am holding them up and they just have no interest in my enjoyment of it after a few holes. I had several of my putts just hit back to me the other day as "gimmes" without my approval because I was within 4 feet and on like a triple bogey. For me, a triple bogey on some holes is an achievement and to hit it back to me as a kind of "yeah oh well, nice try" is totally demoralising. I want to finish the hole and get that triple bogey for real so I can score myself and monitor my progress. People also just walking off straight after I've hit my Tee shot into the water or off the course... what if I want to take another from the tee rather than a drop up further. I find Golf annoying the more people you play with as everyone becomes about themself and is less tolerant to those having bad rounds or the less good players. Just my experience though.
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It's all about finding a group of players you really gel with and who respect each others play styles. It's the best game in the world when you can find people like that and the worst when you can't. It's hard enough without worrying about others.

Nothing wrong with playing on your own though. All my pals are fair weather players so I spent most of the off season last year going round on my own. Only trouble is when you loose you're head there's no distraction. Only times I've not holed out are when I've bene on my own.
 
Yeah, if you don't have the right people it can kinda suck... I've mentioned before there's one guy in particular I play with who is impatient/selfish, it kinda depends on my mood as to how well I tolerate that, sometimes it's fine others it's not...

Solo golf isn't so bad, like ArcticHeron says though it's easy to caught up mentally as there's no distractions from you and your game, no waiting or banter or anything.
 
jaybee said:
The more I think about it, the more I think I would honestly enjoy Golf playing on my own, at least for now, whilst I am in the phase of being very new to it. I just find literally everyone I play against is better than me, to the point where I can tell I am holding them up and they just have no interest in my enjoyment of it after a few holes. I had several of my putts just hit back to me the other day as "gimmes" without my approval because I was within 4 feet and on like a triple bogey. For me, a triple bogey on some holes is an achievement and to hit it back to me as a kind of "yeah oh well, nice try" is totally demoralising. I want to finish the hole and get that triple bogey for real so I can score myself and monitor my progress. People also just walking off straight after I've hit my Tee shot into the water or off the course... what if I want to take another from the tee rather than a drop up further. I find Golf annoying the more people you play with as everyone becomes about themself and is less tolerant to those having bad rounds or the less good players. Just my experience though.
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Can see both sides of this.

Playing with "better" players will help you in the long term - watch how they play, what they do, where they hit it etc. You will improve 100%.

If it's a just a "bounce" game and your playing on a Tuesday night at 6pm, then there is zero harm in telling your playing partners that you would like to hole out/hit a provisional etc - Just stand your ground. If there is no one immediately behind you, play your own game, do what you want - it's your round.

If your playing on a Saturday morning (or any other "busy" time) - and your NOT playing for handicap or in a competition, then I can understand wanting to move along as much as possible as the groups behind are likely to be "on your group" about slow play etc. (i.e gimmes for triples etc)

I play with a mate off 28, on a Saturday morning, and he's got a few 8/9/10's in a round that pop up.... Obviously he's playing for his handicap so has to finish out etc - but we try to keep him moving as much as possible as he will admit to being fairly slow player outside of the number of shots he takes. He's new and is still in that phase of taking time to decide on the club, then thinking about his swing, then standing watching the ball till it lands and stops, then he'll clean his club, then he's put the club away, then he'll do something else, rather than moving along at a "decent" pace. We are trying to tell him that he can clean his club whilst he's walking for instance, (he has a trolley so could do it on the move) or if he knows the ball is down the middle of the fairway, he doesn't need to wait for it to stop rolling before he steps off the tee etc. Just little things to keep the pace up.

Groups are always worried about the group behind reporting them for slow play etc - it's peoples biggest bug bear on the golf course.
 
jaybee said:
Not watching your ball land!? I've literally never heard of that. I need to know where it went 250+ yards away. Lol
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I mean when it's left the driver off the tee and it's "occasionally" heading down the middle.... I'm usually back to my bag and putting driver away if I know it's fine. I don't need to watch it if it's straight/or in the fairway.

If it's wild/heading off line, then of course I'll be watching it for where it lands etc - but otherwise I've played enough golf in 30/35 years to not need to bother watching a ball down the middle of the fairway....
 
I find it a bit disconcerting not watching the ball, I do it still but it's that feeling of looking away when it's clearly heading down the middle of the fairway (that 1 good shot every 3 rounds or so :p) then when you look back after picking up tee etc it's nowhere to be seen, you know it's good but where the heck is it :p

Played the first of 3 days of golf today, went 'ok', again, some absolutely stunning shots but also some extremely wayward stuff. Worst bit was my putting early on after last Sunday which was on a course with much faster greens I was underhitting it every bloody time. Worst being the 3rd hole trying to get up to the 'back tier' where the flag was took 3 attempts, should've just smoked the second and made 100% sure... Came back later on with some lovely putts but was a bit frustrating at first.
 
Played the same course as I did last week and bettered my score by 10 shots, still 118 though. Played off every tee, par 4/5 with a 4i, didn’t lose any balls until the 13th where I sliced 2 off the tee into trees. I scored a 10 on 3 holes, one a par 3. Tee shot into a greenside bunker which had a steep face, after 3 attempts I pushed the ball into the second bunker. :mad:
Positives have to be hitting straighter shots off the tee and an improved score on previous rounds. Still not hitting the ball any distance though, more range practice this weekend.
 
I'm as someone above. Got my irons working reasonably well and longer than before with a big change to the action of my left knee but I now can't hit any of my woods or hybrids without the risk of a duck hook or straight push. Golf is hard.

I love that in the summer the ball runs for miles on the fairways but in some respects it's harder to score as balls don't stop on greens, balls run into the rough, etc. In non-summer golf, it's easier to fire darts at flags but in summer good teeshots go for miles.
 
Well went for my usual pre-weekend range session today. Biggest suprise of the day was on entering the shop Harry Hall was there with a film crew talking about his chances at the open. Obviously he has returned back to his home town for a visit but still a shock. Shame I wasn't earlier or else I could have seen him in action on the range.

Other than that my session went well so let's see how the weekend goes.
 
Another round today, stableford comp, was vaguely keeping track of my stableford points (came to 40 at the end) and was consistently scoring, occasionally scoring very well, so thought it would be a really decent round but the overall strokes came out 'ok' at 108, kinda surprised tbh :p

Still the usual some good shots some terrible. Started off great though with par on the first hole, a par 5, with no warmup, just some solid golf, happy with that.

Did once again hit that issue, too many times, around the 85-100 yard 'gap' between my 52 degree 'gap wedge' and my new Pitching Wedge which is 42 degrees, the PW will do 110-120 on a clean strike so certainly for <100 or when going long is bad I'm wary of it, the 52 degree on the otherhand may hit 75-80 on a decent hit (simulator gapping gave 70 carry, the PW numbers are total/on-course), still need to get a proper gapping session in (planned for Tuesday) but thinking I need maybe something like a 48, then replace the 56 with a 54 and either a 58 or 60 to flesh it out...
 
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Started well today, played ok for 10 holes. Then for the first time in years, lost my temper with myself!

Hit 2nd shot short right of the green, had a chip over the bunker whilst short sided..... however there was zero grass under the ball, just solid rock hard ground. Frustrated that it wasn't marked as GUR (clearly was just bare ground, huge area of it) - couldn't get good contact at all off the bare ground, chunked in the bunker, then still frustrated at that shot, failed to get out the bunker twice (which almost never happens for me - would prefer being in the bunker in the first place)

Lost my rag with myself/situation..... Rare for me these days but it was over and done in 30 seconds or so.

Stood on 12th tee and smashed a 322 yard drive (down wind and running miles) - left 40 yards flick to the 12th and walked off with birdie!! haha - Got to love golf. :cry:

Off on holiday for next 16 days so unlikely to be any golf...
 
3rd round in 3 days complete, walked today and feeling it tbh, more than just normal walking really, took buggy the previous two days, walking every day would've been too much.

Started off stunningly well, par on the first, par on the second (both kinda tricky holes, a par 5 and a par 3). I was +4 after 5 holes, crazy for me. Then after 6 I was +9 :eek: Par 4 went horribly wrong.

Hit some bogeys after that so not utterly horrible but not a great round overall, feels kinda terrible after such a ridiculously good start :p

Played with a guy who was cheating so badly it was silly, stupid thing is he's a damn good golfer anyway so there's no real need to cheat but still he does it.
 
SKILL said:
3rd round in 3 days complete, walked today and feeling it tbh, more than just normal walking really, took buggy the previous two days, walking every day would've been too much.

Started off stunningly well, par on the first, par on the second (both kinda tricky holes, a par 5 and a par 3). I was +4 after 5 holes, crazy for me. Then after 6 I was +9 :eek: Par 4 went horribly wrong.

Hit some bogeys after that so not utterly horrible but not a great round overall, feels kinda terrible after such a ridiculously good start :p

Played with a guy who was cheating so badly it was silly, stupid thing is he's a damn good golfer anyway so there's no real need to cheat but still he does it.
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Cheating? In what sense?

You need to call that sort of thing out - if a competition/medal etc - needs to be called out
 
It wasn't a comp, so meh.

Things I noticed:
Picking up and placing his ball repeatedly
On two occasions he hit a second ball stating 'I had the wrong club and wanted to test the other' and at least one occasion he picked the 'test' ball
Just plain didn't putt in from like 15 feet away, claimed he had but nope.
Tried to claim a 5 (on a par 4) as a 4, convieniently 'forgetting' his first putt. This one I did pick him up on.

Wouldn't be surprised if there were more I/we didn't spot.
 
What kinda game was it, if it wasn't a comp?
Was he just having a mess-about round? Why were people keeping score if it wasn't a comp? :confused:
 
MarkA said:
What kinda game was it, if it wasn't a comp?
Was he just having a mess-about round? Why were people keeping score if it wasn't a comp? :confused:
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It was just a general play round, I/we still keep scores for them even though they don't really matter...

e: I feel like I should add he's tried to bring in some minor gambling (think he mentioned a fiver) on the game as well, which I'm not massively averse in general considering the golf group spawned from a poker group but kinda amusing a cheater wants to put money on stuff, not gonna happen :p
 
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