Golf

We needed this thread back for the weekend hackers!

I mentioned in the old forum of my quest for breaking 100 this year. Here's an update:

my round before last I finally accomplished this goal.. shot a 99! w00t. played pretty erratic that round and had one bad blowup hole (four over on a par5 where i was tired and thought i was close enough to the green to putt on.. turned out i wasnt and i was too tired to go get a wedge.. said eff it and tried to smack it out of the rough with my putter.. lol). despite the erratic play i was very happy to see that 99 on my card and to realize my goal for this season.

my last round i played was this past friday.. early morning round that we started about 7:15 trying to beat the heat. course was real quiet so we decided to warm up a bit prior.. my buddy and i split a small bucket of balls and then made our way over to the practice green. chipped a couple on and then putted them out before heading to the 1st tee. hole 1 par 4.... double bogey.. sigh. bogey 3... 4... 5....6...7! wow.. you might read that and think.. yuck.. but dont.. it was actually good steady golf. i par'd the 8th hole and bogey the 9th for a front nine 45.. played the back and started off bogey bogey and then doubled the 12th.. but followed that with par on the 13th and finished out double.. par.. double.. par.. double. ran out of holes there but i answered all the previous double bogeys with a par. the back 9 is par35 and i finished it at... 10 over for another 45. yeah thats right.. a 90!!!!!!! omg.

i really love this game. equipment will be a a bit of an addiction though.. lol.. which is bad since i'm already a gadgets addict! i'm not gonna be a full out club ho but i will certainly lust my fair share of new clubs. i did throw some $$ away trying to find the right ball for my game, and after trying about 5 different ones i settled on the taylormade burner ldp, really chills out the side spin off my driver. srixon soft feel, bridgestone e6, topflight d2, and pinnacle gold soft were all no good for me. lol. next thing i want to get is my driver reshafted/fitted but i'm trying to wait a bit.

anyway. very happy to have ripped off a 90 and hopefully my triple digit days are behind me. that round was very consistant.. and i didnt have a triple bogey on the card!

wow, I bow in your greatness. a 90 on a par 71 is awesome indeed. No triple bodgeys is mind blowing. Hey, if you ever find a ball in the rough that is a Callaway, give it a try. They generally have a soft feel. I've been using the Callaway Big Bertha lately. The Callaway hots are a little harder I think.

And if you ever find a Pro-V1, omg its like nothing you've ever felt. I'm just not at a point where I will pay $5/ball because I lose too many (though that number is dropping fast, might lose 1-2/round now and I went 40+ holes with the same ball one time).

Gratz on the 90, you fucker!

tyty

i havent had a chance to try a callaway ball but if i find one or play with someone that has some.. i'll certainly give it a smash i have played the pro v1... last year when i was no where near ready to hit it.. too spinny for my still not totally squared up tee shots with the driver. with my irons i could hit it straight.. i've never really had dispersion issues with my irons.. mostly fat shot issues and the occassional toe'd shot or thin shot, lol damn that big ball looking so attractive! i just love to hit it first sometimes! lol... thats fine though.. took me a while to learn how to swing down and not try and lift the ball up.. spent much of my 1st and 2nd year making that error and skulling the ball like crazy.

i would like to find a titleist nxt laying around though and give that a try. however all store buys for the rest of this season will be the burner ldp's. i just blast them straight mostly, an occassional draw even.. and my misses dont take that 90 degree turn to the right.. just a slight fade in the right rough that i can mostly deal with. they dont spin well on the green but thats ok cause i cant impart alot of spin anyway.. so i either play for the roll or sky it nice and high to drop and stop courtesy of that 60 degree wedge i bought at season open. i love that club.. i'm not a sweeper so i havent hit it thin very often.. only when i slip to old habits and try and lift the ball out. gotta trust that downward strike!


speaking of fades to the right rough.. i have to mention. i hit a really sweet punch shot in that round i scored the 90. just behind and a lil left of a tree. told my buddy as i was looking over the situation that i was going to try a punch shot. never before have i pre shot decided to hit this kind of shot before and wasnt certain how it would go. gotta say i pulled it off really nicely.. missed the green to the right but i did execute the shot and kept the ball flight low and out of the tree. pretty neato.

one more shot.. in the round of 99 i pulled a 6 iron from again.. the right rough (lol my misses are always over there). took a good swing at it but caught it fat and knew it right away so much so that i pointed it out immediately. told my partner "dammit didnt get it all.. caught the ground first". we're watching this shot and as i expected it comes up pretty short of the green but takes a few good bounces and rolls up 2 feet from the pin!! i cant remember if that was for par or birdie though :(it seems like it was par so i musta had some flubbed shot between that one and my drive.

That is my problem, I still try and scoop the ball rather than hit down on it. I started hitting down on it for a few rounds about a year ago and was doing well. Then one round it went all to hell (and we were playing for money) so I changed back to the scoop and really haven't tried to get back to hitting it properly.

Though my last round, as I was nearing the end I thought to myself, "I need to get to the range and just really work on hitting down on the ball and trusting that it will go" but haven't made it there yet. So thats it, I'm going to try hitting down on her once and sticking with it.

i'm playing tomorrow. i'm actually a bit concerned with my expecatations. there's a part of me that can look at my round of 90 and think.. well that should have been XX if i could hit a freaking pitch the right distance (i misjudge by a small margin and left a few just short of the green.. rawr) or not blast my lag putts by the hole the couple times i did..

i really want to go into this next round not thinking about numbers.. just thinking about one swing at a time. easier said than done. ya know what my most often occuring swing thought is? "breathe" lol. Especially on the tee box I will inhale and exhale deeply to just relax a bit.

work on that downward strike Ze! my buddy has a flat swing that he scoops a bit on.. his ball flight is much lower than mine. i love that high trajectory off the irons.. looks so good.

Oh i tried some apps out.. shot tracker is pretty cool. basically just uses your gps to tell you the distance you hit your shot. i didnt use it all round long.. only tried it twice. once on a drive and once on a 7 iron. the drive was 254.. the 7 iron only 124 (pathetic.. i thought i hit it clean and was a lil surprised at the distance it showed.. and i was over the green just on the back fringe.. lol). plan to use it much more this weekend. i'm just going to pick a couple clubs though. my 7 iron again and my driver. every swing i make with those clubs i'm gonna record so i can get some baseline distance averages going. i bought skydroid but didnt try it yet. also grabbed free caddie and golf scorecard lite. any others you've tried that you recommend?

accel golf would be a great one for you for keeping track of shots. It claims to be a golf score card and rangefinder, but there is just about no way to use the range finder on a touch screen, you just can't get that accurate with the finger. But it does do an awesome job of keeping track of what shots you take.....well come to think of it, since it doesn't do distances well it really is just a score card.

Basically, you can mark what club you hit on each shot and what the lie was (fairway, rough, sand, green etc). It loads it all online under your profile so you can see how many 3 putts you had, or sand saves, or GIR, etc. Look it up yourself and go to their website to see if it is something you'd like. I uninstalled from my phone a few months ago so things might have changed. I didn't want to keep track of each shot so it wasn't worth it for me.

nope, i dont really wanna keep that detailed of stats on my scores. the shot tracker i use is really just a distance tracker. click 'start' at your shot starting point and then when you get to your ball click finish. it records the distance and which club. thats called 'shot tracker' and i'd recommend free golf caddie. uses gps for distances to the front, middle, and back of the green. pretty cool. i didnt try skydroid yet but will next time.

played today.. 101. ugh. couldnt putt to save my life. made it thru the back 9 (played first) at 47 but finished the front with a 54 had 3 triples on the front9 (played second.. made it thru the back 9 with my double bogey or better streak intact). fucking putter.. rawr. also toe'd a couple shots today.. grrr. weather was perfect though!!! wasnt over 80 till maybe our last hole!!

skydroid takes freecaddie and feeds it steroids. It can do front/mid/back on not just the green, but bunkers, water, trees, etc. Whatever points you map out online it will mark. It also can show an overhead google maps type of view of the hole you are on. It also has a shot tracker such that you press a button and as you head towards your ball it tracks the distance via GPS

i'll have to make use of it. sounds pretty awesome. i havent played since my 101 round. this weekend is totally open for me but the weather is going to make it near impossible. heat index will be in the low 100's.

i've had 2 instances of heat exhaustion issues in the past (not golfing.. once at a nascar race and we were by the fence... we all jammed up the steps at a pace that got the best of me at the top - there were a fair number of people in the cooling first aid tent when i arrived , other time was helping a buddy move out of his old house) I have to always be mindful of the heat and 18 holes of golf in it.. at best i could do 9. there should be water at every hole. i buy water and then refill it along the way but it still doesnt make it as those final 3 holes come around. no water on them becasuse they want you to make the turn parched and spending money, rawr. cant bring your own coolers on and my bag doesnt have one built in that i could keep a water or two inside to stay cold for the final holes. i need to upgrade it to a full 14 way divided style and make sure it has the cooler.. lol.

British OPEN WOOOHOOOO. Go Tiger and Daly. I dont think they ever stream it online though....stupid Brits, there's this thing called the internet...its here to stay so get on with it fools.

here ya go... believe this is the 9th-10th-11th holes live streaming. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I cant believe the amazing round by Rory! awesome!
Tiger changed his putter to the new Method putter this week by Nike.
Justin Rose has been jamming with those new TM putters.. the Corza Ghost.
I wanna play here once. Scotland is on my bucket list for sure.

If the weather doesn't pick up, we are going to have the winner of the British Open be like 20 under par.....where's the wind man? Where is the rain?

Don't get me wrong, I am loving the British Open (I loveall 4 majors) and I am off tomorrow....might even set the alarm for an early rise to catch it live.

I played this past weekend after getting a new Nike cart bag. I love it. Same color scheme as the big one there.

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Played decent but made a big mistake on the back 9. It was really freaking hot out. I struggle with the heat (need to be in better shape and have had two heat induced episodes in the past though it's been a few years) and on like the 14th hole... big dogleg right. I put my ball up on the backside of this hill down the rightside that borders a pond. The hill is about 20 feet high at the crest and it's total junk up there. I was pretty much prepared to call it lost and just drop. As we make our way down to the turn of the hole. One of my buddies had gone up to look for his ball.. and found mine. So up I went and over to the lower side. I hit a nice 6 iron out of total trash.. over the other side of the hill ( this hill borders the pond and makes the dogleg turn with the hole), then trudged back thru the crap and down to the cart. It just wasted me!! I spent way too much energy on that stupid shot and ended up triple bogey on the hole. Finished the round just really spent and couldnt recover. The heat was just too muich. Mostly my fault though, I shouldnt have tried to hit over the corner.. jjst play it down in the fairway with an iron off the tee and have a great look at the green with a very makeable distance.

ok umm.. fuck that recent putter i bought! lol. I'm going back to my old putter for a while. Probably trade my new one in at GOLFSMITH for some store credit/trade in value and use it on something else.

I cant get a grip on the distance at all. Ugh. Insert putters are full of fail.

played 12 this weekend on a buddies course that he is a member with, got dark on us but didn't pay so it was all worth it. I played well, struck the ball nicely focusing on hitting the ball first and not scooping.

ugh I'm so sick of injury. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful out and I really needed to get away from work and the rest of my world and just spend 18 holes enjoying myself. Played terrible. 107 which is my worst round of the year I believe (shot 57-50).

Really annoyed that I hurt my wrist. The normal course we play on had some tourney going so we were on a different course (same club.. 2 courses) and it was absolutely horrible. The fairways were just firm mud with sprinkles of grass. From the tee box it looks fine.. stand over the ball in a fairway and it's quite a different story, sprinkles of grass and mostly just firm mud and grass seeds, a horrible lie.

Early in the day I caught too much of this mud, my club dug in and I felt it in my right wrist.. not terrible pain but I felt the ache. Didnt think much of it at the time beyond a slight flexing of my wrist back at the cart.. and it certainly doesnt excuse my poor play. However this morning.. the fucker is all swollen and tight. Sigh.

I'm playing again Saturday and I dont really give a fuck if it aches, maybe something else will get hurt too! awesome!

that sucks dude. hopefully it gets better soon.

i'm going golfing with about 7 other buddies for my friend's bachelor party this saturday. should be a good (drunken) time!

well I didnt get to play saturday but I played today. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Lol. My wrist was a struggle all day (fucker!). I shot 50-51 It was friggan hot though and I'm just now waking up after a long nap. (yawn!)

So.. despite my less than stellar play today.. I do have a bit of positive news. Par3 15th hole.. just 118 yards from the white tee's. I launch my tee shot off to the right and miss the green by about 15 yards or so.. the pin is on the far side of the green from me and there is a sand trap between me and the green. I need to get over that but from there.. plenty of room to work with. I hit a low running sand wedge perfectly over the trap and lands maybe 5-10 feet on to the green and begins to roll... I'm half worried it's got too much speed but it slows and begins breaking down to the flag.. and gets closer and closer before disappearing! Seriously? In? No way. My 2 playing buddys start celebrating and I just begin laughing.. dropped my wedge and kinda turned my back. Lol after the grinding day I'd had all course long.. to then get a birdie like that. Only my 2nd birdie ever and my 1st chip in ever.. let alone for birdie!

Next tee box I pound my drive perfectly down the middle. Best drive not only of the day but possibly of the year. Might not be my longest of the year but it was plenty long.. it was just such perfect contact... release.. trajectory.. and dead center in the fairway. If I could putt at all (rawr)I'd have had a decent score today but noo... bogey that hole.. then double 17 and triple 18.. sigh. Oh wellz, chip in birdie is all I'll remember after today

ps.. my wrist is gonna ache like a mofo tomorrow!!

hell yeah dude, nice!

i golfed 9 yesterday, shot a 44. pretty damn good considering i suck. for some reason i was hittin the ball really well. parred 4 of 9 holes and birdied the last... par 4, bout 380 yards. hit a smokin drive right down the middle about 250 yards. from there i smacked an 8 iron but didn't get it where i really wanted it to, about 40 feet from the pin. the long putt went from right to left, i lined it up, gave her a go and it was on line the whole time. got to the cup and barely rolled in for a birdie! also on the 2nd hole i hit about a 30 footer to save par, it was nasty. all in all a good time and if i can keep that up i'll be a happy camper.

this story isnt getting any run right now with the NFL and MLB dominating much of the news.. however.. this is quite awesome! A walk off hole in one on the 4th playoff hole!

see the story and video below

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that looked like me last friday....except replace the hole with a big lake and replace him winning ~$750k with me paying $56 to play.

Zebug wrote:that looked like me last friday....except replace the hole with a big lake and replace him winning ~$750k with me paying $56 to play.

give yourself a pat on the back! most people go around big lakes.. pussies! not you though!

Quick question -

Did you guys start playing with people that knew how to golf or just figure it out on your own?

They have a couple courses down here in Roswell, and I was thinking of giving it a shot...but I don't want to look a jackass.

I started with friends that knew how to golf, everyone looks like a jackass when they start.

A great thing that I did, this was years after I started but was good nonetheless, see if one of you local courses has something similar to a "player development program" What these generally are is a monthly fee that gives you unlimited use of the driving range, possibly some clinics with a pro, and discounted rounds. I used it mainly for the unlimited driving range use. That way, anytime you have a free 30-60 minutes you just run on down there and hit some balls.

I started with other noobs. They had played maybe 2 rounds before my 1st round but we all sucked. Hitting grounder after grounder (topping the ball). I did have friends that played alot though and after about 3-4 rounds they came along, gave some pointers.

Mostly though.. I'm self/youtube taught lol. I watched a ton of videos about the keys to a swing. The grip, the setup, the backswing, the downswing. All these keys are so important when first starting. Fortunately, youtube delivers!