2010 Golf

campgottagopee · Jul 22, 2010

riverc0il said:
THIS

A bad day for me is loosing 18 balls on a 9 hole course. .

I'd quit too.....

Just kidding Riv, I understand were you're coming from. For me (like Doc and Warp) it's something I've grown up doing and just could never imagine being without, same for skiing, and hunting. Those are the activities that I grew up doing with my family since I was just a boy, and I thank them for that.

campgottagopee · Jul 22, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Double eagles are rare. You've seen more than 1? I've never seen one, and have only seen 1 hole in one. Still waiting for mine. Been oh-so-close, including this year at the end of May (landed 1 foot past the hole, spun back a touch, stopped literally one ball length from the edge of the cup).

Yup, I've been in the same group to witness 3, and have been in countless tourney's (fall capt-n-crews) only to see a groups eagle get cancelled by a dbl eagle. In fact, it happened to my team yesterday during a Coaches vs. Cancer fund raiser. We had an eagle on the 8 hole and another team holed the some bitch out for a two.

jaywbigred · Jul 22, 2010

campgottagopee said:
Yup, I've been in the same group to witness 3, and have been in countless tourney's (fall capt-n-crews) only to see a groups eagle get cancelled by a dbl eagle. In fact, it happened to my team yesterday during a Coaches vs. Cancer fund raiser. We had an eagle on the 8 hole and another team holed the some bitch out for a two.

Wow, that's amazing. I've only ever even HEARD of 1 from a person I know...my uncle, who used to be a 1 or a 2, had one at his home course where his father was a member and where he has been a member his whole life. He is 62, and this was about 10 years ago, maybe 15. It was during the club championship, and he is the only person known to ever have double eagled that hole (course opened in 1915). There is a plaque on the bench by the tee on that hole with his name now.

Speaking of plaques and double eagles, there is a plaque at one of the local county courses I play that commemorates a long-time employee of the course (he may have been the superintendent) after he passed away. The plaque discusses the highlight of his golf "Career" as being, and I quote, "When in 1984, he double eagled the 505 yard par 5 18th hole, which included a 250 yard tee shot." Now, a 250 yard tee shot, up hill, into the wind (generally) with 1984 clubs and balls is plenty commendable. But how is that the shot that gets commemorated on a plaque for all antiquity????? WHAT ABOUT THE FOLLOWING SHOT, A 255 YARD SHOT FROM THE FAIRWAY, TO A BLIND GREEN, GUARDED BY BUNKERS, INTO THE WIND, THAT WENT IN THE HOLE???? They totally missed the boat on that one!

campgottagopee · Jul 22, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Wow, that's amazing. I've only ever even HEARD of 1 from a person I know...my uncle, who used to be a 1 or a 2, had one at his home course where his father was a member and where he has been a member his whole life. He is 62, and this was about 10 years ago, maybe 15. It was during the club championship, and he is the only person known to ever have double eagled that hole (course opened in 1915). There is a plaque on the bench by the tee on that hole with his name now.

Speaking of plaques and double eagles, there is a plaque at one of the local county courses I play that commemorates a long-time employee of the course (he may have been the superintendent) after he passed away. The plaque discusses the highlight of his golf "Career" as being, and I quote, "When in 1984, he double eagled the 505 yard par 5 18th hole, which included a 250 yard tee shot." Now, a 250 yard tee shot, up hill, into the wind (generally) with 1984 clubs and balls is plenty commendable. But how is that the shot that gets commemorated on a plaque for all antiquity????? WHAT ABOUT THE FOLLOWING SHOT, A 255 YARD SHOT FROM THE FAIRWAY, TO A BLIND GREEN, GUARDED BY BUNKERS, INTO THE WIND, THAT WENT IN THE HOLE???? They totally missed the boat on that one!

Agree, the second shot would hold more weight in my book too......that is why dbli eagles are soo cool, takes TWO GREAT shots to make it happen.,

We have a plaque in our club for dbl eagle's that prolly has 10 or so names on it. Now our course is short (6000), but you still have to hit the shots to make it happen

jaywbigred · Jul 22, 2010

Camp, was going to ask this before, but forgot, and your comment brings it up, sorta, anyway:

Are any of these double eagles holes in one on par 4s? Is that even called a double eagle? An albatross? something like that?

Part of me secretly hopes that my first hole in one comes on a par 4. I've actually been close a couple times this year, including once at Mt. Snow GC.

campgottagopee · Jul 22, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Camp, was going to ask this before, but forgot, and your comment brings it up, sorta, anyway:

Are any of these double eagles holes in one on par 4s? Is that even called a double eagle? An albatross? something like that?

Part of me secretly hopes that my first hole in one comes on a par 4. I've actually been close a couple times this year, including once at Mt. Snow GC.

No, all par 5's

A 2 on a par 4 is an eagle, 2 on a par 5 is a dbl eagle or "albatross".......hole-in-one on a par four would be wicked cool!!!

jaywbigred · Aug 9, 2010

So I finally broke through last week. Played Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Friday.

That first Friday afternoon I read an article that said if you want to break 80, you need to hit 8 or more greens in regulation. I thought "Hmmm, okay, that seems like a random number, and it also seems low, but okay." Went out and hit 9 GIRs, shot 37 on the front, double bogeyed the 2 easiest (reachable, for me) Par 4s on the course (#14 and #16), then finished birdie birdie to shoot 78.

The next morning at the same place (Warrenbrook) on Saturday I shot 88 with 4 birdies.

Sunday shot 93 in the rain at a different course (Neshanic).

This past Friday finished bogey, bogey, bogey and shot 79 at Spookybrook (easier track).

Things are starting to improve. My drives, thought not precise by any means, are improved and more accurate. And LONG. The hard ground we have now (at least at the course I played this past Friday) was giving me 10-15extra yards (1st hole drive went 330, second hole 340, 6th hole 345, 10th hole 315 on a "good miss", 14th hole 342 (on the fringe)).

My irons might actually be less accurate than they were when I was struggling, but still decently accurate for me, historically speaking. I am getting a lot more spin on the ball now that a) I have committed to playing more expensive balls at the strong recommendation of the guy I take lessons from 1-3 times a year (Callaway I(s)) and b) have committed, with my lower irons, to hitting more knockdown shots rather than going full throttle to max out a distance...e.g. I am hitting my knockdown PW at yardages 130-140 instead of going full throttle on my 58 degree. Much more accurate and much more spin.

My short game comes and goes, but without the stats to prove it, it feels like I am getting up and down maybe once or twice more often per round than at the beginning of the season. Which can of course mean the difference between a 79 and an 84.

And my putting. Wow, it has really improved. In the last 4 rounds, even the ones where I didn't score that well, I made probably 8 putts of 15 feet+, with at least 3 of those being from outside 25. I have gone whole years without make a 25+ foot putt, so that was refreshing. I still miss the occasional, frustrating 5-7 footer, but I feel confident with them, which is why I think I have made more long ones (not as afraid to go 3 or 4 feet by, so I hit them more solidly). I've also been doing a good job identifying "danger" putts, and doing my best to leave them on the correct side of the hole to ensure a 2 putt.

Hopefully, this all continues. If I could consistently start putting my 100-30 yd pitch shots inside 5-10 feet, instead of 15-25, I would really be lethal...hopefully that comes next!!

drjeff · Aug 9, 2010

jaywbigred said:
So I finally broke through last week. Played Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Friday.

That first Friday afternoon I read an article that said if you want to break 80, you need to hit 8 or more greens in regulation. I thought "Hmmm, okay, that seems like a random number, and it also seems low, but okay." Went out and hit 9 GIRs, shot 37 on the front, double bogeyed the 2 easiest (reachable, for me) Par 4s on the course (#14 and #16), then finished birdie birdie to shoot 78.

The next morning at the same place (Warrenbrook) on Saturday I shot 88 with 4 birdies.

Sunday shot 93 in the rain at a different course (Neshanic).

This past Friday finished bogey, bogey, bogey and shot 79 at Spookybrook (easier track).

Things are starting to improve. My drives, thought not precise by any means, are improved and more accurate. And LONG. The hard ground we have now (at least at the course I played this past Friday) was giving me 10-15extra yards (1st hole drive went 330, second hole 340, 6th hole 345, 10th hole 315 on a "good miss", 14th hole 342 (on the fringe)).

My irons might actually be less accurate than they were when I was struggling, but still decently accurate for me, historically speaking. I am getting a lot more spin on the ball now that a) I have committed to playing more expensive balls at the strong recommendation of the guy I take lessons from 1-3 times a year (Callaway I(s)) and b) have committed, with my lower irons, to hitting more knockdown shots rather than going full throttle to max out a distance...e.g. I am hitting my knockdown PW at yardages 130-140 instead of going full throttle on my 58 degree. Much more accurate and much more spin.

My short game comes and goes, but without the stats to prove it, it feels like I am getting up and down maybe once or twice more often per round than at the beginning of the season. Which can of course mean the difference between a 79 and an 84.

And my putting. Wow, it has really improved. In the last 4 rounds, even the ones where I didn't score that well, I made probably 8 putts of 15 feet+, with at least 3 of those being from outside 25. I have gone whole years without make a 25+ foot putt, so that was refreshing. I still miss the occasional, frustrating 5-7 footer, but I feel confident with them, which is why I think I have made more long ones (not as afraid to go 3 or 4 feet by, so I hit them more solidly). I've also been doing a good job identifying "danger" putts, and doing my best to leave them on the correct side of the hole to ensure a 2 putt.

Hopefully, this all continues. If I could consistently start putting my 100-30 yd pitch shots inside 5-10 feet, instead of 15-25, I would really be lethal...hopefully that comes next!!

Strong work with the break 80 round! I'd buy that 8 greens is the key theory too. What I do just about every round is give myself 1 point for each green hit and each fairway hit. My benchmarch for a "good" round is 18 total points. If I have 18 points, chances are that i shooting somewhere about my handicap which will have me in the 76-78 range. 20 points generaly gets me in the 75-76 range, and under 16 points generally has me in the low 80's. The wildcard in this is putting though. I've had some days where I'll have 14 or 15 total points and still shoot 75/76 because for the round I'll only have say 26 or 27 putts an then I can have other rounds where I have have 20 points and shoot in the low 80's because I ended up with 35-37 putts

:smash: In the end, it always seems to come down to how the flst stick is working with respect to score!

FRITOLAYGUY · Aug 10, 2010

Did you ever think tiger woods would ever finish 30 shots behind the leader? Sounds like a computer game made up right, well he did just that yesterday, my man needs to get laid if its not obvious yet

drjeff · Aug 10, 2010

FRITOLAYGUY said:
Did you ever think tiger woods would ever finish 30 shots behind the leader? Sounds like a computer game made up right, well he did just that yesterday, my man needs to get laid if its not obvious yet

How surreal would it be given BOTH of their performances last Sunday, if this week, the final group in the PGA on Sunday was Woods/Mickelson and they staged an epic battle for the trophy???

jaywbigred · Aug 10, 2010

drjeff said:
Strong work with the break 80 round! I'd buy that 8 greens is the key theory too. What I do just about every round is give myself 1 point for each green hit and each fairway hit. My benchmarch for a "good" round is 18 total points. If I have 18 points, chances are that i shooting somewhere about my handicap which will have me in the 76-78 range. 20 points generaly gets me in the 75-76 range, and under 16 points generally has me in the low 80's. The wildcard in this is putting though. I've had some days where I'll have 14 or 15 total points and still shoot 75/76 because for the round I'll only have say 26 or 27 putts an then I can have other rounds where I have have 20 points and shoot in the low 80's because I ended up with 35-37 putts :smash: In the end, it always seems to come down to how the flst stick is working with respect to score!

Interesting technique with the points...I am not sure fairways have any impact on my score, as I've broken 80 multiple times when I maybe hit 1 or 2 fairways. I also miss a lot of fairways on drives that are well struck and on the line I want, just run out of fairway or get too much roll. In any event, to me, after seeing what has happened since I read that article, the key stat is GIR. I think 3 putts and up and downs have a way of evening out; same too with birdies and blow up holes. If I wind up with mostly pars for the rest of the holes (GIR + 2 putt), I should be in at least the high 70s most rounds (the occasional double outweighing the birdie).

Here is a question...at what point can one start to realistically think about Par-or-better as a goal? I mean, I've now broken 80 a total of 5 times in my life, so this may be premature. But if I start doing it more often, when can it become realistic? When I start breaking 80 every 5th round? Every 3rd round? When I shoot par for 9 holes (best to date is 1 over, which I've done 3 times now I think)?

legalskier · Aug 10, 2010

jaywbigred said:
I lose balls in bounds all. the. time. It is SO frustrating.

I get frustrated trying to time the putt through the stupid little windmill.

drjeff · Aug 10, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Interesting technique with the points...I am not sure fairways have any impact on my score, as I've broken 80 multiple times when I maybe hit 1 or 2 fairways. I also miss a lot of fairways on drives that are well struck and on the line I want, just run out of fairway or get too much roll. In any event, to me, after seeing what has happened since I read that article, the key stat is GIR. I think 3 putts and up and downs have a way of evening out; same too with birdies and blow up holes. If I wind up with mostly pars for the rest of the holes (GIR + 2 putt), I should be in at least the high 70s most rounds (the occasional double outweighing the birdie).

Here is a question...at what point can one start to realistically think about Par-or-better as a goal? I mean, I've now broken 80 a total of 5 times in my life, so this may be premature. But if I start doing it more often, when can it become realistic? When I start breaking 80 every 5th round? Every 3rd round? When I shoot par for 9 holes (best to date is 1 over, which I've done 3 times now I think)?

Par or better as a goal?? Hmmm. For the most part I've had a single digit handicap for 20 years, been down as low as a 1 and for a year or two made it up an 11 during that time frame. It wasn't really until I got my handicap down to a 4 or lower where I felt that shooting a round at par or better was a "reasonable" goal. Sure, it would happen ever now and then, but the reality is, atleast for me, that it's WAY tougher to turn a 75 into a 72 or lower than it is to say turn a 90 into an 80. The room for error as you get closer to par is just so much smaller, that if you have 1 bad hole, more than likely it won't be offset with just 1 good hole, but it's going to take 2 or 3 holes to "fix" that 1 bad hole. That's also one of the reasons why I do look at fairways hit as a useful stat, since I'm much less likely to have a "bad" hole from the fairway than from the rough, and to some level making the clun selections I need to keep the ball in the fairway often is the same thought process that you'll need to better manage your way around the course and greatly reduce the chances of having a bad hole.

campgottagopee · Aug 11, 2010

drjeff said:
Par or better as a goal?? Hmmm. For the most part I've had a single digit handicap for 20 years, been down as low as a 1 and for a year or two made it up an 11 during that time frame. It wasn't really until I got my handicap down to a 4 or lower where I felt that shooting a round at par or better was a "reasonable" goal. Sure, it would happen ever now and then, but the reality is, atleast for me, that it's WAY tougher to turn a 75 into a 72 or lower than it is to say turn a 90 into an 80. The room for error as you get closer to par is just so much smaller, that if you have 1 bad hole, more than likely it won't be offset with just 1 good hole, but it's going to take 2 or 3 holes to "fix" that 1 bad hole. That's also one of the reasons why I do look at fairways hit as a useful stat, since I'm much less likely to have a "bad" hole from the fairway than from the rough, and to some level making the clun selections I need to keep the ball in the fairway often is the same thought process that you'll need to better manage your way around the course and greatly reduce the chances of having a bad hole.

Totally agree....to be a scratch golfer one must BIG TIME committ to PRACTICE

uke:....When I was playing my best golf (score wise) I hit balls every day and was on the putting green for hours, and it sucked!!!! To play at that level you marry the practice green....missing 8 footers is NOT an option. It's easy to give strokes away in this game and nearly impossible to get them back. Once you've started "chasing" the golf course is usually when the wheels come off. Fairways and greens.....that's the ticket.

jaywbigred · Aug 11, 2010

drjeff said:
Par or better as a goal??... Sure, it would happen ever now and then...

That is all I mean. I mean, if I got my handicap down to a 7, for example, and kept it there for a season, and played 40 rounds, I would shoot par-or-better X number of times...0? 1? More?

drjeff · Aug 11, 2010

jaywbigred said:
That is all I mean. I mean, if I got my handicap down to a 7, for example, and kept it there for a season, and played 40 rounds, I would shoot par-or-better X number of times...0? 1? More?

0? Maybe
1? Maybe
More? Maybe
Never? Maybe

That's the beauty of the game, you never know????

Just as Camp and I were saying, it tends to be a thing where the closer to par you're getting, you find that you need to work 4 times as hard to get 1/4th the "relative" improvement. And as I'm sure you don't need to be told, you can be on fire on say the front nine and then 5 minutes later struggling to make doubles or worse, and it all feels the same swing wise.

The best thing I tell folks looking to improve regularly is to not worry about the score and just play the game. Most folks if they try and micro manage their games hole by hole will end up shooting a higher score in the end then say if they just play and try and forget where they are relative to par on their round - that brain things gets in the way of their golf game all too often

:smash:

jaywbigred · Aug 11, 2010

Well I've always tried to adhere to the "don't look at the score card" thing. Didn't ever really have a dramatic impact.

But I think if I just focus on GIRs and forsake everything else, I have a shot at continued improvement.

Not sure I posted the link to the article before or not:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_5_57/ai_n26827727/

drjeff · Aug 11, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Well I've always tried to adhere to the "don't look at the score card" thing. Didn't ever really have a dramatic impact.

But I think if I just focus on GIRs and forsake everything else, I have a shot at continued improvement.

Not sure I posted the link to the article before or not:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_5_57/ai_n26827727/

I think if I thought about that chart while I'm out on the course that my brain would implode and there's no way I could shoot anything under 90! :lol:

Solid stuff though, seriously! And I defintely agree that the 2 key things to shooting a better number are greens hit and total putts. As I somewhat proved this past Monday when I hit 13 greens

but "only" managed to shoot 79 courtesy of 37 putts

:uzi: :flame:

or the week before when I only hit 6 greens, but shot 75 thanks to 26 putts.

In general I try and not let the analytically dominant side of my brain take over when I'm on the course, as it often gets me in trouble when I'm out there, but post round, when I'm doing my "statistical analysis" I tend to not judge whether it was a good or bad round just based on the final score, but look at GIR's, fairway's hit, total putts and if I managed to have any sand saves (atleast 1 saved stroke in my book), and what my benchmark of a "good" round is right now, is 10 greens, 8 fairways and 31 or under putts. If the numbers show that, we'll then chances are that I've just shot a round that will likely work towards lowering my handicap. If the numbers didn't make my benchmarks, chances are that will be one of the 10 rounds that won't be factoring into my next handicap calculation, or my handicap will be headed up a bit

jaywbigred · Aug 11, 2010

Just got back from 18 holes. Hit 12 GIR and shot 77! This shit works! Just missed that 13th GIR on 18 by 2 feet (landed on the green but I was coming out of the rough and got no spin). Got up and down though.

Had a 7 (triple--tee shot OB, ugh) and a 6 (double--bad luck, had one little branch to go around with approach shot and of course i hit it, clipping it in the process. It fell to the ground a few feet from my ball; the diameter was less than my club) on the back, but also a birdie 2 (missed a hole in 1 by about 6 inches) and an eagle (a 2 - drove the green on a 317 yard par 4 with a blind tee shot, 5 feet from the hole, must have rolled right past it because it was on the far left of the hole and i hit it with a draw). I had great looks at birdie on 16 and 17 also, but couldn't get em to fall.

Also had a birdie 2 on the front that landed about 18 inches from the hole, but it spun back almost to the fringe. If it had bounced forward on the line it was on, it would have gone in or hit the flag stick.

Things are clicking right now. Golf can be quasi-fun??????????

riverc0il · Aug 12, 2010

jaywbigred said:
Things are clicking right now. Golf can be quasi-fun??????????

Man, that is one thing that contributed to my not wanting to play any more. When you actually get better, your expectations increase. To the point that golf can be considered quasi-fun because you shot a 77! LOL :lol: :blink:

Whereas when I played, I just wanted to get under 100. I thought I would be the happiest man on Earth if I could shot an 89. But I notice as people get better, they are just as unhappy with their games as I am. I look at them like "what's wrong with you, dude!?" It just seems like for someone with my mentality, it is an unhealthy activity because those thoughts never go away even when you get somewhat decent.

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