Tell us about your game today...

First topic message reminder :

.. or yesterday or whenever your last game happened.

I played this morning - just a bounce game with one of my regular partners.

There had been a big competition yesterday at the club so the course was a bit quieter today than one might expect for a Sunday. 11:20 tee off as a two-ball and lots of other two balls out there with a couple of quick 4-balls so pace of play was brisk.

Those who have read my posts recently will know that I've been suffering with a nasty foot/ankle injury for a few months and it's just great to be out there at all at the moment. Thankfully the foot came through with flying colours though I think I've been favouring it for the last couple of weeks still and after the game today my knee was playing up but with luck that will just be a temporary setback.

A glorious day though in the Thames Valley with above average temperatures and the course was in remarkable nick for mid March.

The match itself was close for a long way. I felt I was playing reasonably well after not playing much of the winter and after losing the 2nd I levelled it on the 3rd and was one up after nine. Though I felt I was playing better than my opponent I couldn't shake him and he hung in there until I went 2 up on 15. Closed it out on 16 but was made to work for it.

Although it was matchplay I kept an estimated Stableford score and came in with 32 (estimated) points which I wasn't too disappointed with given lack of recent regular play. One NR and a couple of holes where a 3 pointer was well withing my grasp and ended with 1 point (short game was actually pretty good apart from those two nightmares)

Now looking forward to next weekend and a Stableford competition where I've been drawn with last year's captain and next year's!

Had some mates over for 3 days of golf over the long weekend, annual Wales v England challenge. Although sadly Wales triumphed, I was happy with the consistency of my game... on Monday I putted out on the 54th hole with the same ball I had teed up on the 1st on Saturday, which is always a good sign.

Was impressed with the Srixon Z star... I don't judge a ball by its durability but a pro v1 would have been scuffed to bits after three rounds. Maybe the lush fairways for this time of year had something to do with it.

Well done Mavette - a fantastic achievement in your first year. Onwards and upwards.

What a strange old game this is - played twice over the weekend at a strange course and drove like a dream, putted well, chipped and pitched well even, long irons weren't as crisp as I would like them, but acceptable.

Today I played my regular Tuesday after work bounce game and I played the biggest load of 'poopie' you have ever seen. I do not remember hitting one fairway with the driver at all, pitches were nearly all leaked right, couldn't hole a first putt if the hole had been a dustbin! All in all a pretty miserable round!

Final B team game last night and we were well beaten by 10 and 13 handicapper.I(off 12) played with 5 handicapper and the shots given away were crucial.We gave them holes 3 and 4 after each off us three putted from shortish range and they then birdied 5 and 6 to be 4 up after 6.Long way back from there and both these guys were solid having been much lower handicaps at some point.Finished on par 5 14th when I hit the pin with third shot and holed out from about 15 feet for birdie.They also holed for birdie.At that point they were level par between them for the 14 holes played.No complaints good fun and nice fish pie and couple of pints after.
good social golf.

Finally after 6 months and plenty of rehab I played a round of golf. My first since the Op. Went out for a well planned bounce game, organising this game was done with military precision and weeks of planning not to mention trepidation of would the knee hold out. Played with OldMan Mav and BigBrother Mav. Had a couple of buggies (Queue SR stating i should be a fat american to utilise one) but wanted to enjoy playing 18 and not worry aout the knee up and down hills as well as swinging. Tee'd it up at 4pm for a nice evening round.

Tee'd it up without any preconceptions of score after the opening tee shots to the 1st hole par 3, BigBro Mav pipes up so whats the skins were playing for then OldMan Mav states keep it light as hopalong is playing again. How I missed the banter. Long storey short, hit everything easy just making sure I could play and ended up taking 8 skins and shooting +3 for my round with a double bogey on the 18th after a dubious bounce sending my ball OOB.

Little bit of work to do on the swing to tidy things up a few bad habits after such a long time out and a bit of short game work, but helps having spent the last 3 weeks just putting. No competitive rounds this month or so just ease back into playing slowly and putting things back in place

Good to hear you are back on course Mav.

Maybe you can get a full year in this time.

Don't break anything.

Cheers OS, I think when the next what are your goals for next year thread goes up mine is an injury free year with no surgery after the last 2 years.

Bloody aches now though

Great news Mav!

Did you go with the swing change you were talking about to protect the knee?

nice one mav - so far so good

funny game for me yesterday. entered a 9 hole medal out of interest after reading the thread on here. played some excellent golf but mixed in a couple of topped long irons which went about 5 yards each. one three putt also in the mix, but other than that off the tee i was comfortable and my wedge play was as good as its been this year: five birdie putts inside 8 feet, all as a result if pitches from 100-130 yards. unfortunatally i only put 2 of them away and finished +2 for the nine. not bad with a couple of duffs in the mix and should give me a bit of confidence going into this weekends open.

Davie wrote:Great news Mav!

Did you go with the swing change you were talking about to protect the knee?

No real changes Davie, am just going to ease back into it, and ease back a little with the speed of transition with my lower half.

Mav

Good news BUT KEEP IT EASY for quite a few weeks yet!

A few bounce games, no swinging flat out, ease yourself back into it gently. The season is all but over now so just make sure you are 100% ready for next year

Maverick wrote:

Finally after 6 months and plenty of rehab I played a round of golf. My first since the Op.

Well done Mav. Now you are "post-op" does this mean you will be playing off the red's?

raycastleunited wrote: Now you are "post-op" does this mean you will be playing off the red's?

We certainly give each other some abuse on here, gotta love it

Re: Tell us about your game today...
by drive4show Today at 10:29


Mav

Good news BUT KEEP IT EASY for quite a few weeks yet!

A few bounce games, no swinging flat out, ease yourself back into it gently. The season is all but over now so just make sure you are 100% ready for next year

Thats the plan I have, not interested in comps this year, it's going to be bounce games and mostly using a carriage to ease the leg back in slowly.

Re: Tell us about your game today...
by drive4show Today at 11:13


raycastleunited wrote:
Now you are "post-op" does this mean you will be playing off the red's?

We certainly give each other some abuse on here, gotta love it

I already play off the reds is that not right! It also means during the Winter Eclectic I should be allowed a Hopalong dispensation so I reck 4 shots back ye!

Well done Mav~ take it steady.

Played with Jas and Daughter Doon today at Belleisle.
Jas ans DD were both having warm up games before The Tassie and the Scottish Counties Finals.
Stopped raining on the first tee for good weather and the course was in pretty decent condition
I played utter rubbish, one of those days when it felt like I was swinging a garden rake.
Jas started very well then hit a drive on the 7th that no one saw. Very strange situation as it was a good strike, did not find it so bit of a shame.
DD struck the ball beautifully in a well composed round of one over [13 pars, three bogeys and two birdies] 35 points
Jas was his usual steady self, plays more like 6 than his 8 handicap. 33 points.
I sclaffed along for 24 points.

Outlook for the next few days

Jas should do well at Carnoustie
DD looks good for Dumfries
Doon has no chance at St Andrews.

AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

i think this covers it, and you will all know what i mean

Another Texas scramble for me tomorrow - and as usual my biggest concern is getting 4 tee shots in amongst what looks like a very strong team. This is the only Scramble/fun event that is a board comp at my club so while it is meant to be fun there is also a pretty competetive attitude towards it. Last year it was won by a team win a nine-under par gross score - and adding on the 1/10th handicap gave them a net score of 14.5 under!

Apart from the tee shots I'm feeling quite confident as I'm hitting the ball well at the moment and as one of the higher handicap team members (though not the highest), I hope to be able to contribute something with shorter shots to the green - and putting.

Now please Golfing Gods - let me get my 4 tee shots in early!

Scramble went very well. Final results not in yet but we shot 3 under gross (my team wasn't as low in h.c as I previously though - two 17s, a 22 and a lady off 19)

That gave a handicap (1/10th total) of 7.5 so we were -10.5 net. I already know of one team that has beaten us and think we'll be lucky to stay in the prizes with that score, but it was a lot of fun. No problems getting my 4 tee shots in as it happened and short game and putting was pretty good, setting up a few birdies with short game and converting a couple that others set up too

Our -3 gross was made up of 6 birdies and 3 bogeys, one of which on 15 was extremely frustrating as we only had about 3 foot for the par and all 3 of us missed it - it appeared dead straight too!

PS my nearest the pin from last week survived the afternoon session so at least I got something out of last weekend

Played Torphin Hills for a change today, played quite well, still having real issues with iron play though.

My practise swings all strike ground after were ball would be, but as soon as i step up to hit real shot ground first, its so frustrating.

Its costing me so many shots a round.

Congrats on closest to the pin Davie, good to hear and that you got your drives away fine

Davie, congrats on nearest the pin and well played on the scramble. A lot of our comps here are scrambles and in a team event it is really easy to get out of rythmn by trying to play 1 in a lifetime shots or hit 300+ yards drives etc.

Mav, glad to hear you're back out on the course and for Mavette on a good first season.

I'm out today with the club motor mouth, the new young gun at the club and his dad hopefully should be fun.

Washed out today. It was only a bounce game and it was light rain as we started which we hoped would ease. Instead it just got steadily worse and we gave up after 9. Obviously need new waterproofs too as I was as wet inside as out by the end.

The annoying thing was we could see it was starting to clear up as we walked off but we were all too wet by that time and the greens were starting to flood. By the time I got home (too wet even to stop for a drink!) the sun was shining

My 2nd game in a week/6 months was a bounce game again just a 4BBB, busted out the buggies again, feels like cheating but protecting the knee is more important than appearance right now.

If I was to put it in simple terms it goes like this

Iron Play Like Luke Donald
Short Game Like Luke Donald
Putting Like Brad Faxon on a super hot streak
Driving Like Miss Daisy.........

In the swindel I had 37 points with 0 hit fairways and when I say missed fairways the closest I got to one was on the 17th and that was only 20yards offline into the cabbage

Other than that my games good.

One under par without hitting a fairway after six months out. My god I wish I had half your talent Mav.

Congratulations on an amazing return sir.

If the BEST drive was 20 yards in the cabbage and you still shot 1 under then you must have forearms like Popeye or you were sinking putts from a different postcode

Davie wrote:If the BEST drive was 20 yards in the cabbage and you still shot 1 under then you must have forearms like Popeye or you were sinking putts from a different postcode

There was plenty of wedges out then sticking it close with the subsequent approach. Putting was also on fire. The par 3's were my saving grace, 4 par 3's yielded 3 birdies.

No idea what happened with the driver today she was just misbehaving. WIth regards to the forearms, for someone of slight frame I do have large forearms, get it from OldMan Mav my mum calls him bluto with his arms, BigBro Mav is Popeye and I'm a vraig parry style forearm.....

P.s Davie the putts were not a different post code some morelike another continent

I mentioned my last B team match few days back -not so.
We have two leagues in the county and it has been decided to have a play off between the winners of each group..No neutral venue agreed so home and away next two wednesdays meal and beers after.Six fourballs aggregate score wins over the two matches.Should be good if in danger of become slightly intense.Good news is the away venue I know pretty well as it was where I started playing the game.Will post the outcome.

probably my worst round of the season on saturday. every part of my game was out of sorts other than my wedge-play which was so-so. somehow managed to hack it round in +10 despite topping irons, topping the driver, skying the driver, catching just about every other shot other than my wedges heavy - and three putting 5 times and four putting once. also managed to miss all but one of the birdie opportunities i did create - 6 good chances between 4 and 8 feet ... aarrrrrrrrrrggg

Played Fairmont St Kissocks at St Andrews on an away day.
Thankfully I played much better than last game with Jas.
Interesting course, set on the high ground above St Andrews on the Crail road.
They played the Scottish Seniors at the other course Torrence last month.
Weather was superb and thought that Jas will be enjoying another great day accross the Tay at the Tassie.
The views from the course were quite superb and reminded me of Gullane No 1, Turnberry, North Berwick and Dundonald.
Greens were in superb condition but generally flat. The short holes were all short. We played off the yellows and it was tough enough for us, SSS 71. I would not wish to play off the Blue tees at SSS 74.
Bunker sand was truly awful. The worst I have seen on any 'proper' golf course. They had not seen a rake for over a week, strange as the rest of the course was well maintained.
I scored 88 for 33 points. Missed about 4 three to four footers but generally putted very well. Did not lose a ball and nothing higher than a six. Deadly had a nightmare middle 6 holes with his driver resulting in three 7's and an 8. otherwise he played well.
The clubhouse is a real blot on the landscape, I can't believe how the local authority ever gave it planning permission. Looka like a pizza hut on top of a hill. Pro Shop staff were a bit sniffy as you would expect.
The course is now 10 years old and to be honest it looks as though it has run out of money and is not the finished product.

We had a look at the Castle course next door which looked a much better choice. Much better finished product even though it is a younger course. Lovely well designed clubhouse and friendly staff.

Further to above.
We followed 8 American tourists with 8 caddies.
They had a two hole start on us and we had caught up by the 4th.
We had 4 holes of 5 minute waits on every shot when the first match let us through.
They were all mid 50's and dressed like pimps. Two had matching Rickie Fowler orange outfits and they where not great golfers.
After a good drive from me on the 8th I waited about 10 mins for the green to clear to hit a georgeous 5 iron straight at the pin it pitched on the front of the green and took a wee kick and trickled into the bunker.

Bit of an outburst from me about the clowns playing in front and that thier golfing manners were a total joke.

Deadly thinks for a moment and says 'Aye, Jokers to the left of me clowns to the right and here I am stuck in the middle with you'.

We both collapsed in fits of laughter.

[For the young uns Steel Eye Spam circa 1970.]

Stealer's Wheel actually, Doon - the late great Gerry Rafferty

What is steeleye spam? I have heard of Steeleye span and steely Dan.

Yes the fairmont courses do not look great although however bad it looks I have heard the hotel is ok.

I once went into the pro shop and like you felt like a real lepper.

McLaren wrote:What is steeleye spam? I have heard of Steeleye span and steely Dan.

Yes the fairmont courses do not look great although however bad it looks I have heard the hotel is ok.

I once went into the pro shop and like you felt like a real lepper.

What is a lepper? I've heard of a leper.

Doon, I've found the etiquette (or lack of) from American tourists to be dreadful. I've seen them at Fairmont, St.Andrews, Castle and Kingsbarns and they just don't seem to know when to keep their big fat mouths shut.

I know they are paying a fortune, but a bit of decorum wouldn't go amiss. I very nearly threw a ball at them last time I was at Kingsbarns.

Would you have used the correct etiquette for throwing a ball at them?

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire Davie . They really know how to get up your nose, do those noisy Yanks, never know when to stop and wait either, their caddies should know better.

Davie.
Got my Steels in a muddle.

SR
We were walking back to the car and I was still ranting on about ignorant Americans when I suddlenly realised that three of them were walking behind me.
OOps, don't know who was more embarressed.

Sj
A leper is a lepper who has had the p taken out of him.

Doon the Water wrote:Sj
A leper is a lepper who has had the p taken out of him.

Au contraire, Doon, a lepper must be a leper who's had a p added. As if having leprosy isn't bad enough, some has peed on him.

Matchplay Championship singles match tonight. Played young lad off 4 who's only been playing 2 years. Lovely striker of the ball who was kind enough to 3 putt 6 times in letting me win 4&3. Then announced he was going to the range to practice!

As an aside, he was one of the Nike addicts someone was describing the other day - shoes, clothes, irons, wedges, driver. Didn't seem to do him any harm, it was his Scotty Cameron that let him down. He's hoping to turn pro, and works at the range at my club so I'll follow his progress with interest. He got down to 3 within a year of starting apparently, so seems to have levelled off already, and will need to improve a lot if he's going to earn money!

SJ
Would he not have been better off visiting the practice putting green?

Report on the first leg of the B team final and my fears were well founded.
We had a great match getting to 2 up after 7 then losing 6 holes in 7 due to some indiffernt stuff and good putts from our opponents(Dormie 4).We then won 15 with par 4 16 and 17 with birdies and played 18 in semi darkness .I had to play to the side of the green with 2nd shot onto a path on purpose,free drop and chipped to leave the ball on the edge of the hole.One of them 2 putted for par and we lost 1 down.However 3 of the matches finished in total darkeness and this affected the outcome against us Match lost 3 1/2 to 2 1/2.their was a dispute in one game about a ball lodged in a tree and another over a 2 1/2 putt that the guy picked up with out being conceded.Meal was late and few beers consumed.One particularily obnoxious character sat next to me kept on going on and on about the rules about putting and chipping after the hole played.Getting very agressive with his own team mate(who was the fella Id played against real nice guy)shouting in my ear for 20 minutes across the table and eventuallly throwing the rule book at his teammate.He stood up and left and after a minutes consideration I decided to do the same before I lost patience with the twxt.Captain asked me to stay but I explained that I would choose who to spend my time with and did not want things to kick off.Playing them again next week!

Doon the Water wrote:SJ
Would he not have been better off visiting the practice putting green?

Indeed Doon, that's what I tried but evidently failed to imply with the exclamation mark.

Midweek medal yesterday - 4th qualifier in a row where I hit my buffer zone but just can't seem to go that extra bit for a cut!

I'm sure this better consistency is down to course management and I've been making a conscious effort to cut out the silly or high risk shots. Particularly I used to use my driver on every driving hole - yesterday I went down to 3 wood on at least 5 holes.

Round was only marred slightly by two bad holes. One was just a badly mishit shot (not a high risk one either!) that because of the trouble it put me into cost me 2 shots. The other "bad" hole though got me thinking later if I was taking "course management" too far and in fact (as Mav said on another thread) "course management" can also mean knowing when to attack.

The scenario was as follows ...

2nd hole, easy hole for better players but statistically difficult for higher handicappers.

Short par 4 with 90 degree dogleft left at about 220 yards. From the tee there is a pond about 50 yards in front of the tee which stretches for another 70 or 80 yards then turns right to continue down the right hand side of the fairways. Thick copse of trees down the left to the dogleg. So for me, trying to get 220 yards straight from the tee is quite a challenge and usually ends up being short of the dogleg, left into the trees, right into the pond (or at worst, duffing the tee shot and into the pond in front).

So, I've been going with a 3 wood off the tee as this is my safest bet of carrying the pond, not going left or right, but usually leaving me with another chip down to the dogleg before being able to go at the green. Yesterday I topped the 3 wood off the tee into the pond.

Now this is where I'm wondering if I did the wrong thing. There isn't a lot of room down by the pond to drop there, and where you do drop is at best semi-rough. This leaves probably 150 yards to get to the dogleg and about 60 yards to clear the pond.

Without thinking, I elected to play 3 off the tee, which meant I was still short of the dogleg in 3, chipping down past the dogleg in 4, chip onto the green and 2 putts for a 7

With hindsight, I wondered if I'd have been better taking the drop down by the pond and hoping to get to the dogleg in three (with the risk of not getting a clean hit out of the rough and putting it in the water again), or again taking three off the tee but this time with a driver, so giving me at least a chance of getting to the dogleg in 3.

As it was, I suppose the choice I made gave me the best chance of not shooting a really big number but 7 was probably going to be the best I'd get unless I could get up and down from the dogleg. The other two choices would have given me a chance of a 5 or 6 but also brought 8s and 9s into the equation. So did I make the right choice?

davie, maybe you should hit a mid iron off the tee and a pitch to the corner?

Davie the best option was likely the one you chose as when dropping in semi rough you cannot guarantee your lie whereas on the tee you can, maybe the best option is like bam bam says, take a mid iron off the tee then possibly a short iron over the trees across the dogleg. Or Long iron and 2 pitch shots onto green to still give yourself a putt at par, 5 at worst

Davie

The best option may be to write a strongly worded letter to the greens committee asking why they sanctioned the creation of such a terrible hole. It seems another case of listening to the low handicappers for course alteration advice forgetting that they know nothing about it and do not understand the needs of all players.

It no doubt a short easy hole for them and no doubt it was changed at some point to combat this, resulting in nothing other than increased penalty for the higher handicap player. It is now still a short hole with no interest for anyone.

Ban-bam/Mav .. maybe I underestimated the first carry when I described the scenario. I'm not a long hitter and a mid iron off the tee would be touch and go for me to get over the first batch of trouble. However, for a higher handicapper I'm (usually) quite consistent with a 3 wood off the tee.

As for the remainder of the hole, once the dogleg is reached it's only a flick over anotehr pond to the green so cutting the dogleg with 2nd shot isn't an option unless you can actually get over very tall trees to the green. There IS a small area short of the dogleg where a shot over the trees is possible (there is a gap where the trees are shorter). Again, this helps me decide the 3 wood is the best club off the tee for me as it sometimes ends in this area where a shot to the green is possible

Mac: I guess DOAK wouldn't approve you seem to have a serious man love for him and his designs, but each to their own. What I would agree on here with you is that the hole needs to be set up accordingly for players of all levels, which from previous descriptions by Davie they now play comps of Blue tees not whites which makes the course almost unplayable for some. Sounds like they need a way of giving everyone the chance to hit the dogleg with their teeshots instead on being overly penal on every shot

Davie, I would suggest then I know it's not ideal but play it as a 5 and take 4 as a birdie until the club remember not everyone is a scratch bomber

McLaren wrote:Davie

The best option may be to write a strongly worded letter to the greens committee asking why they sanctioned the creation of such a terrible hole. It seems another case of listening to the low handicappers for course alteration advice forgetting that they know nothing about it and do not understand the needs of all players.

It no doubt a short easy hole for them and no doubt it was changed at some point to combat this, resulting in nothing other than increased penalty for the higher handicap player. It is now still a short hole with no interest for anyone.

Mac - maybe I've done the hole a dis-service by my description. It is on no way a "terrible" hole - it's actually a very nice hole - just one that is difficult for higher handicappers/shorter hitters (also a reason why I don't like comparing SI to difficulty as this is the SI18 hole!)

As described, for someone who can hit a long iron 200+ yards, it is an iron off the tee and a flick with a lob wedge. For the shorter hitters it's either risk a driver with dangers left and right - but then still a flick over water for our 2nd (or 3rd shots if we elect to play shorter but safe)

For the record the course is about 20 years old - though I've only been a member 3 years. I'm not aware any changes have ever been made to the hole in the lifetime of the course. The fairway is plenty wide enough for everyone except those who are "bad enough" (I include myself in that description) to require a driver to the dogleg (my own tendency to have a natural left to right ball flight with driver doesn't help with water all down the right)

I certainly don't think it's uninteresting though; easy or difficult for good or bad players but never dull

@Mav - see my reply to Mac above. Maybe I've exaggerated the picture of the hole. I'm not complaining about it as such - I think it's a great hole (just difficult)

As I explained first, I do generally play it as a 3 shotter (despite being SI 18) - but the (normally) 3rd shot is such a short flick over water even I have plenty of chance to still get a 4 (or the odd times when I can go over the trees without reaching the dogleg also gives me chances for a 4. But I'll take a 5 every day.

My only reason for bringing the hole up again today was wondering if I still played the hole right after putting my first tee shot in a pond. On reflection I think I probably did.

PS the bit about blue tees must've been someone else - we don't have blue tees at our course

PPS let me just say AGAIN I'm not necessarily complaining about this hole - just musing the best way for me to play it