Tell us about your game today...

First topic message reminder :

Fresh thread - you know the score: share some of your tales of woe, indifference and banditry with us all.

Agreed Mac,
But that particular beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Kwin - I hear you ... always try to make every day count.

Mac - Very fair point. To play PV one must be able to carry a tee shot 200 yards and an approach 180. Not on every hole, but enough. If the course has a weakness it is that.

I'm playing the final of our club singles knockout today against a 20 handicapper so am giving him 9. Most shots I've ever given away in a singles match. Any tips apart from play well??

No win situation. If you win "you've only beaten a hacker", lose and "you've been beaten by a hacker".

If the guy starts well, you can probably assume that there's a good chance it won't last.

He's a 20 handicapper for a reason.

I'm resigned to the fact that if he plays well i'm probably going to lose!
I'm hoping he's the sort of 20 handicapper who bogeys every hole rather than the one who gets 9 pars and 9 doubles.

They tend to bottle it if you get in front.

This chap is this year's club captain too........

Probably more pressure on him then. He'll be desperate to win.

Remember if he puts himself in trouble not to take on the tricky shot. All that matters is taking one shot less.
If you can win the hole with a bogey, don't take on high risk shots chasing birdie or par.

 
That's something i'll have to bear in mind actually, as i was thinking i'd have to make lots of pars to put him under pressure to maybe play some shots out of his comfort zone. I'll have to try to recongnise when he's in the poop and bogey might be ok, ta

A 20 handicapper will have a LOT of bad shots in a round, and even a good run of holes won't last most of the time.
I presume he'll be hitting his second shot first most of the time, gives you plenty of time to choose the shot you need and not to take risks.

super_realist wrote:They tend to bottle it if you get in front.

Not all of us :P ... just ask GrumpyGolfer and Bluecoverman ;-)

I don't remember us ever being in front Davie!   

Cliche alert!

Play the course. Play your game, not his. If he does play out of his boots, so be it (and it does seem to happen in matchplay). If you're playing cr@p, just keep on at it. If you lose, lose graciously. If you win, win graciously.

And (having just lost our club's matchplay final and it being my first final) just enjoy it. Whatever happens, you've done well to get there.

Will you get a crowd?

BlueCoverman wrote:I don't remember us ever being in front Davie!   

Hmmm I thought you took the lead after the turn but looking back it seems we were all square all the way

Nerves of steel us high h/c choppers   

Home advantage more like it....

We should have taken the lead at the 15th if Grumps could tell the difference between a 5 iron and a 7 iron!  

If I had hit the 5 iron I would have put it miles past and ended up in the half way house!

I'm sure the young lady in the halfway house would have been delighted to see you again though   

I'm sure you would have been there as interested spectator

Well MPB, what was the result?

Managed a 2&1 win   
I actually started like a train and through 9 I was 3 over and 3 up. Then managed to lose 10, 11 and 12 on the spin and was kicking myself before thankfully winning 13 and 14. He got it back to 1 on 15, halved 16, then on 17 (110 yard par 3) he shanked it out of bounds which was quite friendly of him. Managed to plonk mine on the green and that was that.
Shot a gross 79 which was pleasing considering I was a bit nervous.

Made some wrong decisions mind you. There were at least two occasions on shot holes where he'd put a drive down the middle so I took on a risky 2nd shot thinking I had to do something, cocked it up, only to watch him scrape it up the fairway and make a double....

Pleased to win though

Roller_Coaster wrote:Cliche alert!

Play the course. Play your game, not his. If he does play out of his boots, so be it (and it does seem to happen in matchplay). If you're playing cr@p, just keep on at it. If you lose, lose graciously. If you win, win graciously.

And (having just lost our club's matchplay final and it being my first final) just enjoy it. Whatever happens, you've done well to get there.

Will you get a crowd?

Unfortunately not much of a crowd Roller, I think as had to play it on a weekday. Those that were there seemed aware of what was going on but there weren't many around.

I should add that this was the final of the 2013 comp (yes it was that far behind, don't get me started!).
I play tomorrow in the first round of the 2014 comp so if I get knocked out I will have been reigning champ for all of 2 days ha!!!

As suspected I lost today and so was champ for 2 days!
Got battered 7&6 and was absolutely shocking. Would have collected 22 points which was a good 22 points for how I played.
The worst I've played for a good amount of time having had my best ever run of form for a few months.
What a funny/infuriating/fascinating/sh!t (delete as you feel appropriate) game

Texas scramble today and 17 straight pars plus one birdie. Just couldn't buy a putt. To be fair we didn't have many close birdie chances - our team lacked a really low handicapper. Low player was a senior off 8 but he didn't have a great day. Long and lag putting was very good but not a thing dropped. all but 2 of th 17 pars were kick-ins - a couple of 7-8 footers to save pars (with 3 chances at it).

One shot off 3rd place and 2 shots off the win. Gross 69, nett 61.3 - winning score was 59.7

Bog standard stableford, pretty windy, couple of holes of rain.

Played OK, 2 birdies and 2 bogeys in the front 8 to get to 18 points (level par). Catastrophic slice into cabbage on 9 triple. Nothing exciting on the back 9 couple of bogeys and a couple of shot-hole pars and one 3 putt. Stood on 17 tee needing par par for 36. Big tug into more cabbage. Birdied second ball but couldn't pull it back on the last. 35.

37 won.

Pah. Bl**dy golf.

Had the pleasure of Hankley Common yesterday (on Captains Courtesy as well) with D4S (formerly of these boards). Top notch Course, very reminiscent of the New at Sunningdale. Found out very quickly that you HAD to be straight off the tee...and I wasn't. 1 point from the first three holes then missed a short birdie putt after a great approach on 4. Finally got the bird with a 15 footer on 5. A settler?...um no, back into the heather on 6 & 7. Shocking total of 10 points with 5 blobs on the front 9. Mental reset button hit at the turn and came back with 18 points. Really cracking back 9, great variety of holes, very strong Par 3's. 13 a makeable in 2 par 5, missed the eagle putt :-( Great day though at a top notch layout. Just a bit strange that the Clubhouse stops serving at 7.00...What's that all about??

D4 going to remain "formerly" of these boards or is a comeback likely?

When he had an anything goes thread we didn't think it'd be him going!

Hi Roller, comeback unlikely although he probably still browses occasionally. Spends more time on GM forum these days.

Mates company sponored our knock on Saturday so was out with the sponsors and then as the captain is on holiday I was up for presenting duties too. V pleasant afternoon and some gritty play to graft it round with no birdies and a +5 finish. A couple of topped drives which I haven't done for quite some time but otherwise respectable scoring without ever playing particularly well.

Stableford with a lowest gross prize (go figure). Anyway, because of other people with blobs (and probably most people not thinking about there being a gross) I ended up lowest and duly presented myself with a shirt at the end of the night. Unlikliest gross winner ever!

Went with 5 mates to north Devon over the weekend for individual comps at Saunton East (stableford) and RND (medal). Managed a decent 35 points at Saunton, next best from our group was 27, but nowhere near the prizes and still half the field to come in when we left for a beer and the sights of Croyde.
Buoyed by the previous day's performance I started out at Westward Ho with confidence high and recorded a front nine of straight gross pars. With a good breeze blowing I managed to find the fairway on the 10th over the whin bushes before finding my first bunker of the trip short of the green. After 4 increasingly frustrated escape attempts and 2 putts an unwanted snowman decorated my card.
Kept myself together for the next four with 3 more pars and a bogey so still hopes of buffer at worst, and then disintegrated with two triples (3 to get out of another bunker on 16) and a double at the last to finish 85, net 79 (par saved on the 17th).
Back in the clubhouse the leaderboard had me at 43rd in the net out of the 122 in to that point (33 people had NR'd) and locals were saying it was a bit windy!
All of the group loved the 2 courses despite the scores but I think I need to invest in a sand wedge with more bounce if we go back next year!

Managed to convince the Mrs to not flip out if i played Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

Saturday was just a roll up, shot an 8 over gross 77, 39 points, won a bit of cash, all very nice.
Sunday was a qualifier, so naturally shot a 17 over gross 86 and go up 0.1.

Damn it!!

Ah, but which would you prefer. Lower handicap for vanity or slightly higher handicap to take the cash and more reason to play twice over the weekend

Ha, good point Grumps, but the cash was only £15 and i think it's going to take a bit more than that to convince Mrs MPB that golf is a viable weekend career option.
So i'll take the vanity handicap!  

Played in a Club friendly today, we were 5 down with 7 to play. rushed away from work at lunchtime, got there with minutes to spare, no time for a warm up, I was utter rank for the first 6-7 holes, 5 down at the turn but gradually slipped into a better groove. We eventually won the 12th then the 13th, amazing what a wee bit of momentum does. Could see they were rattled then my partner canned a putt from the fringe on 14 to get it to 2 down with 4 to play, halved 15 & 16 (giving away a shot on 16), finished birdie Par to level the match on 18...Felt like a win!!

Played Whitekirk on Saturday.

This was our sweep away day trip, 24 of us, booze, golf & more booze.

Been having some hooking problems with my woods & recovery clubs, so went down to the range on Monday of last week to see if I could correct it. Warmed up, changed my stance slightly & boom, nice & straight. Went to the range again Tuesday just to check if I could remember what I had changed, & all was well.
Played a few holes on Thursday,though was feeling very groggy. the odd pull hook, when I forgot my new stance but all was looking well. Some Penicillin to try & clear up this man flu. Restless night with very little sleep.
Woke up Friday feeling just as bad, some more dosing with penicillin. Early to bed Friday but still with little sleep to aid my flu.

Woke up Saturday feeling sh*t, RedBull time.
Picked up bus at 8:30, first can (lager) opened at 8:45, followed quickly with another (cider this time).
Got to the first tee about 11. Cracked one straight down the middle, & away we went.

Came in with 40 points. So after copious amounts of alcohol, managed to win by 2 points.

The runner-up being a nice loser, just nominated me for the #icebucketchallenge....

First time ive heard penicillin given for influenza im no doctor but that's probably whats making you feel carp.I have no golf swing at present due to a groin strain/trapped nerve took anti inflammitary for a few days until the nausea dizziness blurred vision persuaded me to read the leaflet in the packet.Ill stick with the groin strain thanks.Can hit the ball with a sort of back foot action straight but short.may take a while to recover.

I won the Leatherhead Club Championship yesterday.

Had played in the Ron Probert which is our Club Open on Friday shooting 87, 77 which on the face of it looks pony but the winner a top Surrey golfer off +1 shot 145 and won by 6 shots from several other scratch/1 handicap guys some of whom failed to break 80 in either round.

Yesterday's morning round of 70 was my best ever in competition and gave me a 12!!! shot lead going into the afternoon where I shuffled round in 79 to win by 11.

I tell you there are some former LGC Championship winners shaking their heads in disbelief that a half swinging hacker from the "Wahey Tw@t It" school of golf will now have his name alongside theirs on the board.

Leatherhead held a Jamega tour event on the Monday and Tuesday last week and over 2 rounds the winner was -4.

The head greenkeeper told me last Sunday that the Jamega tour basically tell you where you can and can't cut the holes and all the of ones that they wouldn't let him cut because allegedly they are too difficult he was going to use for the club championship yesterday.

My round of 70 got me a 1.0 cut down to a record low of 4.5 but the afternoon round has starting the (even longer than) usual procession back up to Cat2.

Great result Hibbz. Congrats.

My season has been a (more or less) waste of space this year, sadly. However, yesterday seems to suggest there might be a silver lining.
Played the 1/4 finals of our clubs singles KO against a tough opponent off the same handicap as me last night and (almost) wiped the floor with him - winning 3&2 in the end. Really pleased that, after a ropey start (+4 through 5), I then managed to play the following 11 holes in -4 to the 16th green.

Have tried, the last 2-3 weeks to shorten my backswing and keep my head very still through impact. I've always had a tendency to overswing a bit so have simply tried swinging about 50-75% (it's invariably pretty full even when consciously trying this). Ball striking has improved exponentially and, interestingly, I've re-gained pretty much a full 5-10 yards on irons and drives are both pretty straight for the first time in an age and (for me) very long. Clubhead speed must be up somewhat even though I'm swinging slightly shorter. Still feels a bit weird but at least I know what to focus practice on for some while.

Today I'd like to give a thumbs up to some senior golfers. I have a week off work this week and joined up with some acquaintances for a friendly 4BBB. The other three were senior 5-day members so I don't get to play with them regularly though I knew them all well

Our match was 4:15hr which sounds fairly poor for an average length flat course - but we were held up on every hole by 3 guys from the club scratch team, plus one other off around 12-13. They may have been playing a knockout match whereas we were just playing a friendly but I still think that is pretty poor. Of course there was no way they were going to let 3 seniors (and one only 14 months off senior status) play through

Hibbz wrote:I won the Leatherhead Club Championship yesterday.

Had played in the Ron Probert which is our Club Open on Friday shooting 87, 77 which on the face of it looks pony but the winner a top Surrey golfer off +1 shot 145 and won by 6 shots from several other scratch/1 handicap guys some of whom failed to break 80 in either round.

Yesterday's morning round of 70 was my best ever in competition and gave me a 12!!! shot lead going into the afternoon where I shuffled round in 79 to win by 11.

I tell you there are some former LGC Championship winners shaking their heads in disbelief that a half swinging hacker from the "Wahey Tw@t It" school of golf will now have his name alongside theirs on the board.

Leatherhead held a Jamega tour event on the Monday and Tuesday last week and over 2 rounds the winner was -4.

The head greenkeeper told me last Sunday that the Jamega tour basically tell you where you can and can't cut the holes and all the of ones that they wouldn't let him cut because allegedly they are too difficult he was going to use for the club championship yesterday.

My round of 70 got me a 1.0 cut down to a record low of 4.5 but the afternoon round has starting the (even longer than) usual procession back up to Cat2.

Congratulations Hibbz. Is your club championship a handicap competition? Surprising.

Thanks Navy, Ray it is Gross. My 149 was good enough to win the gross. I think I've mentioned the paucity of good golfers at my club before but the best player off 3 didn't play, the next best off 4 shot 2 rounds in the 80's and then there was the rest of us that allowed me to claim the title of the best player at the club!!! I haven't let anyone forget it yet either.

Played on Sunday and shot 3 over off 5 for another .1 cut and then again today, 2 over for either .1 or .2 depending on CSS so am now a 4 handicap golfer and considering turning pro at the age of 40!

good work hibbz, congratulations - good time to hit form!

hope to follow you soon through the 4/5 barrier. no chance of me winning our club champs any year soon though!!

Thanks Barra, I'm just dreading the inevitable slide back to six. Walking the green mile.

I'm playing two 36 hole opens next week which should hasten process.

Well done Hibbz!

Played today for the first time in two months; fabulous day and glorious conditions in the North Country with leaves beginning to turn and the fairways green. My game has gone downhill from the days I thought I could play anywhere; playing off the shorter tees now and hitting it well enough to convince myself a middle handicap game could still be there. Fine forecast so think I'll be playing a bit this autumn - three hour rounds, Switchback in the ClubHouse bar - can't beat it.

I haven't read this section for a while as usually I think listening to or reading about someone's opinion of their recent golf exploits is like looking at someone's holiday snaps. However, I feel I have to comment on MustPuttbetter and Super_Realist's views on how to beat a hacker a few months back.
As a hacker myself, if I was that guy and I read that, I think I would have turned up on the first tee, got on my knees Wayne World's style and said "I'm not worthy" and then walked off.
If it was a private conversation it would have been bad enough, but on a public forum to treat this guy like he is some sort of inferior life form that you accidentally trod on, doesn't sit well with me.

2/3rds of the greens tined and top dressed (top dressed? implies a smattering of something on the surface rather than the tons of sand on each green you actually get). Despite this I got a double header in playing Saturday (35 points) and Sunday (34) both with two blobs so not too bad. Started hitting the ball quite well again in the last month after a torrid summer. Non qualifiers though so no damage.

Mate I played with had 39 points which I thought was seriously impressive on the beaches that were the greens until last week, until I looked at the results on Sunday morning. He just scraped in to the top 30 (28th) with the winner bagging 45 and 8 others on 42. How the hell do they do that on those greens?

Hey ho, not overly concerning as off to Portugal for the annual tour next week. Golf and Ryder Cup in the sunshine. Aaaaahhhhhh.

I heard a story yesterday of a senior at my place who played on Friday (just a friendly) and scored 53 points!

He was playing off 26 and shot a gross 79 (par 70). Had that happened in a qualifier he would have been cut around 7 shots (not including any exceptional scoring cuts)

I looked up his playing record and in the last 6 months he has have one cut of 0.4, one buffer zone and 7 +0.1 so this really must have been a round out of the blue - but that good?? Anyone heard of anything similar?

lorus59 wrote:I haven't read this section for a while as usually I think listening to or reading about someone's opinion of their recent golf exploits is like looking at someone's holiday snaps. However, I feel I have to comment on MustPuttbetter and Super_Realist's views on how to beat a hacker a few months back.
As a hacker myself, if I was that guy and I read that, I think I would have turned up on the first tee, got on my knees Wayne World's style and said "I'm not worthy" and then walked off.
If it was a private conversation it would have been bad enough, but on a public forum to treat this guy like he is some sort of inferior life form that you accidentally trod on, doesn't sit well with me.

Have only just noticed this but Lorus, what the hell are you talking about? I'm pretty much a hacker myself. What was it i said that treats 'guy like he is some sort of inferior life form'??

MustPuttBetter wrote:

lorus59 wrote:I haven't read this section for a while as usually I think listening to or reading about someone's opinion of their recent golf exploits is like looking at someone's holiday snaps. However, I feel I have to comment on MustPuttbetter and Super_Realist's views on how to beat a hacker a few months back.
As a hacker myself, if I was that guy and I read that, I think I would have turned up on the first tee, got on my knees Wayne World's style and said "I'm not worthy" and then walked off.
If it was a private conversation it would have been bad enough, but on a public forum to treat this guy like he is some sort of inferior life form that you accidentally trod on, doesn't sit well with me.

Have only just noticed this but Lorus, what the hell are you talking about? I'm pretty much a hacker myself. What was it i said that treats 'guy like he is some sort of inferior life form'??

INdeed, we are all hackers, from cat 1 right up, so I think Lorus is being rather over-sensitive.

What I was relaying was that certain things tend to happen to the higher handicap player in a round of golf and what you can expect to see in the round of a matchplay match. DOn't think I said anything out of order

Speaking as a high handicap player, I wasn't offended by any of the thread but it did remind me of the fact that although we may all be hackers, we don't all have the same game/definitions/expectations etc.  "A 20 handicapper will have a LOT of bad shots in a round" was one comment and you're absolutely correct by your standards.  But it's all relative -- I'm currently at 24.9 and in my mind I don't hit many bad shots.  Yesterday I shot 50 for 9 holes and went home happy remembering all the good shots I played -- some of you guys would be apoplectic to shoot that score !