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.

Plunky wrote: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 !

It has to be viewed in context Plunky. In a matchplay competition (which was the scenario), it's good to remember that even if they are playing really really well, then at some point it's pretty likely they'll play a few bad shots. Hence the high handicap.
Now, the high handicapper might feel happy with their game, but it's the opportunity another player might need in order to capitalise.
I'm certainly not trying to belittle higher handicappers, as to many people I'd also be considered a hacker, and I've no problem with that.

To be honest, I don't think high handicap players should be competing against low ones. Some one said it was a no win situation for the low handicapper but it is also a no win situation for the high handicapper. If he wins it could be said "well you had nine shots" and he loses "you had nine shots and you still lost?"

lorus59 wrote:To be honest, I don't think high handicap players should be competing against low ones. Some one said it was a no win situation for the low handicapper but it is also a no win situation for the high handicapper. If he wins it could be said "well you had nine shots" and he loses "you had nine shots and you still lost?"

You wouldn't have thought much about the comp at our place today then Lorus. 4 Teams of ten (League team, Captains Team, the Seniors Team and the the Junior Team) go out in 4 balls (one from each Team). The best 8 from each team count (stableford full handicap). The League Team are all Cat 1 or thereabouts, the rest are a bit of a mix although the juniors are predominantly higher with the odd exception. I personally think it's a great comp as it gives some of the younger juniors coming through a taster. The league team won although the juniors pushed them all the way. In the short time I've been Vice and now Captain I've seen some youngsters go from competing in their own "tiny tigers" events on shortened 9 hole course to competing today off the whites on the main course. A couple of 11 year olds made that transition today and acquitted themselves very well (one had 36 points off 27 the other 33 off 18), They loved the opportunity to compete with the low boys. The low boys themselves are very encouraging to the youngsters as well so it works well.

On a personal note, I was on handicap today with 36 points, playing to my new handicap for the first time :-)

Round Vilamoura last weekend, 4 laps 4 days, hire clubs (R11's) rather than my own (913 woods and Cleveland forged cavity backed irons). Woods are like hitting a can of tuna, irons are too clunky (and being R11 all now quite old and have seen better days):

Oceanico Laguna - moderately good course, in quite good nick. Pretty in and out, 28 points. Could have been better, nothing dropped on the green, but no 3 putts.

Oceanico Pinhal - Nice looking, horrible to play on. Simply too many trees, the canopies of which make target areas too tight. 27 points, so scored pretty well relative to most of the group. Still nothing dropping.

Vale do Lobo Ocean - Lovely, not been to a VdL before, beautiful course, eminently scoreable (I didn't! - 28 points) not too long, trees well placed and can be penal but nice balance of risk & reward, particularly on the par 5's which are all 450 or less yards but have hills and trees and double dog-legs if you plot but can be attacked with good driver and mid-iron. Want to go back and play this again and the sister course.

Oceanico Old Course - diseased greens, one temp (13). Not as bad as we'd heard, but not great. Not as tree-y as pinhal but very tricky approaches on many holes. Greens seemed very slow (being treated) and I found that they generally didn't take a ball. I was very in and out, frequency of out more than in. 22 points. Tried plotting my way, didn't work. Tried driver, didn't work. No options left I tried a combination of the 2, result attempted steering of ball, generally in to trees. Didn't work.

Still, thoroughly enjoyed it and better than being at work despite I think leaving my swing at the office...

Maybe leaving the swing at the office and leaving your own bats at home was perhaps related Roller?

Interesting Roller. I've fond memories of all those courses, bar Pinhal which I agree with you 100% about. Real shame about the Old Course greens, I've only ever found them excellent. First time I played it I played out of my skin and shot 76. Last time I played there it was more like 96!

Some TM woods do feel a bit like you're striking the ball with a damp 4by2.

Having felt pretty miserable on the course of late and having not picked up a club for a couple of weeks I nipped out for half a dozen holes this afternoon on my own - not something i do too often these days. Hit a few average shots and a few lovely ones. Played a couple of balls and scored a couple of birdies and an eagle for -4 betterball good times. Couple of super fairway woods some tidy short pitches and a couple of great flop shots. More of the same next time please.

Possibly the last round of the year yesterday, with the course in mint condition and glorious "foliage" colours acting as the backdrop.
Autumn golf in New England can be a mixed bag, but comparitively little rain and almost two weeks of unexpected sunshine and warm temps has boosted play and clubhouse takings.
Every round is a bonus at this time of year, every golfer has a smile on their face knowing each October round is a gift from above; or below whichever way you look at such things.
Three of us played the most difficult hole on the course in one-under and post-round brewskis have never tasted better.

barragan wrote:Some TM woods do feel a bit like you're striking the ball with a damp 4by2.

Having felt pretty miserable on the course of late and having not picked up a club for a couple of weeks I nipped out for half a dozen holes this afternoon on my own - not something i do too often these days. Hit a few average shots and a few lovely ones. Played a couple of balls and scored a couple of birdies and an eagle for -4 betterball good times. Couple of super fairway woods some tidy short pitches and a couple of great flop shots. More of the same next time please.

Was actually playing at your course (Duddingston) on Saturday afternoon Barra, a group of 12 guys from our club were playing 12 guys from your club in 6 fourball games; we lost 3.5-2.5 overall but it was a good day. Course was a bit wet in places (not surprising given the amount of rain overnight) but generally in pretty good nick. Even though I was -1 through 16 (then birdied 17 as well) we lost our game 3&2; 13-handicapper we were playing birdied 6, 8 & 10 (2 of them 2's) which turned the game around! Impressed with the course though, always find Duddy a good test.

Nice one RJ - may have walked past you as I skipped out ahead of some of your group gathering at the 1st to the 4th tee! Which group were you in, I had a wave to a couple of guys I know who were out in the first group teeing off on the 3rd as I passed down 4? Course was pretty wet Saturday - seems we're getting our summer's worth rainfall this week and last - miserable out there just now.

I was in the last game of the 6 so was probably hanging about somewhere about the 1st tee/putting green when you walked past.

Yeah, I work at the Gyle and it's not looking very clever outside at the moment; as I drove in past the airport this morning the planes coming in to land were getting blown all over the place as it was about 30 mph winds as well as pi$$ing down with rain.

Gaghk!

Bloody putting. 4 three putts, another from the fringe that took 3 to get down and missed 2 birdies from under 4 foot. Tee to green was (mostly) good. +6 and 35 points. Shame as it will will probably turn out to be the last nice day of the year, upper teens temperature, wall to wall sunny-shine and a mere mild zephyr wafting across the course.

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Roll on summer...

What a crazy frustrating game this is ! Played twilight on Bethpage black and played just horribly. Drives were short and/or crooked, rough was really rough, visited way too many traps, greens were fast, and just couldn't find any kind of rhythm. I was beginning to think I should go back to Bethpage yellow and blue and leave the black to the "highly skilled golfers" like the sign says, when I hit 4 wonderful shots in a row and parred the 18th, finishing with a 40 foot chip-in. So now I can't wait to get back there again !

fun game yesterday in breezey conditions - first full round in about 5 weeks, and i enjoyed the chance to get back out there properly.
interesting round, hit only 4/14 fairways and 6 GIR but knocked it round in 35 pts or 6 over, thanks to some unexpected decent scrambling - some nice chips and holed out strongly from 6 feet and in. Three highlights - all of a wedge from 138 yards on 13 with strong assistance from the wind to 5 feet - holed it for a bird. Rescued the 16th hole after being out of position off the tee - left myself a tricky 55 yarder pitch to a tight pin tucked behind a bunker, landed it 18 inches away and stopped dead. Final hole - terrible tee shot, lucky to find greenside bunker with second. Floated it out nicely, landed a couple of feet short and rolled into the middle of the cup for a cheekey bird - one of those shots you can see it going in all the way - nice way to finish the round.

Very breezy, couldn't putt, or chip, or keep it in the right field. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh - I'm back! Tempered by a few (too few) nice drives and a couple of good mid irons.

2 doubles, a triple, a quad and a DNF. 2 birdies inc one nice 2. Not as nice as my mate's 2 on a shot hole par 4 though, for 5 points. Bugger.

28 points in what is probably the last competition lap of the year, winter league matches commence next Saturday.

Wind was fun yesterday. Score was never going to be good, but given the strength of the wind it didn't completely ruin the round.

best game in ages today. strained ligaments going over my ankle on the course last weekend and i was pretty tentative on the opening couple of holes - didn't quite trust the ankle which was feeling a little tight.

double, double (blob, blob) start. not pretty. was a little unfortunate on the first to find a wee hollow at the base of a tree and needed to drop, but even a bogey on the 1st is normally cause for disappointment. 2nd was just poor.

onto the 3rd tee - decided to commit to the drive and hit a nice one up the middle - that was me in the game.
Parred 3,4,5.
Missed a 6 footer par save on 6 after an ok chip.
Parred 7,8 - lipped out for birdie both.
Birdie - finally on 9. No messing, 90 yard gap wedge to 12 inches.
Nice up and down on 10, then went super steady to the end - 8 GIR in a row - a few lip out birdies, one 3 putt and a bird on 17.
So +4 through 2, +4 through 18. Happy with that recovery.
Finished with 37pts which surprisingly was good for the money - first time I think i've ever won our group's roll up. Guy in my group was 5pts ahead of me at the turn, but i sneaked it by 1pt in the end!

Well, it was wet...very wet. Played a Winter league 4-BBB. 4 hours in the rain and finished all square! Played decent enough though and good to get a game in.

Victim of the weather today. Thought we'd got lucky and missed it after 15 holes and I was sitting just one over handicap at that point so not in a winning position but should have been comfortable.

Then on 16th tee the heavens opened. It was already very windy but with torrential rain too I finished blob, (net) par, blob. The 16th green was borderline playable, the 17th was flooding badly and the 18th sodden too. 10 minutes after I finished the rest of the field were called off. Just a bit too late for me. From what should have been buffer zone turned into another +0.1 ..

There were enough people finished to make the results stand but the last 2 or 3 holes were pretty much unplayable

Pretty sure if any competitors are unable to complete their rounds because they've been called in, Congu rule that the comp should be declared reduction only with adjustments calculated against the SSS. No CSS calculated, no +0.1s.

Got a reference for that barragan? Scores have been published and I've got my +0.1

I must admit I thought it was something like 60% or 80% of the field needed to complete but I've never actually seen it written down

Just been doing a bit of searching about this .. and barragan is correct if the competition is "abandoned" .. so I guess the question is, what constitutes "abandonment"? Is there something that says if a certain percentage of rounds are completed it doesn't count as "abandoned"?

A little belated... went down to Kent last weekend (1-3 Nov). First weekend of winter green fees, so gambled on getting some decent weather. Took Friday off and played at home in London to get some practice in... and it was gorgeous, 21 degrees, incredibly warm and sunny for the last day of October.

Sat - International course at the London Club. Absolutely fantastic condition, only a couple of weeks after the Match Play and the best greens I have seen this year. Sunny but breezy conditions, my long game was a bit ropey but I putted like a pro on those quick and true greens, and finished with 4 pars in a row after a bit of a wobble on the show piece holes around the lakes.

Sun - Prince's. Played the himalayas 9 first thing, breakfast in the club house then tackled the shore/dunes combo which is the championship layout. Condition was a little disappointing following maintenance work: greens a bit slow and sandy, but the main issue was the 30mph wind and rain showers. My mate and I both had to abort swings twice each due to gusts taking the club offline. For me once was on the tee with the driver, and once on a 10 foot putt where the club head was blown way off line. Scoring never going to be great, but I love the challenge of the wind, having to play different types of shots, and playing down wind is always fun! Probably most satisfying stat was that, despite the windy conditions, I barely had to search for my ball in the rough, I really felt I had control of my ball flight.

Mon - Royal cinque Ports. Well that was the plan. Except the weather forecast was for torrential rain and 40mph winds. The wind I can handle, and showers are ok, but when it's bucketing down horizontally it ceases to be enjoyable. We went down to the club and had breakfast there overlooking the 1st, eagerly refreshing the weather forecast on our phones, watching the rain lashing down and puddles forming all over the deserted course. We realised that the only way we were going to get any golf was if we headed to Hertfordshire to get out of the weather system sweeping across Kent and Surrey, so we played the closest thing to links in Hertfordshire - Sandy Lodge. Bit of an anti-climax, but the course was in decent condition, we only had a couple of brief showers, and we played some good golf. Got totally out-classed by my mate... never going to win scratch matchplay when your opponent hits about 14 GIR. Most noticeable change was how the cold damp air affected the distance the ball travelled. We both found ourselves hitting 6 iron on the 145 yard par 3 18th, when 3 days earlier we would have have been hitting 9 irons.... winter golf is here

Saturday washout - hurrah. Proper wet and closed just before we were due out. Quite a few had gone out and some had, obviously, got as far away from the clubhouse as possible when it was closed. Tee hee.

Ended up being granted a pass for Sunday. Very mild, not a breath of wind with some (bizarrely) quite pleasant showers. Been out the previous night for a mates birthday and had had rather a few pleasant beverages the evening before so wasn't likely to be any good, but just glad of a game. Birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, up and down par, up and down par, par, birdie, bogey. Level (21 points). All very unexpected and interesting. Turned got simple par on 10 before topping drive 70 yards on 11. Scraped a bogey from the following 300 yards courtesy of a belted 3 wood just short. 12th tee lost ball high right and gorsey. Same with second but found it and somehow managed to get up and down from 140 for a 5 for 2 points. Up and down par, par birdie (35 footer across and down a slope, v nice) bogey par and a birdie to finish. 27 putts, 5 birdies and a second ball birdie resulted in +1, 40 points and, although mate beat me on the back 9, I take the (im)moral victory for peed hands golf!

what is peed hands golf?

pis sed hands Ray. Swear filter in play there.

The (lack of) feeling generated by over consumption of alcoholic beverages the previous evening often running over into the early hours of the same morning. Symptoms, standing over a putt and not knowing exactly whose hands are holding on to your putter. Having the touch of a hippo around the greens. Lack of memory as to exactly how to hold a club, let alone swing it. Almost as if alcohol departs the system from the centre, leaving the extremities of hands (and to a lesser extent feet) as the last remaining parts of the body affected by drunkenness.

Cheers Roller. Don't think I suffer from that afliction. In my case the alcohol departs the body bottom up, leaving my head as the last part affected. Symptoms include: lack of balance, lack of concentration, inability of my eyes to focus on the ball, and inability of my brain to tell the rest of the body what to do.

barragan wrote:Pretty sure if any competitors are unable to complete their rounds because they've been called in, Congu rule that the comp should be declared reduction only with adjustments calculated against the SSS. No CSS calculated, no +0.1s.

Just in case anyone was interested in this, the comp was discussed last night at a committee meeting and barragan was correct - the results have been recalculated and declared reductions only. Now if only the hooter had gone ten minutes earlier and I would have had my entry fee refunded too!

Got talked into entering the Stableford today against my will and was happily drawn with my mate and another chap. Started the day at handicap 11.4 and have not been playing great of late, until last week. Last week after weeks of dross I managed to do the front 9 in level gross in a roll up before reverting to form and piecing together the back 9 in 8 over....
So expected to be a 12 handicapper by the end of today, in time for a pairs knockout match tomorrow!
Instead, out of nowhere, I managed 1 birdie, 12 pars, 4 bogies and 1 double. Did the front in 2 over and the back in 3 over for a cut of 1 whole shot plus a 0.5 exception scoring thing to go down to 9.9. My lowest ever. Single figures, I'm coming....

Nice work MPB, sounds like it's just a matter of time before you hit single figures, and probably even lower.

Fun round at Kilspindie today. Hardly a breath of wind and capitalised to record a nice round of 70. Played well - one of those days nothing would drop but stroking the putts well all the same, just shaving the edges. Par is 69, but sss is 65, so pretty much on handicap.

Cheers Barra
I doubt I'll ever be shooting 70 or less though. Very nice indeed

Sounds good doesn't it - short track though and about the equivalent of a 77 at my own club if you believe in SSS ratings. This course is a prime example of how the UK handicapping system is a little flawed in only considering the scratch golfer when assigning ratings and not considering the 'bogey' golfer. Two of my partners both off 20ish today shot comfortable a nett 58 and 60, both left a few out there too. Impossible to keep up with that, but the course was pretty defenceless without wind or summer hay. Still a lot of fun, and the type of course I'd love to join if I'm able in 30 years or so.

Very humble mate but I struggle to get round the local par 3 course in 70 ha

I am pleased with the score. It does require a degree of discipline to keep churning out the 3s and 4s and not do anything silly.

Managed to follow up yesterday's good round with a good win in our winter pairs today. Playing against a father and son, one off 9 and the other off 26 so getting 13 shots. The lad off 26 has been scoring big of late as is growing up and starting to hit it further. So was going to be tough and that was proved true when we were 2 down thro 7, having parred every hole but the first.
Eventually the youngster started to drop a bit off the pace - thankfully! - and the pars started winning holes. We won 5 on the spin from 8 to 12 to go 3 up and I found myself on 15 with a 6 footer for par, the hole and the match which did the job.
Pleasingly I was 7 over for the 15, which included 11 pars, 9 on the spin from the 2nd. Had 5 up and downs too

A good golfing weekend for me

Well done MPB! Sounds like it's all clicked just in time for Christmas. What's your secret?

Thanks Ray
All clicked in time for the snow to arrive and shut the course for a month ha!
No secret unfortunately. Just a lesson or two and some practise. It's actually been a good year for me, as at Sept 2013 i was off 17, just about to go up to 18 (got to 17.4). I had a lesson that month, changed my grip and stance, nothing more, went out the next day and shot 10 over in a midweek medal and then shot 11 over at the weekend and got chopped to 13. Managed to get down to 11 over the next few months but then stalled for a while there so had another lesson a couple of months ago, working on shortening my swing, which i really didn't get on with for a bit and worked my way up to 11.4 before this weekend. Hopefully it's starting to pay off and i might be able to sneak down a little bit more, who knows!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

December medal on Sunday, didn't play to handicap, struggled to strike it well, missing short ones, cue lowest gross prize. Gotta love winter comps where most people stay in and warm. Struggled to get a game with usual partners otherwise engaged (fortunately, they'd have most likely beaten me) so just turned up and stumbled across a few guys about to go out. Wide range of driving from very good to amusingly wide, fairly poor irons, appalling chipping in the main, a couple of missed 2/3 footers all tempered by about 6 20 - 35 footers I held and a couple of very good recovery chips to inches.

Doesn't seem like many people are playing much at the moment - or at least not wanting to share their stories

I've got a winter qualifier tomorrow (stableford) and the forecast looks OK. Looking forward to it though as the random draw has put me with the club champ who is our only + golfer at the moment - currently off +1 .. so looking forward to it. I know him quite well from having a couple of beers with him but never actually played with him - should be quite an experience

Sounds like fun Davie. I'm out tomorrow too, and for the first time in a long time I should be able to warm up first. Non-qualifier but if I hit it ok on the range I'll enter on the outside chance of bagging a voucher!

Not been enjoying it much of late. Too much stress off the course. Having said that, had a better game today. 18 temps and a hard frost on a few. Nice to be out enjoying the bright sunshine, banter, and a 6up victory in our 4bbb league - safely through to the quarters.

One negative was I went over my right ankle. Went over my left very badly back in november and again a few weeks later just after it felt close to being mended. These darned FJ DNA shoes are a menace...need something with a wider more stable sole. 4 times I've ended up on my ars wearing them in less than a year! Tested in swinging conditions, not walking conditions I'll bet!

Some of us are very envious!
Storm warning here for 12 inches of snow over the next two days; highs for this week+, in old F money, 16, 23, 22, 12, 15, -1, 10, 8, 9.
Average low: 1F.
Imagine Grumps has very similar. We're in the bleak mid-winter, frosty winds are blowing.
Looking forward to the end of April - keep up your tales of winter golf!

Well for early February, that was a day to die for. Quite cold standing around on the first tee but once we got moving it turned into a beautiful day and the course was as good as you could ever expect at this time of year. I think the early groups out had a few frozen greens to deal with but a 10:15 start for me meant everything had warmed up and thawed out.

Great experience to play with a +1 though he didn't have the best of days; ball striking was immaculate but had no luck on the greens. As often said on here, though he could hit the ball a mile, it was the short game that impressed me despite his lack of luck with putting.

Only downside was a 4:45 round (4-ball stableford - pick the effing ball up if you can't score!!)

Personally I was level handicap after 15 holes, but then only got one more point on the last 3 holes so a disappointing finish. Thought I was in for a respectable, though not winning score - but the winner came in with 46pts - the most outlandish score I've seen in a comp there for 3-4 years (tied second was 41 pts)

High point of the day for me was not failing to get past the +1 player in two shots on any hole

I had a lovely round too, albeit that I lost 3 balls in the first 9 holes. Really only hit those 3 bad shots all day, though finished poorly with 4 straight bogeys when 4 pars would have got me 37 points and the win. Missed from 5 feet on 15, 3 putted 16 & 17 and left my par put in the jaws on 18 . Can't really complain when I haven't picked up a club in something like 4 weeks.

Sneaked out of the office yesterday for a cheeky half day to play in a mid week stableford at my second club. It's a bit of a trek, an 84 mile journey in total but worth it to play on dry, sandy soil in Suffolk as opposed to my muddy, clay home course in Essex. Running late as usual, tying up the laces of the golf shoes en route to the first tee to make my 1.00pm tee-time was hardly the ideal preparation. Rather surprisingly the resultant first drive flew straight down the middle and the mid-iron shot floated with a slight draw beautifully into the heart of the green. Much less unsurprisingly was the three-putt that followed for an opening bogey and single point.

It was a lovely afternoon, cloudy but no rain and not particularly cold. Very little wind which is unusual as the course is right next to the sea and I really enjoyed being out there.  A steady if unspectacular round resulted with 10 pars and 8 bogeys for 34 points, hopefully enough to make the buffer zone.

Back in the office early this morning to start to wade through some of the dramas I missed in my absence, would much prefer to be back on the golf course again today! Planning to play both days this weekend, can't wait.

Only played once this year, fortunately been steady at the range, back on the course tomorrow.

Super

Are you a member of somewhere in Aberdeen?

No, I'm not, I've got St.Andrews and another club in Fife, plus half the year it's dark in Aberdeen, so just play the muni's here on a summer evening.
Can't justify the cost of having a third club.

I guess with the prospect of unemployment looming large you should try and economize as much as possible.

Speaking of golf in Aberdeen, when are we going for our trumpton round?

Well, Mac, that's always on the agenda, redundancy that is, fortunately my company is more than an oil company, so might be able to cross subsidise.

Got a few irons in the fire though so to speak.