Tell us about your game today...

First topic message reminder :

Congrats Super!

McLaren wrote:How did your Monday qualifying comp go?

I wish you hadn't asked Mac. A disaster.I nearly came last. But the best return in my category was 36 points. Usually someone breaks 40 and gets scythed down handicap wise. But not this Monday. And the course and weather were fine. One of those things. Well done for breaking 80.

Played brocket hall ladt sunday, course ok, but no way near what they ask for to play the place. Though I've not played all summer so don't really know how courses have coped with the heat.

For game 2 of the year it was ok. A birdie on a par 3, a couple pars and a lot of bogies. Started to struggle towards the end which I put down to general weariness and tiredness kicking in!

Now need to try and play again without waiting 6months!

beninho wrote:Played brocket hall ladt sunday, course ok, but no way near what they ask for to play the place. Though I've not played all summer so don't really know how courses have coped with the heat.

For game 2 of the year it was ok. A birdie on a par 3, a couple pars and a lot of bogies. Started to struggle towards the end which I put down to general weariness and tiredness kicking in!

Now need to try and play again without waiting 6months!

Hope you enjoyed yourself. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay Benny?

Anybody got any advice on how to politely tell a slow player to speed up? A friend of mine who's off 11 is breaking my heart at the minute, 3 - 4 practice swings, isn't ready to play when it's his turn etc... It causing me to rush my play now just to keep moving. Any advice?

I do . . . . . . . . . .

Be_the_ball wrote:Anybody got any advice on how to politely tell a slow player to speed up? A friend of mine who's off 11 is breaking my heart at the minute, 3 - 4 practice swings, isn't ready to play when it's his turn etc... It causing me to rush my play now just to keep moving. Any advice?

I would suggest that on the first tee you say something like "Shall we play ready golf?"  to all your playing partners in a way where he can't refuse. Don't wait for who has the honour on the tee, don't wait for who is furthest away on the green, fairway etc. Also whilst he is swinging 3-4 times, rattle the occasional club, give a playful yawn, make jokes about how this shot is for The Masters,  look at your watch, tell him he'd have a penalty if this was the shottrack masters, tell him he makes Rev Jordan Spieth look quick,  talk amongst the other guys whilst he's doing it or  keep moving forward etc so that he's finding himself behind the group and walking on his own more often. He'll soon get the message.

Also suggest that you've noticed having  such a long pre shot routine looks like it's leading to indecision and tension in your friend and you'd think he'd do better if he just found his target and hit his ball towards it.

Other than that, just tell him to hurry up.

Just discuss it with him, if he's a friend he'll be fine about it.

Cheers lads good suggestions there

Be_the_ball wrote:Anybody got any advice on how to politely tell a slow player to speed up? A friend of mine who's off 11 is breaking my heart at the minute, 3 - 4 practice swings, isn't ready to play when it's his turn etc... It causing me to rush my play now just to keep moving. Any advice?

Why don't you get one of your mates to dress up as Jon Paramour and follow him around the course timing all his shots. If you can get a giant shot clock timer even better.

Hope that helps

Here - best £25 you'll ever spend:
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Ha ha ha. I'm now thinking of getting someone to do that regardless of how quickly it's going. Brilliant.

Haha sounds like a plan Ray, I'm toying with the idea of playing the Countdown conundrum music also while he's faffing around. I like that big clock though

raycastleunited wrote:

beninho wrote:Played brocket hall ladt sunday, course ok, but no way near what they ask for to play the place. Though I've not played all summer so don't really know how courses have coped with the heat.

For game 2 of the year it was ok. A birdie on a par 3, a couple pars and a lot of bogies. Started to struggle towards the end which I put down to general weariness and tiredness kicking in!

Now need to try and play again without waiting 6months!

Hope you enjoyed yourself. If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay Benny?

Ray, paid £75 for the pleasure. Its usually more for a weekend and clearly overpriced. But the place looks spectacular with very good amenities.

But did enjoy playing again after a longish break. And I'll always have the rare birdie!

£75 is ok, but I think it's normally £100+. Can't see why anyone would pay over £100 when it's not even a top 100 course.

29 Stableford points after 12 holes then it went to pieces. 3 more single pointers in amongst a couple of net pars and a blob so I ended up with 36 points. Good, but could have been much better. “The one that got away”.

raycastleunited wrote:£75 is ok, but I think it's normally £100+. Can't see why anyone would pay over £100 when it's not even a top 100 course.

I am not basing this on anything other than my experiences of late but it seems like single round visitor green fees have become very expensive over the last year or so.  Even pretty average courses are asking £60 a round, so £100 for anywhere with even the whiff of a "reputation" doesn't surprise me.

Depends where you go Mac.

Golf is just like everything else, there's different price points throughout the game.

One thing I will say to you though which is a point of agreement is that there is a lot of average courses charging a lot, and the reason I've heard is that golf clubs think that a low price point is an indication it's a dog track. Hence tourists will simply ignore it, whereas if you put a premium price on it, you may believe it's a better course. Silly, but sadly true.

I don't think £60 is too much for 4 hours enjoyment, after all, how much to watch crap Scottish football for 90 mins? Probably about £35. I know where I'd rather be.

Super

I assumed they were charging more for visitor fees to make up for a decrease in membership fees, but your reasoning also makes sense.  

And I agree, I would much rather spend four hours watching the likes of the sublime Kris Boyd strutting his stuff.

Could be membership decline too, but I've spoken to many guys up at St.Andrews who work as caddies/tour operators etc who have said that Yanks especially aren't interested in playing courses at low prices. Stands to reason in a place like Fife where they've got 10 world class courses in 30 mins drive.

Most courses up here have also introduced many different membership categories, and in many places a Youth category goes all the way into your 30's.

It's pretty desperate for some clubs I think. I looked into joining a club in Edinburgh, but the membership fees are almost laughable for some seriously ordinary courses.

Yes Edinburgh membership fees are pretty high compared to the rest of scotland.  When you think of the world class small town links courses you can join for half the price.

Getting out to them is the issue Mac. Edinburgh traffic is murder.

I wasn't suggesting them as an alternative just that it can be a bit galling when you realise how cheap some of the worlds best links courses are.

True, but it's a good thing if people ignore it, a bit like the rare treasure of an undiscovered band. They're always better when no one knows about them.

I think many commercial courses set high standard green fees but have limited special offers if you search where the fees are more reasonable (but still high). So they maintain the "exclusive" cachet of a high green fee and also give people the feeling that they've got a bargain, especially when it's a limited time offer.

It's a bit like like DFS where there is always a half price sale ending soon.

The genuine quality courses don't need to adopt such tactics because the product speaks for itself.

raycastleunited wrote:I think many commercial courses set high standard green fees but have limited special offers if you search where the fees are more reasonable (but still high). So they maintain the "exclusive" cachet of a high green fee and also give people the feeling that they've got a bargain, especially when it's a limited time offer.

It's a bit like like DFS where there is always a half price sale ending soon.

The genuine quality courses don't need to adopt such tactics because the product speaks for itself.

I wonder if anyone has ever bought a DFS sofa at full price?

Ive been a little out of the loop last couple of years with my hip op but speaking to some of the guys last week and I'm getting the feeling that new rules,monster handicaps and ready golf are desperate measure to try to keep the numbers in golf up.Some crazy stuff going on in particular with handicaps and new rules.Times have changed and golf has been affected.

I don't see the new rules and ready golf as being desperate. And "monster" handicaps are surely not a bad thing if they are kept within their own contests. I'm a higher handicap but still within the old handicap limits. I could agree that a man off 36+ shouldn't be playing in the same competitions as low handicappers but the old limits still feel fine to me

Finally the makings of a half decent round at the weekend, struggled all season with a niggling shoulder injury, whilst it’s still not 100% each improvement in the range of movement seems to be leading to better ball striking. Shouldn't really be a surprise but it is. Still can’t seem to manage 18 without at least one calamity hole though. Managed a 4 over par 75 on Sat with a triple on our 13th (had to reload after a big block into gorse). Just as annoying were a couple of tiddlers missed after great recovery chip shots. Generally up and downed very well but missing from 18 inches after the chip of the day was highly frustrating.
Can finally feel what I think is a bit of form coming, shame the season is pretty much almost over. Last big 36 holer coming at Trevose this weekend then the handicap will be put away for winter.

Had a decent end of season surge and brought myself (just!) back down to Cat 1 (5.4) from 6.9 at the beginning of the year.

No practise, new irons, new wedges, reverted to old putter, good driving (generally), good ball striking, changed shafts in new irons, used (very) old irons in meantime, getting feel of new wedges, improved short game.

Greens have been cored and comps are non qually for the next few weeks then with Saturdays from November to Feb being matchplay and a likelihood of enough temps for a bit in Feb/Mar to make play non qually then too I shall be Cat 1 for 4 or 5 months.

Ha ha ha ha ha. A very unexpected year.

Roller_Coaster wrote:Had a decent end of season surge and brought myself (just!) back down to Cat 1 (5.4) from 6.9 at the beginning of the year.

No practise, new irons, new wedges, reverted to old putter, good driving (generally), good ball striking, changed shafts in new irons, used (very) old irons in meantime, getting feel of new wedges, improved short game.

Greens have been cored and comps are non qually for the next few weeks then with Saturdays from November to Feb being matchplay and a likelihood of enough temps for a bit in Feb/Mar to make play non qually then too I shall be Cat 1 for 4 or 5 months.

Ha ha ha ha ha. A very unexpected year.

Surely now is the time to enter all the prestigious open competitions that have a Cat 1 limit.

Then next year you'll have some new challenges when you are scratch or better.....

Not so much about my game today (30 Stableford points after 15 holes then 0,0,0. ) but I was impressed with a bloke I played with. A 19 year old who looked 12, played off 1. He showed the difference between us. Rarely off the fairway, if he was, managed to get it on the green in two etc. Used a mid iron off the tee a lot because he would run out of fairway otherwise. He ended up with 38 points but it was a "what if" round. At least 6 putts stopped an inch short. A pleasure to watch and hopefully I have learnt something.

A pretty crap year for me golf wise sadly. Persistent left ankle problems turned into a diagnosis of end stage bone on bone osteoarthritis, followed a few months later with the same condition in my right knee. Weekly visits to the physio has kept me moving so  still been playing but pretty much only in a buggy, walked 4 times this summer on flat courses but then paid the price the next day. Having made the Suffolk Senior County Squad in 2017, consequently this year my involvement has been zero.

I could have the ankle fused, but I doubt that would be much good for golf. I have been told that I am going to need a new knee at some stage but I don't fancy that much either. I don't know what to do for the best to be honest. Having manage to retire at the reasonably early age of 55 was really looking forward to getting into Senior Golf and was totally unprepared for this not much more than a year later. Unbelievably disappointing.

Blue, I know a guy with both ankles fused and he is still very mobile. Able to walk miles on a threadmill, can't jog or run though. He doesn't play golf though, however I have heard of people who play golf with fused ankles, left right or both. Dean Ashton has a fused ankle and he plays off 6. Obviously disappointing but do the rehab and you will be back playing in no time.

BlueCoverman wrote:A pretty crap year for me golf wise sadly. Persistent left ankle problems turned into a diagnosis of end stage bone on bone osteoarthritis, followed a few months later with the same condition in my right knee. Weekly visits to the physio has kept me moving so  still been playing but pretty much only in a buggy, walked 4 times this summer on flat courses but then paid the price the next day. Having made the Suffolk Senior County Squad in 2017, consequently this year my involvement has been zero.

I could have the ankle fused, but I doubt that would be much good for golf. I have been told that I am going to need a new knee at some stage but I don't fancy that much either. I don't know what to do for the best to be honest. Having manage to retire at the reasonably early age of 55 was really looking forward to getting into Senior Golf and was totally unprepared for this not much more than a year later. Unbelievably disappointing.

Sorry to hear that Blue. Hope you find a workable solution. If Tiger can come back from his injuries so can you!

Btb, Ray...thank you

raycastleunited wrote:

BlueCoverman wrote:A pretty crap year for me golf wise sadly. Persistent left ankle problems turned into a diagnosis of end stage bone on bone osteoarthritis, followed a few months later with the same condition in my right knee. Weekly visits to the physio has kept me moving so  still been playing but pretty much only in a buggy, walked 4 times this summer on flat courses but then paid the price the next day. Having made the Suffolk Senior County Squad in 2017, consequently this year my involvement has been zero.

I could have the ankle fused, but I doubt that would be much good for golf. I have been told that I am going to need a new knee at some stage but I don't fancy that much either. I don't know what to do for the best to be honest. Having manage to retire at the reasonably early age of 55 was really looking forward to getting into Senior Golf and was totally unprepared for this not much more than a year later. Unbelievably disappointing.

Sorry to hear that Blue. Hope you find a workable solution. If Tiger can come back from his injuries so can you! :OK:

Just skip the stage where you pass out on pain meds in the middle of the highway.

I've already done my years ban for drink drive some years ago Mac!

Sorry to hear about your injuries Blue. Are you able to use a cart, or would that not help?

Which reminds me that a friend tried to drive a golf cart home after a few one night, ended up in a ditch, plus got done for drink/driving.
Golf carts are useful for lots of other things however . . . . . . .

Thanks kwini. Yes still playing using a cart, just struggling with the walking around the course. Need to walk to play county events, that's what I'm finding the most frustrating.

Some police officers have just got no sense of humour...

BlueCoverman wrote:Thanks kwini. Yes still playing using a cart, just struggling with the walking around the course. Need to walk to play county events, that's what I'm finding the most frustrating.

This sort of thing is what frustrates me with golf.  If you need a cart to get round for a comp why not just let you use one?  Anyone that cares can stay at home.

McLaren wrote:

raycastleunited wrote:

BlueCoverman wrote:A pretty crap year for me golf wise sadly. Persistent left ankle problems turned into a diagnosis of end stage bone on bone osteoarthritis, followed a few months later with the same condition in my right knee. Weekly visits to the physio has kept me moving so  still been playing but pretty much only in a buggy, walked 4 times this summer on flat courses but then paid the price the next day. Having made the Suffolk Senior County Squad in 2017, consequently this year my involvement has been zero.

I could have the ankle fused, but I doubt that would be much good for golf. I have been told that I am going to need a new knee at some stage but I don't fancy that much either. I don't know what to do for the best to be honest. Having manage to retire at the reasonably early age of 55 was really looking forward to getting into Senior Golf and was totally unprepared for this not much more than a year later. Unbelievably disappointing.

Sorry to hear that Blue. Hope you find a workable solution. If Tiger can come back from his injuries so can you!

Just skip the stage where you pass out on pain meds in the middle of the highway.

You might not want to skip the stage where you bed a series of waitresses / models / porn stars. Being chased down the road by your wife armed with a pitching wedge is probably a fair price to pay.

I think that would only be fair seeing as she did once snog Nick Faldo!...

Hacker? Or just glute activation?

BlueCoverman wrote:A pretty crap year for me golf wise sadly. Persistent left ankle problems turned into a diagnosis of end stage bone on bone osteoarthritis, followed a few months later with the same condition in my right knee. Weekly visits to the physio has kept me moving so  still been playing but pretty much only in a buggy, walked 4 times this summer on flat courses but then paid the price the next day. Having made the Suffolk Senior County Squad in 2017, consequently this year my involvement has been zero.

I could have the ankle fused, but I doubt that would be much good for golf. I have been told that I am going to need a new knee at some stage but I don't fancy that much either. I don't know what to do for the best to be honest. Having manage to retire at the reasonably early age of 55 was really looking forward to getting into Senior Golf and was totally unprepared for this not much more than a year later. Unbelievably disappointing.

Sorry to hear about your knee Blue. I feel your pain (if you know what I mean) as I have osteoarthritis in both knees but having had two hips replaced I really don't want to go down the surgery route again so I just try to keep them moving with exercises, taking turmeric (it does seem to help) and the occasional anti-inflammatory tablets before a round of golf. I'm also developing arthritis in the top joints of the fingers of my right hand but that doesn't seem to impact on my grip at the moment. Oh the joys of getting old!!!!  On the positive front, we're having a sauna installed in the garage next week and that should help ease the joints in the winter post-golf  

On my own golfing front, that's me done and dusted pretty well until March or April next year as our competition season has finished, apart from a Medal once a month which I will only play in if the weather's in my favour, so it will be regular trips to the range to fine tune my game ready for next year and the occasional social game with his Lordship.

Thanks LP. Sorry to read of your troubles, hope the sauna helps!

Played in a charity scramble today and we won a prize for the first time ever ( other than raffles and best dressed team awards).   We came first in the mixed team event (-5, having started bogey bogey bogey on a cold wet windy day).  I won closest to the pin (approx 6 ft) and we won a squirrel proof bird  feeder in the raffle.  Life is good !

Nice going Plunky

I played my final round of the year last Friday, and possibly the final round at our course - we'll see, but six holes of paradise are being paved over and Pete Dye's son has been engaged to design an 18-holer on the same land where twelve holes lay. So far, the signs are not good.
A patrician owner of Crystal Palace once said that watching new ownership buying in and blinging the place and personnel up was like watching your daughter doing drugs. Watching the JCB's in action at Kwini makes me realise exactly how he felt. Verdict is out . . . . . !

Did you read this months undercover tour pro bit in golf digest kwini?

The news worthy line was;

"Most people have no idea how funny Tiger is. He has a very dry, almost British sense of humor, and is one of the few American players I know who can really mix it up with the Europeans."


Start the count down to super being triggered.

Mac,
Woods and Darren Clarke always seemed to be good mates.
But then, Tdub & Sergio not so much.

Most would probably laugh at Tigers jokes because he’s Tiger.

He's clearly charismatic.

(Super, oh Super...)

It's obvious he's one of the most liked and likeable guys on Tour (Now, Super?) and his popularity seems to have grown exponentially after (because of?) his health, personal and social troubles. (Come on Supes, there's enough ground bait here for a tiger hunting expedition).

All hail Tiger's talent, personality, humility and above all, humanity.

(and.... Go Super! )