Tell us about your game today...

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McLaren wrote:Ben

I am not doubting jas and believe him that the guy handed in a score for 51 points. I am just astonished by 51 points, as I said this is a score that I have never seen before. This is more about acknowledging the rarity of this event.

We are talking rarer than a hole in one, this guy has shot a nett score that only a handful people will ever have shot.

It just seems like others on here are not as blown away by a 20 handicapper shooting +5 as I am.

As a junior in the early 80s, I shot a nett 56 (a +4 or 5 round I think) and a 58 in the same Summer. I didn't cheat, but I did get cut a lot that year.

Mac, I played Prestonfield today. It was like the Somme.

Welcome to winter golf for those not fortunate enough to be a member of a links course. The Edinburgh courses do not hold up well in the winter.

My shoes look like I've been to Glastonbury.

Super

Winter golf in Scotland on non links courses is grim. I really don't think you know how lucky you are. It is impossible to score well.

Not that hard Mac, I was 3 under for the front 9 today. Finished level par with a lost ball.
It was off mats though as it would be impossible otherwise

I am lucky though. I get to play 7.5 courses for a shade over what they pay for that poor quality course. Nice views though.

I find it really hard to chip from soggy lies around the green.

If we are allowed to play golf on the 5th (I think there is some confusion about the date we come out of lockdown), my group of mates will have the first three tee times. So, all being well, course should be in great shape. Apparently they've had to cut down a load of trees on two holes due to their interference with electricity wires, so that should be interesting. Due to personal circumstances haven't been able to play golf since August, and have purchased some new "woods" in the meantime. So itching to get out there and see how they work.

Have any of you Englanders got a game planned for this week when you get out of the restrictions?

See above. Playing 18 on Wednesday but only able to get 9 on Friday. Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th booked, tomorrow one of my group will book Friday 11th December.

Teeing off at 7:50 in Suffolk on Wednesday, Saturday morning 7:32 at my Essex club and Monday morning back in Suffolk. Not much time for a warm-up on Wednesday, could be an interesting first few holes after a month off without swinging a club!

Golf courses are definitely going to be manic when they reopen, certainly in this part of the country. My Suffolk club has seen a huge surge in membership, 167 new members since the start of the first lockdown. I guess partly because golf is a fairly safe sport in these Covid-19 times and it is easy to social distance. With the fewer number of tee-times available at this time of year because of the reduced daylight anyway, in addition to this increased demand, we have been asked to restrict to booking two tee-times only in the first two weeks after the club reopens on Wednesday.

I guess a lot of people who are now working from home who need to put in a shift, but are not set to particular hours, have taken the time to get a few rounds in. My club noticed a surge in bookings when the reduced lockdown was on. My nine hole booking (above) is a result of course being full in the morning when we normally play. My club has a waiting list anyway so it is bound to be difficult to get a game this time of year. Email from the club today to say that any "no shows" without notice will be prevented from advanced booking for a period of time. We may have other members "forced" upon our group as we have 3 x 3 balls Wednesday.

We are also being 'encouraged' to play in fourballs to ensure that no slots are wasted. Not unreasonable really.

Back home after my first game for nearly 3 months. I found it very hard going, as it was very muddy underfoot. My club doesn't use any pesticides to kill worms (as per new law) so wormcasts were everywhere. Very slow round as course was packed. Lots of people playing who would normally be at work. Us 5 day members have the right hump!
Went round in 7 over handicap, but so enjoyable to get out and have a bit of banter with mates. New woods performed well so ill keep them.

Not such good news for me, course was closed due to a hard frost!

Anyone playing over the weekend? Heavy rain yesterday in Essex followed by snow overnight, means course closed until Monday at the earliest

Email from the club today. Due to so many people wanting to play, we have now been restricted to two tee times per person per week. All those people working from home Grrrrrrr!

Well so far since the end of lockdown last week my three games planned have been called off for frost, rain and then fog! Booked again for tomorrow but heavy rain forecast for overnight, so I'm not getting too excited!

Anyone playing? I got a couple of games in between the end of lockdown and moving into Tier 4. My club is in Tier 2 so I can't travel to there now. The frustrating thing is I live right on the Tier 4/Tier 2 boundary and 150 yards from my front door it is still Tier 2

I'm in tier 4 so only playing in two balls. Club has restricted us to one round in any 7 day rolling period. Club gets a bit waterlogged so we might lose a couple of holes and we have to carry. Got a round booked next Wednesday

I'm never wrong wrote:I'm in tier 4 so only playing in two balls. Club has restricted us to one round in any 7 day rolling period. Club gets a bit waterlogged so we might lose a couple of holes and we have to carry. Got a round booked next Wednesday

We have a Covid Officer so still play in 4 households at the moment, but i'm sure Fuhrer Sturgeon will shut it down soon seeing as she doesn't have to pay for it.

Had a game this morning. Quality of my golf was variable and was soundly beaten by my opponent in a friendly matchplay game. Course a bit frosty when we teed off (08.22) and I left about 10 putts 1 inch from the hole due to the frost on the greens. And they weren't short ones either. Enjoyable chat with my mate, and it did my mental state a world of good getting out.

Not about my game because we are in lockdown, but a question for all those who are members of a club. Has your club given you any indication as to whether they will offer a reduction in fees next year, or a payment holiday for all the golf lost? Last year my (proprietary) club gave us a two month holiday, and any member who was worried about Covid 19 affecting them could "pause" their membership for as long as they wanted to. This year, the manager has said it won't be a payment holiday, but some other reduction. The advantage the owners have is the club has a waiting list, so any members who don't like any new proposal can be let go.

I'm never wrong wrote:Not about my game because we are in lockdown, but a question for all those who are members of a club. Has your club given you any indication as to whether they will offer a reduction in fees next year, or a payment holiday for all the golf lost? Last year my (proprietary) club gave us a two month holiday, and any member who was worried about Covid 19 affecting them could "pause" their membership for as long as they wanted to. This year, the manager has said it won't be a payment holiday, but some other reduction. The advantage the owners have is the club has a waiting list, so any members who don't like any new proposal can be let go.

Similar at our place. There was some sort of rebate/discount for last year, but been made clear that it won't happen again this year. We also have a waiting list I think.

INW

If a member is struggling to pay the fees in a time when they cannot use the course I would hope the club would offer some sort of deferral of payments or discount but for those that can continue to afford the fees they should pay them. (In fact I have proposed that our club have a membership category where those on reduced incomes or benefits can get access to a lower fee at any time)

As a member you have a duty to help the club continue to exist and would see no benefit in paying reduced fees for the club either not come out the other side or come out the other side of this diminished.


For a non covid example look at the recent case of Uphall golf club who lost their clubhouse in a fire. Would anyone really feel comfortable dropping membership because you won't have a clubhouse for a season or so? It is in these moments where the members need to step up.

McLaren wrote:INW

As a member you have a duty to help the club continue to exist and would see no benefit in paying reduced fees for the club either not come out the other side or come out the other side of this diminished.

I regularly play within a group of 10 friends. 4 of us have a regular Zoom meeting whilst in lockdown. I raised this question yesterday and we 4 agreed that we will continue our membership at this years prices, or if they are raised along with inflation. If wanting to keep a place going where we can meet as friends, have a bit of banter, and socialise you think of as a duty, then yes I agree. This lockdown business makes me appreciate playing golf even more.

Just wondered what other clubs were doing.

McLaren wrote:INW

If a member is struggling to pay the fees in a time when they cannot use the course I would hope the club would offer some sort of deferral of payments or discount but for those that can continue to afford the fees they should pay them. (In fact I have proposed that our club have a membership category where those on reduced incomes or benefits can get access to a lower fee at any time)

As a member you have a duty to help the club continue to exist and would see no benefit in paying reduced fees for the club either not come out the other side or come out the other side of this diminished.


For a non covid example look at the recent case of Uphall golf club who lost their clubhouse in a fire. Would anyone really feel comfortable dropping membership because you won't have a clubhouse for a season or so? It is in these moments where the members need to step up.

Mac, this is a lovely idea (in some parallel Universe), but you're having a laugh aren't you? I guess not too dissimilar to junior rates, but that is easy to police i.e. demonstrable age. So-say reduced incomes/benefits is not going to happen. Half the existing members probably take no/little salary and main part of earnings in dividends or some such. How on Earth would an amateurish golf club ensure no-one is taking the p!ss? They couldn't and neither would they have any authority to challenge (or request) evidence of any income.

Navy

I got the idea from another club in the city that already does it.

http://www.babertongc.com/page.aspx?pid=42399

See the "low or modest income" membership category.

Article about increase in playing membership rise in Scotland.

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/golf/scottish-golf-clubs-record-61-per-cent-rise-in-playing-membership-3157330

Well - that didn't go too bad at all. 3 over handicap- 33 points. Course not 100% perfect yet, but we've had bad weather over the winter. Hit some good drives and fairway woods, so overall, a good day. Plus talking to mates is a bonus.

5 over handicap for me - 31 points. 3 birdies, a couple of blobs and just great to be out there again.

Have had a couple of rounds now, First one a practice round last Thurs obviously contained some rustiness. Surprisingly hit 12 out of 14 fairways and had 29 putts. That would normally indicate a good scoring round but nope, 27 points. Despite being mostly on the fairway I contrived to hit only 3 greens in reg, approach play was clearly where most of the rust was.

Forward a couple of days to the Saturday stableford comp and again, exceeded expectation off the tee and again 29 putts, managed to hit a few more greens so resulted in 34 points, only 2 points off winning the stableford comp (when 36 Pts wins round our place you know it’s been a tough wind) so pleased at the first competitive outing.

So after a couple of rounds I’m quite pleased with where I am. The big dog is working, the flat stick is working and the rustiness with the irons is going to recede over the next few weeks as I get properly back into the swing of things.

Only my fourth game since lockdown and one of my best ever albeit with preferred lies. 85 strokes (course handicap 18, Par 70). But that includes an 11 on a par five (16th hole). To say I was gutted with that hole is an understatement. I had a slim chance to break 80. But it got me 42 Stapleford points. Good game.

Good shooting INW - that 16th will get you every time! I've racked up some pretty big numbers there!

Davie wrote:Good shooting INW - that 16th will get you every time! I've racked up some pretty big numbers there!

The thing was Davie, I hit a good drive, and I thought I won't go with a 3 wood, I'll take a 5 wood. Dunked it in the pond. Dropped, duck hook into rubbish. Then hit it into a ditch....and so on....

I know that feeling well! Best hole on the course IMO but potentially the most disastrous (worse even than 17). I think my worst there was 3 shots to the left bunker about 50 yards short left of the green. 3 to get out only to put it into the front right bunker. 3 more to get out of there and 3 putts!

Davie wrote:I know that feeling well! Best hole on the course IMO but potentially the most disastrous (worse even than 17). I think my worst there was 3 shots to the left bunker about 50 yards short left of the green. 3 to get out only to put it into the front right bunker. 3 more to get out of there and 3 putts!

I don't suppose you wandered to the next tee singing "3...is a magic number" :-p

Decided to put a General Play card in today. Mistake. 101 strokes. 24 stableford points. But it gave me a chance to use the app the club is using to record scores and adjust handicap. It's called Intelligent Golf. Does anyone else use it? It was a bit of a faff setting it up, but I found it straightforward to use. At the moment, you use a card as well, for our club anyway. You "register" the fact that you are going to put a card in either on the app or a machine in the clubhouse before you hit a shot. Then you can either score as you go along on the card and app, or just use the card and do the app at the end. Once you have entered your score, the app then prompts you to take a picture of your card with your phone and upload it. If you do that, you can keep your card for posterity. All went very smoothly except for the playing itself.

This is new way to go INW. We have been using the Scottish Golf VMS system since WHS started in November. It’s been a steep learning curve for most of our members but the more they use it, both for competitions and General Play, the more familiar they become with it and the easier it is to use. We use paper cards during the round and then enter scores at the end. Sadly our clubhouse is still closed due to Covid so we all have to use phones, although SG haven’t supplied us with the iPad they promised earlier last year so we can’t use it anyway. It’s all new to everyone but gets easier the more you use it.

Yes INW both my Essex and Suffolk clubs use Intelligent Golf

Third outing of the season on Sat, the previous 2 being a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 78 and 89. On both previous rounds putting made them look much better than they actually were (29 & 30 putts respectively and NO 3 putts). So you can imagine where my head started going after I 3 putted the 2nd on Sat. However kept the demons at bay, got up and down from bunker on 3, got a good break on 4 (blocked drive headed toward hazard hit tree and bounced favourably back into play) . Looked at my card at the turn and quite surprised with +1 and 7/9 greens in reg. Back 9 felt a lot better and more in control, except for 16 where I had another 3 putt resulting in 1st double of the day. Really pleased to rattle in a 13 footer for birdie on 17 though to bounce back.

Ended up with a 74 on a not so good putting day (35) and a nice little drop in index to 4.2 (no idea what that would have been in old money).

Another good game today. Only had about 7 bad shots. Went round in 86 strokes (net 68 - 2 under par = 38 stableford points). This was also a general play card round so I am very happy.

Edit:- This resulted in a handicap reduction of 0.5. Means 1 less shot off back tees.

Back to being dross again at the weekend 86 net 81 just one of those days. Cold moderate wind probably overthought it a bit, never dropped a putt longer than 3 feet although I did chip in for par at 18 after completely fluffing the birdie chip. Some of the ball striking was great, never usually go for our par 5 12th in 2 but smacked one so far down there I'd have been a complete blouse not to go for it yesterday. Got a good connection, too good in fact, it ran through the green and up the bank behind, chunked the chip and 3 putted. Temprament control tested to the limit!!
The medal was won by one of our juniors shooting a 67 net 65, takes the wee fella down to within a whisker of scratch. Apart from one net 69 nobody else broke net 70.
There was one rather amusing anecdote yesterday. We were on the 5th at the time so saw it unfold, it went like this. How to play the 8th...without actually playing the 8th, well mostly.
Tee shot big dirty slice onto 7th fairway
2nd shot thinned into greenside bunker on 5th
3rd shot chunked out of bunker onto 6th tee
4th chipped onto green
5th shot holed the putt
5 shots over 4 holes!!

Had a golf lesson that was bought fir my birthday last year by my golf mates. It was a 3D swing analysis. A number of Bluetooth sensors were clipped to me and the pro analysed my swing. Apparently two parts of my body are moving in the wrong order and I am not using the big muscles to maximise swing. My hands/arms moving relatively fast. Anyway he told me how to improve and I will have to work on that, although I am not in the least bit technical. He also gave me a tip re bunker play.

So played today, and nothing to do with the lesson, but I scored well (40points). Two birdies, including one I've never birdied before. Bit annoyed with one of my playing partners who went ahead of me on one hole before I played my shot as he looked for his ball in a pond. Had to tell him to get out of my way, and surprisingly ended up in the same pond as him.

Started off Saturday probably the best I've played this season, level through, 12 one birdie, one bogey 10 greens in reg, absolute cruise control (although niggles about birdie putts not dropping). 13 is our stroke 1 (a very worthy one too so a bogey is more expected than a par) - it's a card wrecker so to get through only one over is decent. Good drive down middle of 14, at this point I still thought my head was in a good place...it was. So the approach shot has pond short right. Where I was is normally a 8-9 iron in to a front pin but there was a decent wind against so I was thinking 6-7. Too many times I've smashed the smaller club rather recklessly so I went with the 6. On the backswing for some reason I felt and registered less wind, result, no commitment and a weak fade into the pond. Got up and down for a bogey but the head was now no longer in such a nice place. 15 was a 4iron par 3, an uncommitted weak fade here would put me into similar trouble so out of nowhere but almost predictably comes the big left hoik, left enough to miss the front left bunker though. "I can up and down this" I was musing as I chunked it into said sloppy wet sanded bunker, double out of nowhere. Regained a bit of composure with a regulation par on 16 but 2 further bogeys tarnished what had been a very promising day. To be honest hadn't had the best of weeks off the course so retrospectively 77 was better than expected but worse than expected from 14th tee.
Ticked up to 4.7 but hey ho, on balance with a 74, 2 x 77s and a 78 among my 6 qualifiers this year I'd have taken that as a decent start to the season.

Feels like forever since I posted.

Finished the end of last year posting consistently best scores of 91, which I was more than happy with. Decided to invest in some new clubs this year, picked up some Deep Red 2 Fat Shafts and a full set of D200 woods for a bargain price. So far this year I've struggled. My short game has been atrocious, saved mainly by my putting coming on leaps and bounds, and bravely taking my Driver off the tee (i've not touched one for 2 years). I'm slowly correcting my hook.

Question for anyone really....

My Drives are always very high. I generally take it off a pink tee (I assume you'll know what size). A friend suggested rolling the club slightly forward to correct, or a lower tee. Anyone got any tips? It's 10.5 degree loft.

Beer wrote:Feels like forever since I posted.

Finished the end of last year posting consistently best scores of 91, which I was more than happy with. Decided to invest in some new clubs this year, picked up some Deep Red 2 Fat Shafts and a full set of D200 woods for a bargain price. So far this year I've struggled. My short game has been atrocious, saved mainly by my putting coming on leaps and bounds, and bravely taking my Driver off the tee (i've not touched one for 2 years). I'm slowly correcting my hook.

Question for anyone really....

My Drives are always very high. I generally take it off a pink tee (I assume you'll know what size). A friend suggested rolling the club slightly forward to correct, or a lower tee. Anyone got any tips? It's 10.5 degree loft.

Welcome back Beer, difficult for us amateurs to diagnose (and Pros without seeing what you're doing to be fair) but there could be some useful guidance to help you self diagnose to a point. So many different things it could be though.

The first question I would ask is... Is it only your driver? If the answer is yes then the first thing to check would be ball position at set-up. Yes with a driver the ball needs to be further forward than with irons but NOT too far forward. Assuming you're a right hander, aligned with left heel should be ideal.

Next thing would be apart from excessive height, has the ball flight any other characteristics e.g. weak fade?. This is symptomatic of coming "over the top" and an out to in swing path.

Weight distribution would be another thing to check (a reverse pivot can cause a high ball flight). At the top of the backswing you should feel right side loaded, on the through swing it should naturally transfer to left side. If you're completing your swing and still feeling any weight on your right chances are you're reverse pivoting.

Those I would say are the obvious things to check first. If those are all ok then it starts getting a bit more technical in terms of coordination of the body particularly the release of the hands. That probably needs a Pro's eye.

After exhausting all that then maybe it would be worth looking at shaft flex.

I've been back playing about 2-3 weeks. In that time have got in a lot of practice, and 2 mediocre competitive rounds of 30 and 31 points. I was cut from 12 to 8.6 over the winter, so the new handicap is taking a bit of getting used to. There is also some cobwebs from not having played for about 8 months. I've also injured my shoulder a bit from overly aggressive driver swings but am going to play through it.

Hope all you folks have a tremendous year of golf Xx

Been working towards getting my first official handicap since the courses reopened. Had been playing well for my standard, shooting mid 80s, so was frustrating to not crack 100 on my first recorded round. Windy day on a long course and let a few poor shots in get into my head and went completely to bits on the back 9. Been and had a lesson with the aim of fixing my slice off the tee with driver, which is my ongoing nightmare - and feel like I am making progress with it so hopefully it shows this weekend.

Ah well, no great matchplay run this year, 1st round casualty succumbed to young 4 handicapper playing extremely well, especially putting (never good in matchplay watching your opponent can 20 footers like they were 2 footers). I was roughly 2 over handicap when he closed it out on 17 considering the conditions (showers and 30mph winds) was pretty good going. Always prefer to win obviously but playing decent and making the other guy have to play better to win is much more acceptable than self destructing and giving your opponent a free pass effectively.

I played golf! Last played in August. Went to the range once. Shot 91. 34 points off 19. Hit some really nice shots, hit some stinkers. But was lovely to play again!