By the way, this is one of those weird courses where the handicaps don't fall odd/even on the front/back nine. In fact, they didn't even try to balance it - six of the first nine holes are 9 HDCP or harder, 7/10 if you count the 10th hole. Strange.

Had a putt on the last hole today to break 80 for the first time...bout a 30 footer for par and missed it 1 foot to the right...oh well...no birdies and no worse than a bogey with no penalty strokes and no warm up in 102 degree temperatures...ill take it...

pig,

I thought you played with ghostface and thought you were both really good.

My driver broke last night Callaway FT3...going to take 3weeks to replace...weak!

No backup, so lots of 3irons off the tees.

Beat: Course closed due to massive outing. There are times when it very much sucks to belong to a semi-private facility.

Brag: Practiced short game, it's getting better.

Variance: Forecast for weekend is highs in the 70s with low humidity and a 100% chance of bad golf.

I do play with him when we are at school. He is pretty much a 3 handicap and i am a 14 when i play a lot. That 80 that I just posted is my best round ever. Last time we played together, when i went to Nags Head to his course, he shot 73 i think and i shot like 89 in 25 MPH winds which is why that course is so hard.

You know I never really looked at it, but now that you pointed it out it seemed strange to me. So I looked at the current card from the course and the handicap ratings have changed. Evens on the front, odds on the back.

Plus those numbers on the website are really wacky. They certainly do not correspond to the difficulty of the holes as I play them!

It has always kind of a strange course because it is run by the state. The plus side is that is why it is so outrageously cheap. 18 holes weekday = $22. And this is the course where they play the sectional qualifying rounds for the US Open.

89. [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored].

+8 through 14, +9 on the last four holes. Arrrrgh.

How do you guys deal with composure on the golf course??

Today I shot a 112 at a course where 100 is "okay/meh" for me. (I have only been playing about 4 months). I really let things get to me, and just fell apart. On the front nine, I was +16 (35 par), with 2 pars, the rest double bogeys, and then a 9 on a par 4 (which I have par'd in the past!!!)

So the rest of the afternoon just deteriorated after that. I don't want to admit that my emotions are affecting me, but it is obvious. My swing goes to hell, even though I am trying my damndest to do things the same.

You know, this isn't very coherent, but instead of explaining more of how I developed a bad attitude on the day, I will just end my personal story there and again ask how you guys deal with "negative flow" ???

Any advice appreciated.

Remember...it's just a game! Have fun. If the pros can manage to hit a ball OB/into the water/into the wrong fairway, I think you're excused when you do the same.

When I am playing well, I stick with it. On those days where my game goes to sh*t, I try different things and think of it as a practice round. Sometimes it gets back me on track, sometimes it continues to be a practice round.

TY for the thoughts guys.

RBP in particular, I really like that idea. When I first was trying out some of the ideas I read in Hogan's 5 Fundamentals, no matter how a shot turned out my attitude was positive. I was learning how to play a fun game, and this was part of the learning process.

Today I probably just put too much pressure on myself, especially after a par on Hole 1, which I had never done before. The "practice round" mentality sounds perfect, because you are not playing 18 holes...you are just playing one shot at a time to try and do it your best.

Golf tilt.

I played Shadow Lakes in Brentwood, CA today...made an awful 9 on a long par 5 6th hole and picked up on the 9th. Shot 74 on the other 16 holes. It is a silly game.

59-54-113. Awful.

53-55, some great chips, terrible short putting, swing showing good flashes.

Today was my worst round in 2 years. Let's just say my score was higher than Clarkmeister's today.

Example: 18th hole, 497 yard par 5. I hit my best drive of the day, 280 yards on the fairway. Second shot, I took out my hybrid and knocked the ball on the fringe. Flag was at the front of the green where there's a deep "US Open"-like drop. My putt ran by the hole and found its way 15 yards down the fairway. It took me a few putts from the fairway to get it back on the green, with each unsuccessful putt rolling back down the fairway. On the green, it took my another three putts before holing out. Two on, 7 putts, for a "9" on the final hole.

I had my best practice session today at the range. FWIW I've been playing for about 4-5 months now. I've taken a lot of clubs out my bag and have been pretty much using my 3-wood, 6-9iron + PW and my SW. My iron hitting today was some of the best I've ever hit, my ball striking is on point and everything seems to be coming together. It took me a while but changing my aim point from the back of the ball to more of the front of the ball has considerably increased the loft in my shots which were really lacking.

I took the driver out of my bag and hit 3-wood off every tee.

Tomorrow we're playing an early bird three-some, should be a good round.

84. Finally played decently over the last nine.

Four rounds to report from my vacation last week.

92 (don't remember the split at Bucks County Country Club in Jamison (I think), Pa. Started par-par and then had three straight triples before a birdie on 8.

50-46 at Wilkes-Barre Golf Club in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The rough there is very thick and we were playing in the morning so it was damp.

51-42 at the Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club in Mountaintop, Pa. They have 27 holes there; we played the Blue-Ridge loop.

47-51 on the same course as above. Had a decent round going until #9 on the Blue course, where I took a 7 after a perfect drive. I then tripled both par 3s on the back after hitting extremely poor tee shots -- I put a pitch in the sand and left one in the trap on one hole, and pitched into the water on another. I putted well, though; had I put as well as I did in this round the day before, I would probably have had an 88 or 89.

-McGee

Shot an 86 at Legend Trail on saturday. Slope is 127.

I had 15 putts on the front nine and 22 on the back, the greens on the back were in pretty terrible shape and I was putting over rough ground, and in one case sand/gravel.

Played okay off the tee, only hit 6 FIR.

Not that anyone reads this, but this should be three straight doubles, not triples.

-McGee

I played that course from time to time when it was managed by Troon Golf. Early last year I got a comp there because my stepfather was in town and he is friends with the guy who runs the John Jacobs Academy (which won the bid for and now manages the property). The only other course they manage that I know of is Painted Desert in Mesa, which is a total goat pasture.

It's a shame to hear it's not in good shape. Troon Golf is known for keeping their courses tip-top even in the most extreme weather but apparently these new guys do not. That's a really nice layout too, great back nine and I like the back-to-back par 5s down the stretch.

How much did you pay?

Yea the last time I played it, a few years ago, it was in good shape. It looks like they let it go a bit too much and it really went to [censored] in a few areas. There were big chucks of fairway on the back that were just sand/gravel and some that had been recently replaced.

The front wasn't that bad all considering, nicer than other courses I've played in recent weeks.

It was $39 from www.golfnow.com

played a 9 hole executive par-30...shot 40

meh

40. Missed a couple of very makable putts after good chips, but walked away feeling pretty satisfied.