Looking for 1 more Chicagolander for some 2+2 golf with ph, UCB, and myself. Let me know if interested, would probably be at least a few weeks from now.

Yeah I guess I'm better off just paying as I play at this stage in my life, too pricey for me. I'm just going to miss the days of free whatever I want, I'm leaving my golf course job shortly for another job.

Thanks ph appreciate it. I just started playing with irons this year so I'm pretty amateurish. Only got 8 rounds recorded on oob but its got me at 15.5 handicap with a 96.4 scoring avg. Prob play 1-2 rounds a week, sometimes more with an occasional driving range/par 3 session. For clubs I've got taylor made burner plus irons 4i-9i pw aw.

Golf memberships are all a waste unless you are a junior.

Cheapest membership price + all the time in the world to play = biggest bang for your buck

I did some math at one of the courses that I frequently play.

Being a member would be $350/month. I get 10% off proshop (lol I get 15% off the proshop prices by going to Sports Authority) and $0 greens fees (but carts cost $15 and they dont let you walk). On the bright side I'd get to use the pool, tennis courts, and pay to eat dinner there (none of which I give a **** about)

I play after 1pm for $26 and before 1pm for $33 now and most my play is after 1pm.

So I figured Id have to play 20-30 rounds a month to make it worth it. Even then it would suck cause I would feel I can only play 1 course, when there are other courses I like playing as well.

Mandatory walking is dumb.

I've wondered this actually for courses that mandate carts. Do any of them have memberships that have unlimited carts?

I get tilted enough by having to pay cart at my course where I walk frequently. I can't imagine a place where you HAVE to ride and pay while paying dues.

A few Vegas clubs charge a cart fee of like $25 per round in addition to dues. Some others have unlimited cart use either included or for slightly higher dues.

I was looking at places to get memberships and I saw one that was something like $100-$120 a month for green fees and another $80 or so for unlimited cart use.

Another course (a crowded muni) offers a "practice pass" for $99. For that you get unlimited range balls, and you can play after 1 p.m. for an $18 "cart fee" whether you walk or ride. And that $18 is more expensive than their usual cart fee.

My course charges $10 for members to use a cart, $1 cheaper than the normal fee. And if you want to play 36 holes, it's still just $10, so it's not a bad deal when it's obscenely hot outside and you have the time to play two rounds. My membership has been a really good deal (yay unemployment!) but I have a job as a high school teacher starting at the beginning of August, so after that it'll be tough to get out often enough to make it worthwhile.

We have a choice and can buy an annual cart membership or pay per round. Carts are mandatory during premium times.

So mandatory carts is for the benefit of pace of play, not for the condition of the course or to force people to pay.

LOL.

It's always about the money. Always.

The courses were in very good condition and all 3 of them are beautiful for Texas. Worth $200? Probably not...

I kind of got the feeling like they felt like us resort guests were intruding on their country club and they tried to pair us with people on both of the 2 fazio courses, which is kind of bush league imo for paying that amount of $. I mean, I'm a 5 handicap playing from the back tees, my wife's scratch or whatever and plays from whatever is around 6k yards, and we are supposed to play with terrible hacks who shoot 100? for $200? And I'm not real picky, but I wouldn't mind some cold water bottles or something. It's 107 degrees out.

Round 1 the starter let us go ahead of obnoxious hackers so that was nice. Minimial delays. Round 2 we consented to being paired up b/c the other couple was very nice and it was slow anyway. Probably 5.5 hour round...ughhh. Also the starter threatened to make us skip a hole because we "were 25 minutes behind" but we were waiting on the group ahead of us for most of the time. He apologized later when he saw though, so he's forgiven. Poor guy in my group was totally rushing though and he picked up on a few holes and it was his damn birthday....not cool.

Round 3 I teed off at 5:20 after Round 2 and played by myself (wife = cart caddy) for $30 (replay rate...cart fee only) and played in 2 hours and 10 minutes. That was really nice.

Overall, I'd say it was kind of like a poor man's Pelican Hill (in Southern California). It's not absolutely jaw dropping breathtakingly gorgeous, but it's really nice and I didn't feel like I was in Texas except for the heat.

The resort is harder to grade. Something about the layout threw me off, the pool is too small, and there isn't that much to do other than play golf. Rooms are very nice, big, clean, and great room, had a fun little mini golf thing that we did, and we played ping pong in the kid's area = awesome. Food in dining room was so-so at night...really good breakfast, & grill restaurant was awesome.

My club is like $300 a month dues, and then you can pay $20 per round to ride or pay $100 per month for unlimited cart.

What if I liveblogged the 1977 Open?

Oh look a hideous pair of Johnny Miller pants.

What club would be between a P-wedge and a 56 degree wedge?

Only have 13 things in my bag, and I feel I have a gap between P, about 115 meters, and 56 degree, about 90 meters. So what should I get?

fwiw its worth, the bag is 9-4i, P, 56d, 60d, driver, wood, 3 hybrid. Putter.

a 52* gap wedge

I have an A-wedge, not sure the angle but my 4 wedges are, in order of power, PASL. I use the A-wedge 1-2 times per round. The dude who gave it to me is a scratch but once I get a 3H I'll probably ditch the A-wedge. Actually I'll ditch the 2i and keep the A.

This is close enough to the deal I have, but the private club actually has a nice short game practice area and nice range where I can hit off grass as much as I want for like $250 /year additional.

Also I can just show up at the private course after work (anywhere from 5:30-6:30) and get right on and usually get 18 in before dark. I go out to the local muni and there's a bunch of 5 somes I'll wait 45 mins to tee off and get in 9 holes if I'm lucky.

Plus the private course comes with USGA handicap, and a men's golf association where I can meet new people to play with or network professionally.

It may be different in your area but it's not just a $ and cents issue imo.

Can't imagine paying extra for the range/short game area or being forced to ride. Yuck.

The great thing about Texas is it's 107 degrees everyday in the summer so the course is wideass open.

Why can't you imagine paying a range fee? It's a lot of work to maintain it, it's way nicer than the public ranges, and it's something I get a lot of use out of. Would you be shocked that I also pay an annual fee for my locker?

My course doesn't force me to ride FWIW, but if a course is designed in such a way that tees aren't by greens then walking is a pace of play issue and walkers probably shouldn't be joining anyway. I really don't see an issue with that, there's plenty of people who are going to ride every time they play regardless, and probably plenty of older courses around that are more walkable. I would be surprised if all or even most of the private courses in your area had a similar policy

On the subject of private clubs, I wish more of them would have reciprocal arrangements with other area clubs.

Many of them do just ask.

For example ClubCorp. One of the leaders in private clubs usually will allow you to play any of their courses if you are a member of another course.

Just takes some phone calls and asking around. Its usually really easy if the course you are trying to play is close to your home course (like same city or a few miles apart), but if you are going to travel and want to play another clubcorp course out of state it usually takes a little more work.

But most the time you have to pay as a guest of the other course.

nope all of our private courses are walker friendly. In my city, Shady Oaks actually has an alternate scorecard which is small and vertical to fit in your back pocket and has a ben hogan quote on it: "walking, the way the game was meant to be played". Awesome.

I do understand it on some courses. At Barton Creek last week, it would've been ridiculous to walk. I get it, it's just the idea of being forced to pay $15-20 everytime you want to play even though you already pay dues is gross.

As for the range fee, it's just part of the club, imo. I mean do they charge a pool fee, a restaurant fee, a bathroom fee? My old club used to charge a fee to hit balls ($5 per 20 ball bag!!) and everyone bitched about it so they just increased the dues by 50 bucks for everyone, cut out the range fee, so they made more money, and everyone was happy.

Ok, it looks like your PW is 45 degrees and your AW is 50. I would recommend you pick up a sand wedge with 12-14 degrees of bounce and a lob wedge with 6-8 degrees of bounce.

As for loft, I'd say just try to keep your yardage gaps reasonably consistent, which means keeping your loft gaps consistent but increasing slightly as you work down the set. I would go with, say, a 55 degree SW and a 61 degree lob. 60 is fine too and would be easier to find.

As far as which model ... I wouldn't sweat it too much. There probably isn't any amazing performance gap between the major manufacturers. Stick with the forged, blade-style models though.

TL;DR = Get a 55d SW w/ 12-14d bounce, and a 60d LW w/ 6-8d bounce. Get forged blades.