I've done everything from just showing up to calling ahead, it can depend on the course too. I find it's best to call ahead just to make sure there are no tournaments that day; sometimes the course will jot you down with another 2 or 3 some or else they'll just tell you to show up and they'll get you out somehow.

It'd be at a public course.

My issue is that I don't want to be paired with a group of horrendous golfers. I'm hoping that if I choose a more pricey course, the likelihood of these guys being decent increases.

Does that seem reasonable?

I guess it does a bit because the poor terrible golfer wont want to pay a significant amount to hack it round. The rich terrible golfer on the other hand
doesn't care about the price. So i guess the question is are there enough poor people who are also decent golfers willing to pony up to play this course to make an impact on the ratios.
Unless you believe that the better off you are the greater the likely hood of you being a good golfer are. There could be some truth in that I guess If you have a bit of spare money knocking about and play golf occasionally taking lessons might seem like a no brainier.

Also for public courses the earlier your tee time the more likely you will get paired with better players.

Us lazy ass hackers that like to wake up around 10 eat some breakfast and play golf at noon so we can start drinking are who you are trying to avoid.

No one is going to start playing drunk golf at 7:30. Well almost no one.

Good point.

Agreed with Bonito, any time I am ever going to play alone I;
1 - go to a pricier course
2 - get there first thing in the morning hoping to get paired up with some better players.


Another idea: if the course has an online booking system or uses golfnow, run a query on the day you want to play and look to see how busy they are.

Thanks! Gonna check out golfnow, though their prices are higher than the rates listed on their actual sites.

It probably doesn't hurt to ask when you call up if they know the people they're trying to pair you up with. Maybe they are regulars and the guy handling the tee times knows they are decent, terrible, jerks, nympho-maniac super models, or whatever.

Probably not "thread" worthy but Freddy picked Tiger to be on the Presidents Cup team a month before the deadline.

on a sort of related note, let's play a game. How many recently published articles can you find where the author is writing about how he despises that Tiger continues to be the main topic of conversation in the golf world despite his lack of/poor play recently. It's ironic these guys write articles about Tiger because they know its a hot topic, yet their articles just rant about how he shouldn't be getting so much publicity. HA.

anyone have a formula for a scramble handicap with 2 man scramble and 4 man scramble teams. I found something at leaderboard.com but not sure if it is the best resource or not.

It's really amazing the number of Tiger haters that are in the media. I don't know if it comes from suppressed anger that accumulated over years of getting short-answers from Tiger and non-interviews, or if it is just the 'cool' thing for reporters to be doing at the moment. Either way, it's ironic that they just rip the the guy -- when he's the one improving their article hits and that put food on their tables at night. I think most reporters are corporate shills anyway and this trend just kind of reaffirms my opinion.

As for Freddie's pick, I hope that his show of good-faith in Tiger will motivate TW to work hard and get his game in form. It will be interesting to see who he gets paired with (likely Stricker) and even more interesting if we see a Adam Scott singles pairing (one can hope!).

I'm out of this competition, too tilted and tired after reading like 2 articles. If I see another "Tiger Woods is done" quote I will lose it. Are they meaning he wont win another tournament... ever? Not another major? What constitutes done and where can I bet my net worth vs these clowns?

Assuming you mean to make a fair tournment? USGA recs are:

2 man- 35% of low hc, 15% of high
4 man- From low handicap to high, 20/15/10/5%

I had such a good range session last night. I was mostly working on impact and correcting my divot patterns, so I worked on the flying wedge, 9 to 3, feet together, punch shots etc. My rhythm was really good towards the end my divots weren't like 30 degrees left of my target line. Gonna take all the money from my friends tomorrow! (buck a hole skins game heyoh!)

Going to play at my buddy's private club in Mississauga tomorrow. Link. $130 is pretty steep to hack up a golf course but the course is too nice to not play. Regular $180 to play as a guest.

I played it last year and hacked it up pretty hard. Hopefully my game has gotten a little bit better. I'm going to play from whatever tees are <6500yds because my tee shots suck and I want to hit something other than a hybrid into the green.

I'll try to take some pics.

Nice one! #33 on scoregolf's top 100 courses in Canada. Jelly!

Anyone use athletic tape at all on their hands when they golf? With my grip change Ive gotten weird callouses/pain on my right middle finger at the base and used some tape on it today and it was amazing..

..lately when I have golfed about half way through the pain is annoying just to hold the club and using it I didnt even think about it.

I've tried a few times but end up taking it off after one swing. It just feels too weird for me and usually doesn't help me that much. It's very possible I'm not using the right kind of tape, though. Not sure if they have stuff other than basketball tape, but that's all I've ever tried.

I've done it a few times when I had blisters but it always interfered and so I end up just sucking up the pain and playing without.

I've heard there are good discounts at the new Dicks sporting goods in Clearwater, FL.

I haven't been bye there to check it out but heard they have Adams Speedline F11 for $199. Burner Superfast 2 for $229.

Probably only going to be on sale for a week or so during their grand opening but Im not sure.

So next week Im going to play club championship on this course:

scorecard

http://www.markusmindegolf.dk/sfs.php?fid=brr

map, very simple

http://www.markusmindegolf.dk/sfs.php?fid=brs

Distances in meters.

Lets say I hit.

Driver 225 if straight 5 - 25 % ****ups

3 wood 200 if straight

hybrid 180 if straight with very few mis****s

4i 160 to 170 but no very solid
5i 160ish
6i 150
7i 140
8i 130
9i 120
Pw 110 to 80 with gripping down if necasary. Is gripping down a legit strategy???

4 and 5i is not very solid. PW is very very solid atm. Mostly trying to figure out optimal strategy for front 9, which is very short. From what I could find +20 qualified for day 2 last year, small club, I dont expect to win, but making day 2 is my goal.

GW, SW and LW (52, 56, 60) also in the bag, but dont feel solid hitting full swing with any of these. But Im lol good at pitching with LW compared to my HCP 22,1

Any suggestions to course management? My usual is if I hit driver well, try to get it under 110 and on the short ones ones 40 meters where im deadly with LW. But maybe my EV on a 250 m hole is better hitting 7i, PW? And maybe this is not enough info to reveal that?

I'm not sure I have much advice but I will say this:

Looking at that scorecard you should not ever need to hit a 4i or 5i. I would hit whatever club feels good off the tee (driver, 3w, hybrid). If you can't reach the green and it is safe to do so, hit short of the green and rely on your pitching.

And yes, gripping down is a legit strategy imo.

I use tape all the time, have a couple different kinds in my bag. However I was a catcher in high school and college so I'm very used to the feel of tape on my hands at this point.

Honestly how much of a difference in my driving will there be in my driving if on the one hand I'm using a random $15 Dunlop driver off Ebay, or a nice new Callaway Razr Hawk driver etc? Do they make that much difference, someone who replaced an old cheap driver with a really good new one give me an idea of distance difference/straightness please.

Absolutely makes a difference. For me about 20 yards from my generic Tommy Armor starter set driver - and the larger sweet spot helps on off-center hits. You will absolutely feel the difference, if you are not convinced try out a friend's new driver or go to a demo day and hit some.

BTW I have a Diablo Edge driver - awesome driver and since it's 1 or 2 model years old you can get them cheap nowadays (think I saw it for $89 at rockbottomgolf). If you want the Razr you could probably save at least 100 bucks by waiting until their next model comes out.