I dropped $350 on a Scotty Cameron putter at GG about a month ago, so I did all I could.

anybody ever been to the masters before?

won tickets the other day in the lottery to the practice round/par 3 contest on wednesday and i'm absolutely buying them.

also heard that they're pretty strick on selling those tickets too. like a 5% chance i'll try to sell instead of going, but was curious if anyone has experience with that

I and a few others have been I think. Think there's a thread on it. Hell of an experience, definitely go!

I'm with you.

Playing with my girlfriend's father tomorrow for the first time. He hasn't played golf in 10+ years and sold his clubs, so he has to rent them. But he wants to play "strict rules of golf like in Goldfinger".

She wants me to take it easy on him because "he will be embarrassed and won't like you if you beat him". I'm setting his over/under line at 130 on the course we are playing under "strict rules".

So what's my play... goof around or play my normal game? And how do I talk this stickler out of strict rules and just play casual, especially since he seems worried that he's going to swing and miss a lot.

Bury him.

Uhhh, damn right you're buying them. I went in 2007 for a practice round, and it was beyond great. I wrote a trip report under my old 2+2 name, but can't find it. Book a hotel now, which might even be too late to find anything good. We stayed at a Comfort Inn in some town 20 minutes away, and it was still really expensive.

Eat steak at T-Bonz. Lots of caddies and golf personalities eat there during the week. It's packed, with a fun atmosphere. Get to the grounds early. Watch players skip it on 16, but not for the whole day; wander around. Pay $1.50 for a pimento cheese sandwich. Wonder how anyone could live with themselves hitting off fairways that perfect. Take pictures (cameras are allowed in on practice round days). Have the time of your life.

If you let him win, he'll tell his daughter to dump you because he doesn't want his daughter dating a sissy.

Be a man and play your game; bury him if you must.

hahaha this

Make him completely envious of your game imo.

Works for me... I'm not exactly a fan of his anyway. My main concern is this guy not shutting up, then hiking it back to the tee all the time if we can't find his ball and taking forever.

Are there any known cases of people who killed themselves due to the frustration of being a lifetime hack, incapable of improvement?

ARC still lives as far as I know.

I think you might have this all wrong. I bet your girl has been telling him your scores and he thinks you cheat/take mulligans, etc. He's declaring "by the rules!" because he thinks you're gonna put a 107 on the board or something.

So, bury him.

And hit provisionals so you're not hiking back

Dr. O,

Just play your normal game. If he gets buried, he gets buried. Also, he probably doesn't know the rules of golf, so if he loses one in the weeds just tell him he can drop one.

Great segment on Van de Velde tonight during Jimmy Roberts show on GC. Dude is seriously chill.

Since the dad specified 'by the rules', make sure he declares his balls as 'provisional' or else you make him play it lying three. :P

Watched HBO Real Sports segment on the golf industry. Kind of sad. They really think the size of the hole is the problem? I would think it's the length of the holes. Make the courses a little shorter and I bet rounds would be shorter and people would be less frustrated.

Play your game the front side and bury him. Backside give him a "hog" bet so he has a shot to get some back. Hog bet is you give him however many strokes you beat him by as his handicap for the back nine. Of course the original Nassau stays the same.

12 minutes to tee time and he's 8 minutes away. Oy vey it's gonna be a long one.

clear cut the trees from all courses so i don't have to use my 2i to punch out from the woods.
fill in all ponds, rivers, creeks, and bunkers so that i always have grass under my ball.
line the fairways with inflatable bumpers like kid's bowling alleys so when i initially hit the fairway it won't roll into the rough. that won't matter because....
....mow the damn grass everywhere so that i can find the ball and hit it from the 'junk' with almost as good as a lie as i have in the 'fairway'.

oh wait...is that still golf? some say yes, some say no.

i'm being sarcastic, because i still enjoy the kick-in-the-nuts course with tight fairways, hazards, bunkers to further penalize where bad players hit bad shots, etc.

but i've also played courses that can be as challenging (if not more challenging), by giving a player lots of room to get to the green without much trouble and knee-capping him once he gets there. old mac at bandon is a prime example.

I'll sum up my experience today with the first hole ...

Me: Driver, 9I, 30' birdie.

Him: Driver, 3w, 3w, 5I, 5I, 5I, 5I, 9I, 9I, SW, SW, SW, P, P, P, P

Repeat this (him, not my birdie I shot 81) for 18 holes.

At least he played by the rules!

Lol.

It sounds like he buried himself.