So some ****stick decided to go joy riding on one of our courses last night.













The first three pictures are of the 7th green and the last three are the 8th green.

So the guy drove a truck on the course about 2am. He drove on the course by the 7th tee box, drove down the fairway to the 7th green (350y par 4 and nowhere near a street) to do donuts on the green.

He then proceeds over a cart bridge somehow and drives down the par 3 8th and do donuts on that one.

He then drives down the par 4 9th and drives over the green but does little damage. You can see the tracks through the middle of the green but that should be able to be fixed.

Then he drives down the par 3 10th along he cart patch but doesn't go on the green.

THEN, he crosses a road and gets stuck in a ditch to the right of the 11th tee box.

So obviously you are thinking it has to be a stolen vehicle. Nope, was some 18 or 19 yo kid that lives in the development. Parents are members of the club (social members I think, not golf). They arrested him this morning already.

No idea how much it's going to be to replace 2 greens but felony charges are filed.

moron

I wouldn't want to be stuck with that restitution bill. What a jerkoff.

Wow, that sucks.

At least he got caught and there is a chance of punishment + restitution.

I have been at a couple of clubs where that happened but the *******(s) were never confirmed but only suspected.

Yeah if his parents live in the development chances are high that they have $$$ to help out and maybe reduce jail sentence.

I talked to the assistant pro and he said they are going to have to go out and buy sod for the replacement. We maintain a "green" and the far end of the range but it's not big enough to cover all of this.

Sounds like we will have temporary greens for a while. The par 4 that was ****ed up will now be a reachable par 4 in the 300yish range. The par 3 will go from 170-190y down to I'm guessing in the 130y range.

Should be interesting next week as we have a Ryder Cup style member tournament scheduled.

just play it as it lies, happy gilmore style. gotta putt thru the tread marks. before i read to the end i knew it was some punk high school kid. god willing he will get 30 days in juvie!

drop the $$. worth it.

Going to look for videos tonight to learn more.

Also: After reading GolfWRX I need to find a demo day and hit the TM M3/M4. This twist face business may actually help.

There's a yellow version of the orange whip (SKLZ gold flex) that sells on Amazon for about half of the orange whip. Not sure if it is exactly the same, but they appear nearly identical.

Just remembered that I have a gift card that will cover a good chunk of the cost if this golf shop has an Orange Whip in stock, so chances of getting one are going up dramatically.

About the only other thing I want to get right now is a good pair of sunglasses. I had a pair of Tifosis that I liked but broke, a pair of Maxx HDs that were cheap and decent that broke, and now another pair of those (I think) which I'm pretty ambivalent about. I'd love to find a pair that is a good fit with my XXXL head. Until I do I'm resigned to just buying cheap pairs every year or two. The first two pairs mentioned had amber lenses which worked well in a lot of light settings.

Yeah, I know almost nothing about sunglasses.

Not sure about head sizes but Oakley has lenses specific for golf. Got some last year after having never worn sunglasses and I like em.

The greens look a touch boring. Should rebuild them and charge the kid the 6 figures it costs to build 2 USGA greens

Picked up the orange whip this afternoon. Didn't spend much time with it, really not enough room in the store. It seemed lighter than I would have expected. Hopefully the weather cooperates this weekend.

Also had an unexpected free half hour near an open driving range. I hadn't loaded up any gear, just had a couple random clubs that had been taken for regripping recently. Hit a couple wedges, a couple irons, felt OK. Not bad for the first swings of the season in tennis shoes on wet turf.

Then I hit a couple dozen drivers. Left handed drivers. I picked up a LH Cobra via ebay a while back to mess around with. I don't think I've ever taken a meaningful swing with one before today.

Results were ... interesting. My standard shot right handed has always been a draw, miss a hook. Hitting a fade is a challenge and it's never been consistent. I've been able to use some technically unsound adjustments to move the ball on drives that require a fade, but the thought was let's see if I hit a draw left handed.

Answer: Nope. I hit every ball on the face and every one was a fade. Most were just a small fade, a couple yards. A few that weren't struck as well were pushing slice territory. It's pretty likely the shaft in the driver is way too stiff for the swings I was putting on it, but the results were consistent, no draws. No idea on distance, hits felt solid but just no way to tell.

A fun experiment and I'll definitely give it another go under better conditions.

I was reading this hoping for that first sentence. So tired of these ****s not getting caught. 100% felony value of repairs. This dip**** probably had no clue he'd be facing 5+ years in prison plus restitution. Sucks he will likely get off with probation.

Our one hope is he is an adult (I think they said he was 19 or 20) so hopefully throw the book at him.

After an unusually cold January I would say February in Tampa was pretty good for golf. High temps in the 80's for the last 23 days of the month. Feb 1-5 was a min high of 75.

We are actually getting a "cool down" to the mid 70's this weekend.

Start the hating......now!

Yeah and I bet most of the course is empty and the ones out there will be in pants and jackets. :-D

I resemble that remark. Even I have worn a pullover on a couple of occasions when being first out this month.

Comes with living there obviously. The looks I got in February when I was out on the course in Phoenix in shorts and a t-shirt were hilarious. They thought I was a nutbag.

Not too bad here either, think the courses are starting to open and should be in okay conditions, yaye!

Anyone have a course recommendation in the Charlotte area? Looking for something really nice.

Since the rest of the country is almost ready to start playing golf (sorry Northeast), let's hear some of your goals for 2018. Mine:

1. Shoot under par for 18.
2. Shoot in the 60's.
3. Shoot 74 or better in competition.

1: Have an healthy back like Tiger.

My only real goal is to have fun. I guess I would like to walk more too which would mean I play more.