I'm gonna try one of these shot for shot posts, I'm bored and it seems fun. From today:

Van Courtlandt Golf Course (The oldest public course in the country, lol)
6002 yards, Par 70, 68.5/119. Short but tight local muni in NYC.

Hole 1- 370 yds. par 4 (not playing nearly this long from the tee boxes today):
21* Hybrid down the middle to 96 yards. SW not struck solid to 30 feet short, nice 2-putt. PAR (E)

Hole 2- 619 yds. Par 5 (this hole is just a beast, uphill and into the wind):
Driver pulled into left trees. 21* Hybrid skimmed through the trees to right fairway 277 out. Crushed 3-wood slightly pulled just short/left of green. Stubby pitch to green 35 feet short (one of my playing partners said 'nice shot' which is probably something I could post in the 'things that piss you off but shouldn't' thread). Another nice 2-putt. BOGEY (+1)

Hole 3- 166 yds (to flag), Par 3:
Smoothed an 8-iron to 8 feet. Draino. BIRDIE (E)

Hole 4- 364 yds. Par 4:
Driver into right trees, it kicks out far enough left where I have a look from 120. 52* Gap that felt fat but would up about 15 feet away, just short and left of the hole. Weak putt 2 feet short. PAR (E)


Hole 5- 345 yds. Par 4:
Weak slice Driver to right rough 86 yards out. Chunky SW short of bunker fronting the green. Ball is in a sandy area on the border of the bunker, laying on sand but not in trap. I get scared of fatting it into the bunker on the downswing and wind up skulling it over the back into deep rough. Nice pitch to 3 feet, make the putt. BOGEY (+1)

Hole 6- 295yds. Par 4 (some days this hole is drivable, today was probably not one of those days):
Mega-Slice Driver to adjacent hole, 66 yrds to pin. 3/4 LW that I thought was perfect but somehow got grabbed by the rough short of the front pin location. Decent chip to 5 feet and made the putt. PAR (+1)

Hole 7- 222 yds. Par 3:
Thinned slice 18* Hybrid to right greenside bunker. Good out to 12 feet, straight uphill putt. Missed the putt. BOGEY (+2)

Hole 8- 318 yds. Par 4:
5-iron to right rough, 129 to hole. Beautiful GW to 10 feet. Very tough downhill right-to-lefter that can get away from you in a hurry, miss the putt 2 inches short in the jaws. PAR (+2)

Hole 9- 391 yds. Par 4:
Low slice Driver caught low on the face into right trees, 172 out just off cart path. I elect not to take a drop because my relief is to the right and I barely have an angel to the left of the trees from where I am. Ball is laying on bare dirt less than 6 inches off the asphalt cartpath. I make nice contact off the tight lie with a 7-iron and send it sailing high and true just right of the pin, 10 feet for birdie (I was pretty happy with myself after that one). Concetrate too much on line and leave the putt 2 inches short in the jaws, AGAIN (all of my goodwill from the previous shot is now erased). PAR

Front: 37 (+2) My current index is 7.0, so this is a pretty good 9.

Hole 10- 475 yds. Par 5 (hole is dead straight, this is a birdie hole):
Weak necked Driver that I somehow got away with. 230 out from left fairway, horrible 18* Hybrid sliced into right trees, I thought the ball would be lost. Found the ball between some tree roots short and right of the green. Picked it clean off the soil with a 9-iron back in the stance under the over-hanging limbs, middle of the green to 25 feet. Solid 2-putt. PAR (+2)

Hole 11- 160 to pin. Par 3.
Hit a solid 8-iron that started at the back right pin and drew back to the center of the green. Landed with hook-spin and trickled to about 30 feet left of the hole. Hit a beautiful putt up the hill that just slid by on the low side for a tap-in, I thought it was gonna drop until the last second. PAR (+2)

Hole 12- 572 yds. Par 5:
Trouble right on this hole so I aimed left and smoked one dead straight down the left treeline. Didn't even bother lasering the distance on this one because I had overhanging limbs to deal with and a bare lie. Played a 3-wood a little back in the stance and surprised myself by absolutely puring a frozen rope under the tree to 65 yards in the middle of the fairway. Weak SW that I never really felt comfortable over to the fringe, 20 feet short of the hole. Decent putt to 4 feet behind the hole. Told myself the par putt was left edge but probably changed my mind during the through swing, pushed it over the right lip. Very disappointing. BOGEY (+3)

Hole 13- 172 yds. Par 3:
Went after an 8-iron and pulled it left of the green. Decent chip to 8 feet. Green is extremely sloped and I had to be cautious even from 8 feet, 2-putt. BOGEY (+4)

Hole 14- 391 yds. Par 4 (dogleg right, extremely tight on both sides but OB tight all the way down the right side):
I aim the Driver left and hit a solid cut but it sails into the left trees through the dogleg and settles in the left rough, 131 left. Tree problems again forcing me to try and hit a low hook under and around a tree just in front of me. I play the 7-iron way back and try to punch a hook towards the green, but the rough is thick and it doesn't hook. All in all a good shot though, I wind up pin high about 5 yards right of the green in the rough. Hit the pitch ever so slightly fat and wind up about 8 feet short of the hole. 2-putt, I'm getting frustrated and letting the wheels come off a decent round. BOGEY (+5)

Hole 15- 302 yds. Par 4 (very short but super tight around the green and uphill, not a Driver hole):
Tried to punch a tiny 21* Hybrid into the fairway and CHUNK the hell out of it. I tried to get cute and it was by far my worst swing of the day, ugh. The ball dribbled down the right edge of the fairway before settling in the rough, 177 uphill to the hole with trees encroaching on the right. I decided to go for the hero shot over the right trees with a 7-iron out of the rough. Caught it a groove thin but miraculously it found it's way through the tops of the trees I was trying to go over and landed pin high 15 feet right of the flag, extremely lucky. Left the putt on the high side and made a nice slippery 3 or 4 footer down the hill for par, definitely stole one here. PAR (+5)

Hole 16- 292 yrds. Par 4 (another really tight hole at the green, Driver is inadvisable):
Pulled a 6-iron into the left rough behind a tree. Didn't bother lasering here as I had to punch it under (or through) a tree, but it was probably about 100 yards. Punched a 7-iron through the leafy edge of the tree that wound up about 10 yards over the back and right of the green. Decent pitch to 8 feet and made a nice downhill right to lefter for the up and down. PAR (+5)

Hole 17- 187 to pin. Par 3 (way uphill):
Solid 5-iron that hooked left of the green. Awesome pitch to 18 inches. This putt was for a triple carry over against my buddy, after some good natured ribbing from him I proceed to lip it out on the right edge. Devastating, I really don't care about the skins, but I'm absolutely livid about missing that short of a putt for par on a tough hole after a great chip. Inexplicable to me how I could miss this putt, and it will no doubt be the one shot from this round that I remember for the rest of the season. Beyond reason, beyond conscience. BOGEY +(6)

Hole 18- 338 yds. Par 4 (this hole is way downhill and probably just on the edge of drivable for me if I really nut one):
Aimed right and hit a draw with the Driver, over-cooked it a bit into the rough just short and left of the green. Decent chip to about 8 feet. Drained the downhill birdie bid which made me feel just a tiny bit better about the miss on 17. BIRDIE (+5)

Final: 75 (+5)

2/13 Fairways
9/18 Greens
31 putts

The short misses are a lingering problem for me and I need to get those sorted out. Putting has been the worst part of my game this season and it puts a serious damper on scoring, even at the novice level.

Man, you guys make shooting a 75 sounds so easy. Lol if only I could emulate this.

44-48 92.

Had a frustrating back 9. My own fault. We were playing best ball for money. The rules before hand stated you had to putt everything out so there were no hard feelings etc. On 13, I was on the green in 2. I hit a terrible putt that didnt make it up the 2nd tier. Then missed my par putt to about 7 feet. Now I'm putting for bogey. I hit it to about 2 inches. And in my frustration, I scooped it up with my putter thinking I had a 6. We get to the cart and they are telling me they are making me take an 8 because the ball never went in the hole. So frustrating. Next hole I take another 8. So 2 quads ruined my back 9, but it was my putting that ruined it. Whatever.

94 out so of course I walked and carried for 18 today. Shot 89 - first time breaking 90 since starting golf in 2011. Made 1 birdie and missed birdie putts of 5' and 9', and burned the edge on a 21' birdie putt. Lagged incredibly again but sucked dick in the makeable range. Missed putts of 4', 4', 5', 5', 5', 5', 7', 9'. Made one 7' putt and one 15' putt. Unreal. The difference between my lagging and my 1-putting is absurd. I'm like Bubba Watson but with way more disparity.

Hit the best shot of my life today. 5-iron over a tree to 6 inches for birdie. This felt great after a crappy tee shot. I was gonna hit 4-iron but wind was helping and there is trouble long left and long right so I figured I had a good lie I'd rip a 5-iron and probably come up just short of the green but it's easy from there. Turns out distance was perfect and the ball settles 6" left of hole.

Super windy. I figured it was about 2 club wind maybe more. I end up hitting my first handful of approach shots into the wind long so I don't know wtf that was about. On 2nd 9 I just call it 1/2 to 1 club wind and then I come up short on my first two approaches into the wind. God dammit wtf.

1 birdie
5 pars
7 bogeys
4 doubles
1 triple
1 sand stroke
1 penalty
33 putts
1 3-putt (from 46')
4 1-putts
5/14 FIR
6 GIR

1 259 par 4
5iron in fairway, p-wedge long and left, pitch to 11' and miss +1

2 291 par 4
Good low drive under the wind in the fairway, sand wedge to 33', hammer putt 7' by and make it. +1

3 140 par 3
9i just short and left of green, Good chip to 4'. Putt is left edge and I just hit a bad putt and it burns right edge. +2.

4 377 par 4 dogleg left
I try to cut off the dogleg as usual and hit it low and it goes through the tree canopy and settles next to a tree ~180 out. This was the 5-iron I drill dead straight to 6" then tap in for birdie. +1

5 546 par 5
Hammer a good drive but it's a bit of a straight pull ~20 left of fairway. Mashed 7i over tree on inside corner of dogleg to back in the fairway. Wanted to leave myself a sand or gap wedge but hit it too far and I got a full lob left which I hate. ****ing baby my lob wedge approach and it ends up short and left. God damn. Flub my chip shot. lol. Chip to 7' then miss. Double. Unbelievable. Was looking at anything from a bird to a bogey and I make double. +3

6 376 par 4
Mash another straight pull too far and through teh minor dogleg right. I got no shot at the green because of a tree. I'm like 150 out and decide to hit a soft 4i punch up to 90-100 yards. Ball is sitting down in some soft rough and last week I tried to hit the same shot (but to the green) and the rough turned my clubhead over so I make sure to hit it firm and it goes too far and over to the right side of the fairway. Hit a sand wedge to 28', putt goes 3' by and I make it for bogey. +4

7 313 par 4
Crappy pull draw way left of fairway. I'm an 8iron out and hitting directly into the wind. ****ing hit it too far and a bit right and it bounces off the berm behind the green and settles down there with a ****ty lie. Don't know why I keep flying this green lately. Maybe their 150 marker is in the wrong spot. Crummy pitch on downhill lie to just off the green. Chip to 3' and make it for bogey. +5

8 477 par 5
Mash a drive about 270+ but it's a straight block right of the fairway. P-wedge back in the fairway to great spot. Gap wedge to 44', great lag to 3' short. Putt is right edge and I miss left. Groan. +6

9 175 par 3 **** this hole in the mother****ing *******.
4-iron left of left bunker. Downhill lie with elevated bunker in front of me to a green that slopes away from me. ****. Go for hero shot pitch over bunker and plug it into the ****ing face of the bunker over half plugged basically on a vertical face. No idea how to hit this but I keep the clubface square and hit behind the ball and just try to bash the sand and somehow the ball pops up a few feet and goes like 5 feet and settles on grass just short of fringe. Rake bunker then putt from grass down to 4' and miss that for triple. +9.

10 (same holes as front)
5i in fairway but not long. 131 out into the wind with lake short of green. I figure 9iron is enough but I don't strike it well and it lands just over lake but rolls back in. Lands on a dry (muddy) part short of the water but the green is so elevated I got nothing. Drop and take a stroke penalty. Chip to 5' and miss. +11

11
Good drive low under wind again into fairway. Sand wedge comes up just short. Chip to 5' and miss. +12

12
9iron a bit thin but on line. Lands on green and settles 9 feet. Birdie putt isn't close it dies like a foot left of hole. Par. +12

13
Murder drive over trees across dogleg into the middle of the fairway. Left with like 95 yards and plenty of wind help. Hit perfect sand wedge to 5' directly behind flag and putt burns edge. Groan. Par. +12

14
Par 5
Mash drive but it's blocked well right for some reason. Lands in an area with a sign that says you get a lateral drop in the fairway without penalty if your ball is over here as they don't want people playing from there. So I am now in teh fairway. Hit perfect 7i up into the fairway to 122 with a great line to flag. Wind helping a bit and P-wedge is a little much but **** it I hit it 37' past. Good lag to a few feet and make it for par. +12

15
****ty drive big fade short and in the other fairway. 5i approach back into the wind that I pull a bit left of green. Fat my (stock) pitch shot. Chip to 15' and am cussing at myself at this point and barely read the line and literally tell myself "It (the line from this distance or any distance outside 3 feet) just doesn't ****ing matter". Strike a putt that dies dead ****ing center. What the **** ever. Bogey. +13

16
Drive high fade wind carries way right. I just cannot hit this fairway. 9i over huge tree up just short of the green to 21'. Birdie putt burns edge. Par. +13

17 I know I'm playing well but I'm not thinking about my score or anything. I just totally **** up my final 2 holes with poor shots.

Hit a solid drive right of fairway. 9 iron back into fairway over/under trees lands in an ideal spot. Left with a sand wedge but kind of a hardpan lie. I fat-pull this shot with poor committment and it settles short/left of green now with a damn bunker to fly. Great. Pitch over bunker but it rolls back to 46'. This is almost the exact spot my 44' putt was from earlier on this hole so I feel confident. Putt goes just over the hole and settles 4' past. Again read left edge and miss amateur low side. Unbelievable. Rustled at this point. Was like 80 yards out in the fairway and I make double. +15

18 **** this hole everything about it sucks even the uneven tee box.

5-iron this time since I don't want to even reach the green/bunker if I pull it. Thin a worm burner up to like 80 yards. Fine, I'd rather hit a full wedge into this elevated green than be pitching or chipping from close. Again I fat-pull my sand wedge and it's short/left of green. Unreal...what is happening... Chip too hard and it rolls off the back of the green. Unbelievably rustled at this point. Threw my sand wedge about 100 feet. Chip with lob wedge to 3' and actually make this putt for double. +17.

Anyway overall I'm happy. It's getting to the point where a double bogey really bothers me now. I am hitting more greens and I think I've now made 9 birdies in my last 10 rounds. I could have made up to like 4 birdies today. I am making more regulation pars and saving par more often. Only 1 triple. I'm not blowing too many holes up lately. I need to work on my 1-putting from 3'-6'. It's just so bad. I think my reads are fine but my stroke is too wobbly on those short putts. I think I come across the ball.

8 of my last 10 and 9 of my last 12 rounds are HC rounds. Trending downward. Now at 25.2. Back to back net -8 rounds is nice.

Very nice!

Nice round ARC, congrats.

Thanks guys. I saw you had a good round, today, too, Brocktoon.

Honestly I'm not that thrilled with it since it took me 10 strokes just to play the final 250 yards of holes so I got a bad taste in my mouth. Really upset at how I played the last two holes and upset at all my short putt misses. "Breaking 90" is kinda cool but it's an arbitrary number and had I made some putts and not screwed up the final two holes I could have shot like sub-85. Silver lining is that eventually these 5 footers will drop and I might go low. Also hard to complain when I never practice.

No idea why but I play well in June in the heat. If I go back to 2011 most of my good rounds were in hot June weather. That's kinda why I like going out there. I feel really loose and I love that the course is mostly empty and I can really focus on everything.

Yeah, thanks. 76 on the course I played today is WAY better than my 75 on the rinky-dink track from yesterday. 3 penalties today too, fortunately I was putting like Ben Crenshaw on quaaludes.

Yeah, there are always gonna be (many) shots left on the course. I remember in Tiger's book about golf he mentioned a 59 (-13) he shot at his home course and said he made par on both of the par 5s on the back with iron into each green.

I shot my best round ever last month and after the round all I could think of was air-mailing the 15th green into a hazard and taking a double.

Breaking 90 is a nice milestone. Now that you've broken the seal, hopefully your expectations have shifted and you will start to make a habit of it.

Agreed - congrats ARC - that's a fun accomplishment when learning golf! There are days I still take breaking 90 as a victory!

Practice more!! Practice putting! Even on mat or carpet you can work on your form/stroke.

39 (par 35). No birdies, 1 double. Started double, bogey, bogey but finished strong with six straight pars. Not real sharp tonight but ground it out.

Practice Practice Practice

Im not how old all of you guys are but I do not know many players that can break 75 that didnt play alot of golf growing up as in high school, summer tourneys, college golf etc. That is when you put tons and tons of hours in since you really have no real responsibilities.

Probably a bigger accomplishment to pick up the game after college and practice 1-2 days a week and become a scratch golfer as that just sounds incredibly difficult to do

Yeah I mean ultimately the ball don't lie. I hit the shots - it's not like I wasn't trying when I hit them. And for every fat-pulled wedge and missed 5 footer I can say my 180 yard shot to 6 inches is luckbox, and all drives out of the fairway I wasn't trapped behind a bush or something. So yeah I'm happy

My previous best shot ever was also with my 5-iron. It was on a par 3 to a 140 yard uphill green playing into severe wind. I had always seemed to come up a club short on this hole (this was when I first started), so I opted for a 5-iron instead of the 6. I hit my 5-iron like 175 or more so that shows you how bad this wind was. Anyway I rip a low penetrating shot like 8 feet left of the flag that lands on the L-R slope and rolls up 18" left of the flag, pin high for the tap in birdie. This one was better though. Out of the rough, over a tree, lands just short of the green and bounces up and trickles to 6".

eight bogeys and a par. hit one freaking fWY and one green. zippity do.

Brag: Shot even par yesterday.
Beat/Variance: Nine hole par 3 course. One birdie, one bogey. Full length par 3s (shortest at 110, longest 165), so I've got that going for me.....

was that at Colwood? haven't been out there since the conversion...if so, worth playing?

speaking of 3par courses, have you ever played Sah-Hah-Lee? I played it a few years ago and thought it was pretty decent for a par 54 course for $22. just drop the ball on the deck off the tee and work on your approach shots and putts. besides, that was the first time i've ever ridden in an elevator to the driving range...how many times do you get to do that?

I played colwood a few years ago and remember wishing I had played in my backyard instead.

Lakeview is the best par 3 around I know of.

Shot 30 through six holes before the sky burst

40/44 - 84 today. Was +2 after 8 but let a lot of shots get away from me after that. Had fun playing with Shark doctor

Funny, it was actually at Sah-Hah-Lee. I didn't know they were converting Colwood, but just looked it up and it looks like it won't happen until next year. Agree with Malice, though; place is/was ****. Never played Lakeview.

Re: Sah-Hah-Lee, it was pretty funny playing it with the greens as easy as can be after playing my course's "U.S. Open" setup the Saturday before.

SPOTTS! I don't know what I shot, but I know I ended up giving you $20 by the end of it (match play FTL)

Fantastic course and (despite your killer short game), it was great playing with you. We'll do it again, and I'll bring the scotch if you agree to ride a cart.

hahah I gotta have something for when I hit it so bad off the tee. I did get up and down from a few fun places today though. I'm down with scotch-carting it next time.

+3 at the local 9-hole course. Hit three truly bad shots. Funny how that math works out.

First sub-70 round of the year today: 33-36-69 (-2) 73.3/129

Had 3 birdies no bogeys on the front, 1 birdie 2 bogeys on the back.

My goal is to get to a + handicap this season, I've never gotten lower than 0.4...I am at 1.0 now and trending to a 0.2. I qualified for the NY State Open a few weeks ago and the tournament is at the end of July. I really hope I can keep the good play up.

Lionhead legends tommorow at 7am I'm pumped!! I've been playing bad lately though so I don't expect much scoring wise. I'll let you know what I think after

Shot 97 in the stroke play event yesterday - 2 triples (holes 1 and 4) and an 11 on a par 5

Couldn't get off the tee - I only hit 5 fairways and played those 5 in +1 with a lot of good birdie opportunities but the other holes were train wrecks.

Oh well - just another 6 weeks of being very life busy before I can actually focus on practicing etc.