Wow now that's a hole in one!

41-45 = 86

Regressing to the mean, ha. I'm actually not THAT upset because overall I played well except for the blow up holes which were...weird. I had four doubles and a triple off just really odd circumstances, which admittedly do include misses I NEVER have (e.g., I flat topped a drive left into heavy stuff...can't remember last time I've done that). The triple did have some mental errors...I didn't aim far enough away from a tree and it came down smack behind the trunk.

Chalking it up as an anomaly and hoping Wednesday is better.

2.5 inches of rain last night = no golf for me today. Probably could use the days off since I played 6 in a row and have a heavy schedule of events coming up. Bad news is it's supposed to be the same weather pattern for the next week.

37 +3 for 9 holes I played just now, First 3 holes all the shots were all pretty good, Managed to get all all GIR's and approaches landed within 10-15 feet, Only managed to hole one of the Putt's for Birdie though. Made bogey on 4 and then triple on 6 and Par'ed the rest.

Walked 18 yesterday first swing in 2 weeks. Stopped keeping score halfway through. After my 4th or 5th drop I noticed that I was down to 2 good balls. Played the back without losing another.

Highlights: 3 iron from 190 found the green on 2. 3 wood went through the fairway into the dogleg woods on 4 where previously I would barely make it over the hilltop fairway about 220 yards from the back tee. Hit a par 3 green with 7 iron when guys let us play through, which always adds some pressure. Hit 4 iron center green on 190 yard par 3 playing downhill but into wind.

Putting was horrendous. But we had fun.

Here is some general advice I have/do about hitting shots in front of people and getting a little nervous.

Come up with a pre shot routine, I think this is really important to get you thinking about you're shot. Rather than focusing on the people watching and just thinking let's just get it off the tee. For me, I go up to the ball and see what type of lie I have and place the club behind the ball just to see what it looks like (If I'm not on the tee, but I will do this on the tee also),

Then I'll step about 5 paces behind the ball and then take my practice swings from this point. Once ready I'll walk up to the ball making sure my grip is good and then step into the ball with good alignment, Then swing away.

When I take my practice swings I'm mainly trying to feel the takeaway and not much else other than just loosen up a little. Practicing air shots without hitting the turf isn't the same as hitting a ball and you see it all the time where people do a good practice swing but revert back to what they are used to 2 seconds later when hitting the ball.

The only time I will stand there and hit the turf on practice swings is on pitch/chip shots and I'll do this right next to the ball.

but yeah I've been there done it all in regards hitting the very worse shots in front of people and feeling quite embarrassed. Just focusing on some fundamentals like grip, stance, alignment will probably help you focus on the shot rather than thinking about what others will think of you if you hit a bad shot.

lol, I played as a solo earlier this year and the group on hole in front of me waived at me to tee off. They all watched me top one 20 yards into the pond in front of tee box. So I drive up and just drop one 180ish out. As they are watching (or not, they probably didn't care one bit), I stuck one to 6 feet.

And away I went.....

I played a tournament last week where the first tee box was on the practice putting green. And the next group or two of guys already milling around plus the tournament official plus not wanting to chunk the driver made for my most anxious tee shot in while; little thin, bunt cut to the right rough but not the worst.

When I played Pebble we stayed in the rooms right along the first tee box, and it was great fun. People in the condos watching, plus people waiting to tee off, plus hitting your first tee shot at Pebble led to some bad drives that I'm guessing weren't normal.

38-43 = 81

Monthly stag. My putting was HORRIBLE. Greens were as fast as I've seen them, plus 20+ mph winds equaled a lot of hesitancy over speed. Everything else was great. Back nine included a triple (flubbed a tap in) and bogeys on the two very easy par 5s.

As a guy who hits the ball right to left I was a bit nervous on that tee. I ended up hitting 4 iron off of the tee and would up about 2 steps short of the bunker through the fairway.

Heh. I was hitting a draw at that point and ended up almost against the fence before the left bunkers. It went in the air, so I was happy.

41-38-79 +10

2 Birdies - 9 Pars - 3 Bogeys - 3 doubles - 1 Triple

No 3 putts and hit 10 GIR

Had 3 doubles on the front, 1st to a lost ball, 2nd was a shank on a par 3 so took 3 from the tee. 3rd due to mishit 2nd shot on long par 4 and bogey on 9th approach wind decided to **** me and put my ball in the green side bunker


Back 9 was a little better with a 3 over. Had 2 Birdies on the back also. 1 hole I messed right up and got a triple. Probs like a 150 uphill Par 3 into the wind so a little more, Took a 6 Iron shanked creeped up on me again, went into the next's hole bunker and I just thought I'd save myself some embarrassment and play 3 from the tee. Ended up with getting a 6 so not good.

40-37-77

2 birdies, 2 doubles

Nice relaxing round. Swing was overall good except for two at the wrong time. Could not make a putt until 17.

didn't shoot anything today, even though i was supposed to play the first of three rounds at Black Butte during our annual fall outing with the guys.
my back is currently ****ed and i ended up staying home

Ouch, that sucks.

Busy weekend for central Oregon trips....I oddly know three different groups going to either Black Butte or Eagle Crest this weekend.

oh that sucks RED. hope you feel better soon.

beautiful day so i left work at 11 to play 9 solo. Started with a 4 putt triple and then an ugly double. Pars and bogeys from there for a 45 which I'm happy with.

Made nice 15 footer on 9 for par.

42-42 84 yesterday afternoon. 7 greens, 7 fairways 36 putts

Weird day; was okay off the tee but not great and then just hit my short irons and wedges worse than normal and the mid and long irons better. Hit all par 3 greens in regulation with a 5-iron, 9i, 8i and 7i. Also hit greens in reg with two more 7irons and a pitching wedge and missed with pw x3 and a sand wedge. Had another couple 5i and 6i approaches; course did seem to be playing long based on tee setup and wind I guess. Putting meh; made a lot of par and bogie putts from 2-5 feet but didn't make anything else and didn't knock many stone dead so it was grindy day where you're never tapping them in.

41-37-78. No birdies, no double bogeys or worse. 70.3/123/6600 yards

Pretty solid day, just didn't make any putts to speak of. At least the lag putting was good.

33-38-71 (par 68 due to conditions

5 birdies, 3 doubles

It's pretty sad when you have that many birdies and you don't even sniff being under par. 31 putts so my only 1-putts were birdies.

88 which makes 5 of my last 6 rounds under 90. 3 doubles, 1 birdie.

36-44 80 :-/

Was -1 through 11 when the “oh **** you’re playing well” and “your best round ever is +1” thoughts started. Immediately triple bogie a shorter par 4. Bogie the 13th. Triple on 15 and doubled 18.

Hit 13 greens which I need to confirm but I’m pretty sure matches my most ever in a round. Could have made a few more birdies with a few more putts dropping. Oh well. Had a solid stretch and really just a 3 bad swings kept it from being a nice mid 70s or better round.

A feeling I know all to well

a couple of hypothetical questions:
what would your state of mind be if it were a par 62?
what would your state of mind be if it were a par 82?