played half moon bay ocean course (just south of san francisco)......

very nice and arguably very easy course.... but was quite windy and greens are very hard and very bumpy

didn't really keep score. probably high 80's to low 90's from tips.... 5 wood is really working for me these days.

Afaik, all else being equal shaving a stroke from putting would be no different than shaving a stroke off the tee or any other category. However, it should be easier to shave strokes in your weakest categories vs your strongest. For example if you average -0.5 SG putting and -4.5 SG off the tee, focusing more time with your long clubs seems logical and a more efficient use of practice time.

Guys if you could just stop making me jealous by posting in this thread for another month to month and a half I would appreciate it...have had over a foot of snow on the ground for over a month now and I have been DYING to play the last few weeks.

I'd be taking a flight down south but am getting married in a year and am in full-bore money saving mode

Thanks in advance.

Played Carlton Woods came out pretty spicy.... 5 over today not too bad.

Solid course recommend to anyone in the South
Greens were perfect

Made back-to-back birdies for the first time in my 15-year golf career today. Kind of a random, silly thing, but it felt oddly special.

Played a pretty awesome course this weekend. Awesome, but incredibly difficult by my standards lol. Cinnabar Hills in San Jose, CA. Found a great deal on golfnow so thought we'd check it out. Got there early and was surprised to find this little golf museum there. Had lots of cool memorabilia and some replica (???) trophies...












Definitely a cool place to grab a beer and hang out before our round.

There's 3 distinct 9 hole courses and you play any given combination of the three. We ended up playing the Lake and Canyon course.

On the first tee of the Lake course...


I believe this was the 3rd on the Lake course...


The 5th on the Lake course...


And this was the signature 9th Par 5 on the Canyon course. Take aim at that bare tree guarding those fairway bunkers and let 'er rip!

Overall the course was in fabulous conditions. The greens were ridiculously tough to putt on. Very fast and very tough pin placements. Would definitely recommend this course to anyone looking for scenic views and a challenging course.

Course above looks totally awesome. Jealous.

Played Washington National yesterday (where UW plays). First hole, tee shot OB, led to a triple. Second hole, par 3, chunked tee shot barely over a little waste area. This is gonna be a long day, I think to myself. Second shot, lob wedge from 60 yards, slam dunk right in the hole, never touched the green. Two holes later, 8-iron approach to 12 inches, tap-in birdie. Ended up shooting 37 on that side. Go figure.

That's a fun course, played it a bunch during college.

71 (+1) (Rating 70.3 / Slope 120)
5/13 FIR
11/18 GIR
31 putts

Strokes Gained
Tee shots: -1.30
Approaches: -2.50
Short Game: +1.90
Putting: -1.2
Recovery -0.01

Played the local muni in the rain/mist today. Made par on all 3 of the short par 5's and missed two 4-footers .

played ocean course at ritz carlton half moon bay (south of san francisco). $45 for 2 hours plus of twilight play with 3 holes on the ocean. glorious weather.... played 16 through 18 in the sunset. very very beautiful. couldn't have a better golf experience.

didn't keep score as hadn't played much recently and playing by myself. no driving range either.

greens were horrendous. very very bumpy. very bad in certain spots. and when i say bad. very very bad by municipal golf standards.... not good.

bought 3 wood callaway xhot. wow, what a club... i think i hit it better (and further) than any driver.... gonna look into xhot 22 degree hybrid.. already have the xhot deep 3w. might use that as my driver. ball rolls forever.

played with a power cart, which i almost never do.. not sure i was that much quicker than without on. the paths aren't that close to the greens. i should benchmark it by playing twilight next time without a cart.

really fixed my irons.. but of course now my driver is kinda poor.... had practiced my short game a lot but very predictably couldn't take it to the course.

very good experience.. half moon bay staff are so nice and accommodating. very easy-going for a high end resort course

@patroni, heard good thing about cinnabar (san jose).

photos remind me of san juan oaks (hollister down on way to monterrey) and wente (livermore in the east bay)

Half Moon Bay Ocean course is soooo nice. Played it last year and we got glorious weather which made it even better. We didn't experience any of the bad greens. We actually played it the weekend before they had qualifiers for the Women's US Open so the course was in pristine shape. I definitely want to play the Old Course this year.

I have played at Wente and it is very similar. Also very similar to The Bridges in San Ramon in that it requires some target golf, forced carries and such. I've never played San Juan Oaks, I'll have to check it out sometime. Definitely give Cinnabar Hills a shot, I think you'd enjoy it.

hey, thx for comments......

wasn't the us open qualifier on the Old Course, not the Ocean Course?... i think an 11 year old shot 67 or something like that. might have details wrong but idea is right. it is her home course, but still freakish result.

with a fore caddy, you could shoot a really good score at the ocean course. but balls are really really hard to find if they get in the rough (not just fairways but around greens too)

i want to try cinnabar and bridges... i don't live in SF bay area, just visit a lot.

san juan oaks is really nice and i think affordable. kinda out of the way though unless you are starting in SJ......

i can't stress enough how helpful golf shack, starters and golf shop people are at HMB...... contrast with Bandon Dunes which is 100% anal retentive, all the while telling you how much better and more easy going (LOL) it is than pebble beach (i told them, "you know it's funny, i played pebble two different times and no one mentioned Bandon even once"

I think you're right actually, it was on the Old Course. Still, they the Ocean Course in pretty good shape. There were all kinds of college age girls playing that day too. Had a couple cute ones in the group ahead of us haha.

And yeah, that 11 year old girl dominated that course. So sick..

Definitely give Cinnabar and The Bridges a go next time you're around. You won't be disappointed by either one if you were a fan of Wente.

Cinnabar was my go to course when I lived in sj. Best public course in the area IMO. Looks to be in great shape. Can get really tough in the afternoons w the wind. Some of those tee shots can be bombed in the summer w a tailwind. I was 20 yds off the green on lake 3 one time. Really fun course.

Fitted and ordered Ping G30s today. Looking forward to posting in this thread. Haven't played in the last 5+ years and it's time to start again.

71 (+1) (Rating 70.3 / Slope 120)
3/13 FIR
14/18 GIR
34 putts

Strokes Gained
Tee shots: -3.3
Approaches: +2.6
Short Game: +0.3
Putting: -4.0


Local muni again. Putting has gotten downright awful lately. My jumbo grip experiment is now over lol (gave it about 4 rounds), just have no feel on mid/long putts, especially if the greens are slippery.

Played in wet, decently windy weather with a hurt finger not expecting much after a couple of week layoff.

+4 through 12 amazingly, then went bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey for an 81. Shoot me.

Not as bad as what I did once.

Through 12 -1 (6 birdies, including 4 in a row), then go double, bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, double, +7 79.

I was once -3 through 15 and shot 76 (+4) with a par on 17.

Ouch. My worst was E thru 14. Shot 77 (+6) for my first sub-80 round on my home course.

104 - First round in 8 years. New everything. One saving grace was the putter as I made everything inside of 6 feet. Not a whole of good other than that. Goal is to be back in the 80s by the end of the Summer.

87... pretty easy course.... 41-46.

squamish golf course. fyi for vancovuer golfer, squamish is very good shape already. greens are pretty nice and not that wet. sort of hard on top but more moisture than you can see if that makes sense

driving - 7.5/10...... pretty straight but some kind of power leak. have been swinging alot harder (or at least much faster tempo). might put the S flex driver back in back. i play S for everything else.

FW/long irons - 8/10... not that many of them anyway. playing the whites. pretty short (although pretty wet too)... adding 7 wood has been a great decision

irons - 7/10.... generally good. worked out something important. hadn't played or swung that much recently. early on 6/10. later 9/10

pitching - 5/10 ....... still some yips and problems. might need lessons here (and would help elsewhere).

chipping - N/A.... pretty high on the GIR (10 or 11) and then the misses on harder holes were often beyond chipping

lag putting 6/10 .... trying something new. didn't like it. ....for some reason couldn't really see the breaks that well. i don't think the grass is growing, i wonder if that's an issue (i.e. can't see the blades/grain/etc.)....

short putting MINUS 10.............. tried something new. and in fairness to myself i stuck with it. i hate trying things off-season and then ditching them after 3 holes. stick with it longer and i think at least you'll learn something............ basically i increased my tempo alot and ended up pulling everything. something i've battled some in the past. either slow down tempo or adjust for the pull (which i don't think is that bad an idea)

course management - largely irrelevent............. only thing is that i was hitting callaway 3deep FW really well off the tee then went to driver (a couple of bad shots, some really good ones too) and then never went back to 3deep......... it's like i'm a creature of habit. i do X or Y but don't alternate. same with swing changes. i do something to help my irons alot but it makes other parts of my game worse. i'm either "black or white" it seems, no in-between. another area i think lessons would help.

what bit me

hole
2 chunked 8 iron. 15 yards short. 1 stroke (iron)

4 pushed drive a bit. difficult approach. bogey. 1 stroke (blame drive)

5 hit par 3 tee shot on green but couldn't putt to hole. 1 stroke (but just one of those things)

6 chunk 7 iron into water... 2 strokes iron

9 3 putt from 40 feet. approach could have been closer. but blame putting 1 stroke

10 chunk pitch. poor chip. 3 putt..... 1.5 stroke pitch/chip. 1 stroke putt

11 3 putt... 1 stroke putt.

12 hole high in 2 on par 5. disaster from there. double... pitch chip 2 storkes.

13 chunk pitch. bad lie. bad drive 0.5. bad pitch 0.5

14 3 putt 1 putt

15 missed drive drive 1 shot.

16 misclub tee shot but escaped harm. 3 putt.... 1 shot putt.

17 chunk pitch

18 tough hole. not the best drive 0.5 strokes.

ok time to tally...

irons 3 strokes (but all pretty early)
driving 2.5 strokes.
putting 5 strokes
putt/chip 5 strokes....

so that's 15.5 strokes.. i just put down one bogey to "one of those things."... i may have miscounted slightly but i think the idea is ok... think i should be able to get all 4 of those categories way down. maybe the driving is minimally ok.

Been a bit since I've posted.
Last 4 rounds:

Score / Rating / Slope
76 (+6) 70.3 120
73 (+1) 74.8 139
74 (+2) 76.4 138
70 (-2) 73.4 136

Trending in the right direction w/ 3 negative differentials in a row Hitting the ball really good the last 3 rounds, but the putting is still holding me back. Missing waaaay too many putts from 4-10 feet. Strokes gained wise I've lost an avg. of 2.1 strokes per round in the last 4

Time to put some serious work in on the practice green.

played 18 holes twilight at squamish golf course, 40 minutes north of vancouver on way to whistler.... excellent course, awesome conditions considering time of year. ground was a little soggy so some adventures on approach shots.

played two balls.......... and i played yesterday (93... yuckfest).

i shot 170 strokes for the 36 holes. so averages 85 strokes. was more like 89 and 81 for the first 18 hole-balls vs. the second 18 hole-balls. i made some good changes in my game. EDIT: this math is sorta off but i really improved after the change.

i also did something yesterday and today.... i classified each tee shot as good or bad or ok. surprisingly not that many are ok. the ok ones i gave half weight to good and bad.

anyway, yesterday i was almost 50% 50% good vs. bad tee shots. on the good tee shots i was +5, on the bad tee shots i was +16 or similar. goes to show that tee shot is so important.

on to today,

i screwed around as normal for the first 6 holes (times 2 balls) and i think i played +11. a nightmare in the trees for both balls on 1 hole.

then i decided to widen my stance (which i know works but narrow just feels so much better). next 9 holes (2 balls) i was +9 (included 3 putting a 15 foot birdie putt and some other wasted strokes).... then i had a rough two hole stretch and then finished like a pro with 2 pars.

anyway, widening stance really works... after the changes in my swing almost everything was good. need to calibrate my short game a bit but that will come.

something that is working really well is delofting 4 iron like crazy and using it to get under tree and advance the ball 150 yards. worked like a charm.

i think this widening stance is really good to work. and if i play alot in the short term i think it will let me figure out the right fundamentals and then i will be able to practice properly.. at least that's the plan

pretty exciting by my play after i widened my stance.