played 5 holes, had 3 pars which is great for me(13 hdc), got up to 60 today but still some snow on the ground. had to have 3 guys push the cart out of the snow in one spot.

First round today after a 4.5 month layoff and with an almost entirely new set of clubs after a theft (only the putter was used in a round before). Played Coyote Creek - Tournament Course from the whites (132/72.3) in about a 20 mph wind and shot exactly 90. Pretty happy with that.

50-63-113 Primm Valley Resort
53-46-99 Bear's Best
48-56-104 Revere at Anthem Lexington
50-53-103 Wolf Paiute
45-59-104 Lost Canyons Sky
55-62-117 Lost Canyon Shadow
54-54-108 Badlands

No summary. I suck.

Had a two day tournament at Papago, the municipal course near me. It's going to be closed soon for a semi Bethpage Black / Torrey Pines remodeling. It certainly has the right piece of land and layout to get into those class of courses, but I don't think they're budgeting enough to pull it off. The greens are excellent and the fairways are overseeded and decent for all the play they get but the facilities are run-down.

Managed to go 0-3-1 in my four nine-hole matches. Well, the first three, all losses, I was shackled with a friend of mine who is about a 15 handicap who basically buried us in all three rounds: best ball, alternate shot, and high-low. Freed of him I won the first two holes in my individual match but gave both back with really horrendous bogeys on 12 and 14, then had to make a five footer on 15 to stay all square. Then I nutted up and birdied the difficult 16th to go one up, only to give it back on 17 with an unbelievably pathetic double bogey (he bogeyed, all I had to do was bogey the goddamned hole to go dormie). Then on 18 he hit it right into a wash and had a really brutal lie but hit a wonderful shot to get it on the green about 40 feet and then nearly holed the putt, so good on him. I destroyed a drive, cutting the corner so hard I had maybe 75 yards in but knocked it perhaps 20 feet past and just missed the putt. All in all a feel-good halve since our team had already lost.

75 today, greens at this place were awful, missed so many 5-6 footers due to the plinko effect. never playing there again.

50-63-113 Primm Valley Resort
53-46-99 Bear's Best
48-56-104 Revere at Anthem Lexington
50-53-103 Wolf Paiute
45-59-104 Lost Canyons Sky
55-62-117 Lost Canyon Shadow
54-54-108 Badlands
50-50-100 Rio Secco

I think I went 0-7 on 3 to 6 footers. Broke my 8-iron too. So bad.

79, hit 1 good iron shot to 5 feet for a birdie. missed 2 fairways, hit 7 greens. baaaad.

Played 9 holes, shot a 40 with a water triple bogey, otherwise was hitting it well and putted good.

Clark, I gotta give credit to someone who loves the game this much while playing this bad!

Tuq,

I was in some desert area and rather than drop, I took a hack and bent it on a boulder that I didn't think would be an issue. I don't really rage, not my personality.

Sooner,

Yeah, it's pretty sad.

those scores are obtained by cheating btw, he doesnt play lost balls by the rules.

I've inferred from a couple of your posts that you play from the tips, or the next set of tees from the tips...is this accurate?

Generally we play about 6,500 yards.

Ah well, that's not crazy...where do you give up most of the shots? I'm not a good player, but I really believe just about anyone who can hit the ball can be playing in the 90s just by managing the course.

Take a bottle of JD and jave tup meet you in St. George for some lessons.

I'm the worst putter ever is a huge part of it. That, and the fact that I'm really short off the tee, though the rest of my distances are pretty "normal". I hit a 7-iron about 150, my 3-wood off the fairway or a tee about 210. But I only drive the ball about 220.

I don't think that distance off the tee is the end of the world, as long as it ends up in play. I'm sure the good players can be more helpful, but I'm a big fan of practicing lag putts while looking at the hole, not the ball. I know different sensory inputs work for different people, but that seemed to help judging distances a lot. (Of course, now that I took the time to type that, I'll have 45 putts in my next round...)

I might hit my driver 240ish, 260 when I really tag it, and I hit my irons worse--a 7 tends to go 140, often less. I do tend to shoot ~15 strokes lower than you.

I know you play a lot, from your posts and your updates to this thread....do you practice? I mean, where are you wasting shots? I think, personally, I prob give up 5-6 by not making sure I'm aligned, gripped, set-up well. Then there's the issue that my pitching isn't that good. I putt ok, maybe 34/round, prob about average for a weekend hacker.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: where are you wasting shots? What are you doing to improve? Your distances seems fine, and given how often you play those lengths are certainly enough to bring you into the mid-90's, I'd think.

Just came across this Tuq and I think what you did is awesome. I understand why you would feel a little bad(I have been there), but being cheap like that is so disrespectful. Good riddance to these people.

Putting is definitely PE#1. I'd guess my o/u on putts in a round is 40.5, with the big culprit being the 2-10 foot range. We putt everything (no gimmes), so that just exacerbates things. And obviously there's no excuse to not be better there.

Don't really practice, though I do pretty typically hit the range a full hour before tee time and hit a ton of balls.

My chipping is fine generally, as is my sand game. Really, I should score better than I do, and that's largely due to putting.

I'm not very good but I'm offering advice anyways: split your hour-before practice time between long game and short.

And practice putting! Maybe take a putting lesson, or play money games with friends on the putting green. Whatever you have to do....

how much time do you spend putting before the round?

now reverse that with the amount of time spent hitting balls. on the range before a round you should be doing anything but getting loosened up.

tigers putting warmup is sick and i'd recommend it for anyone.

My opinion on this (not that it means anything) is: You shouldn't have to owe more just because you won something, unless it is a regular part of the game (in my old group the biggest winner of the day bought the first round of drinks). If you're throwing money in to compete, then the competition is separate from the drinks. Otoh, everyone has to pay their fair share for drinks and any stiffs should be called out. In Tuq's case, I'd be more concerned that an ex-professional claimed to be a 6 and shot a 71. He should've forfeited his win just based on that and bought all of the drinks. If he doesn't come back, no big loss.

more info plz.

This is just hard to imagine from what I remember from your scores. I've played with guys who were ~20 HDCP for years (meaning they average roughly in the high 90s) and I'm a notorious scorecard snob who usually tracks everyone's putts and even then don't remember people having much more than 36, ever. In fact putting was the one thing that they were closest to me with as they tended to lose most of their strokes to me getting to and particularly around the green. I probably average in the 30-31 range and they were probably in the 33-34 range. Granted, they hit fewer greens. It's possible but not likely that you hit a disproportionate amount of greens for your skill level.

As for the money thing, one factor is that the ex-pro is a guy we really like who was new to playing with us and we didn't believe he was sandbagging. I heard a few years ago that he was a ~1-2 handicap so I could believe over a few years of limited or no play that he could be a six. However, our group has the memory of an elephant and won't be letting him off that easy next time, and we tend to punish people who don't have established 'caps.

The guy who didn't want to kick in extra, it turns out he is a huge prick and even the guy that invited him said he was a PITA that day on the course and won't be invited back.

2008 Rounds

50-63-113 Primm Valley Resort
53-46-99 Bear's Best
48-56-104 Revere at Anthem Lexington
50-53-103 Wolf Paiute
45-59-104 Lost Canyons Sky
55-62-117 Lost Canyon Shadow
54-54-108 Badlands
50-50-100 Rio Secco
46-53-99 Revere at Anthem Lexington

Counted putts after thread discussion earlier. 43 regulation putts, though an additional 3 that were like an inch into the fringe would bring it to 46. Yes, I'm horrid.