played a course I had not for a couple of years here in NorCal, it was in great shape after punching greens 6 weeks ago, they were slick

shot 77 (39-38) damn driver still not consistent, either crush it or hit some to the right, chipping and putting on point, irons pretty decent

40-41=81

The course was very wet and the greens slow but I was very average. I had 31 putts with two doubles and two birdies. Just getting into the groove.

Practice round for my member/member tournament. As a team net ball we shot 69 which was not even close to the money. 59 won it. As for me I shot 48-42--90. Started out with a 10 on the 1st hole.

1st - pull hook OB onto the driving range tee. Drive up and it landed a foot away from our teaching pro. That was fine because he bailed on our scramble event Sunday.

3 - Caught ground first but in the fairway.
4 - 8 irorn lay up to 150y
5 - 153 y and I pure a 9 iron...right into the back lip of the bunker behind the green.
6 - Get it out of the lip still in bunker
7 - On the green
8-9-10 - Putt, putt, putt

They had the course set-up interesting including 2 driveable par 4's. 2nd was 277y where my drive was past hole high. 5th was around 250y (forget exact yardage) where I had to throttle down had hit 3 wood, on the upslope of the green just short.

23 stablford points.

St Georges day competition a big event. I started with a par and then one thing after another kept degrading until I finished with two blobs pulling two drives left off the course.

1 par, 6 bogeys, 6 doubles, 5 worse.

43-44-87. No birdies, 4 double bogeys.

A dreary succession of misplays. Short game continues to be wretched. On the plus side I did actually compress the ball on a couple iron shorts for once and did have a couple good looks at birdie.

Still ~ zero for the season at getting out of the bunker on to the green. 1 blade way OB, several just out but short of the surface.

2-man tournament today.

Front 9 modified alternate shot. Both tee off and you take best one and alternate from there. Shot 39. With our handicap we shot 33.6. Yes, decimal points.

Back 9 shamble. We shot 34 net.

Total 67.6 good for 6th of 6 in our flight after day 1. Scores are 61,63,64,65,66,67 so still pretty close.

Tomorrow is best ball net.

Highlight of the day was my tee shot on a short par 4.



Eagle putt burned the edge. Tap-in birdie.

41-42-83 Boulder Creek Vegas

Ted to green getting better and better. 2nd straight round where I have not lost a ball or hit a truly bad shot.

Knocked in a few 3-10 footers for par. Missed a few longer birdie putts. One double. Chipping wasn't great...should've gotten up and Dow 3 or 4 times and I didn't.

Sooner or later, I'm going to start scoring...

41-40=81

2 birdies, 1 double, 1 triple

The good news is my lag putting is improving. Only 1 three putt and it was a 30 footer with 8' of break.

2 really bad swings that both caused penalties. I need to work on my 40, 50, 60 yard shots. They are killing me. Fix those and I'll break 80 soon.

Day 2 of tournament, 2 man best ball low net.
Me: 11 shots
Partner: 9 shots

I shot 86 and partner shot 79 gross. We shot 67 net, good for last in our flight.

We both played the same holes good today which doesn't do anything for the scorecard.

Only played 13 holes due to a junior competition.

Much the same as yesterday. Can't putt although I was having a bit of successes by getting my right arm away from my body in a way that feels weird and likely to fall apart under any pressure. Hooking the ball off the tee on six holes and getting punished for it on five of them.

3 Pars, 2 Bogeys, 4 Doubles, 4 Worse.

Finally hit the ball decent. Par 70

38 - 36 = 74
31 putts with 2 3 putts
10/14 FIR
9/18 GIR
2 birdies no doubles


side note finally bought a laser, not sure how I lived with out one. Hit the pin from 103 with it.

Always pack extra batteries. You will (soon) be completely lost without it.

Bears Best today in Vegas...

Holy crap was the wind insane. Easily the strongest wind I have ever played in. And it was swirly and inconstant. It would stop for no reason or change directions on a whim. Really made tr quite a challenge - but it was fun! One time, the ball blew off the tee before I could swing at it.

44-40-84

not a great score, but I was thrilled it wasn't higher. One birdie, two doubles. I am hitting the ball as well as I ever have in my life. Looking forward to finally moving into the 70s...it's about to happen...any day now....

That's a hell of a throw.

Played my 1st 9 of the year with my 8-yr old son while visiting the in-laws in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Mirasol Sunrise Course Front 9
135/73
15-20 mph winds gusting to 30+

Shot 44
1. Double (wind played a factor)
2-5. Par (2 sick saves, 2 meh non-birdies)
6. Quad (OB tee shot, wind hurt, but not thaaaaat badly)
7. Par
8-9. 3-putt Bogeys

All in all, I hit solid shots. Mid season, that's easily in the 39 range.

damn good thing he had accurate yardage (and bo jackson's arm)

touch wood.... game is starting to come around....

83 with a triple bogey.... and could have been much better... suppose it could have been worse too.

what has helped me?.... i will note we have now moved from muddy damp winter conditions to damp spring conditions. that helped right there

took a lesson and while pro's drills etc. didn't work yet his general idea stuck with me... wasn't turning my hips enough or early enough in downswing. might have had to do with too wide a stance which was one of my really key "band-aid" fixes..... now i channel rory type rotation on downswing.

because of that, driving and most long-shots are very very good.

fixed wedges somewhat......... but also went to "old-man" bump/run chipping/pitching to a certain degree... i saw an old TW instructional article where he talks about loving chipping and bump/run pitching with 4 iron. so if he can do it, so can i.

some better course management... i think it comes naturally when you play well..... no 3 putts or missed up-downs under 70 feet so that was nice

intended improvements:

1) drive ball further.... too many par 4's where ok drive, long approach leaves me 10 to 20 yards off green, decent chip/pitch to 12-14 feet. miss putt....... i figure longer drive would fix this really well and is realistically do-able (although i'll be moving to blues in time, so might be same issue)

2) irons still not great.. inconsistent results

3) ditto #2 for wedges...

4) groove allignment on shorter putts.

really good driving, longer clubs, simple chip/pitches and lag putting.....

33 putts on my good 83 score.................... what's a good number? bumpy, municipal greens that are very large with alot of undulation.... so i'm 3 under putting, 14 over tee-to-green.

did some mental math........... a good pro putting number would be 27 or so? is that right? maybe 29 (see next paragraph for both)

i assume 12 GIR but made 2 par 5's in 2 strokes... so that would be 4 over on long game and 9 under on putting = minus 5? ... if he does 15 GIR and one par 5 in 2 strokes, then that would be minus 7 on putting?................ and of course GIR and number of putts should be negatively correlated.

looks like pga putting leader (stricker) is 27.25 putts.......... #100 = 29 putts.

so 29 looks to be the average number. probably 25-26 in a round is really low.

i do realize it'll depend on course and your average will depend on tournament selection.

I would think average putts per GIR would be a better stat to look at.

Total putts is a fairly worthless stat. I still track it though since it is easy.

And strokes gained even better than that.

83 on Sunday. Best round so far this season. Had 7 reasonable birdie putts (5 to 12 feet) and missed them all.

Was pretty happy with ball striking and distance control.

44 (par 35). No birdies, 2 double bogeys. Awful. There were no good shots. The only reason the score was that good was the easy course setup.

41-48-89

Started the front with back to back doubles off errant drives, one oob needed a drop. Despite that it was easily my best 9hole score ever. The back was scattered with errant drives and chips. Approaches and putts were on point tho!