You ever play down in Lawton? Do they still have a Firecracker tournament every July 4th week?

80.

Move back one set of tees? Check.
Putt left-handed after string of miserable days with the evil flat stick? Check.
Make two birdies vs. zero yesterday putting normally? Check.
Improve score by two shots? Uh, check.

Sigh.

I did successfully escape from two bunkers without incident (usually a serious weak point, I have a very shallow swing) and the "new" 60 degree wedge (from the basement) worked nicely to get up and down from the short side a couple times, so there is that.

Edit: Oh, yeah, I saw a guy hit a 3 yard drive today. He took a mighty rip and the club made that solid titanium 'tink', but he must have driven it straight into the ground, because the ball didn't even make it off the tee box. LOL worthy.

shot a nice 36 this evening on the front nine. i wouldnt normally post for that but i had my first hole out from the sand today. its weird it took 7 years for me to get this. i havent spent much time in the sand i guess.

Congrats Clark!

Played Wente today...the site of the Nationwide event in Livermore. Flirted with breaking 90 from the blues (par 72, 71.6/131/6259) until blowing up on the last 3 holes. 6-6-9 on 3 par-4s for 94. Ugh.

I'm pretty sure that is a Norman design. And that there are some green-to-tee walks that had the cart in mind...

though its only about an hour and a half, i have never played down in lawton, between courses around here and then okc only hour away, we never go down that way so i guess I cant answer your question do you still live anywhere in oklahoma?

Thanks guys. I really feel that I'm making real progress, and so far the numbers seem to bear that out. I'd love to have a nice stretch of 10 rounds under 100, that would really make me feel like I've turned the corner. Lessons in my future too. Thinking of getting a 10 pack for $900 at TPC.

I had plenty of "drives" that went to the gold tees.

Today was my first 18 holes of golf. Last time I actually hit a ball.... uhh, 5 years ago? I didn't even get to use the range or anything before going out.

I shot around 120 (Unsure of my score on 1 hole and a couple of other holes might have been +/- 1) I'm awful at chipping. On one hole, I was like 8 feet from the green and it took 4 strokes to get on. I did make two pars, so that was pretty cool. I was expecting much worse.

My hands are fkn sore... feels like I'm a grandma with arthritis. Standard or gripping too tight?

What are the numbers in parenthesis?

No. I grew up there (Norman, and then Lawton), but I haven't been there in years. They used to have a big tournament at the Lawton Country Club called the Firecracker. Back in the 70s and 80s it was a big calcutta and most of the best amateurs in Texas and Oklahoma would play there (for "under the table" reasons), along with hacks like me. I think Willie Wood won it a few times, and Grant Waite won it the last year I played (early 90's?). I was just curious about whether it still existed.

Back when I was last out there, the OU course was a goat-ranch, but I heard they've completely redone it?

Shot 87 on a course called Lexington Oaks.


Brag: One birdie, no triples.

Brag: One drive 305, several in the 285-295 range.

Brag: Dropped 2 putts over 25ft.

Beat: Missed 3 putts inside 5 ft.

Variance: $15 twilight round, doubled price with beer.

88, 52 of these were from within 25 yards. My short game sucks

I believe you commented in one of my threads about my publinks qualifier or my bent grass greens thread, but that was for the tournament at the OU course, it is in amazing shape and has been redone at least twice in past 15 years....they will be hosting the 2009 Publinx Championship

hard as hell....lol

Yes. The path between 9 and 10 is called "Lombard Street". We were wondering how they shuttle fans/players up there during the tourney. Big uphill hike to #1, and IIRC, there was a bit of a walk between 12 and 13.

As an aside, I may have taken 21 on the last three holes anyway, but I've had several rounds where my card looks like a bad/obvious sandbagger. Part of it has to be poor conditioning, but I have a lot of rounds like this when I don't eat anything which may be lolobvious, but it happens a lot.

That's a tough crowd harassing you for the "well placed doubles" at the last after the action has been resolved. Sometimes you are on fumes at the end. But I do have to chuckle about "almost broke 90 from the back"-- dude, you were headed for 85. The claret jug was already being engraved.

so what exactly did you shoot in the qualifier?

Meh, the "normal" back tees are gold (73.9/141/6837), and the tournament tees are black (hard/ridiculous/superlong). The black tees weren't in the ground yesterday.

85 was never a realistic result - the last 3 holes are 372-400-412, playing into the wind, and I'm a short hitter. I'm not parring in there, like, ever.

You have an internet account, so you must hit it 300.

Show me three fives for chrissakes. Double, double, quintuple? Clean the vomit off your shirt.

eta: i'm kidding.

lets just say when you miss qualifying by about 4 shots and have a 12 on a par 5 it leaves you a little upset....lol

think like 149 total......79-70? obviously the 12 came in the first round....

lose tee shot, drop 2, hit 3 to fairway, hit 4 to right lose it in native grass, drop 5, hit 6 to left lose it in native grass, drop 7, hit 8-12 to get the ball in the hole...............instant golf tilt...lol

2nd round was prolly round of my life cause its harder than my home course

Congrats on the 89 Clark! I'm still working on my first official <90. It's going to take longer now that I moved to the back tees

Shot a 49 on the back from the tips today. 19 putts -_-, 1 penalty, 2/7 FIR (really low for me), 2/9 GIR.

Looking at those stats it's amazing I scored as low as I did. The 11th was really interesting. It's a 180 yard par 3 and I hit two consecutive perfect 4 irons into a power line. The 3rd one went onto the green so I got a GIR and continued to 4 putt the hole for a double bogey

Oh yeah, one more weird thing happened to me. When I went to play the front 9, it was so slow and I was alone so I started playing 2 balls at the 2nd hole (which is why I didn't score the front side). It's a 200 yard par 3. I used a 5 wood and hit the first one just short of the green. The 2nd one was a beautifully hit ball with good trajectory and it looked like it was heading right at the flag. I look down at the green waiting to see it drop, but I never do. I have so much extra time that I got to spend about 10 minutes looking for it, and I couldn't find it. Where the hell did it go? I would have needed to hit it 275 to clear the fence past the next tee box and into the highway.

wow that is very impressive for having a 12. good lord. i think 10 is as high as i go, though in highschool one of my teammates made a 13 on a very easy 135 yard par 3.

yea except for that one hole, i played out my ass that whole day......hadnt shot better than 78 any of the practice rounds i played before hand, had putts go in that day

Of course you shoot 89 two days after we get killed in our match with gonores and sethypooh.

I shot 98 at Revere at Anthem Concord (don't remember the splits) with triples on 9 and 18. 18 was frustrating -- I was over the green in a bunker in three, but the bunker was all washed out and rather than dropping and taking an unplayable, I attempted two shots out of there and got nowhere. Then I dropped, chipped on, and made a 12-footer for 8.

55-44=99 at Bear's Best, including a great par on 18 that pushed the back side of our Nassau. Three-wood to just off the fairway, three-wood from about 215 to just off the green, nearly chipped in, kick-in par.

Thanks to the Clarkmeister for letting me borrow a set of clubs, and for possibly helping me find new fairway metals -- mine are really old, and I hit his Calloway Burner three-wood very well during both rounds.

EDIT: I just went and looked at the card, and it was 50-47=97 at Anthem.

Taylor Made Burner, not Callaway.

Was fun having like two of the only four crappy golfers in this thread playing together.

Needless to say, Dougie lost the maximum during my 89, despite a solid 91 from him.

And, yeah, you were sick automatic 215-220 down the middle with that club.

37-43 = 80

interesting round:

first of all, there was a threesome in front of us playing from the tips, and i'm sure that none of them could break 90. we waited on every shot, which is pretty standard at this course, except that we had a threesome of pretty solid juniors (one 12 or so, the others 16 or 17) behind us, one of whose dads was walking (not playing) with them.

hole #5 is a short par 5 downhill. we're putting on the green with the pin in the back left when a ball falls way out of the sky towards the back of the green. it takes two bounces and hits my dad's foot. the juniors are on the top of the hill about 210 out, we yell at them, they apologize. as we finish our putting the dad comes down the hill, yells at us (wtf?!) in broken english says that the kid hit 5 iron from 210 and didn't think he could get there (double wtf?!?!) and says that we shouldn't yell at them because they're juniors (triple wtf?!?!). we're all pretty pissed and start yelling at him. he starts getting aggressive and swearing at us, there's really not a lot we can do because i don't feel like beating the **** out of some 55 year old asian guy six inches and sixty pounds lighter than me.

funnily enough, three holes later, we've just teed off on a par three when we see the marshall come up to the teebox. the group behind us starts talking to him as we're walking away, and the dad is pointing at us and doubtless making up some sort of bull**** story. the marshall drives up to the green, and i'm getting ready to tell him what really happened when he apologizes for the group behind us. i tell him that the kids aren't so bad but the dad is a total dick and shouldn't be allowed on the course, he agrees with me and says that the dad is crazy.

anyways all of this doesn't distract me too much and i shoot 1 over on the front, which i am thrilled with.

i manage to play really sloppy and miss a bunch of easy birdie putts to get to +6 with 2 to go. on hole number 17 i bomb a drive but it barely goes into the trees. i punch it out through branches and see it barely run onto the green from about 110 out, which i'm pretty thrilled about. i think the ball is close to the pin but maybe a little short. anyways, i'm walking towards the uphill green when a ****ing huge eagle lands on the green. this is pretty cool, except that he picks up a ball (one other guy is already on), and starts trying to run away with it. apparently eagle talons are not well suited to golf ball transport, and he keeps dropping it. i ignore the potential dangers of threatening a bird with huge claws and the fines and jail time that would doubtless follow were i to harm the slightest feather on its head and run towards it swinging my lob wedge in the air. it tries one last time to abscond with my ball but fails, leaving it in the rough, and takes refuge in the nearest tree. i try to replace my ball but i have no real clue where it was originally, since the green is so uphill, and my dad says that he thought the eagle had it first at the back right of the green, which seems very wrong given how the ball was travelling towards the hole. in good faith i replace my ball where he suggests, even though i don't trust his perspective given where he was, and i think that my ball was in a much closer/much easier location. of course i three putt from this horrible horrible spot. **** eagles.

i then need to par the par 5 18th to break 80. i bomb a drive to 205 out in the light rough, the green is uphill and over a ravine, i hit a 4 iron as hard as i can, it carries the ravine, bounces left off the green and into a creek. i end up taking bogey for 80. **** golf.