We've had the opposite problem....too hot. When I hit balls before my round on Saturday morning, it felt too hot at 7:15. Thankfully a small breeze came in and made it bearable.

But "too hot" is all relative....

Congrats on the nice round, Porter. I also had a milestone round yesterday.

39-38-77 for my new PB (previously 78 from late last year where I finished bird-bird-bird).

2 birdies, 2 doubles, 3 bogeys. Was even par on the back but doubled 18. Both my doubles were unfortunate lies on second shots, the first my ball did not roll down into a bunker and gave me an impossible stance, and on 18 I was too close to the back lip of a fairway bunker.

Can't express how important it is for me to be in play off the tee. With Oosthuizen's recent airtime I had been watching his swing a lot and have tried to channel his tempo and balance and everything. Driver and irons have been vastly improving over the last couple weeks and I have put back on a lot of distance with both.

Also I was quite aware of how I was playing but managed to keep it all together, albeit a bit patchy on 18.

Nice well played ^^^^


39-41-80 Par 69

Just a average day with every part of my game except for pitching inside like 50 yards I was pretty good.

Need to work on getting a better turn I know what I want to try and do but I haven't practiced it enough to bring it out on the course defo need a range session. Also need to keep my bloody ball from spinning to oblivion. Had a faint wind today and it was into on 3 holes you need a semi decent drive, All 3 spun up so high I got no distance.

Nice round. Not me.

42-44-86 - No birdies, many doubles.

Legit my worst round in a long time. Lack of interest and a really late arrival were contributing factors. I need to get my **** figured out. 10 days til my 40+ event. Just once I would like to not suck in the opening round.

catching up after a few days...nice work Porter and bebe!

44 (par 36). No birdies, 2 double bogeys.

Didn't miss a green by more than 15 feet, which should paint a nice picture of just how ****ing awful my chipping and putting was.

37-39-76

3 birdies, 1 double

Greens were in pristine condition this morning, leading to some made putts.

Holes 1-8: even
Holes 9-10: +3
Holes 11-16: -1
Holes 17-18: +2

38

1 eagle, 4 bogey

10 inches of rain the last 3 days so I went to a sister course on other side of town where it was much drier. Eagle was Driver, 3 hybrid to 25 feet and made the putt. The greens over there are just pure. Smooth and fast.

47-37-84, tale of two nines. Didn't lose a ball all day, pretty bad to shoot 47 without any penalty strokes.

Did hole out for eagle from about 40 yards on the par 5 11th -- woohoo! 2 eagles on the year.

It's raining eagles today!

47 (par 36). No eagles, no birdies, 1 double bogey, 1 triple bogey.

For a terrible score I sure hit the ball well. Wedges were just awful, putting not particularly good.

38-39-77 (Par 69)

10 Pars - 8 Bogeys --- 44% GIR

and a

43-43-86 (Par 69)

7 Pars - 8 Bogeys - 3 Double+

Both on the same course but very different conditions. I actually scored a 10 on the par 5, Got to the greenside bunker in 4, It's a wet bunker with little sand in, Right in front of the club house with a few people watching. I'm aiming directly at them and they are about 60 yards away. Thinking I'm going to get some sand I catch it clean and goes over the green and about 20 yards away from the club house lol... Ended up pitching back and nearly going back in the bunker, Duffed the chip shot off the fringe and then 3 putting.

Anyone have any advice playing a bunker shot with little sand and it being wet as well?

I had a incredible up and down on another par 5 had about 130 left into the green with my 3rd shot and totally miss hit it and ended up in a bunker about 50 yards away from the green. Plugged lie close to the lip just hit it as hard as I could and landed 15 feet away from the pin and holed the putt.

Hit a few decent shots here and there so pretty happy overall conditions were pretty hard. Drizzling throughout the round and a constant wind which felt like we were always playing into it lol.

shot best round ever yesterday!! +3!! and that included a double bogey on hole 3.

i guess i should mention we only played 3 holes and then it absolutely poured. round over.

lol

Golf cancelled for today and tomorrow. We have received around 14 inches or rain the last 4 days, and it's still raining. Add in a tropical storm arriving on Wednesday, and yeah, probably not getting any practice time in advance of my tourney next Friday.

Clay Ballard's suggestions

92. a couple of highlights....

hole 2: this is a par 5 where you absolutely can't go long on approach. well i topped my approach and then fanned a chip over green. ugh. then terrified to go back from whence i came i chipped short. and then i chipped in, front pin location...the ball probably rolled out 25 yards on the green. heroic bogey.

hole 14: this hole owns my soul. par 4, dogleg left, elevate green. last 2 rounds i've played the hole 9 over! hit a wimpy pushed 5 iron off tee. 175 out. into with and uphill. think a 5 iron can't possibly be too much. hit it flush....get up there and i'm 4 feet from pin. still a slick putt but i knocked it in.

i love golf.

40-44-84. 1 eagle, 1 birdie, 3 double bogeys, 1 triple bogey. 70.2/128/6,170 yards.

Might be time to embrace my new reality that I'm a high variance golfer. Mostly a good ball striking day, short game was embarassing. Eagle was on a par 4, holed a knock down 6 iron from 135 that I had to route around a tree.

Seriously a lot of eagles today/this week??!!

I almost holed out from 118 today - had it in the lip :-/

But 29 putt alert!

41-36 77 (5.8 diff) 7 fairways 7 greens and made everything on the greens. like it should have been 82 but I got up and down a ton and made a lot of par putts after bad first rolls. One double, 4 bogies and a birdie. 2/2 sand saves and 5/7 up and downs is unheard of for me.

started double, bogie, par, bogie, bogie to be +5 through 5 and played the last 13 even which was awesome.

And after birdie on 10 I topped my tee ball on 11 but salvaged par getting down in 4 more from 470 yards in the rough. Grindy day.

When I hear a golfer say the bunkers have too little sand I start salivating, because those are the easiest to hit out of. Most would be surprised at how little sand there is in tour bunkers. It's why they can spin the ball the way they do.

So I'm going to describe two scenarios here, one with little sand that is actually easier to play out of, and another that anybody would say has too little sand. A shot where you actually tend to expose the liner or gravel base of the bunker.

1, you need two things to hit a proper shot out of firm sand, a wide open face and speed. That's it. A wide open face encourages the proper use of the bounce of the club, if it's not open enough the club will just bounce off the sand resulting in a blade over the green. Speed, because the sand is firmer you need more of it to break the surface. Without enough speed the club will once again just bounce off the surface of the sand resulting in a blade over the green. Done properly, this will result in a nice thump sound and the ball will come out high and spinning.

2, if there's so little sand that you know you are going to find the gravel/liner you have to exaggerate things. Blade must be open crazy wide open, perhaps 60 degrees or more. Even more speed is necessary. And lastly, the swing must be very much V-shaped, even a little bit of U-shape will result in a blade. If done correctly, the club will actually peel a layer of the base of the bunker away instead of bouncing off of it. You won't hear the thump sound as there is no sand to thump. You simply have to cut into the bottom of the bunker in order to get the club under the ball. Definitely not an easy shot.

Sand shots are actually very easy once you understand the proper technique.

That's a nice vid and food for thought for me. I play in hard sand, which is probably akin to wet sand, and I must say I probably do what he recommends not to do by digging in with the leading edge. Sometimes I hit a fantastic shot with it, but it feels inconsistent. Things don't go well when I open the clubface, but I want to be able to do it to good effect, so it might be something for me to practice.

I must also say though that what he recommends seems similar to what I understood you want to do out of what is considered more normal and softer sand. What is the difference if there is any? Until I figure that out, for me the message is don't be afraid to hit a sand shot the way you might want to learn to do it in spite of the fact that you are in hard/wet sand. It is inspiring that he claims to like wet sand in light of how often I hear people claim to dislike the hard sand traps that I play out of.

Also, I like the preview at the end of the vid for another vid about creating lag the right way as opposed to a certain faulty drill. But in this case it is more of a confirmation bias in that what he says conforms to what I already feel as opposed to the sand advice which is contrary to the leading edge dig outs that I've relied on.

This is interesting as well. Would you say anything different for hard or wet sand?

Also, why might I have such difficulty when I open the clubface, i.e. what might go terribly wrong when I open the face? Also, when opening the clubface, do you absolutely think it matters that one rotates the grip in the hands prior to hitting rather than just turning the wrists and maintaining that position in the swing? I'm pretty sure I saw a vid where Rickie Fowler said he likes to just turn his wrists IIRC, which feels natural to me but is so contrary to all the times I've heard people say to truly reorient the grip inside the hands.

Thanks, I'll try and open up the face a bit and see how it goes. I'm fine with getting out of normal bunker shots. I feel I just have more confidence with them as I can just swing as hard as I can. Maybe with wet bunker shot's I'm less confident and actually slow down coming into the ball. I'll rarely ever leave it in the bunker or blade it either in wet or dry bunkers. Yesterday shot I just caught it so clean. Almost if I was in a fairway bunker and not a greenside bunker.

36-37-73 (par 68)

15 pars, 1 bogey, 2 doubles

Hit 13 GIR and two putted every damn one of them. I had a lot of decent looks for birdie too. I was just happy the course was open (cart path only) but after taking a foot of rain in 3 days it was in pretty good shape.

Edit: Two of the par 5's were playing as 3's due to unplayable conditions.

Congrats on 13 GIR. Condolences on no birdies.

51-42-93. No birdies, 3 double bogeys, 3 triple bogeys. 70.3/133/6100 yards

Hahahahahahahaha what a hack. Way too many mental issues right now. Three water balls on a course with only a few ponds in play. Chip out problems on a few holes. Bad bunker play. Chunked irons.

On a positive note, the new putter felt good, though the results weren't anything special. We'll see how it does on slower greens tomorrow.