Playing Duke University golf course again today. One of the best in the triangle area.

(responding to Booker)

Sprinkler head?

I was like 170 out a couple years ago, middle of fairway. Hit a low missile that caromed HARD off the white 150 stake (smack dab in the middle of the fairway) and went like 100 yards directly left, out of play.

Yeah, that’s the best guess, though I didn’t see one in the area.

He kept his cool far better than I would have.

Shot 85. Greens always confuse me there. They were slower than usual, although still faster than 95% of other courses.

Was +8 through 8 trying for my 4th straight round around 90. Playing pretty well, playing a bit further back than I normally would. Had a gross triple where I hit a sprinkler head with a beautiful 7 iron approach that went flying into junk and then my pitch stopped riiiiight before a big downslope which would take it down to the flag and I 3-putted.

Lightning moves in and they blow the horn.

At about 4:45 (sunset just after 8) they announce they are closing the course. Very little rain had fallen on the course, so no conditions issues (there had def been lightning, I don't fault the hrn). Radar and forecasts indicate everything should be clear about 5:15-5:30.

I had played 8 holes, so I get a prorated 10 hole rain check at the weekday rate. I live 150 miles from the course so that's really not helpful/valuable. The other players who were around were all locals/members so no big deal to any of them. I get not wanting to have staff stay for one guy, but at least help me out with some actual value? Was I wrong to be super steamed about this? I feel like I had $100 stolen from me, and never would have teed off if I thought them closing the course after 0.1" of rain and still hours of daylight left was a possible option, never had that happen before.

A bit better this week - 41 with two birdies, a par, 5 bogies and a double. 3 3-putts. Lost my match one down but we got the team match win and my partner won his.

Practiced a bit the week between so good to see some improvement. As the short game continues to tidy up I think I'll be fine. Iron ball striking shockingly bad so far for me this season, but it's early so no concern.

Played my match today was 2 up going into the last 2 holes. He won the 8th so back to one. I made Par on the 9th he had a Birdie Putt to halve the match and it lipped out. Puts me 4-0-1 should put me like top 3 in the standings.


After the match we waited around for the 9 hole roll up played like ass but won the nearest to the pin and was a yard away from winning the long drive a lot of people must have missed the fairway as for me nearly winning it is quite bad ..... We have a a different handicap system in place for this roll up I started on 4 that was 4 weeks ago, today I played off 6 and next week I'm probably going off 7. My 18 hole handicap around this course is 9 That's how bad it's been going for me. Going to feel pretty bad when I do win though playing off what I'm playing off but I didn't make the rules.

this past sunday was the first time out in 6+ months and only the second time i've hit a ball in half a year.
we were first on the tee sheet and walked a round in 3:15.
may not be good, but we're fast.
setting the pace for the rest of the day seems worthy of some sort of discount, doesn't it?

~6,200 yds, 70.1/127 par 71
87 gross/69 net

front
+11 w/two penalties
0 FIR, 1 GIR
2 pars, 2 triples
16 putts

back
+5
4 FIR, 1 GIR
1 bird, 2 pars
14 putts

did hit three other fairways, but they were on adjacent holes so those don't count.
birdied 18 after stringing together three solid swings and a three foot putt.
also proud of a short-sided deep bunker flop shot to a foot for a bogey...not so proud of how i got there after playing up the fairway next door.
although, i must say, one of the benefits of being first out is the quantity of property you can play without disrupting others.
par on 17, 220 yds to a redan green, somehow happened after smothering a hybrid into the rough.
a blind 50 yard wedge shot over a bunker ended up within the grip.
wish i could have witnessed how it got there, probably happier that i didn't.

Put a good round in today 70 +1

Probably hit 1 super bad shot today and that was on a 150 yard par 3 dribbled it half way up the hole had about 70 in and put it to 5 feet and holed the putt.

3 bogeys, 2 birdies


Overall 43 points in our Stableford comp which won it.

44-40-84. 1 birdie, 3 double bogeys. 70.8/132/6200 yards.

New course to me. Ball striking started out really bad but improved to just inconsistent. Did have a few good shots. One really good chip, otherwise meh. Putting wasn't good but nobody in our group said they putted well - greens were not mowed this morning.

Played a scramble today and WON!!!! 66 gross, 54 net. We won the net, $75 each.

I don't know how many putts I made but it was a LOT. 7? We all missed an 8 footer on 18th hole for net eagle and figured it screwed us. It didn't. 5 teams shot 55 net. Phew.

Couldn't find the thread so.................


HOLE IN 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

113y into a decent breeze, PW to 5 feet right of the cup and zipped it in.

The good: It was a club men's golf association event so $20 into the pot for skins and closest to the pin.

The bad: It was an 18 hole par 3 contest with all of the holes ranging from 110y to 167y, so the hole in one club does not count on this one. Bar bill TBD.

Additional bad: Usually a keg for each of these events, not this one. See bar bill comment above.


Greens have been killed since they are being replaced starting Monday. So they were rolling around a 14. The pins were tucked on all holes and damn near impossible on a few, like 6" away from a false front. I had a 7 footer up the hill, horseshoed the putt and had the same 7 footer again.

Fun stuff, but I don't care. I'm in the hole in 1 club!!!!!!!!!

fantastic accomplishment scott!
the bar tab will likely feel most affordable while you're still in glow.
it may be wise to close out the card immediately after the first round of drinks.
after that people might start charging socks and gloves to an open account.

never had an ace
but i've been around several people who have.

Nice Scott!

Congrats Scott, that's awesome. No matter how painful the bar tab, 100% worth it I'm sure.

Way to go with the ace, nice!

41-42-83

Feel like I'm trending in the right direction. Last 4 rounds are 91-89-87-83.

One blowup hole today where I tugged an easy 115yd approach shot into the left bunker, then thinned the bunker shot across the green, then hit a lousy chip and ended up with a triple. Should have been at least a par with a halfway decent wedge shot.

Other than that felt like I was really hitting it well. Bunch of GIR. Made 2 birdies which is not a common thing for me. Did miss a few short par putts, but all in all happy with the round.

Congrats Scott!

Nice Scott congrats!


I put another decent round together again today 73 +4, miss hit shots were coming out of the bottom groove. Bladed a wedge on a 100 yard par 3 over the green and OB ended up costing me 2 shots. Only 1 birdie felt like I had so many chances today and didn't really putt that bad either.

It was a team game 3v3 and all of my team played pretty well. I don't exactly know what they shot but points wise they got 44 points and 39 points with me at 40 points and we won overall.

Have a match midweek vs a newish golfer young lad plays off 20+ or something I think I have to give him 7 shots on the 9 holes so will be tough.

41-45-86. No birdies, 2 double bogeys. 70.3/133/6100

Best ball striking in a while on the front, but putter let me down with four three putts.

Pace slowed to a crawl on the back and everything went AWOL. I did manage to hit one of my best drives of the season so far, squeezed 275 out of one downwind.

Sunday started really well, was 3 over on the 8th green with a 4 footer for birdie, which was also my 4th GIR in the last 5 holes (and nearly 5 of 6, 3rd hole was 4 feet onto the back fringe after a completely flushed 9 iron). Missed it, then pulled my drive (though smashed it) on 9 and got into some bad weeds and then lipped out my bogey putt for a front nine 40.

Had a 5w off a slight downhill lie for my second on the par 5 10th and the guy we got paired with was standing like 6 yards left of me and 40 yards in front and my miss with woods is low left so the whole time I was thinking "don't kill him don't kill him be ready to yell fore" and obv donk it into a creek. Make a great up and down for bogey, then smash tee shot on 11, blade a SW over the green and take double, smash tee shot on 12, hosel an 8iron into rough, hosel the pitch from there, chip through the green into a bunker, blast out back over the green, excellent chip to 4 feet, miss for quad. BLAGH. Two more doubles in the next three holes, but then finish even for the last 3 holes (beauty pitch from 70 yards on par 5 17th to 10 feet, just lipped the bird; then on 18 I was 1 down to my dad and he put his 2nd to 15 feet, I have 60 yards in and hit it to 3 feet, make the birdie and halve the match).

So I was +13 from 9-15 and +3 total from 1-8 and 16-18. This is the inconsistency I discussed in the other thread when people talk sandbagging. Anyone playing me on the front 9 would be bitching that I was a cheater, anyone playing me on the back 9 coasts to a win before those last 3 holes matter.

88 overall, funnily it was my 3rd round in last 4 needing exactly a par on 18 to shoot 89. First two times made bogey, birdie was way more fun.

72 +3 today

was playing a friendly match against another guy he caught me on a good day. Ended up going 4 up on the 16th to win.

Though I'm happy with the good score considering I got 5 birdies in this round I should of probably gone under par. Had a awful hole on a par 5. Tee shot in the bush. Drop out chunked rescue about 15 yards in front of me. Hit a 7 iron onto this mound where it ended up on the side and I had like a baseball swing so chopped that out. Hit a decent PW from 120ish to about 15 feet missed the putt and ended up with a triple.

Other than that it was pretty solid. Had 3 2's as well. 2nd two was nearly a hole in one about a foot away from the hole. Playing partner also hit it to 5 feet to and we halved the hole with birdies.


Nice to be hitting a bit of form.

High 70s and low 80s for me lately. Managed 3 birdies today so maybe I'm on the uptick again. The last birdie was on 18 when I had a press on and went wolf. Last to (tied) first!

TL;DR I'm bored and your sand bagging comment

Black Aces,

Your #12 hole reminded me of a guy I used to play with back in the day at the 1st country club I joined out of college. (Mid 1990s) They had a Saturday tournament every week consisting of A, B, C and D players randomly scrambled based on handicap. A players were 7 or less (humble brag, I was a 5 back then) B ~8-12, C ~12-17 and D 18+.

It was a simple plus/minus of what you shot with respect to your handicap. So the A and B players really couldn't help or hurt your team to much as they were generally going to shoot 2-4 strokes around their handicap. The C and D players determined who would win or lose. It was just a fun $20 a man entry that got 6 to 8 groups, and over the course of the year your probably going to break close to even, variance not withstanding.

Back to the D player in question. He was a house husband. It's not like this guy just showed up on Saturday and played. His wife was a high powered attorney in town and they had 2 school aged kids. His routine during the week was to get the kids off to school or daycare and hit the course. On weekends when the wife was home, he was a fixture at the course. So his acumen on the golf course was not for lack of trying.

But he was truly amazing. When your team drew him as your D player, you knew you had a good chance to win or lose spectacularly. Par 71 and he's a 23 handicap, net 94. This guy could shoot 84 and help your team by 10 strokes or shoot 108 and hurt your team by 14 strokes.

Case and point. On my team, he pars the first 3 holes, and I'm thinking we got this today as long as our C player doesn't blow up. 4th hole, short par 3 downhill with a tiny little bunker short right of the green. It's 120 yards. Of course the pin is tucked on the short right of the green. Anywhere short middle, short left, OMG on the green, or even long over the green is fine for him.

And right on cue, our man hits a floater just short/right of the bunker. Tries to flop it to the short pin in the bunker. Skulls it out of the bunker over the green. Chips back over the green into said bunker. No skulling this time and it's way fat, still in the bunker. Chunks it just onto the green and 3 putts for a 9?

Next hole. Short par 5. Wide open to the left. A little scruffy rough and a few trees to the right. So he flares his drive short right into the rough. No tree trouble but not a great lie. He has about 280 yards to the pin and pulls out 3 wood. I drive up and ask him, "What do you hope to accomplish with this shot?" He replies, "If I nut it I'll be close to the green and have a good chance at birdie." Me, "Okey Dokey" as I take a sip of beer. Never mind that you just hit your driver off of the tee about 160 yards.

Mighty swing and almost whiff that tops the ball and sends it about 20 yards further right and brings the trees into play. Do we change clubs here? And I dunno, hit a 7/8 iron or so into the middle of the fairway and give us a chance to salvage this hole? Hell naw. Mighty 3 wood will bail us out. To the tune of a smothered duck hook across the fairway into the left rough.

I quit paying attention at that point but he carded back to back 9s and the rout was on to shoot a 108 that day. Truly entertaining to watch. We all remember the bad beats, but I also remember the days where he would have a few doubles, maybe a triple, but mix in a few birdies and pars and shoot 84.

I played with this guy a ton. Super nice guy and never seemed to let his game, good or bad, get in the way of him having a good time on the course. He played fast so he never held up the group and was a true joy to watch work his magic.

This needs to be heard by a lot of people more so at my local. Like sure it sucks when you play bad but hey your outside with so mates hopefully in some decent weather.

On Sunday when we did our team game, Only 6 of us so it was 3v3. I get paired with another 2 that like a drink. They are fun to be around as they have a bit of banter about them. The other group, 1 guy who talks a lot but he is sound you can give a bit of banter towards him and he'll be fine. The other 2 though in that group though if they are having a bad day on the course they won't speak they might even throw clubs at their bags after a bad shot. I remember on the 8th tee I looked back on the short Par 3 7th. Guy who talked a lot hits a decent shot. One of the others put it into the bunker. The other guy shanked it right into these bushes. Now he gets a shot on this hole to, He refused to look for the ball or play 3 off the tee and just walked over to us on the 8th tee. I'm like what are you doing play the game.

I hate it when I'm actually in a group that I can't needle people. Like it's only friendly stuff and I of course I don't mind if they give it back to me either, But have a laugh whilst your out on the course however you can. Of course there is a time and a place for it like I wouldn't be doing it in a official match unless they gave it to me but in your weekly medal or w/e imo that's fine.