easy explanation, bowling meets golf

You buy a card that has $ on it, you put card into a range ball dispensing machine. Somehow the balls are marked with a signature/code related to whose card is in the machine. You then go to the range where you see 5 large color-coded circular targets. You put your balls into the individual mat-machine at your station and it brings your name up on the flat screen at your bay. You then hit the shot. If your ball lands in one of the 5 targets it gets read and scores depending on how close you were to the center. The targets are like 75, 125, 160, 195, 250 yards away. If you hit it in the bullseye on the first 3 or anywhere in the last 2 your next shot's points are doubled.

I took 5iron and just fired away at the 195 all day, then we played a game where you had to shoot at specific targets each round so you had to change clubs.

I've been on fire lately, shooting in the range of 85-94 on courses with slopes in between 115-125(usually scoring around 94-103). Have even broke 90(85 and 86) twice in the past month after never having done it in my 3 years of playing(not counting hacking years where I played 2-3 times a year and got drunk on the course). Today I played a short course with a 107 slope(only 5300 yds, but narrow) and shot a 79! My handicap has dropped(according to Yahoo Tracker) from 23 to 18 in the past 2 months.

I am very pleased with my progress; I now understand the fundamentals of the golf swing much better, thanks to my instructor(previously I had very bad weight shift and swinging way too much with my hands/arms instead of letting the club swing itself). I still have a driver/wood slice that I believe is caused by my sequencing being off(not getting my hips around first and still swinging arms too much).

My chipping technique was also very bad and a friend who is a scratch player just told me to "keep the V in my arms", "keep my eyes down long after impact", and "put the ball on my back foot with my weight on my front foot". It took a while to get used to, but I am chipping much, much closer now.

Putting has been steadily improving, thanks to this forum I have started my routine with 2 practice swings while looking at the hole, which has helped me with distance. My other problem has been looking up too quickly after contact, so concentrating on that has gotten my putts/round from 36-40 to 32-37 more consistently.

I am firmly obsessed with this game. Luckily I am in my last year of grad school(easy) and am able to play 3-4 times a week. My goal is to be consistently breaking 90 on public courses. Getting closer every day. For LA denizens, the courses that I mainly play are the LA City courses(Rancho Park, Hansen Dam, Wilson-Harding) with some Brookside/Montebello/Diamond Bar thrown in. I plan to tackle Angeles National and Robinson Ranch again, but they destroyed me last year(110-115), so I have a bit of trepidation about those tougher, 130-145 slope courses.

lol where not what

I wasted my time earlier

lol i didn't want to say anything....

but at the same time I did want to know what it is anyway because I had heard of it.

Won my round of 16 match in our Northern California Associates Club Match play tournament 4 and 3. I was getting 11 strokes vs a 3 handicap and when he started bitching about giving so many strokes on the 4th tee I knew I was in good shape. As a former 2 handicap I guess I qualify as a sandbagger, but I really am playing to my index so I feel no guilt at all. Next match is versus a 6 handicap so I really like my chances.

river crossing in san antonio texas: 46-43 (89)

drove the ball well, played mediocre with the irons, complete lack of talent around and on the greens.

playing southwyck in houston next couple of days.

2008 Rounds
Front-Back-Tot-Putt-Penalty-Fairways-GIR
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 (43) Revere at Anthem Lexington
45-51-96 (37) Paiute Sun Course
38 (19) Durango Hills par 30
50-49-99 (38) Revere at Anthem Lexington
51-50-101 (39) Bears Best
37-32-69 (31) Durango Hills par 58
53-48-101 (36) TPC Las Vegas
52-63-115 (36) TPC Las Vegas
36-39-75 (33) Durango Hills par 58
54-49-103 (41) TPC Las Vegas
53-55-108 (37) Arrowhead
53-45-98 (42) George W. Dunne National
53-51-104 (40) Bears Best
51-48-99 (35) Red Rock Arroyo
50-45-95 (35) Bears Best
50-47-97 (38) The Lakes
56-48-104 (40) Wolf Paiute
51-47-98 (37) Rhodes Ranch
43-49-92 (34) Revere at Anthem Concord
54-54-108 (37) Bears Best
47-42-89 (35) (0) TPC Las Vegas
45-45-90 (34) (4) Wolf Paiute
49-45-94 (33) (5) The Falls
53-52-105 (39) (7) Wolf Paiute
46-47-93 (34) (1) Reflection Bay
50-51-101 (36) (2) Poppy Hills
47-46-93 (38) (3) Eagle Vines, Napa
46-41 87 (37) (0) Settler's Hill
47 (15) (3) Lost Dunes
51-55-106 (34) (8) Whittaker Woods
44-53-97 (36) (3) TPC Las Vegas
50-50-100 (42) (4) Paiute Snow Mountain
53-43-96 (39) (5) Reflection Bay
48-42-90 (35) (2) (12/14) (7/18) Reflection Bay
56-43-99 (37) (12) (7/14) (4/18) Badlands
48-43-91 (35) (1) (6/14) (4/18) TPC Las Vegas

My fourth consecutive nice back-9. Putted just terribly, and had a few bad chips. Should've shot 88 at a minimum. Of my four GIR, I only parred one of the holes.

nice round clark :]

i played like dog **** today, and had a close encounter with the shanks.

hit a couple of buckets and worked through it on the range then played a follow up 9 and shot 44 with a triple on #1...so was happy to at least get through it.

54-56-110

pretty sure i didn't hit a single fairway off the tee box, i might have the biggest slice in the history of golf

at least i putted decent, used a buddies putter and only had 2 three putts so that was a positive

Played Haste hill today a parkland layout short but tree lined.
46-55-101
It was on of the slowest rounds of my life started before ten and finished at two something. We were a four ball of high handicappers but we didn’t seem to be going that slowly. We were always some how, one hole in front of the people behind and only occasionally had to wait for the people in front of us.
Was pleased with the front nine but the wheels feel off on the back that I wasted three shots on the last from a hundred yards in typified what whent wrong on the back.

A lousy one under in a 4 person scramble. Having nobody with a short game on your team is a sure way to disaster. Also did not win any prizes in the raffle. On the positive side, lunch was good (and included) and the drinks were cold.

glenbrook muni course in houston texas.

i started off the day by driving the par 4 green on #1 and 3 putting for par...despite the putting i liked how i began.

i ended the day 52-50 (102)...the worst round ive shot in 4 months or so.

the course had sustained a lot of damage from hurricane ike, which in turn caused me to take a penalty every time i missed the fairway because my ball somewhere in a pile of debris would be lost or unplayable lie etc due to a downed tree etc...i hit 3 fairways all day :[

oh yea, and i put up an 11 on #18.

77 (32) from the blues at my home course. Probably my best ball striking round of the year and I think I may have settled on a putter. w00t.

I don't think there's a better feeling in golf than to come to the last hole, a ridiculously hard 420 yard dogleg right, and take it down. Snuck a drive through the corner, hit the best hybrid of my life* - a sweet high gentle fade - to 4 feet, putt right in the center of the jar.

Brag: Three birdies
Variance: The longest birdie putt made was 4 feet, left a ten footer one turn short dead center
Beat: New putter, $175
Variance: Birthday present for most of it, gift certificates for the rest.

* (this is the first year I've really used a hybrid, so not all that impressive. Still was a sweet shot)

I guess I've taken a major hiatus without even realizing it (kind of like poker). Went out to Shoreline in Mountain View yesterday (thus missing the end of the Ryder Cup) and had the following sequence on 9-10-11:

9: Hit drive, can't find ball, don't finish hole

10: Drive into trees, punch out, approach in water, drop, approach in water, drop, hit green, 3-putt for 10.

11: Draw an 8-iron into a stiff headwind about 15' past the pin on a par-3. Roll in birdie putt.

Golf is stupid.

fyp and will never play that course again in my life

LOL true. Always windy, too.

I'd heard that they had a goose-chasing dog on 11-12, where the worst problems were, but didn't see it. They must have done something, though, because 12 in particular was more sparsely populated, but there were way more on the front nine than I'd ever seen.

51+50 = 101

I'm usually a slow starter, but I started this one birdie+par. I thought I was heading for another personal record round. Then I duffed a few drives, made a bunch of 3-putts, took two 8's, and the old me was back.

pasadena municipal golf course in pasadena, texas

41-45 (86)

i hit 10 fairways and only 30 putts (my best ever for putts)

i had a lot of trouble with approach shots today tho, or i would have had a really good round.

Think I'm gonna play TPC Craigh Ranch on Wednesday

I'll post my 88 if I do go play!

pasadena municipal golf course in pasadena, texas

41-44 (85)

had a triple on the front 9, and ended the day with 3 doubles out of the last 4 holes...BLOWUP.

had my best day ever off of the box though.

pasadena municipal golf course in pasadena, texas

12 over through 13 holes and then it got dark

in general i sprayed the ball everywhere all day long, but managed to putt well enough (20 putts through 13 holes) to keep it somewhat reasonable.

2008 Rounds
Front-Back-Tot-Putt-Penalty-Fairways-GIR
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 (43) Revere at Anthem Lexington
45-51-96 (37) Paiute Sun Course
38 (19) Durango Hills par 30
50-49-99 (38) Revere at Anthem Lexington
51-50-101 (39) Bears Best
37-32-69 (31) Durango Hills par 58
53-48-101 (36) TPC Las Vegas
52-63-115 (36) TPC Las Vegas
36-39-75 (33) Durango Hills par 58
54-49-103 (41) TPC Las Vegas
53-55-108 (37) Arrowhead
53-45-98 (42) George W. Dunne National
53-51-104 (40) Bears Best
51-48-99 (35) Red Rock Arroyo
50-45-95 (35) Bears Best
50-47-97 (38) The Lakes
56-48-104 (40) Wolf Paiute
51-47-98 (37) Rhodes Ranch
43-49-92 (34) Revere at Anthem Concord
54-54-108 (37) Bears Best
47-42-89 (35) (0) TPC Las Vegas
45-45-90 (34) (4) Wolf Paiute
49-45-94 (33) (5) The Falls
53-52-105 (39) (7) Wolf Paiute
46-47-93 (34) (1) Reflection Bay
50-51-101 (36) (2) Poppy Hills
47-46-93 (38) (3) Eagle Vines, Napa
46-41 87 (37) (0) Settler's Hill
47 (15) (3) Lost Dunes
51-55-106 (34) (8) Whittaker Woods
44-53-97 (36) (3) TPC Las Vegas
50-50-100 (42) (4) Paiute Snow Mountain
53-43-96 (39) (5) Reflection Bay
48-42-90 (35) (2) (12/14) (7/18) Reflection Bay
56-43-99 (37) (12) (7/14) (4/18) Badlands
48-43-91 (35) (1) (6/14) (4/18) TPC Las Vegas
45-45-90 (33) (4) (6/14) (4/18) The Falls

Some spazziness out of the sand, too many penalties and 3 missed 3-4 footers kept me from going reasonably low for me. Scrambled hard though and kept myself in the game. Lag putted well and had some pretty good iron shots. 5-wood was dialed in.

I love my Last 20 moving average progression (basically covers the last 15 months as I started playing regularly again).

109.0
108.5
107.5
106.7
106.4
106.5
105.2
104.2
103.9
103.3
103.4
102.9
102.5
102.3
102.0
102.2
102.3
101.4
102.1
103.0
102.7
103.0
102.9
103.0
102.9
102.8
103.6
104.0
104.0
104.0
103.8
103.6
103.3
102.5
102.8
102.5
101.9
102.1
100.7
99.8
99.5
99.8
99.7
99.8
99.4
98.7
97.6
97.6
97.1
97.2
96.8
96.3
96.5
96.2
95.5

82 with an eagle (my second ever!), a birdie, and approximately 1049249058034603086380 missed putts, whoo whoo.

I failed to record a score again. It didn’t really matter because any score I would have recorded would have been bad. There had been an important competition midweek and the greens where insanely fast and all the pins where cut close to the edge and on slopes.
For a high handicapper it isn’t fun to have to putt on greens like these. I don’t know what they measured on the stimp but Id be shocked if they were less then nine.