83 yesterday, 85 today.

Curious mix of the really good and the really awful.

I played the most incredible golf course today, http://www.sycamoreridgegolf.com/home.html

Played ok from the blues and shot 39-39. wind 20-30. Huge, very undulating, immaculate bent grass greens. Very hilly, tree-lined, narrow fairways, fairly thick fescue rough. Just unreal how awesome this course is! Usually I would think $50 is a little steep (for twlight), but this course was more than worth it. Saw some wild turkeys on the back nine. With moderately tough hole locations I just don't see how it would be possible for anyone to break par from the tips, yet it seemed very fair. I'm visiting my sister in KC then going out to western Kansas where I grew up to play a couple courses there before going to back to Dallas. Was going to do the trip report with pictures and stuff, but I forgot the camera today as I never take pictures so I'll just make a few posts in here probably.

from the tips: Black 150 76.2

thats crazy.

played a familiar short course with brown "greens". really good 40 (16) over nine. the good news was that the "greens" were raked smooth. putting was a lot easier, but i still left a couple of putts out there from 3-4 feet.

i was very happy that my chipping/approach shots are coming along. starting to hit my irons flush, and nailed a 9-iron from about 140 that rolled onto the green on the toughest hole of the course. also, parred all three par-3's, although the first one was a 0-putt just off the fringe for the save. driving was horrible. i have to pick my spots with the driver/3w and my new swing. 4h/5h obviously goes a lot straighter.

san jacinto golf course in pasadena, texas (9 holes with 2 sets of tee boxes for 18, local college golf course measuring 5600 yrds...why its a par 72 i have no idea)

40-39 (79)

1/14 fairways (most of my misses were < 5 yards from edge...just never really found the fairway today, but that said not TOO many bad lies)
9/18 greens (a ton of fringes...ha, i attacked too many pins i shouldn't have)
15-17 (33) putts

finished the day by bogeying the last 4 holes :[

i played holes 3-14 at 1 under (2 birdies 1 bogey)

san jacinto golf course in pasadena, texas (9 holes with 2 sets of tee boxes for 18, local college golf course measuring 5600 yrds...why its a par 72 i have no idea)

39-38 (77)

5/14 fairways
11/18 greens
16-17 (33) putts

hit the ball o-b right on #2 for the second day in a row.

used a new chipping method today that worked great, thanks golf digest. basicly maintaining the lag in my hands behind the ball throughout impact (not lag but rather a y-shape) and it gets the ball up in the air everytime instead of the dreaded flub-scoop method.

My brother-in-law had to work so instead of playing where we had scheduled I went back out here and tried to break 80 from the tips. 20 mph northeast wind and 55 degrees. I saw a total of FOUR other golfers the entire time I was there lol. I played pretty darn good except for my lag putting. I had FIVE 3putts and one penalty shot. I know I've never had that many 3putts before, just never could get the speed right and had 4 putts over 60 feet with one of them probably around 100 feet. The previous time I played this course I hit 3wood, PW into 1. Today I hit driver, 3 iron lol! 3rd hole I smoked a 3wood to the front edge (par3 of course) I played exceptional the back nine with three 3s in a row on 12-14. Ok enough babbling.

I shot 39-38 with those five 3putts and a penalty shot. I took some pictures, I doubt they'll turn out good. I'll post them when I get back home this weekend. Supposed to be terrible weather the next couple days, maybe even snow flurries tomorrow night. Sigh.

played 2 sets of 9 today

played the back at san jacinto college golf course in pasadena, texas (2900 yrds)

score: 44

1/7 fairways
3/9 gir
18 putts

there was a lot of wind today, and i had a triple bogey on a hole i usual score par or better, so that really hurt the round.



played the front at baywood country club in pasadena, texas (<3000 yrds and hurricane ravaged big time... greens would not hold anything, lost 2 girs today or so from that)

score: 43

3/7 fairways
3/9 gir
16 putts

I suck hard right now.

I hook everything 40 yards. My chipping/pitching has gone from "good enough to sometimes give me 20 footers that i sometimes make" to "hope this stays in bounds"...

My full wedges, putting, and bunker shots are all super good though. Last 3 rounds have been "I need to birdie one of the last 3 to break 80" followed by a 100 yard drive into trees or some such. Also, basically every round I have at least 1 triple or 2 or 3 doubles. I long for the days when all I would do is make bogeys/pars/birdies. It makes scoring so much easier, shockingly.

hey, i shot 82...................... and i four-putted from 18 feet on 15 and hit a very loose 100 yard wedge on other hole

anyway, ties my best ever........... and my normal is 88-95.....

here's helped me,

practiced my pitching/chipping putting alot.

really got into bobby's clampett's book. flat wrist at impact, ball then turf, reasonably shallow ball approach.

hit from inside......... but roll those forearms gently into the release. before i had decent contact but no release, so i had weak push type hits.

get more aggressive on putts under 20 feet. my 4-putt not withstanding. i one-putted alot of greens.

what still needs work??

long irons, fairways woods....... most of my 3 irons are hit alright, but completely different ball flight each time.

need to get consistent on 100 yard wedges....... any advice??

i dont know your game and all and im in no position to give anyone advice, but what really helped my wedge game (besides constant practice) was maintaining my lag and striking down at the ball.

my #1 goal when hitting a wedge is to hit down on the ball and take the forward divot.

by doing that i always get the ball high into the air and depending on how crisply i strike the shot, there is a lot of action on the ball when it hits the green.

Golf is over for the year and thank God. Shot 85 at Aldarra this weekend and don't want to touch a club again for the next 3 months. Cold here in WA state and I am happy golf is done!!!

Verno

i played like seve today!

evergreen point in baytown, texas

43-43 (86) with 1 eagle, 1 birdie, 1 sandy, 2 chip ins and a 10 all on the front.

7/14 fairways
4/18 girs
14-17 (31) putts

---

highlights / notes etc

* showed up 2.5 hours early today to work on entire game, and around the greens it really really showed
* cannot hit an iron right now, everything is leaking right...:[
* hit my second eagle ever on #4, was a nice rebound after starting bogey, double, double
* chipped in on #7 and #8
* was 2 over coming into #9 where i promptly hit my drive ob-right, hit my provisional (which turned out to be my actual shot) into an unplayable lie penalty and hit my next shot into a tree + ricochet...ended up with a 10 on the hole.

You got some problems if you're chipping it OB!

Well, you have to see my course. It is situated in the middle of a neighborhood and probably half the holes are lined by streets that are no more than 20 feet off the green. I guess I am so used to my course that I have never really thought about how unique it can be. Facing the wrong way, a bladed chip is very OB. Then you get to do the same shot over again.

My favorite story was a few months ago I blasted my second shot on the third hole out of the sand and into the street. So I drop,which never works in the sand obviously, so then I hole that one out for a bogey.

Then on the 8th hole (a 300 yard par 4 that is a super birdie hole), I am 25 yards short of the green in one, and I blade a chip OB, blade my 4th over, chunk my 5th, 6th on the green, putt, putt, putt, 9.

Then I shoot 32 on the back, for a 73.

played the tips at pasadena municipal course in pasadena, texas

46-41 (87)

3 triple bogeys, 1 biride, 1 eagle (3rd eagle ever!)

15-15 for 30 putts

my ball striking was better today than the past few days, but im still leaking most of my shots. im going to go get some more lessons here pretty soon and get this **** fixed.

as well as im putting right now, if i can start to pickup some more girs, i should get my handicap in the single digits very soon.

I had the BEST round of my life yesterday shot 74 (+2) from the back tips at Northview
http://www.northviewgolf.com/showPage.php?id=17 the course was superb and the wind was light and the sun was amazing. And I took $190 off my friends as we played Wolf and I howled 3 times as my game was to good.

played sh--tastic today

evergreen point in baytown, texas

46-46 (92)

6 fariways
4 gir
19-19 (38) putts

had two 4 putts and in general just got whooped. the greens were by far the fastest i have ever played -- thats said, they were not soft at all, so nothing was holding.

hit the ball extremely far with the driver today, but sprayed it absolutely everywhere.

all in all, very disappointed in how i played today.

Shot a 41-41-82 with 34 putts at Troon North Pinnacle today. Turns out that "Pinnacle" is what they are now calling the holes north of the clubhouse, which starts with the original Monument 10th hole, then the old Pinnacle holes 10-18, then the original Monument holes 11-18 in the original sequence. The renumbering of this course actually makes perfect sense but I've always been of the mind that the original Monument is a better, more fair course, although to be fair Pinnacle was clearly the more scenic of the two. The people who rank courses nationally had always agreed with me on this; we'll see how they rank now after the shuffle.

We had two groups and did this thing where we had a game that wasn't too bloody, net best ball against the other group: counting one net best ball on the first six holes, two net best balls on the middle six, and three net best balls on the final six. There was a measurable amount of vitriol in the air since we viewed three of our friends in the group ahead as huge nits. The final six holes could have been epically bloody but that's when we as a collective screwed up the least. On the 607 yard par-5 14th two of our guys got birdies. One of them even got two shots for a net double eagle. Meanwhile I was doing my best to not look like a four handicapper, although I dropped a ~40 footer for par on 15, birdied 16, and lagged putts on two holes mid-round from around 90 feet to gimmie range when we needed it. I paced one off to 89 feet and the second seemed about the same length. We ended up winning by five shots. For whatever reason the nits in front of us - all single digit handicappers - all trainwrecked the short par-3 16th and had to card three bogies, while we netted two birdies and a bogey for a four shot swing. ~80 degree weather, sunny, light wind, good times.

50-46-96 TPC Las Vegas

Was literally still drunk on the first tee after a long night. Great ball striking round and simply could not capitalize on basically being no further than 10 yards off 15/18 GIR. Kind of frustrating looking back.

80. Any round could be the last one of the season, but today was very nice. Up in the 50s with little wind. If I had any sense, I'd play like this more often - lots of 3/4 shots, keeping the ball in play, hitting greens.

42-47 (89)

evergreen point in baytown texas

after 3 straight rounds of being in position to break 80, I finally did it for the first time in a while, since I haven't gotten to play much lately.

It was pretty awesome. Beautiful 72 degree sunny november day and my wife came along and brought our little 7.5 week old bulldog along with. She really loves doing this because she looks like the prissy wife who comes out with her husband when she really was a D1 golfer...

I was playing okay with a 41 on the front 9, which is the harder of the two 9s for sure. Holes 10-15 are very easy and 16-18 are hit or miss.

On #11 I missed a 10 footer for par, on #12 I thought I knocked one stiff and it got a bad bounce and I ended up chipping and making bogey. on #13 I hit a lob wedge which I thought was stiff and it was 20 feet and I missed a 3 footer for par even though I hit a good putt.... So ffff, I have to go E from 14-18 for a 79. 14 is a reachable par 5 and I hit a perfect drive and had 249 left. I snap hooked a 3 wood that was going to be okay until it clipped a tree and went OB. FFF...so I drop, hit my 4th next to the green, up and down for bogey. On #15, I made a 12 foot straight down hill, 4 feet of break par putt which was freaking awesome. Then on #16 I am playing through a 7 some (yes, 7 some) and I punch my second from under a tree and hook it around another tree and it goes to about 35 feet....drain that sucker for birdie. On #17, I hit driver/gap wedge that almost goes in the hole, landing 1 foot from the pin. I drain that 10 footer for birdie. Then on #18, I hit 5wood/pitching wedge to 20 feet and left the turkey putt hanging on the lip. 78. Felt like a damn 68 with that finish. And my bulldog only almost died once when his leash got caught in the cart and took him down.

oh, and I only had 1 double bogey which felt nice, and it was only due to being in complete jail
and hitting a tree and going backwards. I usually have like 2, 3 or 4 that are all just dumb...either 3 putting or blading chips or stupid shots that I have no business hitting.

Oh and I had one of the most insane up and downs ever on the 5th hole. My second shot was ~40 yards to the left of a massively crowned green, which makes the hole VERY difficult if you miss the green. I hit a lobwedge under one tree, over another, landed it in the rough going up the crown, took a bounce and rolled out. I thought my ball probably rolled down the hill and 40 feet away, but found it was like 10 feet from the hole. The putt was straight downhill and broke ~ 2-3 feet, and I made it in the center.

44-40 (84) @ pasadena municipal golf course in pasadena texas

18-14 (32) putts
8/18 gir
7/14 fairways

i had a lot of problems chipping today, but my putter was able to save my ass there. i also missed a handfull of really easy approach shots. low point in the round was taking a quadruple on #9... at this point im convinced i could be a decent golfer if i could only avoid the big number... it seems like atleast once a round i put up triple or worse.