MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[TheCityGame]

I'll look for. My stuff isn't very well organized, but I think I have it.

That tip doesn't fit the Max.

[dsc123]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a hitting mat they leave outside all the time? I'm thinking of putting one in my yard just to hit pitches off without tearing up my "lawn". It won't take a beating from full swings but I'd like one that can withstand the weather. I'm thinking of a big one -- at least 3x5 -- so I can stand on it level.

 

Hoping to get this set up before I'm quarantined. You fools are all going to come out of Q rusty as shit right as handicap season starts while I'll suddenly be the Hive's new Phil Mickelson after two weeks of short game practice.

[FAbb]

Do you even know about garage cuts? Have you taken so much as a single CSPC in your life?

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/in6mnJNYjGKpq/giphy.gif

[dcmidnight]

I would think any brand that sells mats to a driving range should be adequate. And keep a heads up this time of year, sometimes ranges like Burke Lake will have a stack of old mats outside and be selling them for $40-50. If you pick through them you could certainly find some that are good enough for chipping.

[dagoose383]

If you are looking for a mat now would be the time to proactively call driving ranges and courses with mats and inquire about buying one of their old mats.

 

Make a list of places within the radius you are willing to travel and call them. Worst they can say is “no”.

 

If that fails you can probably go the eBay or Range Mart route

[dsc123]

Good ideas! I'll start calling around.I don't have a garage or cream soda. But I guess there will be a handful of us who come out of the Q ready to roll.

[thechief16]

 

Confirms a lot of the rumors flying around. On the OTA/network side, very uninspiring and feeds into everything that Kostis said last week about the tour not really caring about anything other than controlling the narrative and paying off FedEx. On the digital side, more is better, I guess.

[eagle1997]

OMG. Shocking last 4 holes of the match. All square thru 14 and WhiteBall holed out on #15 for birdie from an impossible position over the green. But wait! He played out of turn! YellowBall makes him replay the shot and ends up halving the hole with bogeys!

WhiteBall comes straight back and birdies #16 to go 1up and gives YellowBall the finger after making it... But dumps it in the bunker on the par 3 and loses that hole.

All square into 18 and pedestrian bogeys for both. The handshake afterwards was... uncomfortable.

[ALTSean]

 

[eagle1997]

 

[Gmen1204]

 

[gsrjc]

Have Govt workers and contractors been giving flexibility to telework full time? I’ve heard some centers are trying it out but only one office at a time within the Center.

[Jard]

Contractor here for the HHS agencies

We are being given a ton of flexibility on telework, bascially if you feel sick at all stay home and encourage your people to do the same. Prep is underway to make sure everyone is telework capable.

[aiyyer]

Guess people are self quarantined on the golf course. Something to noodle on below regarding putting:

“in terms of actual human response, perhaps the most overlooked and difficult part of putting is the psychological devastatIon that comes with missing and watching the negative picture of the golf ball slide by the hole. In no other arena of sport do you have the frequency of outcome feedback so honest and objective as you do on the putting green. In essence, you either make the putt, or you miss”

 

[eagle1997]

Sweet round at NW today. Met up with another single and somehow restrained myself from launching into my RandoBob routine. Had a ton of fun regardless.

NW is in v.good shape overall, I think it'll make a fantastic season-opener for the Hive's Vernal Equinox tourney.

Good bounce back 76 today after yesterday's entertaining but debacalicious 88 at Little Bennett. No 3 putts, 2 birdies on par 5s. Lots of solid lag putts, which is what you need at NW.

 

[TheCityGame]

“in terms of actual human response, perhaps the most overlooked and difficult part of putting is the psychological devastatIon that comes with missing and watching the negative picture of the golf ball slide by the hole. In no other arena of sport do you have the frequency of outcome feedback so honest and objective as you do on the putting green. In essence, you either make the putt, or you miss”

Except shooting a basketball, throwing a dart, swinging a baseball bat, trying to pick up a spare, jumping over a bar, and whatever else I might come up with after 5 seconds of trying.

People write things like that and it's no wonder people drive themselves crazy with putting. "Ooooo. . .it's so binary. . .you either miss or you make." Dreadful way to think about putting.

The only "binary" you should be thinking about when you're putting is "did I hit the putt I intended or not" and if you didn't then you need to work on hitting the putt you intended. Then, you can work on improving your intentions.

 

[TheCityGame]

We've only received information concerning what they're doing to keep the building clean, what we should do in the office and basically, "if you feel sick, stay home."

We have always been pretty liberal about letting people work from home as long as you don't abuse it. And even if you do abuse it, if you get your work done, no one is going to say anything. We have a real "look the other way" policy on that. Not officially of course.

I was tumbleweeds today because I got late changes on something that put it in a time crunch, but I just got it sent off and unless I hear back, I'm going to assume it's fine.

 

[dcmidnight]

Except shooting a basketball, throwing a dart, swinging a baseball bat, trying to pick up a spare, jumping over a bar, and whatever else I might come up with after 5 seconds of trying.

Except every tee shot, iron shot, every wedge, every chip, every shot out of a bunker...

[TheCityGame]

You are right.

It's just that people think missing a putt is a whole stroke. Like, "if I made that 6 footer I would have broken 80".

In fact every shot in golf is fractional. A bad drive vs a good drive is half a stroke. Missing a green vs. hitting a green is half a stroke. Hitting a bunker shot to 6 feet instead of 20 feet is half a stroke. And missing a 6 footer is half a stroke.

ALL the fractions add up, not just the ones on the putting green.

There's some book -- maybe even Rotella (which I like) -- where he talks about practicing lag putting by putting to the fringe, so you don't "get used to" seeing balls not go in the hole.

I'd like to see a guy tell Steph Curry, "you should really just practice shooting 3's by trying to get them to land on the baseline so you don't get used to seeing them not go in".

There's tons of this kind of thinking in golf.

[eagle1997]

I dunno. Putting is such a basic motion to master. It doesn't require strength, clubhead speed, or (and I know City is going to kill me for this) athletic ability... go visit the local putt putt for evidence.

And, there IS a binary aspect to putting, it's the finality of the action on that hole that can drive people completely bonkers. There's also the disconnect between what you feel you *ought* to make and what you *do* make. Look at PGA make percentages from certain distances... These are the best players in the world, on immaculate surfaces... Do you really feel your make percentages should match up?

But here's the thing:

I've yet to meet someone who is a terrible putter who actually works at it. Guys who complain about being bad (cough, aiyyer, cough) don't practice. If you spend enough TOTG, you'll get better, regardless of equipment or technique.

Exceptions are Fabbo during a particularly horrid stretch a few years ago and me on Day 5 of a Pinehurst trip.

[aiyyer]

I should have added overblown hyperbole before the quote..

Actually, I get around the whole emotional baggage attached to putting by pretending I don’t care - self defense mechanism, I guess. Just as a concept it is annoying that a 6” stroke counts the same as other shots in golf.

Always hate to agree with Eagle but caring about putting and practicing especially after the PH trip led to birdies and pars instead of worse over the weekend at WM.

[SullGolf]

It's hard to keep yourself properly accountable on putting.

Once you get outside 6 feet, it's a low enough make percentage that I don't feel bad about missing, even though I'm missing way more than I could. It seems like the best putters have a mental game where they think they are going to make everything (and get angry when they don't), even while knowing it's not possible to do it. I can't bring myself to think like that.

Not to get too off topic, but I see similar mental games with some very successful people at work. There are just people that will themselves to thinking they will succeed despite knowing that it's unlikely, and it often results in them succeeding more than they otherwise would.

[eagle1997]

Another sign this website has been infected with the coronavirus...

 

Wait, can anyone actually see this image? Lol

[2moreTerpz]

i'm finding coronavirus talk completely tilting. either everyone is dying because our president is a loonie or it's fake and there is no understanding of exponential growth. SO frustrating.

[GooseHook]

A "key manager" at my company referred to the virus as the "China flu hoax" in the coffee room yesterday. The sheer ignorance and gullibility of most people is eventually going to kill us all.

[TheCityGame]

The second this came here, I said, "we're going to politicize it. We're going to make it about race, economics, etc etc etc." I know. . .not much of a prognostication.

We just go there with EVERYTHING now. . .sports, movies, diseases!!!

Take that out of it, a "pandemic" is a fascinating story. I read the updated numbers every day.

If you want a mathematical look at some of it, this was a good article. This is a pretty cool look at the mechanisms of the virus. Those mechanisms about how they cling to cells and squirt their goo and start replicating are amazing. (obvs not a biologist). It a high tech war zone.

(those are both NYTimes articles. They have a paywall after a certain number of articles).

[SullGolf]

"This is a pretty cool look at the mechanisms of the virus. Those mechanisms about how they cling to cells and squirt their goo and start replicating are amazing. (obvs not a biologist)."

 

I've done that a few times before.

[Gmen1204]

 

[dagoose383]

Daydreaming in a meeting yesterday and for some odd reason I started thinking about what golf could be for the future. As everything and everyone becomes more tech savvy, what about a “pay by the hole” course. The more I thought about it the more I was thinking it’s not that far fetched.

 

You either prepay for the amount of holes, or pay as you go. Each tee has a proximity chip reader (Walkers would have a key tag or something to swipe) that would either be prepaid or bill as they go. If they don’t pay and the gps tag realizes they have proceeded to ply the hole then the marshal is alerted. Carts would auto connect with the chip reader and if you hadn’t paid for that extra hole the cart could shut down and only allow you to travel on the path back to the clubhouse (like they do with cart path only rules now).

 

Course routing would have to be considered obviously but I don’t think the idea sounds too crazy. This would allow for someone to play 12 holes or 21 holes or however many they had time for and would answer the “problem” that one of those surveys said existed (that people didn’t have 2 hours or 5 hours to devote to a round). Better courses could charge more per hole. Infrastructure would probably be expensive up front and a recoup would take a while though.

 

I just wanted to make this post so years from now I can reference it and say “that was my idea”.

[TheCityGame]

I like a good crazy golf idea.

My first thought was the per-hole charges for like 11 holes would be the 18 hole rate. 18 would be $62 but you'd pay $6 per hole if you were doing it by the hole. Cuz that's how everything is.

Also, they'd do 1 of two things. . .

1) charge you a full rate for cart no matter if you played 4 holes or 18 holes. They'd tell you it's because its the same work for the cart guys, but they'd also charge you double if you played 19 holes.

or

2) make the per hole rate the same for walkers and carters and go, "uh, the uh, software can't really do it both ways."