MD/VA/DC Golfers - Ten Seconds or Less

[eagle1997]

Almost forgot the Shot Of The Day. Tee shot on #8. Head of my 3h comes FLYING off. Ball goes 220 on a straight line to the fairway, 65 yards in. Simultaneously funny and horrifying.

 

Greg hits a beaut to the fairway also, to 90 yards out.

 

Halved with bogeys. Sad.

[eagle1997]

PQ- the greens were unreal. Some were impossible to hold, even with a short iron off the tee. 143 to the back right pin on #6. I hit a high hard 9i. It's spinning, I can feel it. Gonna be pretty close. Hits 6 feet short of the hole -bounces 6 feet in the air- to the back fringe. Total distance: approx. 160. Ridiculous.

 

The pins were cut on slopes and it was tough to lag putt to circle of friendship distance.

 

Gotta count 'em up, but likely mid 80s for both of us.

[GooseHook]

Sounds like you all had great days out there. I was stuck at work but had a free evening for a playctice 9. No warmup so a little bit of everything..those par 3's are just in my head right now.

 

Sparrows Point is in the best shape I've seen it in the last 3 years. It's a good time to get some of you all out. The rough is pretty damn gnarly and the greens are rolling perfectly. Bunkers are in solid shape and the new tee boxes have grown in well. Apparently they did a double rolling a couple Fridays ago and got the greens up to 12, which is absurd given their size. Playing a bit slower than that at the moment though. Fairways are even rolling out now, you can hit less than driver on 4 and not be playing a longass second shot.

[TheCityGame]

Halftime.

 

Yo, GregH is a smooth operator. Wish he was able to get out with the gang of idiots a little more often.

[eagle1997]

Agreed. I hit some of my longest irons in 2+ years by mimicking his tempo. Amazing what happens when I'm not lunging hard and thrashing wildly at the ball.

[gsrjc]

Played Bluemash on Monday. It was tough. Almost hit a hole in one on 13. Pin was in the back left in the bowl and ball ended up a foot away.

[davechen]

http://www.middleatl...ith Alpha_1.pdf

 

Here's the tee times for the US Open regional taking place Monday at Woodmont CC. The only 2 names I recognize on there are Woody Austin and Estoban Toledo. I'm thinking about going and watching some of the tournament. Anyone know any of the other players?

 

Also, I've been given spousal permission to play early Saturday morning. Anyone interested?

[DT15]

http://www.middleatl...ith Alpha_1.pdf

 

Here's the tee times for the US Open regional taking place Monday at Woodmont CC. The only 2 names I recognize on there are Woody Austin and Estoban Toledo. I'm thinking about going and watching some of the tournament. Anyone know any of the other players?

 

Also, I've been given spousal permission to play early Saturday morning. Anyone interested?

 

We are playing stupid early Saturday morn at Glenndale. We have 3 if you wanna round out the quad.

 

6:18

[Kent01putt]

Davechen there are about 5 other names on the list that have been on the big tour. I know two of the am's from maryland

[TheCityGame]

DaveChen. . .Dennis McCarthy is the best am from Maryland. He made the cut at the US Open last year.

[TheCityGame]

To JJ, Halcyan and others. . .

 

This is the video I was talking about yesterday. It's basically an edited lesson Crossfield gave a guy who had too strong a grip and came too much from the inside.

 

http://www.golfwrx.c...ark-crossfield/

 

That lesson right there is basically a distillation of everything I've been working on for the last two years. It's all about getting a square face and a square path and he attempts to get the student to do through nothing more than changing the student's grip and intent at the ball. . .

 

Student is swinging 8º to the right.

 

Crossfield tells him, "ok, now feel like you're swinging left".

 

Student starts swinging 2º to the right.

 

Grip and path. That's it. Add in good contact, and that's it. Start working on putting.

[TheCityGame]

Anyway, yesterday was sort of ridiculous. Three simultaneous 18 holes matches. Me v JJ v Halcyan.

 

Starting right off, I shoved one right, had to punch out like 30 yards right of the green, and hit a high 60º over the trap to about 3 feet. Hal & JJ both got inside me from off the green and we all made 1-putt pars. Set the tone for me. AS/AS

 

In a great SOTD candidate, hole 2, JJ topped one off the tee and then from about 70 yards back from the trees somehow hit a shot that stayed under the limbs and ran up the fairway to like 150. It was crazy. Threaded the needle and kept it low. Very nervy shot.

 

However, I skulled a wedge over the green, had to toss another 60º up and over a hump and made a 12+ footer coming back and JJ 3-frutts and Halcyan misses. +1, +1.

 

3 is a stroke hole, which I used against Hal, but JJ beat me. E/+2. Then, I made a nice birdie with a 12 footer. +1/+3. I hit a sand shot on 5 to 5 inches and Halcyan 3-banged. +1/+4. At this point, Halcyan reminds me he came back from 4 down during the Capitol Cup. I reminded him I was 4 up during the Cap Cup and won.

 

I win 6 with par. +2/+5. Then, JJ chops up 7, while Hal birdies and I'm 3/4. Hal pars 8 and I go 3/3, but I birdie 9 after a pin seeking 8 iron and turn at 4/4.

 

We both win a couple and lose a couple, but after bogeying 12 from 95 yards (ANGER RISING) I par 13 (ANGER SUBSIDING) which closed out JJ, and then birdied 14 (HAPPY RISIING) on a 25 footer to close Hal. Good timing too because Halcyan then came in at -1 from there while I came in at +1.

 

Long story short, I was +1 through 14 and it was too much. Finished at +1 coming in after that for a 36-38.

 

It could have been better. I had 3 bogeys on the back. . .one from 95. Two from flying the green because the shot was "too good". I missed two 5 footers on the back. I had a 3-putt.

 

It could have been worse. I 1-putted 4 of the first 5 greens. I made a few 12-15 footers and one 25 footer. So, yeah, everything went right, but I've got a couple rounds like that now, and just have to build on it.

 

Halcyan came in with a double-free 78 and JJ was generally solid, but chopped up a couple holes.

 

Post round notes:

 

That "Bye Felicia" bartender is a piece of grumpy work. She's getting REAL huffy because we asked her to change one of the two TV's behind the bar that were showing the O's PREGAME to the golf channel ("I think it's channel 593", "It better be"), or as she calls it, "the horrible, boring golf channel".

 

I don't think it helped her disposition that Halcyan ordered a cranberry juice, and JJ followed that up with an order of chocolate milk. "I'll have to go in the back". The rolleyes was strong.

[halcyan]

To JJ, Halcyan and others. . .

 

This is the video I was talking about yesterday. It's basically an edited lesson Crossfield gave a guy who had too strong a grip and came too much from the inside.

 

http://www.golfwrx.c...ark-crossfield/

 

That lesson right there is basically a distillation of everything I've been working on for the last two years. It's all about getting a square face and a square path and he attempts to get the student to do through nothing more than changing the student's grip and intent at the ball. . .

 

Student is swinging 8º to the right.

 

Crossfield tells him, "ok, now feel like you're swinging left".

 

Student starts swinging 2º to the right.

 

Grip and path. That's it. Add in good contact, and that's it. Start working on putting.

 

Thanks. I'm having issues.

 

 

[TheCityGame]

It sure does help when you're driving it straight. I think over 12-13-14-15 I missed my target by a total of about 3 fists and a tip.

 

That 17th hole is something else. I hit 3 iron off the tee yesterday. Slight draw, slight pull. Lands over the center line and shoots dead left out into the rough. Almost blocked out. With a 3 iron.

 

JJ steps up and hits a beautiful hybrid. Starts down the right side. Baby draw. Hits and runs all the way across the fairway, and winds up first cut? Rough? Anyway, over there somewhere. If you don't hit a fade there, or take it over the traps, there's just no way to preserve the angle.

[pquarta1]

PQ- the greens were unreal. Some were impossible to hold, even with a short iron off the tee. 143 to the back right pin on #6. I hit a high hard 9i. It's spinning, I can feel it. Gonna be pretty close. Hits 6 feet short of the hole -bounces 6 feet in the air- to the back fringe. Total distance: approx. 160. Ridiculous.

 

The pins were cut on slopes and it was tough to lag putt to circle of friendship distance.

 

Gotta count 'em up, but likely mid 80s for both of us.

 

They had the WMGA mid am there on Tuesday. Sounds like they wanted em fast and firm for the event and it carried over. Nice. I love firm and fast. These sound insane. Let's get out there some weekday afternoon.

[SullGolf]

That 17th hole is something else. I hit 3 iron off the tee yesterday. Slight draw, slight pull. Lands over the center line and shoots dead left out into the rough. Almost blocked out. With a 3 iron.

 

JJ steps up and hits a beautiful hybrid. Starts down the right side. Baby draw. Hits and runs all the way across the fairway, and winds up first cut? Rough? Anyway, over there somewhere. If you don't hit a fade there, or take it over the traps, there's just no way to preserve the angle.

 

I've played Hobbits 3 times now, and have been in the left rough 3 times. You're probably going to end up there more times than not, even if you are a fade player. I'd say the key is to get it as far down the hole as possible without potentially blocking yourself out via the (left) trees. Then you are at least hitting something like a PW or 9-iron instead of a 5- or 6-iron out of the rough. On Wednesday I hit 4-wood on a great line about 250 and got it on the rough about 120 out. That's not a bad shot to have (I hit PW 125 to the back section when the pin was front and 3-putted). During the cap cup, I hit 4-wood less good about 220 and was in the left rough, then I'm 150ish out which is a tough shot with a 6 or 7 iron.

 

Or if you can leave it at the right half of the fairway, you can hit it 200 and have 150 in from the fairway. That's probably not a bad play. So 3-iron may be too much club if you are trying to hit the fairway. The dogleg is severe enough that if you have 150 in from the left rough you hit it about 220, but 150 from the middle/right of the fairway is only 200 off the tee. I'll probably do something like that and hit 4-iron off the tee next time I play there.

[FAbb]

17 is an odd duck, especially from the blue tees. They pushed that tee box way right, which I think honestly makes it play tougher than it does from the tips. I've banged it over the traps there, and still only been a couple yards from the left rough. I've seen a handful of shots there you swear are going OB by a mile not be within 10 yards of OB. If you're a really big hitter, like PQ, I swear hitting driver to the RIGHT of the bunker you see from the tee is the play. He's big enough to carry that second bunker, and the hole is wide open beyond that. One of the times I played with a kid who plays/played golf at a smaller school, that's what he did. Little flip wedge in both times. For the rest of us mortals, I'm still not real sure what the best play is.

[gregh729]

Had a blast with the man, the myth, the legend Eagle. Absolutely great dude to play with. The match was one of the weirdest I have ever played. As he said, there was blood on 14 holes! He started off struggling to find his swing, but it came around nicely. Very solid around the greens and from under 100 yds. I need to mimic that. Simple, easy move through the ball with his wedges. Hit all of chips close (not like me).

I was up 3 right off the go, but lost 4 to a par and 5 to a birdie while I was in the trees with my drive. Ugly 3 jack on 8 after Eagle thinned his 2nd over the green. I dropped a nice 20 footer for birdie on 9 to go back to 3 up. I promptly lost the next 3 holes. Chunked a chip on 10, 3-jack from the fringe on 11, dunked my 2nd shot on 12. Pars on 13 and more pathetic wedge play by me on 14 and now I am 1 down. 80 yds to the green on 14 and I take a beaver pelt with a wedge and the ball goes 60. Chunky monkey chip and lose the hole. Things got pretty wild starting with 16. I push my drive and my 2nd off a tree, but in the fairway about 80 from the green. Eagle is in the big fairway trap and hits a great shot on to the fringe but over the ridge from the stick. His putt looked like an Indy 500 racer coming across the green and slams the stick and stops a couple inches away. I am not sure it would have stayed on the green if it hadn't hit the stick. I was getting a stroke and bogied for a push. He then dunks his tee shot on 17 and I hit the green, but on the front left and the pin was back right. I did a nice controlled 3-jack to win and go 1 up. Eagle freakin' mangled his drive on 18 to inside 250. I pushed mine right of the big tree in the swishy rough near the pond on 17. I was able to chunk it to 160 while Eagle flaired one right into the thick stuff. I probably hit my best shot of the day from an iffy stance. 7 iron that hit pin high, but released over the ridge to about 30 ft. Eagle gouged his to the front right fringe. I knew if I hit my putt to the hole and missed, I would have 10-15 ft coming back. Well, I got the putter tangled up in my skirt and left it 5 feet short. Eagle cozied his up close. My 5 footer caught the edge of the hole, but shot down the slope to that 10 footer I was afraid of with my first putt. Anyway, Eagle pars, I 4-putt, match ends even.

Hell of a lot of fun! Grabbed a quick bite and beer after.

 

Shot of the day was Eagles hybrid on #8. Ball goes 220+, head goes about 100. I've never seen a better shot with a club head coming off. A lot of chuckles about that at the bar after the round

[TheCityGame]

Or if you can leave it at the right half of the fairway, you can hit it 200 and have 150 in from the fairway. That's probably not a bad play. So 3-iron may be too much club if you are trying to hit the fairway. The dogleg is severe enough that if you have 150 in from the left rough you hit it about 220, but 150 from the middle/right of the fairway is only 200 off the tee. I'll probably do something like that and hit 4-iron off the tee next time I play there.

Yes, that's what I'm trying to do. I thought I needed a little more than 200, but you're probably right about backing off to 4 iron. Thing is, it SEEMS like I can get it to 130-ish without too much trouble, but that's proving not to be the case. Might need to go back to 4 iron. I think that one time earlier this year, I hit a good 3 that came up way short, so I have that in my head. But, that might have been windy and wet.

 

This leaves less than 150. . .

 

 

[davechen]

 

We are playing stupid early Saturday morn at Glenndale. We have 3 if you wanna round out the quad.

 

6:18

 

Damn thats early! Are you booked as a threesome or four? I looked online last night and it said there was 1 spot open, but I called this morning and the pro said you were 4. If there's a free spot, sure, I'll play.

[SullGolf]

That lesson right there is basically a distillation of everything I've been working on for the last two years. It's all about getting a square face and a square path and he attempts to get the student to do through nothing more than changing the student's grip and intent at the ball. . .

 

Student is swinging 8º to the right.

 

Crossfield tells him, "ok, now feel like you're swinging left".

 

Student starts swinging 2º to the right.

 

Grip and path. That's it. Add in good contact, and that's it. Start working on putting.

 

The problem is still that you can't get this sort of information without investing $10,000+ in a launch monitor. And you don't feel like you're doing it wrong, as shown there. When I hit a pure fade/slice and it goes in the right rough, how do I know if I came 5 degrees over the top with a slightly open face, or if I hit it right at 0 degrees with a fairly open face? One is a path problem, one is a face problem, but it looks the same (or close enough to the same) to me on the course. I could say that I need to experiment by shutting down the face a bit and check the result, but a closed face is going to give a pull or pull draw, which might look the same for either problem too.

 

Basically, I know just enough of that stuff that it adds confusion rather than reduces it.

[TheCityGame]

That lesson right there is basically a distillation of everything I've been working on for the last two years. It's all about getting a square face and a square path and he attempts to get the student to do through nothing more than changing the student's grip and intent at the ball. . .

 

Student is swinging 8º to the right.

 

Crossfield tells him, "ok, now feel like you're swinging left".

 

Student starts swinging 2º to the right.

 

Grip and path. That's it. Add in good contact, and that's it. Start working on putting.

 

The problem is still that you can't get this sort of information without investing $10,000+ in a launch monitor. And you don't feel like you're doing it wrong, as shown there. When I hit a pure fade/slice and it goes in the right rough, how do I know if I came 5 degrees over the top with a slightly open face, or if I hit it right at 0 degrees with a fairly open face? One is a path problem, one is a face problem, but it looks the same (or close enough to the same) to me on the course. I could say that I need to experiment by shutting down the face a bit and check the result, but a closed face is going to give a pull or pull draw, which might look the same for either problem too.

1) Take a lesson with a guy with a launch monitor.

 

2) If you understand the ball flight laws, you should be able to evaluate what kind of swing produced what kind of ball flight. Generally ball starts where the face is pointed, and curves away from the differential between path and face.

 

3) Also, your divot does give you some information.

 

4) You experiment. If you just faded one into the right rough and you're not sure what your face/path were doing. . .keep the same grip and swing more out. Or, try a stronger grip, and the same swing. See which one fixes it.

 

5) Experiment in general. Grab a 6 iron at the range, and go strong-grip, in-to-out. Go totally weak, and go out-to-in. See what the ball does. It's not magic. Play with it.

 

Lastly, I'm not saying this is easy or immediate. Like I said, this is the kind of stuff I've been working on for 2 years, ever since my lesson with Krebs, and reading Adam Young. Once you get it, though, it can help you correct on the course.

 

Just my opinion. That's the stuff that clicks with me. Talk to PQ. . .he's more concerned with the timing at the top of his swing, and his weight transfer and his takeaway and all that stuff. If he gets that stuff right, he feels like he's playing well. I need to focus on face/path at contact.

[FAbb]

Spot on, city. Like Crossfield says in the video, it's a skill to know where your path is. You have to learn it.

[C. Freeman]

Loaded my round up on game golf. Think it's time to get a driver fitting.

 

Shots off the tee

4-wood: 238, 231, 251

Driver: 223, 242, 227

 

That first one I hit with driver was a poor shot, but the other two were pretty solid off the face. Felt like I crushed it on the last one that was 227.

 

This is why I will never get game golf. I was behind Sully off the tee, and I would not be able to handle seeing those numbers.

[pquarta1]

City is a very feel oriented player. It works for him. I tend to think more in terms of mechanics. I think you just need to figure what works for you. The key for City, from my vantage, is that he is focusing on one thing with every swing to execute a shot shape. That keeps thinking to a minimum. Also, he hits balls or practices probably more than anyone on here, so he has a great feel for his swing. I do think there is truth to the idea that if you can get the club where it needs to be at impact, that you will get it where need to be in other areas of the swing...

[TheCityGame]

Don't look now.

 

Eagle. 2-0-1.

THDC: 2-0-0.

 

 

I want to be there for that match, wherever and whenever it is.

[eagle1997]

PQ- the greens were unreal. Some were impossible to hold, even with a short iron off the tee. 143 to the back right pin on #6. I hit a high hard 9i. It's spinning, I can feel it. Gonna be pretty close. Hits 6 feet short of the hole -bounces 6 feet in the air- to the back fringe. Total distance: approx. 160. Ridiculous.

 

The pins were cut on slopes and it was tough to lag putt to circle of friendship distance.

 

Gotta count 'em up, but likely mid 80s for both of us.

 

They had the WMGA mid am there on Tuesday. Sounds like they wanted em fast and firm for the event and it carried over. Nice. I love firm and fast. These sound insane. Let's get out there some weekday afternoon.

 

ahhhh, that helps explain it. very difficult to explain how firm the greens were in certain spots, and how thick the rough was near the green. deadly combo. and again, it was playing so much easier than worthington! i was 10 shots better yesterday than at WM, and that's starting out (+5) through 3.

 

one other thing of note: there's a whole lot of turtle f**king going on at blue mash. greg and i saw 3 in the fairways going out for an afternoon stroll, and i saw 3+ around the water's edge or swimming.

[FAbb]

I'm not so sure they didn't play their match, and I don't have it recorded. I know eagle beat him in an 18-hole match at Blue Mash earlier this year.

 

Totally unrelated - is anybody rocking (or thinking about rocking) a sunbrella on their push cart this year? I don't have any dry foot skin cancer scares to motivate me, but it just seems like an easy way to keep the sun off, and keep cool. I'm already out there with a push cart, so what the F do I care about having a sunbrella.

[pquarta1]

I'm not so sure they didn't play their match, and I don't have it recorded. I know eagle beat him in an 18-hole match at Blue Mash earlier this year.

 

Totally unrelated - is anybody rocking (or thinking about rocking) a sunbrella on their push cart this year? I don't have any dry foot skin cancer scares to motivate me, but it just seems like an easy way to keep the sun off, and keep cool. I'm already out there with a push cart, so what the F do I care about having a sunbrella.

 

Do it.

[TheCityGame]

I'm not so sure they didn't play their match, and I don't have it recorded. I know eagle beat him in an 18-hole match at Blue Mash earlier this year.

 

Totally unrelated - is anybody rocking (or thinking about rocking) a sunbrella on their push cart this year? I don't have any dry foot skin cancer scares to motivate me, but it just seems like an easy way to keep the sun off, and keep cool. I'm already out there with a push cart, so what the F do I care about having a sunbrella.

No.

 

Read that in the voice I used when Domes asked me if I considered acupuncture.