Clubhouse Grille (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***) (*** NO POLITICS/RELIGION ***)

[scomac2002]

I purchased a new notebook on-line on Saturday and it was delivered yesterday. The driver knocked on my door and handed me the package. We had a delivery today and it was dropped in the vestibule with no knock on the door. I have another delivery coming in the next day or so. Who knows what the protocol will be by then.

I was talking to my clubhouse manager again today and she indicated that the superintendent/owner wants to open the course on Monday. I was shocked! I can't imagine anyone doing such a thing this early in the season especially under the circumstances. I'm not planning on going anytime soon regardless of what he decides. I feel very concerned for my manager as she suffers from asthma and would be considered a high risk individual for this disease.

[tolmij]

Update from our prime minister, Australia is now in lockdown. Travellers are stopped from leaving if the country they are going to has a Border control, therefore the rest of the world and only Australian citizens are allowed in after 9pm tomorrow night. No non Australians full stop.

 

riots in a supermarket were that bad the police were called to stand there and hand them out from the shelves. What a waste of police time.

[tolmij]

In Australia because of the panic buying there is a shortage of asthma medication, the puffers are all sold out.

[tolmij]

Day nine of our self imposed quarantine, the last few weeks for some reason we have been extremely busy, out most days so this is now a rest we did not know we needed. Catching up on gardening, the place is in a mess, weeded the beds visible from the bedroom so we can now wake up to at least one tidy bit.

Art has been a non starter for weeks now but as we are getting caught up it will be back, renovation now finished, picture shortly, only waiting for the new chairs which are still nearly four weeks away. Local golf club is still open but I am leaving off going until after our quarantine which we expect to be at least 10 weeks.

The nearest positive case to us is still over 40 miles away, mandatory isolation is now in force throughout our state with steep fines for those breaking it, our pollies are at last taking it seriously enough, I wish the young idiots would do the same, still trying to party and saying being young they are at no risk but over 40% of all cases tested positive are young people. The one medical condition that seems to put you at more risk is high blood pressure, mine used to be high but is now well and truly under control but this is one of the factors that made us do what we are.

Stay safe Grillers, do what it needs to keep yourselves alive.

[Sean2]

We have a case a couple of miles away. Doesn't stop me from going outside. I would go crazy if I had to stay indoors. I either hike, or weather permitting, play golf...as long as there is a course open. :-)

[Sean2]

Someone started a thread claiming a good high school boy could take down an LPGA Tour player. I am friends with an LPGA Tour player. He has no concept how good a professional golfer really is. The topic is laughable.

[tolmij]

I watched a tournament at my local club a few years ago, the pro has been on a minor tour, never the top flight, but when you watch these scratch golfers play and then realise the real top pros are on a completely different class, it makes you realise just how far back you are. These youngsters are and always will be delusional. Watched a junior competition and the fathers were acting as caddies, if my son had spoken to me the way these were talking to their fathers he would have been picking himself up with a very sore head, fortunately he was raised better. Don’t know how they stood the abuse.

[tolmij]

Today I thought , keep yourself busy. So we have some fencing in front of our water tanks and the horizontal slats are coming loose. Drill hole in slat, screw through hole into upright, easy?????

last slat was warped and required holding in place when it was being fixed, held it with left hand and with drill and a cross Drill bit went to work, put pressure on screw head bit slipped and hit my thumb. Now these are not sharp but it hit my thumb, left hand just to the right of the bone and went straight through, did not actually break out the front side but made a very large bump, bled well did not hurt too much but as a result all work of this type is banned until after the virus panic is over, we are not going to risk a trip to the hospital. Hopefully my personal nurse cleaned if well enough to stop any infection, the cross bit was not the cleanest it could be. Have to concentrate on gardening and painting.

[Conrad1953]

We're playing today. We're having April/May temperatures in March and the jet stream is staying north of us keeping the rain

north of us..............that is until this weekend when it is supposed to rain..............but we've had a nice 10 day or so break from the

rain with warm temps and are finally starting to dry out a little.

 

We're playing Prattville CC, which is a private that has started allowing public play because they are hurting. I've never played there

and as you guys know, I'm always game to play a course I haven't played before. If I had my way I'd play a new course every time

out but, sadly, within a month I'd be driving more than 100 miles each way to keep that up, lol. I'm driving about 50 miles each

way just to play this course.

 

There are more people living in Atlanta than all of Alabama. I like that it's a lot less crowded here but that does mean we have

far fewer courses than our neighbor to the east. We live about 60 miles from the Georgia line and I do venture over that way

from time to time to play a round.

[Sean2]

You are right. A scratch golfer compared to a pro, is like a 15 HI compared to a scratch golfer.

Delusional is right...and the parents are also responsible for those delusions, as are some of the teaching pros who also feed those delusions. The kid gets a nasty wake up call when he plays in some AJGA event and gets his hat handed to him.

One instructor I know is brutally honest (he's the father of the LPGA pro I know and has been her only instructor). A parent came up to him and said everyone says how great his daughter's swing is and Lee told him her swing was terrible. The parent thanked him for his honesty. She started talking lessons from him and she is now one of the top juniors in the state.

[billh17]

have a great day conrad ! I'm like you..i'd like to play a different one every time ! I hate to see any course

have money issues to the point of being near to shutting down. But ,the old country boy in me sometimes

thinks there really is a KARMA Czar. We had a course near us that was a CC,and got into money problems,and did the same

as the one you're playing. But they had treated non-members like trash for too many years. No one went to play there.

They ended up closing,and another owner opened it as a semi private..It is one of the most popular courses in the area

and all because of the way folks are treated.

 

 

[Conrad1953]

It was clear why this one was struggling. I would rate it just above a goat track based on the shape the course is in. Don't see us going

back anytime soon. Cooked food and fountain drinks were shut down due to covid................but it's the same for all courses in Bama

presently. Pretty much golf only down here but I'm grateful the courses are still open at all.

 

Rain this weekend so will probably play again early next week at a course yet to be determined.

 

Stopped at a big Walmart Supercenter on the way home and it was a mad house in there! I know many businesses are hurting right

but Walmart ain't one of 'em. They must be raking in far more cash than usual.

[tolmij]

We have a course that allows, note the word allows non members to play, but you have to wear the fancy club socks which you purchase from the pro shop at a premium price, then you have to put them on before they allow you to pay for the round and as you play the course Marshall’s are always checking to make sure they are correctly pulled up the the required height. People still flock to play there.

[tolmij]

A retail manager said a normal Christmas season runs over 10/12 weeks and he gave an indication of the sails for that time, the last three weeks have been the same as three Christmas periods, one per week.

[tolmij]

And the good news, three Queensland doctors have been running secret trials on patients with the virus and every one has been cured, they are using drugs already in production. The trials are now going public and are being expanded to 50 hospitals, it only requires the drugs to be expanded in production the lines are already there for them. It seems we can beat this quickly.

 

As we always shout when playing interstate sports, GO QUEENSLANDER.

[Conrad1953]

The thing is, if you think about it, these sales are not due to increased demand, they are due to hoarding. Logic tells us that when this

hysteria ends people will have stashed away enough of some things to last them months. At some point, unless we have mass diarrhea,

sales of things; like toilet paper, are gonna sag while people slowly use up all the excess they bought.

[Conrad1953]

Of course, another possibility could see a huge rise in high schoolers papering each others' houses, lol. Ah..............the memories!

[scotee]

Home sweet home! We had a great time but got out just in time as everything is shutting down in Hawaii and the governor is telling every one to stay away. Nice warm day here so my buddy and I thought we would have a quiet golf game. The club restaurant and bar is closed but the course is open for play. With lots of people off work the lot was full when we got there and play was a little slow at almost 4 hrs. 

 



[billh17]

All i can say to that is A'INT NO WAY JOSE !!!!

thats crazy

[tolmij]

Welcome back to the Grill scotee, quiet in here as we are keeping the social distance apart?. Sounds as if you had a good time and you were also luckY they allowed you back in, I think the Donald is being silly not having a full lockdown. Australia is now in isolation, no one in or out, all major airlines are closed.

Enjoy your golf whilst you can, there does not appear to be a consistent policy over golf, I cannot see there being a problem as long as you stay away from others, leave the flag in so you do not pass on or catch germs, don’t use water Bubblers, don’t use the ball cleaners, don’t pick up any balls lying around the course, stand well back when others are teeing off. MMMMMMM, play a round on your own then you will, should be, could possibly be, almost safe.

From here on the world will reset, nothing will be the same apart from the golf course and that is a major positive.

the damage to my thumb is healing well, thanks for asking.????????

[tolmij]

It’s funny the golf community in Australia, for some reason there is a core of players that think if your handicap is more than 18 you should be banned from playing the better courses and leave them for the elite, that is them. Practice on the goat tracks until you are good enough. These are the players that purchase the socks and boast about playing there.

 

idiots.

[tolmij]

Some golfing rules have been changed, no bunker rakes, flag stick not touched or not in at all, cup can be raised or upside down if you hit it it is in the hole, no touching any ones ball, mark own card, not signed by anyone at the game end, cards not handed over in the pro shop, we have country players that pay less for a five day play, they are banned from travelling to away games, some clubs have banned all but members.

Interesting times.

 

update, In Australia they have pennant competitions, which are between clubs lasting around six months, after three rounds one state has cancelled the rest of the competition for 2020.

[BIG STU]

That is total BS no way a high school player can take down a LPGA player. Last time I saw a thread like that it was a scratch handicap taking down a LPGA player. My friend's daughter is a Symetra player and I will back her against any high school male player in a heartbeat. Yep you know how it is some people show their ignorance when they open their mouth or in this case fire up a key board.

[scomac2002]

Not much to report from the north. The situation here feels ominous; a bit like the calm before the storm. We are a small town and as far as I know without any cases to date. But, the world has come to a standstill in Toronto which is a hotspot.

Co-operation with distancing measures appears to be quite good amongst most except for younger adults. I still see groups of them together albeit much smaller than usual.

I discovered yesterday that there was a local course that has opened as of last Monday. I was surprised, but you're supposed to call first, so I think it's very much weather dependant. It was lovely and warm yesterday, but we had a downpour in the morning that would have rendered conditions unplayable there as it has a clay base and doesn't drain well. I may try and get nine holes in there in the next week or two if the weather co-operates. It doesn't look particularly promising as we have a lot of rain in the forecast and temperatures aren't going to be above my minimum of 50°F.

Got the snowblower put away and "summerized". Took out the first couple of pieces of outdoor furniture and tried to get my mower to run. The mower starts, but stalls repeatedly. Not sure what's up with that. I'll try again another day that's warm. It will be a while before I have grass to mow. I think I'll cut out a section of sod that was laid last fall in order to add a small border. There used to be garden there, but it needed a redo and I had them rip it out last fall. There are tulips coming up through the sod, so I decided that it should be put back into garden. This will likely be my first outdoor project other than cleaning the gutters of the winter debris.

I find the constant flow of negative news and predictions of impending doom to be quite depressing. I'm going to do better to tune out, perhaps focusing only on what our leaders have to say rather than someone else's learned analysis of the situation.

Stay well my friends. Good health to you and your loved ones.

[Conrad1953]

Back at ya ole buddy! Spring always makes me feel optimistic no matter what else may be going on in the world at large.

I hope you get the chance to play some golf this coming week. For some reason it gives me the feeling of normality; being

out on the course contending against old man par.

 

Seems no matter where we live we are all in pretty much the same boat. My next door neighbor told me yesterday that

he's hearing we all may get ordered to stay home for a few weeks. I hope it doesn't come to that but if it does we are

prepared and, frankly, after so many years out on the road, in a crisis, we would much rather be here than out there.

[billh17]

I agree Stu. I have a Gr. Daughter that could beat most of the high school boys,and she isn't even on a team. In fact, she and

a couple of her friends all three could probably do it, and none are big collage golfers or even play more than twice a month.

Some folks have absolutely no concept of just how good the ladies on tour are. They see a 5'3" tall Korean gal and figure

she'd need two shots to catch them off the tee. Can see the frown of doubt when they watch that tiny little girls 2nd shot land on the green. lol

Instant welcome to reality happening !

[scotee]

Playing golf during coronavirus outbreak: Is it safe? Medical experts weigh inInteresting ideas.

[Sean2]

I played 9 yesterday and 18 today. No tending of flags, and the cups have these things attached to them so the ball doesn't go all the way down into the hole.

[tolmij]

I think soon not interesting ideas but mandatory, this is spreading so fast, but the good thing is we are for once all starting to pull together, stay safe Grillers.

[Conrad1953]

We have not been touching the flagstick since before all this. It speeds up play to just leave the flag in and everyone

putt out. I think for some, old habits are hard to break but it's been easy for us to just never pull the flag since the rule

change went into effect.