MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[SullGolf]

PGA has pretty good public stats, but they also have an amazing amount of data that isn’t shared. They literally track every shot hit by every player. I gather they open it open to researchers and people that pay them. Strokes Gained is a great stat, but I bet people could come up with equal or better stats if they had all that shot data.

[Mizzy45]

Heading out to worthington around 1:30pm today to try out my new hzrdus smoke shaft (thanks Tex). If it works, might play 9. Anyone want to join me?

[Mizzy45]

> @Mizzy45 said:

> Heading out to worthington around 1:30pm today to try out my new hzrdus smoke shaft (thanks Tex). If it works, might play 9. Anyone want to join me?

 

Probably gonna be more like 2:30, damn wife wants me to go shopping with her first.

 

[No Laying Up]

> @thechief16 said:

> therealsneek said:

>

>

> Did anyone watch the new Wild World of Golf from last night?  It brought a huge smile to my face to watch my boy Trust Fund Tron top one off of the 2nd tee. 

>

>

>

>

> Yeah.  A 6 who tops drives and can't/won't chip.  Did you see some of his putts?  He was missing 20 footers 8 inches wide and 6 feet long.  He's a fraud.

 

I'll bite.

 

Tron had a truly awful day at WWOG 2. In his defense, filming these things is the exact opposite of what is representative of a real round of golf. It takes about three hours to film nine holes, even in alternate shot. You've gotta wait for camera and announcer to get into position, you play half the shots of a normal round, and you've got someone commenting in your ear up until the moment you hit it. It's not really fun to play in, to be honest.

 

The point being missed by many here is that bad golf is... kinda the point. It's there so the booth guy and the on course reporter can sit there and roast you. We want to have two pros and two ams so there is at least a blend of bad golf with good golf, and to show first hand the differences between pros and joes in driving distance and other aspects of the game. Julian being injured threw a wrench in the scheduling plans, and so we swapped out and steered even harder in the direction of bad golf. Alternate shot from the tips is soooo uncomfortable.

 

Tron is up to a 7 now, and he's a nightmare to play at that number. In a recent match, I gave him 3 shots, and I shot 3-under and he took me to the last hole. I'm down to a 0.8 now, and I have an 86, an 82, an 81, and an 80 in my last 20 scores. If I showed you every shot from the 86, you would say the same about my handicap.

 

We could do what other YouTubers do, and edit out the bad shots and try to make ourselves look as cool as possible, or we could laugh at the ups and downs of golf and try to have fun with it.

 

Crack on!

[SullGolf]

Now that NLU hit it big and you're all flying on your personal jets and such, you should go around the country on a Grudge Tour and play against all the random internet haters.

[thechief16]

@No Laying Up . Point taken. The roasting is indeed the best part of the show. And Tron plays his selected character well. Which is, I guess the whole point.

[FAbb]

Are we gonna at least get Big Randy back on the mic next episode?

 

His performances in tourist sauce season 2, and as the on course reporter in wwog1 were transcendent.

[TheCityGame]

Best part of the hour was soly and Tron talking about how thick that tree was and Suri just walks into frame and goes "shawty thick".

 

And club pro guy.

[FAbb]

Speaking of transcendent performances, I dusted the clubs off for the first round of the season today, and I did not have one.

 

My tee game was on point with the G400 LST. Like, really on point. 2MT was off his game enough that I had zero reference point for distance, but I was stroking that thing. Bringing those 250 yard wispy heaters. Nice traj on it, too. Higher than I've hit my last couple drivers. It'll get the driver slot for this season. If it doesn't, I'm a moron.

 

My irons were just really not there. I didn't have my wedge distances worked out, and hit several pulls. There was a period of about 3 holes where I hit multiple mega chunks. They got more dialed as the round went on in general, but reps are needed. I think I actually need to move my ball position a bit, now that I've got a little more tilt.

 

Short game was actually super money. I hit it to kick in range a ton. 2MT was impressed enough to comment on it, which was nice, coming from somebody with a good short game like him.

 

Putting was fine. First round out. Made the ones I have to make, but didn't drop anything of length.

 

Really nice to be outside playing golf. I'm ready to come out of golf hibernation. Just need to get the wrist tuned up, and I feel like this could be a great season.

[FAbb]

#ballWRX

 

I played my first round with the peasant version (non proto stamped) of the 2019 Pro V1 yesterday. It's every bit as enjoyable to play as I remember from trying it out at the end of last season.

 

The feel is fantastic. After a good run of years playing the "X" version of whatever ball, it's been really nice hitting something that isn't so firm. It's softer than the X balls, but it's not mushy feeling like the chrome soft. It's got a nice heavy thud feeling. It's great off every club, from driver, all the way down to chipping and putting.

 

I like the traj I was getting with it on pretty much all clubs. It flies just a bit lower than the X balls, which I really liked with my wedges and short irons. Plenty of height off the longer clubs, and the D. It seemed to fly fairly flat off the driver.

 

Distance was very difficult to gauge yesterday. First round of the season, so the golf muscles aren't really tuned, we had a fair amount of wind (more on that later), 2MT's ball striking made it impossible for me to get a relative comparison, I've only played the course once before from a different set of tees, and roll was non-existent. Those things all added up to it really being difficult to get any kind of feel on driving distance. There were a few I felt like I just absolutely took to pound town. I didn't get my iron play grooved well enough to have a great idea either. I'd say distances with irons on average strikes were on par with my normal distances. Hopefully that means as the golf muscles get worked more regularly, and the temps come up, I'll squeeze a couple extra yards out of it.

 

There wasn't overwhelming wind yesterday, but there was enough to impact flight and distance for sure. For me, the ball seemed to play well in all wind directions. We had a few into the wind, and I didn't notice the ball shooting up in the air and losing distance at all. We were straight into the wind off the tee on 10, and I eked a 5 iron just past 2MT's 5 wood. He claimed my ball rolled and his didn't, but that didn't stop me from flexing a bit.

 

I absolutely love the ball around the greens. I've always felt like the non-X versions were better around the greens. I'm sure there's zero data to back that up, but it's always been my perception. I played some really great shots with it yesterday.

 

Durability - I threatened to lose it twice, but managed to hit driver everywhere and still get around Turf Valley Hialeah with one ball. I hit a bunch of shots with fresh groove wedges from fairways, too, so the ball got a workout. It's got some minor damage, but it's still in good enough shape that I'd take it out and play it again next round. That's saying a lot, because I'm definitely more OCD about golf balls than most. The durability is very impressive on this ball.

 

Overall, I think it's gonna be a great ball this season. I'm really looking forward to testing it out in all variety of conditions as the spring goes along.

[FAbb]

Triple post?

 

Triple post!

 

It took 17 freaking holes to break the seal on making birdies for the season, and it was the first and only birdie from the group on the entire day. I had some other great looks that I didn't convert, and 2MT whiffed the hole on about a 4 footer on 16 to break the seal for the group. That's a course it feels like you should be able to make birdies in bunches, so I'm chalking it up to early season rust.

 

Also, I'm over keeping stats. I don't use them for anything, and I don't see that changing.

[TheCityGame]

> @FAbb said:

> Triple post?

>

> Triple post!

>

 

 

You haven't even mentioned where you played, who you had, what the game was. You're talking in the oddest generalities about this mystery round you played. And I had to take a break after your 1000 words about a BALL because I threw up on my shirt and had to change.

[siegel159]

Played at The People's Country Club with Hoop and his buddy on Sunday. Started off pretty chilly, but by the back nine it was so awesome out.

 

Hoop played well. Definitely wasn't striking it as well as he has in the past, but he never really got himself into any bad positions either. And I don't think he walked away from any hole with worse than bogey, so that was good. Not that we were having a match, but he still beat me by two strokes due to avoiding any blowups.

 

I had probably the best driving day ever in my impressive amateur golf career. Had a conversation with PQ last week where he noted that I was really just not going at the ball as hard as I used to, and he thought it was causing a fair number of bad strikes. So yesterday one of my goals was to really try and smash the ball off the tee/in general. And thinking back, I had two holes where I hit poor tee shots: #1 (because my golf game is centered around a s*** first hole), and #5 (which was a chunky 3w). Everything else was basically crushed (79% fairways hit stat, woohoo). Struck my irons well too. Unfortunately, my wedge game from inside 60 yards was trash. Had far too many duffed chips, so I need to take some time at one of those chipping greens at EPP and just work on that. I've also decided I'm gonna start using my PW-8i around the greens more, just to get the ball rolling and avoid those stubbed/duffed chips. My 4 putt on #14 didn't help my score either. Walked away with an 85, but I'm considering the day a huge success just based on the quality of my driver/iron strikes

[FAbb]

I played at Turf Valley Hialeah course, from the white tees.

 

I was the 4th wheel in the 2MT Sunday group. The other two were middle-agers that I've never met before.

 

One guy didn't want a game, so 2MT played an individual against the other guy, and I was left just playing tally 'em up ball golf.

 

The 2MT-other guy match was pretty ugly. 2MT is in between moves, out there playing golf swing. It was the worst golf I've ever seen from him, in all areas.

 

It was interesting playing Hialeah from the white tees. There were some holes where you could really get aggressive with the D, and kind of take it past trouble/tight spots. Like on 2, especially with some wind help, I just pounded one over the creek. On 16, even a bad strike (which I had) with the D will get you past where those trees on the right really pinch the hole. I didn't do it this time, but I think with all those trees they took down, I'd really experiment with just pounding the D onto the 15th hole from 14 tee. That tee shot, especially when there's wind in the face, is just so incredibly awkward. I wouldn't really want to play it from the white tees again if given a choice, though. It's such a good challenge from the blues, but obviously as the guest 4th wheel, I deferred to the rest of the group yesterday.

[Kent01putt]

Spend the weekend trying to make a putt. Never happened. So tired of mud, wind and very little grass to chip off of.

#isuckatgolf

[Ocgolfrick]

Got out with MeatMike1.0 at OCGC yesterday afternoon. Seaside was slammed as it was the nicest golf day down here in weeks, and Newport was being used for a Div III college tourney practice round. We got permission to go the back of Seaside, play 10, and just see the backup on 11 and skip over to 18. We got back to clubhouse and get permission to follow the college teams on #10 Newport. #10 and #11 were open, but we run into Goldey-Beacom's team on #12. Interesting how they were practicing. They each took several drives trying to figure out lines, but took hardly any time at all on approach shots and around the greens! MeatMike1.0 just made a purchase of set of used Taylormade RSI irons that he was really hitting well. On #13 Newport par 3 from the blues into the wind I hit a choked up driver on, and MeatMike 1.0 hit 2 iron and we both made par. We play until #17 Newport, when the backup just got to be too much for us for the college teams, so we skipped back over to #1 Seaside and played that till the end. Good to get out and swing it for 20 holes, and MeatMike1.0 is extremely interested in Pinehurst in February if we do it again. My salesmanship abilities shine through again! (or where I didn't shut up talking about it to him for 20 holes...)

[SullGolf]

City, was FAbbs updated post sufficient for you?

[XHoop24]

> @siegel159 said:

> Played at The People's Country Club with Hoop and his buddy on Sunday. Started off pretty chilly, but by the back nine it was so awesome out.

>

> Hoop played well. Definitely wasn't striking it as well as he has in the past, but he never really got himself into any bad positions either. And I don't think he walked away from any hole with worse than bogey, so that was good. Not that we were having a match, but he still beat me by two strokes due to avoiding any blowups.

>

> I had probably the best driving day ever in my impressive amateur golf career. Had a conversation with PQ last week where he noted that I was really just not going at the ball as hard as I used to, and he thought it was causing a fair number of bad strikes. So yesterday one of my goals was to really try and smash the ball off the tee/in general. And thinking back, I had two holes where I hit poor tee shots: #1 (because my golf game is centered around a **** first hole), and #5 (which was a chunky 3w). Everything else was basically crushed (79% fairways hit stat, woohoo). Struck my irons well too. Unfortunately, my wedge game from inside 60 yards was trash. Had far too many duffed chips, so I need to take some time at one of those chipping greens at EPP and just work on that. I've also decided I'm gonna start using my PW-8i around the greens more, just to get the ball rolling and avoid those stubbed/duffed chips. My 4 putt on #14 didn't help my score either. Walked away with an 85, but I'm considering the day a huge success just based on the quality of my driver/iron strikes

 

Siegel was hitting the D as well as I ever seen him yesterday. Everything was struck solidly and in play. EPP was a bit wet from the rain on Friday and we were frost delayed for about an hour, but the course was playable and pretty crowded in the morning. I was happy with an 83 considering I wasn't hitting the ball particularly well. Normally that will result in a 88/89 from me, even at EPP. Short game was solid and putted decently which helped. Still went in as something like a 14 differential, but a good start to the season.

 

Also played the new ProV1 (yellow) for a few holes. Definitely longer than a few years back. I haven't played much with the reg ProV since about 2015 and it is significantly longer than I remember that ball. It does have a very solid 'thuddy' feel. That said, I'm stocked up on last years TP5X and will be working through those for a while.

[FAbb]

> @SullGolf said:

> City, was FAbbs updated post sufficient for you?

 

Doubtful.

 

He probably had a heart attack and kicked it, when he read that there wasn't even a game.

[TheCityGame]

> @SullGolf said:

> City, was FAbbs updated post sufficient for you?

Yeah. I'm just gonna recognize that 2019 Pro V post as satire and not respond, just in case it wasn't.

 

[FAbb]

We're out on hole #8 yesterday, which has this new drainage system in the fairway that they've installed on several holes. They cut these narrow trenches to install it, and the top layer they fill it with is sand. Several of the trenches on that fairway had the sand washed out of them quite a bit.

 

I asked 2MT if they were going to seed, wait for growth to really start and sod them, or just keep filling them with sand as needed and hope the grass on either side will grow into the trench lines to close them up. He scoffed and said they will not have to continuously fill them, because the rain we had Friday was of such epic proportions, and that will not happen again this year. He claims we got 1.5" of rain Friday, which I have no reason to doubt. I'm like, "is this weather pattern we've been in definitely over? We got heavy daily rainfall a ton of times last year" He dismissed me again, saying 1.5" was basically Noah's Ark level rain.

 

I decided to look this morning if there is any type of historical precipitation data repository, which of course there is. You can query data from NOAA. I pulled daily precipitation totals from the station Turf Valley falls within for all of 2018. There were 14 days that more than an inch of precipitation fell - 8 of which were 1.5" or more.

 

[FAbb]

The ball post wasn't satire.

 

It is the first true test of whether City can restrain himself and just use the "Disagree" button, or if the urge to expound on it is too strong to resist.

[TheCityGame]

This table doesn't add anything additional, but I found it kind of cool. I think that it is indicating that 1 time per year we can expect a rain of 2.66 inches in a day. It doesn't let you pivot, e.g. put in 1.5 inches in a day and see how often we get that, but it's more than once a year. We get that much in 3 hours once a year.

 


 

Speaking of rain. . .anyone following what's going on in Mozambique/Zimbabwe/Malawi? They had a tropical storm come ashore, go back out to sea and come back as a cyclone. Tons of damage and death in those countries. Not receiving much media attention here. Thousands dead already with cholera and malaria possibly kicking into high gear.

 

[eagle1997]

m g s must be salivated at the thought of "testing" the new ksig 4 piece vs the new prov1.

 

in other news, tex fit me (in like 15 mins) into a new iron shaft that produces higher, longer shots and my impact went from toe side to a barrage of center faced contact. being on the trackman was really, really cool.

 

much appreciated bud.

 

 

[FAbb]

Here are the days with greater than an inch of rainfall at the station that covers Turf Valley. I only looked at the number of days over a certain threshold at first, and not the actual totals.

 

7.4 inches on 5/28?!?!

 

4/16/2018 - 1.5

5/16/2018 - 1.92

5/19/2018 - 1.26

5/28/2018 - 7.4

6/4/2018 - 3

7/22/2018 - 3.95

7/23/2018 - 2.38

7/24/2018 - 1.09

8/1/2018 - 1.34

8/22/2018 - 1.9

9/18/2018- 1.62

10/5/2018 - 1.02

11/3/2018 - 1.13

11/25/2018 - 1.73

[top.h]

got out to lakewood early saturday morning after a long night of drinking. Still working on ingraining some new swing mechanics (straighten trail leg during takeaway, dont shoot the knee out). Mixed bag. Made a nice sandy on #1, a nice double on number 2, and a par on number 3 that i had no business making given that I stayed down the right side of the hole the entire time. Other than that, nothing super notable. Wind made some holes brutal, but somehow squeezed out some better scores than I usually do despite the challenge. Took till 16 to roll in a birdie from about 6', and somehow was long of the green on #18 (uphill long par 4, into the wind) and finished with a roller coaster 88 with some godawful putting. still waiting for dry days without 40mph gusts.

[davechen]

> @eagle1997 said:

> m g s must be salivated at the thought of "testing" the new ksig 4 piece vs the new prov1.

>

> in other news, tex fit me (in like 15 mins) into a new iron shaft that produces higher, longer shots and my impact went from toe side to a barrage of center faced contact. being on the trackman was really, really cool.

>

> much appreciated bud.

>

>

 

Are there any new Ksig rumors or news? I'm just about to crack open my last box (2 dozen) of Ksigs. In the winter I've been playing crap balls (found Pro V1s), but it's time to get serious. So I need a re-supply of Ksigs.

 

I found a K3 on the course and played that for a bit but didn't really like it.

 

Oh by the way, guess who has two thumbs and is leading the GolfWRX NCAA Tournament pool? Yup, this guy,

[eagle1997]

> @davechen said:

> > @eagle1997 said:

> > m g s must be salivated at the thought of "testing" the new ksig 4 piece vs the new prov1.

> >

> > in other news, tex fit me (in like 15 mins) into a new iron shaft that produces higher, longer shots and my impact went from toe side to a barrage of center faced contact. being on the trackman was really, really cool.

> >

> > much appreciated bud.

> >

> >

>

> Are there any new Ksig rumors or news? I'm just about to crack open my last box (2 dozen) of Ksigs. In the winter I've been playing **** balls (found Pro V1s), but it's time to get serious. So I need a re-supply of Ksigs.

>

> I found a K3 on the course and played that for a bit but didn't really like it.

>

> Oh by the way, guess who has two thumbs and is leading the GolfWRX NCAA Tournament pool? Yup, this guy,

 

the zstars on sale in here are a really good deal IMHO.

https://www.golfdiscount.com/golf-balls?price=2-15

 

cheapest dozen of decent yellow balls i've seen:

https://www.budgetgolf.com/wilson-staff-duo-yellow-golf-balls-prior-generation.html

[XHoop24]

> @eagle1997 said:

> m g s must be salivated at the thought of "testing" the new ksig 4 piece vs the new prov1.

>

> in other news, tex fit me (in like 15 mins) into a new iron shaft that produces higher, longer shots and my impact went from toe side to a barrage of center faced contact. being on the trackman was really, really cool.

>

> much appreciated bud.

>

>

 

Interesting - what did you use to play versus what was the TexFit? Keeping same iron heads?

[eagle1997]

> @XHoop24 said:

> > @eagle1997 said:

> > m g s must be salivated at the thought of "testing" the new ksig 4 piece vs the new prov1.

> >

> > in other news, tex fit me (in like 15 mins) into a new iron shaft that produces higher, longer shots and my impact went from toe side to a barrage of center faced contact. being on the trackman was really, really cool.

> >

> > much appreciated bud.

> >

> >

>

> Interesting - what did you use to play versus what was the TexFit? Keeping same iron heads?

 

been playing the stock truetemper stiff in my cobra one lengths. tried out a couple different options, but the amt 105 regulars were the clear standouts. picked up 10+ yards in carry, easy. gonna try going back to variable length irons with the mizzy hot metal pros for the year, see how that goes. otherwise, i'll end up rebuying my one lengths with different shafts in 2020.