MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[bubbagump]

Yep, clear the bunker and it all usually feeds to that area short right of the green leaving an awkward distance chip, to what is usually a protected flag with that ridge in the green. Always a satisfying feeling to be left with a putt that likely is as long or longer than the chip due to the roll out of that ridge lol.

[TheCityGame]

Have you guys seen the "AI Meme Generator"?https://imgflip.com/ai-meme

 

[baddomes]

fringe benefit of the quarantine - I have 5.5 weeks of vacation in the bank.

[thechief16]

non-benefit: I am not earning vacation b/c I am against the cap and there is way too much work to use PTO. And what would I do with it anyway?

[baddomes]

sheeeeeeit

[dcmidnight]

 

New thread in the travel forum "Has anyone gone to Bandon and stayed for three straight weeks"

[baddomes]

"Long Term Stay Resort Pricing at Bandon?"

[bubbagump]

Benefit: I am clocking days off my tour in US of A, as opposed to a 3rd world country.

[dcmidnight]

Yep, I've gone from -2 weeks to +3 weeks in the last ~4 months. But like Chief said, that wont do me much good for a while. Planning to take the week after Memorial Day off just to putz around and play golf.

[SullGolf]

As soon as childcare is open and the grandparents are available, I'm definitely taking a 4 day weekend and playing like 144 holes. At the moment though there's no way to do anything that isn't almost directly at the expense of the roommate. Hard to justify taking a day off when all I’m going to do is stay home and take care of the kid.

[gsrjc]

Yeah. I needed to take off Monday as we were moving to a new house. But i couldn’t imagine taking off for anything else as my wife would expect me to watch the kid. Sully you could take off and ask your wife to watch the kid and you could just watch tv all day.

[bubbagump]

Tangent Golf Related question:

Hypothetical: You live within 5-10 minutes of one of your favorite upscale public courses. Does a membership there seem worthwhile to you?

Factors: Practice a fair amount, play mostly on weekdays after work with the occasional afternoon weekend round. Like to play different courses like anybody would, but most the time end of playing the same place. Price is about on par to yearly golf greens fees on any given year.

[dcmidnight]

I'm inclined to say no, from experience. Well I guess the question is - are you considering joining a private somewhere or this is just joining/paying once vs over the course of the year?

I had looked at joining Laurel Hill and Westfields but the price was outrageous for two people compared to private options.

Depends on where it is I guess but IMO forget playing weekends at most of these places. It would be mobbed. The other thing that would irk me about joining a place like LH would be having a free weekday and it turns out they have an event or are closed for some other reason. If you're paying by the round, no big deal. If you're a member and you're constantly doing the cost comparison in your head - it would irk you.

Guess I would have to compare the weekday greens fee with the membership cost or know specifically where you are talking about.

[dcmidnight]

What might be worth it is if they have a great practice facility and you could just get a practice/range membership for unlimited use.

[bubbagump]

Agreed, these are all good points and things to think of. I have looked into private, as playing wise that would make more sense considering the more limited clientele and while its more expensive upfront its also much less month to month so its an option as well. I guess that's kind of the gist I was looking for opinions on assuming others here have looked at the same thing at various courses, on if ultimately its just better to pay for play as you go, and you turn out ahead on that end, of if paying upfront you end up able to get a little bit better of the deal as you have a financial motivation to make the most of it.

[dcmidnight]

I think it also comes down to - do you plan on being in the area for a while to make a private worth the investment? At the time, Laurel Hill was almost $10,000 a year for two people - they did not have a family membership. So while private options had an up front initiation fee, we made that up in about four years - in terms of the monthly payment differential. And at the time you could get the super twilight rate for $30 or so at LH.

I guess its also the cost differential between the membership and say the weekday rate. If its 20x the weekday rate, it might be worth it. if its 100x, probably not.

[SullGolf]

I have a friend that lives <5 minutes from Blue Mash. My parents live <5 minutes from Worthington. If I lived in either of those spots I'd have a membership at those courses.

I live <10 minutes from Chevy Chase, Burning Tree, Columbia, Kenwood, and Bethesda CC. There are no memberships in my future.

[thechief16]

The only way I would join an upscale public course in this area would be if it were to be a net positive financially to me. When I think of the benefits of membership, I look at faster pace/less busy course, better conditioning, fewer douchebags, more people who care about pace/conditions of the course. Upscale public/semi-private doesn't guarantee that. I look at Bull Run and it's a public course that gets treated and packed like a pubic course. The only benefit to membership is that you can make a tee time 14 hours in advance, as opposed to 7. But it is always packed. And slow. And in semi-bad condition because 75% of the traffic is public and doesn't give a damn about replacing divots and ballmarks. I love the course, and even if it were 10 minutes away, I wouldn't join unless it presented a cost savings over my usual annual expenditures.

[Oh Hi Carl]

Big benefit to me of joining a place, whether private or semi-public, is being able to go out and jump on for 4-5 holes in the evening. That's a really nice benefit of not paying every time you stick a peg in the ground.

Anybody manage to make a tee time for this weekend? It's like trying to get a Springsteen ticket circa 1985.

[HighBoomingDraws]

Pulling up golfnow weekend tee times is alarming. Nothing really available in a 75 mile radius of MoCo (VA, PA, DE) before like 4 pm.

[Here comes the Boom]

Thanks for the info

[dcmidnight]

First night of our Wednesday night league was last night. I am getting ready to leave the house and just grabbed the first pair of pants that are hanging there. By the time I got to the course, played and got home - it was probably at least in the mid 70s. My wife says "Before you grabbed pants, had you been outside today, its 70* out?" My natural response was "I haven't left the house since Sunday, it felt pretty cool inside, I grabbed pants." I think my wife is ready for us not to be teleworking at the same time.

We won our first match of the season and I truly think I hit only one really bad shot. I hit D four times and I think I hit 2 A drives and 2 A+ drives. I noticed this tendency now though, I'm so confident with the D that I'm actually thinking about it as I stand behind the ball to get my alignment, "Hey I am hitting this club so good right now but what happens when I finally pump out that one bad drive." Awesome thoughts to have over the ball. In most of the Rotella books I've read, he talks about when players start to improve their game and they get into a point in a match where they are winning - but they actually subconsciously want to lose a hole or two so that they can feel like "Yes, this is me, I'm not this other great player, I'm the guy who loses a hole here and there so losing feels better to me." This is 100% me right now. I dont know the solution other than to keep playing and keep hitting good drives to try and flip that mindset around.

So on the four D holes I was even par. Hit two decent tee shots on the par 3s, two pars. Some mostly good iron shots, a couple of minor mis-clubs in the wind although looking back - not sure if its a mis-club or with the weather warming up if I'm just starting to see the ball fly a little farther too. But it felt nice to have a night where you could actually sweat a bit. I saw that in terms of rainfall this is now a Top 5 April and...oh wait, its pouring again. Posted a 36 (+1) which is slightly better than my other rounds this year.

Went back to the TP5x last night for no other reason than I forgot to put balls in my bag and the one sleeve of balls I had in my locker were those.

Non golf related - finally broke down and ordered a Weber smoker from Home Depot last night. Its been sort of lingering in my cart for the last couple of months and I just couldn't pass it up anymore. Its certainly not the biggest or fanciest smoker out there but it seems to get really good reviews and I definitely wanted a charcoal one vs an electric.

[ceejay81]

A smoker for you = more IG content for all of us, please. What will you be throwing on the smoker first?

#BBQWRX

[TheCityGame]

weekend golf : 7:25AM at Quail Valley which I've never played. Just a twosome. that was all that was available after a couple foursomes we were stalking fell through.@bubbagump Those membies at the Daily Fees are always tricky. can you play early weekend mornings? Is the course pretty open at the odd times you can play (like weekdays, or when you get off work)? I like playing alone just fine, but a big factor these days would be if I knew guys there who could play as much as me. When I did a season of "prepays" at Waverly, PQ had a membership there. . ..so we played a lot and he used to go bust out a bunch of holes at 7:00 PM in the middle of the summer which he enjoyed. Access to practice is nice. @dcmidnight I've been working on those Rotella ideas about putting your foot down when you're up in a match or keeping it going when you're in a spot when you can go low. It seems like a lot of guys in that low plus range talk about how important mental game is in getting to that next level. I'll tell ya though. . .every single guy at the club who is a lower handicap than I am hits the ball further off the tee. I know you can be plus and not it very far, but guys like Dom and Obee, in my experience, really are unicorns and are both very very accurate and putt great.
There are plenty of guys who are longer than I am who I am better than, but at some point, you're really close to maxing out your game based on your swing and mental isn't holding you back.
Now, I get the idea of having different comfort zones and I've moved my comfort zone considerably and I get that. But, you can't just "will yourself" to being a 60's a shooter either.Best I can say is that I used to accept that 5-9 holes per round were bogey rounds and hopefully I'd make a couple birdies, but these days, there's basically no hole I step up to where I think I'm not making par.

[dcmidnight]

@TheCityGame I know that you cant just will yourself to shoot in the 60s, no argument there - although technically maybe easier on a Par 70 like MtV. But from a "learning to score better" standpoint, I simply cant/wont accept right now that a game that can put between two and four birdies on the card over the course of 18 holes cannot have the capacity to also shoot even par over the course of 18 holes. I hesitate to add the word 'consistently'. Now, I don't know if that's a stubborn approach, an unrealistic one, a combination of the two - or neither. I guess this is the very definition of moving my comfort zone.
Because other than a minor swing change that I am now completely comfortable with, I have zero technical swing things that I am working on. Match management and lower scoring - those are my two focus areas.@ceejay81 Probably chicken, pork butt and brisket in that order. Gets delivered tomorrow, may fire up some chicken for dinner. My real issue right now is I just dont have the fridge room to store a bunch of stuff.

[Terphack]

Probably chicken, pork butt and brisket in that order. Gets delivered tomorrow, may fire up some chicken for dinner. My real issue right now is I just dont have the fridge room to store a bunch of stuff.

 

Just like golf, good BBQ takes practice and you will cook some stuff that doesn't impress. Chicken thighs are a good practice cook. A pork butt is hard to ruin if you keep the temp low and steady. Be patient.

Lump charcoal is a must, never briquettes.

Invest is a really good remote thermometer- https://www.thermoworks.com/BBQ-Grilling

I've had the Smoke model for a few years and it works great although I have my eye on a couple of the newer models that are WiFi.

Enjoy and be careful, if you give your neighbors samples they will come sniffing around anytime you cook.

[dcmidnight]

Invest is a really good remote thermometer

So I picked up the wifi model that Weber makes for their grill. I knew absolutely nothing about them so had nothing to compare them to but it seemed to get good reviews on a couple of different sites and in a couple (ok it was more than a couple) of the Weber smoker videos that I watched. Also they universally all seemed to say that even if something gets dried out or doesnt cook great, you can shred it, toss it with some good bbq sauce and still have a lot of good food to eat.

All in with all the accessories it was still about half the cost of the Weber gas grill we got as a wedding gift. So, really not that bad.

[Terphack]

Weber products are great, I am sure the thermo will work well. Great products across the line, great customer support. Well worth the cost.

[4x4GGG]

After close to a month off I managed 3 rounds in 8 days. Something I normally don't have time to accomplish. Last Tuesday, the super windy day, the guys from Topgolf managed 2 connected tee times. It was nice to see the team again, but man Bristow is a weird course. And in that wind... it was the devil. Having been on my couch for almost a month that much walking killed my back.

So it was in even more pain when I got the invite to play with 3 single digit guys on Saturday. Managed a coveted 7AM Saturday round at Penderbrook. I hit well with a few bad holes. They didn't have score cards, but even with a bad back I managed a 94. Penderbrook does have flags. They put them back in last week.

And yesterday 4 of us managed our way onto Bowling Green. Also a course I've never played. A few things... we originally had an 11AM time, but it some how got canceled. The guy setting it up managed a 2PM. When we got there I could see why. That place was packed. $25 greens fees. A pretty awesome dude in the parking lot cooking orders. $3 beers. Other than the walk from 6 to 7, it was a really easily walked course. For me being old and out of shape it wasn't too difficult at all. Worth the hour drive from Leesburg. Don't get me wrong, I'll still always miss having a course 2 minutes away, $30 and always wide open.

[SullGolf]

Bristow gets a lot of hate around here, but we seem to keep playing it. Overall I think it’s just a poor piece of property with the creek running through it, but maybe a better layout could have worked around that.