MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[gsrjc]

Sully. I travel out there also for work. Let’s try to coordinate in 2021 and play a few courses out there.

[SullGolf]

Is that 18th tee box at Pebble fake? I always assumed it was just an extension of the rocky outcropping, but those pics make it look like "fake" rock. Would ruin the course for me. Totally unplayable.

[ALTSean]

Played two match play matches this weekend. First one was at Army / Navy Arlington as part of our Flighted Match Play tournament. I was playing off a 9 and my opponent was playing off an 8.5 so I got 1 stroke. We had a pretty even match and I made the turn up 2. He was struggling off the tee most of the day, but was scrambling for pars and bogeys and keeping it close. I parred 4 of the first 5 holes on the back nine to close out the match 5&4. It was nice to close out relatively early as it was hot yesterday even with a 7:30 am tee time.

Played a second match this morning against @SoloShot84 as part of the Murder Hornet bracket. We played at Army / Navy Fairfax and got off at 8:10 am, but it was also hot by the back nine. We had a close match the whole time with @SoloShot84 going up as much as +2 and with me going up as much as +1 until the end. @SoloShot84 played well with 3 natural / gross birdies and a net birdie or two as I was giving him 5 strokes. We were all square heading into 17 where I pulled out the hole with a solid putt after flubbing a chip from an awkward lie. We headed to 18 with me one up and we both hit decent drives with me just in the right rough and @SoloShot84 in the left rough. 18 is a short par 4 with a small green and I was away, but hit a half wedge to the fringe. @SoloShot84 hit his wedge short and then chipped up lying 3. I almost holed the birdie putt for the win, but made the par and took the match 2 up. It was the first match I've played in a while that lasted till the 18th and we both had already talked about options for the 19th hole if needed since it was such a back and forth match. Good times were had and there were even a few good golf shots. (picture added as golf porn)

[img]https://s3.amazonaws.com/golfwrxforums/uploads/DADH5YDQEDML/army-navy-cc1.jpg[/img]

[ALTSean]

The filters **** the word "P*O*R*N"

[SoloShot84]

It was great to play against you!.

You certainly played like a champ with solid putting when needed.

good luck on your next match and let's play again sometime soon!

[eagle1997]

Good playing guys. Love hearing about all the match play going on, such a great way to enjoy the game.

[Kent01putt]

Sully 80% of the rock on that hole is fake tee to green. Fake rock was made in Westminster MD. 20 years ago

[TheCityGame]

KNOWLEDGE BOMBS.

 

 

[FlyingLaw1]

Thanks for the recommendation! Played Saturday afternoon. It was cart path only which slowed the round down but the course seemed in pretty good shape--greens were a little chewed up but I expected it playing late in the day on a weekend and considering all the rain.

 

Driver caught a case of the hooks on the front that led to several "get this back into the fairway" shots out of the woods. 39 on the front. Hit my tee shot on 14 to about 10 feet and sank the putt. Even par 36 on the back.

I'd have to figure out my driver before playing there again! Generous fairways but if you miss them.... Good luck!

 

[TheCityGame]

We had club champ this weekend.

Day 1: Saturday, like I said, was on the "short tight" course. It was carnage.

First hole is a really nervy tee shot, but I hit the fairway. Have a 6 iron in, pull it left. The spotter says, "It's close to OB".

Provisional. OB.

Provisional 2. Almost OB.

Found my first ball and got it up and down for par.

Anyway, I'm +5 through 11 and I see guys on another hole. The guy just looked at the ground and shook his head. He goes, "no one is playing good." Guy I'm playing with is getting text updates from two other groups and we hear there are HIGH SCORES out there. I make it through 13-14-15 (tough stretch) at even and I finally can relax. I get a beer and par in for 76, which is 3rd best. There are 2 75's out there. 83 went to a playoff.

Tumor and TVJ both shoot 82. TVJ draws the a guy who shot 75. Tumor gets a solid player who shot 77.

--------------

Day 2 : Sunday.

Short version :

I go 2 down after 2. Win 3/4/5. Lose 6. I birdie 5 7 9 10 and I'm 2 up. He birdies 11 and 13 and we're even.

He wins 14 and 15 and I'm 2 down with 3 to play. he hands me a couple of gifts and we're even going into 18. Halve.

Hole 19 is a par 5. He puts his second shot in the creek. I advance mine to 100 yards. He plays his ball from the creek to 100 yards. Hits it on and has 40 feet for par. I have 20 feet for bird. He SINKS the bomb. I just miss bird.

Hole 20, he hits a bad drive. I make par and win. I was so relieved. I handed him 3 holes over the course of our match (two lost balls and a bogey after being in a greenside bunker in 2 on a par 5) and it was the first time I made it out of this round. He handed me a couple to, to be fair.

I was playing with Tumor (I was 4 vs 13. He was 5 vs 12). He had a match that came down to the 18th and he won.

I'm playing Tumor next Saturday morning and the winner of that gets the winner of the reigning club champ and another guy who is a +1.5 or so. On paper, the winner of our match gets the champ, but that's why they play the game. TVJ beat a guy who shot 75 Saturday on the 19th. Apparently they were 72/73. That was much better than I played.

[FAbb]

People are saying Tumor is the best thread nickname, maybe ever.

[SullGolf]

How has Tumor never capitalized on his putter choice? When I played with him he brought up the sully spider, then mentioned he played the 2ball forever. Bam: 2More 2Ball.

[dcmidnight]

Awesome playing City, good work. Love reading all these match play recaps.

Got back to the range yesterday after taking a full week off doing nothing. Just needed a mental break more than anything. Naturally yesterday its was 98* heat index at 8 am already, perfect day to get back to the range...

[FAbb]

I don't think people are gonna line up to buy something called the Tumor 2ball.

[TheCityGame]

I have round 2 this weekend, then August 12/13, I have two rounds of Maryland amateur, then the weekend after I have member-guest(*) in Maine.

I love competing, but I'm also looking forward to just playing a round with nothing hanging over my head.

(*) I mentioned this to some other guys, but a few years ago, I played member-guest with my dad. He was pretty tired that weekend and it was like a month later he was diagnosed with cancer. He suffered a lot of neuropathy in his leg and he didn't think he was going to play again.

It's been slow going, but he's back to shooting 90's ish golf from the senior tees and competing with his group. Anyway, he called a couple weeks ago and asked if I could play in member-guest, so that's going to be a blast. We'll be in a flight where everyone is like a 10/11 cap and i'll be a 1 and he'll be a 20, so you never know.

he actually started lessons with a teacher who works with Wounded Warriors and that kind of thing. he has no feeling in his right leg and it slips. he told me the guy told him to just keep his weight on his left leg through the swing, or something.

[eagle1997]

Leaving weight on the left side sounds like the OG version of Stack n Tilt. Dunno if your Pops likes to read up on swing theories, but that'd be a decent one to start with. The knock on SnT was people not having success hitting the driver high enough.

[ALTSean]

Random thought about competing in matches this weekend. It was fun to play two "legit" matches. My regular group of mostly older dudes play very fast and loose with the rules and the organizer is the biggest violator. We openly joke with him present about him not missing a 5 footer in years because he has not taken a 5 footer in years, but it does not stop him from swiping anything from within 5 feet. We only play for a few bucks, but it gets old losing $5-$10 when you know the other guys / teams are very liberal with their putts, improving their lies, counting, etc. It also is hard to feel much sense of accomplishment winning $5-$10 when your teammates are equally guilty. It was nice to know that my competitors were playing by the rules this weekend and when we got bad breaks, bad lies, etc., you just deal with it because it's golf and you know everyone is playing the same game.

[eagle1997]

Also, maybe you could custom order/custom make him a right golf shoe with extra spikes? There are tales in Hogan mythology of an extra spike or two in his shoes. Probably a good yarn you dad could spin to his buddies, if he were so inclined.

[baddomes]

One golf shoe, one rugby shoe.

 

 

Bonus, no one in the groups behind him will make a putt all day and he'll win more money.

[FAbb]

That stinks, but it sounds like that's just what it is with that group. Are there any other groups you could try to get in with, or like-minded golfers you could form your own group with?

[ALTSean]

I'd love to find another group at our club as this group is unlikely to change. The pros to this group is that they like to play early, like 7 am, and they play fairly quickly (easy to do when you do not putt out) and there is a rotating group of 15-20 guys so we usually have 2 to 3 foursomes on most weekends. The group has all the potential to be good, but the liberal gimmies and improved lies gets old to me a few other like minded guys since we're playing for money, but unfortunately we're in the minority.

[dcmidnight]

Unwelcome discovery this morning - I cannot play in B Team this weekend because my handicap is now too low.

2020 blows.

 

[FAbb]

Dislike.

Don't be afraid to be better. The "unfortunately I've got some really good tourney scores bringing my cap down" and "unfortunately I can't play B-team anymore" stuff is just a defense mechanism. I know, because I've been guilty of it. There's this fear or insecurity, that you're not really better. That you're going to go out and have a bad day, and people are going to think you're not what some number attached to you says you are. It's not productive, and holds us back from getting even better. The reality is, we're all gonna have good and bad days. 99% of the people you play with don't give a F what you shoot, and for or the 1% that do, who cares. I've said it before, but Domes just has this great mental outlook that I really have tried to learn from and improve my own. And as the great Tumor once said, "you are your scores." You are shooting some good scores. You are that golfer. Don't be afraid of it.

[TheCityGame]

There's a lot of "low caps" right now all over the place. We've had guys play themselves off the B-team too.

One INDISPUTABLE reason is that we're using 8 scores out of 20 this year, but the B-team requirement stayed the same. Right now I'm a 1.1. If I used 10 of 20, I'd be a 1.5.

For a "mid singles", I looked at Eagle, he'd go from a 5.2 to a 5.9. For a 12-ish, Hoop would go from 11.7 to 12.4. So, somewhere between a half and a point difference, maybe.

(NB : I'm not taking into account the .96 multiplier. if I did, the changes wouldn't be as much).

We've had really nice conditions around here this year in general. I SUSPECT, but I don't know for sure, that there's more golf being played (at least by private club members) because of Covid.

We have 6 or 7 guys at the club right now who are +, and solidly so. . .like +1 to +3 range.

 

[dcmidnight]

Actually it was really just sarcasm.

But thanks for the happy joy-joy pep talk!

 

[ceejay81]

DC:

https://media.giphy.com/media/bseAWDw7m6Arm/giphy.gif

[dcmidnight]

One INDISPUTABLE reason is that we're using 8 scores out of 20 this year

Agreed. I have Competition rounds posted in the last month of (par 70) 73, 78, 73, 72 and regular rounds of 74, 70, 74, 78.

[GooseHook]

I'm up to 7.4 after opening the season as a 6.1 Kinda sucks but the rating and slope at CCMD demands low-mid 70's rounds to get under that, especially as a par 70. I'm missing having extra par 5's to get after and not as precise as I need to be playing irons into these crazy greens. I have so much trouble avoiding the odd double and when it's not balanced by a couple of birdies that's like an automatic 80-82.

It's still hilarious seeing an 87 in the system as a 9.1 differential, while the 79 I shot recently was a 8.4 at home.

[dcmidnight]

I played A team one year, I just hate the schedule. They always try to pack in the matches into mid March or so - and they seem to rush to get them done. B team is awesome because its in the summer, weather is better and everyone's game is better.

Or in some cases a little too better.

AND YES FABBO THAT IS ALSO SARCASM. I AM OK WITH MY GAME BEING GREAT RIGHT NOW

[ALTSean]

Agree, lots of folks playing more for a variety of reasons. In 2019, I only posted 35 rounds to VSGA (I had some more in MSGA / The Grint, but I can't seem to pull them up). In 2020 already, I've posted 52 rounds to VSGA. We had a mild winter in 2020 and I played a lot more in January and February due to mild weather and because I was going on the Pinehurst trip in late February and didn't want to embarrass myself. Now between increased telework, lack of other activities due to COVID and cancelled family vacations due to COVID, I'm playing more this summer than I normally would and between playing more and taking lessons, my handicap has dropped and will hopefully continue downward.