MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[Ocgolfrick]

Sunday Round Recap:

Me and MeatMike 1.0 taking on the local members group on Seaside at OCGC, pull up to the tee where there was a slight disagreement going on.  One threesome had a planned game and a single had asked to join and gotten rebuffed.  So we go off as a 5some.  We talk about what game were going to play and one guy pipes up "25 cent Nines"- and we all nod our dumb heads.  It wasn't till we get to the cart after the first green and I'm doing the scoring that I realize you really can't play Nines with 5 people.  I ask the guy who suggested it how to do it and he just gives me a blank stare.  "Oh....yeah.  Never mind.  Its $1 skins then. Two Tie all tie with carryovers Everybody in?"  Nods all around.

It was a really cool game.  I had a nice look at birdie on #8 that just missed low, and one of the guys cans a 6 footer to tie me. No skins on the front.  We continue to tie through #13 the par 5 in which one of the guys parks his 3rd from 180 out to 8 feet.  MeatMike 1.0 runs in a12 footer though, and the 8 footer misses.  MeatMike1.0 is now $52 richer.  MeatMike continues his hot streak as I tie him with par on #16 to tie him, but he then birdies #17!  MeatMike1.0 makes another $16 to add to his total for $68 so far, and 4 golfer who are now determined not to lose the 18th to MeatMike.

Except...that MeatMike1.0 hits hits second to 8 inches.  I have a look from 15 feet that I bury to tie- my lone birdie of the day cashes nothing but some excited fistbumps and claps on the back from fellow golfer all excited that they only have to give MeatMike1.0 $17 bucks instead of $18.  MeatMike also won individual in the group and won the team game, so it ended up being a $98 winning day for MeatMike1.0.

And for anyone interested is seeing MeatMike 1.0 and OCGolfRick in action, along with opportunity to see such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld walking the streets off St. Michaels- we will be with the AltSean outing this Saturday at the Inn of Perry Cabin.  Still one spot available- contact your Hive Tour Director AltSean.  $135  plus bring money to bet on St. Michaels squirrels.

[TheCityGame]

nice, rick.  Good for Mike. They play that dollar skins at out club when they get 5 or 6 or 7 guys playing. 

 

Played with a guy last year who was playing with 7 guys and got the first on one 12 for $72. 

 

We play that you have to "validate". You need to make par or better on the next hole, and I think someone can steal the validation from you he birdies it. Ouch. 

[TheCityGame]

In equipment news, I won some pro shop credit, and we got some for signing up so I poked around the putter racks. 

 

Picked up a Stroke Lab 10. 10% discount ,plus credit. It was $140 out of pocket. Double bend mallet. I've been rolling it on the practice mat today and I kinda love it, but I need to get on some grass. not sure if that tech on the face actually does anything, but it seems like it. My current gamer is just a flat plastic face, so maybe there's a difference. 

[pigpenblues]

I played this weekend at The Links at Gettysburg. My wife wanted to ride along and see what golf was like. Couple of drinks later and she was having a blast. Think I might have a secured a couple days more of golf per month with her liking the game and wanting to learn. Course was in decent shape and I was surprised how difficult some of their tee balls were. I bought a new putter last week as well and have really enjoyed the Taylormade Tour Spider so far. 5 feet and in I feel much more confident. 

[SullGolf]

The Stroke Lab Ten looks suspiciously like the Sully Spider.

[TheCityGame]

53 minutes ago, SullGolf said:

The Stroke Lab Ten looks suspiciously like the Sully Spider.

 

well, I'd like to hear what JOED and FORERICHARD have to say about that. 

[FAbb]

Don't put too much stock in Forerichard's reviews.  He plays on slow greens.

[gsrjc]

3 hours ago, FAbb said:

Who TF is DomesJr?  My first thought was for sure it must be Siegel, but then you said you typically outdrive DomesJr.

 

I was supposed to play this past Friday afternoon with Domes and Hoop at Worthington.  They had a 3:40 tee time, and we were leaving the Delaware beach area around 9am.  No problem.  Except a guy spent over 20 hours threatening to jump off the westbound span, some of which was during our drive.  It took over 6 hours, instead of 2.5.  I didn't get home until just before those guys teed off at WM.  Hopefully that guy gets whatever help he needs.

 

I was able to score a 6:40 solo spot at Waverly on Saturday morning, as a makeup.  First tee time out.  After going into the shop to pay, some guy outside asks, "Are you <redacted>?"  I tell him yes, and he immediately starts grilling me about whether I play fast.  "Fast enough" I say.  Two of the guys are in solo carts, and one is "walking" (AKA riding to his tee shot on every hole and riding between green and tee every hole).  I can't tell you how many rides I turned down.  They were amazed I walked without getting any lifts.  I don't get that.  I signed up to walk, so I walked.  They were totally nice guys, and definitely played fast.  Of course it makes it a bit easier to play fast when you essentially rake/slap/tap-in every putt inside 10ft lol.  We looped Waverly in like 3:20.  That's CRUISING for that course.  I took my time hitting my actual shots, but it definitely impacted me feeling like I had to hustle so much between shots.  I still played solid.  My game feels like it's in a good place.

 

Funny thing I told City and Tumor about, since I think they've both brought this up before - these guys I played with were the classic oblivious bad putters.  Guy is putting downhill, to a pin cut right by a false edge.  He knocks it off the green into the fringe, and is totally amazed.  He starts talking about how fast that green is, like it's magically running so much quicker than the rest of the course.  Failing to see large slopes entirely on long putts, leading to huge directional misses.  It's one thing to not be skilled at adjusting how hard you hit putts to account for slope, or to read putts and start them on line well enough to make them, but it's not hard to assess basic information about a putt.  It's mind boggling.

Fabb. I had a tee time after you at 7:20. Let me know if you want to play a round soon since I’m not far from you as I’m in Fulton. 

[Yellow Jacket]

Trip report from having Golfdom swap tips on my 3 wood shaft and regrip my Bullseye Flange with a Pingman. I dropped off everything on a Saturday and said there was no hurry since I didn't plan to play that week, so they said it would be ready on Friday. I went the following Saturday at 1pm and they said they had issues earlier in the week, they hadn't gotten around to my repair, and it would be ready around 5pm. I live 25 minutes away so driving home then driving back seemed like a waste of an hour. I ended up checking out the Golf Galaxy in Fairfax which was a bit disappointing.

 

When I returned to Golfdom, the adapter was a bit misaligned with the shaft graphics. Not a huge deal since it's still logo down, but it caused some issues when I installed a grip at home.

 

The bigger issue is my putter grip is slightly misaligned. I made a point to the club builder that I normally regrip myself but I've had issues in the past aligning putter grips that would be very slightly off. When he handed me the putter, he mentioned he made a point to to get it aligned perfectly square, and the top half of the grip IS square... but the bottom half is slightly closed. Luckily I putt crosshanded so my lower hand isn't doing too much, but in 2020 you'd think there would be lasers or something to ensure grip alignment.

 

Also, they charged SIXTY DOLLARS for the Titleist adapter. If I had known it would be that expensive, I never would've tried pulling the tip from my broken shaft, an effort which was unsuccessful and ruined the anodization. Between buying a used shaft and getting it retipped, I spent $150. At that price, I could've ordered a new shaft directly from Titleist. ?

 

I would say live and learn, but I don't anticipate breaking another shaft anytime soon. Oh well.

[FAbb]

I saw your car in the parking lot @gsrjc  It's unique, so it's hard to forget.  I just started getting out again these past few weeks.  I'll definitely shoot you a message soon.

[dcmidnight]

Lasers? I install grips by hand in my dark workshop on a workbench I made myself and a 20 year old Golfsmith vice. TLDR - I'm not a professional shop. I've never had an issue getting a putter grip square. And that includes normal grips all the way up to a dozen different kinds of Superstroke grips. I would have handed it back and said, call me when its square or when you've replaced it with one that is.

 

My guess is they aligned it square and then someone grabbed it or moved it before it dried. I always regrip mine and then a minute or so later I'll take it upstairs to my putting mat. I can see exact where it sits and the solvent is still wet enough that I can make slight corrections.

That sounds ludicrous to me.

Edited August 24, 2020 by dcmidnight

[FAbb]

You can use a counter, or door to install putter grips on straight. Or at least within a reasonable margin of error from straight. I don’t think having a putter grip on dead nuts perfect is at all necessary. Shoot, city has been known to twist the grip so the top and bottom hand portions are intentionally not lined up. And he’d out putt most anybody I know. 

[TheCityGame]

more than anything, I get it close and then start hitting putts with it, and give it a few twists until it feels perfect. 

 

Putter grip the last grip i'd have someone install. That said. . .both the wolverine and stroke lab I just got are factory installs and I like them. The odyssey grip actually feels exactly like my bobby grace grip. I figure it's same grip, different stamp. The "flat side" might be a little smaller on this one. 

 

The grip actually feels like it tapers a little towards the top, like opposite of a pistol grip. 

[gsrjc]

6 hours ago, FAbb said:

I saw your car in the parking lot @gsrjc  It's unique, so it's hard to forget.  I just started getting out again these past few weeks.  I'll definitely shoot you a message soon.

Sounds good. 

[pigpenblues]

Anyone in the Baltimore recommend a good instructor? I’m working on staying down and keeping my balance through the swing. I’ve noticed that my feet almost rock through impact. 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by pigpenblues

[mizuno player]

9 hours ago, TheCityGame said:

nice, rick.  Good for Mike. They play that dollar skins at out club when they get 5 or 6 or 7 guys playing. 

 

Played with a guy last year who was playing with 7 guys and got the first on one 12 for $72. 

 

We play that you have to "validate". You need to make par or better on the next hole, and I think someone can steal the validation from you he birdies it. Ouch. 

We've played skins with 10-15 guys @$20 a man. That's a nice payday!! 

[dcmidnight]

This weekend was the third of our three big trophy events for the year. We have our Chairmans Cup (stableford), our club championship (match play) and then our Presidents Cup (stroke play) this past weekend. Since I had won the first two, I was really looking forward to this one. But last week when I went over, the course was in really below average condition. Fairways were great but the greens were still recovering from severe flooding. There were 7 temporary greens so I just said, eh, I'm not feeling it, I'm not going to grind over a two day stroke play event that at best is going to include a handful of temporary greens. And in fact, there was talk of postponing it - which everyone agreed made sense. Nope, they had it. They apparently just skipped the holes with temporary greens so they made it 13 hole rounds.

 

Seems like a complete waste to me, no reason they could not have postponed it. Never been more happy to skip a tournament in my life.

Edited August 25, 2020 by dcmidnight

[dcmidnight]

15 hours ago, TheCityGame said:

Putter grip the last grip i'd have someone install. That said. . .both the wolverine and stroke lab I just got are factory installs and I like them. The odyssey grip actually feels exactly like my bobby grace grip. I figure it's same grip, different stamp. The "flat side" might be a little smaller on this one. 

 

Is this the black pistol grip with the green lettering? I have that SL grip on my Austin and its great. I'm actually interested in weighing the Muira and the Austin and getting an idea if there's a common theme - either weight/swingweight etc - that would indicate why I've been putting so well with them.

[aiyyer]

18 hours ago, Ocgolfrick said:

Sunday Round Recap:

Me and MeatMike 1.0 taking on the local members group on Seaside at OCGC, pull up to the tee where there was a slight disagreement going on.  One threesome had a planned game and a single had asked to join and gotten rebuffed.  So we go off as a 5some.  We talk about what game were going to play and one guy pipes up "25 cent Nines"- and we all nod our dumb heads.  It wasn't till we get to the cart after the first green and I'm doing the scoring that I realize you really can't play Nines with 5 people.  I ask the guy who suggested it how to do it and he just gives me a blank stare.  "Oh....yeah.  Never mind.  Its $1 skins then. Two Tie all tie with carryovers Everybody in?"  Nods all around.

It was a really cool game.  I had a nice look at birdie on #8 that just missed low, and one of the guys cans a 6 footer to tie me. No skins on the front.  We continue to tie through #13 the par 5 in which one of the guys parks his 3rd from 180 out to 8 feet.  MeatMike 1.0 runs in a12 footer though, and the 8 footer misses.  MeatMike1.0 is now $52 richer.  MeatMike continues his hot streak as I tie him with par on #16 to tie him, but he then birdies #17!  MeatMike1.0 makes another $16 to add to his total for $68 so far, and 4 golfer who are now determined not to lose the 18th to MeatMike.

Except...that MeatMike1.0 hits hits second to 8 inches.  I have a look from 15 feet that I bury to tie- my lone birdie of the day cashes nothing but some excited fistbumps and claps on the back from fellow golfer all excited that they only have to give MeatMike1.0 $17 bucks instead of $18.  MeatMike also won individual in the group and won the team game, so it ended up being a $98 winning day for MeatMike1.0.

And for anyone interested is seeing MeatMike 1.0 and OCGolfRick in action, along with opportunity to see such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld walking the streets off St. Michaels- we will be with the AltSean outing this Saturday at the Inn of Perry Cabin.  Still one spot available- contact your Hive Tour Director AltSean.  $135  plus bring money to bet on St. Michaels squirrels.

Rick, make sure you visit Ginas for Tacos after your round. 

[dcmidnight]

23 hours ago, dcmidnight said:

Mickelson vs the field for the champions tour event this week.

 

Mickelson +240

Field -300

 

That seems insane on the surface.

 

File this under "hasnt aged well so far"....

[GooseHook]

10 hours ago, pigpenblues said:

Anyone in the Baltimore recommend a good instructor? I’m working on staying down and keeping my balance through the swing. I’ve noticed that my feet almost rock through impact. 

 

 

Erick Brock still teaches, although he is not technically the SPCC head pro anymore. When I was taking lessons with him we worked a lot on that. He's a non-system type guy and does a good job giving you different ideas to work on when one feel isn't working.

 

Matt Decker is at Five Iron if you are down with indoor Trackman lessons. 

 

The instructors at Pine Ridge are somewhat clinic-based most of the time but I've heard decent things about them. 

[TheCityGame]

1 hour ago, dcmidnight said:

 

Is this the black pistol grip with the green lettering? I have that SL grip on my Austin and its great. I'm actually interested in weighing the Muira and the Austin and getting an idea if there's a common theme - either weight/swingweight etc - that would indicate why I've been putting so well with them.

 

not a pistol grip. has a large "odyssey" on one side, and actually a "smooth" label that says "stroke lab" where my left fingers wrap. 

 

I like the design of the top. very simple. . .quite like the spiders. 

[GooseHook]

@dcmidnight @TheCityGame I don't know if its the grip itself but all the Stroke Lab putters are set up so they have additional butt weight and head weight. The high total weight/reasonable swing weight combo is a winner when it comes to putters IMO. 

[TheCityGame]

2 minutes ago, GooseHook said:

@dcmidnight @TheCityGame I don't know if its the grip itself but all the Stroke Lab putters are set up so they have additional butt weight and head weight. The high total weight/reasonable swing weight combo is a winner when it comes to putters IMO. 

Yeah, the swing weight of the putter seems pretty similar to my Wolverine, but you can get the same swingweight with different weight distributions. 

 

I still haven't used it on grass, but I like it on the mat so far. 

 

FWIW, I don't think it's going to do much for me. I don't think my putter is ever the reason that I don't start a putt on the right line or at the right speed. But, maybe. Maybe it will put a better roll on it or it will jive better with my stroke. I do think skid/roll ratios can affect distance control a little bit s maybe it has different characteristics in that regard.

[FAbb]

That Stroke Lab 10 is a nice looking putter head.  It's the only putter that has caught my eye at all, since putting the Spider X in play.  I have rolled it in the store a few times, but it didn't set up as well for me as the Spider X.  I go for the slant neck putters though, not the single (double?) bend version like City got.  For some reason, the way Odyssey does their short slant necks sets up really oddly to me.  I don't know if it's where they situate the neck on the head, the slant being more severe, or what.  I've rolled a bunch of different Odysseys with short slant necks, and they all have the same awkward setup feel.

[GooseHook]

7 minutes ago, FAbb said:

That Stroke Lab 10 is a nice looking putter head.  It's the only putter that has caught my eye at all, since putting the Spider X in play.  I have rolled it in the store a few times, but it didn't set up as well for me as the Spider X.  I go for the slant neck putters though, not the single (double?) bend version like City got.  For some reason, the way Odyssey does their short slant necks sets up really oddly to me.  I don't know if it's where they situate the neck on the head, the slant being more severe, or what.  I've rolled a bunch of different Odysseys with short slant necks, and they all have the same awkward setup feel.

 

More offset- Odyssey slants are 3/4 or full shaft while most slants and flow necks are 1/2 shaft.

[SullGolf]

3 hours ago, dcmidnight said:

This weekend was the third of our three big trophy events for the year. We have our Chairmans Cup (stableford), our club championship (match play) and then our Presidents Cup (stroke play) this past weekend. Since I had won the first two, I was really looking forward to this one. But last week when I went over, the course was in really below average condition. Fairways were great but the greens were still recovering from severe flooding. There were 7 temporary greens so I just said, eh, I'm not feeling it, I'm not going to grind over a two day stroke play event that at best is going to include a handful of temporary greens. And in fact, there was talk of postponing it - which everyone agreed made sense. Nope, they had it. They apparently just skipped the holes with temporary greens so they made it 13 hole rounds.

 

Seems like a complete waste to me, no reason they could not have postponed it. Never been more happy to skip a tournament in my life.

 

That's crazy.  I'm of the subjective opinion that less than 18 is too few to hold a tournament, but 13 is objectively too low.  You need to complete 14 holes in order to enter a score against your handicap. 

[FAbb]

I'm going the other way on this one.  13-hole rounds, 18-hole rounds - whatever.  Lowest score wins.  DC could've completed the single-season club tournament grand slam if he had played!

[dcmidnight]

22 minutes ago, FAbb said:

I'm going the other way on this one.  13-hole rounds, 18-hole rounds - whatever.  Lowest score wins.  DC could've completed the single-season club tournament grand slam if he had played!

 

Actually - and this will sound really selfish - but I think one of my strengths this year has definitely been in my late round performance. Mental performance, physically being in better shape than a lot of the guys out there, whatever. When its 90+* heat index, sorry/not sorry, but I'm definitely going to count on my cardio shape more than a lot of the guys out there. So - temp greens aside - I think that takes away some of the advantage I've had this year.

[dcmidnight]

47 minutes ago, SullGolf said:

You need to complete 14 holes in order to enter a score against your handicap. 

 

And it sounds like this is why they rushed to open a few greens that probably should not have been opened and "only" had 4 temp greens - which they ended up skipping anyway.

Edited August 25, 2020 by dcmidnight