Conference 7.286::golf

    I was talking with the pro about irons one saturday.  I am looking
    to get a new set and he is trying to sell me a set.  I was expressing
    my concerns with the "lie" associated with different ping models.
    After putting up with me for a while he politely informed me that
    I could "Use a bent shovel and be hitting the ball with a better
    club than I am currently using"  The next day I walked up to the
    clubhouse and threw~r my "clubs" on a cart.  Imagine his suprise
    when he came out to find my bag filled with garden tools!  (rake,
    shovel, pick, ect.)
    
    Funny at the time...
    
    Rick 

    
    My biggest peak and valley both came on the first hole at Westminster.
    As some of you know it's a 422 yd par 4 that goes up a long hill.
    I've never had good luck on that hole, being it's a starting hole
    and all. Anyway, I hit a good drive and then a 6 iron ON the green.
    I even drew the ball back about a foot. What a peak!! I then proceeded
    to three putt the hole!! Talk about a balloon bursting quickly.
    
    I need Rodney Dangerfield's putter from Caddyshack!!
    
    JMB
    
 

     I don't want to scare this *great* golf weather away. The summer
    months were tough this year, 95� with humidity so high you could
    hardly breathe. 
    
    I have a golf weekend planned for the September 30 -October 1, so
    as far golf goes, it now only prime time. BTW - We play New Hampshire
    each year during the fall and it's great. Foliage and all.
    
    Smitty

RE. -1:
    
    I opened this as a "summer" roundup...recognizing that the
    season has another month or two before only the total die-hards
    venture forth, till the snow's a foot deep on the fairways.
    (Playing on frozen turf can be pretty interesting...like playing
    on a hockey rink.) After Thanksgiving maybe we snowbirds can sum
    up the entire season? Meantime, let's check in on how it's been
    going so far!
    
    Rep. 1 was so typical of what can happen on a golf course: From
    elation to deflation in seconds. Last Saturday I reached a [short]
    par 5 in two, then took four more to get down from the fringe!

    My own "highlight film" has to be the 3-wood from 230 yards to within
    8 feet of the pin on #6 at Stow South. What made it even sweeter
    was that I had, just seconds before, topped my first attempt with
    that club, and moved the ball hardly 10 yards...so it was from
    deflation to elation in that case.
    

    I joined the Eagle club.......5th hole par 5.  Awsome hole!  BestI
    ever had. Also I've seen how playing a couple of days a week for the entire
    summer can bring a score down......I started golf this year and
    I was scoring 60's and 120's now I'm consistantly in the fourty's
    and breaking 100 for 18!!!!   I have the fever.......but I'm not
    sick.......am I?????  Is it as good for you as it is for me?  I
    can't believe how much fun I have playing this game.  When I was
    in high school I use to think it was a wimpy sport....I played football
    and Lax......now I havce sore knees and a constant pain in the neck.
    
    Why didn't i take up golf is all I can say!  I know what direction
    I'm pointing my kid in!  
    

    	I finally broke 90 for 18 holes. It was at CC of NH in Sutton,
    NH. Sank about a 10-footer on #18 to preserve my 89. Hey! It
    may not have broken 90 by much, but it's a start.
    	Most memorable hole: 7-putting one of the holes at New Seabury
    in the springtime. Yech!

    
    
    My best hole of the year recently arrived 3 weeks ago. As most of
    you know the great 11th hole at westminster. This hole has been
    the biggest thorn in my side. I finally smashed a lovely 275yrd
    drive in beautiful view of the green. I the took out the 3W and
    clobbered it up the hill bounced it right between the sand traps
    to 15 ft downhill of the pin. I arrived on the green in shock.
    I wasted no time, I approached the put took carefull aim and
    fired.  
    
                            BIRDIE !!!!!!
    
    - Dave
    

    My highlight and lowlight was my round at Spyglass Hill in Pebble
    Beach, Ca.  The Monterey peninsula is world-class beautiful and
    deer scamper across the fairways.  Gorgeous golf course.  But the
    golf course is horribly, inveitably, impossibly difficult.  I would
    not recommend it for anyone with a double-digit handicap.  It's
    a thrill, though, to play a course that the pros play...
    

    Frank... you are right, I kinda read the base note incorrectly..
    sorry.
    
    Since I am an outdoorsman and love nature my most memorable highlight
    so far this year was at Foxboro country club, Foxboro, MA. It's
    a real nice course, and can get off between members on the weekends.
    
    It was about the 12th hole. We hit pretty good drives to the top
    of a hill.As I approached my ball I noticed several objects moving
    in the fairway up ahead. The objects turned out to be a family of
    red fox (it isn't foxes right). Anyway, there were four very young
    'pups' rolling and playing in the fairway while the mother laid
    down and watched. They let me get within 15 yards of them and they
    hardly noticed me. 
    
    Wish I had my camera in the bag.
    
    Smitty
    

    
       Well there still is plenty of golf yet with all my tournaments
       coming up but so far.....
    
A fun start?

     Started eagle/birdie on the back side of course #1 at Green Meadows.
     Won't tell you what I did the rest of the round.
 
Best round?

     1 under 35 on the back side of course #2 at Green Meadows this
     year. It was the nine holes AFTER the league nine.  Grrrrr.
     Missed birdie putts of 3 and 6 feet too!   

Best hole?

     Believe it or not it wasn't the eagle, but a hole I got a par on.
     Had to hit a soft delicate flip sand wedge over a trap, had no
     green to play with, and it was from a terrible lie. Got it to 
     within 3 feet and made the par putt.  I was thrilled.

Worst moment(s)?

     Everytime I stepped on the green and attempted to putt. The blade
     hasn't been kind to me this year.

-rick

    The highlights SO FAR this year.  
    
    My swing is coming back after a 2 years of not playing much/well.
    
    I've played 3 times as much golf this year as I have in the last
    2 years COMBINED.
    
    Best hole?  There are several. One that comes to mind is hitting
    3 wood 5 wood on the green at the 505 yd par 5 7th hole at Burlington
    Country Club.  (No I only made birdie)  Then there was the 398 yd
    par 4 13th @ BCC.  Hit a drive right and ended up about 6" from
    the base of a tree.  The only shot was to start it out at the woods
    on the left and make it turn HARD left to right.  Hit a 4 iron,
    missed the tree with the club (good swing :-) ) turned it into the
    wind......  I thought it was a real nice par.
    
    Worst hole.  Hit a drive on a par 5 to the right.  Hit a provisional
    just in case.  Found the provisional and picked it up but never
    found the first one.  It was a stroke play tournament so back to
    the tee hitting 5.  Made an 11.  It's been a long time since I made
    double digits on a hole.  I forgot how bad it feels.
    
    Worst round.  Hit 7 greens on the back 9 and three putted 7 times.
    Ended up with 40 putts that day. (Yes Gene I had 40 putts in 18
    holes.  I can't believe it either.  Ended up shooting 87)
    
    Best round(S).  Even par 36 on the front @ BCC.  Bogied 8 when my
    8 year old daughter walked between me and the hole when I was stroking
    the par putt.  3 putted 9 for bogey.  Guess I was expecting something
    else to happen.  
    	Shooting 78 in the final round of the member guest.  Shot 2
    over 38 on the final 9 to seal the win.  78 may not be a great score
    but it felt real good to me.
    
    Best start.  Hitting the first 4 fairways and 5 greens in a friendly
    match.  
    
    Worst finish.  Same match as best start.  Tried to show off on 17.
    Hooked a drive left then tried to hook a 2 iron out of the rough
    around a tree.  (I described the shot for my partner before I tried
    it)  Need I say more?  Hit the 2 iron solid and turned it over but
    it hit the tree harder.  (Nice double)  Then OB on 18 for another
    double.  Ended up with 81 for the round.
    
    Luckiest shot.  Par 4 16th.  Hit a Gawdawful drive.  Hit a full
    4 iron into the for 2.  (Thank you very much just a routine eagle
    :-).
    
    

    No sympathy for the Spyglass story from this boy!!
    
    This is not this years sad tale but its worth repeating. I played
    Spyglass last fall and had a GREAT day tee to green. Maybe the best
    ever for me. I hit 13 greens in regulation and shot 93. Talk about
    a bad day with the blade. The secret is to keep the ball below the
    hole just like the stories you here about Augusta. I hit all my
    shots above the hole. Talk about fast greens. A few times the marker
    I was using slid down the green toward the hole :-).
    
    I'd give up this game if I didn't have so many sweaters.
    Ken

    re: .10
    
    Ah yes Mr. Blaisdell's 35.  I played with him that afternoon, and
    after listening to his lamentations about the yips all day, we
    succumbed to a putting contest on the last three holes. Closest
    to the pin from ~30 ft. Guess who won ALL THREE holes at a quarter
    apiece?  Yep, Mr. "I can't putt, I've got the yips" Blaisdell.
    Can you say hustled???
    
    		;^) ;^) ;^)
    
    The worst thing is that I think I caught RBs putting woes. As the
    next time I played I hit the ball better than I have in my entire
    life, then 3 putted 7 holes and 4 putted 2 ( once for a bogey ).
    
    My debacle occured at the Captain's Course in Brewster on Cape Cod.
    A beautiful course with very difficult greens. I've never been on
    the wrong side of so many swales and ridges in my life. Best shot
    of the day was a ~210 yd. 2 iron to the 16th (I think) green.
    this is a 510 yd. par five with a ravine which runs across the
    fairway 150 yds. from the green all the way to the green with the
    courses lone pond at the bottom. I crushed a drive ~280 but caught
    the trees on the right and had to chip out to about 210 from the
    green. Hit a 2 iron to the back of the green in the middle about
    20' from the pin (there had been a tournament there in the morning
    and the pins were in the most God-awful places).
    3 putts (ARRRGGGHHHHHH) later I had a 6. 
    
    I had two one putt greens all day. A 10' par on #1 and a 12' par
    on #18 (just to get me back, right?)
    
    Alan

    Well, I have to join the club of playing more this year than the
    past couple of years. I was loosing a little interest (actually
    it was really irking me) because I was having trouble with my irons.
    If you've played Marlboro Country Club, you know that irons are
    very important (and are used off many tees).
    
    So I finally work out the kinks with the short irons. It felt good
    to be taking cracks at birdie putts from 20 feet and in. I made
    a lot of birdies this year.
    
    I also jumped on the metal wood bandwagon this year. I don't know
    why yet but the darn thing seems to hook less severely on mishits.
    Fewer lost balls and more distance because of a harder swing (ah
    that's another topic). However, I still have the wooden driver and
    my 4 wood is still persimmon.
    
    I never had a "worst" round this year. I started counting strokes
    early in the spring in Myrtle Beach but scored OK for spring time
    golf. I have been constantly working on my game since. Played both
    courses at New Seabury in the spring and broke 90 on both of them
    (almost broke 80 on the green course).
    
    Another reason I didn't really have a worst round is because I hit
    an awful lot of practice shots (it's so nice to play after work
    on a non-crowded course and one with a practice tee to boot). At
    one time, the putter was being a pain but only because birdie putts
    were not dropping. 3 and 4 jerking was not my style this year. In
    fact, as of late, I have had a tremendous touch around the green.
    
    Best rounds (yes, plural) of the year are many. I did keep some
    rounds of nine in the 35 range (-1, even or +1 area). I could use
    a little more consistency in my scoring. I had one round of 9 this
    year at +1 (37) where I only hit 4 greens and 2 of them were birdies.
    A lot of my even par nines had birdies=bogeys or all pars. I suppose
    I shouldn't complain but you ever walked away from a hole scratching
    your head saying "Why didn't I make birdie?"
    
    I did have 1 real good 18 hole round this year in North Carolina
    at a course called Wildwood Green (par 70). I shot 74 from the blue
    tees. It was amidst my putting woes. I hit 12 greens and had 6 putts
    from 10 feet or closer for birdies. I only canned 1 (even missed
    2 three footers). That night at my brother-in-law's wedding, I was
    known as "the guy who shot 74". What made it more interesting was
    I wore my knickers on the course. Everybody chuckled and I could
    hear the "oh, here comes Payne Stewart" comments but the were
    relatively quiet when they saw my score.
    
    Well, I am getting a little long winded so I will end on my last
    wish for 88. I have yet to reach a par 5 in 2 this year. I have
    been around the green (we're talking within 10 feet of the green)
    in 2 on a lot of par 5s and have made many a birdie on par 5s this
    year BUT I have yet to be putting for eagle. My hats off to those
    of you who have made eagles this year whether it be by putting for
    a 3 on a par 5 or if you tossed in a shot from the fairway. I
    congratulate all of you who have made a hole in one this year. That's
    something I wonder if I will ever do.
    
    And now before I hit ^Z, I must say that I was looking forward to
    the season ending GOLF.NOTE tournament this weekend. Sorry to say
    I cannot make it because of family commitments. Have fun those of
    you who are playing!
    
    Mike

    ok heres my story,after playing my worst 9 hole match of the year
    which happened to be the last match, we missed playoffs again, i
    played marlboro cc. same old story on the front 9, two 6s and a
    7 for a 44. but i had a chance to best my best on the back
    but................4 putted the 15th and still shot 38 !!!
    the two 2s did help me though, i won most of the skins...one more
    quick story..playing juniper hill last week 55 on the front 39 on
    the back , and won 10 skins ...can't wait to see what happens this
    week.....b mc

    Re .-1:
    
    I bet if you warmed up before you teed off, you would be awesome!
    
    Mike

    My worst and best moments of the year came back to back to back!
    
    I was playing with my brother in Indiana.  I don't care how old you
    are - beating ones sibling is soooo sweet!  On this particular course
    there is one par 5 and one par 3 on the front and three par 5's
    on the back.
    
    There were two back to back 5'ers on the back extending 515 and
    485 respectively.  On the first par 5 I was over the green in two.
    My shot coming back was impossible, over a mound with about 5 feet
    of green to work with to the cup and the green was sloping away
    from me no less.  Needless to say, my third rolled 20 feet past
    the cup and I three putted.
    
    The next par five was 485 straight up hill.  I was on the front
    edge in two with about a 30 foot eagle opportunity.  I left it about
    two rotations from the center of the cup.  I love birdie tap ins.
    
    By the way the younger lad went met his "untimely demise".