Golf!!!2!

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

The wife and I had an 8.15 am tee time at serenity this morning. At 8.10 they were still about 45 minutes away from going.

Well pulled the pin as that would have wrecked the day for her.

It is that time of year folks.

Haha, there's still lots of good golf left most likely, just don't be booking early AM like you seem to be, that rarely works out in mid to late September.

In fact I wish more courses would stop offering early AM this late in the season, because almost guaranteed they're pushing back a bunch of mid morning times and then fighting to get anyone on time.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Haha, there's still lots of good golf left most likely, just don't be booking early AM like you seem to be, that rarely works out in mid to late September.

In fact I wish more courses would stop offering early AM this late in the season, because almost guaranteed they're pushing back a bunch of mid morning times and then fighting to get anyone on time.

Agreed - the delays ruin the day for everyone.

I don't want to force them to leave the tee times empty though - lord knows, the season is far too short here as it is and they need the revenues.

But what I would like to see is that the early times are 'at your own risk'. If there is a delay, those times are lost, not delayed. If you want to book early, you take your chances. If you want to have a certain tee time, book at a reasonable time slot.

[Northendzone]

Hard to get used to later morning tee times when you are used to going early, as a mid morning time really carves up your day.

I’d imagine I’ll go with 10 am tee times for the duration now, as at least you could phone the course to see what is going on, although, I will hand it to glen eagles as they had a delay on Friday and sent me an email well in advance of our mid afternoon tee time.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Agreed - the delays ruin the day for everyone.

I don't want to force them to leave the tee times empty though - lord knows, the season is far too short here as it is and they need the revenues.

But what I would like to see is that the early times are 'at your own risk'. If there is a delay, those times are lost, not delayed. If you want to book early, you take your chances. If you want to have a certain tee time, book at a reasonable time slot.

Yep, my course knows super early how things are going with frost and sends out an email. They also take a very calculated guess at what reasonable start times will actually be and they keep that dynamic, week to week.

It's not perfect. But no "hey let's do our usual 7:15am bookings and hopefully it's not actually 9:00 that groups can actually tee off at".

[DoubleK]

I wonder if there is a happy medium here? Instead of cancelling times, would it make sense to increase the interval from 8 to 10 minutes (or whatever they do).

Also why don't the courses water intermittently throughout the night to keep the frost off the grass, similar to what they do in Florida to save the oranges?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I wonder if there is a happy medium here? Instead of cancelling times, would it make sense to increase the interval from 8 to 10 minutes (or whatever they do).

Also why don't the courses water intermittently throughout the night to keep the frost off the grass, similar to what they do in Florida to save the oranges?

I think too many Calgary area courses are operating on shoe string budgets because of the short seasons we get up here. That's what I get a sense of from talking to a bunch of them.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Yep, my course knows super early how things are going with frost and sends out an email. They also take a very calculated guess at what reasonable start times will actually be and they keep that dynamic, week to week.

It's not perfect. But no "hey let's do our usual 7:15am bookings and hopefully it's not actually 9:00 that groups can actually tee off at".

Right now the bookings at my course don't start until 9:00am as the first tee time of the day.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Dion

Right now the bookings at my course don't start until 9:00am as the first tee time of the day.

Yep, that's about perfect for this week.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Yep, that's about perfect for this week.

Teed off at 8 am both Saturday and today. No frost on the ground. I suspect we would have had about a 20 minute delay today if it was a bit colder last night.

[nfotiu]

Question for anyone here..

My 13 yo son has started playing in these state golf association junior tournament. They're somewhat competitive, and rules are that players must walk. Spectators are allowed carts. Other tournament emails run by the same golf assoc, say explicitly players must not ride on carts at any time until their round is finished, but this one just says players must walk.

He was playing with 2 kids, and one of them had his dad drive him between holes on nearly every hole after hole 8 or so, and the other dad started around hole 13. There were some good hikes between some of the holes, and it was 90 degrees with a heat index near 100. That seems like a pretty significant advantage to get a ride between holes and lots of kids won't have parents out there with carts.

It didn't affect my son's standings or anything. He beat the egregious cart rider, and lost by a few strokes to the other mostly because my son had a rough front 9. It did bug me though, and probably bugged me way more because the kid also had a remote control power cart with a giant tour bag, probably 5k worth of clubs, and had to spend 3-4 minutes checking his gps watch and scoping the distance on every single shot even inside 30 yards!

What's everyone's thoughts? I didn't say anything. We're pretty new to this and the youth golf is a pretty small community, and he and his dad were nice enough guys. This was about my son's fifth tournament and first time I've seen anything like that happen.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Question for anyone here..

My 13 yo son has started playing in these state golf association junior tournament. They're somewhat competitive, and rules are that players must walk. Spectators are allowed carts. Other tournament emails run by the same golf assoc, say explicitly players must not ride on carts at any time until their round is finished, but this one just says players must walk.

He was playing with 2 kids, and one of them had his dad drive him between holes on nearly every hole after hole 8 or so, and the other dad started around hole 13. There were some good hikes between some of the holes, and it was 90 degrees with a heat index near 100. That seems like a pretty significant advantage to get a ride between holes and lots of kids won't have parents out there with carts.

It didn't affect my son's standings or anything. He beat the egregious cart rider, and lost by a few strokes to the other mostly because my son had a rough front 9. It did bug me though, and probably bugged me way more because the kid also had a remote control power cart with a giant tour bag, probably 5k worth of clubs, and had to spend 3-4 minutes checking his gps watch and scoping the distance on every single shot even inside 30 yards!

What's everyone's thoughts? I didn't say anything. We're pretty new to this and the youth golf is a pretty small community, and he and his dad were nice enough guys. This was about my son's fifth tournament and first time I've seen anything like that happen.

Walking against a cart rider (especially in that heat) is a significant disadvantage. I have an electric cart and it makes an enormous difference for me as compared to pushing a cart/carrying. It sounds like a flagrant violation of the rules?

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by jayswin

I think too many Calgary area courses are operating on shoe string budgets because of the short seasons we get up here. That's what I get a sense of from talking to a bunch of them.

I just remembered that Valley Ridge goes to shotguns in the fall.

So there is that option for keeping the courses full.

[Northendzone]

My thought is that for those kids the conditions should just be equal. So they are all either walking, or having the option to decline a ride.

Sure, some kids are going have better equipment.

Not sure how I feel about kids and range finders. I played with a 12 yr old kid at heatherglen one day. He pulled out a range finder all the time, including the holes where he was almost 300 out. To me he should just be focusing on hitting the ball, but, I guess if he is trying to set up his next shot…..

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

My thought is that for those kids the conditions should just be equal. So they are all either walking, or having the option to decline a ride.

Sure, some kids are going have better equipment.

Not sure how I feel about kids and range finders. I played with a 12 yr old kid at heatherglen one day. He pulled out a range finder all the time, including the holes where he was almost 300 out. To me he should just be focusing on hitting the ball, but, I guess if he is trying to set up his next shot…..

For clarity, I was only really concerned about getting in the cart between holes. They are required to walk, but not necessarily carry or push clubs since they are allowed to have an under 18 caddie. The power push cart just contributed to my annoyance since it wasn't like he even had to push his clubs between holes, and those things don't move that fast, so he didn't even get to the next hole any faster.

All the gadgets did contribute to a very long setup routine, and their group did get warned twice. My son told me later that kid was telling them "we need to hurry up guys", and my son said he and the other kid were about ready to leave him behind when he said that.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Played Fraserview in Vancouver today. Shot a 96 which is good for me, one of my better rounds this season.

The problem is that I had 44 putts, which is common for me.
I'd break 90 if I could get my putting under control.

Any tips on getting better at putting?

[DoubleK]

Don't putt the ball past the hole.

Thinking you have to get the ball to the hole to make the putt, is subconsciously making you hit it harder. Leading to a longer comebacker.

Try to die it in the hole.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Don't putt the ball past the hole.

Thinking you have to get the ball to the hole to make the putt, is subconsciously making you hit it harder. Leading to a longer comebacker.

Try to die it in the hole.

^^^^^
Best advice you'll get on putting.

Also, make sure to put a marker down every time, not just when it's in someone's way. It forces you to get down and take a real look at your line from almost grade level.

Always use the line on the ball or draw your own if it doesn't have them, to match it up with the line on your putter.

[Dion]

Playing in a members wind up tourney in the AM.

My course (Nanton) plans to close on October 17th - weather permitting.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Don't putt the ball past the hole.

Thinking you have to get the ball to the hole to make the putt, is subconsciously making you hit it harder. Leading to a longer comebacker.

Try to die it in the hole.

If you want to make putts and shave strokes that's not great advice on all putts IMO.

flat putts - 18 inch past
uphill - 12 inch past
downhill - hole weight

Key for amateurs is finding the stroke to get your pace.

[Enoch Root]

Re the 'die at the hole' strategy, I get where you are coming from but I don't agree. I have been on both sides of this, and here is my journey on the subject:

I was never a good putter and got tired of 3 putts, so I focused more on the die at the hole strategy - I became more defensive - in an attempt to reduce the 3 putts. And, to an extent, I think it did. However, the cost is that you rarely make a 1 putt.

If you are dieing it at the hole, it takes a perfect putt in order for it to go in, so your make-rate will be low. It is substantially easier to sink a putt if it still has a little pace at the hole and is therefore still on its line. Your best chance of sinking it is to be aggressive. However, the downside is that if you miss, you might have some work to do coming back.

Once I started tracking the details of my game with analytics, it became blatantly obvious that I was losing more strikes to putting than anything else. As a die it at the hole guy.

So this year I decided I had to change. I got fitted for a new putter (first time I ever did a fitting for a putter), and had my alignment analyzed. The other thing I did is I decided to trash the defensive putting and be more aggressive and try to make everything that had a reasonable chance (basically anything 25-30 ft or less, unless it was a crazy bender).

The other thing I did was I started to practice 4-6 footers more - I really focused on that. And that is where analyzing my alignment really paid dividends.

Prior to this year, I was typically taking 37-38 putts per round, and it was not uncommon to take 40. And rarely did I have less than 35 or 36.

This year, after making these changes, my strokes per game has dropped to 32-33 (and is hopefully still dropping). Here's the thing: I used to have 1 or 2 one-putts per round, and now I have 4-6. But my number of 3-putts has not changed! I still have 3-putts, but no more than before. The difference comes from the 1-putts: they give me confidence. And the more my confidence grows, the more comfortable I am getting with the 4-footers.

I strongly believe that confident, aggressive putting will yield the best results. But you also have to do the work to make yourself a better putter.