The Golf Thread

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

It’s hard to believe that he was angry at how badly I beat him at the P12 tourney last March.
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[PaloAltoCougar]

Wait, what? Is that real? The same kid I held as a baby a couple of years ago (my memory may be a bit hazy)?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Wait, what? Is that real? The same kid I held as a baby a couple of years ago (my memory may be a bit hazy)?

Perhaps that touch is what has rubbed off on him. He stopped every other sport this year and spends every feee second at the club.

His Christmas gift this year was to go see his goat KD, we played 5 rounds. Monday, Troon North Pinacle 70, Monument 67, KD meh 24, Kwahi boring, I hate the beard but damn he’s great. Tuesday Grayhawk Talon 71, Raptor 69. Weds TPC Champion 66, (Dad 87…talk about buying the lead). KD absolutely filthy scorer. Ant 100% my favorite player of this new era. Dominant and never shuts up.
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[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

IMG_8197.jpeg IMG_8206.jpeg IMG_8190.jpeg If this works I’m going to feel like a genus IMG_8186.jpeg

[PaloAltoCougar]

Truly amazing. He’s going to be fun to follow.

[Pelado]

So cool.

[RC Vikings]

That's great, hell of player already.

[falafel]

WOW HFN. That is incredible. I hope he keeps his love for the game up and doesn't get ground down among all the rest of the crap. Great job coach, and even better job Dad (although I admit, you could be a terrible dad and I don't have enough info, but I feel confident in saying there's a only a 40% chance that's true).

[Donuthole]

New personal best with a 2-under 70. I’ve shot 72 a few times, and 71 once on a par 71, but this was the first time I’ve broken par. Started the round with a birdie on the only hole at my club I had yet to birdie since joining 18 months ago. 7 pars and a bogey to round out the front.

The back 9 consisted of one birdie, one bogey, several scrambling pars, and an eagle on 18. 18 is the easiest hole on the side, so a birdie is always in play with a drive in the fairway. I hit a solid drive and then nutted a 3-wood pin high. 8-footer was right edge and uphill, and just looked good the whole way.

36+34=70

The round lowered my index by 1.1 strokes and I think it will drop another stroke tomorrow for being an “exceptional round” Ie more than 7 strokes better than the expected handicapped score.

Golf Game Update:

I guess this is a sort of journal for my golf game. Man, that 70 feels like way longer than 2 years ago. After that personal-best round, my index dropped all the way to a 2.9, and I had to play the entire next year at that level, even though I was probably more like a 4 or a 5. Needless to day, my 2024 men's league season was not great, as I was often giving multiple strokes to players who I know are better golfers than me. After about 3 months of driver woes, I switched to a lighter, more forgiving driver. This seemed to cost me about 7-10 yards off the tee, but my dispersion improved and I wasn't taking myself out of play off the tee as often.

At one point last summer (2024), I tweaked my low back. I don't even remember how I tweaked it, but for a few weeks it was painful to take my normal golf stance. This resulted in me standing a little more upright and a little closer to the ball. My driving was greatly affected in a couple of ways: suddenly, I couldn't find the fairway off the tee, but I was getting like 15-20 more yards. And my irons were all suddenly an entire club longer-- my long irons were almost two clubs longer. All this while I was swinging a bit easier because of my tweaked back. I went from hitting my 4 iron 195-200 to regularly hitting it 215-220. It was a bizarre month, and as soon as I adjusted to the new distances with my irons, my back felt better and subconsciously I went back to my traditional position. This resulted in a couple frustrating weeks of me coming up short on lots of approaches, before figuring out what was happening. The closer, upright stance also really screwed with my hybrids. After hitting my 3h and 2h clubs really, really well for the better part of a year, I suddenly couldn't hit them. Something about how they set up just didn't work with the more upright stance, and I was chunking them.

I've since settled into a sort of happy medium. I'm standing a little closer to the ball but not quite as close as when my back was tweaked. I'm hitting about 6-7 yards longer than I was before the back tweak, but not the full club/club and a half. I'm still not back to being comfortable with my hybrids. I think the biggest revelation from my back injury was that I was gaining distance while swinging easier because I was getting my hands ahead of the ball better. So i've slowed down my swing just a bit and I seem to be getting better compression.

I shot a 73 on Saturday, which is my lowest score in a year. But the week before that I shot an 85 with 13(!) bogeys and 5 pars. I went back through 3 years of scores and I couldn't find a round with fewer than 8 pars. Golf is crazy, and I'll never get over how you can have A+ stuff one day and C+ stuff the very next day.

[Moliere]

I’m in St. Andrew today. Anyone want me to pick you up a shirt?

[Donuthole]

I’m in St. Andrew today. Anyone want me to pick you up a shirt?

Nice! I hope to play there someday. Thanks for the offer, but Mrs. D has forbade me from adding any golf shirts to our closet.

[Moliere]

Nice! I hope to play there someday. Thanks for the offer, but Mrs. D has forbade me from adding any golf shirts to our closet.

Bummer. I spent 700 pounds there today just on golf crap.

Do you use a golf coach? I’m getting to a point in my life that I may have more time to play and I want to get better. I played a lot 10-20 years ago but it’s been sparse lately (1-2 times a year) and with MJ taking up golf I figure I’ll be playing more. I’ve never used a coach and the only instruction I’ve really ever gotten is from a golf class I took at BYU.

[falafel]

Bummer. I spent 700 pounds there today just on golf crap.

Do you use a golf coach? I’m getting to a point in my life that I may have more time to play and I want to get better. I played a lot 10-20 years ago but it’s been sparse lately (1-2 times a year) and with MJ taking up golf I figure I’ll be playing more. I’ve never used a coach and the only instruction I’ve really ever gotten is from a golf class I took at BYU.

Bro, get a coach. Do it with MJ together. Get a practice net from Amazon and a 5x5 practice mat and work on those drills!

[Donuthole]

Bro, get a coach. Do it with MJ together. Get a practice net from Amazon and a 5x5 practice mat and work on those drills!

I agree with this. Give MJ good foundational principles, and maybe you can unlearn some bad habits and create some better ones. I have never worked with a golf coach, and I'm a decent golfer in spite of that. But I could have been way better, way sooner with a proper golf foundation. Instead, all it took was a 10k/year golf membership and playing 2x a week. I got my son working with a coach early on, a weekly lesson for about a year. Even though he doesn't take lessons anymore, the foundation of his swing is so much better than mine. I can still beat him, but that probably won't last much longer.

[falafel]

I can still beat him, but that probably won't last much longer.

Let him play at your club 2x a week for 1 year and let's see how it shakes out.