Golf Talk Tuesdays 2015-2020

[Big_Hitter]

First time to post to this thread. Played twice in the last 10 days. First time out in four years. Wow, weekdays are great. Start at 0800 and home by 1215. Nice! Got excited and bought a used set of Taylormade R7 irons, draw weighed and gave away my McGregor Heritage irons I bought in '87. Lost the 6 iron at Texas City municipal in the late 80s. Score typical for me, around 100. Had two birdies and two pars yesterday. Two birdies in the span of three holes was exciting! DW is already seeing the golf spectre arise again. Got to keep it in check. One round and one range session per week.

The phone apps for distance are amazing. First time out with that.

what course to you normally play?

 

[Huston55]

anyone still playing? I shot an 84 with a few bad holes sunday at a local muni - I played match with my boss and he's decided to quit golf, no joke

played 7 hoes last night and hit 5 greens - two 3 jacks

got my cart out of the shop and it's running great, $1400 parts and labor later it should be - no more gear whine, I think I'll keep this cart until it dies again

Year round down here. But, I've been traveling for a couple weeks (actually, I was getting chased around by Matthew) and haven't played a round since 9/28.

 

[Huston55]

First time to post to this thread. Played twice in the last 10 days. First time out in four years. Wow, weekdays are great. Start at 0800 and home by 1215. Nice! Got excited and bought a used set of Taylormade R7 irons, draw weighed and gave away my McGregor Heritage irons I bought in '87. Lost the 6 iron at Texas City municipal in the late 80s. Score typical for me, around 100. Had two birdies and two pars yesterday. Two birdies in the span of three holes was exciting! DW is already seeing the golf spectre arise again. Got to keep it in check. One round and one range session per week.

The phone apps for distance are amazing. First time out with that.

Welcome TtP. Hope you get back into 'the beautiful game' and share it with us here.

 

[Turn_the_Page]

what course to you normally play?

Oakhurst in Porter/Kingwood, TX

 

[Dawg52]

I played a couple of days ago on the AL coast with a couple of buddies. Shot an 80 after being +4 thru 3 holes. Could have broken 80, but missed a couple of 3 footers coming home. Oh well. Considering I haven't played much this summer due to renovations on my home course, pretty pleased with the way I hit the ball.

 

[garyt]

I'm not familiar with your courses but you need to adjust your handicap based on the course you're playing and the slope rating of the tees you're playing. Maybe a 20 handicap at Hearthstone would play to a 24 at Crane Creek if their is a big difference in the slope rating.

Course handicap= Handicap Index X Slope Rating/113

Yea, it shouldn't make a difference as you say. I tend to find slope ratings can be pretty goofy sometimes. I wonder what the parameters are. I know a course around here that's as flat as can be, no water, no real OB,etc and it has a higher slope than a course with water in play, lots of huge sandtraps,etc. I could easily manipulate my hdcp by playing the higher slope/easier course if I wanted a vanity cap. If I wanted to sandbag I could plaay the lower slope/easier course.

 

[garyt]

we have water and/or OB on every shot, all 18 holes

I think the difficulty definitely impacts the index, whether or not it should

when I was a member at Hearthstone in Houston I was down to a 10 or 11 - I'd lose my a$$ at crane creek if I carried that index

As I posted above, sometimes the slope ratings are just off. Ever hear the saying "His handicap doesn't travel well"? That's often because a guy plays the majority of his rounds on a course that is easier than it's rated so his hdcp is low, but when he goes to a course with a truer rating, no way can he play to his hdcp.

 

[Big_Hitter]

my index travels great. I almost always break par net when I play away.

 

[Huston55]

Yea, it shouldn't make a difference as you say. I tend to find slope ratings can be pretty goofy sometimes. I wonder what the parameters are. I know a course around here that's as flat as can be, no water, no real OB,etc and it has a higher slope than a course with water in play, lots of huge sandtraps,etc. I could easily manipulate my hdcp by playing the higher slope/easier course if I wanted a vanity cap. Ihttp://www.usga.org/handicapping-articles/course-rating-primer-e5bf725f.htmlf I wanted to sandbag I could plaay the lower slope/easier course.

I play with a guy who rates courses for the NCGA. He described the process, and it sounds very objective and data-based to me. They use trained teams (instead of individuals) to rate courses; then, the NCGA checks their work and makes adjustments as necessary. Given that 'people' do it, there is by definition some subjectivity. And, I know what you mean by comparing courses of different difficulty; it does offen seem that higher slope courses are much harder than their slope rating indicates when compared to an easier course; it's as if the effect on score is exponential versus linear when playing a course rated >130. Below is the USGA course evaluation process, which is what my buddy described using for the NCGA.

Course Rating™ Primer

 

[zinger1457]

Ever hear the saying "His handicap doesn't travel well"? That's often because a guy plays the majority of his rounds on a course that is easier than it's rated so his hdcp is low, but when he goes to a course with a truer rating, no way can he play to his hdcp.

That does happen but I think the main reason a handicap doesn't travel well is that many golfers play primarily at their home course all the time. Obviously the more you play at the same course you get comfortable with it, learn the greens, when/where to layup, it just gets easier over time. If you watch the Master's you may have noticed when there's an odd number of players on the weekend they add a non-competing marker to the field who's an Augusta member. He knows the greens at Augusta so well he can hold his own with the pros, sometimes even beating them. But if you were to put him on another tour course against a pro he would have no chance.

 

[pb4uski]

....Considering I haven't played much this summer due to renovations on my home course, pretty pleased with the way I hit the ball.

I always seem to play well the first couple rounds after not playing for a while.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Course Rating™ Primer[/url]

slope from the blues at cc is 137. over 140 from the blacks

 

[garyt]

slope from the blues at cc is 137. over 140 from the blacks

That's a tough course.

 

[Big_Hitter]

played quail hollow yesterday from the tips - 129 slope. We thought it was more difficult than our home course.

 

[jcretire77]

I definitely think Quail Hollow is tougher then CCCC. But then again, I play CCCC 3-4 times a week and Quail maybe 3-4 times a year.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I definitely think Quail Hollow is tougher then CCCC. But then again, I play CCCC 3-4 times a week and Quail maybe 3-4 times a year.

we get to play quail for $10 (plus cart) due to the construction, the shop can get you a tee time

I think I will play white tees next time

Oh, the slope rating from the tips at quail is 132, not 129

one of my bros almost rolled a cart yesterday coming down the hill on 3 (he did a killer 360); yes he was sober but man that place is hilly

 

[Huston55]

we get to play quail for $10 (plus cart) due to the construction, the shop can get you a tee time

I think I will play white tees next time

Oh, the slope rating from the tips at quail is 132, not 129

one of my bros almost rolled a cart yesterday coming down the hill on 3 (he did a killer 360); yes he was sober but man that place is hilly

During my weekly Weds golf group a couple weeks ago, two of my playing partners did roll a cart. At the turn on Boundary Oaks, you drive downhill from 9 to 10, around a tight curve, downhill, on a curbed concrete cart path. The driver wasn't paying close enough attention and hopped the curb at the top. When they started going down the steep grassed hill, he hit the brakes & tried to turn nonono. The cart rolled on it's side and they both fell out the same side onto the concrete cart path; luckily the cart didn't come down on top of them but, it was close. One guy got bruised up and went home; then, immediately to the ER when his wife saw him. He's OK, just bruises and cuts & scrapes.

Gotta be careful. These guys are both north of 65 yo, and things are a little more fragile at that age.

More importantly, all that commotion caused me to slice my drive into the trees on the right.

 

[RockyMtn]

I always seem to play well the first couple rounds after not playing for a while.

Quite common actually. I call it a "low expectation round". You're thinking "well I haven't played in a while so I'm not going to do so well". Then you go out and you are not thinking...just playing. Bad habits don't creep in, etc.

 

[Huston55]

Well, it seems like No Good [-]Deed[/-] Round Goes Unpunished.

I played a round with a buddy yesterday, shot a net 71 (par 72 course), and my handicap index went up by 0.6 points!

The reason is that my lowest score dropped off after yesterday's round but, that still seems hardly fair.

 

[Big_Hitter]

what's wrong with your index going up?

 

[Dawg52]

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow our new greens are open for play. No more temps!

 

[Huston55]

what's wrong with your index going up?

Well, there is that!

 

[zinger1457]

Anyone familiar with the golf courses in Las Cruces NM? I'll be going there for a few days and hope to get a couple of rounds in.

 

[zinger1457]

Anyone familiar with the golf courses in Las Cruces NM? I'll be going there for a few days and hope to get a couple of rounds in.

Here's my review of a couple Las Cruces golf course I had a chance to play

Played at the NM State University golf course one day. It's a nice traditional style golf course with many holes running parallel to each other, it's an older course and much more tree lined then one would normally see in a desert. The greens were just aerated and top dressed a couple days before I played there so the conditions were slow and bouncy but the guys I played with said the greens are normally fast and in good shape. Can find discounts on golfnow, I think I paid $19 with cart, good value for money.

For the next round I played at Red Hawk in the northeast section of town. Very nice layout and the conditions were very good, excellent value for money, paid $28 with cart for early afternoon. This is much more of what you expect to see in a desert golf course. Not sure how many acres they used but this course is really spread out, most holes are isolated and surrounded by desert but there is water on a few holes. It is very long, plays at just over 7500 yards from the tips but has plenty of tee options to choose from. The fairways are somewhat generous but if you miss them you're almost assured a lost or unplayable ball, very thick desert brush. Excellent practice facility, in fact the NM State men's golf team was practicing there the day I played there.

 

[Dawg52]

Shot a 78 yesterday on my home (senior tees). It's a fun course, but can be very challenging depending on the setup. Not a PGA tour type course but the club has hosted a couple of min-tour events.