Golf Talk Tuesdays 2015-2020

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Red Rocks Golf Trip

Three buddies and I went on a 5 day golf trip to St. George, Utah last week. The four of us are part of a larger group of eight that goes on a golf trip each Spring. This year we splurged and also went this Fall to a new (for us) place.

First, I highly recommend the "Red Rocks Golf Trail" in St. George, UT---beautiful, scenic courses at very low prices. We played 6 rounds in 4 days, and golf + lodging was ~$900/person; add in the 7th round we played at Wolf Creek in Mesquite, NV and the total came to ~$1,000/person. For resort quality courses, this is a steal. These are the courses we played, with my personal thoughts/recommendation on each.

1. The Ledges: 4.5 Stars, scenic, great condition, great value.
2. Sky Mountain: 5 Stars, very scenic, great staff, best value of the whole trip.
3. Sand Hollow: Stunning views, great condition, very poor pace of play on our day.
4. Coral Canyon: 4.5 Stars, scenic, playing areas in great condition, infrastructure needs some work.
5. Green Spring: 3.5 Stars, decent "country club" course, several scenic holes, good value.
6. Sunbrook: 4 Stars, excellent "country club" quality course, great value.
7. Wolf Creek: 5 Stars, stunning views, excellent condition, good value; this is a "Bucket List" course.

The consensus of our group is that we would definitely return to St. George again, and we'd play courses #1, 2, 3, 4 & 7 again. I've posted a few pictures in a "Red Rocks Golf" album in my profile.
 
Huston55 said:
Three buddies and I went on a 5 day golf trip to St. George, Utah last week. The four of us are part of a larger group of eight that goes on a golf trip each Spring. This year we splurged and also went this Fall to a new (for us) place.

First, I highly recommend the "Red Rocks Golf Trail" in St. George, UT---beautiful, scenic courses at very low prices. We played 6 rounds in 4 days, and golf + lodging was ~$900/person; add in the 7th round we played at Wolf Creek in Mesquite, NV and the total came to ~$1,000/person. For resort quality courses, this is a steal. These are the courses we played, with my personal thoughts/recommendation on each.

1. The Ledges: 4.5 Stars, scenic, great condition, great value.
2. Sky Mountain: 5 Stars, very scenic, great staff, best value of the whole trip.
3. Sand Hollow: Stunning views, great condition, very poor pace of play on our day.
4. Coral Canyon: 4.5 Stars, scenic, playing areas in great condition, infrastructure needs some work.
5. Green Spring: 3.5 Stars, decent "country club" course, several scenic holes, good value.
6. Sunbrook: 4 Stars, excellent "country club" quality course, great value.
7. Wolf Creek: 5 Stars, stunning views, excellent condition, good value; this is a "Bucket List" course.

The consensus of our group is that we would definitely return to St. George again, and we'd play courses #1, 2, 3, 4 & 7 again. I've posted a few pictures in a "Red Rocks Golf" album in my profile.
Click to expand...

How long was the drive from Bay Area? I have a friend who is in St Geroge and has been asking me to visit to play golf.
 
robnplunder said:
How long was the drive from Bay Area? I have a friend who is in St Geroge and has been asking me to visit to play golf.
Click to expand...

I flew. 1.75 hrs flight to LV + 1 hr getting bags/rental car + 1.75 hrs drive to St. George.

If you have a friend there, certain courses (managed by Vanguard Group I believe) offer frequent player discount cards. I didn't use them because I made our resos through "Red Rocks Golf Trail" which is actually the St. George tourism bureau. But, you may want your friend to check out the discount cards for you if he's reserving the tee times.

All the courses are <20 mins from downtown St. George. & very easy to get to.
 
Tried something different today in Scottsdale AZ, a round of golf on a golf simulator. I had my doubts beforehand but it was only $10 on golfnow.com and the reviews I've seen were very positive. I have to say I really enjoyed it, certainly doesn't replace the real thing but a good way to get a full round in in about one hour. There are many courses in the simulator to choose from, maybe 30 from what I could see. At the start of each new hole they do a video fly over of the hole so you get a good look of what's in front of you. You hit into a big video screen and it shows the ball flight, yes even those big slices and hooks, and shows the distance the ball went and the distance to the hole. The hitting area that you stand on even tilts to account for fairway/rough slopes. Putting took a little getting use to but not bad, any putts within 3 feet are given.

Nice setup with a bar and restaurant on site. According to the owner they have leagues at night and competitions, apparently it's very popular. Will definitely give it a go again, if anything it was good practice.
 
zinger1457 said:
Tried something different today in Scottsdale AZ, a round of golf on a golf simulator. I had my doubts beforehand but it was only $10 on golfnow.com and the reviews I've seen were very positive. I have to say I really enjoyed it, certainly doesn't replace the real thing but a good way to get a full round in in about one hour. There are many courses in the simulator to choose from, maybe 30 from what I could see. At the start of each new hole they do a video fly over of the hole so you get a good look of what's in front of you. You hit into a big video screen and it shows the ball flight, yes even those big slices and hooks, and shows the distance the ball went and the distance to the hole. The hitting area that you stand on even tilts to account for fairway/rough slopes. Putting took a little getting use to but not bad, any putts within 3 feet are given.

Nice setup with a bar and restaurant on site. According to the owner they have leagues at night and competitions, apparently it's very popular. Will definitely give it a go again, if anything it was good practice.
Click to expand...


I heard it is all the rage in East Asia. There are even serious tournaments. Some people are addicted (just like video game) and play multiple rounds all day long. It also is far more economical than playing a round in real course.
 

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Played a round with a buddy yesterday @ Indian Valley, a local public course in Marin County. It's a scenic course & always a fun round. We teed off a bit later (1030am) and didn't see that many folks on the course; nice to have the space.

The course is doing work on #6 (Par 4) so, it's out of commission. But, they have a 19th hole (short Par 3) that's the substitute for such situations so, we played that. Because of that, we didn't keep score, just kept track of how many pars & birdies we made. I found that very liberating; it seemed to let me focus more on each shot. It also encouraged me to take risks I'd not normally take like going for a Par 5 with lots of greenside bunkers (found them) in two or, attempting a high fade off the tee around a sharp dog leg right & over trees (made it). It was fun to mentally approach the course one hole, one shot, at a time. I know I'm supposed to do that anyway but, not keeping score did make a difference for me.
 
Huston55 said:
It was fun to mentally approach the course one hole, one shot, at a time. I know I'm supposed to do that anyway but, not keeping score did make a difference for me.
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One of the reasons I enjoy match play, not worried about total score, just one hole at a time.
 
Huston55 said:
The course is doing work on #6 (Par 4) so, it's out of commission. But, they have a 19th hole (short Par 3) that's the substitute for such situations so, we played that. Because of that, we didn't keep score,
Click to expand...

In similar situation, I keep the score based on the 17 holes + the ESC score on #6.

Am looking forward to the weekend's round as always. Once I retire, I will play during week days (and maybe on Sunday occasionally) when there is much less crowd. Playing a nice course with DW with no groups in front or behind is to die for. DW uses the time between shots to take photos of surrounding view. I will probably start using my gopro as well.
 
Quick question for all the duffers, which golf gambling game do you like the most ?

I really like to play skins with carry overs for a buck a hole. Nobody gets hurt and the winner usually buys at the 19th hole. Just good old friendly competition and trash talk.
We usually throw in a longest drive and a closest to the pin just for SAG.

What say you, ball strikers of the forum ?
 
Way back when, I played with some fellow teachers and the standing bet was, get ready for this, 10 cent skins and 25 cents for closest to the hole. I am NOT that old, these were just some cheap bastards.

For me, it's not so much the game as the people you are playing with. When I still lived in the great Midwest we had a group of about 16 of us who would get a block of tee times and play in 3 or 4 foursomes, depending on who showed up. You could opt in for skins (gross only) with a $5 contribution. With this group that usually meant 1-3 skins would be paid out on any given day. Negotiations would occur on the first tee to determine who was playing whom in the other betting. The standard bet was $1/hole better ball. This did not lend itself to conservative play, but was a lot of fun. As usual, big winners would pay for drinks after. A big winner might be up $15 and a big loss might be the same. Typically everyone went home up or down less than $5.

My current group doesn't bet and I miss the competition sometimes. But for one group at my current course the buy in is $50 for some screwball game they play and the expectation is that there will be several side bets as well. Too rich for me. The "retirees" also have some kind of game that goes on, but they take almost 5 hours to play 18 holes and then they have to wait until everyone finishes and by the time everything is done you have wasted your entire day.

Don't get me wrong - I've wasted entire days on the golf course, but when I do I'm playing 36 or 54 holes.
 
frayne said:
Quick question for all the duffers, which golf gambling game do you like the most ?

I really like to play skins with carry overs for a buck a hole. Nobody gets hurt and the winner usually buys at the 19th hole. Just good old friendly competition and trash talk.
We usually throw in a longest drive and a closest to the pin just for SAG.

What say you, ball strikers of the forum ?
Click to expand...

No gambling here. I like gambling but never bet on my golf game. Nuts!
 
frayne said:
Quick question for all the duffers, which golf gambling game do you like the most ?

I really like to play skins with carry overs for a buck a hole. Nobody gets hurt and the winner usually buys at the 19th hole. Just good old friendly competition and trash talk.
We usually throw in a longest drive and a closest to the pin just for SAG.

What say you, ball strikers of the forum ?
Click to expand...


$1 skins is the most common game we play. On the recent golf trip to St. George, we played twosome vs twosome $1 skins; lots of fun.

When we have 8, we normally play better ball, twosome vs twosome, $10pp/round. Ties are decided with a scorecard playoff.

Most of us, me included, like games where we play our own ball so we can include it in our index.


You may be whatever you resolve to be.
 
frayne said:
Quick question for all the duffers, which golf gambling game do you like the most ? ....
Click to expand...

We usually play four different games. Low $ but makes it fun. Each guy puts in $7.. $5 for low net team and $1 for CTP (one front, one back)

We usually play low net teams of 2 or 3 or sometimes 4. Like today.. we were scheduled to have 20 but one guy didn't show up because his wife had something happen so we had 19... so 10 teams with a dummy. We paid $50, $30 and $15 to the top 3 teams and each CTP winner got $19.

In addition we usually play a 6-6-6 within each group.... low net match play with 2 man teams.... cartmates, drivers and then opposites. $1 for each 6. If we are a threesome then the lone guy gets the pro (par, net) so the other team must get at least a net birdie to win a hole.

So between all the games the worst you could do is lose $10... $7 plus $3 on the 6-6-6. Sometimes if the 6-6-6 ends early we'll play a quarter a hole the rest of the way in.

I was in the 1st of 5 groups today and was CTP on the back nine until a friend in the last group beat me out. :(
 
We also play 6-6-6 a lot. No big losers and you get to partner with everyone in your group. I never gamble for serious money, even when I played poker with the guys it was small change only.
 
zinger1457 said:
We also play 6-6-6 a lot. No big losers and you get to partner with everyone in your group. I never gamble for serious money, even when I played poker with the guys it was small change only.
Click to expand...

On our golf trips, whether it's 4 or 8 guys, we usually play poker at night. So, if you lose $ on the course, you have a chance to win it back at the table. ;)
 
frayne said:
Quick question for all the duffers, which golf gambling game do you like the most ?

I really like to play skins with carry overs for a buck a hole. Nobody gets hurt and the winner usually buys at the 19th hole. Just good old friendly competition and trash talk.
We usually throw in a longest drive and a closest to the pin just for SAG.

What say you, ball strikers of the forum ?
Click to expand...

I've played a lot of skins with the guys, usually 50 cents a hole. Can't lose much which makes my geezer friends happy. When we play team four ball matches, we bet a $1 each side and a $1 overall. It's more about bragging rights than the money.
 
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