I was there in April and played at a place called The Tradition a few miles outside Charlotte. Interesting course

_________________

Interesting. I'll be up in the North/Northwest part near Lake Norman so there are a few places up there she has picked out for us. I really would like to go down and do some bucket list courses
sometime but it won't be this year and likely not with my mom. I don't think she has any interest in paying big money to play courses like that. I'd like to play Pinehurst, Tobacco Road, and I would
love to go back to play Mid-Pines and Pine Needles where I played 25 years ago for Juco national championships. Lots of nice tracks down that way.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Have fun, TBone. I would think traveling with golf clubs would be positively annoying.

Hit the ball decent at the outing last week. Not as well as the 77 two days previous, but well enough that we used almost all of my drives and four approach shots on the back 9. We shot 65 as a team and just could not sink any putts longer than about 4'. We also had a bogey which is tough to do in a scramble, but somehow we managed. I was about 6 paces off of winning the long drive, which from the tee I figured I had basically zero shot at but struck my best drive of the day obviously. At the banquet I found out that a woman had won it (from the forward tee, young college chic. Schwing!) so knowing that I hit it further and straighter than any guy who played was nice. A rangefinder from where my ball was back to the ball washer at the tee said it was a 289 yard drive. The winning team said they shot 56 to which I called shenannigans.

Playing Friday morning at Lincoln Oaks in Crete. Might get out for twilight nine holes on the 4th, but thats 50-50 at best.

Should be pretty decent weather up here almost all weekend, so get out and enjoy if you can.

_________________

I took them to Sarasota last spring in a new travel bag to play Streamsong. I wouldn’t do it for one round again but I’d do it for 3 rounds or more. The travel bag stands on its own and is easy enough to use. I don’t have a group I travel with for a regular guys trip anymore.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Weather looking good again this weekend so hope you guys are getting out. I have been playing well lately but it has been the tale of two nines and can't put two together back to back. Had a nice trip to NC to visit with my mother and we got to play twice. Was fun to get the old sticks out but very happy I don't play blade irons any more. I took a closer look at them and they aren't in nearly the shape I believed they were in my mind. A lot of chatter on them but still confident I could get $175 for them from the right buyer. I'll keep them at my mom's to save me the trouble of travelling with clubs for another season.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Have a 27 hole event at my club Saturday. 9 scramble, 9 best ball and 9 alternate shot. Should be fun.

Bought a Toulon Las Vegas on eBay, the 2020 model with the flow neck and have been working that into the bag.

Handicap down to a 1.3 so I’ll be playing with zero pops in the event, partner is down to a 5.6 so hopefully we can capitalize on the holes he’s popping.

Only supposed to be 82 here so should be a great day.

Best of luck QC Dope. That is definitely an interesting format but one you can capitalize on if both of you guys are firing on all cylinders.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

How did this event turn out for you QC?

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Beautiful weather this past weekend for golf in SE Wisconsin. I really was playing well and this weekend I developed a two way miss off the tee and lost all confidence. I lost 5 balls just on tee shots yesterday. If I wouldn't have been a scramble machine I would have put up some really big numbers. Funny how quickly something that has been close to automatic this season can go away.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

+1 on the weather. It was spectacular all weekend.

Played twilite on Saturday at Silver Lake north course. Really was in good shape, and twilite golf with the long shadows, usually less people, wildlife coming about, etc is all just awesome. I shot a 44 on the front with two missed putts from inside of 4'. Chipped very well all day, several to within tap in distance. Had beer in my bag and the wheels kinda fell off on the back 9 mainly due to the alcohol. Shot a 50 on the back. Had I been sober I'm certain I would have had a shot to break 90.

But yeah really just a wonderful afternoon for golf. Great to be out in mid-Julie with little to no humidity.

_________________

Speaking of wildlife, we get a lot out by my courses and we are next to a nature preserve/park. See a lot of cranes, fox, hawks, deer, you name it. Yesterday we pulled around a curve on #3 and as I was getting out of the cart we saw a masked face pop out from around a tree. It was a mother raccoon with 4 young babies. One of the little ones jumped down from the tree and took off. The mother went after it and corralled it back to the tree where we saw three other little ones climbing in the branches. It was one of the best things I've seen in a while. We got relatively close to them but the mother was obviously worried and scared so we gave her some room to get her little ones up in the tree and we went on our way.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

That's funny because the opposite happened to me this weekend. I've been struggling to hit solid iron shots, but this past weekend I was hitting them solid. I've been mired in rounds of 83-85. Finally broke out of that with an 81 on Sunday (two really bad doubles killed my chance to be in the 70's). I think I have a few 78's in my future lol.

_________________

Ended up shooting 1 under, 107. The winners shot 98 and there were about a dozen teams between us. We caught some bad breaks on our last 9 which was the alternate shot. 1st hole, par 5, partner drove it into the trees and I punched out to like 120 yards. He hit a great gap wedge about 5 yards too far and it settled into knee high fescue. Took us three swings to get it on the green from there. Another hole I teed off and smacked the right side of a tree and it kicked left into more trees rather than tumbling to the right into the fairway LIKE IT DOES EVERY OTHER TIME.

It was a long day but we had a lot of fun. We were 4 under in the scramble, 3 under in best ball and 6 over in the alternate shot. My partner made a 4 net 3 on one of the holes he popped on and I made two birdies. We only got 3 pops total so we would have both needed to play flawless in the best ball to make up some ground. For the alternate they had 4 twosomes play together and we were the youngest guys by about 20 -30 years besides another buddy of mine and that was just a blast. There were a lot of high scores in our 8 some on several holes.

I played for the 2nd time this year on Saturday. Only 9 holes and it was a struggle other than a 30 foot birdie putt on #2. I'm hoping to get out again this week.

_________________
"I give you my word as a Biden"

I have completely lost my drive. Zero confidence. Slicing right. Make correction and line drive into a close tree left. Time to break it all the way down.

_________________
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Was happy to get out and golf yesterday. I thought I would be limited with the stitches in my neck but I was able to go all out. Played pretty well and if I could have putted and chipped better I definitely could have gone low. Only 2 out of 7 up and downs from around the green just won't cut it. Still played much better than I was expecting.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I played early Saturday morning at dog track River Oaks. Soggy with slow greens and it was quite muggy out. Started out hitting the ball well, but that didn't last. Shot 48-46, which is pretty ugly after I had put it together for about 3 straight rounds. Was able to get up and down for bogey six times which kept me in double digits. Two steps forward, one back. Such is the life of a weekend warrior on the course I suppose.

_________________

Got out yesterday and was off to a phenomenal start, -2 after 4. I’m playing with a buddy and he asks what I’m going to do with an approach to a par5 I had no business going for. I uttered the idiotic line “ hey I’m playing with house money I’m going for it” Proceeded to double that hole and then the next two. Now I’m +4 and in the bunker with a 25 yard bunker shot on 8. I stick it to a foot and finish front at 40. I managed to birdie 3 holes on the back for a 35. I’ve put together a number of nice 9 hole scores but was just glad I didn’t give up after that front. My game management has been my Achilles heel of late and also not being able to move the ball left to right. I’ve been trying to overpower the toughest holes on my course rather than laying back in position or just taking a par and being happy with it. I have to learn a controlled slice or fade but I hate changing swing in the middle of the round as it tends to linger after I make one kooky swing. That’s golf and why I love it. I put my old putter in the bag after playing with the newer one for the first half. I just can’t seem to get it lined up right. I also went to a cross handed stroke within 6 feet after missing a lot of shorties and it’s been working great. I putt with the stick in so at 6 feet I just need to get the line and cross handing so far gives me the aggressive stroke I need to hit the pin. Anyone else keep the pin in? I know the supposed numbers say you shouldn’t but I only miss 2 or 3 putts a year due to the flag.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Played Saturday and thought we would be in good shape. The radar looked clean after 5:30. Storms kept popping up and we didn't get teed off until maybe 6:15. We were pretty good until the back nine when on #12 we had a pop up come through and we headed to the trees for about 15 minutes. We were all good until the green on #13. I had about a 4 ft putt for birdie and the sky opened up. One of the guys hit their putt and ran to the cart. I should have just left the mark and headed for the cart as well but I decided to try to make it in the pouring rain and missed the entire cup. We drove up to the nearest shelter about 250 yards away and we were drenched. After another 15 minutes we decided to keep going after the rain lightened. The sun came out and we were able to finish up. Anyway everyone was soaked and their grips were wet. I got out my rain gloves and managed to make up the deficit I was down by going birdie, par, birdie. I had a shot on 18 out of the rough to a back tucked pin and sailed the green by 10 feet, bladed my chip back on and then 3 putted for a double. Ended up tying the other two guys I was trying to catch. For as much as I have played this year, that is really the first round where we got rained on significantly. Weather looked like garbage Sunday so I cancelled tee time and of course it didn't rain at all.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Looks like stellar golf weather this weekend. I'll get out both days. Next week looks like I might get out Thursday thru Sunday if the weather works out. Have to go out of town for work for a week that following Monday and will be able to work from home a bit so getting some early golf in shouldn't be an issue. After some hot play a month ago I have come back to earth and have had MANY rounds destroyed by a few bad holes or swings. My goal is to find something I can hit consistently with a left to right movement on it. Found that I could hit a nice fade with my 3 hybrid on the range a few weeks ago but didn't play the course where that shot is needed a lot and I also find that I am worried about double crossing myself. Hopefully can get it figured out. Max Homa had a nice little article in Golf Digest with a tip just for that type shot.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Super hot and steamy out there this morning. Had my best round of the season. Probably two seasons actually. Going to try to play tomorrow morning and dodge some weather before going out of town for work and I won’t play for 12 days so I’m sure anything I found will be lost again

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Nice! Bring your clubs with you to keep it going!

_________________

I cancelled tomorrow. Radar looks pretty awful. Got caught in a storm a few weeks back and it was awful and got soaked. I don’t have time to play on this trip. It’s pretty much work from this Monday through Sunday afternoon everyday, all day. I likely wouldn’t travel with my clubs again unless I’m playing at least 2-3 times.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

So, what did you shoot? 65?

I played Saturday morning and it was just beyond oppressive out there. I walked as well which definitely didn't help. Front 9 I was warm but was able to deal with it. Shot a 43 with two three putts and a chip that I blew about 25' past the hole. Started par-bogey-par-bogey on the back, and then hit a wall. Ended up with a 49 on the back with two 7s and a 5 on a par three as the heat just took everything out of me. Fatigue lead to lazy swings and bad shots. It wasn't until I got home and jumped into my son's kiddie pool that I realized just how poorly I felt and how close I probably was to heat exhaustion. Had a cold, wet towel I kept around my neck at times and had probably 3-4 bottles of water. Still it was just brutal and I don't think I would play with temps and dewpoints that high again. I saw a reported heat index at 106 in nearby Lansing, IL yesterday and I believe it.

Coyote Run was just in just pristine condition. Given that its a public track that gets a fuckton of play and how hot and dry its been, I would challenge anyone to find fairways and greens in better condition. Absolutely tremendous. The rain today is only going to help things there and if anyone has the chance to play that track soon I would do so.

I was pretty upset when I left the course but after some reflections I feel better about the round as the first 13 holes or so were pretty damn solid, and I will just write the last few holes off due to the extreme conditions.

_________________

Shot 33-37 70. I don’t think I broke par for 18 last year. Not my lowest ever but it felt good to hang in there. I’ve had half a dozen nines under par this season but always screw it up elsewhere on the card. I eagled the first hole and birdied #3, also made two more birdies rest of the day to just hang on. Irons and distance control were really good and missed a number of good looks. Never had more than 18 inches to tap anything in.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Sounds like a rough round Frank. Prime example of why I got a membership with a cart this year. I miss walking and I’d probably have lost a lot of weight but it’s so nice not having to keep up with my buddies in their cart and my legs and feet aren’t beat to hell. Seems like you are close to putting it all together.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Its been a fun season. I wasn't going to put up a 77 again on Saturday as my short game was not very crisp, but 10 degrees cooler and I likely would have been low 80s. I do enjoy the walking and do not feel rushed and am able to keep pace most of the time. I generally tend to play better as the game slows down a little for me. Its also nice to get a looksee at a bit of nature or wildlife while on foot. Saturday was just brutal. I haven't felt humidity and dewpoints like that since I was in Jamaica.

_________________

I don’t golf. But as an insurance guy I get sucked into outings. I was at the Broadmoor last week. Just handed out logo’s golf balls on one of the tee boxes. I am at Rich Harvest Farms today. Doing the non-golf option, a Whiskey Tasting in DeKalb at Whiskey acres.

Deni$$$$

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Work scramble today. Hard to imagine, but there are people worse at golf than me. Had one amazing hole and a par 5. Drove one dead straight off the tee, felt like it must have went 275 but in reality probably closer to 260. Borrowed a guy’s hybrid 5 (which I normally never can hit) and picked it clean, swear it went 220. Landed in a greenside bunker, popped it out and then holed a ten foot put for the second easiest birdie of my life. Proceed to slice the next tee shot into the woods naturally.

_________________

Looks like I'll be dodging raindrops again this weekend. Was able to get out on Tuesday after I got back from a week out of town for work and really don't want to miss any more time with what is left of the season so unless it is an obvious washout or electrical storm, I am going to head out and play. I'm guessing no more than 20-25 rounds left this year max. Appears I will fall short of my goal but not much that can be done after the crummy spring. Great time of year to play with the weather cooling just a bit.

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami