PGA / LPGA / personal golf

[MagpieRacer]

Very sad news from the world of golf today.



Condolences to the family of Grayson.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Mediocre 49 over 8 holes today. Some silly misplaced shots and some silly putts but otherwise the ball striking was good. New 3 wood in the nag replacing my cheap and worn marketplace Cobra. Now have a Callaway Rogue ST Max with stiff shaft, very nice club.

 

[MagpieRacer]

 

[Omnis]

A bit on the heels there, Ash, but looking good man.

 

[MagpieRacer]

A bit on the heels there, Ash, but looking good man.

Thanks mate. Yeah it's interesting, I hadn't noticed being on the heel a bit until watching those back, something to work on.

New 3 wood is performing very well, I've made another switch at the top of the bag, I liked the Paradym X 4 hybrid I had but it was doing the exact same job I could do with my 4 iron, the AI Smoke 4 iron is quite a strong lofted-high launching club which I can shape a bit, distance was more or less identical to the 4H and all the characteristics were the same. Difference being I could hit the 4 iron a lot more consistently.

So 4 Hybrid out, 5 wood in. Tried the Rogue ST Max 5 wood to match the 3 wood and didn't enjoy it as much as the 3, tried a Sim2 Max which I didn't like and even tried a Stealth 2 Rescue 2H (17°) and it was not confidence inspiring, although it felt good when making good connection.

The stand out 5 wood from testing was a Mizuno ST-X 220. Lovely head shape, beautiful feel and could hit it incredibly consistently. Importantly it filled the yardage gap between my 3 wood and 4 iron. So that's now in the bag. Has a Mitsubishi Kai'li blue 60g stiff shaft.

Also undergone a driver shaft change, struggling with the lightweight stiff shaft setup (had a Project X HZRDUS Silver 50g), I've now gone to a heavier regular shaft, should see a good distance gain and a much more controlled swing. Gone for a 75g Project X Even Flow 5.5.


Have some good rounds lined up over the next month or so as well. Won a voucher for a 4 ball at a local championship course, Dunston Hall, so heading there with my brothers and a friend on the 28th. Been invited to another challenging championship course, Barnham Broom Valley, with an as yet undecided date and I plan to play a course this week that has hosted Clutch Tour events, Wensum Valley - Wensum Course, holes 13 to 18 are set out across a river, lots of water hazards and an island green. Brother in law is also buying me a round at a course of my choosing so will be playing Caister Golf Club which will be my first true links experience.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Take a bow Bryson. What a week he has had, an incredible up and down on the last after pulling his tee shot out to no man's land. A popular winner and a deserving winner on what has been an incredibly tough US Open.

Feel so bad for Rory, actually shot 2 better than Bryson in round 4, started 3 back and had an amazing chance but some poor putting near the end has cost him dearly.

 

[Omnis]

That was the best Golf tournament I've watched in a long time. US Open at Pinehurst is hard to beat. So much more exciting than Snorehalla. Super stoked for Bryson. Love that guy and I hope a PIF-Tour resolution happens soon that allows the LIV and PGAT players to compete with each other more often.

 

[Fezzik]

3 bogeys in the last 4 holes here, in his best chance for a while to win a title.
Rory's a major choker rather than a major winner.

 

[MagpieRacer]

3 bogeys in the last 4 holes here, in his best chance for a while to win a title.
Rory's a major choker rather than a major winner.

I think this one can definitely go down as a choke. Other times he's just been outdone by players putting together world class rounds. But yeah thus was a choke, as much as it pains me to say it.

 

[Omnis]

Dude just filed a divorce and then unfiled it. And has been super aggressively snarky for the past 2 years with this whole LIV thing. He’s taking a month off and really needs to.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Hea gonna win The Open.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Played a beautiful course on Monday just gone. Great Yarmouth & Caister in Norfolk (UK). Coastal course offering links experience with a blend of heathland as well. Quite unique in that it weaves around a horse racecourse, which is considered GUR and offers a free drop should you land in it.

The first 10 holes were quite heathy, with some challenging tee shots, particularly the 1st hole which sees you teeing over the racecourse to a small fairway area before going across the racecourse again. The 5th has a blind dog leg tee short with the racecourse down the right and no visible fairway to aim for. The front 9 consisted of 8 par 4s and 1 par 3.

Once you reach the 11th, the course opens up away from the racecourse with holes running parallel to the sand dunes on the beach, 11 being the signature hole with a classic links Valley style. Some even more challenging tee shots with a par 3 (12th) that has to almost entirely carry a Valley of heath and gorse to a small green (landed it on the surface with an 8 iron) and the 16th, again with no fairway visible from the tee, tee box set back with houses and gardens to 2 sides and a 200 yard carry over Heather and gorse (even from the yellow tees). 17 and 18 change character completely with a sheltered parkland vibe in the trees. Back 9 featured 3 par 3 holes and 2 par 5s offering a very different feel to the front 9.

Played in beautiful conditions, 27 Celsius (80 farenheit) with the sea breeze offering some respite.

Shot a 94 which I was delighted with considering I'd never played the course before, I hadn't played for 2 weeks (apart from a couple of driving range sessions) and had never played links golf before either. 5 pars on the card, 3 of which were on the par 3 holes highlighting that I struck my iron hits very well.

2nd shot on the 1st going over the racecourse.

View from the 11th tee.

Looking toward the see from the 12th.

The view back up the 11th.

One of the sleepered bunkers. Got up and down from this for a double bogey.

View from the 16th tee, very little to aim at.

 

[lilcat89]

Nice job breaking 100! Course looked very nice too. I haven't played since last month and I'm itching to get back out.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Played a fair bit of golf the past couple weeks, had some fun range sessions as well. The week I played the links course above, I also played a championship parkland course, I had played it before in October last year when it was wet, so was nice to play it in dry and warm conditions. I also won the round on social media so took my brother in law and his friend as well and we had a cracking day of golf.

Challenging course in the dry, lots of undulations in the fairways, some pretty big bunkers, but a really good mix of holes, from a 115 yard Par 3 to a 560 yard Par 5, driveable par 4, uphill holes, downhill holes, left and right doglegs. I shot 105 and was a long way from my best striking, back to back 9s on the 15th and 16th killed any hope of breaking 100. On the plus side, nearly drove 2 Par 4 greens, one is a 301 yard hole, caught it well with a good bounce, ended up in a deep bunker next to the green but pin high. Then hit a 3 wood on the 246 yard 8th hole, came up about 20 yards short.
This is the green on the 16th, protected by water, which I found twice, hence a 9.

Then last Monday I played a new course to me, Norfolk Premier Golf, fun little course, not overly long (2348 yards off the silver/yellow tees, 9 hole), quite an open course but with a lot of very long rough which is almost an instant lost ball if you go there. Almost drove the 268 yard par 4 3rd hole, hit a bit of a pull so was pin high again but 20 yards to the left of the green. OVerall played very well and shot my best 9 hole score in strokes and to par, 41, +7. Signed off the round with a nice birdie on a 139 yard par 3, leaving a pitching wedge just 5 foot short of the pin.
Nice view from the 3rd green looking down the 4th.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Interesting choice, a big middle finger back to ZJ too.

 

[Omnis]

This one's for you and me both, @MagpieRacer

Also, big congrats to Xander for winning 2 majors in a season. You had to expect he would have success with how awesome his swing is. He just needed to sort out his clutch putting that lost him the Players.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Working on getting my setup right, starting to get the feet and shoulders in a better position. First pic is all wrong, 2nd is tonight's range session, much squarer and was hitting much straight instead of everything going left.

 

[Joey D]

Chi Chi Rodriguez has passed away at 88.

Hall of Fame golfer 'Chi Chi' Rodriguez dies at 88

Juan "Chi Chi" Rodriguez, whose antics on the greens and inspiring life story made him among the sport's most popular players during a long professional career, died Thursday.

www.espn.com

 

[MagpieRacer]

What's in the bag. Courtesy of SMS_on_Tour on Instagram.

Shot 96 the other day at Wensum Valley in Norfolk. Solid round, drove well with the new Qi10 Max driver. Short game wasn't great, which is annoying as it's usually pretty good but I guess I can't have driving and short game working together 😅🤣.

 

[Omnis]

Today I went down to the Miami Mad Scramble but unfortunately it got cancelled at the last minute because of rain and course conditions. Still got a bunch of cool swag though. They decided to host a little party at Top Golf instead but I couldn't go. Driving to Hialeah and Doral is like entering the 4th circle of hell. City planning by Asmodeus himself. Next time I'm driving up to Orlando instead. They played Rio Pinar.

 

[Omnis]

Snagged a whole set of irons and wedges. A nice set of 7-AW Srixon ZX5s, with ZX4s from 4-6, and 2 CBX2 wedges in 54 and 58. Now I have at least 4 complete sets of clubs and a true problem. But at least I can supply a foursome all on my own lol. The plan is to bring these up to my dad's so I don't have to bring my own clubs up to palm beach when I visit. I'll have to see if these Srixies treat me better than my ol' Callys though. They're standard length and lie, regular flex Modus 105s, so they should work great for pops if I want to bring my own clubs up anyway.

 

[Omnis]

Well, over the weekend I drove up to spend the weekend at my dad's and today I took my dad to the golf course for the first time ever as father and son, lol. He really enjoyed it. He hasn't played in at least 25 years, so he was super stoked on the clubs and was shocked at how massive the drivers are now We just did the driving range together and then I played 18 by myself since I didn't want him to hurt his back or do anything too strenuous while he gets back into the swing of things.

I got paired with 3 old Canadian ladies who were really nice and actually super good. I was glad that I didn't bring my dad, though, because the course was HARD. Seriously hard. Greens were insanely fast (the fringes there were the equivalent of the way the greens are kept around here). The turf was super firm bermuda and a lot of the grass was going dormant because of our first cold snap that rolled in this week. Golf in Palm Beach is on a whole 'nother level of difficulty compared to your local muni. There are just MASSIVE swathes of land up there that are dedicated to golf. This one country club had 3 9-hole courses that were each bigger than any of the 18-hole parkland/gardens or housing development courses back home. They use gas carts because you have to drive like a whole kilometer to get to the first tee of one of them. Look at this crap:

There were at least 2-3 holes per 9 with 200-yard forced carries off the tee. If you want to bail out, they give you like a 20-yard wide strip of grass and cart path to lay up. The first hole of the day was the hardest handicap index of the entire club lol. Two massive forced carries like this in a row. Luckily, I hit my first ball near some houses just 20-30 feet away from my tee box on the other side of the start of the water. Grass was super high, but it was dry so I went to check it out while the ladies teed off. I wound up finding like 8 really nice golf balls that people just didn't bother to go look for, all on that opposite bank of the water . Lost at least 5 balls on the course, so it was the golf gods saying, "Here, take these."

My driver was trash but the Heavenwood, scoring irons, and wedges were chef's kiss good. I almost holed out from 110ish yards. Got a perfect nip right off the turf with the approach wedge. It hit about a foot away from the hole and bounced into the pin-- almost dunked. Hit a couple of rippers with the low-bounce 60deg, got some crazy backspin on a few. Picking the ball off of flat, firm, dry turf is the best. You really feel like a pro when you hit a great shot off a perfect lie in conditions like that.

Anyway, look how insane this is:

The teebox is wayyyyy left of frame. And you have to land it in the corner or else you're hitting out of the palm trees if you don't land in the water.

Here's some other pics that show how ridiculously long this course is:

Again, tee boxes wayyy back behind the water. Palm Beach is crazy. Can't even imagine some of the private places.