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All Golf All The Time, 3.0

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by ken2v, Jan 20, 2016.

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  1. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    After falling to the second page and getting a little long-winded, let's start a new thread with this:

    IMG_1280.jpg

    Hmmm, sideways.

    Anyway, yes, we took gross and net, but they wouldn't give us net. Something about participation ribbons or what not. Badds was a great dude, too.

    CareerBuilder Challenge, PGA West TPC Stadium Course, Eisenhower Bob Hope Legacy Pro-Am
     
  2. Snidely

    Snidely VIP Whale

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    Awesome! That must have been a great time!
     
  3. jphelan

    jphelan Tourist

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    I was in Florida last week and got to play Tiberon (Black) and the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course. Tiberon was "free" as part of a conference I attended and SawGrass was a gift from my wife (what a wonderful woman!). Both places were amazing!

    Tiberon was tight but fair an remarkable for its waste bunkers which also served as cart paths - not easy to hit out of!

    Sawgrass was suffering a little more from the affects of being 200+ miles further north but still in great shape. I stayed out of the water on 17 but caught the small trap in front of the green.

    This weekend I will be off to Vegas and has a tee time for Reflection Bay on Wednesday - only $95 this time of year!
     
  4. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    I thought Sawgrass was a kick. I gagged the front but shot a 40 on the back with a triple on 10 and a three-jack bogey on 17. TV just doesn't catch the severity of those tiers. Have fun at RB. I played it right after the re-opening. Still a great routing.
     
  5. Malibugolfer

    Malibugolfer High-Roller

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    Maybe something to do with the amateur's index?
     
  6. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    lol I believe we hoofed around Sandpiper together.

    Ain't no Billy Walters in that group.

    It was funny, though, that with five or so to go, three tourney guys came out in cards and followed us the rest of the way. That was right about when I laid the sod over three or four successive shots and Munsoned a drive. I guess that happened with one or two other groups who'd separated themselves from the pack -- the goons if not the soddery and snappery. What helped our cause was not a single bogey on the card. Ham/Egg Supreme.

    BTW, Mike, I might be hitting you up to join in some desert golf soon. Stay tuned.
     
  7. Malibugolfer

    Malibugolfer High-Roller

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    That's really funny and really understandable.
    I haven't been down there this year and am leaving for a 2 week cruise this week with no golf.
    I so much need to play there and would love to meet up after I get back.
    I do know you are usually on the move but I'd love it.
     
  8. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    Was going to save this for my impending trip report, but its getting a tad long winded and could be awhile, so here is the roundup of my week of Vegas golf:

    Paiute Sun Mountain: 99 in a cold, windy day, and I had to rally for the 99. Could not hit a thing on the front. On the back had a bogey parade. Fast greens, beautiful course, but a little bumpiness on the greens

    Primm Valley Lakes: My only semi-respectable score, at 87. Really liked the layout and it is my style of course. Wide open but still challenging. But it played soft with very slow greens, which helped me get away with a LOT of up and downs. Became a fun game. Hit the ball somewhere bad, then chip it to 1-2 feet.

    Reflection Bay: Random playing partners from each of the first two days recommended this one, and it is beautiful and in no way a desert course. I gather it was closed awhile and is just starting to come back. I could have done without the green dye they had in places, but still this one was pretty nice. They could really use GPS carts or at least yardage books, as there are holes you need to think your way around. Shot a 95, similar to the first day doing terribly on the front, and rallying on the back. Lightning fast greens the day after slow ones, and lots of short grass around them, making them tough to hold and the chipping lies tight. Had a chip in par, and my first birdie of the trip on the back.

    Paiute Wolf: Really loved this course. But the par 3 that should be the biggest signature on the back had the green in the worst shape. I continued to struggle off the tee, but again a rally on the back 9 (42 this time) helped, and brought me back to 90 for the round.

    For the week, I mostly hit the ball like crap. I run hot / cold off the tee and this was a cold week. But I was also mostly cold with my approach clubs, too. The better scores reflect mainly places where I did a good job of scrambling, and where the errant tee shots did not result in penalty strokes.
     
  9. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Have a GREAT cruise. M and I will speak ill/well of you teeing up in the desert next week. :) I'm thinking about re-upping on that Sandpiper deal if y'all want to give that another go or three in '16. It includes RSM, too, which thankfully owing to El Nino actually has grass again. Probably be back in the desert in March. Lanai and a few other islands in May.
     
  10. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Ain't that the way it is with this fucking game?! And we continue to play it, why ...

    Man I CAN'T wait until my next round!!!

    We had lunch at Desert Willow on Saturday, where you overlook 9 and 18 of Firecliff. We must've watched eight groups on each, a pretty good sampling size, and mustering my best tower announcer guise was let saying over and over and over, "Man, most really really suck at this endeavor." On Thursday I followed Badds for five or six rounds. One of his am playing partners did not get a shot much more than two yards airborne that entire time. Poor bastard. I mean, hey, I'm no Fowler, and I'm a 13/14 for a reason. Like you, it's too much Hyde and not enough Jekyll. But I just don't get the guys with the vanity handicaps. Wow.

    That's a great run of courses, some of my faves. Glad you got out. Glad you shared. That 42 sounds bueno, too!
     
  11. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    42 was my front 9 at Primm, too, I think. That's in theory about where I 'should be' shooting. But truth be told, I only tend to hit that type of mark consistently when I'm making it out twice a week for extended periods. The bad hitting gets annoying because I mostly know exactly what is going wrong, and still can't correct it. I'll be midway through my backswing and already know its a bad shot.


    As for the course selection, you get most of the credit. Primm and Paiute were recommendations I got from you a few years ago researching Vegas golf, and have been on my to-do this. Reflection Bay was an audible based on recommendations from playing partners, and because the bargain rate we thought we could get for TPC Las Vegas, we could not get.
     
  12. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    We should play "to our handicap" only about 20 percent of the time.

    My GIR number is pretty high for a mid-'capper, which says I like my irons. I still go yard too often off the tee and my less-than-wedge play is atrocious. But I putt well -- but that's more a function of dropping a good number of 10-15 footers, not three-putt avoidance. Add it all up ... and I'm just another hacker on the grass!
     
  13. Rush

    Rush MIA

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    The USGA handicap system is a joke. It's the single reason I don't play in sanctioned events anymore. I have never seen an event where tons of guys who claim to be 18 handicaps shoot 78-75 over the event.

    You bowl in events, and you don't get to use "open bowling" scores for your average, yet that's how gold is.

    Now, I only golf with my "group" of a dozen or so guys, and we all know what we "average", so the game is far more fair.
     
  14. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    I'm often critical of the USGA -- though I write for two of its sections -- and I've been ripping the org for the new no-solo-round-posting restriction, but the system is not a joke, cheaters are the joke. The problem is, policing lower-tiered sanctioned events is harder than, say, the AT&T; Billy Walters was famously and unceremoniously run out of the latter not that long ago. But it is an issue. I don't play many events because I don't really care. Like you, my golf is social, it's about being out. Now my neighbor and golf bud can't get enough tourney play. Ringers and sandbaggers? I avoid them by not doing many events. I can't fathom doing it but many golfers do; hopefully they find a hell of 7.5 hour rounds on burned out 9-hole goat patches.

    Your group is more "fair" because you have an intimate and finite peer review lacking in the much larger numbers that the USGA/R&A tout as being the backbone of the handicap system. Obviously our game of supposed honor is replete with folks who are not honorable.

    Anyway, I don't fault you for saying no thanks. Not at all.
     
  15. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    Yeah, I have not bothered much with handicap since my last club membership years ago. Club tournaments were the only places I ever really used it. Never really cared about sanctioned tournaments elsewhere. Nowadays any tournament I go to is usually a bar or charity scramble with no handicap limitations. Want to bring a super team? Go ahead, you are picking from the same prize table as the rest of us.

    Among our golf trip crowd, we tend to use a 'secret holes' method stolen from a men's league we used to play in, mainly because half the guys don't play enough to have an accurate handicap anyway, and even those who do don't bother tracking it. A good system, but mainly because there is no real money on the line. Slightly biased towards better players, and also biased to boom/bust play vs consistency.
     
  16. Malibugolfer

    Malibugolfer High-Roller

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    You really picked the good ones to play.
    Momma said there'd be days like that.
    Shadow has used the dye also.
    We'll all get together when I get6 back Ken.
     
  17. Rush

    Rush MIA

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    I'm the Handicap Committee Chairman at my course, and it's unreal how many guys we need to "adjust". They gripe about the 95 they shot earlier in the week, and I remind them that their lowest 4 scores over the last two years are ALL tournament scores!

    We pretty much just give the smell test now. If they don't like it, don't play.
     
  18. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    I don't envy you, Rush. All that for a POS trophy or a 10th driver that joins the others in the closet for being other than the magic bullet? Bragging rights when everyone else knows you're a lying sack of shit?

    I had a funny experience a year or two back. I tossed up a high 70s round and when I went to enter it on the computer it was rejected several times saying as how it was beyond the statistical probability for a player of my ability. lol
     
  19. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    Yeah, I didn't really notice the dye until I helped my playing partner fetch a ball from a stream and ended up with a green hand and pants leg. Not a huge deal but I'd just as soon they didn't bother. Primm was mostly yellow and brown and I still enjoyed it.
     
  20. Malibugolfer

    Malibugolfer High-Roller

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    I know Shadow was dye, you do want to make sure it's not fungicide, which is also green and stains. Nasty stuff.
     
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