date: 6/8/07
course: newman
holes: 17 (lots of lightning on 18)
score: 55-46-101 (not counting 18)
avg putts: 2.4
fairways: 2/14
greens: 2 (3-putted both for bogeys)
avg over par: 1.94 (almost double bogey golf)
interesting wildlife: geese galore
j. diggz and i decided to go out together friday afternoon. we played skins and i gave him a stroke a hole. he won 10-7, because i played like i had my left thumb chopped off.
i tripled number 1 (again) after hitting out of the mud in the stream. i decided that the ball was playable, and i did manage to get it out of there, but not that far and not without splattering mud all the way up to my face. my clothes looked like i had been run over by an atv.
so of course on the next hole i holed a 50-foot chip from the rough to make par. this is what is so frustrating about golf. you play like absolute crap, and then you hit a shot so amazing that it makes you want to keep playing. THEN every shot you make after that one is disappointing, and the cycle begins anew until the next great stroke.
this became immediately evident when i 4-putted the next hole for a quad. i racked up 6 triples out of the 17 holes, only half of which were 3-putts. it seems like i have more to work on than just my putting.
on number 15, i hit a shot that went way right of the green pin high. as i went to get back in the cart (yes, diggz sprung for a cart), my shoe felt all funny. i looked down and to my dismay, the hard rubber outer sole containing the spikes had almost completely separated from the inner sole of the shoe. and i was walking around like a hobo that you might see in a cartoon. i had to goose-step to walk at all without completely wrecking the shoes, so i had to play the rest of the hole and the next 2 holes with one shoe. the next three holes were triple double double. now, i'm not blaming the shoes, it's just an example of how mental golf is. something disrupts your game and it all goes down the toilet.
we joined up with a dude named john on number 13, and luckily he was just as bad as us. that's the thing about getting paired up with people. you want them to be maybe only just a little better or a little worse than you. if they're really good, you'll slow them down like crazy. if they're really bad, well, you'll be out there forever. on the other hand, if they're slightly better than you, you can watch them and maybe glean some tips. and if they're slightly worse, then it makes you feel better about your game. ("well, at least i can putt better than THAT guy!")
my finish was disappointing, since i had a tee time the next morning with bob, geoff, and conor (who once shot a 74), and i didn't want to look like a total schmuck. i figured, bad dress rehearsal, good show. well, the next post should tell you how that turned out.
also, that night, i superglued my left shoe back together.
quota league
date: 6/4/07 (again)
course: newman (again)
holes: 9
score: an abysmal 54
putts, etc: didn't keep track, but lots of 3-putts.
interesting wildlife: i saw two bunnies chase each other into a bush. then all of a sudden there was this huge commotion in the bush. after the initial noise, a pretty pissed-off looking duck flew out, leaving the bunnies to their business.
on mondays, ithaca municipal has what they call a "quota league". in this league, in which anyone can play, you pay $10 up front, then you are assigned a number of "points" to make based on your handicap.
birdies: 4
pars: 2
bogeys: 1
if you make your points, you're in the money. depending how many people make their points, and how many points you make, the pot is divided.
there are also skins, meaning whoever has the lowest score on a certain hole (also handicapped) gets a certain payout.
so after hitting 47 from the red tees (not the ladies tees, mind. newman has two sets of tee boxes, red and blue, for the front and back 9) that morning (making what would have been 8 points, actually), i was pretty confident.
yeah. so i get out there and i fricking kill a drive on the first hole (my least favorite hole) and i'm like. yes. this is going to be awesome. well, so much for that. after making a generous snowman on the first hole (i hate that fucker), i lost 2 balls (4 penalty strokes total), doubling and tripling my way around the course.
also, on hole number 8, after i had already sent one to play ping pong amongst the towering aspens, i did something amazing. i topped my second drive, sending it flying about 6 inches off the ground towards the blue tee marker. it hit it square, then bounced the ball back BEHIND the tee! i hit a negative yardage drive! i then proceeded (after moving the ballwasher and bench out of my way) to cream a 3-wood 235 yards, get on the green on my next shot, and two-putt. long story short, if not for the woods (2) and remarkable negative drive (1), i would have had a par. instead, an unlucky 7. so it goes.
i ended up earning 3 points, the only good thing about which is that next week i will have to earn even less points to be in the money. i hope they don't think i sandbagged them if i play a decent round. also, maybe next week i won't play 18 holes the morning before league play... maybe.
course: newman (again)
holes: 9
score: an abysmal 54
putts, etc: didn't keep track, but lots of 3-putts.
interesting wildlife: i saw two bunnies chase each other into a bush. then all of a sudden there was this huge commotion in the bush. after the initial noise, a pretty pissed-off looking duck flew out, leaving the bunnies to their business.
on mondays, ithaca municipal has what they call a "quota league". in this league, in which anyone can play, you pay $10 up front, then you are assigned a number of "points" to make based on your handicap.
birdies: 4
pars: 2
bogeys: 1
if you make your points, you're in the money. depending how many people make their points, and how many points you make, the pot is divided.
there are also skins, meaning whoever has the lowest score on a certain hole (also handicapped) gets a certain payout.
so after hitting 47 from the red tees (not the ladies tees, mind. newman has two sets of tee boxes, red and blue, for the front and back 9) that morning (making what would have been 8 points, actually), i was pretty confident.
yeah. so i get out there and i fricking kill a drive on the first hole (my least favorite hole) and i'm like. yes. this is going to be awesome. well, so much for that. after making a generous snowman on the first hole (i hate that fucker), i lost 2 balls (4 penalty strokes total), doubling and tripling my way around the course.
also, on hole number 8, after i had already sent one to play ping pong amongst the towering aspens, i did something amazing. i topped my second drive, sending it flying about 6 inches off the ground towards the blue tee marker. it hit it square, then bounced the ball back BEHIND the tee! i hit a negative yardage drive! i then proceeded (after moving the ballwasher and bench out of my way) to cream a 3-wood 235 yards, get on the green on my next shot, and two-putt. long story short, if not for the woods (2) and remarkable negative drive (1), i would have had a par. instead, an unlucky 7. so it goes.
i ended up earning 3 points, the only good thing about which is that next week i will have to earn even less points to be in the money. i hope they don't think i sandbagged them if i play a decent round. also, maybe next week i won't play 18 holes the morning before league play... maybe.
morning thunder
date: 6/4/07
course: Newman Municipal Golf Club, Ithaca, NY
rating: 35 (9 holes)
slope: 113
holes: 18
score: 47-49: 96
avg. putts: 2.05 (wow, only 2 3-putts? this is very odd)
fairways: 2/14
greens in regulation: 3
interesting wildlife: tons of geese.
average over par: 1.33
to clarify: fairways means drives that landed in the fairway, not counting par 3's.
GiR is greens in 2 for a par 4 (1 for a par 3 and 3 for a par 5). it basically means you're putting for birdie.
i was spoiled by a student membership to the robert trent jones course at cornell (cornell's official course, wide fairways, well maintained grass, nice place altogether). i could go and play whenever i wanted for all for the price of the membership. no pressure to finish 9 or 18, just play when you can. this is nice, especially considering that i do have, you know, work to do.
so when the semester ended i bought the student membership from the ithaca municipal course. it's only 9 holes, but they move the tee boxes around so that it's sort of like playing 18, strategy-wise.
anyway, i set off at like 7:30 am. (this should prove to you how much golf has affected my life.) started off with a triple on the first hole (i hate the first hole), but played a really good round all throughout. i finished at about 10:15, a breakneck pace.
while i'm pleased that i broke 100, i feel like all the 2-putting really saved me (and was a bit of a fluke). now if i could only get to the green in less than par.
one note: they had added a wetting agent to the greens, so all during my round, the sprinklers were on on the greens. while this may seem like an obstacle, (and indeed, the hose leading to the sprinkler was a physical obstacle) it may have helped my putting game. while i waited for the sprinkler to make its rounds, putting in between revolutions, i took time to look at the slope, gauge distance, etc. then when i actually had to putt, i had to do it quickly, so i didn't have time to think too much about it. maybe i should pretend there's a sprinkler there all the time?
course: Newman Municipal Golf Club, Ithaca, NY
rating: 35 (9 holes)
slope: 113
holes: 18
score: 47-49: 96
avg. putts: 2.05 (wow, only 2 3-putts? this is very odd)
fairways: 2/14
greens in regulation: 3
interesting wildlife: tons of geese.
average over par: 1.33
to clarify: fairways means drives that landed in the fairway, not counting par 3's.
GiR is greens in 2 for a par 4 (1 for a par 3 and 3 for a par 5). it basically means you're putting for birdie.
i was spoiled by a student membership to the robert trent jones course at cornell (cornell's official course, wide fairways, well maintained grass, nice place altogether). i could go and play whenever i wanted for all for the price of the membership. no pressure to finish 9 or 18, just play when you can. this is nice, especially considering that i do have, you know, work to do.
so when the semester ended i bought the student membership from the ithaca municipal course. it's only 9 holes, but they move the tee boxes around so that it's sort of like playing 18, strategy-wise.
anyway, i set off at like 7:30 am. (this should prove to you how much golf has affected my life.) started off with a triple on the first hole (i hate the first hole), but played a really good round all throughout. i finished at about 10:15, a breakneck pace.
while i'm pleased that i broke 100, i feel like all the 2-putting really saved me (and was a bit of a fluke). now if i could only get to the green in less than par.
one note: they had added a wetting agent to the greens, so all during my round, the sprinklers were on on the greens. while this may seem like an obstacle, (and indeed, the hose leading to the sprinkler was a physical obstacle) it may have helped my putting game. while i waited for the sprinkler to make its rounds, putting in between revolutions, i took time to look at the slope, gauge distance, etc. then when i actually had to putt, i had to do it quickly, so i didn't have time to think too much about it. maybe i should pretend there's a sprinkler there all the time?
golflog: it's a palindrome.
like a full moon to a werewolf, for me warm weather is the harbinger of a dangerous addiction. it consumes my thoughts, time, money, and energy until the first snowfall.
golf.
i love to play, and it's good exercise, i'm just not that good at it. so the other day in the car on the way back to ithaca from pennsylvania, i decided to take a more, shall we say, scientific approach to this black art. i'll be using this blog to document scores, putts, fairways, greens in regulation, interesting wildlife, and anything i might break along the way. i'll also pepper it with "interesting" anecdotes from my golfing experience.
at the end of the day, the person who will likely enjoy reading this the most is me, much like my personal blog. but whatever.
see you at the turn!
golf.
i love to play, and it's good exercise, i'm just not that good at it. so the other day in the car on the way back to ithaca from pennsylvania, i decided to take a more, shall we say, scientific approach to this black art. i'll be using this blog to document scores, putts, fairways, greens in regulation, interesting wildlife, and anything i might break along the way. i'll also pepper it with "interesting" anecdotes from my golfing experience.
at the end of the day, the person who will likely enjoy reading this the most is me, much like my personal blog. but whatever.
see you at the turn!
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