I'm back from my golf weekend. We had a great time, and we got very lucky with the weather. Here's a rundown of the rounds:

Round 1: Meadowcreek Golf Course in Charlottesville, VA
Despite having time to warm up, and having a pretty decent range session, I came out of the gate playing horribly. My drive was off, which led to me having to scramble. I ended up with a 111, which is pretty bad even for me.

Round 2: Meadowcreek Golf Course in Charlottesville, VA
After a break for lunch, we headed out for our second round of the day. During the break, I went to the range and hit a few driver shots. I finally relegated myself to shortening my backswing (and losing distance) in exchange for more control. As a result (and, of course, newfound familiarity with the course) I scored a lot better, carding a 103. Interestingly, only two of the four of us improved in this second round, but then again it would have been tough for me to score higher than my 111 after having JUST played the course.

Round 3: Devil's Knob Golf Course at Wintergreen Resort, VA
This is a bear of a course on top of Wintergreen mountain. The fantastic part of it, however, is that it's at 3500 feet, which means cooler temps and NO humidity. The weather was absolutely PERFECT for golf. It also means, however, a ton of dramatic elevation changes on holes.

This course has a history of kicking my butt, so I was not at all unhappy with the 108 I scored. I spent a LOT more time than I normally would have at the driving range, hitting driver after driver to try to figure out what was going wrong. It paid off. Despite an uneven performance at the driving range, my driver shots were much, much more consistent than they have been for a while.

Through the round, I managed to conquer (meaning bogie or better) a couple of holes where I've had to simply give up in the past after getting to double par. I had an extremely rough spot in the first half of the back nine, after getting trapped in a bunker (took double par). This ruined my chance of staying below 105. Unfortunately after that bunker incident it took me several holes to get my head screwed back on so I could play better. While I was waiting for my partners to finish on that hole, however, I spent some time practicing bunker play, and figured out what I've been doing wrong all this time. After that hole, my bunker shots were a LOT better.

While I was hoping for a better score, I was reasonably satisfied, and had the second best score of the day (hard to believe, considering I'm the weakest golfer in our group). One of our guys got so frustrated with his play that he simply stopped keeping score for a little while.

Round 4: Stoney Creek Golf Course at Wintergreen Resort, VA
As round 4 began, we were all a little stiff and sore from our weekend. At the end of the day, though, I had a consistent round on another course that has kicked my tail in the past, carding a 107. My driver shots were the best they've EVER been in a round. I think I only had one bad one the whole day, and that was on the first hole. Our scores were not helped by a 30 minute rain/lightning delay. Our foursome scored 105, 106, 107, and 108 for this round. I was pretty happy with my standing there, since all three of those guys were in the mid-90s for our first round of the weekend.

Takeaways:

-I played well on a handful of holes on the Wintergreen courses that have kicked my butt in the past

-I managed to get very consistent with my driver, hitting the ball straight and generally about 215-225. I can live with this, and will score quite well at my home courses (which are easier than the Wintergreen courses) if I can keep it up.

-My bunker play improved due to one total blowup that led me to have a minor epiphany.

-My chipping was good all weekend, and I had a chip-in for bogie on the 10th hole on Sunday.

-I found that despite being tired and stiff, my play actually improved as the weekend went on, while my playing partners' scores got higher.

-Putting really killed all of us. The Meadowcreek greens weren't fast, but they were inconsistent, making it hard to get into a rhythm. The Wintergreen greens, particularly Devil's Knob, were slopey and very, very fast ... even have the rain on Sunday.

-One thing that killed us all on the Wintergreen courses was the EXTREMELY thick rough. If you ended up there, you basically lost an entire club-length on your next shot, and it was possible you wouldn't even find your ball.

Well, I managed to sneak a little more golf in Sunday. Trust me, i needed it after the weekend I had... enough said.

Well, we only got 14 holes in, got in the 14th so we could card the round.

Well, no warm up, hybrid off the tee, nice iron up to the mountain top green, 30 footer for birdie, and I made it.

It was the start to a good day.
My best rounds ever, have had 2 birdies, i hit 3 birdies today and left 3 others less than a foot away... thats good % considering we only played 14.

I almost had an eagle too, which is kinda funny story, because I was of those guys today, by acident totally... but I stuck my 2nd shot on the par 5 to like 10 feet, while they were on the green.
Whoops, i was 250 out, and on a serious downhill lie, so I was just trying to knock it up there, I called 4 after I noticed I caught it well.
It would have been a great first eagle, I would have remembered it, but I missed by 5-6 inches

Anyways, I had a good round.
65 for 14.
Bogeyed out for my 85 (tie my best)

Lost 2 balls, and cost me with 2 triples, one of them I lost just off the fairway and I think caused the next hole's lost ball from frustration and lack of concentration.

Still 9 over in 14 holes for me is awesome, specially with 6 of them in 2 holes back to back with 2 lost balls.

Wow, a couple of rounds this week, I think I got it back. GIR is through the roof, everything feels great, just need to not LOSE IT or LOSE THE BALl and I'll be golden

I actually got to play golf yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!

Shot a 104 at Crystal Lake in Haverhill, MA. Couldn't hit my driver to save my life, and I should have left it in the bag after 3 or 4 holes, but I was too stubborn. Front nine was frustrating. I joined up with a threesome, just to keep from backing up the course. There was a slow foursome in front of me, so it cut down on my waiting on the tee, and them waiting for me, etc, etc. I hit some good shots, and some really bad ones. Some nice recovery shots from the wayward drives, too.

The back nine was nicer. The 3some I was with was only played nine, and the slow foursome in front of me let me play through on 10. I didn't see another group for the rest of the round. Putter got hot on the back, but everything else went bad.

mjaber wrote:

I actually got to play golf yesterday!!!!!!!!!!! Shot a 104 at Crystal Lake in Haverhill, MA. Couldn't hit my driver to save my life, and I should have left it in the bag after 3 or 4 holes, but I was too stubborn. Front nine was frustrating. I joined up with a threesome, just to keep from backing up the course. There was a slow foursome in front of me, so it cut down on my waiting on the tee, and them waiting for me, etc, etc. I hit some good shots, and some really bad ones. Some nice recovery shots from the wayward drives, too. The back nine was nicer. The 3some I was with was only played nine, and the slow foursome in front of me let me play through on 10. I didn't see another group for the rest of the round. Putter got hot on the back, but everything else went bad.

Dude, finally. Your dry spell was on par (ohhh... no I didn't) with Banker's. Congrats on the decent score after that layoff. Welcome back.

Duke of Hazards wrote:

Dude, finally. Your dry spell was on par (ohhh... no I didn't) with Banker's. Congrats on the decent score after that layoff. Welcome back.

Depending on the wife's plans, I might make it 2 weekends in a row. If she goes out to see her grandmother, I may head over to the Par3 course in Middleton, MA. I normally wouldn't, since their price for 18 is more than I paid for 18 at a par 72, but I got a 1/2 off coupon for my birthday, and that makes it a whole lot more reasonable.

I need to get the swingset up for my daughter, though...

I shot a 100 at Raven Golf Club at Sandestin.I really hate shooting 100 because any one stroke would have broken it.I 3putted the last hole from 26ft to boot.

Considering that I was playing in a gale of 25mph gusting to 35mph because Tropical Storm Debby was sitting right off shore it was not a bad round at all.At least I got the round in with no rain.

Wlked 9 before work today, and it started out good, par double par par then ruined a birdie chance with 2 skulled chips and then went par and then more skulls and eventually ended up crawling off the nine with 48 wanting to beat in my own skull lol

Got to think of the good things, walking nine, awesome weather, cool, clear, not a soul on the course until we got to number 5.

Going to try and walk 9 a couple of times a week.
Funny, the course i walk is the only hilly one in the valley

Miserable 86. Just an awful time on the course. Lame conditions, worse people. I hate this game and everyone who plays it right now.

legitimatebeef wrote:

Miserable 86. Just an awful time on the course. Lame conditions, worse people. I hate this game and everyone who plays it right now.

Have you ever thought of getting away from the most populate city in the country to try to play golf?

srogers13 wrote:

legitimatebeef wrote: Miserable 86. Just an awful time on the course. Lame conditions, worse people. I hate this game and everyone who plays it right now. Have you ever thought of getting away from the most populate city in the country to try to play golf?

It's not practical. Golf is just my hobby, like everyone else I can only put so much time energy and $$ into it. Its just not a good time of the year for golf here--public courses are jam packed with private outings. That severely limits the available time for regular green-fee golfers. On top of the that the warm weather brings out the worst type of players. This is off season for me, I just have to accept it. Things will improve once the weather goes cold.

I hear ya Beef. The outings and 9 hole leagues are a killer. This allows the average course to get guarranteed tee times equating to $$$. Guys like us who want to get 18 after work are screwed. Forget the weekend unless you go off before noon. But that will cost you. It's so crowded I almost can't take it.

No, it's not every course. The upper end layouts have openings.

Yesterday I squeaked out a 79 at Marine Park. I'm glad about the score as it's the first time breaking 80 here, a pretty long and not easy course. Made four birdies which mitigated some terrible play on a couple of holes. Left quite a few shots out there which is encouraging because I can now see myself scaring par on this course. After a couple of dull discouraging rounds this one is a confidence booster.

Good stuff Beef.
Sometimes you have to just BLAST out of a rough period, anything under 80 is impressive, no matter how hard the course is I think.

I stuck in another 9 this morning.
Felt whacky from the first shot, couldn't get my hybrid to work at all today... but I still shot 45 on the front 9, so thats about my handicap, bogey golf.

A nice birdie from 5 ft on the par 5 4th hole helped since the next par 5 i screwed up bad.
I ended up behind a tree... but my brother managed to hit his and it rolled up the tree and stopped part way up the tree in the bark, now that takes skill.

Happy Golfing everyone

Nice round beef, looks like you ironed out some of your recent ballstriking kinks.

@GPickin - looks like you've got a couple of other reasonable public options in the immediate Bakersfield area, any reason you haven't played those other ones?

I'm going to try and play every course in my immediate area, starting next Thurs.

I have other ones in the valley, but its the only HILLY one in the valley.

There are lots of other good courses around, you're right.
Courses around me according to OOB, I have played 6 of the 10, 3 are private and haven't been invited yet, 1 shut down.

I'm going to break out, but the other courses are 60 mins plus drive.

Sycamore is nice, but its still 50 mins to get there.
I aim to play a few at the beach next week on vacation.
I gotta hit up my country club friends to get into the other courses.