Golf: No Bones, just Bonesaws

Sports & Other Games
41

because putting while anchored takes the stroke entirely out of the equation. the entire putt just becomes about the line you have chosen. A good, consistent putting stroke is far more skillful and anyone who anchors will have an inherent advantage against someone that doesn’t. I don’t really see grounding the club in a hazard really providing a large advantage in the same manner.

Anchoring became so bad that if you were a pro it really made no sense to putt in any other fashion. They didnt want the game to go in that direction, so they changed the rules, much like many sports do when a particular strategy or play is moving the game in a direction people/those that are in charge deem unsuitable.

42

That’s not a defense of the USGA, of course - they have a lot of stupid rule changes. The knee high drop was a pretty stupid one, and I’m sure I can think of a few others.

I do like that recently they changed the stroke + distance penalty for casual play. If you hit OB or any other shot that typically incurs a stroke + distance penalty you can drop near the nearest fairway or something (I cant remember the exact rule). This was meant to reflect the fact that amateurs almost always play in this way anyway, and that the stroke + distance penalty really slowed the game down for non-serious players. You are also now allowed to declare a bunker shot unplayable and drop outside of it for a penalty.

43

Is there a place where you can see a compiled list of updated rule changes? It’s been at least 12 or 13 years since I read the rules.

I find the anchoring rule odd, because there are still a lot of terrible line readers (like me) out there who this wouldn’t help (the whole point of the long putters again was for pros who had the yips). It would be kind of like telling the longer hitters they can’t use anything more than a 5 wood off the tee. Learning how to execute the anchored putt is a skill, in my opinion, and if there aren’t things to make the field (for scratch golfers) more level, I don’t see why that’s what they would choose to crack down on. 1 putts are exciting, 3 putts are not.

44

I’m looking at strokes gained putting data throughout the 2010s and I don’t think any of the top putters on tour used an anchored putting stroke.

Anchored putting was basically a crutch for people with the yips, if you were an elite putter with a regular stroke I doubt anchoring would improved your game or else I think we would have seen the top guys switch to it.

45

ok, sure, I can accept that, but it still gave people that probably could not have competed at a top level an advantage.

46

So I’ve been working on a swing change the last 3 days. Well, more of a tempo change. I take the club back pretty slow with irons and very slow with woods/hybrids. I’ve sped it up some with both to about the same speed. I’m also trying not to go as far back with just the irons, basically shoulder high. In essence, I’m trying for a smoother more natural ‘grip it and rip it’ thing, without ripping too hard.

Results have been pretty good tho it’s way too early to tell. Hitting all my woods further, may have to select different clubs off certain tees at my place, which felt good after blasting a few too long with the usual choice. Irons seem about the same distance and a little straighter, except for the 5i, which I’m chunking even more than usual.

What has me most optimistic is it hasn’t made anything worse really, which is what usually happens anytime I’ve made a change. Can’t wait to get out there and practice!!

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47

Tempo made a big difference for me. Keeps your body rotation more in line with the club path. It’s all about timing, I used to have a very slow takeaway and when I sped it up everything felt easier for some reason. I also only take a little more than shoulder high but pretty low. I just always need to make sure I’m making that shoulder turn.

Anyone else hit the ball really well for the first half of the round and then start to get worse? I don’t know if it’s fatigue and I’m out of shape or what. I hit driver off the range today for the first time in a while, and I was hitting everything straight, and then as the bucket continued it just got worse and worse.

haven’t really had driver in the bag because I can hit my 3 hybrid about 220-230 on a good day so it never felt necessary. Now that I’m playing these 6000-6500 yard courses though I feel like I’m having to make 160+ yard approaches when if i could just drive the ball the game would get a lot easier. My friends give me too much shit if I play off the reds, but I don’t play from the tips. just whatever the normal ones are. I’m playing a 135 slope course today LOL we’ll see how it goes.

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48

Also, brooks or rory this weekend? I want rory to win badly but brooks is just so dominant.

49

We decided to play 2 man scramble and shot an 80. Not great I guess but I was happy with it. My friend was getting frustrated with how bad i was hitting the ball but i basically made all of our putts and got 4 scrambles on my own, so it couldve been a lot worse. I 1 putted a lot of holes and made a few long ones.

My short game has been pretty damn good the last several rounds. Putting feels great and i’m struggling a little with my new sand wedge, but overall its just a feel thing. The wedge is 54 degree and is the perfect loft for my chipping but lately ive been catching so much spin on the thing that it checks up in ways i dont expect. And i dont trust myself enough to plan that type of shot, i like to roll my chips out a lot. So everythings been coming up short but i’ll dial it in, i’m striking my short shots absolutely perfectly.

Feel pretty confident with my 60 degree too which is a thin little fucker and is usually hard for me to hit well. I had a 30 yard bunker carry shot yesterday with the pin tucked right behind it, and i told my friend half jokingly that the bunker wasnt even in play and stuck it to about 4 feet. I didnt feel at any point in my setup that it was going in the bunker

50

These big purses are so good for the game. $15 mill first place. holy crap. I love the format change.

Koepka is one of the highest earners in golf and he’ll nearly double his net worth if he wins today.

51

For the life of me I can’t get off a mat. Every time I’m at a range with mats or like on Friday afternoon I stopped into the local golf store just to hit free balls testing out different clubs and everything was a slice or legit shank. I haven’t hit a slice or shank on the course in years. My normal ball flight is a low draw and can get snap hookey if I’m too flat on the takeaway. Idk if it’s the alignment of the mat that throws me off compared to where I’m hitting but I just can’t do it. If I tee up drive on the mat it’s not an issue though.

52

Probably means you just take a lot of ground, or that at least the ground has something to do with your general stroke. Mats aren’t forgiving in that regard, so if you hit the ground just right, it’s a shank. Try adjusting where you have the ball in your stance (forward or back on a mat) and see if it makes a difference.

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53

Played again yesterday after letting my ‘injury’ heal for about 10 days. It seemed to be okay, though my hands seemed to be off. I bought a new Sand Wedge (Tour Edge One Out steel shaft), which was the only one I could find that seemed to meet my heaviness standard at a reasonable price. I also decided to pick up the Wilson Harmonizer chipper for $39.99.

I tried them both out yesterday, and still have a lot to learn about how to use them, but I don’t think either cost me any strokes of note other than just not getting close enough. A skull with the Sand Wedge is picking it clean (not bad). A chunk will just leave you short of your target. It seems like when I get the hang of this club that it will be an excellent addition. The chipper was a little harder to get used to, but I hit some good shots with it. Distance was harder to get right, as it obviously produces some backspin.

I played from the longer tees I played the first time (~6600 yards), since I had been punished so frequently by the shorter tees (~6100 yards) with bad bounces/luck. The front nine was essentially a disaster, and I decided that I wasn’t even going to bother putting an entire round together using the front nine score.

I decided to play two balls on the back nine to create the 18 hole score. My front nine was a 50, with wildly inconsistent play, and quite a bit of bad luck. I only hit 3 of 7 fairways and zero greens in regulation. I can’t even remember if I got a par.

On the back, it was odd again, but with much better overall results. I could not hit consistently from ball to ball off the tee. I’d hit the first shot straight or left, and the second shot would be to the right or vise versa. I used the honor system for which ball got hit first off the tee, and the ball that would have completed my front nine was the good one. I shot a 39 with that one on the back for an 89 on the full round. I had 4 bogeys, 4 pars, and a birdie, with 5 greens in regulation hit. My putting was not great (more like my real putting than how I’ve been putting), but I didn’t really have a lot of makeable 1 putt opportunities. I was often in the 10 to 12 foot range for up and downs, which is not a strong range for me.

The second ball didn’t fare as well, and I got a 44 on that one, with one birdie and two 3 putts. That made the 2 ball back nine 18 holes an 83. From how this course is laid out, I don’t know if I can ever break 80 here when I actually get decent, but it’s probably possible. When I keep the ball in the fairway on this course, it’s very easy for me, but keeping it in the fairway is very hard for some reason.

What I love about this course is that it’s like having a private course. I walk on as a single and there’s no one in front of me or behind me at the right time. That’s the only way I could do the 27 holes. In two of the other three rounds I had another single biting my heels, but no one in the last two. That’s my kind of golf.

If I have time and feel alright I might go out one more time this week.

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54

Played Bethpage Black today. The guys I got paired up with wanted to play the back tees, so I did as well. It wasn’t the full 7400+ yards but was prolly around 7250 plus lots of wind which really made it interesting. 4:43 round (but it really didn’t feel slow at all as we really only waited on the tee box on like 3 holes) and 10.4 miles walked later I ended up with a 105.

Too many missed putts and too many shots out of the sand. And too many tee shots just a tad off line off the tee. The difference between being in the fairway and one or two yards into the rough was really punishing. Only one lost ball with a tee shot that found the only tiny stretch of a cart path on the entire course that bounced too deep into woods to find. Was able to find every ball I hit into the rough which I was pleasantly surprised about.

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55

I hated that course in Wii Tiger Woods PGA Tour.

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56

I played a pretty difficult 6700 yard par 72 today. My friend wanted to play from blues so since I can’t hit long it’s pretty rough. Made a pretty valiant effort - I managed to hit every fairway but one, and the 2nd shot stayed in the fairway on the par 5’s (lol there’s a 640 yard one which is like a death sentence for me). Made a few good putts but off the green i was kind of a mess.

I don’t know where the hell my driver came from but I was carrying about 200-210 which isn’t amazing but when I get more comfortable I think I can get to 230-240. I was hitting accurate as hell with the 3 brid and the 5 iron - I got on in 1 on a 195 par 3 with water along the right side and bunkers guarding left, just blasted it straight at the pin. That was my nicest shot of the day, I was happy with it because there were like 4 groups (literally) waiting behind us watching. I was a little shaky after lol. I got a little cheer.

Oh, I also didn’t hit into any hazards today either which is suuuuper freakishly weird. Every shot I had was super easy and I still couldnt score. Just not enough distance.

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57

Just play from the whites. I don’t care who I’m playing with, I play the tees I’m comfortable with. My Dad occasionally plays from the ladies tees, just to get a different perspective of a course he’s played 1000 times. Says it helps his game, never done it myself. He’s a 72 year old 10hdcp that’s been playing 50+ years, maybe I should start doing stuff like that. He’s also recently been putting 1 handed from 10’ feet and in to try to cure his yips, lol. Beat a guy 30 years younger than him in his mens league match play that hits it 300+ off the tee. Dad carries it about 180 nowadays haha. But he’s deadly from 120yds and in.

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58

That’s a serious brag

59

Yea people are obnoxious about it. My friend and I are like the exact same handicap but he hits way longer than me. I think he just wanted to flex.

It’s not a strength issue, I think it’s a flexibility thing for me. I need to improve my flexibility somehow.

About to play my old 2400 yard par 59 to go feel better

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60

Thanks! But idk about that. Here’s my scorecard.

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image3024×4032 2.69 MB

Only one GIR and tripling 3 of the par threes which is damn embarrassing considering the three are simple iron shots (the 3rd hole was playing like 190ish not 230 and the 8th is straight down a hill so the 210 is actually like 190). And the one par 3 I did hit on 17 I played my 3hybrid as I was damn tired and left it out to the right on the wrong tier. At that point I was just happy to hit one.

Was really disappointed about my putting though as the greens are pretty simple and not the fastest I’ve played on this summer.

It’s not the prettiest course in the world but definitely worth the price of admission. I plan on going back next year again before the Northern Trust is there.

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