The Golf Thread - 2015

[Rosscow]

I hope not, I really dislike th guy if I'm honest!

I'd like Justin Rose to have another great season but he seems to have gone a bit quiet.

Would also like Luke Donald to find some form.

I've given up with Westwood, can't see him doing anything amazing.

[Rosscow]

Speaking of young guns, Ben Evans has had a cracking start to the Joburg Open this morning after a fantastic tied 12th finish at the Indian Open!

Go on, my son!

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=20...

[Rosscow]

Ben Evans currently tied 6th after another good round, -8 for the tournament!

Go on Ben!!!

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=20...

[Rosscow]

Had a foursomes cup competition yesterday morning. Had a pretty good front 9, 16 points, but had a st back nine and ended up with 27 points. Wind was horrendous. Ah well, always next week!

[Rosscow]

Padraig Harrington wins after 2 play-off holes!!!

Lovely guy, pleased to see him win again after all these years.

Poulter had an absolutely disastrous back 9, really. Threw it away.

[Rosscow]

Dan_1981 said:

Shoes.......

My current ancient Addidas classic type thingies have about given up the ghost.

Looking for a comfortable, water resistant replacement.

Anyone wearing these spikeless type things? Understand some courses have problems with them however the type of place I play I can't see this being an issue.

http://www.sportsdirect.com/adidas-adicross-lll-me...

Any other suggestions> Don't want to blow the bank so lets say sub £60?

I would not want to wear them during a round of golf at the moment when the rain starts coming down! In the summer, fine. I'd get myself a decent pair of Footjoy shoes for the winter. I have DNA's, and yes they are double the £60 but bloody brilliant. Nice enough to wear in the summer, too.

Haven't really helped, have I

[Rosscow]

PatrickOUFC said:

sorry - to answer the question, these are in your price range

www.golfonline.co.uk/adidas-tour360-atv-m1-golf-sh...

My brother has these - and says they are very good.

Yes, much better choice. Used to have a pair of those (earlier version), excellent shoe.

[Rosscow]

PatrickOUFC said:

I have just got a pair of these.

http://www.golfonline.co.uk/adidas-mens-adipower-b...

Brilliant shoes - most comfortable I have ever worn
Got some Adidas Gripmore for the summer too - also top shoes

http://www.golfonline.co.uk/adidas-mens-adicross-g...

Interesting - I really don't like the look of the those Adidas Adipower at all. They just look like trainers (a bit like McIlroy's Nike shoes, horrible).

I have these:



and these for warmer months / drier weather:



I really rate Ecco golf shoes - I'm lucky enough to have an Ecco factory outlet store nearby so can get some great prices.

Edited by Rosscow on Tuesday 3rd March 11:45

[Rosscow]

dxbtiger said:

Rosscow said:

Lovely guy, pleased to see him win again after all these years.

And that is just how long it took him to play the back 9..

Sure he is a nice guy but I cannot watch him, disgustingly slow.

I must admit that I hadn't noticed how slow he is/was? I did notice Poulter taking an absolute age on several occasions.

Mind you, your first win in 7 years I suppose you'd take your time!

[Rosscow]

dxbtiger said:

He's always been slow, renowned for it, was just as bad when he won in Indonesia in December, the last hole made me want to kill myself.

Poulter is also guilty, but then he was choking so hard he couldn't breath I guess

I really wish they would do something about the pace of play, it filters down to hackers like us.

Anything under 4.5 hours here is quick, it drives me mad!!

/rant

4.5 hours is long!

[Rosscow]

4 ball golf is the main problem.

I don't really enjoy playing in a 4 ball anymore, it takes too bloody long.

Our club doesn't allow them so only 2 balls or foursomes are played, anything over 3.5 hours is frowned upon.

I still play in 4 balls on society days but Jesus, it does drag.

[Rosscow]

JB Holmes - what an amazing 62.

[Rosscow]

Good game of golf this morning, really swinging well!

[Rosscow]

No, that's a fair comment.

My answer to that would be that there are several holes that I would use the 3 wood on (5, 9, 12 and 18).

However, I'm really not very confident with it at the moment, it's a bit of a work in progress!

[Rosscow]

kentlad said:

What are the doubles down to? Nice to see nothing worse than doubles on your card though. That's decent consistency! In contrast i had a stinker on Saturday. Again. Oh well! Anyone see the two hole in ones at Doral this weekend? Just seen them & both are impressive.

Mixed feelings re DJ winning after his 'ban' or 'leave of the game'

The 2nd was a crap tee shot followed by a poor pitch
The 12th was a bit of naff approach which left me just off the green. Chipped on but 3 putted.
The 18th I managed to pull hook my tee shot into the rough, followed by a 7 iron into the rough left of the green, 2 chips to get on!

Much more consistent though, I missed 6 birdie putts!

[Rosscow]

SpeckledJim said:

Rosscow said:

No, that's a fair comment.

My answer to that would be that there are several holes that I would use the 3 wood on (5, 9, 12 and 18).

However, I'm really not very confident with it at the moment, it's a bit of a work in progress!

Reading the chart, you hit 7 pars, and missed 7 fairways. Only once did you manage to save par after missing the fairway.

Yet when you did hit the fairway, a par was the result 50% of the time, and the other 50% were only bogeys.

Both your par 4 double bogeys came on holes when:

A: You missed the fairway.
B: You used your driver
C: The hole was short enough to reach in (approx) 5w & 9i, so the driver was a needlessly dangerous indulgence.

My at-a-distance conclusion: 2-3 shots at least are to be easily gained in halving the amount you use the biggun. No practice required!

I wish I had the discipline to collect this level of data on my game, it really helps in retrospect to see the patterns between what choices were made, what then happened and what score resulted.

That's a brilliant way of looking at it, thanks!

And you are probably right. However, it may look like you don't need a driver on paper but both the 12th and the 18th were playing into a 2 club wind against and across the direction of tee shot.

For example, the Par 3 16th was playing 170 yards and yet I needed to hit a 4 iron to reach!

But you are definitely correct, I really need to get back to hitting my 3 wood and hybrid off the tee more.

Thanks for the analysis, it's certainly made me think

[Rosscow]

SpeckledJim said:

Are you in good-enough books at your club to be allowed, next time the wind is really blowing, to hit 10 balls with the driver and 10 balls with the 3i, then complete the hole with each ball and graph the results?

That would potentially be really useful data on something where your instinct of what is the right thing to do might be entirely wrong.

Sometimes, when a par 4 is playing very difficult, the best way to approach is it to play it as a par 5 and hope for a birdie.

After all, the pros will all tell you that the easiest holes on the course are the shorter par 5s.

Improving strategy and shot selection is where the easiest shots are to pick up. No practice needed!

Edited by SpeckledJim on Monday 9th March 12:59

I can do that whenever I wish - in fact I could play the 1st and the 9th consecutively 10 times, alternating tee shots as you suggest.

I think it's an excellent idea!

When the clocks go forward and I can get 2 hours in after work I'll give it a go.

All of your posts have been very thought provoking and useful, thank you very much indeed.

[Rosscow]

DuncanM said:

Great discussion guys

Rosscow, does golfshot do club stat breakdowns?

Tempted to download it this weekend in prep for my first game next week!

Hmmm.... I don't think so, only distances that you choose to track will it store. AFAIK.

[Rosscow]

So, this is the standard view you get for each hole (this is the par 3 2nd at Rye):



You can then zoom in on whichever area you like, which will give you updated yardages to that point and then to the centre of the green:



It can also give a 'flyby' of the hole (useful for courses you haven't played):



Obviously you can set all the clubs up for your personal set/distances:

[Rosscow]

Out of interest there is an option to make your club yardages 'automatic', so I presume it can take information from your shot distances somehow.