Pop quiz: Is it possible to lose $21 playing golf with a $2.00 bet?
Answer: Yes, when you’re me and playing against the guy with the best short game in the world.
Yesterday was round 3 of the 2017 season for me. I have low expectations since I have now logged 3 rounds in 3 weeks and 3 rounds since November. It doesn’t even bother me that my rounds are getting worse. I know through many years of experience that it takes me a while to get my game back in the spring. That’s a great reason to move somewhere I can golf all year, but that’s a blog post for another day.
Yesterday’s round featured a match between the team of me and my buddy Arnie, and Dalton and Al. Al is a senior player closing in on 70 years old who I’ve played 100’s of times with. He has the best short game of any amateur golfer I’ve ever seen, and better than most pros. Man was that short game on display yesterday.
Al is not a long player, so he often misses greens he’s unable to reach in regulation. If he misses any green in regulation by 70 yards or less, I’d put his lifetime up and down percentage at around 75%. It was so amazing yesterday that I was hoping my putt from the fringe would be closer than his shot from 60 yards. By my calculations yesterday he failed to get up and down once out of around 14 times. That was on the 18th hole when the match was already closed out and it didn’t matter. Hehe.
At the end of the day Al had taken all the cash I had on me, $21. Nothing more fun than leaving the course with an empty wallet. But it was the cheapest short game lesson I’ve ever had and I learned a lot from him. He hit almost every shot low. Low runners. And unlike what a lot of short game experts tell you (to land the ball just on the green and have it release) he would land the ball short of the green and the ball would roll to the hole like a putt… to 1-2 feet. His release on those shots is pretty low and short too.
Inspired by Al’s short game I was able to get up and down three consecutive times on the back nine, probably a world record for me.
The Takeaway
I must resist the lob wedge and go low and run my short games unless the situation forces a high shot. That’s a goal for this season.
The HOG World Tour has been a “thing” now for 10+ years. I’ve traveled to many cool places and experienced golf around the world in some tremendous locations. I thought it would be cool to document all of the places I’ve played golf somehow. Being a web developer by day, I thought of coding an interactive map with markers on it to show all the courses. At this point I have entered 172 points on the map and I’m fairly sure I’ve forgotten a bunch. Check out the map here: https://www.hookedongolfblog.com/hog-world-tour.
Down the road (so to speak) I may be able to put other things on the map, like resorts or cool places, represented by different icons.
I’ll be adding some new features and items to the map soon so stay tuned.
Fresh off the slow boat from China (seriously) is a set of sharp looking head covers from Craftsman Golf. Craftsman Golf is a Chinese maker of golf accessories, everything from head covers to bags, to ball markers.
Craftsman Golf Head Covers
I’ll begin testing these covers this weekend and post a full review in a month or two when I’ve had ample rounds to fully evaluate their quality, ease of use, and durability. Stay tuned.
Sigh. This has been a very tough review. It has taken a lot of work on the course and in a few select locations to get the testing environment setup and working well. I have overcome. The tests are complete, but I will continue followup tests of course. Let’s look at the Stage V Clinger cigar holder.
Stage V Clinger Cigar Holder, in action!
First, I dig this shade of red. It’s a college sports thing. I gave the blue unit away. Solid.
The holder has several sizes in the opening to accommodate different sizes of smokes. It can also be bent a tiny bit to adjust more. I had to do this because my humidor was working too well, and some of my cigars have been a little too soft.
The holder comes with a velcro strap to mount it onto just about anything. But the best mount feature is the two strong Neodymium magnets. Neodymium magnets are extremely powerful. From my old rock & roll and recording days I have microphones with those magnets in them… Anyway, as you can see in the photo above, any metal surface can be turned into a convenient cigar holder.
When not in use, the very light and small Stage V Clinger stows away in my golf bag. Super convenient.
Here’s a shot of the retail packaging:
Conclusion
The Stage V Clinger cigar holder is solid and works great. Definitely made it to the gamer bag.
I now have two rounds in the books for 2017 after a four-plus month break from playing. I did not hit a shot. After finishing last year’s handicap rounds with several scores in a row in the 70’s, and a final even-par 72, my handicap stopped at a 3. Here in northern Utah they turn the handicapping off from November to April. So my handicap has been a steady 3 since November!
My long time buddy/partner and I teamed up today in a match against two higher handicap players. We agreed to give them eight shots on the round, and promptly got our asses kicked. They haven’t played much golf either and that’s when it dawned on me. Net matches this early in the year favor higher handicap players. Hear me out.
As a rusty 3, this early in the season I’d consider breaking 80 an achievement. Shooting 75 this early in the year is not likely. I won’t be shooting mid or low 70’s for a while, until I get my my game back. So my handicap may be a 3, but I certainly will not be playing to a 3 for months. In fact, each spring my handicap usually blows up from low single digits to around a 6. Then as I card some lower rounds in the summer it goes back down.
As I witnessed today, at least in the case of the guys I played with, a higher handicap doesn’t seem to have the problem of shooting their handicap. They’re going to shoot high anyway. Odds are much higher IMO that an 18 will shoot 90 after not playing for months, than a 3 shooting 75.
So the “net” result is losing net matches early in the season until I can shoot my handicap. I don’t suppose I’ll be able to talk them into gross matches? LOL.
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