Any golfers here?

[bo1142]

you sure have done well only playing for a short time and have a low hcp

My uncle is a scratch golfer and we're both members at the local club, so everytime I play with him, it's like having a coach with me.  I worked really hard last year on short game, which shaved the strokes off my score.  My biggest problem now is the mental game and course management.  My ego will tell me I should try a shot that my brain knows is a low percentage of success.  That's the bad part about testosterone; it clouds your judgement.  I've always been athletic, which most people I play with say it really helps out, but we'll see what this year holds after the surgery I just had.

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

It is nice to play with someone like that and for sure the short game is the key.  I got so I could chip in on a regular basis which is always fun to show off.  You are so right about course management - too many times I stood in the treeline and thought "of course I can split those trees at 150 with this hooded 4 iron.....just like Tiger would"    When I began to think about how to play the hole from the green back I got much lower scores, I discovered I was pretty good at 100yds so I learned to play to that spot rather than just "gripping and ripping" my way down the hole.

[JSeth]

 Yes, I am a golfer... and my first post on this forum! HAD to answer the golf topic before introducing myself, formally!

I started playing in the early 60's, when my folks got divorced and my Mom re-married; we moved to 80 yards from the 10th green at one of the (then) Top 20 Toughest courses in California, Yorba Linda Country Club... at first, golf was a way for me to get out of the house, get away from my EVIL STEP FATHER - of course, he wasn't evil at all, just in love with my Mother!

I was fat when I was a kid, and too slow for basketball or even running the bases in baseball... so when I found golf, I thought "Cool! I just hit it hard and don't have to run!". I was naturally adept at the game, if that's possible; broke 100 the first time I played (fudged a couple of shots), then broke 80 the first MONTH I played (again with the fudged shots...).  It didn't take long for me to realize that keeping accurate account of one's score was simply the WAY IT IS in golf... good rule for life, too!

Although I have found that music and golf share so much in common with one another, it was actually my decision to play music for my life's path that separated me from the game. I walked away at 15 years old, in 1966, having Varsity lettered on the High School team for 2 years running; I shot a 67 in a high school match, when I was 14, and the only thing I got for that accomplishment was a lot of ribbing from my friends for "playing a girl's game"!!! Junior Golf is MUCH more widely supported now...

Came back to the game in 1987, thanks to a few good friends - they said they were going to play, and I said "I used to be pretty good at that game..." - being men, they immediately said "Oh Yeah? Let's just SEE how good you are!" I fell back in love with the game, much more than when I was a kid... a lot of the game that I didn't care for became the very things I LOVED about the game... the walk, the time between shots, the seemingly paradoxical nature of the game itself (Want to hit it far? Swing Easy!), the short game, golf course design...

I had just inherited a little bit of money, and I bought a great set of sticks; athe very ones I would have bought, back in the day, had I the money... and I set about making up for lost time. I lived in the SF Bay Area, and quickly played darn near every course within 100 miles! Northern California is chock full of wonderful courses to play that are affordable...

Handicap quickly got down where it was when I was a kid, a 4 or 5... and I hit the SAME WALL that had partially stopped me, way back when... which got me into sports psychology, and Dr. Bob Rotella. I can not tell you how important his book, "Golf is NOT a Game of Perfect" was, and is to me... all of the troubles I had just went away, because I WAS THE ONE IN CHARGE of how I reacted to any of the "disasters" that can befall the player during a round of golf...

Handicap down to a .7 index, I started thinking of the Champion's Tour (then the Senior Tour), and began to prepare to play in some official tournaments... then I was in a car accident, hit by another driver... and all of a sudden, I could barely play 18 holes, let alone the "dawn to dark" regimen I had previously employed... but I kept playing because I just LOVE THE GAME!

In 1999, I moved down to the Monterey Peninsula, lost some steady music jobs and needed to find another way to make money; a friend told me I should call the Cypress Point Club and see if they needed any help... I was stunned that I could just CALL THEM! (For those unaware, Cypress Point is a bit of a "Sistine Chapel" to golfers; VERY hard to get to play and one of, if not THE world's best golf course...). I began to caddie at Cypress, part-time, but stayed there for a decade and took time off of playing in bars and restaurants...

I still play, although infrequently, handicap is up to a 6; I've had some physical issues with my hands swelling up and blistering after just a few holes, so I haven't been out much, of late. I am, however, in the midst of attending to that problem, and my fond hope is to be playing a couple times a week very soon...

Golf is just THE BEST GAME EVER INVENTED BY MAN!!!

play on.....................................................................>

John Seth Sherman

[jjracer]

I have been playing at the game of golf for a while.  I haven't seemed to master the swing.  Biggest problem is that I coach Baseball in the summer and hitting fly balls to the outfield totally messes up my golf swing.  But i enjoy playing.