Chus is great

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Thanks. I'd heard that about the greens as well. I'll try to give a recap next week.

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You know me like that.

Had an awesome time yesterday at the NFLPA retired players golf outing at Bollingbrook. Our 4some got paired up with an awesome pro, former 4 time pro bowl St. Louis Cardinals WR Mel Gray. By the halfway point all 5 of us were completely wasted and having a great time. The outing was crazy, they had all sorts of weird games at different holes. At one hole you took your drive with a cannon that shot the ball 400 yards onto the green (if you aimed it right). Lets just say the winning team came in with a score of 44 for 18 holes. For $50 you could buy a card with all sorts of bonuses on it including a yard of string that could be used on every hole to call any shot good that came within a yard of the hole. One hole had a blackjack table and if you beat the dealer you got a birdie. Our dealer busted so we got 5.

Crazy stuff, but by the 13th hole no one really cared about score anymore. The round took 6 hours because of all the stopping and partying at different tents set up.

I actually played really well till I was too drunk to care anymore. I drove the ball in the fairway on every hole till the last 4 or 5 when I was wasted.

Mel was great, told us a ton of stories about partying back in the day. Some really gross stories that I won't even repeat. Lots of stories about Conrad Dobler too who apparently was pretty crazy and fun off the field. Mel was like one of the guys, I was talking shit to him all day and he was giving it back. At one point he was lining up a putt and I told him "use positive thinking, just pretend you played for the Steelers". That got to him, he hates Lynn Swann. By the end of the night he was asking for our contact into so we could all hang out again next time he's in town. I didn't learn till late in the round that he smoked weed which is too bad cause we could've been doing that all day too. Jim McMahon was out there getting all the tilted kilt girls high, evidently he has really good weed (no surprise).

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Played Willow Crest at the OakBrook Marriot today. Not bad, little overpriced though for what it is. Shot a 91, getting better and better with every round. Could've easily shot a 86, but left some shots out there where I picked the wrong club cause I still don't really know my distances yet. So very happy with my progression. Hoping to be in the 80s consistently by the end of the month.

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Got the closest I have ever been to an ace on Saturday. 173 yard par 3, landed my 4iron just short of the green and it almost rolled in the cup. Ended up about 6" past the pin.

On a 155 yard par 3 over water, my Dad put his about 2 feet from the pin.

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Nice. Where were you playing?



Its been 27 years since my ace. I was 14 at the time and thought it would be the first of many. Guess I didn't really realize how tough they were.

The one downside of getting a hole in one when you're 14 is that the orange top flite x-out ball doesn't really look that nice in the trophy case.

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Gonna head over to Deerfield Public after work and get in a couple hours of practice. They have a really nice set up with a 50 yard practice hole with bunker alongside the nice grass driving range. Really need to work on my short game from 100 yards on in and this is the best way to do it, gonna get a bucket of range balls and just take shots from everywhere. Also, bought a new sand wedge that I'm not too happy about so gonna work on that since I still have 2 weeks to exchange it. It has a bounce of 14 degrees which might be too much for me. Need to get that figured out before I hit White Deer Run saturday morning, lots of sand there.

Might squeeze in a round tomorrow or might just go back to Deerfield for more practice, depending on how tonight goes.

Saturday White Deer Run with 3 buddies. Gonna play Sunday too, haven't decided where.

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Damn bro. You are doing an all-out assault on learning this game, eh?

yep, I want to get good again. When I played every day for 2 summers (before I got my dog 6 years ago and gf 5 years ago) I broke 80 a few times and was always in the low 80s. I want to get back to that or at least back to where I am consistently around 84-86 and I know I can, just need to put in the work.

Im at around 90 now, but have only been able to play since the start of the month because of my back surgery. I'm hitting the ball really well all things considered, but really need to tighten up the short game and fine tune the iron game. I know from experience that all it takes is practice and repitition. Its really not that hard a game if you put in the work.

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Doc, can we get a recap from The Glen Club? Interested to hear your thoughts and how the experience was.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Keep at it. Let me know if you ever need a playing partner.

Definitely. Would lvoe to get out there with you and t-bone. Playing with better golfers is always a good thing.

I overdid it big time this weekend. Had that practice session thursday and then played 18 friday and then had a hockey game at 11pm friday night. Went to bed about 3am and then had to get up at 7:45 for golf up at White Deer Run. My body gave me a big fuck you and I could barely swing the club. Ended up calling it quits around hole 15 although I probably should've done it sooner.

Having a lot of trouble with my PW from about 110 yards in. I have some sort of mental hiccup where sometimes I shank it dead right when I'm trying to take something off the club. Its gotten to the point where I am scared to even take the shot and for the first time in a long time I didn't enjoy myself on the course. Went to the park yesterday and worked on it a bit and made some progress, but I'm gonna try and get in for a lesson this week cause I really don't want to play again until this is worked out. Also could use a tune up for my swing...I'm getting close to hitting the ball well, but still not hitting the irons completely straight.


Only 2 1/2 weeks till my golf trip so the pressure is on.

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This is by far the worst part of my game. I had this same problem earlier this year. My Dad watched me hit a few and said that on some I was breaking my wrists, some I was slowing down my swing, and some doing both. Now I tell myself 'stiff wrists' and take a normal swing and the results have been much better overall. If I need to, I choke up on the club but still take a normal swing. I have noticed the few times since that I've "eased up" into the ball, I've shanked it.

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yepp, sounds like me. I think I am going to get the exact opposite advice when I go for the lesson. He's going to tell me that I'm not turning over my hands and I need to do that. That's what he told me last year. If you keep the wrists locked and then slow down the swing you end up having an open face when you strike the ball which causes the shank to the right.

But then I saw a program on golf channel this weekend and the instructor was talking about keeping a stiff wrist but making sure you lead with your shoulders on the swing. If you do that your shoulders will pull the club through and cause the face to turn over on impact. Easier said that done.

Basically I'm confused as shit.

Last night at the park I concentrated on really slowing down my back swing on these 30-50 yard shots and concentrating on making good contact with the ball and that seemed to help a lot. Also focused on keeping my head down all the way through the follow through so I'm not lifting up on impact.

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Switched the format of my blog to only Chicagoland golf from this point forward. Just FYI:

http://www.chicagoduffer.com

just bookmarked it. Didn't look too long at the site, do you have course reviews on there?


Had a lesson yesterday with Emil Esposito. He's great, you take one swing and he knows exactly what the problem is. Last year he had me working on turning my wrists over which I had been doing, but the problem is I've been taking the club straight back instead of cocking the wrists....therefore when I try and turn the wrist on impact I'm forced to use my whole body to do it which leads to a lot of blocking of the ball and sending it to the right. Also puts unneeded stress on my back.

So he had me working on cocking my wrist in my backswing and then immediately turning the hands over and releasing through impact. Noticed the difference right away, but its a lot of work to train the mind to do it so its gonna take some time to get it down. Hopefully two weeks of practice will be enough.

Other than that, my swing looks good.

Gonna go after work and get some range time in and hopefully some chipping time if those fuckers at Deerfield Golf don't close down the practice area because there was a little rain overnight. They are huge bitches about that.

Tomorrow have a work comp lawyers golf outing in Itasca.

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My parents are in town this weekend and we are going to play a round Saturday morning at a public
course in Zion, IL called Shepherds Crook. Pretty fun track which has a links feel to it and a lot of
elevation changes. Only downside is that it is built right next to a huge landfill but rarely does the
wind blow in a direction where you can smell it.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I really enjoyed it. It sets up quite a few different types of shots which I think is always the sign of a well-designed track. Doglegs left and right and a few quite long carry shots over water.

I thought the greens might be quicker and I found a bit too much of the knee-high heather than I cared to. For the cost, I'd rethink if I liked it quite that much but it's pretty close to worth it.

Nice clubhouse as well. I understand there are even hotel rooms in the clubhouse which I didn't know.

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You know me like that.

Sounds like you had a good time. I had a client take me but I have a good idea what it costs.
I'd probably rather play 2 rounds at really nice courses but was glad I got to play it once.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I'm heading over there to practice after work. They have a nice practice area on the other side of the driving range in addition to a nice grass range. And unlike Deerfield, they don't make you hit off mats if it fricken sprinkles a little bit.

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I've got a few, adding more soon.

I like golf.

bosco, do you like golf?

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I suck at golf

No idea where else to put this........
Mike Weir hasn't made a single cut yet this year.











No really...........











Feel free to post this, Ugie.

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That's because lefties and Canadians are not to be trusted. They are beneath us.

Had a lesson Wed night, practiced yesterday for an hour and a half, played in a outing today and probably played the worst I've played in my life. It was a scramble, but I would say my play translated to about a 120. Thought about just leaving and going home about 6 holes in. But, stuck it out, played a little better the last few holes and then saved the day by winning a 32" LCD in the raffle.


Going to go to the range tomorrow and try and figure out what the fuck happened to me.

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Played 36 @ Chevy Chase yesterday.

Walked and carried my clubs.

Me so tired.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Went to the range yesterday and hit 225 balls trying to get my swing fixed. Think I started to come around. I think the problem the other day was I was swinging way too hard. When I barely swing the club the ball flies off the club. So started doing a breathing exercise where I lift the club and take a deep breath right before swinging...found it relaxes me and makes it easier to take an easier swing.

Got invited to play for free today at Crystal Tree country club in Orland Park. Hopefully I play a lot better than friday or else I'm gonna be pissed. Less than two weeks till my golf vacation.

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Hit the ball much much better yesterday at Crystal Tree. What a nice course that is! Every foursome gets a forecaddy, the course was in amazing shape. And it was a challenging yet fair layout. The greens were the fastest I've seen all year by far. I 3 putted at least 13 holes including 3 birdie attempts. Scored really bad on the front (in the 50s), but shot a 44 on the back which includes a ton of putts. Didn't care about the bad putting, wasn't even putting effort into the puts, was so focused on hitting the ball well that just didn't give a shit about putting at all.

Started doing a breathing exercise before I swung where I lift my club up, relax and exhale deeply, put the club back down and swing. Found it worked wonders for getting me to stop swinging the club too hard and it made a world of difference.

One thing I need to get used to is it seems I've lost some distance since my latest surgery so need to adapt in club choice accordingly.


Huge difference between playing at a CC vs a public course. Barely any traffic on the course. Beer cart girls walks the beer out to you on the fairway and its in a glass bottle. The halfway house had all sorts of cheese and crackers and trailmixes. And you can't pay for anything, its all charged to the member who took you there. Some fine living going on there.

Got real lucky too...pulled out my R4 driver on hole one only to discover the shaft had somehow broke in my bag. My friend pulls a brand new R11 out of his bag and says "here I won this at an outing and don't use it, you can have it." SCORE!

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Nice pickup on the driver. The putting will come along. Hard to practice that for very long especially if
you have a sketchy back. That and it is boring sometimes. I usually put an iPod on and do it for a while.
That seems to help a little bit.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami