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

plus it seems like putting is the last thing you get to on the checklist when working on your game, despite the fact that so many shots are attempted with the putter each round. I put in 6 hours of practice in the last week alone and never once picked up the putter.

Playing White Deer Run again friday, should be a good test to see how (if) I've improved since I played it a couple weeks ago. Might get some practice in thursday after work, but might just use that as a day of rest instead.

Less than 10 days till my golf trip!

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Played White Deer Run again friday, this time compliments of the good people at ATI physical therapy. Can feel the swing starting to come around.

Played yesterday at Bridges of Poplar Creek, was very impressed with the course. For the price its a good value. Very well maintained, a little on the short side, but special props for having GPS in the carts. Also a nice practice area with grass tees and a chipping green with bunker. Shot an 87, finally feeling like I'm getting the hang of my new swing. Would've done a lot better, started out the back with three pars and then went triple bogey, double bogey. Got it back on track the rest of the way.


My big golf trip is Thursday, wish I had a couple more weeks to practice, but considering where I was a month ago I'm happy with where my game is now.

Gonna try and get some more range time Wednesday if I can fit it in.

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Had my big golf tournament/vacation last weekend. As usual it was a great time. My back barely held up though.

Started out picking the guys up at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday at around 12:30. It was raining all day. Drove to Washington County Golf Course in Hartford. Course is ranked as the #1 municipal course in the USA and I can see why, it was gorgeous, especially for the $50-$60 fee. It rained on every hole except a couple, but we weren't going to skip the first day of the tournament.

Next day was at Erin Hills, site of the 2017 US Open. In retrospect, this was a mistake. Its 9 miles long and every tee box is elevated at least 2-3 stories above the ground. I don't know how I finished 18 holes. Plus it was gusting wind which made the course that much more difficult. But, the course itself was amazing. Easily as good if not better than anything you'll find at Kohler. The caddies were great, especially once I started sharing the green stuff with them (and they shared theirs with me). At the end of the round I took a couple pillows from the outdoor lounge and laid down in the grass with my feet elevated for a half hour until the pain in my back subsided enough to go join the guys in the bar for drinks and dinner. The course was $250 plus the tip, but well worth it if you can handle the walking.

Next day was 36 holes at Lawsonia. I woke up so stiff I didn't think I could do it. Could barely swing the club and was taking quater/half swings off the tee which actually helped me keep it straight. Couldn't bend over to pick up the tee. After about 15 holes the guys let me tee off from the senior tees because it really wasn't fair to tee off with them since I was over 100 yards short of them on every shot.

After 18 me and my partner were down double digits (2pts a hole, low ball, low total). But, then we hit the Woodlands course, our first non links course of the weekend. The tighter conditions worked to our favor and we staged an amazing comeback and tied it up going into the last hole. Then they missed a 1.5 foot put to win it all and all I had to do was hit a 6 footer to retain the cup. I missed it just left and we were all tied up after 72 holes.

Of course the only way to settle it was a 9 hole playoff so we went back out there and once again it came down to the final hole, but this time they beat us to win the Cup.

I wasn't upset considering my health, I was just happy I was able to last the whole weekend. If I'm healthy next year I expect a different result.

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Playing Washington County this Friday. Erin Hills fucking awesome and awesomely difficult.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Both courses are in great shape. Can't say the same for Lawsonia. Was surprised to see how poorly maintained it was with the drought this summer. Its like they never bothered to water it. The rough was non existent and mostly hard pan. The fescue was gone in lots of places on the links course. Lots of dead spots on the fairways too.


Some of the guys at Wash Co clubhouse were saying that for the money, Wash Co is a better course than Erin Hills. Can't say I disagree. $300 vs $60. Erin Hills was much better, but not $240 better.


Forgot which hole it was at Hills, but my buddy had the best shot possibly ever taken off the tee, at least according to the caddy. It was a par 4, we had the wind at our back and he drove the green to 5 feet from the cup. Had to land it between two bunkers to do it too and that was only about a 10 foot wide passageway.

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Did he make the putt?

Erin Hills is such a young course and I like Washington County a lot, but Erin Hills is a significantly better course and will only get better with time.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

nope, had to settle for birdie.

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Shakes, sorry to hear the back let you down. I remember the course being much flatter than you
describe but I played it before the redesign so maybe they made some alterations. Was hoping
it wouldn't flare up on you.

Good luck on Friday Hawger.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Playing George Dunne for the 2nd time this season on Saturday morning. One of the tougher courses I've ever played. In April, I did really, really well there. Ended up with a 95 or 96, and that was with a 10 one of the Par 5's on the back 9. Breaking 90 there this weekend would be a hellava feat for me.

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Good luck, like playing those tough tracks.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Anybody interested in playing Sunday morning?

I would love to, but my wife's best friend is getting married out of town, so I am on daddy duty full time this weekend.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I used to play and love GD all the time about 6 years ago, but I've heard recently that the condition of the course has gone way downhill.

Give a report back after you play, would be interested in hearing how the course looks and also how long your round took. I remember they really pack that place and a 5 hour round is the norm.

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I forget if it was March or April when I played there earlier, but it was in pretty decent shape. They were aerating the greens so that sucked but overall it was in good shape. This will be the latest tee time I've ever had there (9:08 am) so usually the pace of play that early in the morning is pretty good. I'm sure its not worth the $67.00 they charge you to play, but then again what courses are worth the full regular price?


I'll tell ya what though, I played Silver Lake for an outing last Saturday and the north course was really beat up.

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Condition was 9 out of 10. Greens were great, somewhat quick. Fairway bunkers were like concrete, bunkers by the green were excellent. Played really well, was hitting the hell out my driver. Had an eagle putt on the Par 5 6th or 7th...whatever hole that is, toughest on the course. Ended up with a birdie. Pace was somewhat solo but we had 4 groups playing as part of a bachelor party and they let us play as a 5some cuz we had an odd number of people. Teed off around 9:20-9:30 and finished about 2, so not that bad.

There was also an incident in which the guys behind us hit into us, then drove up on us, and my buddy snapped his pitching wedge over a guy's chest as he crosschecked him. Crazy. I'll post the full story when I have more time to type it up

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So, what's the rest of that story? Thanks for the info on GD, I am definitely going to get out there before the end of the season.


I played over the weekend and again today and after 2 months, I FINALLY feel like my swing is coming around! The final piece to the puzzle was a tip I got from watching the show Golf Resorts International. The host of the show is some guy named David Camp and all he does is go around and stay at 5 star golf resorts. How bout that for a job? Every time they show him play golf he hits a perfect shot. Now I'm sure they could take 50 takes till he gets it right, but that's not the point. I was watching his swing and the thing I noticed was how excruciatingly slow his backswing was, almost a full 2-3 second count. People always say to slow down your backswing and I always thought I was but after seeing his swing I realized that I was nowhere close to how slow it could really be. So, for the past couple weeks I've been focusing on swing tempo and slowing it down to that 2-3 second count.

Well, its worked wonders. Shot a 87 today at Sunset Valley and I easily left 10 shots out on the course. 3 putted for bogie 3x. But, I was very happy cause I struck the ball better than I have all year. Only had one mis hit the entire day, a half shanked 6 iron off the tee. A month ago half my shots were shanked. Didn't pull the driver out of the bag all day, I've pretty moved exclusively to the 3 wood. I figure, its the best club in my bag, I can pretty much hit it 225 down the middle 8/10 times so why not use it as much as I can. As for a driver, if I get it perfect I might get another 25 yards, but I rarely hit it perfect and always have a slice on it so I lose those 25 yards anyways going sideways. I hit 10/14 fairways off the tee today with the 3wood and only 1 of the misses left me with an unplayable shot.

Now that I'm playing well I'm fired up to go play some good courses. Delaying my trip up to Wisconsin tomorrow cause I found a $53 11am tee time at Seven Bridges on Golfnow. Never played that course, but here its great.

Then playing Mascoutin up in Berlin WI friday saturday morning before our family reunion starts at noon.

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So I basically had this gift card for Cog Hill sitting in the drawer to use on a golf lesson and I waited until just this week to finally get in there and have them take a look at my swing. After spending an hour and a half with a golf pro and spending some time this week out practicing at the range I think I finally figured shit out. Problem is that I won't be able to golf this weekend when I'm on vacation and I'm just not sure when I'll be able to get out there. Hope I don't forget everything by the spring next year.

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You should have a friend or your wife take a video of you swinging so you can memorialize it and then take a look at it again when spring rolls around.

I was gonna ask my gf to do that for me and then she said how much she wants to go to the range and try and hit some golf balls so I'm thinking two birds with one stone. She thinks its a date when really its just a tool to improve my game. win win. Of course it could backfire and she ends up liking it and wants to start playing gofl with me. Now, I actually would be cool with that from a substantive point of view, but the reason I don't want it happening is because the only reason I'm able to play so much golf now is cause she is at home to take Lionel for walks. If we're both gone for 5 hours that's gonna be a problem.

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For anyone looking to take lessons I highly recommend Greg Baresel over at Cantigny in Wheaton. He is a little bit on the costly side for an hour lesson, but it is well worth the money.

Of course, you could also just ask for head instructor Connie DeMattia as well, but he'll charge you almost double.

Whoops


There were 17 of us playing as part of a bachelor party. I was in the last group, and the course let us play as a 5some rather than break us up. They were real cool about that as long as we kept up, which for the most part we did. Pace was just slow in general. I mean all 17 of us were on the tee at 9am...we were on the 9th tee at about 11:30, so really not all that slow. We probably teed off around 9:20-9:30. So, we're keeping pace. The group in front us was already off the 9th green when we teed off, but we could see about 10-12 people standing on the 10th tee so the 3 some behind us was gonna wait at some point...either on the 9th tee or 10th tee.

We get to our approach shots on the 9th fairway, and a ball rolls up. Ok...we kinda look back and this dude on the tee is flailing his arms and yelling, although we can't make out what he is saying. About 30 seconds later, a ball lands literally 20-25' from my buddy's cart. Not just rolls up there, but lands. At this point, we're pissed and my buddy Rick throws this guy's ball into the woods. We play on, and this guy drives up on us...alone. I'm not sure what he thought was going to happen with it being 5 against 1...anyway he asks about throwing the ball, Rick asks why he was hitting into us. I'm about 30-40' ahead of them and I start walking back towards them, and another buddy is about 15 -20' behind me.

I can hear them starting to get heated, and I hear this other guy say something to the effect of, "if you wanna go lets go!" Rick replies with, quote, "If you get out of that cart, I'm gonna break this club over your fucking skull!" The other guy says, "Ok, lets see," and he gets out of the cart and walks toward Rick. Well, Rick gives him a straight crosscheck with the wedge he had in his hand. The club snapped across this guys chest, and he flew back a good 12'-15', but somehow didn't fall down. I jumped in between the 2 of them right away as this guy was starting to come back at Rick. One friend kinda held Rick back, and I went up to the other guy and pointed out the group of people standing on the 10th tee (clearly visible from where we were) so he could see what a fucking dumbshit he was. I also let him know that we had the ok from the ranger to play as a 5some.

Anyway, Rick left for the day which we felt was best, the Ranger drove up to us on the 10th hole and said we can't have confrontations. He was really cool about it. That was the end of the it until the 18th when the ranger drove up again and said if we see those guys in the clubhouse afterwards, give them a wave and an apology because the guy was scared shitless. "What if the hockey player is waiting for me in the parking lot after the round?"

Gentleman's game!

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Crazy story Frank, they should've put the 5some somewhere in the middle of your group so no one else on the course would've even noticed that there 5 guys in one group.


Anyway, just got back from Seven bridges. Geez, that place is no joke. Shot a 95 and not too unhappy about it. Gave away a ton of shots and 3 putted 4 birdie attempts. Hit 10/14 fairways off the tee only using my 3 wood and hybrid. Something weird happened starting on hole 7 where all of the sudden my swing left me and I started shanking iron shots again. Ended up double bogeying 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13 with a bogey on 12 being the only non double in the mix. Then somehow settled down and played the last 5 holes 3 over to save my score for the day.

A really tough course and not sure I would go back unless I was really playing well. Not having a driving range is pretty inexcusable in my book for a course that nice. With my back I really need a solid 20-30 minute warmup at the range.

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88 this morning at Coyote Run. Lots of good putts, lots of good drives, lots of not so good iron shots. 8 pars on the day, including 5 on the back 9 where I shot a 41. Got thru 17.5 holes rain free!

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