Franky T wrote:
Do you guys keep a handicap?
I am going to do so this year, although I don't really play enough for it to matter.
Franky T wrote:
In my usual group we give putts 18" and in. Sometimes it stretches a little far for my liking, but certainly not past 3 footers, and that's usually when you're out of the hole for the money game, or if it won't matter for handicap purposes.
My usual group consists of three guys who are much better than me. These guys break 80 regularly. They play for money, while I just play. I putt everything longer than one foot. I'm not good enough to assume that I will make a putt. If a 20 handicap takes 100 two foot putts, how many does he miss? 5? 10?
Franky T wrote:
We play all penalties as they should be played (OB, water, unplayable, etc.)
Of course. Golf is a game of good breaks and bad breaks. That's what makes it so beautiful, and so frustrating at the same time. For every drive that ends up in a divot in the fairway, there is a drive that goes screaming right, hits a tree branch, and ricochets back into the fairway. Sometimes, you get the member's bounce, and sometimes you don't.
I still don't understand how not taking penalty strokes speeds up the round, or adds to the enjoyment of the group.
Franky T wrote:
but we don't hit off roots. No need to break a club or hurt yourself over a casual round of golf.
Of course not. The TaylorMade truck isn't in the parking lot, ready to build another 7-iron for me.
Franky T wrote:
We play winter rules in April and from October on as those scores don't count toward your handicap.
Absolutely. It's tough playing a course in February, or a course that has already been aerated in the fall. Tough to putt on aerated greens.
A few years back, a good friend and I got into an argument (he started it, for the record
) over winter rules. It was early March, and the ponds were still frozen, and there was snow/ice in some of the bunkers. This was the first time out for all of us, so nobody was playing for money, except for closest to the pin on par threes. Anyway, we are playing a par four. My approach shot comes up short, and lands in a bunker, front left of the green. There was still ice under the lip of the bunker. I tried to hit my ball, but it was almost like it was in wet cement, so my club stopped when it hit the sand. I picked up my ball, dropped it in drier sand in the same bunker, farther from the hole, and finished up. My buddy made a huge deal about it after we holed out. We argued about it for the rest of the round, and didn't talk for six months, until I picked up the phone and called him.