The only way to golf. I do my best to move along fast. Usually I have someone ahead of me so that's my excuse for not going faster.

Went out Friday for that charity thing. Played best ball so I don't have to embarrass myself knowing what I shot. I can say I probably spent more in lost balls on day between friend and I than I would have on green fees on a normal day. Course was like pavement but at least that made the ball run on a good drive if it hit fareway. But if. Kind of pulled it together and got the slice under control on back 9 and figured out what I was doing. Correcting it... wooosh.

Seriously. This is the biggest bullshit that they pull.

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Checked out Sand Valley in central WI yesterday. Incredible piece of property and a fun and fair layout. I have to say that it is literally
in the middle of nowhere. They have some cabins on site you can stay at to play multiple days but I can only imagine what those cost.
It was 3 hours and 15 minutes from Kenosha. I hit the ball well, made two birdies and missed two within ten feet. My sand phobia
completely reared its head on multiple occasions and kind of ruined my day. I have no idea what I am doing wrong but I seem to be
taking way too much sand and not hitting through the ball. Anyway, long story short it took me 3, 4, and even 5 shots to get out of
sand features on the course on three different holes. The fairways are very tight fescue and I also chili dipped 4 chips around the greens.
Very, very frustrating. I think it was partially that my confidence was shot and the fact that I have very little bounce on all my wedges so
if I don't pick it clean perfectly I either skull it or dip it. I am used to playing different grass where the ball sits up a little nicer. Not really an
excuse but one of the causes I believe. Paying a hefty green fee and a caddy and shooting 90 was not ideal but it was a good memory
with my dad and I hit a number of good iron shots that will be memorable.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

That stinks about the sand issues, T. Cool that you hit some nice shots in front of your dad, though

I struggled out of the sand on the Alabama trip. Didn't practice in it and the fluffiness played with my head. Confidence is a huge part of sand play and I think I need a practice bunker session to get back to where I was before the trip.

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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

I have a meeting in IL on Thursday and plan to go to Pine Meadow that afternoon with a jumbo bucket and purge all the bad mojo. I have
been a better than average sand player for most of my life so I really don't understand. I was literally just trying to get the ball out of there
and couldn't do it. Frustrating and embarassing

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I've been playing the matched-set gap wedge and sand wedge from my Mizuno MX-19 irons and my chipping/pitching is in great form. I have 4 sets of new/like new wedges with square grooves and different loft configurations just sitting in the closet. Love the wide sole on full shots and the sole grind is incredibly versatile on touch shots. The shaft is lightweight like the rest of the set, compared to the heavier Dynamic Gold shafts I usually play. I have a CG10 60* for the more delicate shots, although in the last 3 rounds the 60 did not make an appearance. Funny how that works sometimes.

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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

Tbone, how'd you like Sand Valley compared to Straits and Erin Hills?

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It was pretty comparable as far as the beauty of the place. It was much more playable than those other two.
If you choose the correct tees you can have a lot of fun just playing it and hitting a lot of fun shots. The walk
was just wonderful for me. I played with three guys in their 60's or older and they almost didn't make it and
wanted to stop after the 16th hole. The biggest downfall to the place is its relative obscurity and being so
far away from other things. They are building some quaint lodges and rooms for guests, some of them had
walk outs to fire pits and such. You could have a hell of a guys trip up there for a long weekend or even
you and your wife might enjoy it. Play one day, stay a night and then play again and leave. At $175 for
greens fees and roughly $100 for a caddy I hesitate to call it a bargain but compared to Erin Hills and
Whistling Straits it is, and you don't feel like you were taken behind the wood shed. Sentry World is another
course up that way that has gotten rave reviews after its rebuild and so that is another option. Play Sand
Valley and then get a hotel and play Sentry another day. It is a young course and will only get better with time.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

A golfer at WRX just went on a Lawsonia-Sand Valley golf trip. No surprise to me, he found Lawsonia to be the better golf course and one of the top 2-3 he had ever played. Here is the review of Lawsonia, the review of Sand valley to follow.

Returned Saturday from a wonderful 48 hours behind the Cheese Curtain.  Part I.

Thursday, after lunch at Langford's, we played Lawsonia Links.  I know there are a few people here hyping up Lawsonia - and I just want to make sure that I am now considered among them.  The Links course, at least according to my sensibilities, approaches pure perfection.  An awesome, uncontrived layout and routing.  It is very naturally laid out over the rolling and in some spots quite dramatic landscape.  All artificially constructed obstacles (including the ubiquitous raised green complexes) fit the purpose of each hole and the scale of the land.  Being an older design on a rolling piece of property, there are a number of blind shots, but nothing of the type where a decent shot ends up in an unrecoverable position.  Trees are mostly around the perimeter of the course and there is an open feel to the course.  Views are expansive and long fescue gracefully frames the way through the green.  While there is long fescue always in view, fairways are generous and the first cut of rough is also quite generous in width so that only the most wayward of shots find the hay.
.

Course conditions are firm.  The large greens roll true and are firm to the point where it was difficult to find a ball mark on even well struck aerial approaches.  Their size and contour make for many an interesting pin position, USGA C.E.O. Mike Davis' recent comments that Lawsonia's greens are some of the best around, are well founded.


The only knocks our group had against the course were that the driving range is one of the worst I've seen at even a decent course.  You hit into the long fescue and everything beyond 130yds is blind (which one friend remarked that it prepares you well for what's ahead.  The second knock was the tee markers were too close together and on uneven ground on a handful of holes.

Overall, Lawsonia is firmly in the top 5 courses I've played.  Perhaps top 2 or 3.  I played the Links a good 10-12 years ago and remember being very pleasantly surprised, but this time I gained a whole other level of appreciation.  It's a course I wish I could play regularly as I imagine it plays with great variety depending on wind conditions and the myriad available pin placements.  Our group spoke of returning next year and I'm already looking forward to it.

The Lawsonia Leviathan - Par 5, #13:


The next day, we took the hour and twenty minute drive to spend all day at Sand Valley.  Review to come in part II...

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And now the Sand Valley review.

48 Hours behind the Cheese Curtain pt.II: Sand Valley

We made the 1hr 40min drive from Ripon/Green Lake to Sand Valley on Thursday.  It should have been only a hour and twenty minute drive, but a bridge over I-39 was out and we had to backtrack and re-route, which took us through charming (NOT!) hamlets like Hancock, WI.  The last stretch of state road and the entrance road to Sand Valley was smooth and freshly paved.  We pulled up to the roundabout in front of the newly opened, modern rustic clubhouse - an impressive vertically sided wood and glass building of dormers and gables.  We were greeted by staff and introduced to our caddies who prepared themselves for their double loop day while we went off to the well appointed pro shop to pay our greens fees.  From there we all boarded a shuttle bus and took a short uphill ride to Craig's Porch (a light food and drink oasis) and the practice/1st tee area.  Though you get an idea of the landscape during the long drive to the clubhouse, it is from Craig's Porch where you can best take in the immense rolling sandscape, laid over with ribbons of green turf. It is a stunning, special setting, unfamiliar to most Midwesterners.

The practice green, hard against Craig's Porch, is bumpier and somewhat slower than the greens we encountered on the course.  The whole area is one big carpet of fescue broken by swales and scrapes of sand.  After teeing off on the 1st hole, I imagined being able to ski or sled down the fairway to my ball.  Like Lawsonia, Sand Valley plays fast and firm, but even more so in the fairway.  The fairways are very generous in width, ridiculously so in some places (not that I was complaining).  It allowed the potential for heroic approaches to the dramatic green sites, as well as potential for frustrating escapades in the ever looming sand bunkers.

Almost every hole has a dramatic, memorable element to it - so much so that they begin to blend together.  One hole I feel stands out for its lack of drama was the boring par-three, 3rd - an obvious connector from the 2nd green to the 4th tee.  #17 and #18 is a memorable finish to the round.  #17 is a long, uphill par-three to a real punchbowl green.  The pin was on the right side of the green, behind the ridge of the bowl, and needed a 10' flagstick to be visible from the tee box.  #18 is a great finishing par-5, fairly wide open and uphill, but framed with a variety of menacing bunkers.  The huge inverted L-shaped green sits below a viewing area adjacent to Craig's Porch and the pin was tucked in the back right, behind a large intruding bunker.  Through our foursome's two rounds, I witnessed no less than 4 different ways to access this tricky pin.


People had better bring a good sand and short game to Sand Valley.  The sand is deep and fluffy.  Taking too much sand will result in a ball that barely advances.  I had a horrible day putting.  There is a high sand content to the greens and I could not get used to it with all day to try.  I don't know if that is a factor of the course's youth, but I much preferred the roll of Lawsonia's greens.

The caddies were sort of a mixed bag, but I need to emphasize that they all were polite, fun to be around and attentive to our needs on a very long hot and sunny day.  The (Pro/Honor) caddie who double bagged a pair in the foursome, for the entire day, was impressive.  He earned his $400 that day as his golfers were all over the course but never had to wait for him for club changes, yardages or reads.  Another friend booked a Pro/Honor caddie who had been caddying less than two years, I believe.  Great guy, but according to my friend was more like an A/B caddie.  My caddie was a junior who was obviously still learning the in's and out's of the course and the trade.  He was a little too talkative and I could have used more confident, accurate reads.  He was probably 50/50, but that made him no worse than me.  He was such a good kid with a positive attitude, that I gave him all "A's" on his evaluation card.

Besides the golf, there was more to impress at Sand Valley.  Like the course, the property amenities should only improve with a little more time.  Our lunch of carnitas tacos, brisket sliders and Spotted Cow on Craig's Porch was an outstanding deal.  It was the second best meal on the trip.  I was fortunate to pack a change of clothes, and after a long hot day I took a quick shower in the men's locker room.  We stayed for dinner at The Mammoth Bar & Lounge.  We had whole trout, pork tenderloin and walleye on the back patio, overlooking the still under construction second course, Mammoth Dunes and a rising full moon.  That was by far the best meal of the trip.


Sand Valley was a great experience and we spoke of returning when the second course opens (I think the 18th green at Mammoth Dunes is the largest I've ever seen), and likely staying on site.  While it is great as-is, there is potential for it to be something extra special - and I hope they succeed as  everyone on staff was welcoming and seems to "get" the concept of hospitality.



Lawsonia/Green Lake and Sand Valley are a great reason for golfers to visit central Wisconsin.  Strictly golf, I give an edge to Lawsonia.  Total package, Sand Valley has it.

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Two very different courses but he doesn't bad mouth Sand Valley at all. I realize you are heavily biased towards your course and maybe
rightly so. I look forward to checking it out, hopefully this season. I was impressed with Sand Valley being that this is the first full season
open and will only get stronger as it matures. Interesting review by the guy, I'd agree with almost everything he says.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

yep no doubt, Sand Valley sounds really good. I was interested by his comment that the fairways roll out even more than Lawsonia. That's a big claim cause Lawsonia has a lot of roll in their fairways, but I would guess that Sand Valley was built on very similar terrain as Lawsonia (sand base under the turf) which leads to very favorable conditions on the fairways.

Sounds like SV has the potential to be the best luxury $$$ course in the State, especially if their prices stay lower than Erin Hills and Kohler. It sounds like its already better than Whistling Straits.

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They did roll out quite a bit. Compacted sand with very tight fescue fairways. The greens rolled very nice but he was right in his assessment of them
being very sandy. They held most of my approach shots but it would be a monumental feat to get any of them to spin back. If you don't hit the ball
very high or get much spin you need to play it as a true links course and bounce it to the hole. I wish I would have figured this out when I was trying
to chip and used some bump and runs rather than playing "American" golf and trying to lob the ball up. Cost me a number of strokes.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

How did this turn out? I don't think you did any kind of recap.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

My presence has been requested at Midlothian Country Club again this year. I guess last year's dismal performance didn't get my invite revoked.

Gonna play there Sunday afternoon, weather permitting. Considering it as the warmup round for the JORR Open on the 23rd.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

Was able to get to Pine Meadow to practice yesterday and figured out the sand issues. I was right in that I was going at it way too
steeply and trying to dig/chop the ball out. I can't believe I couldn't diagnose that as it was happening but it happens sometimes I
guess. I ended up playing eighteen holes at Shepherds Crook in the afternoon and got out of the bunker the two times I was in by
taking a shallower angle of attack. Those in the northern burbs that haven't tried it yet, the course was in nice condition. I ended
up walking it, which isn't for the faint of heart, and when I got to the last 4-5 holes I was pretty wiped. As I drove out of the parking
lot I noticed my car was reading 94 degrees. Ugh.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Got out early this morning and dodged the rain. Played the short course in my rotation. Hit the ball really solid and even though I made some mistakes and missed a number of makeable putts I carded a 69 (par 70) so I was pumped about that. Gives me a lot of hope looking forward.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

43+43 = 86 at Woodruff yesterday. Each 9 featured a birdie, three pars, and unfortunately three 7's.

I was remarkably consistent and inconsistent. Driver (outside of one lost ball) and irons were money. Greenside chipping was pretty good. Went the first 15 holes without a three putt, and then did just that on 16, 17, & 18. Any pitch longer than about 10 yards I am shanking, like dead 90 degree shanks, which is how the ugly 7's came inro play . Hoping I can correct that before the JOrr outing on Friday.

Front 9 was in real nice shape, back 9 was a little more beat up. Greens rolled fast but true. We were stuck behind a bunch of SIU frat boys doing an outing, and it took us 3 hours to play the front 9. Fortunately, two groups stopped at the clubhouse to load up on beer. We were able to jump them and finish the back 9 in a little over 2 hours.

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Really windy yesterday morning but still hit the ball better than I have most of this season. My putter was hot and cold, made a
bunch of 10-15 footers but was leaving myself some long putts and 3 putted three times. Well ahead of schedule as far as number
of times getting out this season, never would have guessed I'd be over 30 before July 4th.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Playing in a golf skills competition at Cantigny on Wednesday with a buddy. I can't wait to skull a flop shot into the pro.

Jeez, 69? Hellava round TBone!

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Course was only 6100 yards so sounds more impressive than it probably was, but thanks. Played the 7000 yd course yesterday and shot
10 shots higher!

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Still gotta chip and putt, and under par is under par.

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Beautiful weekend up in Green Lake. Got in two rounds on the Links. Brought my new driver up there (Ping G Straight Flight) and struggled mightily with it. Somehow, after breaking my driver and then trying out a couple drives I lost my driver swing. Only took me 28 holes to get it back. Not sure I like the driver though, seems like I hit it shorter than I hit the G30.


Continued my season of regression with a 88 and a 92. Every round it seems I do everything great except ONE thing which sinks my whole round. This weekend it was the driver. Some rounds its been the irons or the putting or the hybrids. But, every round it something and its usually only one thing. Overall, I've only been under 86 twice all year. Changing the entire swing has been a process, but its odd because even though my scores are up considerably I feel like I'm hitting the ball better than ever.

Got my match Friday, hoping to at least make it competitive.

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we rent a home on Green Lake the week after christmas every year and one year it was like 50-60 degrees so we walked the Woodlands (the place was shut down, no flags, holes, tee markers we just did it up. We played it Three times. I can't imagine how awesome of a course it plays during the season.

finally retired the FT3 and bought a R15. Its definitely a tiny bit of distance, but i feel like i am hitting it more consistently without much effort. i started off moving both weights to either side.

Nice, and that's not even their best course. The Links course is their award wining course, but the Woodlands is still pretty great in its own right, just not as unique and special as the Links course.

But you'd be hard pressed to find a golf course with 2 courses that are so different from each other as you will at Lawsonia. On the one had you have the Links with true links conditions, only a couple stray trees on the entire course and green complexes that are perched 20-30 feet in the air and have multiple levels and contours and on the other hadn you have the Woodlands, a course cut out of the woods where you won't see another hole (or person) other than the hole you are playing. A couple interesting features like a Par 4 where you have to hit your approach over an old rock quarry and a par 3 where you tee off from a perch straight down to a green.

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Forgot how to hit the ball again on the front 9 at Coyote Run yesterday. Started and ended that with a 9, and shanked a few more chips as well. Ended up with a 55 . Got it together on the back 9 and managed a 43 with four three putts. Took me 2 shots to get out of the two bunkers I was in on the day, and my putting was pretty dreadful overall...I think I had six 3 putts on the way. Shanking the chips is brutal still, but I think I figured out that I had been breaking my wrists on those shots. I concentrated on that during the back 9 and while they weren't good, they were better than they have been the past 2-3 rounds.

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Had my wedges and putter regripped.

Glorious.

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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

Frank, unfortunately I have a lot of experience with the dreaded shank. Usually, the cause is from losing the spine angle and diving at the ball which causes a change in the path and instead of hitting the ball with the face you hit it with the hozzle causing the dreaded shank.

A great practice drill to help is to lay a headcover down just outside the ball and then try to hit the ball without hitting the head cover. This will force you to keep the path on the inside. Since you can't put the headcover down on the ground during a round I recommend rocking your weight back onto your heels a couple times before hitting and then focus on keeping that spine angle. This actually helps quite a bit in terms of battling shanks.

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