Finally left the golf course feeling alright about things on Saturday. Shot 92 (48-43) at River Oaks. Not the best course by any means, but the first ten holes or so conditions weren't too bad. As things started to warm up the course got very dry and it was like hitting off of straw the last few holes. Lots of run on drives though, which I did pretty well with. Pulled most of my irons and lost 3 balls that way, which was pretty frustrating. Went driver- 5iron into the par 5 eighth hole, which I three putted. Greens were dewey a slow early on. then got like lighting about 8am so I had trouble with speed most of the round.

Still though found quite a few fairways with my driver, got 5 pars and a birdie to offset the two 7's and two 6's, and hit enough shots to come away feeling like I had something going on and know how to play this game a little bit.

Playing Saturday at a place called Summertree outside of Crown Point ahead of a bachelor party later on. Another low 90s round would be very nice.

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tale of two 9s for me yesterday. Figured I would play like crap after playing so well the day before. Had a 6:40 tee time and was pretty stiff in the morning. Started off like crap and shot a 48 on the front. Turned it around on the back for a 37 with 2 birdies. Happy with an 85 after such a terrible start.

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Think I'm gonna get the rest of my clubs regripped to match the mid size grips in my iron set. A little nervous to touch the driver since I'm hitting it very well, but I think there's a chance I'll do even better with the mid size all the way through. Really like the feel of the mid size in my irons and as of now I'm hitting them better than anything else in my bag. Think I'm gonna start by getting my 4 hybrid and my 53 degree wedge re-gripped since I use those two the least. Get a chance to try it out in a hybrid and wedge before doing it to the rest of the clubs.


The big golf trip is in less than a month, don't want to be tinkering with things too close to that.

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75-77-75 last three days. Hitting more than half the fairways and 13,13 and 11 Greens so the irons are solid. My putting has left me and I just haven’t capitalized with birdies. I could go low if I could just make a few. I think maybe my ball position has possibly changed a bit. Might play again tomorrow morning. The last three days have been perfect weather.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

You are what, +10 or 12 relative to par combined over your last three rounds? That's pretty damn low!

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When I say that I mean break par. All the guys in my group shoot about the same so when my buddy shot 72-73 this weekend I felt like I got whooped up on.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I never in a million years thought it would be possible, but after putting up another 74 this season I started to think about the possibility of playing a round under par. A thought that has never entered my mind before. I shot that 74 Saturday and counted 4 small and very avoidable mistakes I made during the round. I wasn't that far off from being even for the day. The two bogeys I had on the back were both easily avoided. One was a wrong club selection and the other was a slightly pulled PW on a par 3. Fix those two and I'm right there.

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That's awesome that you are playing so well shakes. Yes I think about those mistakes all the time. Four three putts and a ball out of bounds Saturday. Three doubles Sunday. I played solid today but pulled one shot into the woods and three putted another green. Hard to play a clean round and get to or break par. I feel really close and sounds like you might get there too. Good luck.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

38-35-73 this morning. Couple of silly bogeys on the front. Back I was -2 going into #18 which is a short par 4 you can potentially drive. Dogleg left with water all along the left. I decided to try to go for it and dunked it in the water. Made bogey on last hole. Finally had a chance to bust par but just didn’t pull off the shot I needed.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

You guys are going for under par, and I'm just trying to potentially shoot in the 80s again.

Golf is a funny game.

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Sure is Frank. I just keep saying I am playing against myself or a course. Not others.

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Elections have consequences.

I like playing with better players. Generally I get something out of it, on top of watching great shots.

A few years ago, I shot in the 80s pretty regularly. Even 80 once and low 80s several times. At this point in my life, I just can't imagine having the time to devote to the game in order to have those kinds of scores again. Maybe when AJ is a little older I'll be able to practice more, but oh well. I'll still get out a few more times and hope to finish the season on a strong note.

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Frank, I don't think you need to put in hours and hours of practice. Your best move would be to invest in some lessons. Get a lesson one day instead of springing for a greens fee. Take what you learn in that lesson and work on it over the next month or so and then have another lesson. Rinse and repeat. I think you'll get a lot more out of that then just practicing and possibly just enhancing bad habits you already have.

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Maybe I'll do that next year or late winter. Last weekend I seemed to make some strides in not shuffling around so much before I swing. I didn't do real hot with my irons, but hit the driver quite well.

I had a couple of lessons like 3 years ago, and the guy totally wanted to break down my entire swing and start from scratch. It wasn't until the end of the second lesson (had a gift certificate for two, I bought one more) that I realized what he was doing. I don't have the time or money to committ to a brand new swing, so I need somebody to work with what I have, make some adjustments, and thats that.

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I broke par once (71) and after the elation wore off I starting thinking about the shots that cost me breaking 70. Golf is a game that can't be "won".

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Ive broken 70 a handful of times and usually can bust par a few times a year. I shot a one under 71 my 4th time out this year back in April so it’s been frustrating not doing it again since. Definitely a funny game sometimes but that’s why I love it.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

final night of the playoffs tonight! We are down 2 in net and up 2 in gross. I think net is the winner so we got some work to do. matched up with the team we are chasing tonight, the email trash talking has been going on all week. Gonna be interesting. Format tonight is best ball. The guys we are playing against, one was a pro last year and is a scratch golfer yet is somehow getting 2 strokes in our weird league. His partner is about a 20 handicap but gets a ton of strokes.

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I put on an epic display in mental weakness last night on the course. Choked like a champ. Shot a 52, my worst round of the year by far. And especially bad considering I've been playing the best golf of my life over the past month and a half. My partner played great and was even for the day. We ended up finishing 2nd overall in gross, losing by 2 strokes. I thought we were in first coming in, but that was just amongst our division. Playoffs combined all 3 divisions. So we ended up 2nd out of about 45 teams, easily our best finish ever. Good for $70 gift card.


Weird night, I would expect an issue with shanks to put up a score that bad, but didn't have a single one. The issue was I couldn't find the ground with the bottom of the club. Never had more thin shots in my life. And throw in a couple fatties too.

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I am bad at golf again.

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Aaaaand of course I follow up a bad 87 yesterday with a 71 today. Tied my lowest score ever - although today was on a par 70 course - which I think is almost harder to do with two fewer par 5's.

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88 (43 - 45)Saturday morning at a cow pasture called Summetree outside of Crown Point. Weeds and crabgrass all over the place. Greens were beat up, shaggy, slow, and a couple were barely even playable. Still managed some good shots and absolutely crushed most of my drives all day long. I think I missed only 3 fairways with it. Shanked a couple of irons, but also hit more better ones than I had over the course of the previous month combined. Really happy with my last two rounds overall versus where I was for most of June & July.

Played as a 5some which was slower (nobody around, so we did not hold anyone up) as much as I like ready golf, I seem to play much better when the pace is slow. Anyway, just an OK course but was the perfect appetizer to a raucous bachelor party later in the evening at a rented house outside of Demotte

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Yeah me too. I lost my drive again. Slice-o-rama. Got to the point on the last few holes Saturday I started teeing off with my 3 Hybrid and did much better.

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Elections have consequences.

Played Sunset Valley in Highland Park for the first time since the re-design. Got rid of most of the trees to open things up, place looks amazing. Still very tight though, even without the trees. Not a lot of fairway to work with. But, I gotta say best greens I've seen in Illinois all year. Don't know if I've ever seen greens roll better than these. Didn't see a single ball go offline or hit a bump or anything all round. Played better than Wednesday (42-41-83), but overall wasn't too happy with my ball striking, especially off the tee. but, very happy that on a day I'm don't think I played well I am able to keep the score under 85. That's a good sign.


Starting to gear up for the big golf trip in a few weeks. Really want to upgrade my driver from Epic to Flash, but nervous to do that this close to the trip.

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Heading to Sportsman after work for Callaway demo day. I've got the Epic driver now and love it. Want to see if maybe I'll like the Epic Flash even more. Lots of shafts to choose from, it'll be interesting.


If I do find one I like my next move is going to be to put a midsize grip on my old driver and try that out for a round to see if I like it. If I do then I'll bring my new driver in and switch to mid-size.


Nervous about making changes in my bag at this point in the season with my big golf trip coming up in a couple weeks. And I'm hitting the driver well as it is so might be messing with it for no reason.

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Two steps forward, one step back. 109 yesterday at Broken Arrow. Shot 48 on the front, so not too bad. Then had a 7, an 8, and a closing 11 on the back. Pretty brutal. Hit the driver pretty well overall. Putted like crap as these greens were quick as hell and I was used to the terrible, slow greens from Saturday so I blew MANY putts 4 and 5' past the hole. Very frustrating to have back to back fairly solid rounds, then follow it up with a dogshit performance.

Busy weekends coming up so I probably won't get out again until Mid September which may be a good thing at this point.

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Frankie, pick it up at double par, you don't need to do that to yourself. You're not John Daley.


Went to the Callaway demo and they set me up with a Flash with a 50g shaft as opposed to the 55g shaft I currently have. I liked it, hit it well. Bought it. They cut the price a bit as part of the demo day and I also have $80 in merch credit at Sportsman from the golf league. Gonna take about 5 days for it to arrive so ran over to Dick's afterwards and had my current driver re-gripped with a medium size grip. Gonna play with that this weekend and if I like it I'll switch out the Flash grip when it arrives.

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Normally I would have in the midst of such a shit round. But I was actually hitting into a par 5 and dunked three in the pond trying to hit a 90 yard wedge onto the green.

I didn't quite Tin Cup it with a hole out, but I did put my 4th try onto the green and sank the put for an 11.

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Played Tuesday morning after being out of town a week. I didn’t have my rangefinder so tried to walk off or guess yardages on most shots. Took a 9 on the par 5 fifth to put me at 7 over very early. Shot an 83 and made no putts. I couldn’t hit the cup from anywhere so I need to maybe hit a few putts tonight or just hit some extra tomorrow morning. Looks like perfect weather this weekend.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Played Shepherd's Crook yesterday. Tried out my driver with mid size grips for the first time and it did not go well. Only hit 4/14 fairways with 2 topped drives and 2 that were a foot fat behind the ball.
ended up with an 88. Gonna try the mid size one more time this week before I give up on them, maybe it was just a bad day for me.


My golf trip took a hit. My partner can't make it now. His wife's cancer just went stage 4 and it not looking good. So just gonna be the 3 of us. We'll make the best of it, but it will definitely have a different vibe to it this year.

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Wouldn’t seem to me that grips caused the bad tee shots. Good idea giving it another try.sorry to hear about your buddy’s situation that sounds awful. I played better over the weekend and actually play Stonewall Orchard with a supplier tomorrow so that should be interesting.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami