I do have a pair for when it gets cold. What do I have to lose at this point?

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

LOL -- they were just interviewing her post-game and she said it was because of how cold and windy it is there. She said she almost quit playing a year ago... pretty crazy to go from that to winning a major. She only got in the field because of Covid keeping eligible players out of it.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I'm down to one putter for the first time in a few years. Tried different head, neck, grip options and went back to what was in the bag in the first place.

Center shaft mallet, no offset, no flange or perpendicular lines to distract me into focusing on the "squareness" of the club face. The club literally suits my eye in that I'm an extremely left-eye dominant/right-hand golfer. The other thing is that the length/lie suits me and it's an altered club - 33 inch putter that someone put an extension on it that plays to 34.5." and just works.

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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

Played 9 yesterday. Been really struggling off the tee with a terrible slice. Usually I can play the slice, but it has been so bad lately there is no playing it. I switched to an unconventional grip suggested by a friend. It seemed to help straighten things out. Looking forward to getting back out and seeing if that was just a fluke.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

A slice is more often than not swingpath related. You likely have to get rid of an over-the-top move in your swing. Have you ever taken a lesson from a professional? It's a good idea to get you on point as far as grip, stance, swing. Yeah, you can try to adjust for slice with a stronger grip, but I would look at swingpath. You play tennis, right? Envision hitting a forehand shot where you drop your arm into the slot and come at the ball from the inside to the outside. Now, Imagine the golf ball as the face of a clock and focus on hitting the ball at 4:30 through to 10:30.

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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

Thanks that makes sense. Swingpath is probably it. I usually do not have the issue with my irons, but if I hit a driver or wood it is usually bad.

I have not taken a lesson by a pro. I have always thought about doing that, but never followed through on it.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

The slice is more pronounced with driver/wood because of the longer shafts. Harder to square the club face with an over-the-top move. Two other things to consider: really struggling with a slice tends to lead to opening the stance in an attempt to aim more left, which more often than not makes the slice worse. Also, not finishing your swing because you're too worried about "more slice " Not getting to your left side and not finishing your swing (hands over left shoulder for RH golfer) will exacerbate a slice.

Definitely take a lesson. Find someone that can give you drills to work on afterward.

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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

Thanks again, definitely makes sense.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Furious is wise. I tend to slice my driver at times as well, and it's definitely swing path. "Head down, belt buckle to target" are the last things I tell myself before I swing the driver. The 'belt buckle' helps me finish the swing, as Furious mentions.

Another tip even though it may seem counterintuitive, unless there is a hazard on the right side, when you use the driver off the tee set up as far right on the Tee Box as you can. This will open up the entire left side of the hole for you.

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I definitely come over the top, and that's the one thing I'm working on the most this season. Not worrying about distance from speed - I'm about 3 clubs short right now - but just trying to not "chop wood." I am incorporating a little bit of the David Ledbetter "A-Swing" and trying to focus on correcting where the clubhead is at the top of the backswing and following through.

The most difficult thing for me because I'm a "last kid picked in gym class" level athlete is balancing keeping my eye on the ball past contact and still keeping the right shoulder following through without decelerating. That's part of the drift to over the top for me.

Even though I didn't play great on my last round, I was happy in part because I cracked a nice straight 7 wood off the tee the one time I tried it. Only thing was that I had teed it up just a touch too high so I skied it only about 115 yards!

I'm playing again on Tuesday and a driving range session this Friday. I find that Sunday night is a good time for me to focus on golf reading and YouTube watching and deciding on the one swing component to focus on the following week. I've also been putting on the replay of the featured holes from ESPN+. Today it is 11 and 16 at the Northern Trust.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Just played 9 today, the pace was blistering, the course was very hilly (but good) with some cart path only, and I was playing too slowly as I was getting winded. I let the guy playing with me go on his own after 5 (he was going to shoot 82 from the blues), took a ten minute break, and started playng well again. I got to the 9th green and the foursome of members 15 minutes behind me had caught up to me so I bailed after 9 as I was happy with my playing and my workout. Easily my best playing of the year, a legit 53 on a tough 2900 yard layout. Much more challenging rough than my last few rounds, and the greens were full of breaks - easy to read, tough to execute.

The driver grip and tee height adjustment I made on the range and course last week is paying dividends, and I had a couple of nice straight 170 yard drives after struggling to break 150 so far this year. The grip change has messed up my hybrid though as now I'm grounding everything with it. I need to get to the range on saturday when the grass is available instead of the mats and hit 40 of them.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Travelled out through pleasant Prairie to golf this morning. No road blocks but gas pumps turned off in town. Gotta get some stress relief, a good walk and chasing the ball this morning will help. Seems like the extra patrols helped. My guess is this weekend will be a shit show.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Hang in there, T-Bone!

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72 with 5 birdies including 2 chip ins. 38-34 so nice to finish -2 on the back. Very humid out there. Put the old putter back in and I was on fire.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Damn, nice shooting up there.

And good golf as well!

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Nice, congrats!!!

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

42 here, just kinda meh. Parred the three par 3s, but didn't do anything special otherwise. Bogeyed the par 5 #2.

Shot another 87 (47-40) at Lincoln Oaks in Crete on Tuesday. Sort of a goofy layout where you start with two par 4s, then alternate par 5 par 3 until you finally play another par 4 on the 10th. Considering how dry its been here, the course was in really good shape. Fairways and greens overall were in really nice condition. Couple of really tough pin placements lead to two three putts, and I am now pushing my SW and GW when I take full swings on them which is very frustrating. Hit the driver well and while I wasn't real crisp with the irons, I didn't really get myself into a ton of trouble with them either. $35 to ride during the week and $45 on the weekends is a pretty sweet deal. Fairly hilly, so not a real walkable course in the warm weather.



Also for those of you in the S/SW burbs, Deer Creek in University Park is running a summer special where its just $25 to ride after 12PM for the next few days, Sat and Sun included.

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I played 18 today. It was really hot at the end, 94, and the course was a little light on good tree placement for shade.
It was an interesting course, it's a big course for junior golf so they have 7 tee boxes on each hole, and they give you a guide as to what box suits your game based on how you hit driver and 7 iron. The closest boxes for beginners was barely 2500 yards, the deepest was about 7000.

I played at a mixture of boxes 5 and 4 which came out to 5200 yards. A bit less than what I'm used to but the front nine was very narrow and precluded driver on many holes. The course was in fantastic condition and the pace was blistering as the member twosome I passed on hole 4 was playing from box 2 (about 3000 yards). I finished in less than 2:45 but really couldn't spend much time reading greens and the greens were fast (for me) and tricky with lots of false fronts.

I shot a 102, including a legit par on a short par 4 with my best drive of the year so far, a topped hybrid (I couldn't hit it all day, this grip change is a problem for that club), a nice 9 iron pitch, and a 10 foot putt. Lack of course knowledge definitely cost me 3 shots, and I fucked up at least 4 hybrid shots. So 90 at that distance would be feasible, which is kind of their goal - shoot in the 80s and then move back a couple of hundred yards next time.

They offer a membership for $155/month for unlimited play ($22/cart), four lessons a month, and eight guest passes a year. I'm seriously considering it, even at an hour drive. A round is $59 riding through Golfnow, so I'd break even at 3 rounds a month plus two lessons. And realistically, at that pace I could easily play 27 most Tuesdays.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Played Springbrook recently and shot 87, and MAN that course is torn up. I can appreciate that we have gone a long time without a lot of rain, and their tee books have been packed with everyone working from home, but for a $50 loop I was expecting to not have to dodge as many exposed dirt patches on the fairways (which I did by playing from the rough). What's more, the fairway bits that weren't barren weren't very closely mowed, almost like the first cut length you see on TV.

I was considering a membership there for next year, but if those are the normal course conditions I'll save up and spend a little more to play something nicer on the regular. Be warned if your buddies want to hit up that course.

EDIT: Forgot to add that the pro shop is pretty decently priced, I was able to snag a FootJoy polo print for half off MSRP and I saw they have some cool looking polos from an outfit called Swannies Golf that are super soft and light for about 10 dollars less than even the makers sell them for on their website. If you're looking to add to your collection as the season wraps up, hitting up their clearance rack is the way to go.

My clubhouse had the Footjoy shirts for 59 which is pretty good. They also had the FJ 1857 stuff for the same price which blew my mind. Those shirts are like $135 regularly. I can’t really pull off cotton knots anymore so I passed but it was a great deal.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Shot 33 on the front nine this morning after starting eagle-birdie on the first two holes. Shot 40 on the back after a missed 3 footer and having to chip out sideways twice. So close to putting it all together for once. It’s a crazy game.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I played my semifinal match in the year long match play event at my club today. I was giving him 2 shots. He shot 35 on the front nine and I shot 42. Could be better, but not horrible - I didn't expect to be down 6 after 9 holes. He won 10 after my 3-putt to go 7 up and was stroking on 11. I joked "at least you get a shot here". I pushed 11 and was dormie. I fought hard and won 12-15. We both parred 16 to end the match at 3&2. We finished the round and he shot 78 to my 79.

I was pretty proud of myself for fighting back like I did.

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11 inches of rain here last night. Yuck. Good thing I played twice last week. I'm hoping to play on Friday morning if most people don't have the same idea before the long weekend.

So I spent last night staying up late watching a stream of the two back 9 par threes from Olympia Fields. I learn so much watching the same holes played over and over with the same couple of pairs of announcers, I really prefer it to the typical bounce around coverage.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Way to keep fighting. Sounds like it’s been a pretty positive year overall

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Teeing it up at Pine Meadow tomorrow. One of my all time favorite tracks. Should be a fun day. Kicks off potentially 4 days of golf in a row if the weather behaves.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Have fun, i don't have a tee time currently this weekend and I am not sure how to feel about that. My first nothing weekend in about 3 months.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Made the turn at 37. Greens were like glass. Almost all sloped back to front. No three putts amazingly. I was +2 through 13 and then the wheels came off with a triple-bogey-double bogey. Limped in with an 81. Very frustrating to say the least but it happens. My second double my drive hit the cart path and bounced straight right and was lost. Weather was great and still love the layout. I played the gold which was just under 7000 yds so I would maybe move up a box to make it a bit more enjoyable but it wasn’t unfair by any means.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Just shot a 46. Was feeling pretty good about it as I went by myself looking to work on things and straightened some stuff out. Also decided I am ready to say screw it and play Pro Vs. Off the tee for me not much really but oh man do they stop on greens and get up out of lies etc. Oddly enough they putted better. That surprised me. Must be quality control.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

6,500 is about all I want to play anymore. getting old and loosing distance sucks.

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6600 is generally where I look when playing a resort course or somewhere new. I play a 6700 and 7000 yd course on the regular. I still hit it plenty far to play those but the long par 3s are an annoyance.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami