Forgot to mention a weird thing that happened during my round Sunday. Teeing off with a 3 wood and I use these little 1.5 inch tees I use for par 3s and teeing off with 3 wood or hybrids. Anyway I must not have had the tee in the ground straight or something because right at the start of my downswing, the ball falls off the tee towards me. I don't have that Tiger Woods ability to stop my swing at a moments notice so I tried to hit the thing and funny enough probably hit one of the better tee shots on that hole for the year. I have no idea how I did it and am fairly confident I would not be able to do it again. My playing partner just looked at me and said, "What the hell was that?" Highly recommend the tees though, I have yet to break one and like using them better than brokens or full tees for those shots.

https://westernbirch.com/collections/ba ... 5-shortees

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Played Glencoe Friday. They were closed for 2 days because of last week's storm. Course looked like a tornado ran through. At least 50 downed massive trees. Piles of trees and debris in the rough on just about every hole. Lost 4 balls just from them going into those piles. They had a rule that day that weren't allowed to play from the rough. had to pick up your ball and put it in the fairway. We got paired up with the funniest guy I've ever been paired up with. 54 year old single dude, chewing tobacco, about 10 empty beer cans in his cart cause he played 18 earlier in the day. He was very loud and hilarious, it was like playing with Rodney Dangerfield. Kept telling us about his $1500 per hour whores that he gets. It was very distracting, but he was so funny I didn't mind one bit that my game was going to crap during the round. 43 on the front but probably close to a 65 on the back. At least 3 8s. Finally stopped keeping score and just enjoyed the company and sight seeing the destruction on the course.


Played White Deer Run yesterday morning. Much different round. I could tell on the putting/green I was going to have a good day. My ball striking was on point, could hear that beautiful little click of the club hitting the back of the ball on every chip I tried. Carried it out to teh course. 43 on the front with one major error where I grabbed the wrong club by mistake and hit a perfect shot that surprised me when it came up short of the green and landed in a trap. Took a birdie putt hole and turned it into a double bogey. Shot a 40 on the back with one bad OB drive where I overcooked the draw. Overall, 10/14 fairways with the driver and only 32 putts. If that's my last round of the year it will be a content off season.

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Beautiful Labor Day weekend around here, which I spent in 107 degree Phoenix temps...... so no golf for me.

Playing ThunderHawk in Beach Park on Sunday. First time playing it, so we'll see how it goes. Reviews are good.

Getting back into golf this summer, so pretty much all the courses are "new" to me. 22 rounds played, on 14 different courses. Not making excuses (maybe a little), but I think that's part of why putting has been my biggest weakness. Hitting the ball is hitting the ball, but different greens every round can make things harder. Overall, my index is 1.9. But TheGrint app breaks individual stats down and my "putting index" is 8.5.

CAVEAT....I'm not a golfer. I play 1 or 2 times a year and I'm not good.

I played Thunderhawk some 15 years ago and it was noticeably nicer and more difficult than any other course I've played before. Small sample size, but it says a lot that I noticed the difference.

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Thunderhawk is very nice. Tough course for us normal people, you might not think so. Have you played Shepherd's Crook? Its right around the corner from ThunderHawk. Great course and probably half the price of ThunderHawk.

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No, but I'll add it to the list. Most of the places I've tried are just from golf groups online, or playing with someone and they recommend a course. I guess the positive of not playing much for a decade plus, is there are "new" courses to try everywhere.

Shepherd’s Crook is nice, I will vouch for that.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

The bunkers at my course have been hard and compacted this year for some reason. I was bouncing my club off the sand and skulling the ball over the green. I went to YouTube to get a "lesson" on hitting out of compacted sand. Turns out it is as easy as just closing the club face a bit and keeping everything the same as a normal bunker shot.

A lot of left to right holes at my club too. I got a driver lesson from our pro to help me hit that drive. I seem to be able to do that on every hole that requires it except for that damn 17th!

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Really liked Thunderhawk today. Favorite course of the ones i’ve played. Didn’t play very well, but love the course. Hit it well off the tee, but too many shots thrown away with poor irons. Even with 3 birdies, shot 79.

I haven't played it for a few years but probably teed it up there 4 or 5 times. The conditions are always good and the layout is pretty nice. I always have a beef with 12-14 as it seems like they just ran out of room and shoehorned those 3 holes in there.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Other courses in Lake County to consider in my opinion would be Shepherds Crook, Bonnie Brook, Pine Meadow, Steeple Chase, and Stonewall Orchard. I haven't played it in over 20 years but Lake Bluff used to be halfway decent.

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I haven't tried any of the other Lake County courses yet. One issue is it's almost an hour drive to Thunderhawk from my house. Not the end of the world, but adding 2 hours of travel, and the hour warm-up to get my sore body loosened up, and it becomes a minimum 7 1/2 hour day just to play a casual 18 holes. First world problems...

I totally get it. I'd like to get out and play other courses and meet up with other board members more often but the simplicity of driving 30 minutes to the courses I am a member at, having the first tee time and getting around between 2 and 2.5 hours is just too convenient to pass up. This weekend I teed off at 6:30 and was home at 9:30 both days.

Sometimes I wish I had more time to warm up and putt but end up just putting a weight on the driver and swinging for a few minutes to get loose.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

My best Lake county courses:
The Crook
T-Hawk
Stonewall
Pine Meadow
White Deer Run (overpriced)
Lake Bluff (if it's in good shape)
steeple Chase

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This sounds like one of the dumbest sequences of events I've heard on a golf course.... couldn't have happened to a better guy


A bizarre series of events resulted in ESPN reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck undergoing surgery Wednesday to repair a damaged nerve in her broken ankle, courtesy of a golf ball hit by her husband Joe Buck.

The "Monday Night Football" announcer was reported by colleague Adam Schefter to have "accidentally drove a golf ball into" his wife's ankle. Details arrived in an incredible video posted by Buck himself, recorded while dropping Beisner-Buck off at surgery.

Buck explained the incident occurred on July 7 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where the couple decided to get a round of golf in before Buck competed in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament.

We'll just let Buck take it away on the "total freak accident" that happened at the 10th hole:

"We got to 10 and I said 'Why don't I hit a couple of drives off 10, then we'll go get something to eat?' Well, 10 is a little left-to-right hole and Michelle has been known to do headstands during the course of our courtship and marriage, prior to even [their son] Joey arriving on the scene. So she did a headstand at the end of the tee box for good luck, out and to my left.

"At the exact moment that I was teeing off, she decided, with her feet in the air, to do the splits, thereby dropping her right leg a little bit to the side, right in my line of fire. I hit a golf ball, TaylorMade, with little designs on it, into the inside of her right ankle and shattered it."

All of that might sound ridiculous, but let he or she who has not done the splits while in a headstand near the front of a tee box cast the first stone.

Unfortunately for Beisner-Buck, the damage was severe. She said not only was her ankle "shattered," but the tibial nerve, a key nerve connecting to the foot, was also "severely" damaged. Nothing could reportedly be done to fix the nerve during her six weeks in a hard cast, and nerve blocks and lidocaine infusions have reportedly not worked.

Hence, surgery to decompress the nerve. The incident has apparently left Buck shaken as well, while his wife insisted it wasn't his fault:

"Needless to say, my guilt is off the charts. I wake up still in the middle of the night hearing that sound and it makes me sick. It was a bad sound."

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That makes no sense.... Unless she is some X-Men freak with rubber legs, a 3' push to the right would have hit her anyway. I guess people do stupid shit every day. Occasionally you get results like this.

Not really Chicago golf, but playing Coldwater in Ames, IA tomorrow, and then the same course saturday for a charity scramble. Haven't played it before, but has always looked interesting when we stay at the hotel next door when visiting my daughters at ISU.

Hawg, have you ever played Fire Ridge up in Grafton? I think it used to be called CC of Wisconsin way back when. I have an outing there next week and was looking for some intel. My buddy I play with regularly said it was a decent course.

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Heading down near the Quad cities for a little Sunday/Monday trip. Playing TPC Deere Run on Sunday and Fyre Lake Golf Club on Monday.

I've never played Deere Run, so I am excited about that. Been there for the John Deere once but never played. Fyre Lake is in the middle of nowhere (actually right by my farm) and I played it when it first opened. They didn't even have a clubhouse yet and I remember liking the layout. Some guys at my club were talking about how much they like it so I am excited to go back now that it has matured a little bit. Bonus: I can drive by and check on my crops!

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Enjoy playing out of town Franky and casual. I haven't ventured off my home courses all year other than a scramble at The Brute earlier this year.

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Yes, I have never been a fan but it is for a variety of reasons. It has gotten significantly better or was the last time I was there,

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

What didn't you like about it? My buddy said that it gets tight in spots but he hadn't been out there in a long time. Playing as a scramble I won't be too worried about playing my own ball.

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They went thru many owners and there was a time when it was really shitty for what they were charging, it pisssed me off. You will have fun playing a scramble there.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Golfing for the weekend in northern PA. Some cool courses. 10 couples. One serious round then some team type stuff.

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

sounds super gay


Only time I ever want to hear the word "couples" uttered about a golf trip is if it's about surprise guest Freddie Couples showing up.

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Tried to adjust my Taylor Made M5 this week and realized that the screw won't come completely out of the bottom allowing me to adjust the collar. I would occasionally hear a little sound in the neck sometimes but didn't think much of it. Was hoping to open the face a bit. Anyway, I just screwed it back down and left it in the basement. It's looking like I will be playing alone tomorrow morning so it will be a chance to hit a few extra balls from the tee and I'll use my two backup drivers to see if they will work or not. Likely in the market for a used driver during the offseason as the M5 is now 5 years old.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

TPC Deere Run was a much harder course than I anticipated. It looks so much easier on TV lol. On the 8th hole I said to the guys this is a really hard course, and the guys on tour eat this place alive - and shoot 20-25 under playing it 800-1,000 yards longer. And that's the "B-team" of PGA players. They play a different game than we do.

The range and practice area is immaculate. I didn't find myself in any bunkers, but hit some warm up shots in them from the practice area and they we perfect. It is a TPC course, so you have TPC rough and if you miss the fairway or miss around the green you are in trouble. My only complaint is that we were a foursome and there was a twosome behind us. We let them play though on the fourth hole and then got "scolded" by a ranger for doing that. He said we shouldn't have done that because we were the "pace setters". Other than that it was a great experience.

Fyre Lake is a very cool course too, I didn't realize it is a Jack Nicklaus designed course.

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Playing Prairie Bluff in Crest Hill on Sunday. Another one I've never played, but reviews look good. 17th different course in 30 rounds. One thing I've realized with my restart this summer, is that I seem to prefer the "fake links" style over the more traditional "parkland"/trees.

Can you explain why? Just like the more wide open feel of it?

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I think it's just the feel of it. It's not like any of the courses I've played are actual links golf. There really isn't much difference in the type of shots played, other than maybe needing a punch under a tree more often on the parkland style. Don't think I've hit a shot all summer where I was standing in the fairway, and the best shot was to bump and run the approach shot into a green, and trying to avoid a deep pot bunker... I also prefer the look of large areas of native plantings and natural water edges over acres of turfgrass rough that need to be mowed/sprayed/maintained constantly.