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Sum up Your Year

Started playing worse than my handicap, got better than handicap, broke par for 9 at a local soft course, played it even par a couple times...played well at real courses most of the year until the injury bug struck. A never-ending string including a pinched nerve meant cannot grip club properly all the way through swing, right when I was getting back on track with that I got rear-ended and my car totaled at the end of August which had me on muscle relaxers for the golf trip my buddies and I had planned for 2 years...which I should have skipped, and from the accident the ensuing back problems mean the Doc said no golf for another 4-6 weeks as of last Thursday. But I played a spectacular course, have great memories and snuck that through before I had to shut it down.

So how does that year rate? to me still good. I enjoyed the golf, the time with both buddies and a shockingly large number of random strangers, and Lord willing I will be healed up by Spring and ready to hit some great shots, some terrible shots, enjoy the first, laugh at the second and enjoy my walks.
 
Mine isn’t over. I have my own “wraparound season”.

To sum up though - It’s good to be back to playing golf. I don’t know why I stayed away so long.


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Goal one, establish a HC. Done. It wasn't what I expected but I have stunk all year. The last time I had one it had a + in front of it. It no longer does and instead leads with a 6 (trending even higher). A lot of this is due to me playing a course very frequently that is rated rediculously low. It should be around 72/135 but someone thought it should be 68/105. The other factor is I've seemingly lost the ability to hit into the green from 30-80 yards with any consistency. I've always been solid from this range but this year I've been terrible. I constantly airmail greens.

Goal 2, be more consistent. Fail. My low round is a PB -6 66, my high round is plus a billion 104. I really wanted my horrible round(s) to stay under 100 this year, preferably low 90's but when you swing hard at everything, when it goes wrong it REALLY goes wrong.

Goal 3, set a course record. Fail. This goal only came up when I went -6 on the front nine. It then became a very pressing goal:) Standing on 18's tee I'd made 9 birdies and 8 pars to be -9. Course record was -8 64 and 18 is an uphill 380 yard par 4 that I could hit two 6 or 7 irons and make par 90 % of the time. Par is all I needed. Pushed the ball OB right with driver and had to re-tee. Now I have to hit driver to have a shot at tying it. Pushed that one almost OB but safe. But couldn't advance the ball. Made a triple on a day that I didn't miss one single putt under 20 feet all day. Two off the course record and it'll probably be the only time I'm ever in position to get a course record.

Goal 4, help my kids become better golfers. Done. My 13 y/o is a 9.6 HC and is a tough beat for anyone. He can almost always be counted on to be somewhere in the low to mid 80's. He's very consistent, except the day he learned what a hosel rocket was. He was in tears by hole 12 begging me to fix it. Sorry dude, you've gotta work through that on your own. My 15 y/o is marginally better than last year but he also doesn't practice. His SS is at 118 with driver but he's even wilder than I am. His best round just barely cracked 100 but he's usually around 105. He's a mini gorilla ? and I'm going to steer him towards long drive. He gets upset that he isn't good but doesn't practice. If he'd practice he'd probably be a low 90's player. My 13 y/o practices at least 10 hours a week, before we even get to the course or range. He's all the times hitting into a net or even just working on his form in the living (sorry Mrs Smiter!).

Goal 5, have fun. Done. I always have fun. I know I've had a run in with a jerk on the course that I lost my cool over (and subsequently tattled on myself here) but any day that I'm golfing and not working is Fun. Capital F. I've never been the type to run from a challenge and if some idiot wants to charge me when I very reasonably ask him to please play a little faster (after it taking an hour to play a hole and a half), I guess I'll be his Huckleberry. Luckily his less drunk playing partners were smarter than him.

It's been a season. One LOW round, a whole bunch of scores right around 80, and a few "others".
 
Highs and lows
Played with a ton of THPers in gatherings and an event
Broke my pb on 2 occassions
Failed to figure out the driver
Went back to college so I didn't get as many rounds as I'd like
Didn't get my cap below 12
 
I didn't set any goals this year which may have turned out to be a good thing as I had three good golf scores all year and they were all in April. This was a year to enjoy fun and friends instead of excellent scores.

Good:
  • A fun Florida trip in January with my buddies from TheCup, JB, GG, and more Florida people
  • The Masters - playing in SC on Tuesday; getting my dad, brother, and cousin onto the Callaway truck on Wednesday before getting to the course and seeing Joe T gripping a putter for Danny Willett's son for the par 3 contest, seeing Roger Cleveland again and meeting Sean T, Harry, and Chip Brewer
  • THP Odyssey Experience
  • Joining the RGV Tour for a day
  • Winning our industry outing scramble at -5 (there were a few downpours during the round so we're sure that almost everybody else ditched the round and headed to the bar)
  • The Texas outing with threeboysdad, Shakey, et al. (state #23!)
  • Playing with the New England peeps
  • NJSGA event on Tuesday at Hollywood
  • The Breaking 100 outing in a week..seeing a few previous friends and meeting some new ones (states 24 and 25!)


Bad:
  • %(#$ing frost delays on the aforementioned Florida trip (pretty sure it was because of the guy below)
  • Playing mediocre golf all year and driving the index up (9.9 to somewhere around 15)
  • Only being able to be an RGV Tour member for one day (work got in the way of playing Somerset Hills :crying:)
  • Carding a 107 at Palmetto Dunes and 110 in Texas (shank you very much for playing)


KEV said:
I can break down the bad and the good.

The bad:
- I didn't get to practice as much as usual and my handicap increased which is really disappointing.
- I went though a bought of shanks which made me hate golf for a little bit.
-Caused two frost delays in Florida for the first time in recorded history

The good:
- I tied my personal best pretty early in the season.
- I got to play with my 4 year old son for the first time on the course.
- I was able to play golf with good friends from around the country.
- I was able to play in the THP Championship this year!
- I didn't spend nearly as much money on golf equipment.
- I'm going to the effing Grandaddy!!!!

I would say the good waaaayyy outweighed the bad.
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dissapointing and deflating. Sorry but that sums it up golf performance wise.
 
Coming off of a 10 year layoff my two goals were to be able to play without letting poor play affect my mood and to find a set of clubs I'm comfortable with.

The former came off well. The latter is I think accomplished, but I'm still tinkering with what I put in the bag. I bought out half of e-bay looking for ideas and clubs.

I had some health problems in there and had low expectations of my ability. My main goal once I started in late may was to be at peace with my results. At one time (2001) I had the handicap down to 2, and once I started not being able to play as much it crept up to around 12 (2006) and I couldn't handle the frustrations and that was part of why I quit. I was interested to know how I would handle playing to more like a 25 given the layoff and my change in body composition.

Right now through 11 recorded rounds the handicap (as per grint) is 12.5, which is interesting seeing I've lost 40 yards off my tee ball. My putting is way better now than it has ever been in my whole life. I don't bleed over my score so I'm getting a better strike on my 4-10 footers. Well, that and upgrading from a bulls-eye.

I'm guessing once I get to the best 10 of 20 stage rather than the best 3 of 11 the index will go up a bit, but still way better performance than I anticipated.
 
In one word: satisfying

In more than one word:

2018 gave me more than I could have hoped for when it comes to golf. It was a special year personally as I hit the 5-year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis/surgery/treatment - and I decided to celebrate the hell out of it.

It started in May when I tagged along with my wife on her work trip to San Diego. Played a random city course on Day 1 (Balboa?), the North Course at Torrey Pines on Day 2 and then the South Course at Torrey Pines on Day 3. I've heard Torrey referred to as "a muni with great views" and I agree 100% - for the North Course. The South Course was really something special and I'd play there again tomorrow if the opportunity presented itself.

A few weeks later we played Erin Hills. I don't know if it was the anticipation/expectations or what but I was kind of underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast and it's a great track. I guess the fact that I'd be okay never playing there again says it all.

Fast forward to July and it's time for my 5th annual (and final) golf-a-thon fundraiser for cancer research. I played 135 holes and raised ~$4,000 this year. Over the 5 years I played 563 holes and raised just a shade under $30,000.

A week later I was invited to play Whistling Straits. I couldn't pass up the opportunity, despite playing there in 2017. I fared much better the second time around. The front 9 was a bit bumpy (4 pars, 4 doubles, and a birdie) but was able to regroup and banged out 6 straight pars on the back 9 - but tripled 18 when I tried to be a hero on my approach. womp womp womp...

The rest of the season was basically league on Thursday nights and the occasional Saturday morning round.

Last month 7 of my buddies and I took a trip to the Kenai peninsula in Alaska for some fishing and hiking. On one of the non-fishing/hiking days 3 of us decided to find a place to play some golf. What a hoot. The course we played was nothing special but some of the views were spectacular and hey - we played golf in Alaska!

I've still got a few things to look forward to in 2018, despite the fact that the season is really winding down up here:
- Playing Shadow Creek the Monday before Thanksgiving
- Playing Kapalua the first week of December
- And we booked a buddies trip to Bandon for 2019

Gonna be hard to top this year.
 
There are some great stories here.
 
Great golf year, so many trips with old friends and new friends.

- I started out the year by going to RTJ trail with nerdy_81 and playing three courses (Judge, Senator, Legislator) and had a great time.
- In May me and a few buddies went to Myrtle Beach and then I also went back labor day weekend and got to meet up with my shaft up alumni buddy elIterate and we played Caledonia.
- Went down to Florida for the great gathering that Mr 441 put on and met a ton of THPer's and played some awesome courses at Grand Cypress Resort.
- Finished out the year with getting into the amazing Titleist event in Carlsbad where I got to meet some more great THPer's and played a fantastic course (Aviara)

I played a lot of rounds this year and definitely had some good rounds and some bad ones. But I was pretty happy this year with some really good scores at some really tough courses. Have a little more time left here before the season ends but already can't wait til next summer with the TS2 in my bag.
 
links_slayer said:
Last month 7 of my buddies and I took a trip to the Kenai peninsula in Alaska for some fishing and hiking. On one of the non-fishing/hiking days 3 of us decided to find a place to play some golf. What a hoot. The course we played was nothing special but some of the views were spectacular and hey - we played golf in Alaska!

I've still got a few things to look forward to in 2018, despite the fact that the season is really winding down up here:
- Playing Shadow Creek the Monday before Thanksgiving
- Playing Kapalua the first week of December
- And we booked a buddies trip to Bandon for 2019

Gonna be hard to top this year.
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Congrats on five years!

Don't mess it up before Tiger and Phil get there! :alien:

Where did you play in Alaska?
 
My year had its ups and downs.

Found out on the 2nd green that we had bought out new house.

Lots of fun on the course, but coupled with lots of frustration.

Lost the fun for a lot of the year. My mindset just wasn't in the right place. Struggling with stress, feeling like I should have been at home with the newborn more, like there was always something else I should have been making a priority.

Hopefully next year brings a different outlook, more fun, and an opportunity to hit a course with THPers!
 
Played some great courses. Travelled to vigrgina and played with some great guys with a lot of laughs. Unfortunately I think I played my last round with my dad and I think our family golf event is coming to an end. Score was inconsistent but found a driver I really like. September’s weather was awful and didn’t play enough.
 
Really happy with my season over all. Had one goal, to break 80, and did it twice. Had more 9 hole scores in the 30s than I've ever had, by far. Handicap was the lowest it's ever been. Excited for next year (though I'll still get in a few rounds before it's snowboard season hopefully).

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Any summary of my year has to start with being given an insane privilege. Thank you THP and Callaway.

As for my game...the highlight has been finding a new instructor that I like and work well with. I believe I'm on the right path, just need more time to do more work.
 
I laughed, I cried, I felt warm all over.
 
I (re)learned to play. I had fun. I'm going to have a blast next weekend with the Breaking 100 meet up. Having Fun pretty much sums it up.

I'll get to play most of the rest of the winer, or at least practice, so that'll be even more fun.
 
Scrap Iron said:
Played some great courses. Travelled to vigrgina and played with some great guys with a lot of laughs. Unfortunately I think I played my last round with my dad and I think our family golf event is coming to an end. Score was inconsistent but found a driver I really like. September’s weather was awful and didn’t play enough.
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I had that realization with my FIL last March. Turned out we played his last holes that day. I'm finding good memories when I think of golfing with him.
 
After we closed on our new house in May, I haven't played as much as I wanted to. I did start lessons with a instructor at my club that I really connect with and will continue with them through the winter.
 
It has been a pretty good year. I started the year with a 4.4 index which got as high as 7.0 as we report scores year 'round in North Texas. Playing in some dicey conditions weather-wise, cold and wet, all layered up, isn't conducive to good scores. I got into a good streak and got my index down as low as 3.0 this Summer but it seems to be settling in the more appropriate 4-5 range.

So far I have shot my age or better 14 times this year with a low of 69 four times, all on a par 72 (6004 yds 68.6/115) course (I turned age 71 in July), and 31 times overall since I did it the first time at age 68. Many of those others were on a par 70 course (6077 yds 69.2/118). I have had 2 Holes-in-One this year making 6 in total (first one in 1984). So far I have played 147 rounds of golf plus another 13 rounds limited to 9 holes due to weather with a lot more golf left in the calendar year.

As good as all that is, the best is yet to come and that is being a participant in #The Grandaddy! I still find it hard to believe.
 
Disappointing. I got off to a good start. Took a one month vacation. Came back and played a few rounds, and then it was over. This past week has been great weather, but got had a grade 5 migraine so missed it. Hopefully this week I'll get one more round in. I've stopped keeping handicap, but given scores I play to about a 20.
 
I wanted to have a round where I could say that I hit 14/14 FW's but the best I could do was 13/14 and I also had numerous rounds where I hit 12/14 FW's as well. My driver is really working out well for me for the first time ever.
I haven't kept numbers, but because my tee shots are longer and I'm hitting more FW's it's enabled me to get more GIR's as well.
But the best part of this year is that I formed a new non-competitive foursome that I am enjoying playing with tremendously. I have never had as much fun playing golf as I have this year with the other three men in my threesome and we have gotten out for a round of golf together every week this year. We have been rotating our rounds between 3 different courses in my locality.
Hopefully the golf season isn't done yet.
 
Happy with my year. At my age, you don't want to regress. My handicap suggests I stayed pat. But I know better. After 2-3 years where work forced me to play about 90% of my golf at two courses, this year I got to play a bunch of courses. I also got to play more competitive tournaments. So the truth is I improved. I've figured a few more things out, gotten more consistent, and while my handicap shows no progress, it now travels much better.

Next week I'm playing yet another course for the first time. I'm very pleased with where my game sits.
 
Lots of average golf with the under par round every once in a while.
 
This was my first year playing.

I had several goals, most of which I reached in one way or the other.

I now play MOST rounds in the 90s.
My GHIN is 22.5
My swing is MOSTLY consistent. By Mostly I mean that all around I am OK, and can predict most of my shots. My driver was much better two months ago, but I am suffering from push fades (I know how to fix it, but my head is not cooperating) My irons and short game are saving me right now. Putting has come along very nicely for me. Not many one putts, but not many 3 putts either.
 
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