Post by Richie3Jack on Apr 5, 2015 10:51:36 GMT -5
Haven't done one of these in a while.
Course: Red Tail Club
Weather: 80 degrees and sunny, 2-3 club wind
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x and Nicklaus Black
Irons: Yonex EZone MB
I usually play golf with my dad on Saturdays, but he caught some weird type of flu bug over the week and cancelled on me on Friday. So I booked a tee time at the Red Tail Club where they paired me with 2 other guys.
The Red Tail Club is one of my favorites in the Orlando area. It was an exclusively private club, but since the development did not develop like they thought, it started to allow players on GolfNow. It's a beautiful course and development, tucked away behind Lake Mary and Longwood. There is just no easy way to get there. It took me 1-hour to get there with little traffic.
Thankfully they paired me with guys that actually play golf and one of them was pretty decent, probably a legit 2 handicap or so. Recently when I've been paired up I keep getting paired up with guys that have only played golf a few times. But the issue is that the courses are booked, so we have to pair up. Makes for some awful rounds.
Anyway, this round I was looking to try out my BombTech Grenade driver and the Nicklaus Black ball.
#1: I smoked this drive into the wind. In fact, I would say I was about 10-15 yards longer off the tee than the 2-handicapper I was playing with on the other tee shots, but this one went 50 yards past his drive. Must have had the adrenaline flowing on this one. I then flushed a light 6-iron into the wind to 15-feet. Had the line, but left it short. A theme on the day was how we struggled to get putts to the hole. The practice green was fast and the regular greens looked fine and rolled smooth, but it was like putting thru glue. (E)
#2: I hit the BombTech driver here since the wind was not in our face and I hit an okay drive that was pretty high. I found the fairway no problem. I will say that the BombTech driver performs nicely on strikes that are well off-center. Ball still goes fairly straight.
I hit a decent 3-wood just short of the green and my pitch shot checked up to 10-feet. Left this one well short but saved par (E)
#3: When I looked on Google Earth at this hole the night before, I said I was going to hit 3-wood off the tee. But when we got up there the wind was swirling and I hate laying up too short of where I want to be. So the wind started to blow in our face and I hit driver which I hit alright, but I was only 3-feet from the edge of the fairway and I had no shot. I punched one underneath the trees and it left me with a simple chip. I hit the chip to about 1-foot and made par (E)
#4: Ugly 4-iron into the wind that ended up in good position. I hit a chip to 5-feet and made the par save (E)
#5: Another ugly swing, this time with the driver. But, I ended up okay in the fairway. I had 220 yards into the wind and hit a decent 2-hybrid that found the left bunker. Hit the bunker shot to a foot and kicked in for par (E)
#6: This 4-iron was struck well, but I hooked it off the planet. Fortunately, it hit the cart path and stayed on the cart path. I should have been O.B. I dropped and hit a good shot like I wanted, but got screwed on the bounce. 2-putted and made bogey (+1)
#7: I pulled out the BombTech here as well since it was downwind. The shaft is too soft for me to comfortably hit a ball into the wind. I hit this as well as I could with the Nicklaus Black ball. But, it didn't go nearly as far as I expected. Only about 300 yards. I then hit 3-wood and tried to aim to the right so I could avoid trouble, but I pulled it left and ended up in this waste bunker with a 60 yard shot that has to go over the greenside bunker. I went from the waste bunker to the greenside bunker. Then hit out of the greenside bunker to about 20-feet and 2-putted for bogey. Tough to make bogey off a good drive that is right down the middle. (+2)
#8: I went back to the Wishon driver here and took a terrible swing and ended up in the retaining pond that had no water in it. I then hit a 3-hybrid beautfully from that lie, but it went into the front bunker where...it plugged (believe me, this happens all of the time on front bunkers). A hack out of it caused the ball to stay in the bunker Then I hit onto the green and missed an 8-footer with not enough speed for a double. (+4)
#9: This wasn't a good swing off the tee either, but better than I had been doing and it found the fairway. I then hit a weird 9-iron that I spun back about 15-feet and had 15-footer for birdie. I didn't want to leave another putt short so I rammed this one pretty good and missed and made par (+4)
#10: This drive I hit much better, but didn't quite make the swing I wanted. The good news is it hit the cart path and I ended up in perfect position with probably an extra 30-yards of distance. I only had 87 yards into the green while my playing partner hit driver and had 140 yards. I didn't hit a very good wedge shot though and left myself with 30-feet to the hole. I just missed the birdie putt and tapped in for par (+4)
#11: Good shot here as they had the tees all the way back and I had to hit 3-hybrid. I ended up about 50-feet away and just missed the birdie putt. I then tapped in for par (+4)
#12: At this point I'm trying to get myself back into playing well and finishing with a solid back nine. I had hit one of those 'mental rip tides' as Dr. Bhrett McCabe calls it on holes 4-8 and I almost made my way thru it, but some bad breaks hurt me. And now I'm hitting better shots again.
Here I cut the corner with the driver perfectly and end up just short of the waste bunker. Problem is that the lie isn't very good. It's a tight, downhill lie. I was only 210 yards away, but I decide to hit 3-hybrid because I think it's a lie best to be hit with the hybrid and if I go long, that's okay. I make good contact, but push it into the right greenside bunker.
I tried to get this bunker shot up into the air, but it came out lower than I wanted. However, I had a 5-footer left over and I made the putt for birdie (+3)
#13: This wasn't a well struck driver, but it ended up in a good spot. I then made an ugly swing with a P-Wedge and ended up on the fringe. Left the 40-foot birdie putt well short but made the 4-foot par save (+3)
#14: Before the round I wanted to figure what I thought would be a 'critical hole' for Red Tail. I basically guessed and thought they would be #10, #14, #15 and #17 just by the way they were designed. So I focused on this hole and didn't take the best swing, but hit a good tee shot down the middle. I caught a PW thin, but it was pin high to 12-feet and I made the birdie. So by focusing on this hole, I was able to make birdie despite not taking a good swing on the tee shot and the approach. However, that was 4 swings in a row that were not very good. (+2)
#15: This is a deceiving hole because it opens up in front of and to the left of the green that you can't see from the tee shot. I pulled a 3-hybrid that was likely too much club anyway. I found my ball in a gulley with 'too good of a lie.' I had to hit a mini-flop and the ball was sitting on top of a weed which plopped up the ball too much for that shot. I thought I may have hit a good shot when I hit it because I couldn't see the green from where I was from. But, it ended up short and I 2-putted and made bogey (+3)
#16: This is a tough hole. I hit the driver hard here, but just didn't quite make the swing I wanted and it ended up in the right rough, dangerously close to the water. I had a very downhill lie and not a good lie either. I caught a 4-iron a little low on the face, but right in line with the sweet spot and it was like a laser at the hole. I then made the 12-footer which broke a ton. With the new Bettinardi putter, I just don't miss left 1/10th of the time as I was before. Especially on left-to-right breaking putts. BTW, if I had to figure out the critical holes again, I would say they are #1, #7, #15 and #16. (+2)
#17: I hit the BombTech Grenade here and it was a so-so shot that found the fairway. I hit a good 3-wood that I was aiming left and figuring that the wind would push it to the right. Well, it didn't. And I ended up on the cart path. I then pitched to 20-feet, left the putt short again and made par (+2)
#18: Me and the 2-handicapper played synchronized golf here. Our drives went into the right rough about 3-yards apart from each other. Our 2nd shots went short of the green about 2-feet from each other. And we hit our pitch shots about 8-inches from each other. And we both lipped the putt on the same side and made bogey. We laughed, but I forgot to tell him of the time I played golf with a guy and our drives hit each other on 3 different occasions in the same round.
Notes:It was a beautiful day for golf and I’m starting to get back more into competitive mindset where I’m starting to focus on the emotions of playing golf and not letting them sway my performance too much. I shot 75 (+3) on a fairly difficult course (they have played US Open qualifiers and play a pretty big NCAA event here every year) and didn’t putt well. But, that 75 was mostly due to the large ‘mental rip tide’ I had from holes 4-8.
The other part is that I haven’t been able to play much, so that causes a situation where you start to revert to old bad habits as you have to go from the range swings to the course swings. I could see the progress overall as some lightbulbs went on the past 2 weeks, but some of the ‘old swing demons’ still presented a problem.
As far as the BombTech goes, I didn’t get to test it side by side with the Wishon since I was playing with a pair of strangers. My feeling is that it probably doesn’t go any further than my Wishon. I think it’s a good club head and it may just come down to being properly fitted.
I’m a bit skeptical of the Nicklaus Black golf balls. I had some old Pro V1’s that seemed to go further. Again, I couldn’t compare side-by-side. Hopefully today I will get to try that out.
Score: 40-35=75 (+3)
Hit Fwy: 10/14
Impedes: 2
GIR: 10/18
GIRO Score: -5
15/5 Score: +8
Course: Red Tail Club
Weather: 80 degrees and sunny, 2-3 club wind
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x and Nicklaus Black
Irons: Yonex EZone MB
I usually play golf with my dad on Saturdays, but he caught some weird type of flu bug over the week and cancelled on me on Friday. So I booked a tee time at the Red Tail Club where they paired me with 2 other guys.
The Red Tail Club is one of my favorites in the Orlando area. It was an exclusively private club, but since the development did not develop like they thought, it started to allow players on GolfNow. It's a beautiful course and development, tucked away behind Lake Mary and Longwood. There is just no easy way to get there. It took me 1-hour to get there with little traffic.
Thankfully they paired me with guys that actually play golf and one of them was pretty decent, probably a legit 2 handicap or so. Recently when I've been paired up I keep getting paired up with guys that have only played golf a few times. But the issue is that the courses are booked, so we have to pair up. Makes for some awful rounds.
Anyway, this round I was looking to try out my BombTech Grenade driver and the Nicklaus Black ball.
#1: I smoked this drive into the wind. In fact, I would say I was about 10-15 yards longer off the tee than the 2-handicapper I was playing with on the other tee shots, but this one went 50 yards past his drive. Must have had the adrenaline flowing on this one. I then flushed a light 6-iron into the wind to 15-feet. Had the line, but left it short. A theme on the day was how we struggled to get putts to the hole. The practice green was fast and the regular greens looked fine and rolled smooth, but it was like putting thru glue. (E)
#2: I hit the BombTech driver here since the wind was not in our face and I hit an okay drive that was pretty high. I found the fairway no problem. I will say that the BombTech driver performs nicely on strikes that are well off-center. Ball still goes fairly straight.
I hit a decent 3-wood just short of the green and my pitch shot checked up to 10-feet. Left this one well short but saved par (E)
#3: When I looked on Google Earth at this hole the night before, I said I was going to hit 3-wood off the tee. But when we got up there the wind was swirling and I hate laying up too short of where I want to be. So the wind started to blow in our face and I hit driver which I hit alright, but I was only 3-feet from the edge of the fairway and I had no shot. I punched one underneath the trees and it left me with a simple chip. I hit the chip to about 1-foot and made par (E)
#4: Ugly 4-iron into the wind that ended up in good position. I hit a chip to 5-feet and made the par save (E)
#5: Another ugly swing, this time with the driver. But, I ended up okay in the fairway. I had 220 yards into the wind and hit a decent 2-hybrid that found the left bunker. Hit the bunker shot to a foot and kicked in for par (E)
#6: This 4-iron was struck well, but I hooked it off the planet. Fortunately, it hit the cart path and stayed on the cart path. I should have been O.B. I dropped and hit a good shot like I wanted, but got screwed on the bounce. 2-putted and made bogey (+1)
#7: I pulled out the BombTech here as well since it was downwind. The shaft is too soft for me to comfortably hit a ball into the wind. I hit this as well as I could with the Nicklaus Black ball. But, it didn't go nearly as far as I expected. Only about 300 yards. I then hit 3-wood and tried to aim to the right so I could avoid trouble, but I pulled it left and ended up in this waste bunker with a 60 yard shot that has to go over the greenside bunker. I went from the waste bunker to the greenside bunker. Then hit out of the greenside bunker to about 20-feet and 2-putted for bogey. Tough to make bogey off a good drive that is right down the middle. (+2)
#8: I went back to the Wishon driver here and took a terrible swing and ended up in the retaining pond that had no water in it. I then hit a 3-hybrid beautfully from that lie, but it went into the front bunker where...it plugged (believe me, this happens all of the time on front bunkers). A hack out of it caused the ball to stay in the bunker Then I hit onto the green and missed an 8-footer with not enough speed for a double. (+4)
#9: This wasn't a good swing off the tee either, but better than I had been doing and it found the fairway. I then hit a weird 9-iron that I spun back about 15-feet and had 15-footer for birdie. I didn't want to leave another putt short so I rammed this one pretty good and missed and made par (+4)
#10: This drive I hit much better, but didn't quite make the swing I wanted. The good news is it hit the cart path and I ended up in perfect position with probably an extra 30-yards of distance. I only had 87 yards into the green while my playing partner hit driver and had 140 yards. I didn't hit a very good wedge shot though and left myself with 30-feet to the hole. I just missed the birdie putt and tapped in for par (+4)
#11: Good shot here as they had the tees all the way back and I had to hit 3-hybrid. I ended up about 50-feet away and just missed the birdie putt. I then tapped in for par (+4)
#12: At this point I'm trying to get myself back into playing well and finishing with a solid back nine. I had hit one of those 'mental rip tides' as Dr. Bhrett McCabe calls it on holes 4-8 and I almost made my way thru it, but some bad breaks hurt me. And now I'm hitting better shots again.
Here I cut the corner with the driver perfectly and end up just short of the waste bunker. Problem is that the lie isn't very good. It's a tight, downhill lie. I was only 210 yards away, but I decide to hit 3-hybrid because I think it's a lie best to be hit with the hybrid and if I go long, that's okay. I make good contact, but push it into the right greenside bunker.
I tried to get this bunker shot up into the air, but it came out lower than I wanted. However, I had a 5-footer left over and I made the putt for birdie (+3)
#13: This wasn't a well struck driver, but it ended up in a good spot. I then made an ugly swing with a P-Wedge and ended up on the fringe. Left the 40-foot birdie putt well short but made the 4-foot par save (+3)
#14: Before the round I wanted to figure what I thought would be a 'critical hole' for Red Tail. I basically guessed and thought they would be #10, #14, #15 and #17 just by the way they were designed. So I focused on this hole and didn't take the best swing, but hit a good tee shot down the middle. I caught a PW thin, but it was pin high to 12-feet and I made the birdie. So by focusing on this hole, I was able to make birdie despite not taking a good swing on the tee shot and the approach. However, that was 4 swings in a row that were not very good. (+2)
#15: This is a deceiving hole because it opens up in front of and to the left of the green that you can't see from the tee shot. I pulled a 3-hybrid that was likely too much club anyway. I found my ball in a gulley with 'too good of a lie.' I had to hit a mini-flop and the ball was sitting on top of a weed which plopped up the ball too much for that shot. I thought I may have hit a good shot when I hit it because I couldn't see the green from where I was from. But, it ended up short and I 2-putted and made bogey (+3)
#16: This is a tough hole. I hit the driver hard here, but just didn't quite make the swing I wanted and it ended up in the right rough, dangerously close to the water. I had a very downhill lie and not a good lie either. I caught a 4-iron a little low on the face, but right in line with the sweet spot and it was like a laser at the hole. I then made the 12-footer which broke a ton. With the new Bettinardi putter, I just don't miss left 1/10th of the time as I was before. Especially on left-to-right breaking putts. BTW, if I had to figure out the critical holes again, I would say they are #1, #7, #15 and #16. (+2)
#17: I hit the BombTech Grenade here and it was a so-so shot that found the fairway. I hit a good 3-wood that I was aiming left and figuring that the wind would push it to the right. Well, it didn't. And I ended up on the cart path. I then pitched to 20-feet, left the putt short again and made par (+2)
#18: Me and the 2-handicapper played synchronized golf here. Our drives went into the right rough about 3-yards apart from each other. Our 2nd shots went short of the green about 2-feet from each other. And we hit our pitch shots about 8-inches from each other. And we both lipped the putt on the same side and made bogey. We laughed, but I forgot to tell him of the time I played golf with a guy and our drives hit each other on 3 different occasions in the same round.
Notes:It was a beautiful day for golf and I’m starting to get back more into competitive mindset where I’m starting to focus on the emotions of playing golf and not letting them sway my performance too much. I shot 75 (+3) on a fairly difficult course (they have played US Open qualifiers and play a pretty big NCAA event here every year) and didn’t putt well. But, that 75 was mostly due to the large ‘mental rip tide’ I had from holes 4-8.
The other part is that I haven’t been able to play much, so that causes a situation where you start to revert to old bad habits as you have to go from the range swings to the course swings. I could see the progress overall as some lightbulbs went on the past 2 weeks, but some of the ‘old swing demons’ still presented a problem.
As far as the BombTech goes, I didn’t get to test it side by side with the Wishon since I was playing with a pair of strangers. My feeling is that it probably doesn’t go any further than my Wishon. I think it’s a good club head and it may just come down to being properly fitted.
I’m a bit skeptical of the Nicklaus Black golf balls. I had some old Pro V1’s that seemed to go further. Again, I couldn’t compare side-by-side. Hopefully today I will get to try that out.
Score: 40-35=75 (+3)
Hit Fwy: 10/14
Impedes: 2
GIR: 10/18
GIRO Score: -5
15/5 Score: +8