DavePelz4

Former player in our comp group in town from AZ, played Bowes today. It was rather soupy to say the least. Guessing I've played 20ish rounds at Bowes, and it's in the worst condition I've seen. A few tee boxes are dead, and closed. Greens are pock marked, dying grass, although bunkers do have sand. BTW, did they add a bunker left of the fairway on 1? The bunkers on that hole had a different colored sand compared to the remainder of the course and it was staked. On a positive note, PoP was wonderful. Didn't wait on a shot and finished in just under 4. Tale of 2 nines. Started on 10, and started like a 36 handicapper. That lasted a few holes and then the caffeine kicked in and it was fairways and greens. Blackstone tomorrow.

Thanks, definitely going to try that.

Two day, net best ball tournament at Silver Lake on Friday/Sunday. The teams that teed off between 7-11 Friday morning pulled the best of the draw as they had perfect weather. Our group was just after 1PM and we caught 2 delays, and rain though 7 holes. Stuck with playing mudballs, wet bunkers and the rain gear was on/off at least 5x. Ugly round and we were 9 back as a team going into this morning Guessing in my 55 years of playing golf that this morning was the worst humidity day, ever. The temp wasn't outrageous but the humidity was 92% and coupled with the overnight rain, things were just moist. Post surgery, I'm wearing glasses and trying to keep them without fog was just a lost cause. Resin wasn't working to keep the grips dry so I switched to the rain gloves which was the best answer. So before I get into the comp, need to share about playing with a super nice, 89 year old person, let's just call him George. First, I hope we're all of good enough health to be playing at 89, however, I don't think the rules of golf or etiquette change based on age. George shot 89, God bless him. He had a stretch of 6 holes on the back and he pared 5 of the six. Outstanding! George was oblivious of what was going on around him though. He didn't start looking at his putt until it was his turn, and the same on the tee box. His PSR on the tee box was around 90 seconds. I lit a candle at church for his cartner. George also insisted on driving the cart, and when he hit me on the way to the 18th green and knocked me to the ground, his response was "you were in my way." Thankfully I'll never ride in a cart or car with George. The rules for this tournament were also very specific regarding advice and when George tried to graciously read a putt, I had to tell him that he couldn't give advice, requested or volunteered. George's response to me wouldn't be allowed by this site, and let's leave my Mother out of this conversation. It appears based on the current results that we finished 1 shot out of the money. Kicking myself in the arse having missed two birdie putts inside 5 feet, shame on me. On the 157 yard 13th, hit an 8i that didn't leave the flag. In fact, it was so on point, that it one hopped and hit the flag, and dropped on the lip, but not in the cup. DAMN. Here's what made it worse. The people who run the Silver Lake Men's Club forgot to put the CTP on that hole, so guess who hit it to 1 inch and didn't win? Um...his name rhymes with DaveSmellsMore. Have to share what I think is just shi*** behavior. So as mentioned, this was a 2 day tournament weekend. You pick your partner and it was net best ball. So if you sucked for a hole or two, fine, tighten up your jock strap, get your head out of your arse and play on, right? You're also paying an additional entry fee to be in this event, so man up. Someone who I've played with multiple times, and is a 7, has been playing ugly golf recently as we all can be prone to do, and on Friday, on the 5th tee already at 7 over, he just walked off the course. He quit on his partner, who sadly at that point, was net -7 and playing his best round of the year. DQ'd. No refund. And from what was shared, no apology. Lots of golf coming up this week. Bowes Tuesday. Blackstone Wednesday. Normal SL tournament Friday, The Hills of Bartlett Saturday and then Sunday is a 27 hole event on the North Course at SL coupled with the par 3 course. Think that's a 4 man event.

Made the trek to Byron yesterday to play Prairie View. For $50, you can't go wrong. Pace was a tale of 2 nines. Played the front in an hour forty which was sweet, and then on the back, there were 4 times we had 3 groups on the tee box and the culprits were a threesome. Yikes. A threesome. Conditions were also a bit spotty. Some of the fairways, like 2 were in bad shape, and it didn't look like they were doing anything to address that. Same with the greens. Some fast, some slow, some in need of work, like 17. Over the years of going to PV, it seems their focus on conditioning has lessened and now it's average at best. The biggest surprise yesterday was the weather. On the drive out on 88, it was sunny and pouring like a banshee for about 20 minutes. Same on 39 north of Rochelle. But at PV, the forecasted heat index of 112 was off significantly, and it was a really nice, albeit, windy day. No doubt the winds helped to keep things comfortable. For the last 3-4 rounds, putting has been substandard. Normally inside 5 feet, it's been a 95% conversion rate this year which has obviously helped with scoring. Not so recently, so on the back nine yesterday, decided to adjust my stance to the Nicklaus approach being more open and that worked out well with 6 one putts on the inward side. We'll see if that holds up or was an anomaly. Two day, 2 man tournament Friday/Sunday at Silver Lake. Weather looks bad tomorrow in the morning, thankful for an early afternoon tee time.

Hmmm...it's been 1,197 days since the end of the 2022 Masters to today. Rory shot 8 under that day and lost.

OB, in my 17 years being on this site, this post was my all-time fave. And it wasn't even close. Thank you!

I miss the Bing Crosby Clambake at Pebble, The Glen Campbell LA Open and the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic.

There are no flights, each team has an ABCD player.

So...after last Sunday's personal golf score fiasco at Silver Lake followed by the team auction, today was the resulting "Silver Cup," a 4 person team event with the 2 best net scores contributing to the team total. ABCD, with A's being scratch to about 9, B's 10-17, C's 18-19, D's 20-35. The prize pool was $21,850. To be honest, I was worried about cheating considering the teams played together coupled with the amount of cash. People do stupid things for $. 2 years ago, -21 was the winner, last year -20 won. So, our team, which was won at auction for the lowest amount, meaning we had the biggest upside, started out amazing. Eagle and birdie on the first (neither me) so -3, birdie/birdie on 2 (one birdie me), eagle/birdie on 3 (my eagle), and I birdied 4, so we're -9 after 4 holes. Holy Cheese Whiz Batman, at this pace, we're looking at 30 under, right? Reality set in and we sadly calmed down. To speed to the chase, we finished -20 with -9 being me. Only used the driver on 4 holes and hit it shockingly well. Hit 3W on the remainder of the holes and didn't miss a fairway the entire round. Missed 2 birdie putts inside 5 feet which I'm pissed about, but now the story starts. We were the second group out, played in 4 hours BTW and NEVER waited on a single shot, thank YOU!!!! When we got in, the group in front of us had posted -27, we're done already. Was planning on going home right away, but stayed and scoreboard watched as the $ is paid out right after the comp and I wanted to watch the sloshy madness. The insanity happened with the D players. On the day, 37 of 76 total players shot under their index. The winning team score was -29, followed by 2 -28's and 4 -27's. The lowest net score of the day was shot by a 5 year member, who hasn't shot under 90 in 3 years. He shot...a F****** 79. Net FIFTEEN FREAKING UNDER his handicap on his ball, with 2 doubles. Statistically, the probability of that happening are 0.005% chance per round. He not only shot the lowest net individual score of the year but he shot the same as the best net 2 ball team together, which was ironically, me and my partner. He happens to be someone I've played multiple rounds with and in one of those rounds he shot 121. What the hell. We toasted his great success and I asked him what was the difference. He said, "I got so drunk last night that I puked around 3 and thought about backing out. But I didn't want to screw anyone, so I took a bunch of Advil and just played. It hurt too much to think, so I hit the ball and then hit it again." Not thinking and golf are always good. But, to make this more entertaining, his team didn't win, they finished second. The team who won was the typical ham and egg team, with no one contributing more than 9 holes, and no one contributing less than 7 holes. Can't verify this but heard they walked with $10,000 as a team/owner. Not a bad day of golf. Learned a lot today...

Maybe an American will win the Open Championship.

God never had an issue with pace of play. His pace was always eternally perfect.