Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[ldchristopher]

On 4/1/2025 at 11:16 AM, DavePelz4 said:

So far, 2025 has been a year of playing with wonderful people...you know that would come to an end sooner or later.  Playing in a tournament at Silver Lake and still establishing an index. Paired up with 2 wonderful guys and another person who was establishing his index as well. Also a retired senior so this could be fun. He's telling everyone on the first tee how good he is, so this is either going to be fun to watch or a total S show. You already know where this is going.

 

He was generally playing from 1 and sometimes 2 fairways to the right of where the rest of us played from and kept saying he was hitting the ball too straight instead of his usual hook. He used words I've never heard on a golf course before, it was bad, and not in an entertaining way, more of an embarrassing way. Guessing he shot upper 50's on the front and finally squeaked out his first par on the 15th. Quite the happy dance ensued. On 16, he smoked a drive, his best of the day by 50 yards and in the proper fairway. As I'm walking up the fairway he says, "watch this" so I did. He had probably 250ish to the green and after his next shot had about 245 in. After the next shot, he had about 175 to go. He proceeded to whip his fairway wood and of course, it went right over my head. Thankfully I was paying attention or I'd be wearing a Taylormade wood.

 

In my advancing years, I've become better at keeping my yapper shut and said nothing.  He walked over, and possibly an apology is forthcoming. Wrong. He says, "If you're going to play golf with me, you better pay attention because I throw clubs." Duly noted, along with his last name, as at some of the events, you choose your tee time and playing partners, and that was hopefully the last time. I won't mention that some of his positioning of the ball reminded me of Patrick Reed, or that his ball drops were reminiscent of Tiger at the Players in 2013. Fortunately, one of the guys who runs the event saw/experienced everything and I'm pretty sure a conversation was held in the parking lot. So nice to have someone else be TFRG. VNutz will know what that means.

This is why I almost exclusively play with Bear, get the first tee time of the day, or get the first time with Bear. The chances of getting paired with a complete moron decrease the earlier one plays. 

[MountainKing]

45 minutes ago, ldchristopher said:

This is why I almost exclusively play with Bear, get the first tee time of the day, or get the first time with Bear. The chances of getting paired with a complete moron decrease the earlier one plays. 

 

We have a pretty large pool of guys to avoid this as well.   10 guys total so we can always fill a 4some, and some weeks where guys aren't playing tournaments/family obligations we can grab two slots.    I don't mind going out as 3, most of the time random singles are a pleasure to get paired with, but going out as two is highly risky these days.   Post covid - I've had more poor experiences with pairings than good.

[DavePelz4]

4 hours ago, ldchristopher said:

This is why I almost exclusively play with Bear, get the first tee time of the day, or get the first time with Bear. The chances of getting paired with a complete moron decrease the earlier one plays. 

 

So far this year I've played with 45 different people and this was the first AH encountered. Expecting playing 2 comp rounds a week at SL there will be others, but optimistic that this will be the only club thrower. I've started playing with an ear bud in so it's easy to drown someone out if they're obnoxious. Plus, walking affords the opportunities to stay far away from goofs like this.

Edited April 3 by DavePelz4

[St Jimmy]

On 3/30/2025 at 9:57 AM, DavePelz4 said:

 

When the MGI became how I walked the course, I upsized to a cart bag and that has so much more space than the stand bag. There are still several pockets that are completely empty and I don't like to carry extra stuff anyway. Can easily have rain gear plus a just a wind shirt in there if needed. The design issue with the MGI is actually the umbrella holder. I'm not an exceptionally tall person but when it's raining and i'm under the umbrella, I need to duck my head a bit to stay away from the umbrella hitting me in the head.  MGI has an extender for the umbrella but it's always out of stock.

 

EDIT

@TC - looked at accessories last night and the MGI has an additional storage bag available.

 

 

MGI has a really nice rain cover for your bag.  It covers the whole thing and has a velcro cover to open to the clubs.  That allows you to carry the umbrella while you walk.    

[DavePelz4]

3 hours ago, St Jimmy said:

 

 

MGI has a really nice rain cover for your bag.  It covers the whole thing and has a velcro cover to open to the clubs.  That allows you to carry the umbrella while you walk.    

 

Just added that along with the umbrella extender. 

[Hawkeye77]

On 4/2/2025 at 8:37 AM, VNutz said:

It's never boring playing with you. You somehow bring out the worst from the worst people.

 

Hey now! 😀

[DavePelz4]

Third official men's league round today at Silver Lakes, which allows the establishment of an "official" handicap for their comps.

 

As you can imagine, the course was saturated, and there is a parallel league that plays the opposite course so it's intriguing to see the comparative playing conditions rules of the day. While that league played LCP, everywhere, this league, which also has some interesting rules, only allows it in the proverbial closely mown areas. But, here's the twist. Spray it into the next fairway, LCP applies.  Well, OK.

 

To clean something up, the gentleman who whipped the club came up and apologized. All good.

 

Played with very good people again, but when it's cart path only, that leads to slow rounds. Today the group was just under 4:45, which was tough as I walked to my shot and then in some cases, needed to wait a fair amount of time based on our relative positions to the green. We had to let a group play through, and considering they were also playing CPO, and teed off 30 minutes after our group, that was, eh, not my favorite. 

 

It appears inside this rather large group, there are subsets of groups and subsets of rules. Guessing when people see the rules of the day based on conditions, there are some groups, that only play with the same people weekly who choose to adjust things based on their group. With the nature of parallel holes, you can see a lot of play while walking to your shot, or waiting on a shot. Observed shots from the rough picked up, cleaned, and placed. Watched putts clearly conceded and picked up. Guessing that if this is a path I'm going to follow, just need to shut up and play.

 

First official round with an established handicap on Sunday. This should be entertaining.

[DavePelz4]

10 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

 

Hey now! 😀

 

Seriously, always a privilege to play with the pride of IA!

[Hawkeye77]

9 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

Seriously, always a privilege to play with the pride of IA!

Haha, hoping to play with the King of Chicago in June!

[MountainKing]

Chilly, wet afternoon at Preserve.  This weather is getting old.   I'm getting sick of playing saturated courses, haven't had a round yet that wasn't.  Course was in mid season form,  which is odd because they can't seem to get this way mid season.   Pace was 4 hours with cart path only.    Glad I walked,  so much better than CPO.   Had a solid front.  back was a mess.  3 3 putts, 2 doubles for a 79.

 

 

[DavePelz4]

First official event at Silver Lake, lots to unpack. It was 27 degrees on the range at 7A. Ouch. The course is still really wet with mud balls galore. Wasn't in a bunker, but they were in rough condition down to the point that several were listed as GUR. Greens had been cut so they were quite a bit faster than Friday but geez, no one fixes ball marks anywhere.  Sheesh that 7 seconds out of your life is time well spent.

 

Was in the rabbit group and we finished in 3:40, which was solid considering everyone else in the pairing was riding and with CPO, there are some hikes from the path to where shots were played from. Silver Lake is serious about pace and for the first 5 holes, we had a ranger going with us shot by shot. By 9, we were a hole and a half in front of the group behind us and they finished 21 minutes behind us. They really do track pace by group and in some cases, by player if someone is exceptionally slow and you have to check in when your round is over so your groups time is reported and it'll be published for everyone to see. 

 

Multiple events within the round. A flighted net individual comp, blind 2 man teams net best ball and also net 2 ball total with a different partner. Gross/net skins and par 3's.

 

Over all, finished 4th, won the individual flight, and finished second in the best ball team losing by 1 shot.  My score was used on 12 holes, so not unhappy with that result. Guessing $ was won, but no idea of how much. 

 

Paired with very nice guys including someone who said he was, "The worst putter you'll ever see." That's a huge statement, but to my utter shock, he might have been the worst putter I've ever seen in 54 years of playing golf. I will guarantee Stevie Wonder is a better putter. He missed 5 putts inside 6 inches and 2 didn't even hit the hole. One of the missed putts was 2 inches, and he was short. That's kind of crazy as he plays a lot of golf and tee to green he was solid. Guessing he had at least 45 putts, if not more. After the round one of the others in the group sat down and told him his putter face was wide open. I didn't have the heart to say anything. He shared that he'd rather have a 20 foot putt than a 12 inch putt as he has the short putt yips. 

 

Need to get some range time as while the driver found almost every fairway except 2, distance was sorely lacking. Hit a lot of 4W approaches today.

 

Next Saturday is the first round of our season long comp with the original group. The weather looks great, excited to be down to a polo and shorts and drop the layers.

[ldchristopher]

First round of the year at Stonehenge today. The low spots were quite saturated and in general the course was a little scruffy. The fairways and rough almost played as a one cut and I don’t see the rough there getting too thick. The green complexes are huge with a lot of undulation. They were only running at about an 8 this time of year. They were letting carts out but the walking culture looks good. Far more walkers than riders. As for my game? Meh. Ball striking was a little off. I drained a long birdie putt on 2 and had a couple other good looks that lipped out. Midseason form there. But I kept not accounting for the breeze up top. I couldn’t feel it on the ground but it swallowed up quite a few approaches and left me with either really long lag putts or chips. Overall, it’s a fun course and the bones are good. It won’t win any awards but I didn’t hear any cart speakers and I’m not operating under the assumption that private=pristine. 75. 

[MountainKing]

Naperbrook this morning.  Cold when we teed off, really nice for the last 5 holes.    Need I mention that the course was wet, but greens were great, rest of the course was also in good shape despite the wet.   Carts weren't being let out, and it was glorious. I've really flipped my script on this cart thing.    All the ball marks were repaired,  and bunkers raked.  I don't think it's a coincidence, the walkers are just better with taking care of things.  Pace was great as well at 3:30.  My only complaint,  hate what they did to 18. 

 

My short game woes continued today.   70 putts on the weekend it not a good stat. 18 I was pin high in two,  and bogied the thing,  that's how great the short game is right now.    78, but there that feels like an 85.

[DavePelz4]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

Naperbrook this morning.  Cold when we teed off, really nice for the last 5 holes.    Need I mention that the course was wet, but greens were great, rest of the course was also in good shape despite the wet.   Carts weren't being let out, and it was glorious. I've really flipped my script on this cart thing.    All the ball marks were repaired,  and bunkers raked.  I don't think it's a coincidence, the walkers are just better with taking care of things.  Pace was great as well at 3:30.  My only complaint,  hate what they did to 18. 

 

My short game woes continued today.   70 putts on the weekend it not a good stat. 18 I was pin high in two,  and bogied the thing,  that's how great the short game is right now.    78, but there that feels like an 85.

 

MK, haven't played NB since leaving NaperVegas a couple of years ago. What did they do to 18, and any idea of the problem they were trying to solve?

[MountainKing]

2 hours ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

MK, haven't played NB since leaving NaperVegas a couple of years ago. What did they do to 18, and any idea of the problem they were trying to solve?

 

They moved the green over behind the 11th green. 

 

I think the main issues was to stop guys like me from hitting the club house on an over cooked 2nd shot   I've put more balls on the roof than I care to admit to.    I think the other reason was to have a nice short game area.    Keep up with what other courses are offering.

[DavePelz4]

Thanks MK. Hadn't known that was an issue although over the years I've put a tee shot or two in the parking lot trying to cut the corner and draw it.

[MountainKing]

42 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

Thanks MK. Hadn't known that was an issue although over the years I've put a tee shot or two in the parking lot trying to cut the corner and draw it.

 

I've done that too - the new hole doesn't fix that, if anything it makes it worse IMO.  You kind of have to see it for it to make sense, but now there's a tree in the middle of the new fairway about 100 yards out, and there's a block of tree's up the right.  If you take the old conservative line up the right, the block of trees now force you to lay up behind the tree 100 yards out.   They took out the tall grass on the left and added fairway so the ideal tee shot now is over the bunker, on the left, or better left of that bunker, which brings the parking lot into play with a hook.  Mounds over there will kick the ball back into the fairway, but as you know, that line doesn't require a much of a draw to get the ball into the lot.  I'm guessing we might see some cars getting decked this year.    I don't think it was really people hitting the club house, I just joke about that because I probably do hold the record for hitting it when I worked there and played there daily (back left pin became an on going joke with the co workers).  Beyond me, in the 10 years I worked there I can probably count on one hand how many times that happened.  I think at the end of the day, to keep up with courses in the area, the needed a short game area and they had land to move the 18th over, so they did.    

 

18 was a good finishing hole, that green was hard to hit in two shots, and missing it could result in some high numbers.  A really good risk/reward type par 5 IMO between taking an aggressive line and 2nd shot or going more conservative up the right and laying up.  Now it's just kind of a mini golf style hole with the trees potentially blocking you out even if you hit a good drive in the fairway.  I got there with a driver/5 iron playing into the wind, just not really sure what they were thinking with the design.   It's a really poor finishing hole now.

 

 

 

[MountainKing]

Was able to find an image from when they started building the hole - the yellow line is the preferred line, and there's a bit more fairway now to the left of that. From the blue/gold tees the ideal tee shot now is almost over the pine trees by the road.   If you're right of the bunker the group of trees block you, even tho on this image it doesn't totally show that.  They over hang pretty hefty so your layup would be toward the tree that is in the middle.   Guessing that batch of trees will stay, they protect the 17th tee box a bit from errant shots.  Not sure if the dumb middle of the fairway tree will come out, but I assume if it was going to, they would have done that prior to laying down turf.

[DavePelz4]

2 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

Was able to find an image from when they started building the hole - the yellow line is the preferred line, and there's a bit more fairway now to the left of that. From the blue/gold tees the ideal tee shot now is almost over the pine trees by the road.   If you're right of the bunker the group of trees block you, even tho on this image it doesn't totally show that.  They over hang pretty hefty so your layup would be toward the tree that is in the middle.   Guessing that batch of trees will stay, they protect the 17th tee box a bit from errant shots.  Not sure if the dumb middle of the fairway tree will come out, but I assume if it was going to, they would have done that prior to laying down turf.

 

Wow...huge change, don't like the hole layout. If you can't carry the bunker, it almost looks like a layup off the tee and potentially a second layup.  Can't say I'm a fan.

[MountainKing]

7 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

Wow...huge change, don't like the hole layout. If you can't carry the bunker, it almost looks like a layup off the tee and potentially a second layup.  Can't say I'm a fan.

 

Yeah exactly, if you have to go right then you're stuck playing musical trees.   One of the guys in our group smashed a drive up the right and was in the fairway, and because of where that other tree is 100 yards out, it made even a big cut shot to the green almost impossible.   He was not happy being 190 out having to lay up.   None of us had played the new hole, so on the tee box we had no idea a good drive on that hole is not good.   Anyway, playing in the best ball event next week, so this was handy information to have for that.

[St Jimmy]

Oak Grove report:

New range balls and a ball vending machine.

New range mats.  Very plush.  I hit two buckets and didn't get any plastic residue on my clubs.  I even laid down on it to stretch out my lower back... comfy. 

New carts with windshields. 

 

Too early for course conditions, but they aren't worse than last year so far. 

[DavePelz4]

1 hour ago, St Jimmy said:

Oak Grove report:

New range balls and a ball vending machine.

New range mats.  Very plush.  I hit two buckets and didn't get any plastic residue on my clubs.  I even laid down on it to stretch out my lower back... comfy. 

New carts with windshields. 

 

Too early for course conditions, but they aren't worse than last year so far. 

 

Are you sure you didn't mean to post this last Tuesday???  Oak Grove and "new?"

[DavePelz4]

So we have to acknowledge Brielle Downer of Lockport who made it to the Drive, Chip and Putt Finals and finished tied for first. The tie breaker is the putting comp and her competitor was 2 inches closer to the hole than Brielle.  Wonderful to see young players so into golf!

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=990739243199412&set=pb.100067900369350.-2207520000

[braincramp52]

On 3/24/2025 at 11:46 AM, MountainKing said:

 

Thanks dude -  the rest aside, didn't realize how difficult I was making this game by being the size I was.  I lost a huge step with the swing when I had back surgery 5 years back now, but this year with being stronger and fitter I'm about 15 yards longer, and close to making up those yards I lost!

I'm sure I missed it but did you get a electric trolley? I got a MGI Zip Navigator Quad last year and it's the best money I've ever spent on golf.

[St Jimmy]

43 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

Are you sure you didn't mean to post this last Tuesday???  Oak Grove and "new?"

 

I was more surprised than anyone.  Checked in and asked him where the range balls were.  Was stunned when he handed me a token.  After carefully walking down the moss slick stairs of death, I noticed brand new carts with wind shields.  The tokens produced brand new balls!

 

The last time they bought balls they were gone in about a month.  People stole and played them out on the course. 

[braincramp52]

16 minutes ago, St Jimmy said:

 

I was more surprised than anyone.  Checked in and asked him where the range balls were.  Was stunned when he handed me a token.  After carefully walking down the moss slick stairs of death, I noticed brand new carts with wind shields.  The tokens produced brand new balls!

 

The last time they bought balls they were gone in about a month.  People stole and played them out on the course. 

Damn! You gotta be a real piece of work to stoop to stealing range balls.

[MountainKing]

4 hours ago, braincramp52 said:

I'm sure I missed it but did you get a electric trolley? I got a MGI Zip Navigator Quad last year and it's the best money I've ever spent on golf.

 

Went with the Alphard Cybercart.  3 rounds with it so far and love it.

[braincramp52]

8 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

Went with the Alphard Cybercart.  3 rounds with it so far and love it.

That's great! The courses I play are very hilly but I prefer walking over a cart. I seem to play better. It's funny, when I got mine I was the only one with one. Guys would stop and ask me about it all the time. I think there's 4 or 5 others that have them now. Enjoy!

[MountainKing]

2 hours ago, braincramp52 said:

That's great! The courses I play are very hilly but I prefer walking over a cart. I seem to play better. It's funny, when I got mine I was the only one with one. Guys would stop and ask me about it all the time. I think there's 4 or 5 others that have them now. Enjoy!

 

I see a lot of them at courses with solid walking cultures.  Almost every group at Naperbrook had at least one on Saturday.  

[DavePelz4]

Played at Springbrook yesterday. First time there since the course was redone. One of the issues I thought they were planning to address were the fairways that flooded when there was any decent amount of rain. Not sure that mission was accomplished as there were several fairways that had collections of water. Mud balls continue to be a theme.

 

They've also changed multiple holes, some for the better and some for the not so better. Guessing 10-15 bunkers were added in strategic places as there were holes, like 16, where you could play as far left as you wanted which was safe while offering a good angle to the green. Now there are bunkers in that area and it requires a much more thoughtful thought. Hole 10 has been cleaned out of any danger with the big tree on the left gone, the evergreen gone, and all the junk on the right is gone. It's a huge fairway that also takes driver out of your hands. What was also unusual on that hole is there is 1 OOB stake long. How exactly do you determine if your OB with only 1 stake?

 

The course is beat up more than I ever remember seeing and I've probably played 100 round there over the years. Some of the tee boxes had hundreds of divots, can't understand that. The greens, which have always been good were below average with tons of ball marks. The bunkers were very good and had a nice amount of sand. They were quick, guessing 11ish. 

 

Being a cold day meant only diehards were playing, so pace was mostly solid. Finished in 3:15 which included waiting on a 2some for most of the back 9. At $26 senior/walking it's priced about right.

 

Our comp group plays there Saturday so it'll be interesting to see what others think of the conditions. Personally, I'm guessing St. Andrews is probably in much better condition than SB.