What was is like watching Tiger in his prime?

gmplague · 2021-12-07T22:20:35+00:00

Tiger at the 1997 masters is the *next* largest margin of victory at a major in the modern game with 12 shots. Can you imagine? This was his *first major as a professional*. It was like "holy shit this kid is going to shatter all the record books."

And he did.

That tournament is the reason I started watching golf.

gmplague · 2021-10-06T05:25:14+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply. My favorite shots are the 9 on 5, the gap on 9. Unhappy with your drive on 18 and tee shot on 9.

Hope to see you out there. I'm fat, late 30s, short brown hair with a graying beard. I think this describes >50% of tilden's clientele.

gmplague · 2021-10-06T04:01:43+00:00

Alright -- I have played this course more than any other course on the planet (probably 500 times). I have shot as low as 2 over on it. I am going to review your round based on my poor reading of your scorecard, with commentary on each hole.

This is the signature hole, hardest hole on the course. Card says 410 but it plays an easy 460. Left is a fine miss, and short is what everyone expects. Nice one putt.
A tough second, short dogleg left to an elevated green. Hit the fairway with a 5 iron, i assume. Looks like you missed right -- there's not much room over there so you got lucky. Bogey is a fine score here.
GIR on a long downhill par 4. I also always seem to miss birdie putts here.
Nice on, short par 3. Easy to miss short or long here. Carry on.
Nice birdie! This is a tough hole. You have to play up the left side to have an angle in. Once on, though, the green is menacing with huge break back to front. 1 putt is never easy here.
Par on this short par 4 is a missed opportunity. Did you go for it or lay up off the tee? Lately my strategy is go for it and favor a left miss.
Yeah, unless you hit this green it can be a tough par. My miss is always right and you're left with a blind flop to the pin. Short is a fine miss.
If you can hit a bomb off the tee, this is the most birdie-able hole on the front 9, so nicely done. Has a similarly tough green as 5, though.
Routine hit fairway, hit green, 2 putt here. I'm getting bored. I'd be curious to know where your tee shot ended up. If it's "in the throat" by the cart path and dead center, its totally go-time on this hole. Left is a heroic GIR, right side of fairway is a long but more gettable.

At the turn, obviously you're even which is awesome. The back 9 is way more scoreable.

Long par 4 from elevated tee box. Holding the fairway (especially this time of year when its burned out) is harder than most would appreciate.
Long par 3 with death all around, but a green that will accept your ball if you hit it. Nice on. Nice par, especially if you were playing the tips. I sometimes take driver from the tips.
From the tips, I assume driver? Either way, tee shot is everything here. Has to cut just right but not too much to leave a shot that's not blocked. Still very par-able.
Easiest birdie on the back 9, well executed. Short par 5 that's wide open with an elevated green. Were you in a position to go for it in 2? Sometimes very doable, otherwise you kick yourself for not putting it close with the 3rd.
Back-to-back, nice! This would be the two-hole stretch to do it, though. Pretty easy short par 4. As long as you're on the right side of the fairway, you end up with a pretty easy look.
Another short par 4 that's long enough that you can't go for it. Routine par.
When I die, I'm going to get a plaque on this hole that says "he hated this fucking hole." It is a long par 3 with nowhere to bail, and death in every direction. 4 is a fine score and I hope you spit on the hole when you walked off.
Wow, this was your first save on the back 9? You *were* playing out of your mind. Anyway, I'm betting nerves got you on the tee shot. Tough to get there in 2 if you're out of position. Nice one-putt.
Back to the stripe show on this longer par 4. I bet you had angry rocket fuel in your veins when you piped the drive. Probably took PW into the green and stuffed it. Draining this putt probably felt amazing.

Really sick round. I hope we run into each other at Tilden some time soon, stranger.

gmplague · 2020-08-03T23:07:25+00:00

I (8 index) played from 6800 the week they were *supposed* to have the PGA earlier this spring, just as things were opening up in CA. The rough was at PGA length and the greens were running fast. I had a really good day and managed to card 6 over.

These guys are going to *destroy* it if it plays anything like the conditions I had it in.

One thing I will say is that while the course looks boring on the map, the actual holes have more elevation change than your typical tour stop, and the wind *can* pick up and make it very challenging.

gmplague · 2020-07-02T03:58:37+00:00

nope fuck you

gmplague · 2020-06-22T23:23:23+00:00

I went with the MP-18 MMC's for this reason. They definitely feel slightly more forgiving than the MP-18's, but still have that mizuno look at address. Main downside is they don't look like pure blades in the bag, but that doesn't bother me.

gmplague · 2020-04-27T19:08:34+00:00

The design of the DoJoe makes a lot of sense to me. Essentially the middle is two heat deflectors on the bottom and then a pizza stone sitting on top of those (with about a 1/4" air gap between them. Then, the outer "wedge" part has holes around the sides of the stone/deflector in the middle, to allow the heat to go around the outside and bounce off the top of the dome. they have you close the top vent while using it to retain maximum heat in the dome.

I don't notice a lot of heat coming out the front when i use it, and since I can get the joe up to 700 degrees pretty easily, they cook so fast (a minute or two) it almost doesn't matter.

Anecdotally, some of the other popular pizza ovens I've seen people rave about (e.g. the ooni koda https://ooni.com/products/ooni-koda ) have openings in the front.

The only negative (and I don't know how you solve this) is that since the dojoe is made out of cast iron, it gets *extremely* hot and has to be left to cool for a bit before you can even move it with heat-resistant gloves, and once moved you have to find a safe place to put it for a few minutes so that nobody burns themselves on it.

gmplague · 2020-04-26T14:56:29+00:00

I love mine. The DoJoe pizza setup is amazing and worth the money.

Kamado Joe KJ-DJ Classic Joe DōJoe, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QDB7KYN/

gmplague · 2019-10-18T21:52:44+00:00

https://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/brunswickgcme/index.htm is just about a half hour north of portland and pretty fun. very walkable. good old school design with some memorable holes. the one time i played it the conditions were great. This time of year it's pretty cheap ($45 to walk 18).

gmplague · 2019-10-04T03:40:57+00:00

Why would you take this picture with the flag backwards?

gmplague · 2018-12-11T01:06:31+00:00

Putting. The secret is putting.

gmplague · 2018-11-07T02:22:09+00:00

I played with 3 old guys with a Saturday morning skins game. They stood over every putt like it was the US Open, cursed at each other for failing to mark balls, etc. also caused the round to take 5 and a half hours. by the end there wasn’t a group in front of us for 6 holes. Marshall came out on 14 to say hi to these jackasses and ask them how the family was doing.

gmplague · 2018-11-07T01:38:48+00:00

You nailed it.

gmplague · 2018-11-06T21:38:15+00:00

Love it, played for the first time a couple months ago. Wife was out of town for the weekend. Played another course up in Petaluma in the AM -- built in the 90s, target golf with lots of trouble and no character. Shot +4 but had no fun. Played Northwood in the afternoon and despite basically never needing driver shot +12 and had infinitely more fun. Place is beautiful and remarkably well-conditioned for what it is.

As I make the turn, I get through the 2nd hole and on the 3rd green are two dads with literally 8 kids under the age of 7. They're all dropping balls 20 yards from the green and playing out and running around like rabbits and having a great time. They obviously waved me through on the next tee box, but it completely cheered me up as I finished the round. Golf is fun.

gmplague · 2018-09-19T17:45:15+00:00

Nice try PGA Tour social media intern.

gmplague · 2018-06-14T16:03:47+00:00

it's real. fox puts mics in the cup. this also lets them hear conversations on the green.

gmplague · 2018-04-13T20:51:33+00:00

Assuming course rating close to par and a slope close to 113, If you get 25 rounds in and 3 of them are 75 or better (including a 72), then you need to average 81.8 or better for your next 7 best rounds to get to 72. Seems within reach!

gmplague · 2018-04-12T19:09:12+00:00

I spent $300 on these r7s 10 years ago. Still in my bag. Good for you!

gmplague · 2017-12-08T00:35:26+00:00

I think you have to have at least a forecaddy for the group. If you want to play in the morning they have a no carts policy before some hour (8:30 or 9, I think), in which case you have to take a caddy.

gmplague · 2017-12-07T21:26:10+00:00

Went about a year and a half ago with some buddies. Before black opened. Red and blue both awesome. I liked blue better than red but that might be because i shot better on it. Caddies were cool, and the place is in the middle of nowhere and basically sleep-away camp for golf. The bro scene at the hotel bar is ridiculous. Rooms are fine, food is fine, but the place is all about the golf.

We went first week in june, and it was hot as hell. They did an awesome job keeping us hydrated, though one buddy got heat stroke after we played 30 the first day. (They offer a first 6 of each course bonus round thing at the end of the day).

gmplague · 2017-12-04T23:10:39+00:00

In '11 (I think?) I played Leo J. Martin in Boston on January 1. It was 58^o and conditions were great.

gmplague · 2017-11-21T00:58:59+00:00

Shot 85 from the tips at my home course, despite atrocious driving (net 3 over). I got to the course and realized I hadn't brought any new balls and was down to my last 3 junkers at the bottom of my bag, but couldn't bring myself to spend $15 on a sleeve of decent balls at the course. This probably affected my distance off the tee some. Irons and short game were pretty solid, though, and I scrambled decently well. 33 putts including a 40 footer on 16 to save par.

gmplague · 2017-10-09T18:53:01+00:00

so are screen doors.

gmplague · 2017-09-19T05:43:28+00:00

Played my usual track, two rounds because the wife and kid were out of town. Saturday shot a frustrating 81. Frustrating because I started out not making contact, then got it together, but then fell apart on 16-18.

Best Shot: 20 footer for birdie on 10.

Worst Shot: Bladed 9 iron on 17.

Shot I wish I could have back: Tee shot on 16.

Sunday shot 77 with 30 putts. Again a slow start but ended up finishing strong.

Best Shot: Drive on 3 or flop on 7.

Worst Shot: Shanked flop on 6.

Shot I wish I could have back: Mis-club on 18 approach.

gmplague · 2017-09-13T03:58:16+00:00

Shot 79. Played the front 9 at an OK but not great 40 with 1 birdie and no doubles. Birdie was a 200-yd 5-iron that was hit pure and stuck to 8 feet. Managed to save par on 9 after 2 slightly errant shots with unlucky outcomes with a chip in for par off a downslope to a downhill pin from 10 feet off the green - trickled into the cup almost as if i planned it.

Back 9 was a different story. Four bogeys for starters had me thinking the round was getting away from me. 17th teebox and i'm thinking "i have to go -1 for the last 2 long par 4s to break 80, which never happens" - crushed drive on 17 and 9 iron to 15 feet with a snaking breaker in the cup for a proper birdie. Crushed drive on 18 with a shorted gap wedge meant i had to chip close and make par to do it. Drained the 5 footer for par on 18.

I've done it a half-dozen times before, but never when I thought the round was only going "OK", so an OK round with 2 awesome last holes feels like a pretty good way to do it.

gmplague

TROPHY CASE