:agree:
But for me, (and aided by a few drams) it made for a great night's viewing .
:greengrin
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I can't believe how candid Mickelson was about it - he dug himself a hole by being so honest about his reasons for doing it.
He could have apologised and passed it off as being a lapse in concentration or frustration but to make it sound so cold and calculated really wasn't within the spirit of golf at all.
Crazy day yesterday, I can't say I enjoyed it. You want to see a tough challenge but a fair one - players were hitting decent shots and being punished, and it was becoming a lottery.
The vast majority of the time our Open provides a decent honest test and all players are treated with respect - therefore it's miles ahead of the US Open imo.
It's still pretty fascinating though and if they calm the greens down a bit and place the pins in better positions then it could be much fairer (as the first 2 days were).
Two opens in a row. Quite rare. I'm thinking Hale Irwin and Curtis Strange. I may be wrong.
Supposed to have been playing the Lothians Senior Championship at Liberton today. Gutted to report my back has deteriorated over the last few weeks to the point I can barely stand up today. ****ing sick.
Sorry to read that Lex, you'll be missing the gowf badly especially with the weather being so good and the courses playing relatively easy. Hopefully things will improve for you - and soon.
Cheers GB. It has eased significantly but I think golf might be out the question. It’s supposed to be Musselburgh Seniors on Tuesday but I think I might struggle. Withdrew from the Lothians at Liberton on Monday and also seen a Private Physio that night. ( I had booked him a week or so earlier). He reckons it’s root cause us an old Fitba injury to my ankle. He wants to work on that but it’s not really a help right now. Back to him on Wednesday.
‘Yup it’s brutal with the weather like it is. I think I might need to go the Tiger route and go for surgery privately.
It's not an Open for the long hitters so it should be interesting. It's a shame it's not on the BBC. R&A are greedy sods.
It's a shame for the folk that can't afford Sky but it's got to be said that Sky do a magnificent job and offer much more than the token efforts that the BBC used to dish up. In defence of the R&A, they do ensure that a fair share of the financial pot is distributed throughout the world as a means of promoting and developing the game to as many people as possible.
Ollie Fisher just hit a 59 in the Portugal Masters, 12 shots better than yesterday. The first sub 60 round in European Tour history.
And at the same time one of the local pros, who is well up the leaderboard, hit 2 of the worst shots I've ever seen a pro play!
Such is golf 👍 And 😱
Played Turnhouse for the first time yesterday, really enjoyed it. Quite a few long par 4s, and maybe a couple too many blind shots, but the greens were excellent and I put my tee shot on 17 to 6 foot! If it wasn't on the other side of town from Portobello I'd consider joining.
Also played Linlithgow a couple of weeks ago and didn't rate it as highly, but again, the 17th par 3 was nice, hit it high and 30 foot short right and it rolled down to 10 foot.
There's no comparison in the two courses, if you've got the choice.
Handicap wise, I've held my own this season but performance wise not so. Generally delighted with my consistency from tee to green but my putting was a total disaster. I've lost all confidence on the greens, - terrified in fact! 🤢
Time to go with "The Claw" GB... Tried it myself earlier in season and got reasonable results, particularly with shorter putts, and reverted back the orthodox grip and found my stroke had improved and the right hand less inclined to try and take over in the stroke. Still not enough to prevent the handicap creeping up a shot, but hopefully can squeeze in another couple of medals to try and get back to where I started season at. A point one reduction will be suffice.
Played Linlithgow last weekend I’ve played it loads of times and not a fan of the layout. The greens however were the slickest I’ve played on in a very long time and I’ve played 40 competitive rounds over a number of courses this year alone. I also like Turnhoyse being a past winner there.😎🏆
You're right, it's probably not that interesting, was only being mildly polite.
The quality and speed of a green shouldn't be affected by any of the things you mention. Slick/good greens should have good drainage and play pretty much the same in wet or dry conditions. Parkland courses maybe less so than links courses, but still, good greens are good greens. Average ones will always be average ones.
Greenkeeping staff are the same, so their preparation and input never varies, the speed of a putt for a 4 handicappers is the same speed for a 22 handicapper, level of competition makes no difference there either.
Off the top of my head I think I've played maybe 20 odd courses this year. Linlithgow was fine, but not in the top 10.
I just read my first comment there and it read a bit arsey and it wasn’t meant to be so apologies.
Greens are often prepared differently for different competitions and conditions. The grass wont be “stressed” by being cut to short in particularly hot or colder conditions. They were almost certainly scalped and flat ironed the other week compared to a senior competition I played there a few months ago. A good few competitors did comment. I was out really early to be fair and that would also make a difference.
As I said I’m not a fan of Linlithgow but thought the greens were particularly slick for the Linlithgowshire first class boys a couple of weekends ago and thought it worthy of a mention.
I went for a putting lesson yesterday. Apparently my eyes were two inches inside the ball and not directly over the ball as they should be. The video footage showed that I had an "in to out" movement going back then an "out to in" putter movement coming forward. In other words I had a very noticeable loop in the middle of the stroke. X rated stuff!
I've since invested in one of these Edge 70 degree Eyeline putting rails to help me groove my stroke. The carpets will be worn out over the winter!
:greengrin
Anyone interested in this?:-
http://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/news/9307
Maybe we could enter a team or (teams) from here. It would be a one off for me but I quite fancy it, especially over Archerfield.
Played Kingsbarns today. What an absolute treat. Straight to the top of my favourite courses played list.
I played it last Saturday, what an experience! Played pretty good until the turn back into the wind and hail on 13, 5 very very tough holes in those conditions.
I’m lucky to have played it the last 3 years for free. The whore day out with Kingsbarns is very special.