Running 2021 Golf Thread

Turned on the match play just in time to see my guy Lanto straight chili dip a chip behind 18 green to complete a collapse against Cam Smith. Ugh. That's a shot my 29.8-handicap ass hits.

 

Did you see the video of McIlroy hitting an OB drive that landed in a swimming pool? I've hit tennis courts with an OB drive, but never a pool.

 

Didn't see the video but saw it on Twitter. Not sure if I've shared this here, but I was playing in Myrtle the morning after a bachelor party that involved poker and copious amounts of whiskey. (More like three hours after the party, but I digress.) On the third tee, I sliced a ball so hard to the right that it bounced off a dude's house while he was working in the yard. I just hear him scream, "NICE SHOT ASSHOLE" and I sort of slink away. Told my buddy, "we're not going to get that ball, are we?" So I can empathize with Rory, haha.

 

McElroy lost 6&5 to Polter. Jesus, he has gone in the crapper.

 

Reminds me of Paul Harvey's line after Nicklaus shot an 83 at the British Open:

"I've always wanted to play like Jack Nicklaus. Now I do."

 

During the 1984 NBA Finals played at a golf course south of LAX one morning after a very late night. Blinding hangover. First tee shot sliced right into about the third story of the Hughes Aircraft building. A career best in worst!

 

Match play is so hit or miss, Kuchar was hammering JT 5 up after 10; overcoming my bad karma thoughts towards the racist cheapskate.

 

Kuchar is a really good match play player and has had a lot of success at this event.

Match play is funny. You can shoot 67 and if the other guy is killing it, you may lose. I've covered matches where someone shoots 74 and wins easily. It's truly a hole by hole game.

 

My kid lives a tree row, a net, a 3-lane street, and up an embankment and about 150 yards down from a tee box and damn if they don't have balls land in her back yard 2-3 times a week...there are so many Pro V's on the hill adjacent to her, her FiL climbs the fence to snag them every time he visits. I mean, these balls defy physics to get there.

 

I still have several hundred balls from the six years we lived on the right hand side of a blind dogleg par-4 in Rocky Mount. Never had a broken window, although the neighbors to the left of me weren't so lucky. However, I'd hear a ball ricochet off the siding or roof about a half-dozen times a day.

My rule: If you hit the house, the ball was mine. If it landed in the back yard and you wanted it back, it was yours. I only remember one or two doofuses who didn't understand it was OB and took nice divots (the times I saw it, I called the pro shop with the cart number).

The worst were the super slicers who hit my car parked in front of the house. The guy next door had a beautiful Lincoln, except the left side was battered with dimple marks. That was easily 125 yards right of the center of the fairway.

My favorite was one Saturday afternoon, mowing the grass in the backyard. Ball lands right in front of me. I decided to throw it back on the edge of the fairway. Two guys in a cart soon drive up and ask. I point at the ball, perfect angle to the green, and told them it bounced off one of the oaks. They obviously didn't believe me, but the scowl I got from the other guy was priceless.

 

Toss back the range balls. Keep the Titleists.

 

Everything but the Titleists are for my own practice range up the hill behind the cabin. When I run out, I wander back there and go Easter egg hunting until I fill up a bucket. Plus, I can hit every damn tree and save my cuss words for the ones on the course.