Anyone watch The Masters golf tournament yesterday?

ButchA

You have to give credit where credit's due.... Tiger Woods (after something like 14 years) came roaring back at age 43 to win The Masters!

Back in his day, he was unbelievable, and would win and win and win, and basically turned the whole golf industry upside-down. But it took a toll on his body and he seriously screwed up his back, etc... had to quit for a while, have surgery/multi-surgeries, recover, go through PT, etc... and slowly worked his way back. And he proved all the "naysayers" wrong, and won The Masters this afternoon!

Golf is an addicting sport, where there is no margin for error. One tiny degree off, when smacking the golf ball off the tee, will send the ball slicing off into the trees never to be seen again. Putting is where the game is won or lost. You may think that the ball is only 8 feet away and it's a straight shot, just tap the ball and it'll roll right into the cup. Pffffffttttt... That ball will curve and veer off when you least expect it. It's a sport that can elate you to greatness and it can drive you to your knees in despair.

Who else plays golf on here?

trickg

I used to golf a little bit when I was a kid - I just don't have time for it now. Maybe I'll take it up again when I retire, but I see golf out here as a rich man's game - it's just not something I'm going to do with any regularity at this stage of life. Still, there's something VERY satisfying when you line up for a drive, you hit the sweet spot, and you watch that ball just rip down the fairway.

ButchA

@trickg --- I blame my wife's brother-in-law (her sister's husband) for getting me into this cruel sport back in the 80's.... He was really good - I mean good, as in, he used to play in some amateur tournaments in upstate NY! Nowadays, he's slowed up and can't smash the ball like he used to, but he still gets out there and plays.

Anyway, back then we went to one of the local driving ranges and he showed me this, showed me that, and personally taught me how to hit each and every club in the bag. So, I immediately went out and bought a set of beginner Wilson golf clubs back then, and slowly got better, but never good enough like he was or anything like that. Right now I have a set of Ping clubs and a beautiful Odyssey putter, along with a custom made mallet style putter with my name on it, that a friend of my neighbor's made for me (he builds golf clubs and components in his basement).

Best round of golf ever - 82.

Longest drive ever (paced off from a sprinkler head/marker) - 287 yards.

Best moment ever, that still can't be duplicated - hitting a crisp 7-iron from the fairway dead straight to the green, but the wind caught it and carried it a little further. The ball landed at the back of the green near the embankment, took a lucky bounce, rolled backwards back onto the green, followed the contour/break of the green, and rolled right into the cup! EAGLE!

Worst moment ever, where I almost needed psychiatric counseling afterwards - landing in a massive greenside sand trap, that was full of very fluffy, very deep, sand (sand trap/bunker shots are my weakness anyway)... Swing - miss, ball still at my feet, sand flew everywhere. Swing again, ball went 2 feet and rolled back to me. Swing yet again, ball hit the top lip/grass knoll, and rolled back down into the bunker. Final swing, ball finally got out, but landed way far away from the cup. Long story short: I scored a quadruple bogey 8 on that hole!

trickg

@ButchA said in Anyone watch The Masters golf tournament yesterday?:

Worst moment ever, where I almost needed psychiatric counseling afterwards - landing in a massive greenside sand trap, that was full of very fluffy, very deep, sand (sand trap/bunker shots are my weakness anyway)... Swing - miss, ball still at my feet, sand flew everywhere. Swing again, ball went 2 feet and rolled back to me. Swing yet again, ball hit the top lip/grass knoll, and rolled back down into the bunker. Final swing, ball finally got out, but landed way far away from the cup. Long story short: I scored a quadruple bogey 8 on that hole!

I was never that serious about it - I probably would have picked up the ball and chucked it up out of the sand trap, then proceeded to play it, adding only one stroke for the toss up out of the trap.

ButchA

@trickg said in Anyone watch The Masters golf tournament yesterday?:

@ButchA said in Anyone watch The Masters golf tournament yesterday?:

Worst moment ever, where I almost needed psychiatric counseling afterwards - landing in a massive greenside sand trap, that was full of very fluffy, very deep, sand (sand trap/bunker shots are my weakness anyway)... Swing - miss, ball still at my feet, sand flew everywhere. Swing again, ball went 2 feet and rolled back to me. Swing yet again, ball hit the top lip/grass knoll, and rolled back down into the bunker. Final swing, ball finally got out, but landed way far away from the cup. Long story short: I scored a quadruple bogey 8 on that hole!

I was never that serious about it - I probably would have picked up the ball and chucked it up out of the sand trap, then proceeded to play it, adding only one stroke for the toss up out of the trap.

LOL... Like the "toe tap" that people do on the golf green, tapping the ball into the cup!

moshe

I thought that Tiger Woods was a has-been.

I was wrong.

Congratulations, Tiger.

moshe

BigDub

@ButchA
I basically never watch golf. My younger brother mentioned it to me and we were joking about the fact that he had probably watched about as much Bob Ross painting shows as I have watched golf. It inspired me to watch this weekend. I believe it might have been a very good golf offering to watch, compared to any other golf tournament?

ButchA

@BigDub

Yeah, both The Masters and the US Open are the most watched golf tournaments on TV. As an amateur golfer, you watch golf on TV and see how the pros do it, and then you go out and try to emulate them (and fail every time! )

Here is a chart that I found on the internet that describes each golf club in a bag, how various people (ladies, amateurs, seniors, PGA pros, etc...) hit them. The top line is clubhead speed (i.e. right there at the bottom of the golf swing, a microsecond before impact). The PGA pros, like the young Irish kid named Rory McIlroy regularly drives the golf ball well over 300 yards off the tee!

I remember using one of those training aid/measurement/teacher type of things. at a golf store, where you hit the golf ball indoors into a movie screen type of setup with all these radar machines and detectors and weird things like that. It showed me having an (avg) 96 mph clubhead speed, which usually brings me to an (avg) of 250-255 yards off the tee.

LOL... I double checked it. I hit the ball pretty much equal to, or a hair further than the LPGA (The ladies pro golfers?)

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Pinstriper

Check out a copy of Hogan's Power Golf, he list his club yardages, which line up nicely with today's LPGA column in your table.

He was widely considered the tour's big hitter in his day.

J. Jericho

During his previous heyday, TW emphasized his wood strokes away from the game and did exceedingly well. Then he hit the doldrums when his method of practice was called out, and he didn't try to score a hole in one for many years. Perhaps he's back in the swing of things now, giving his balls plenty of action.

GeorgeB

I played a lot of golf in my younger years. Like the trumpet, it can be a psychological thing and drive you mad....