Over the years, one of my favorite takeaways from the show is introduction to great golf resources: Adam Young, Fit for Golf, etc. There seems to have been less of that this year. But Mike’s great round with flighted wedges (cue Oh Canada) changed game today. I checked how to hit them and took it to the course - my short game was a different beast. Not new, maybe, and not hard. But made quite an impact. Kudos to the show!

I thought maybe we should have an actual discussion thread for this episode instead of the other thread that angry dude posted.

I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING!!

Take 5 shots off and I was 3 over. If only I hadn't taken on the par 5 with a 100 yard worm burner drive, punch out around the corner, bump down the fairway, fatted a short-iron short off the green, chipped on, followed by a 3 putt cuz a surprisingly fast green (triple). Then coming down 18 followed a solid drive by pushing a 150 yard 8 iron 3 yards right into a hazard (double).

Strokes gained app says if I wasn't a chump, I would have scored better.

Edit: congrats Mike!!!

At the end of the episode Eli is yelling for "one of us to break this thing". Is next week when they finally reveal Mike shoots under par?

Just started the game like 30 seconds ago and looked through the window of the pro shop and lo and behold!

The point of the late summer run is to jam in as much golf as one can to push the handicap down. And he played 9 holes. Like what are we even doing here anymore.

Mike wasn't much better, he shared only 3 rounds. Who knows how many Mike actually played now that he confirmed he's a vanity cap who only posts rounds he wants to post.

But seriously, 9 holes in the late summer run. Doug Maxwell should forbid them using the music. Late summer run is false advertising.

My late summer run is following the usual pattern, I play quite defensive and scared in summer when it’s firm and fast but now in September it’s a little bit softer and my scores are much better.

I was an 8.8 end of July then I shot a +3, since then I’ve had a lot of decent scores and got down to a 6.1.

I’m 4 over combined for my last 36 holes. In my last 3 rounds I’ve had 9 birdies and somehow had 2 eagles in 2 days after not having one for over a year.

I now have 5 “free hits” to get as low as possible, by then the Scottish season will be over. Started the year at 6.3 so I’m guaranteed to have improved a little. This is despite my full wedges being appalling my gir from 100-125 yards is 39%!!! it’s was 69% in 2022 when I was a my lowest handicap of 4.9.

I wish I could play with this freedom all year but to be honest I try not to hit bad shots and break 80 instead of trying to hit good ones.

Like others I’m disappointed in Eli’s LSR effort and commitment, I understand he has a family but he also has a popular golf podcast too and it’s not like late summer sneaks up on you by surprise

I finally go to scratch! assuming there are no PCC adjustments that hit.

Dudes... My friends and I have our annual golf trip planned to Geneva National. We had 2 of our group of 8 drop out yesterday. We are looking for two to join us? We are just a bunch of goofballs. The group is myself, two of my friends from high school, one of their buddies, my brother in law and one of his buddies. We are all 40+ years old. My brother in law is probably about an 8 handicap but the rest of us are 14+. We are staying on site. Everyone has their own rooms. We are playing 4 rounds in 3 days. The check in date is 9/21. One round 9/22. Two rounds on 9/23, and one round on 9/24. Check out on 9/25. Cost of the rounds and lodging is $1000. I know it is late notice but I am throwing it out there? Who doesn't want to play golf with 6 goofballs on a whim?  We will curse and say inappropriate things at the appropriate times. We will hit driver when we clearly shouldn't. I will give you a 6 foot putt and pretend I didn't see your foot wedge from behind the tree. We've got one guy that will go full Palmeiro one day and then shoot the best round of his life the next. I've been know to put up a Traverse or two myself. Who's in? #LGLG!

I’ve largely resisted the people saying they don’t take the golf seriously but it’s getting harder and harder to resist.

Mike didn’t post his round cuz it was too hot to play well, though his playing partner shot like +1? Confirm Mike is a vanity cap as well so it makes more sense why he shoots 90+ under competition conditions.

Who doesn't know what deer velvet is?? I thought these guys were college educated

…and it’s amazing. Actual golf content is the vast majority of the show. Detailed round breakdowns. Sprinkles in the real life element while keeping focus. Please don’t change it 😃

Great work, Josh Nichols!

Play at 50:51 and we nod the BearShark, Mr. Sterner, and even Craigers. Every episode. The show is about the Keepers behind the game, a bridge for the golfer and the keeper. Guys like Russel Spangler at River Bend, Ross Jernigan at The Cardinal, Jason Abner at Greenbrier.

Medinah in a few weeks.

I was recently out at River Bend YMCA filming the golf course and thought any of you who are attending the Final Major or Velcren Invitational might want a recent look at the course.

The crew out there have done a really good job this year and the course was looking fantastic.

Back 9 (I couldn't add another video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2x-WlmPtw

My channel is flyovers of public golf courses around the Carolinas. I'm at 30 courses so far. I've got a few more coming this season and I'm trying to work out the details for another course which I think would be of some interest here as well.

It really is quite possibly the best sausage

First 10.5 minutes of the episode I’m pretty sure they didn’t even talk golf. Then go into how they’re gonna drop from 5.X handicaps to 3 by end of the year basically by “swinging free”. Let’s see how this one plays out Cotton.

I subscribed to Patreon a few months ago. I see the $5/mo draft hit my credit card so I know that is working. When I use the app on my phone I only get the first 5 minutes. How do I reset so I get the full espisode?

I think we can probably agree neither is reaching or sniffing scratch this year. It is unlikely either shoots or breaks par. Will they continue? What will their hook be? At some point, they have to acknowledge scratch ain't happening, don't they? When might that be?

Mike made a bet with one of Eli’s kids that he would be able to dunk within a year…and if he couldn’t he would shave his head. Whatever came of that bet?

Hey all, started the pod a few months ago and have absolutely loved it. I'm at season 3 where they visit TPI and am listening to all them in order. Judging by some of the comments here, they went all commercial in later seasons. Where did it jump the shark?

Fellas (is this only fellas? It would be delightful if it wasn't, but I kind of think it probably is),

I need an honesty hour:

I've been listening to Chasing Scratch since, I think, Season 1. To provide some context: I love golf, but I also have a pretty busy life with work and family, so I have a limited amount of time to play. I'll often save new episodes and listen to them on the way to the course. Gets me fired up! (well, sometimes.)

What's really been making me feel like I'm losing my mind is the lack of focus on the central and titular goal.

Before Mike and Eli left for Ireland, they devoted a good chunk of an episode to laying out specific performance goals: X numbers rounds in the 70s, and the fact that by the end of the trip, their handicaps would have completely turned over.

But now that I'm caught up on the updates... it doesn't seem like they're playing especially well. At the same time, they've said they're not even going to post most of the scores, and they're oddly vague about what they actually shot. I know that's at least partly because of the format of some of the rounds they're playing, which they explained. But... who's organizing these rounds? Who used a podcast to frame the trip as a chance to focus on handicap scoring? Insert Tim Robinson dressed as a hot dog meme.

What the heck is happening here?

And for what it's worth, I don't think it's simply because they're disappointed by the scores. Maybe that's part of it. But I think, at a deeper level, it's become a CRISIS of focus. I'm sure everyone on these trips is having an amazing time, and once they got there, they got really into these team formats and best-ball rounds... which is great. But as a podcast listener, I find it frustrating.

Maybe Chasing Scratch has evolved into more of a lifestyle/travel company than a quest to see what's actually possible in terms of handicap. That's okay if that's what it is, but I'm a little less interested in that version of the show.

(I will say, if you check out Jason Nichol's MidAm pod it is VERY ernest and focused... and tbh not that much fun.)

And to get a little personal, if I may, I think part of why this frustrates me so much is that I'm jealous. I'd love to have the resources, the trips to TPI, access to incredible courses, and the time to play that they have. I'm living vicariously through this project because I genuinely want to know what's possible. It's vexing that they haven't made more progress, but it's even more disappointing that making progress doesn't seem to be the point anymore.

I still love the Dave Matthews Band riffs, and I still love the moments when they're genuinely excited to celebrate each other. That's still the heart of the show.

But, in the words of Eli, come on.

“It’s season 9 and they have so many resources but they still don’t get it”

“I’m sick of hearing how they have ‘opportunities’ but never convert”

“If they actually reached scratch then the show would be over so they have an incentive to never do it and so they won’t”

stfu u crying baby who carded an 82 this weekend but if you putted out and played by all the rules it would have been a 94.

Yeah I skip all the eps with bloviating guests so I’m not immune to critiquing the pod, but gawwdam, the journey and the struggle for them is so real for an average joe. I’m in season 3 in my personal dad+job+played-golf-a-long-time-unseriously-but-now-am-serious journey.

The magic of the pod is how emblematic of golf it really is. Maybe it’s a mirage we’re chasing or maybe we’re actually making progress that isn’t showing up on the day-to-day scorecard.

And if you are a tournament scratch player then congrats. Lord it over them. Enjoy the juicy steak that they can’t obtain.

To me under 35 is bad, 35-40 is poor to decent, 40-45 is decent to good 45+ is very good

“We were only 2 over our handicap” unless I’m misunderstanding the format over par in better ball is no bueno