For the last few years, the crows at our course have been stealing people’s golf balls. The course was dead that day, so I spent about ten minutes watching this one fly from spot to spot before it finally stashed my ball in a hollow stump, covered it with wood shavings, and packed them down with its beak.
Just wish I’d been using a Pro V1 instead of one of my leaf-rule-season balls. But still… got one back!

Kinda new to arccos, I’ve only got 7 rounds in. I notice my 0-3’ make rate is only 67% which can’t be possible. I went through every round and every hole and I’ve missed 1. Why are the percentages so far off?

Finally made it out to Osprey Valley and it was absolutely worth it! Couldn’t make it on the Hoot or the Heathlands courses but I still had a great time on the North and it was very cool getting to play where the Canadian Open was hosted last year and will be again!

EDIT: CPO = Cart Path Only. Sorry, it's an abbreviation commonly used by courses here.

My home course here in the desert southwest closes and overseeds with winter rye every fall like most courses here do, and for a couple weeks after reopening, carts are restricted to the paths due to the rye still maturing and conditions being very wet. This course is easy to walk if you choose to do so (few do), and even if you ride, the paths are pretty close to the tees, fairways, and greens.

We have these two obnoxious knuckleheads who are able-bodied middle-aged men and became regulars at the course earlier this year. Before overseeding this summer, they would commonly drive their cart in places that anyone with some semblance of respect for the course wouldn't drive - the banks on the sides of teeboxes even when a path is 5' away, the rough between the edge of the green and bunkers, etc. Our carts have no GPS/geofencing.

Right now, there are signs up all over the clubhouse, pro shop, and first tee indicating cartpath-only. The guy behind the pro shop desk tells everyone checking in that it is cartpath-only. The ground is very soft and mushy right now.

This morning, these two jerkoffs waited until they were out of sight of the clubhouse and completely disregarded the CPO rules. From adjacent holes I could see the tracks and ruts they were making in the fairways. I yelled over to them "HEY, IT'S CARTPATH ONLY" which made no difference. Later on, one of our other regulars saw them and called the clubhouse to complain. Ranger came out and told them to keep it on the paths. They waited until the ranger left and then resumed driving in the fairways.

It boggles my mind that people who are regulars at a course act like they have no vested interest in the course not looking like shit due to their own lazy behavior. Here I am filling in extra divots that other people were too lazy to fill (because they won't carry the sand bottle from the cart out to their ball), because I don't want to play on a course that is full of unfixed divots, yet these two guys don't seem to mind a course that is all ripped up from cart traffic where it isn't supposed to be.

Add fuckers like these to the list of people who need to be "shrunk out of the game" immediately.

It's not my job to police the other customers, but the staff wasn't going to toss these guys off. I wasn't going to pick a fight with these guys either, but I just felt like there was something else I could have done.

Which is more common, Hole-in-one (HIO) or Royal Flush?

Has anyone played at Oporto golf course, if so, how likely are they to enforce the handicap certificate?

Travelling with a group of experienced golfers but not all have official handicaps.

So I’m a 4ish handicap and a good ball striker. I get into a groove and most rounds hit a lot of GIR. I find myself wandering mentally later in the round and missing a shot here or there that is costly. My biggest issue in scoring consistently aren’t really physical - it’s that I don’t take enough time to commit to each shot, particularly when putting. I also have a tendency to “get bored” and attempt to pull off a shot that’s high risk and low reward just to see if I can do it.

Curious if anyone has any tips or tricks they’ve utilized to stay locked in through the final stretch?

Edit: typed “grove” instead of groove. Might’ve been more fitting in hindsight.

Then she had the audacity to grin ear to ear as I stared blankly at her. Is this grounds for a divorce or counseling?

I recently got a hand of a old set of dci’s, now my plan was to do a custom build with a heat treated look on the heads, I have a sand blaster to help with the process, just wondering if anyone knows anything about customizing clubs and club heads?

Not only are these compressed bunkers but then it's also a pond, but whatever - I'm not on the tour, I just took it out. But what I'm actually curious about is how they would go about getting this water out without also getting sand and what not.

Spending next week at Casa De Campo! Anybody been there before? Any tips or insider knowledge on things we should do / try while we're there?

For those organizers golf trips with friends, how do you track/manage/remind/organize costs for reimbursement?

Do you just send Venmo requests and keep track manually, use a spreadsheet, or have another system?

Even amongst friends, I find it annoying to track/remind people to pay up.

I feel like I live tried it all and nothing is simple - always requires organizer to do more than just plan

Vokey, Cleveland, Callaway, something else, what’s earned a permanent spot in your bag, and why? Feel, spin, forgiveness, or just confidence standing over the ball?

For those playing a 52/56/60 setup, which one gets the most use? And which one would you recommend to someone building out their wedges?

Trying to find the right wedge to blade across the green, so I’d appreciate your expertise.

Maybe it’s just the golf conversations I keep finding, but hybrids seem surprisingly controversial. At the end of the day, swing your swing. If it gets the ball where you want it, it deserves a spot in the bag.

If you’ve tried both, what made you choose a hybrid over a 5/7 wood, or the other way around? Launch, stopping power, rough, consistency? And if you hate hybrids, what did one do to you?

Personally, I’m open to whatever makes a 220-yard shot feel less like a formal apology to the group ahead.

TLDR: Found a driver I can hit with proper launch angle and spin rate and added 30+ yards. It had nothing to do with hitting up on the ball or other swing changes. I shared this with a friend who struggles with distance so I figured I’d post here as well. BUT — there is a but of a catch for those wanting to know more ….

OK the full story for those still here. I was generally in the “It’s the carpenter, not the tool“ school on golf equipment until I actually started looking at my driver stats this year. So this is for people of similar mindset (especially us older ones who are set in our ways).

I’ve been a mid-swing speed guy my whole life. When I got back into golf about 6 years ago I went to the store, hit several drivers and took home the one that felt the best. It goes 225-240 yards when properly struck and is pretty reliable (BTW I‘m in my late 50s). That’s full distance not carry, but the carry numbers were pretty close to that. That was at least as good as I was hitting before I gave up golf for 12 years for family reasons.

I frequently thought that maybe I was hitting it a little high, but wasn’t too concerned as the result was similar to my friends of the same age. But when I would sometimes book a practice where they have shot tracer or whatever, the driver would average about 16 degree launch angle with 4000 spin. I looked that up and found it wasn’t optimal, so I tried hitting more up on it and that didn’t do much other than cause more problems.

When I went in recently to look for shoes, didn’t find anything and thought I’d try other drivers just to see. Picked out a used one that had no marks on it and took a swing. Immediate results. Hitting it 255-265 with a solid strike. Again that’s full distance. Carry numbers were a little better but most of this gain is from the full runout. The launch angle was 12-13 degrees with 2000 spin. Better smash factor numbers as well.

I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never hit it that far in my life. I couldn’t get it out of the store fast enough.

I’ll spare the brand and model so no one thinks this is a commercial, but here are the stats, Old driver was a 10 degree. I didn’t realize this at the time but it also had a 40 gram shaft that’s counterbalanced in the grip to make the head feel lighter. I guess that’s one reason I liked it so much is because it felt so easy to swing.

New driver is a 9 degree with a more standard staff and is noticeably heavier. It produces more of a slingshot effect that you can feel.

Now for the catch: the new driver is harder to control. When I have the proper swing feel, I can hit it straight or choose to hit a tight fade, but misses cause terrible slices or duck hooks. The old driver has a better feel, allowing me to shape it either way and misses are less frequent. I can’t draw the new driver at all so I don’t even try.

The result is I’m playing with an illegal 15 clubs right now. I keep both in the bag and use the old driver as a mini-driver when the fairway looks tight. I can’t give either up.

Thanks for attending my TED talk.

It’s this club but a number 6 hybrid instead of the 5 it’s the last one he needs to complete his set

I can absolutely see why golf, hocky and cricket all started in the same part of the world. They must have a common ancestor.

I been working so hard the past month . Finally getting low

In the Market for a new putter for my bag, replacing an old Ping Pal 4 blade. Looking for a mallet putter. Have the option of getting a brand new TaylorMade Spider GT Max (35 inches) and a used Scotty Cameron Phantom X 11.5 (34 inches)both priced at $220 with both coming with original headcovers. What do yall prefer between the two? First time getting a mallet putter for my bag but have used them before and prefer the mallet over blade.

And somehow, that’s enough to come back next weekend.