Week 21: The Open Championship

[hammers1man]

We head to Fife in Scotland to the home of golf and is considered the oldest course in the world, St Andrews Old Course for the 3rd USE Open Championship.
A great hole by hole guide and course book here on the St Andrews official site.
www.standrews.com/Play/Courses/Old-Course

[wimigbg]

And what is the connection to Kungangen Kings? The designer, Anders Forsbrand, was asked about his worst shot in professional golf and answered “A 1 iron out of bounds to the left on St Andrews 1st hole”.

[artvandelay]

Who's course are we playing?

[andersnm]

Jan 30, 2021 15:01:48 GMT artvandelay said:

Who's course are we playing?

CLV's tour version.

[andersnm]

Round 1 was a grind in the winds. Got off to an aweful start when I hit the boards on top the retaining walls on my pitch - with a big bounce and terrible putting for a double. Good play for the rest of the front nine, but struggled much more in the headwinds on the back nine. Also hit some bunkers that was penal (which they are on St Andrews). +5 - and I see polekatt/josia have played well on the first round

[Deleted]

Played all 4 rounds. Too many Double Bogeys to over come and have a low tournament.

[Tuffguts]

Even in Rd1. Really tough back 9 into the wind....think I was -2, +2.
Followed by Rd2 -3 and Rd3 -5 and same recipe of good front 9 with the wind and hold it together on the back 9. 4 putt on 18 in rd2 was a shocker. Some great iron play in Rd3. 4 iron into the wind on the par 5 14th? was prob my favourite.
The wind reversal for Rd4 was easier to take and hit -6 for a -14 total.
Good luck all.

[wimigbg]

Paired up with andersnm again to form a scandinavian dynamic duo. It was really fun in the hard winds and so big crowds. Just 1 birdie on the front 9 was not enough to cover for bogies on the back 9. Still in the hunt though.

Now waiting in the clubhouse for artvandelay to come in with a 64 on the card.

[SimChars1968]

Very pleased with that First round. First 12 holes very good, wondered if I would ever get back to the clubhouse against that 'breeze'! Got one back at the last thankfully.

[davec187]

These greens are tearing me up. Sitting at +10 through 2 rounds.

[polekatt/josia]

I took a break and have been trying to get fundamentals downpat.      Sorry, but its really hard for me to work on the fundamentals on this style of play, I have to have the easier mode to see what I'm doing wrong.

Now what I still have to figure out is what has been an age old problem for me,  getting the yips when I have any inclination that I'm doing good.

Here is a prime example of what I mean-

As you can see, I was doing great, with the exception of one mishap on 13.  But came right back from it on the next hole, was feeling pretty good.

Then, as hole 15 closed, I was not fast enough in skipping over the score screen, and my eyes inadvertently drifted to it.  I tried not to, but my subconscious saw it, and said, 'hey bud, you are two strokes ahead of someone!'  

Instantly I could not putt, and lost 5 strokes on easy  putts.      sigh.

maybe one day!

[hammers1man]

Feb 2, 2021 0:06:16 GMT polekatt/josia said:

I took a break and have been trying to get fundamentals downpat.      Sorry, but its really hard for me to work on the fundamentals on this style of play, I have to have the easier mode to see what I'm doing wrong.

Now what I still have to figure out is what has been an age old problem for me,  getting the yips when I have any inclination that I'm doing good.

Here is a prime example of what I mean-

As you can see, I was doing great, with the exception of one mishap on 13.  But came right back from it on the next hole, was feeling pretty good.

Then, as hole 15 closed, I was not fast enough in skipping over the score screen, and my eyes inadvertently drifted to it.  I tried not to, but my subconscious saw it, and said, 'hey bud, you are two strokes ahead of someone!'  

Instantly I could not putt, and lost 5 strokes on easy  putts.      sigh.

maybe one day!

What part of putting are you struggling with?, putting is the strongest part of my game and am happy to give any tips on my method as I am sure others here will also.

[Deleted]

First Round in at St. Andrews. Solid front nine. Quite surprised to see that eagle putt drop on the 5th from distance. Followed that up with another birdie. Had some really good chances but couldn't convert. Then we get to the back nine....one word tough! A bit of a bogey train down the stretch as I put myself in tough spots. The Road Hole played extremely long. Had a chance to get into red figures on the last with a chip just off the green. But just trickled off line at the end. Great Round from SimChars1968 in those conditions! 👍

[wimigbg]

Round 2 and paired with davec187 . He had his troubles on the greens as he mentioned. And it was a lot of difficult first putts he had to putt (pun intended) up with.

I had a round of hit the fairway, hit the green, two putt and move on basically. Missed a 3 footer for par on the 6th and an uphill 6 footer for birdie on the last that hurt, but otherwise very steady and uneventful.

[polekatt/josia]

Feb 2, 2021 0:21:48 GMT hammers1man said:

What part of putting are you struggling with?, putting is the strongest part of my game and am happy to give any tips on my method as I am sure others here will also.

The mental part.   where you relax and take your time and do it right.  LOL

Honestly, You gave me some tips in a thread a while back, and your tips helped me TREMENDOUSLY.    That is part of the fundamentals I was referring to.   I changed how I was putting, and implemented all the tips you gave me, and started doing it the way you said to.  But I had to learn it with the grids on, because I didn't know how I had missed something, when I couldn't be absolutely sure what the greens were doing, if that makes sense.

Doing it your way, I can sometimes hit 100% of the short and most of the medium putts!    

But the part I am struggling with is purely mental now, I believe.   In the scorecard above, I literally did perfectly fine until I realized I might beat someone, and subconsciously put undue pressure on myself.    That happens in TGCtours, when I realize I am doing good enough to make a cut, or doing good enough after making a cut to hit a top 20.  

In the putting, when that happens, I get nerves, or yips, or whatever, and I forget to relax, and I forget to follow through all the way to when the stick hits the end of the controller.  When that happens, I get a line that is instead of straight, it goes from 5 oclock to 11 oclock.   Then when that happens, I try to compensate, and end up with a couple holes of it going 7 to 1 oclock.  

On the faster greens, I still have some trouble, because when I am trying not to hit the ball too hard to compensate for the faster green, I tend to not follow through and it causes the situation above.

In the fairways I do much better now, simply from learning to slow down my game,  relax before each shot, and not rush the shot.  But same as putting, sometimes I'll be thinking too hard about a shot, and it trying to concentrate on getting it perfect, I'll stop the stick just short of following all the way through, and it causes  a squiggly finish to the line or a very slow.

So I think I know the 'what' of what to do, its just the actual doing them that I am working on now, the follow throughs, and the mental aspects.       Pretty much, from what I understand, just like real golf, right?

I really don't enjoy practicing, like at the range or on the putting green, its too boring for me to be relaxing (which it what games are supposed to be), so I have been making sure to play two rounds each day to get proper practice in.

And any additional tips are greatly appreciated!