Random Golf Thoughts

I don't think the two higher guys were new to golf but maybe new to competition. It was stableford.

There was nothing personally bad about any of them at all, nice enough guys. Just it was an hour over what I'd call a slow round for no real reason, 5 minutes a hole adds up I guess. Slow to tee off, slow to get to a ball etc. Add that in with looking for balls on most holes adds up

Not worth a thread, just wanted to vent :D

^ Quick Followup: if you are left with a downhill putt for an 8 on a par three on traditional strokes versus a version where you pickup after 8 -you are going to play that shot differently under the two different formats. And it's also part of what makes that risky shot in over the water on the prior hole all the more pleasing when you make the carry and stitch it for an unlikely birdy :)

That's a crazy long round! I've never been out that long on a course.

In casual golf if they're not holding anyone up I think they're right to keep playing. They'll learn faster that way. But at a minimum they were holding you up. If it's taking them that long to get around they need to figure out how to speed up.

You make perfect sense, as does your follow up. I hadn't even considered that strategic element to it but it changes how I approach Stableford so of course it would for stroke play too. As you can tell I put little or no thought into it, just entered my head while waiting on a slow group last weekend.

I do hope there is more acceptance of 9 hole tournaments in future years. 18 holes can be a real slog if its slow, especially if you know you're out of it in a comp. I'd love Saturday/Sunday evening 9 hole comps at our club. As it stands the only 9 hole comp is a midweek four ball thing that I'm not mad about.

Got around in 4 hours on Sunday in fourball. Pretty quick and we never saw the groups in front of us, nor the ones behind. Everyone was rushing in to get in, in time, to watch the Roscommon Vs Offaly U20 match on TV. it was a lovely way to play :)

Athlone senior and junior scratch cup on Sunday 29th of august if any around and fancy it. Course is in super condition

Good man! On reflection did you enjoy the round?

What handicap do "non golfers" get in a classic-fundraiser scramble with WHS? We are running a scramble at the weekend, in past events I have played, non golfers typically got assigned 18, but i believe that has gone up now has it?

Also, some scrambles I have played the organizers have added 4 handicaps together and divided by 7 and others have divided by 10. Is there a set rule to determine the teams handicap? I read something online about using 5%/10%/15%/20% of the 4 players but that seems like an opportunity for mistakes on the day.

Mid-2000s it was outlawed by USGA and limited it to 460cc

Crazy money. I wonder how many lines they'll sell at those prices.

I'd love to know what the actual average green fee is. I imagine the tour operators booking in hundreds / thousands each year get a good discount. And I'd say there's a high proportion playing as member guests, or getting a deal some other way.

I remember playing with a lad who played there the week before and I said that to him. He said no way, they don't give discounts there's. So I said wow, you paid the full rate so? No, he got it for around 60 because he knew someone there.

I was reading an article on this subject recently. In Ireland there is only Humm (which used to be called Flexi-Fi) who provide this service, the main player in this space is Klarna which you'll see all over the UK sites offering the same option as payment. In a previous role I had some dealings with Flexi-fi and found them very poor to work with in terms of integrating their service to our eCommerce sites so I'm not that surprised the uptake is relatively low compared to other places. It is available in some B & M stores where I assume there is a portal the seller accesses to process and application. O' Dwyers in Kilkenny offer it in store only but advertise on their website.

Klarna is expanding into Ireland in 2022 so I'd expect that to become a much more readily available option for people soon. Only thing with Klarna and that sort of thing is if you are spending €1-1400k on a new set of irons you'll want to be fitted for them and I don't think they offer that service on custom clubs so to me not of much use. Maybe if you knew exactly the specs you want it would work out ok though. Its certainly cheaper than putting it on the credit card and paying it back though so if you know what you want its a great option. I'd probably only consider it for things like a putter or maybe an electric cart personally but not sure I like the idea of a 12 month loan for something relatively small like that.

Interesting interview with Brooks, thinks he can catch Nicklaus in majors and speaks about Phil's gamesmanship in the PGA.

No mention of Bryson though, which is strange as it's a pretty open wide-ranging interview. Wonder why he or the interviewer considered it off the table, maybe because of the Ryder Cup, which he isn't particularly a fan of with all the team meetings and whatnot.

He's more unlikeable than Bryson