NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE COLORADO OPEN. Well, round two was cancelled due to poor weather forecasting by all the local weather experts. Weather forecast for Wednesday, as of late Tuesday, was mostly cloudly with rain or snow likely, with a high in the mid 40's. And quite windly. Well Wednesday arrived with the sun shining and about 35* at 8:00AM. By 10:00 it was in the 40's headed for a high of 56*. Mostly sunny with little or no wind. The weather experts couldn't have missed the forecast in more ways if they tried. So a perfect day for round two with Jake was wasted because the weather experts were wrong again. So, the second round of the Colorado Closed is moved to next Wednesday. Let's hope the weather is as nice as yesterday. And if there are any other Colorado golfers that would like to join in the match, please let Jake and I know. We would love to make it a foursome, rather than a twosome. Or a threesome? That's not perverted is it? :eek:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DON:
[qb]NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE COLORADO OPEN. Well, round two was cancelled due to poor weather forecasting by all the local weather experts. Weather forecast for Wednesday, as of late Tuesday, was mostly cloudly with rain or snow likely, with a high in the mid 40's. And quite windly. Well Wednesday arrived with the sun shining and about 35* at 8:00AM. By 10:00 it was in the 40's headed for a high of 56*. Mostly sunny with little or no wind. The weather experts couldn't have missed the forecast in more ways if they tried. So a perfect day for round two with Jake was wasted because the weather experts were wrong again. So, the second round of the Colorado Closed is moved to next Wednesday. Let's hope the weather is as nice as yesterday. And if there are any other Colorado golfers that would like to join in the match, please let Jake and I know. We would love to make it a foursome, rather than a twosome. Or a threesome? That's not perverted is it? :eek: [/qb][/QUOTE]geez, how did i miss this until now?

well, round two is now around the corner.
remember that movie where the local kid plays with jones and hagan and is like 15 strokes behind after one round?
okay, thats me here, except by more strokes

thankfully, this is not a strokeplay event!!
ready to start over, and got in a good practice round sunday.

also, im with don 100%.

anyone from colorado that would like to play in the closed (we're like the british open being called "the open". we just call it "the closed" ) let us know. a 3 or 4some would be great.

but until then, let "the closed" continue with its two original players.

jake

Round two of the "closed" was pretty bad. Neither one of us played real well. I won the front nine by 3, and Jake won the back nine by 3, for a tie. Are there no other members on this site that live in the Denver area? We would love to expand the match to include a few more players. How about you, Todd? You live just north of Denver, come and join the fun. We need more golfers, Jake is getting tired of having only me to laugh at. We'll even let you carry a roll of green lifesavers in you pocket if you want, we don't care. :rolleyes:

well, round three of the closed might be delayed by weather.
im hoping theyre wrong, but theyre calling for 12-20 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow.

cross your fingers and hope theyre wrong,

jake

Round three of the Closed was not real pretty, but I managed to come out on top, after Jake broke his driver hitting balls on the practice range. Can't really call it a victory, when the Jake is playing without the "Big Dog" in the bag, but I'll take it while I can get it .
Round four was a little better, but neither of us played real well. Started off okay, but it didn't last. I ended up 13 over par and Jake was a few behind that. The greens are still to hard for my tastes. Hit the green with a full swing of a wedge, and you can't even find a ball mark to repair. I don't think the courses here have started to water the greens yet, due to the continuing water shortage in the whole state. The rest of the course was looking much better after that 18" snow storm last month, but not the greens. Jake and I both hit a few greens short of the pin, only to have the ball roll off the back into the rough. Hard to make par that way. We sure could use some rain to get the greens soft. Overall, we both played better, but still too many bad shots kept us from breaking 80 again. Still have a few spots available in the Closed for the season long match, anyone out there want to join the fun???

Don, did you play with the new sticks (irons and hybrid)?
How did they work for ya? The regular shafts a better fit?
I told Jake he might have a chance to win being you have all new sticks!

Divot: No, I haven't had a chance to even hit the new irons yet, so I didn't want to play 18 with them cold turkey, you might say. Tried the hybrid a little on the range, didn't do to good. But I wasn't hitting my 9 iron worth a darn either, so I'll have to go back out and give the hybrid a fair trial. Not swinging a club for 2 weeks before Wednesday, might have been a factor in hitting bad shot. I did get over to Golfsmith yesterday and managed to hit a few balls on the simulator there. Hit a TM R7, don't know what loft,Didn't have my reading glasses with me. Nor was I able to see how they had the 4 weights set. Anyway, I managed to hit a few good shots. Ball speed was 140-155, the system only measures ball speed, not clubhead speed for some reason. Best carry distance was 253 yards, which is good for me. Launch angle was never above 11-11.5 degrees, so a higher lofted club might have been better. I'll have to go back and bring the reading glasses and see what loft I was hitting, will check out the shaft also while I'm at it. One of the local courses has free golf for MOMS this Sunday, so I'm taking the wife out for a round of golf for Mother's Day, and saving a few bucks while I'm at it.

don described it well.
overall good ball striking, but brutal greens. i had one that was an 80 yard gap wedge approach. hit it sky high with a soft 3/4 swing, landed it SHORT of the pin on an UPHILL sloped green.....and it still rolled off the back and left no divot. pretty amazing.
for the most part, we just kept scrambling to make bogeys.
only other problem we had is the occasional AWFUL shot.
those should be minimized as the season progresses. i was really pleased with the driver again. not the best distance, but pretty good accuracy on most shots. no pop ups or worm burners, and just one that was o.b. left.
not bad at all. new shaft makes all the difference.
new gap wedge was also great.
scoring should get better as conditions improve and we get to playing more consistently.

i ended at 18 over. exactly bogey golf. could be worse of course, but it should be better. the cement greens and the occasionaly worm burner from the fairway or sidehill lie did me in.

hey, at least the overall ball striking is coming back.
its been tough to find consistency since ive had to overhaul the swing and become so much more upright (my back cant take a proper stance).
still, im really feeling like its coming together, and the results on the course are STARTING to support that.

now i just need to leap frog don here and win a few!!
geez, we pushed once and i lost 3.
time to get to work!!
don, look out. im coming for you!!

jake

ps- let me echo his sentiment. anyone interested in joining "the closed", please submit your application here. we may just let you skip q school
this is your chance to play in the unofficial 5th major!!

Being as how you can't bend over for a normal address position, I wonder if you might be better off using a 1 inch longer shaft in all you irons???? Do you have a spare short iron we could add an inch to and try? I have a set of shaft extensions, and it wouldn't be a big deal to extend one club just as a test. Might help your game, then again, why am I trying to help you improve your game? When I'm trying to win each week?? Forget I mentioned it, let's SHORTEN ALL YOUR CLUB 2 INCHES SO YOU HAVE TO BEND OVER REAL FAR.

by the way.

i checked on the rule in question don.
anyone feel free to jump in, but i think i have it straight.
rule 18-5 covers it.

what happened was all three of us playing (don and i picked up a single) were off the green. if i remember right, don was left a ways. i was short right 10-15 yards, and our single was short left 15-20 yards.
anyway, our single plays first and knocks it on the green to about 3 feet.
don plays next and hits his 6-8 feet away.
i play third, and hit a nice bump and run, but a little too much on it.
as it rolls up and starts to slow down, it hits our singles ball and comes to rest a few inches from the cup.
it wasnt moving too fast, so his ball only rolls about 4-5 feet away.
we all witnessed this happen.

anyway, we had a discussion about it, and didnt seem to agree on what should happen.
our single thought it was a penalty on me, which i was sure wasnt the case.
don thought i shouldve let him mark his ball, which makes some sense, but we were all off the green and all chipping/pitching, and the single made no move to go mark his ball.

anyway, here's the deal.
i was correct in playing my ball as it came to rest.
our single shouldve placed his ball where we believe it originally came to rest, since we all witnessed it being hit.
no penalites are incurred.

HOWEVER, the question of marking is addressed also.
a player may:

a) lift his ball if he considers that the ball may assist another player.
b) ask the ball to be lifted if he feels the ball may interfere with his play or assist another player.

that considered, it wouldve been up to our single to mark his ball if he felt it would assist mine.
i couldve also asked for a mark, but i did not think his ball would interfere with mine. l started my chip off on the intended mark, but it rolled well left of where i thought it would.
anyway, since our single made no move to mark his ball (iferring that he didnt feel it was an issue) and i didnt ask him to move it, we procede under rule 18-5.
my ball is played as it lies (lucky me!! i think my ball wouldve been fairly close anyway, but because it struck his it was a tap in for par), and he must move his ball back where it originally came to rest.

as for penalties, again, none shoule be incurred, but interestingly enough, if the player who's ball is moved DOESNT place it back where it originally came to rest HE incurrs a penalty.

jake

i checked that actually.
my clubs are only a quarter inch longer than standard, but that actually gives them aproximately the correct lie angle.
seems strange, but they do lie about right.

Jake: I knew that our third player was wrong about it being a penality against you, in fact if I'm not wrong, it would have been a penality against him if you had asked him to mark his ball and he refused, and then your ball did hit his. I believe I heard that from a golf commentator once, I assume it's true. And I was sure that you got to play your ball as it lay, and our third got to replace his ball where is was. What I was saying was that it might have been better if you had waited for us to mark our balls before you played your shot, so as to eliminate the chance of your ball hitting another ball. As it played out, you did get a good break by having your ball hit his. I was standing 90 degrees to the path of your ball, and I'm sure your ball would have rolled by the cup by 10 feet or more, with the slope going away from you and all. You got a lucky break and that's fine, next time it might be my turn.

We had pretty much the same thing happen in yesterday's round. On a 223 yd par 3, one player's ball was about 3 feet from the hole. His brother had a slick, downhill chip of about 40 ft - absolutely no way to stop the ball. Now this guy is a 1.5, so he knows what he's doing. Noone made a move to mark any balls on the green, so he intentionally tried to hit his brother's ball and did. Pretty creative.

JW

It pays to know the rules, and if no one is in any hurry to mark their ball, then why not use the rules to your advandage. On the other hand, it would be rather unfair to "hurry up" and hit your shot while the guy is walking to his ball to mark it. That might be legal, but it wouldn't be good sportsmenship, at least not in my opinion. Especially if you ask the guy to wait so you can mark the ball and then he hits his ball before you can get there. That I would think, might even be against the rules.

Why does it have to rain on my golf day? One day a week I try to play golf, and it has to rain. Tuesday it was sunny and 82, Wednesday it rainy and a high of 50. Anyone want to guess which day I had a tee time for? Needless to say, round 5 of the Closed was delayed until next week.

frustrating to say the least.

lets hope next week is better.

with my luck, we'll have a may blizzard.

Well, the weather was a lot better then the quality of my game. And the people that take care of the course are driving me nuts. We had a 8:10 tee time, the driving range was looking beautiful, nice thick green grass that anyone would be proud to have as a lawn. The fairways were nice and green, with standing water in quite a few places on the course. But the greens, they are still as hard as ever. Still can see the remains of aeration marks from at least 3 weeks ago. We played 18 holes and I was only able to find 2 ball marks on the greens, and not real deep ones at that. To give you and idea of how hard and dry the greens were, hole 11 is a 159 yard par 3. I normally hit a 9 iron 150, and because I knew the greens were hard I decided to hit the 9 and hope the ball would land short and roll up close. Well I nailed the 9 iron, the ball flew nice and high, maybe a few yards right of the flag, it landed pin high and started to roll up the slope of the green and almost off the back. When Jake and I got to the green, I found a shallow ball mark 2 yards past the pin,(161 yards carry)and about 7 feet to the right of the pin. What should have been a 9 or 10 foot putt for birdie, ended up being a down hill putt of over 50 feet. I don't know about you, but when I hit a full 9 iron shot 161 yards to a flag that's 159, to a green that is sloped back to front, I expect to have a putt for birdie, not a tricky 50 plus footer across a bumpy green to try to save par. And why is the grounds crew watering the fairways and driving range and not the "greens" ? Makes no sense to me. Last fall I wasn't having any problem holding the greens using a cheaper ball that didn't spin as much as the ball I'm playing now. If the next time I play the greens are still this hard and dry, I think I'm going to just stop playing the course here until they start watering the greens and the grass starts to grow. As much as I love this game, which we all hate/love, it's just not any fun when the course is so dry. The entire green still has that 2 inch hole pattern from when they punched holes in the green weeks ago. It's like they don't want the grass to grow back and fill in the holes. It's like I'm the only one that knows that the shorter the grass is cut, the more you have to water it to get it to grow. If someone doesn't start watering the greens, this Wednesday might be my last round of golf for a long time, at least until the "browns" are back to being "greens". Almost forgot to mention the results, Jake and I tied again, Jake was one ahead on the front and I was one up on the back nine.

Don,
Ummm, have you talked to the head pro about the greens and asked him if they are watering them? Ranting on here won't solve anything! Sometimes the winter can be hard on the greens and they take a long time to come around. How high is your ball bouncing when it hits the green? When you hit a 9 iron nice and high and it bounces 6 feet in the air upon hitting the green, you know you have hard greens! That has happened to me at one of my favorite courses this year. They are in great shape and nice and green, but fast as lightning!! 161 yard 9 iron sounds like some major de-lofting of the clubface perhaps? From our conversations here, I know my swing speed is a little higher than yours. My 9 iron is my 145 club. What the heck do you do for 120 yards and in?!!

Don,

Does your course sand the greens when they aerate? Mine does and it makes a huge difference. When done properly, the greens a playable within 2 days and the heal a lot faster. Also, most courses keep the blade height on the greens mowers up for a few weeks after they aerate. I used to think that should help the ball check on a full shot, but now I'm not so sure. Our superintendent explained to me this weekend that the higher cut actually makes the greens springier. Once they lower the blades (by 1/16th next weekend) it should improve. He said that allows the ball to get through the grass on impact rather than bouncing off the surface, that way it checks up. Makes sense, but the proof is in the pudding. If the greens suddenly start to hold next Sunday, I'd have to say he was right.

By the way, our super tells me he wants the greens rolling at least 10.5 by the end of this month. If he does that and keeps our Sunday pins in the same spots, we may have to lynch him. I played with a +1.5 yesterday who 4-jacked from 10 feet on one hole. Great fun.

JW

the greens were terrible.

course itself was fantastic, but the greens were bad.

towards the end, i walked up to the green while don was off to see where his approach landed and rolled.

twice he hit a high lob wedge that i could SEE spinning and it still rolled 15 feet past where it hit and bounced a couple feet in the air.

don has a much lower ball flight than i do and thus gets quite a bit more distance, but trust me, its not THAT low.

that nine iron shot had the trajectory of a high ball hitters 7 iron.
shouldnt be a problem to hold the green, but it was.

on one of the par 3's, i hit a TOWERING 7 iron and it hit just short and left of the pin, and from the tee box you could see it bounce up a few feet and it rolled all the way to the back of the green.
pretty frustrating.

i dont think our overall ball striking was bad at all, but those greens sure cost us some strokes.

here's to hoping they start watering them.
if not, i wont stop playing, but i WILL pay the extra money to go to a different course.

jake

Normal distance for a 9 iron is 150, so we aren't that much apart, And I get some extra distance from playing at altitude. I think I just hit the ball really well that time to get the extra yards, it felt perfect at impact. I'll have to check my ball flight compared to Jake's, but I have never noticed my ball flight as being lower than normal. I've always thought of my ball flight as being rather high with the shorter irons in fact. As for shots under 120, I have a GW that I hit 120 yards, so that's good. Anything less than 105 yards and it's partial swings with the SW or LW. On one of those flop shots Jake mentioned, I had the club face open at least 45 degrees, about as much as I dared. I made a 3/4 swing and carried the ball about 15 yards and it still didn't leave a ball mark on the green or stop near where it landed. As for aeration of the greens, yes, they do cover the green with sand and drag a screen over it to spread the sand tha level the green. That fills all the holes with sand and removes most of the extra sand, but the hole pattern is still visiable after at least two weeks. Going by the looks of the greens, I'd say they haven't watered them at all this year. Very little is any signs of greening up after the winter. We had a very mild winter this year, so that shouldn't be a factor. In fact, the other day I read an article on the Ladies Open and how easy it was going to be to have the course in great shape due to how little Winter Kill the courses in the state had this year. Last fall when I was playing a 165 yard par 3, I'd hit 8 iron and have a ball mark that was about a 1/2 inch deep and there would be dirt at the bottom of the hole. The ball had enough spin to "peel" the grass back and leave bare dirt showing. Now, I can hit a PW and not find any ball mark at all. Last fall I was playing a XL3000 and I could stop the ball within a foot of where it landed all the time. Now I can't get a higher spin ball to stop within 30 feet. Bottom line, it's just not much fun to go out and fight the greens every week. I just think I'd be better off spending that playing time practiceing and just wait until they start watering the greens. Jake and I have been play together for 2 months and my first round was my lowest scoring round. If anything, my game has gotten worse, not better. Sorry about all the ranting and complaining. Maybe the grounds crew is waiting for it to rain, May is our rainiest month. Only problem is we have had only .23 inches of rain all month, instead of the norm of 1.75".

Don,
That was a long and well thought out post. You would make a fine politician (not really, I know them's fight'n words! ) But you didn't answer my question at all: Have you talked to the pro or superintendent at the course?
Maybe there are watering restrictions they are under and they are doing the best they can. But you don't know unless you ask! What other courses have you played? Were they in the same shape? There are public courses around me that vary in green fees by only 2 or $3. If one was that bad and I had to spend $3 more, it would be worth it to me. Venture out, try some new courses. What's stopping you?? It would be better to spend $5 more on green fees than to stop playing! The only thing that makes you a better player is PLAYING! You can only do so much at the range, and we all know its nothing like the real thing anyway because there is no mental pressure to deal with. Get out there and play dammit! That's an order soldier!!

i dont think its ranting.
venting maybe, but its frustrating. ill vent with you!!

what im trying to do now is just work on ball striking.

like that 7 iron shot i mentioned. it was about as perfect as i can hit it.
i know where the ball landed (about 4 feet left pin high), and i know where it SHOULDVE came to rest (right there or maybe a foot back).
pat on the back, despite the ball actually coming to rest 20 feet from the cup and almost off the green.

yes, its frustrating, but im trying to concern myself more with the ball flight than with the final result. my SCORING isnt great at all, but i guess im just thinking that these conditions now may increase my scoring ability once it gets better.

hopefully theyll start to water the greens soon and it will improve.
i know from talking to some friends that a few other courses are now in good shape (buffalo run, red hawk ridge, etc.)
hopefully the rest will soon follow.

no golf for me this week as im putting in a 75 hour week, but im looking forward to next week, if im not exhausted by then!!
i was trying to get one day where i could leave early and get in a twilight round with don, but it now looks like i wont be able to leave before 8:00 any night this week.
ugghhh!

we're supposed to get some moisture the next couple days so that should help.
cross your fingers

Hey Don. How far can you hit that 62 deg Hogan I sent you?

JW

Sorry JW, I haven't put a shaft in the 62* wedge yet, but I will. Not long after I got the new TT Tri-Gold shafts for my new irons, the guy I sold my 600C's to tells me he has a full set of them that he doesn't want and I can have them if I want. So, Friday he comes over to pick up some stuff I worked on for him and brings over the shafts. Full set of S flex shafts with Winn grips in good shape, and one R flex wedge shaft. I'm thinking I'll just install that R flex shaft in the 62* head you sent me and see how it works. As for distance with a the lob wedge, I don't nornally hit a full swing lob wedge that much, but the last time I checked, I carry it about 70 yards, 80 if it;s really nailed flush. One big problem for me is that at the range I use, we normally are hitting into the wind, and with a lob wedge and the high ball flight, distance will vary a lot with the wind. Hit into a strong wind with a LW and you almost want to duck for cover, the ball balloons up so high it starts coming back at you. One day I was hitting at the range before a round on the par 3 course, the wind was blowing so hard I was only able to get 100 yards out of a well struck 9 iron. I wasn't looking forward to playing the first hole on the course, a 95 yard hole that would be playing down wind. With all that wind, I was thinking my PUTTER, might be a good choice. I think I ended up hitting a 3/4 lob wedge, and flew the green, and had to chip back 20 yards or so to save par. I don't know about the rest of you, but I really hate short par 3's with a strong wind at my back. Royal pain to get the correct distance. Also hard to practice the shot.