The Open - Summer 2023 Recap

Troy won at Feather Sound in dominant fashion Sunday, leading wire-to-wire and collecting his 5th Major. It's Troy's lowest gross score (79) in Club history, vaulting him to the top of the Leader Board. His score could have been even better if not for a triple on the somewhat easy (from the Blues) 10th hole. Troy continues to reap the rewards of improvement!

 

Unfortunately you can't write him in as a 2-time Champion just yet... he's traveling the next two events and his handicap just dropped to 14.5, thanks to an exceptional score. #roadto14

We have to give a shout-out to Crum, who also finished with his best round in Club history and highest place on the leader board (T2). He's played Feather a lot so it seems he took advantage of his local knowledge. Same with Casey who finished tied in 2nd place.

 

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Feather Sound itself was nice, especially for this time of year. As Faz pointed out... their guest rates are about $50 too high year-round. I don't know why clubs do that, and I'd love to see how many guest rounds they have each month. I'd imagine Members would enjoy a more affordable way to share the course. But maybe there's a lot of guest rounds on their books?

 

Many of the top private clubs in Scotland and Ireland only charge about £50 for guests. The idea being that Members usually pay, so why gouge their own Members? Pretty sure JW has roots in Ireland, so he should have paid for us.

Either way... great day on the course. Conditions were awesome, we got lucky with the summer rain, and hopefully everyone had fun. Thanks again to JW for setting it up!

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 We're off for 4th of July this weekend. But here are two scheduling updates:

• We're still looking for a place to book the Hangover tournament. Hopefully I'll have something to report in a few days.
• As for the bar, the last four Hangovers Parties have been held inside this blue circle:

Being a "Man of the People," I suggested going further north to Carrollwood, and throwing a bone to the Westchase Whipped. Perhaps even a return to O'Brien's... home of the Summer 2014 party where Darren damaged the Cup immediately after this picture was taken:

Look how much fun we weren't having.

Faz, our resident elitist, is adamantly opposed to this idea. He says nobody from the North will show up. He also says O'Briens is a dump and the live music sucked and we should go to an actual good bar instead.

This is all news to me. I seem to remember having a good time in 2014. But I've also had a million Coors Lights since then, so my memory is fading. Or morally being rewritten.

Anyway, we need eliminate the speculation. Are the Northerners going to show up? Are there any suggestions of "better bars" that aren't tainted with your selfish proclivities (ie: desire to be within walking distance, or owned by some idiot you went to high school with)?

We unfortunately can't choose PopStroke — a previous suggestion — due to it being an absolute shit-show on Saturday nights.

It's OK if Faz is correct, we just need to know. I can't have him wasting a night in Flyover Country if it's just going to be the Tampa kids showing up! We can do that at The Retreat.

• Our next Major - The Championship at University Park (July 30th) - is now full (20 spots). Anyone listed as out can be an alternate. Just let me know if you want to be on the waiting list. Travis ain't showing up that weekend, so I expect at least one opening.
  

Feather Sound Tips and Tricks

Some of y’all have played out there with me, and some of y’all have played with other folks. If you haven’t been since the course renovation, it’s quite a bit different on the course and off. Here’s what you should know for both. 

When you drive up, use the bag drop and the guys working up there will take your bag and get it on a cart  They have everyone’s names and their groups. Please bring cash to tip them. They’ll clean the clubs and all after the round and get your bags back up to the parking lot.

Go park after the bag drop. No rules about changing shoes in the parking lot and I do it every time I go out. Stuffiness has increased, but not that much.

Proper golf attire is required and you need to have your shirts tucked in. Gonna be strict on this. Don’t want you to have to buy a belt in the pro shop or something. Pretty much all of you dress properly at every course we play, so this is nothing out of the ordinary.

Speaking of the pro shop, your rounds will all go on my account, or the other two member hosts, Fritz or John. Go check in at the pro shop when you get there, and then go hit the practice area or head over to the snack shop by the tenth tee box and grab a snack and drinks if you’d like. As noted in the comments on the official FBGC preview, you can pay with cash or card at the snack bar and with Deborah or Suki or whoever is running the beverage cart on Sunday. 

Practice area is great. Use it and get well prepared for the round. 

In the clubhouse they’ve started a no hats rule. I hate the no hats rule, but I acquiesce nonetheless. If you don’t you’ll be quickly reminded of the rule. The men’s grill is less draconian. 

On the course, the greens and surrounds are much more enjoyable post renovation than prior. I think they’ve improved the layout making 1 a little more interesting, 7 more fun, 14 way better, and making 15 a more versatile hole for tournaments. They can tip that out around 270 now. Most of you should not play the back tees. 

Unfortunately, the drainage is apparently impossible to fix. The overnight rain and morning rain closed the course today. Keep a close eye on the weather and pray for it to stay dry. 

As for which tees you should play, I play the member tees 95% of my rounds out there. Sometimes I move back. I’m playing up for the tournament because I think I can make those strokes back between 4, 16, and definitely 18. 9 can be a good par hole if you can keep your drive on the right side of the fairway and keep it dry from the golds. Honestly, some of them I’d rather play the golds than up, and 9 might be one. 14 could be reachable in 2 from up for me, and maybe 6 as well. If you’re hitting it past 240 and straight consistently, go to members. 270 play the blended back. If you’re a big hitter, watch out for balls running through to water left on 5, right on 6, and maybe right on 14 from golds or up if the wind is behind you. 

Speaking of 6, they fixed the big blunder of the renovation that was splitting 6 into a par 4 and a par 3 and skipping 8. The remnants of that blunder are still there, however. If you hit it on the old green on the left side of 6 fairway, pull it off that and take a free drop. It’s my preferred layup zone so I hate it being there, but such is life. 

Also, do not rely on your gps apps on your phone. Golfshot for sure is not correct. I doubt others are either. Use the cart’s GPS for back, middle, front, and your laser range finders for the pin. They do not set the pin distance on the cart GPS. 

Any other questions, let me know. Be happy to help. And Faz or Chandler, if you think I missed anything, feel free to add in comments. Hope everyone has fun and the weather cooperates for us. 

The Open - Summer 2023 Preview

JW was able to get another Feather Sound member to join us, allowing Crum and Reid to get in.

Tee time is 10:40am. Everyone owes JW $134.

Feather has a great practice facility, and I highly recommend showing up early to warm up. Let the bag drop guys know you're with the Crouch, Ferguson, and Hofmeister groups. If they ask which one specifically, just tell them you don't speak English.

After a lot of discussion, the course set-up committee decided to set the base tees as FEATHER (which is a blend of gold/blue (Members/Founders). 

 

There will be no forward tees for the old men, as most of the questionable holes are already forward. In fact, part of our base tee decision was due to the fear that allowing the Old Balls Club to move up was too much of an advantage. So it's better to give everyone the option... especially since the course will probably be saturated from rain.

We did a good job last tournament using multiple blended tees at Southern Dunes... so focus on those scorecard arrows!

There are a few options if you want to move back to gain strokes.

I've only played Feather twice, once before the renovation and once after. It's a difficult test of golf, with plenty of water hazards. But assuming it isn't flooded, the conditions are great. You'll enjoy it.

Thanks again to JW — who has been awarded "Member of the Month" for June 2023.

Summer 2023 - The Open Details

Finally got details for The Open - which is our first Major of the year on June 25th.

Due to a lot of people being "OUT," one of our resident elites (JW) felt it was a good chance to get us on Feather Sound. The Board approved the move as a one-off since it's by far the most expensive round in our history. We'll offset it by playing some real shit-holes later in the season (Buffy Creek?).

Feather Sound

Sunday, June 25th

10:40am

$134 owed to JW

15 spots open (possibly more)

Based on current RSVPs, Crum is the first alternate if he wants in. JW is working on potentially adding another group to allow him or anyone else to join. So keep your status up to date.

Pairings will be hand-crafted by the Board to help spread out any pace-of-play offenders.

 

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In other news, I'm doing a Concussion scouting mission to Terra Ciea this Saturday (6/17). Tee time is 10:12am and I have two spots open. First two to comment get the spots.

Summer 2023 - Skins Recap

For the 2nd week in a row Gary played with the winner, as Faz overcame 4 doubles (and only a couple of bad chips) to win his 18th career tournament. It never really felt like Faz could win, until he chipped-in for birdie on 17 with his putter. Faz also won the most skins on the day, with 13. A rare time when a winner of the event received the most money.

Tall Mike — who was up near the top all day — needed a par on 18 to tie for the victory (his 14th). Everyone in the clubhouse knew he was going to do just that. He might be the only guy in our Club who can literally will himself to victory.

Troy and Geoff were the other big skins winners, racking up 10 each and a little bit of money they wouldn't have received in a standard stroke play event.

Finally, Gorecki is on a 19-hole no-par streak.

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The course was as advertised. Great shape for this time of year. Challenging greens despite being large. It's a good test of golf, with low and high handicaps mixed all over the leader board.

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We're actively trying to secure something for our next event. I'll let you know as soon as we have it booked, but we'll be capped at 16 players based on the RSVP list.

 

Next weekend we're off due to Father's Day. Enjoy the time off!

 

 

Summer 2023 - Week 2 Preview

Skins Game this week, where your entry fee goes into a $2 per-hole group-specific skins competition. Pairings are in order of 1) Course Handicap 2) Handicap Index in order to limit the amount of strokes given in each group. Pairings might change last minute due to tee selections and people bailing (or getting back in). So check back Saturday night.

First tee time: 8:39am

Southern Dunes is by far one of the best run facilities in our ROTA. They recently re-built their driving range and added TopGolf TopTracer (Trackman) bays... which we won't be using. They also constructed a new putting green which they have now ripped out (after only a couple of months) because they made it too severe. I'm highly impressed they admitted the mistake so soon, and are fixing it.

Greens Fees are $65+ tax on Sunday. According to the pro (Kevin) this includes a $5 gratuity for the bag guys outside. Tip them more if you want... or inform them the pro tacked on an extra fee to our round. Either way, you've "allegedly" already paid for them to clean your clubs. Personally, I think it's a scam.

While just about every hole has OB... it's pretty far off the fairway and lined with pine trees. Hit those provisionals though, if you go toward the houses.

See you Sunday!

Summer 2023 - Week 1 Recap

I feel like we learned a lot of things yesterday at Heritage Isles. First and foremost, the course is a reminder that you can't just look at yardages when determining where to play. And unfortunately, you can't just look at Rating/Slope either.

The Course Setup Committee (yep, that's me) usually does a good job selecting base tees that produce the most fun and chances of "decent" scores. Sometimes people chirp about it being too easy or short... even though you always have the option of moving back to gain some strokes with additional challenge.

Heritage isles offers yardages of 6,236 and 5,615 — a gap that is incredibly egregious. With a Slope of 126 on the longer Blue tees, we went with those and allowed the 55/25 Club the option of moving up. This was a mistake, and the Committee regrets the error.

Long carries off the tee, narrow chutes, and par 3s of 175-200 yards is just too much for our standards. Some of us probably shot the same scores from the Blues that we do on the Whites. But it wasn't enjoyable. Our base tees should always be enjoyable.

 

Moving back and removing the "fun" should be a choice you make to possibly gain a stroke advantage. Yesterday most of us had no choice.

It doesn't help that some of the conditions out there were absolute shit. Fairways and rough were nice. The actually grass on the greens was good. But the surfaces were bumpy, almost as if ball marks were never fixed. The bunkers were the worst I've ever seen, and I mentally couldn't get over losing two brand new balls in bunker-lakes on the first 4 holes.

Dave correctly opined that the only reason he won was because most of the field had to play his tees. This might be the first time the winner's handicap calculation didn't even take the round, as Dave had no equitable adjustments to further reduce his score. He just played steady and smart golf, avoiding any big mistakes.

Melberg couldn't avoid triple bogeys (3 of them), but finished 2nd for a lot of the same reasons.

Billy, Gorecki, and Adam were higher handicaps that fell into 3rd place. It was some of the best golf I've ever seen Gorecki play... despite some of the absolute worse swings I've ever seen. He could be dangerous again this season if he stops randomly shanking the ball.

 

We also learned that golf is hard, and you can't just proclaim things are going to happen — or never going to happen — and will it into existence. There's a fine line between overconfidence and delusion.

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We got the Skins Game next week at Southern Dunes at 8:39am. It might be the best course on our ROTA at the moment. We have two Members who need to confirm if they're in, one of which needs to pay his dues.

More on the course later... but base tees are WHITE... 55/25 people can choose WHITE/GOLD.

 

While the WHITE tees are nearly the same distance as we just played at Heritage Isles, it's a drastically different track and very manageable. Most importantly, it's fun.

Scorecard is here.

Let me know your tee choice if you haven't already.

Board Meeting - Summer 2023 Recap

The Board Meeting on Tuesday was uneventful, other than us placing 2nd at trivia. Congrats on electing Club leadership who knows a lot of dumb shit.

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Geoff proposed that Long Drives need to be "validated" with a par or better on the hole, much like we validate Greenies. This was rejected 1-4. 

 

The thought was that validating greenies with a 2-putt proves your approach was close enough for a reward of par (or birdie). If you're the only guy on the green but are 40 feet away from the hole... do you really deserve the money? Sure... if you 2-putt. It also adds a little bit of pressure and excitement.

But on long drive holes, we're already somewhat "validating" a well-struck tee ball with the fairway requirement. Too many unrelated things can happen after that (especially on par-5s) which have nothing to do with where you positioned your ball off the tee. There isn't much added "pressure" as you continue to traverse the hole until possibly the final putt. At which point most of you probably wouldn't remember who was in the fairway, or the longest.

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I was asked to post yet another reminder that the 2-stroke option for going OB is a last resort option. If you hit a ball near OB, you need to hit a provisional. If your playing partners tell you they think you're OB... you need to hit a provisional.

 

And no, you can't drop your ball in the fairway for 2-strokes.

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I tried to get us on Seminole Lake this week but they couldn't make that happen until after 1pm. And after this week they're ripping up all their greens and using temporary ones. While this would be good for Gorecki to make his 2nd ever "eagle," it's not an option for our Club this season. Some day we will get back out there, but they are one of the more difficult Clubs to work with.

 

The Board is considering hosting The Concussion from a full-sized course this year, but from the front men's rated tees. Not sure if we're really going to do it... but we're trying to find good options outside of Countryway and The Groves. Maybe Freedom Fairways is due for another visit? 

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Three people still have outstanding dues. Just a reminder you need to settle up to earn points on Sunday. See you then.