Golf

[Redford]

2 good bounce back victories this week on the DP Tour and PGA Tour.

Marcel Siem wins on the DP in India after a years long battle with mental demons and losing his card multiple times.

Chris Kirk wins The Honda in Florida. Had to take several breaks from the game a few years ago due to serious mental health issues and alcoholism. Has been a real struggle for him.

On to the Arnie.

 

[Mopsy]

Awesome couple of weeks of golf coming up.

Bay Hill into The Players, both great tournaments.

 

[Redford]

Awesome couple of weeks of golf coming up.

Bay Hill into The Players, both great tournaments.

They’re ok. But as I’ve said before, find courses with man made water hazards a bit contrived. Riviera and Pebble far better courses.

 

[The Big Richo]

Chris Kirk wins The Honda in Florida. Had to take several breaks from the game a few years ago due to serious mental health issues and alcoholism. Has been a real struggle for him.

Was a good finish and just as well for the tournament.

For a loyal PGA man the tour hasn't shown much love to the Golden Bear, his event has been made irrelevant.

 

[Redford]

Was a good finish and just as well for the tournament.

For a loyal PGA man the tour hasn't shown much love to the Golden Bear, his event has been made irrelevant.

It’s been re scheduled next year with a new title sponsor.

Nicklaus is very happy with the event and PGA Tour.

 

[The Big Richo]

It’s been re scheduled next year with a new title sponsor.

Needs a way to attract a better field as well. The problem with the new system is you load up all the good players in the same events and the other events suffer in comparison.

I'm surprised it didn't get a spot on the elevated list.

 

[Redford]

Needs a way to attract a better field as well. The problem with the new system is you load up all the good players in the same events and the other events suffer in comparison.

I'm surprised it didn't get a spot on the elevated list.

The premium events will all be spread out more next year. Next year the new rebranded Honda will be placed in a schedule that will see only 1 premium event played in the 3 week lead up to it.

You can bet prize money for the rebranded event next year will also increase a bit. Probably to $10m or so.

Nicklaus has and continues to be fine with it because Palm Beach (where he lives) isn’t a big market and he understands that.

 

[Tenacious]

I watched him on the driving range at the Vic Open. He was using a launch monitor and was comfortably carrying the ball 310m. That's carry, not total distance!

He's a very large man.

Big man Lincoln Tighe - and he doesn't hold back.

Incidentally - when you say he was hitting 310m - was that measured by the launch monitor or visually via markers on the driving range (or both)?
OR in other words
What's the general correlation between a launch monitor and actual real-life measurements (assuming no wind factor)?

I've only used one during a lesson conducted inside a Pro Shop - and have often wondered how accurate the results were

 

[Mopsy]

They’re ok. But as I’ve said before, find courses with man made water hazards a bit contrived. Riviera and Pebble far better courses.

Surprised by your view Red, given your love of the 17th at The Players.....

 

[Redford]

Surprised by your view Red, given your love of the 17th at The Players.....

That hole is better suited to a putt-putt course with clown mouths etc.

 

[BT Tiger]

Big man Lincoln Tighe - and he doesn't hold back.

Incidentally - when you say he was hitting 310m - was that measured by the launch monitor or visually via markers on the driving range (or both)?
OR in other words
What's the general correlation between a launch monitor and actual real-life measurements (assuming no wind factor)?

I've only used one during a lesson conducted inside a Pro Shop - and have often wondered how accurate the results were

My understanding is that indoors they'll read the first 3-4 metres of ball flight before it crashes into the net, and makes it's best guess for where the ball would have traveled. So they're not as accurate because they have less data to capture, but are still pretty good.

Outdoors they have a feature called normalisation which if turned on will account for elevation, wind and whether you're using range balls (which don't travel as far as a normal golf ball), and add on its perceived difference to what the ball should have done. If normalisation isn't turned on it'll provide the data on actual statistics.

Pretty sure Lincoln was using the normalization feature, from what I could gather but it was a sunny day with little wind anyway.

 

[The Big Richo]

I've got a flight scope monitor that I use with a home simulator and out on the range.

Incredibly accurate, inside and out as it uses the same data each time. Outside you can obviously see the ball flight matches what it tells you and inside it reflects what you'd expect with me and other mates who use it with me.

 

[MD Jazz]

I've got a flight scope monitor that I use with a home simulator and out on the range.

Incredibly accurate, inside and out as it uses the same data each time. Outside you can obviously see the ball flight matches what it tells you and inside it reflects what you'd expect with me and other mates who use it with me.

Out of interest what was the ballpark cost of your setup?

I played with a guy yesterday that has a home simulator and he said it was circa $20,000! But he loves it and he's come down from 26 to 16. He says he loves it and uses it a lot. He is a pretty consistent ball striker and has a pretty decent chipping game. Putting let him down but reckon he will get to single figures which isn't bad for a guy that didn't really play much as a kid (and is an orthodox jew so not pre-disposed to sport!)

 

[The Big Richo]

Out of interest what was the ballpark cost of your setup?

Hopefully my wife never reads this, mine was about 30k plus some installation costs from a mob called 24/7 golf.

That was a full package though, everything from hitting enclosure to mats, to projector, screen etc as well as the computer and software to play TGC19 which has something like 200,000 golf courses on it and everything you'd want, including Augusta which is hidden away secretly. The launch monitor was about 15k of it but also works on the range just as well which is cool.

Mine can do everything, putting and chipping included but you can get them much cheaper without the short game stuff.

It's a pure indulgence but I highly recommend, great fun and gets you hitting balls most nights at home instead of sitting on the couch.

 

[Redford]

Just watched that 30 for 30 with Norman again. Wow. 78 in that final round in 96. Still amazing after all these years.

What the hell was that shot on 16 ? One of the worst I’ve ever seen on that hole. Not only does it go in the water, but it’s about 30 yards short and 15 yards wide left as well. An absolute 20 handicapper (or more) shot. Staggering.

 

[The Big Richo]

Just watched that 30 for 30 with Norman again. Wow. 78 in that final round in 96. Still amazing after all these years.

What the hell was that shot on 16 ? One of the worst I’ve ever seen on that hole. Not only does it go in the water, but it’s about 30 yards short and 15 yards wide left as well. An absolute 20 handicapper (or more) shot. Staggering.

Still breaks my heart to think about it.

I remember the entire morning so vividly, it's like a traumatic event tattooed on my brain.

 

[The Big Richo]

Did I hear right, the PGA tour has just announced next year's elevated events will feature a few that are limited fields and no cut?

Ummmmmmm.

 

[Redford]

Did I hear right, the PGA tour has just announced next year's elevated events will feature a few that are limited fields and no cut?

Ummmmmmm.

They mentioned the possibility of doing that last year. Something about creating a top 40 or 50 or something for these events.

 

[MD Jazz]

Hopefully my wife never reads this, mine was about 30k plus some installation costs from a mob called 24/7 golf.

That was a full package though, everything from hitting enclosure to mats, to projector, screen etc as well as the computer and software to play TGC19 which has something like 200,000 golf courses on it and everything you'd want, including Augusta which is hidden away secretly. The launch monitor was about 15k of it but also works on the range just as well which is cool.

Mine can do everything, putting and chipping included but you can get them much cheaper without the short game stuff.

It's a pure indulgence but I highly recommend, great fun and gets you hitting balls most nights at home instead of sitting on the couch.

Thanks, that might have to wait for kids school to cease unfortunately.

Is there any maintenance involved?

My mate didn't get the courses package and he mentioned Augusta is not really "available"...

Do you use the putting function much?

 

[Redford]

Down at the golf club today. Waited for the comp field to go through and get a few holes ahead, and just go out and play 3 or 4 casual holes on my own.

Anyway, I play the 1st then walk off the green and drop a couple of balls down IN THE 3 INCH ROUGH and practice two chips to the 1st green. Next moment a guy comes over from a nearby tee and tells me to stop practicing ….“that we don’t allow that here.”

I have a discussion with him that I’m allowed to play/practice casually with 2 balls - especially if I’m just chipping from the rough. He tells me I’m not allowed to practice on the course - no matter what - that’s what the practice range is for. Not even practice putting with a ball on any of the greens. At ANY time, casual play, evening, whatever. Righty o.

Thoughts ?