GolfCats

[Pete]

SPEAKING OF SHAFTS AND BALLS, I AM EXPERIMENTING WITH BOTH!!!!

Bought a couple used shafts off of 2nd Swing to try out.  It had been so long since I had been balls deep in the shaft game that I didn't know about the adapter tips and loft/lie adjustments you can do with them.  Very cool!  I am a total gadget whore, so this really scratches all my itches.

Regarding my balls, I also love the used golf ball websites which also did not exist when last I was active in this lifestyle.  My go-to ball had been the Costco ball for obvious reasons, but now I am trying out different compressions and spins and all that other horse crap.  Very fun to tinker with. 

[Pete]

....AND EVEN MORE FUN is buying old used 7 irons and hitting the crap out of them and observing all the differences in metrics.  We use Mygolfspy.com to help narrow the list of candidate clubs.  My son thought he liked the Cobra Aero Jets, but hit them against the Calloway Rogue ST Max OS and the Callaway won easily in distance, angle of descent, and our eye-balling of the dispersion. Trying to locate a cheaper used Mizuno JPX 923 Hot Metal HL, and Taylor Made Stealth to complete the full test of Super Game Improvement irons from 2021-2023.  He ruled out the Cleveland Halo Full Face because they look like old man clubs (and that's what I use, so yes he was correct).

[Stupid Fitz]

Just grip it the way you want to and change your swing around it.

This is what i'm actually trying to do. The problem I have is that for whatever reason, some days i'm perfectly fine and comfortable and others I can't get the feel right so I shift around. As you would probably guess, on the days i'm comfortable things go pretty well and the days i'm not, it is really bad. I went out the other day and was messing around on the range and tried the pinky over the top as opposed to interlocking. I know my right hand gets caught under a lot which causes problems. I was absolutely crushing it. Like, making perfect contact every swing and I thought about how i'm such a dumbass for not trying this a while ago. I was so happy. Went out the next day doing the exact same thing and it was a disaster. Just didn't feel right. So basically, i'm trying to grip like you are supposed to and just force myself to get used to it. Some days its fine, but others its a mess. This is just one of those problems I wish I had worked out at a much younger age. Starting from scratch at +40 has been brutal.

[Pete]

Completely understand. I thought I was getting dementia because one day recently my entire back swing felt strange and wrong to me…couple days later I was fine. So god damn weird.

[Stupid Fitz]

Completely understand. I thought I was getting dementia because one day recently my entire back swing felt strange and wrong to me…couple days later I was fine. So god damn weird.

This is me day to day. I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea I would struggle this much. It's just so weird that one day everything is smooth and comfortable and the next I will literally be shooting rockets off to the right and my forearms will be sore. Most of the time I have no idea why as it all feels the same. I am getting a little better at self diagnosing, but that doesn't do crap on the actual course.

[Shooter Jones]

Completely understand. I thought I was getting dementia because one day recently my entire back swing felt strange and wrong to me…couple days later I was fine. So god damn weird.

This is me day to day. I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea I would struggle this much. It's just so weird that one day everything is smooth and comfortable and the next I will literally be shooting rockets off to the right and my forearms will be sore. Most of the time I have no idea why as it all feels the same. I am getting a little better at self diagnosing, but that doesn't do crap on the actual course.

Same, guys. I can shoot a really good round one day, go out the next and it feels terrible (usually happens when playing back-to-back days).

Play later that week or next week and it's fine.

[Pete]

This is why I enjoy scrambling. My son and I will play the gold or red tees and try and shoot our own personal team best on a given course. If I am having one of those dementia days it’s not as lonely and frustrating

[Shooter Jones]

This is why I enjoy scrambling. My son and I will play the gold or red tees and try and shoot our own personal team best on a given course. If I am having one of those dementia days it’s not as lonely and frustrating

I'm too undisciplined and gather bad swing habits from scramble golf.

[Shooter Jones]

But I still love it cause I love team golf formats.

[Stupid Fitz]

This is why I enjoy scrambling. My son and I will play the gold or red tees and try and shoot our own personal team best on a given course. If I am having one of those dementia days it’s not as lonely and frustrating

My club is very individual handicap score focused. Even when we "play games" which I usually bow out of because i'm terrible, they make them so each person hits their own ball and uses their individual score. I played with my FIL at his course a month or so ago and we scrambled and I played great. It was fun just to go out and try and hit a better shot than your partner as opposed to thinking about hitting par (or not double bogey in my case) on every hole.

[Pete]

Speaking of having more fun while playing…

I need to be man enough to play the red tees until I can shoot 80. Then, move back, etc etc.




https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/green-section-record/61/issue-06/forward-tees-for-the-future.html

[Pete]

What is your fav course in your home area? I like Falcon Lakes quite a bit. Nice big fairways and greens. Nice carts and other accoutrements. There are a number of greater KC notable courses that I have never tried tho. For example, I haven’t played Iron Horse, and should try that one.

[ben ji]

What is your fav course in your home area? I like Falcon Lakes quite a bit. Nice big fairways and greens. Nice carts and other accoutrements. There are a number of greater KC notable courses that I have never tried tho. For example, I haven’t played Iron Horse, and should try that one.

I've played Ironhorse a couple of times with Friends but its not really my favorite, also its like $80 even during the week.

Usually it just depends on where I can get a tee time since I don't usually plan more than 4-5 days out in advance.

Favorites -

Lady Sykes / St. Andrews - Both courses owned by Overland Park, really nice but hard to get a tee time on short notice.
Tomahawk - Owned by JOCO, can usually get a tee time here on short notice. Super hilly course but fun.
Sycamore Ridge - Way out in spring hill but its a good time, basically 2 different courses. Front 9 has tons of tree's and back 9 is alot more open with tall grass.
Fred Arbanas- KCMO course on longview lake with nice open fairways.

Places I play a ton because its easy to get a tee time and cheap.

Minor Park - KCMO course, great for beginners and for a quick round.
Swope Park - KCMO old timey course, its pretty short but lots of turns/doglegs and small greens.
Heart of America - KCMO 9 hole course, it could be 8 am on a sunday morning and you can still get a tee time in the next 2 hours for $20.
Painted Hills - Great life course that used to be real shitty but I played it for the first time in a couple years and it was actually in really good condition.
Teetering Rocks - Probably my favorite mix of course and tee time availability. It's an "Executive" course with 2 par 5's on the front 9 and a bunch of short par 4's and 3's on the back 9. Super duper cheap, like $45 with a cart on the weekends.

[MidnightOil82]

Agree with the list...
A few others:
Eagles Landing
Dubs Dread
Hillcrest
Adams Point
Paradise Point +2
Canyon Farms
Falcon Ridge
...and, although not in KC, Colbert Hills is pretty sweet 😋

[ben ji]

Also I forgot grand summit out in Grandview. It's super cheap and about half the time you play it the course will be in great shape but the other half of the time it will be garbage. Pretty easy to get a tee time there tho.

A couple of years ago I decided to play a random solo round on Sunday afternoon out there because that was the only tee time I could find. By the time I got to the 11th hole I caught up to the group in front of us and it just happened to be our ole friend wackycat and his dad. Played the rest of the round with them and had a great time, 10/10.

[Pete]

Some good deals right now on courses with dormant fairways, like Iron Horse and Falcon Lakes.  Makes me feel good when my drive rolls for a bagillion miles, but then makes me sad when I hit my irons thin on the hard ground.

[Pete]

What is your favorite World Wide Web golf instructor? I like Danny Maude. He sounds all Britishy so you know he must be smarter. Seems to explain things in a simple way that allow my brain to comprehend…avoids too much high level golf jargon.

[Pete]

Golf clubs question for the better players on this blog: 

I am improving, but still a high handicapper.  When I got started agin this summer I knew I needed more modern clubs than my 2002 Bertha irons and my 1998ish Biggest Big Bertha Diver, so I used mygolfspy.com to research “super game improvement” irons and just bought the ones that seemed to be a wise choice for a near beginner.  I got the 2024 third place club in their Super Game improvement category, which are the Cleveland Halo’s, just because they seemed the most stupid friendly and I wanted it make things as easy to get re-started on golf as possible.

https://mygolfspy.com/buyers-guides/irons/best-super-game-improvement-irons-of-2024/

I like that the halos have good distance, and they definitely seem to have a large sweet spot. I could probably be happy with these clubs for quite a while, but I am wondering if I would be better off moving to a “Game Improvement” iron instead of “Super Game Improvement” at some point in the near future? Is it better to start getting used to an iron that I am likely to like a lot longer as I improve? Or, do I wait quite a while longer to do a fitting and only dare to change when the data shows I absolutely hit better with a different club?

I practice almost every day and take regular lessons. My current rate of improvement is pretty darn good (or at least I am super pleased by it). 

[Stupid Fitz]

I don't have anything to offer you here Pete because i've only been playing for a couple of years. I do play with some really low handicappers and I think the answer is that "it depends". For example, the best player in my group had a fitting recently and was basically told that there is no reason to spend the money on new clubs at this time. His swing fits his current set fine and he would get minimal if any improvement.

Also, golf is stupid hard. I was really improving this year when all of the sudden it went to crap. Like really went to crap where I couldn't even hit the ball. I just started cutting across super hard again for no reason at all. It's so weird that I can practice in my back yard and feel so relaxed and have a pretty good idea my swing is fine, but when I'm on the course with a ball in front of me and crap just goes haywire. I'll have very noticeable improvements and be really playing well for a beginner anyway and then all of the sudden it will be like i've never held a club before. Very frustrating.

[kstate4life]

Golf clubs question for the better players on this blog: 

I am improving, but still a high handicapper.  When I got started agin this summer I knew I needed more modern clubs than my 2002 Bertha irons and my 1998ish Biggest Big Bertha Diver, so I used mygolfspy.com to research “super game improvement” irons and just bought the ones that seemed to be a wise choice for a near beginner.  I got the 2024 third place club in their Super Game improvement category, which are the Cleveland Halo’s, just because they seemed the most stupid friendly and I wanted it make things as easy to get re-started on golf as possible.

https://mygolfspy.com/buyers-guides/irons/best-super-game-improvement-irons-of-2024/

I like that the halos have good distance, and they definitely seem to have a large sweet spot. I could probably be happy with these clubs for quite a while, but I am wondering if I would be better off moving to a “Game Improvement” iron instead of “Super Game Improvement” at some point in the near future? Is it better to start getting used to an iron that I am likely to like a lot longer as I improve? Or, do I wait quite a while longer to do a fitting and only dare to change when the data shows I absolutely hit better with a different club?

I practice almost every day and take regular lessons. My current rate of improvement is pretty darn good (or at least I am super pleased by it).

The best advice I can give, based on experience, is to get your clubs fitted.  I did this a couple years ago when buying new irons (TM P790s), and my handicap dropped from a 20 to a 13.  A good fitting company can tweak literally everything on the club according to your swing.  If you feel like your current irons aren't going be long term for you, I would go to get a fitting and chat with them about what you are looking for long term.

[Pete]

Golf clubs question for the better players on this blog: 

I am improving, but still a high handicapper.  When I got started agin this summer I knew I needed more modern clubs than my 2002 Bertha irons and my 1998ish Biggest Big Bertha Diver, so I used mygolfspy.com to research “super game improvement” irons and just bought the ones that seemed to be a wise choice for a near beginner.  I got the 2024 third place club in their Super Game improvement category, which are the Cleveland Halo’s, just because they seemed the most stupid friendly and I wanted it make things as easy to get re-started on golf as possible.

https://mygolfspy.com/buyers-guides/irons/best-super-game-improvement-irons-of-2024/

I like that the halos have good distance, and they definitely seem to have a large sweet spot. I could probably be happy with these clubs for quite a while, but I am wondering if I would be better off moving to a “Game Improvement” iron instead of “Super Game Improvement” at some point in the near future? Is it better to start getting used to an iron that I am likely to like a lot longer as I improve? Or, do I wait quite a while longer to do a fitting and only dare to change when the data shows I absolutely hit better with a different club?

I practice almost every day and take regular lessons. My current rate of improvement is pretty darn good (or at least I am super pleased by it).

The best advice I can give, based on experience, is to get your clubs fitted.  I did this a couple years ago when buying new irons (TM P790s), and my handicap dropped from a 20 to a 13.  A good fitting company can tweak literally everything on the club according to your swing.  If you feel like your current irons aren't going be long term for you, I would go to get a fitting and chat with them about what you are looking for long term.

I am going to give it another few months and get fitted before the spring. I want a full blown no holds barred fitting. Need to find somewhere that does an exhaustive job of evaluating across brands with no limitations based on what they are pushing. Also a place that can swap and try loads of different shaft, lofts and lies. None of the big box stores or chains even come close to doing this.

[Pete]

Anyone have any recent experience at Brookridge country club? It’s super close to my house and has a reasonable initiation fee.  I’m not rough ridin' spending $10K - $50K to join a club. That’s dumb at my socio economic level. However, I’d do a $5K for a course that was well taken care of and not over subscribed. I hear the clubs run by Great Life have too many members and skimp on maintenance (eg prairie highlands, Falcon ridge)

[ben ji]

Anyone have any recent experience at Brookridge country club? It’s super close to my house and has a reasonable initiation fee.  I’m not rough ridin' spending $10K - $50K to join a club. That’s dumb at my socio economic level. However, I’d do a $5K for a course that was well taken care of and not over subscribed. I hear the clubs run by Great Life have too many members and skimp on maintenance (eg prairie highlands, Falcon ridge)

I'm like 90% sure all of that land was bought by a developer and will soon be offices/apartments so I'm not sure what that means for your membership. They even talked about it being a spot for the new royals stadium.

In regards to experience one of my HS buddies lived off the 9 hole course to the west of Antioch and we used to sneak on there and play a couple holes at dusk and screw around. He worked there as well at the snack bar/cart barn and would steal a cart for us. Then one night he wrecked the cart and got fired the next day. 

[ben ji]

One more experience.

My neighbor works for KDOT and knows I like to golf so when they were doing some work on 435 he filled a 5 gallon bucket with golf balls that he found from years of Brookridge shanks. Nice guy.

Hope these 2 experiences help with your decision making.

[Pete]

They are done with the land stuff. Brookridge used to have 27 holes, and gave up 9 holes to be just 18 now. They kept all the holes west of Antioch, and gave up the holes at the south east corner of Antioch and 103rd.