Minnesota December Golfing

An email I received today from Sawmill and Loggers Trail golf courses:

Mother Nature didn't cooperate as much as we needed. Sawmill will NOT open Saturday December 1st. There is too much snow on the ground still. We expect the snow to melt throughout the day Saturday, so that we can open Sunday and Monday.
Loggers Trail has less snow, and we are hoping to open Loggers Trail around 12:00pm on Saturday, and remain open Sunday and Monday.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. For those of you with tee times tomorrow at Loggers we suggest calling 651-439-7862 x2 x2 prior to coming out, to get the latest course conditions.

We live in a funny state, that golf courses will be open as long as the snow has melted.  I think it is time to face the facts: it's time to hang it up for the year. 

I guess some people want to be able to say they played in December.

Paul Azinger on the Irony of banning anchoring the Putter

“It’s laughable in comparison to the metal driver. If you compare the Great Big Bertha, which came out in the early 1990s, to the biggest wooden driver on tour at the time, the Great Big Bertha made that driver look like a 4-wood. And now, Great Big Bertha looks like a 4-wood. And that technology has so radically changed the game that millions must be spent to keep the greatest courses in the world from becoming obsolete. So, to attack a putter that is only being used by guys who struggle with their putting is laughable.”

Hitting a Draw

Sean Foley on hitting a draw.

Tiger vs Rory- A Swing analysis

Pretty dang close to one another.
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/swing-sequences/2012-12/photos-tiger-woods-rory-mcilroy#intro

Gobble Gobble- Birdies on Thanksgiving

Another rare warm end to November this year.  It is not unusual for a blanket of winter snow to already be on the ground around here.

This year, temperatures are expected to be in the low 60s on Thanksgiving day.  Golf courses in Minneapolis are open on Thanksgiving.

Stonebrooke just sent out an email to golf Thanksgiving for $35, including cart.

So get out and enjoy one of the last nice days of the year and have a birdie before some turkey!

Golfing Dwan

The Minnesota golf season officially ended on October 31st but the weather has been nice enough to still play golf.  I went out today with Michael Vigen to Dwan in Minneapolis.

I ended up shooting an 81.  While I avoided losing any balls and really didn't get into Dwan's only hazards- the trees, I failed to do much.  A weakening driver and poor iron play meant that I failed to make many pars.

Michael and I played skins and Murphys.  We ended up shooting exactly the same score on both sides, though with a par on the last hole I managed to win a bunch of carried over greenies and offset my many lost Murphys to go up on Vigen 50 cents for the round!  Woot!

He actually should have one since he played with only 2 strokes, despite our 7 stroke handicap differential.  Just goes to show how much smoke and mirrors my scores are.

I did a quick count and I think this is the 67th time I golfed this year.  That includes 4 double round days and the 18 9 hole rounds in the Minneapolis Men's league.

Final Handicap of the year

Since the Minnesota golf season ended October 31st my final handicap came out today.  With my low scores at Pheasant Hills, I dropped from a 6.0 to a 5.6.  This is not quite what I started the year at (5.3) but it is still a crazy low score for me.  I have lost a lot of confidence in my irons at the end of the year.  That has been offset by an increase in putting confidence but I still am glad the year is coming to a close as now I can take a break and have my body forget the bad swings my body has learned this year.