Watching golf is torture this time of the year

Halebopp

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#1
I thought this winter would pass quite easily but now I've been watching the Sony Open and the itch to get back out there is coming back fast and hard.

The temperatures have been around -25C this past week but it should warm up to -20 next week. Still a bit off from what it looks like in Maui though.

Less than 90 days to go to the Masters and probable season start over here, that isn't bad, or is it?
 

MPB

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#3
I'll raise you 50 degrees Halebopp. For me this is absolutely the best time of year before the real heat kicks in!!! A gorgeous 25 degrees and blue skies :)

And I just shafted my new TP 18's...........(thanks again Stewart. They are better than I ever hoped them to be and so easy. Dare I say it but even better than my MP33's! Just fantastic!)
 

Stewart 57

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#4
MPB said:
I'll raise you 50 degrees Halebopp. For me this is absolutely the best time of year before the real heat kicks in!!! A gorgeous 25 degrees and blue skies :)

And I just shafted my new TP 18's...........(thanks again Stewart. They are better than I ever hoped them to be and so easy. Dare I say it but even better than my MP33's! Just fantastic!)
 Glad you like the Heads MPB, I said they were better than the Photos, have done anything with the SW,,,,,
 

DennisMiller

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#5
I can send you a magazine with houses for sale in the Miami area of you would like...
 

Halebopp

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#6
Thanks for the offer Dennis, I'll look into it. :)

It's not all bad though, the forecast is improving, it's probably only -15C next week and we're getting full 6 hours of daylight now.



I just found out Google had taken new satellite photos of my home course. The previous ones were horrible so I went to update the GPS distance-measuring points (which I had originally pinned) for the mScorecard application. No wonder the distances were slightly off and giving visitors using it a bit of a headache with these kinds of front, middle and back of the green points. :D BTW. The Google Earth is great for taking a closer look at different golf courses if you're watching tour events or are about to visit a course.

 
 

DennisMiller

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#7
Palmetto, the county golf course where I work, was closed for about 4 months a couple years ago. The way I heard the story was, they started using some new fertilizer and after it was spread, they set the sprinklers to come on at certain times during the night. Unfortunately, after they set the timer, someone didn't notice the main switch wasn't turned on, so they went about 4 nights without watering. The fertilizer burned the fairways beyond redemption.

If you go to Google Earth and look at the golf course, the satellite picture still shows the burned out golf course.

Needless to say, everyone there wishes like crazy that the satellite would fly over and replace the picture to show how beautiful the course is now.
 

Halebopp

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#8
Ouch. There must've been plenty of pleased people after the incident. I do have to say that the course does look better than what we start our seasons with:

https://www.fonecta.fi/kartat?lon=22.99 ... z=17&l=SAT

The best part is those photos were taken three years ago (or four) when the course to the west of the road had huge problems with the greens. The worst ones started to resemble playable greens in early July. I don't know what went wrong back then but ever since that course has had some of the best greens around (outside of the elite courses in the country). As you can see the fairways are in much better shape than on the course east of the road.

It was a real shame as it's one of the most difficult courses in the country but its great condition, the scenery and peace and quiet compensate for the difficulty. Take away the great greens and you're left with very little to enjoy.

The same course was just ranked the 12th best course in the country (out of 144) by Golf Digest even though they write in the review that for some golfers it's simply too difficult to enjoy.
 

Halebopp

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#9
Man, I happened to Google the La Quinta Country Club, one of the courses they are playing this weekend and checked the satellite photos of the area. Amazing! Course after course after course... My home town (and municipiality for that matter) has only one 18-hole course and one with a 9-hole course and a 6-hole par 3 course. Now the city is planning to build apartment buildings on parts of the full course. It does look like they'll get new land to build holes to replace those that'll be lost though. That mght very well end up as a good thing as the course is old and short by today's standards.

I thought there were plenty of courses on Gold Coast (Australia) when I lived there but La Quinta seems to top them all.

BTW. It looks like the freezing temperatures are finally over as it's up to -3C after the 2-3 weeks of -18...-25 temperatures. Jogging to the gym was slightly more pleasant today as it's easier to breathe. :D
 

Halebopp

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#10
The sun is shining, the birds are singing and if we're lucky the outdoor ranges will open next month!

Have a good day everyone! :)
 

Halebopp

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#11
The Masters and the season are drawing nearer by the day but we're not there yet. The view from the first tee today:



Last year pretty much all the snow had melted by this time but we might not be much behind though as the snow will disappear in a week once it gets warm enough. It should be +7C and sunshine on Wednesday, so that's something to look forward to - time for shorts, t-shirts, flipflops and some sunbathing :D
 

tpp

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#12
Just spent a very pleasant day watching the Thailand Classic in hua hin Thailand blue sky cool breeze temp 70 plus. The event is co sanctioned by the European tour one of the sponsors is a Thai beer company who give you a complimentary sun umbrella and hat. A lot of the club caddys were around the course giving spectators distances and general info they were a credit to the club. Unlike some of the  Scandinavians who were employed as .marshalls .all in a very nice day out for about 8 pound.
 

dave_giz

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#13
I ventured up to my golf club for the first time since October yesterday, I have never been so pleased to spend two hours practicing in the nets - the course itself is a swamp so I'm not going near that until we're back on proper greens and fairways, winter golfers are masochists in my view.

As soon as there's a bit of sunshine the golf bug bites hard! 
 

Halebopp

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#14
tpp said:
Just spent a very pleasant day watching the Thailand Classic in hua hin Thailand blue sky cool breeze temp 70 plus. The event is co sanctioned by the European tour one of the sponsors is a Thai beer company who give you a complimentary sun umbrella and hat. A lot of the club caddys were around the course giving spectators distances and general info they were a credit to the club. Unlike some of the  Scandinavians who were employed as .marshalls .all in a very nice day out for about 8 pound.
They must've been Swedes! :D

I hope they were at least sober. I can only speak for us Finns but we and countries with cheap liquor don't usually mix well. Unfortunately I have no trouble imagining even sober Finns being rude when given a bit of authority in such events. We are a slightly backward people. :D

I wouldn't have any trouble watching top-level golf in such weather for 8 pounds a day though.

Dave, yeah the golf bug hits really bad when the temperature gets higher and pretty much all the snow has gone. The past couple of years the spring has started very early - around Feb 22. That's almost two months earlier than some years, yet the differences in the courses opening is only a week or so due to the weather not being warm enough for the courses to dry and get the grass truly growing. It's easier to wait with all the snow on the ground. :)
 

Halebopp

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#15
Yay! There's a range opening tomorrow, too bad it's 30 minutes away. Checking a range nearby the web page said the ball dispenser (do you call it that?) is closed. That might mean they're now open but you need to collect the balls from the muddy range yourself.

Usually the course that opens its range tomorrow opens their 9-hole course soon after and my home course opens the other 18 a week from that so if all goes well, I'll be playing during the Masters weekend! :)
 

Halebopp

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#16
Yay, another winter survived! We have a tee time booked for Saturday at 1:20 PM. It's time to take the clubs out of bed and put them in the bag. :D
 

DennisMiller

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#17
I was up late watching the LPGA on television. This thread crossed my mind. When you can't play, for whatever reason, watching pretty girls play golf is way better than a lot of other things.
 

Halebopp

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#18
I'm sure you're right. My golf watching actually drops dramatically after the Masters and once our season starts. It's mostly the majors and possibly European Tour on the weekends if it's raining and I can't play or a Finn is up there battling for the win (in that case I might skip a Sunday round even on a sunny day). Certainly LET tournaments would be up there too as there are plenty of Finns including a couple of locals and our Mizunoite Oona Vartiainen. The LET is big trouble though as the tour's prize fund requirements are too high and the tournaments can't come up with the money. Most of the players would be willing to lower the prizes just so they could play and win something but the biggest stars are against it.

BTW. I almost blew my right shoulder today at the gym. I hurt it a while back while doing bench press and I've let it heal concentrating on other muscle groups. Today though the shoulder popped slightly while working on my biceps. I put the weights away, left the gym and came home. No more risks at this point! It's better just to jog, do legs workouts and play golf for a couple of weeks now.
 

Halebopp

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#19
Ha!

Today's been terrible weather wise, howling winds and a lot of rain but it is eating up all the snow and ice at a very good rate. Thanks to it one course just announced they're opening their range tomorrow. Looking at the forecasts and based on history, it should be only two or three weeks until my home course opens. We're well ahead of last year's schedule and it'll be fun to see if we can beat Augusta National this year!

There's a golf trade show this weekend, I'm not bothered to go there but I've been following some live broadcasts from there. It really isn't helping with the fever though. :D

I actually made a slight dent in the corner of a wall yesterday, courtesy of an MP-32 9 iron after watching Mark Crossfield's video about firing your hips. My friend managed to make a bigger mess though. He sent a picture of his significant other's 60-70 year-old lamp in their ceiling after it had made contact with his Vokey wedge. 
 

Halebopp

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#20
Exactly one year ago I was doing this:



Today was a bit different. :( To be honest, I haven't had the time nor energy to really miss the golf season yet as the winter has been great (first proper winter in several years) and I've been out skiing plenty. It's fantastic exercise for the whole body. I do hope we'll et to tee off in less than a month though. Once the snow starts to go, there's nothing else to do than start counting the days. :D

 
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