I wouldn't say I'm an "avid" golfer, but I enjoy it. I've played since I was 10 or so. Parents were members at a private course, and I played as a junior there for 3 summers. Probably played 20-30 rounds or tournaments a summer, but then I get fed up with some of the other little fuckers that played out there and largely didn't play through my teens. A couple years ago my grampa offered to transfer his share at a different private course to my company, as he could do it without paying any transfer or initiation fees, so it was a pretty good deal (and he could continue to play as a bronze member without the share). Green fees are about 4k a year, but I've been paying them through the company (until the taxman figures it out, I guess). So the past couple summers I've been playing about 15 or so rounds. It's tough to find the time, I've been finding, and our golf season is really only from May to September, anything before or after that is a bonus.
I've been shooting pretty consistently in the mid-90's. And those are proper scores. I find it frustrating as fuck how 90% of golfers don't know how to keep proper score, penalty strokes and the like. Most people would shoot 5-10 strokes higher if they were truly following the rules and didn't "forget" strokes.
"Dude, what'd you shoot on the last hole?"
"Oh uhm, hmm, lemme think. 6. Yeah 6."
"Dude, you shanked your first drive in to a ravine, couldn't find it, didn't hit a provisional, took a drop, took 3 more strokes to get on the green and 3 putted. How the fuck does that come out to 6?"
"Oh yeah, right. Okay, card me a 7 then."
I mean there's no need for enforcing tournament rules, but jesus christ, get it close.
Only good story I can think of right now is the first shot I took with my new R9 irons a couple years ago. I'd only taken a bunch of shots in the golf simulator at the store I bought them from. A friend and I went to a pitch n'putt that we hit up pretty often. First hole is about 60 yards; I step up to the tee and try to take a nice easy swing. I have a lot of trouble at the pitch n putt even with a an attack or loft wedge, as my range is longer than the majority of the holes and I'm not good at taking partial swings. So sure enough I don't really get under the ball, and it takes off low and to the left. It bounces a couple times, bumps in to a mound, kicks right, rolls up on to the green and directly in to the hole.
First shot with those irons and I get an (albeit shitty) hole in one. Been downhill ever since.
Gonna try to play at least 25 rounds this summer, and hit up the practice range as well. Really need to work on my sand play and pitching. I'm decent off the tee if I don't try to be an idiot and hit driver all the time (5 iron for me is a 220 yard club, and I'm pretty consistent with it), and I hit my irons pretty well. Hardly need the driver or fairway woods unless I'm playing the tips on a long course. I need to tighten things up within 100 yards of the hole, I get there reasonably well, but then take too many strokes to get it in the hole.
