OT - Grumpy Old Man Thread

[SFBadger96]

I call them asshole takes.  Not calling SF an asshole. But what a shitty rant with no evidence.

You drop something like that on the forum, and don’t have the balls or evidence to support it. 

It’s what makes social media sick sometimes.    😒

Yeah, you can call me what you want. Won't hurt my feelings...much.

I guess I would say two things: (1) I know and love lots of Boomers. Some of my best friends are Boomers. (2) My view about Boomers primarily relates to politics, which is verboten...so I should probably have kept it to myself in the first instance because yeah, why bring something up without being willing to talk about it?
What a crap thing to do. I'll say I have the discretion not to talk about it, but I should have started by not bringing it up at all. So you're right. Damn it.
But also, it was a pretty limited rant as rants go. I've had a lot more to say about, for instance, antitrust enforcement. 

[SFBadger96]

But I'll give you all a different grumpy take. I'm a high handicap golfer. I'm working at improving, but it's a slog. I'll take a liberty here or there with scoring--a mulligan, a ball that needs a slightly better lie (ground under repair or a manmade hazard in the swing path? Sure!)--but I try not to do much of it, so my reported scores are probably inflated by 1-2 strokes per round. I'm not pure of heart on scoring--and I never play for money, so it really doesn't matter--

BUT...

There are a lot of people who's scores don't remotely reflect reality. I've heard people record their scores in the low 80s when I was in the high 90s and there's no way I took an additional 15 strokes. Inevitably there's a hole that you hear them say it out load as they write it down ("par"--wait a minute, I actually had a par, and you had at least one more, maybe two, strokes). And like I said, it doesn't actually matter, but what's the point of telling yourself and your friends that you shot an 83, when you really shot a 91?

I'm all for friends ignoring one or two silly things--the breakfast ball, a mulligan, that one stupid chip when the ball when two feet--but, well, I've made my point.

[MikeDeTiger]

Good God I sucked at golf.  It didn't bother me back when I tried it one summer, because all I wanted in those days, sports-wise, was to get on a basketball court....occasionally a baseball field.  But it strikes me now as the kind of thing I wish I could get into.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

But I'll give you all a different grumpy take. I'm a high handicap golfer. I'm working at improving, but it's a slog. I'll take a liberty here or there with scoring--a mulligan, a ball that needs a slightly better lie (ground under repair or a manmade hazard in the swing path? Sure!)--but I try not to do much of it, so my reported scores are probably inflated by 1-2 strokes per round. I'm not pure of heart on scoring--and I never play for money, so it really doesn't matter--

BUT...

There are a lot of people who's scores don't remotely reflect reality. I've heard people record their scores in the low 80s when I was in the high 90s and there's no way I took an additional 15 strokes. Inevitably there's a hole that you hear them say it out load as they write it down ("par"--wait a minute, I actually had a par, and you had at least one more, maybe two, strokes). And like I said, it doesn't actually matter, but what's the point of telling yourself and your friends that you shot an 83, when you really shot a 91?

I'm all for friends ignoring one or two silly things--the breakfast ball, a mulligan, that one stupid chip when the ball when two feet--but, well, I've made my point.

I'm with you. I'm a high handicap golfer too (23.7 as of today, to be precise). I carry an official USGA handicap even though I don't participate in tournaments or do anything that would require one. 

As a result, I basically play the real rules about as closely as I can. With the exception of raking a putt <18" instead of holing out from time to time. And we make use of the MLR E-5 rule for OOB / lost balls because ain't nobody got time to go back for stroke & distance. And at our course (which basically doesn't mark GUR) if something is obviously GUR, we'll take free relief. But I don't take mulligans and I count every stroke, so my handicap has a pretty close correlation to my actual scores. 

I don't understand the point of saying you scored better than you did. Especially if it's some egregious number that adds up to 5-10 strokes a round. Ultimately I don't care what anyone does unless I'm playing them for money, but I still just don't understand. 

I'm a fan of the old saying...

Golf doesn't build character, it reveals it. 

[Honestbuckeye]

But I'll give you all a different grumpy take. I'm a high handicap golfer. I'm working at improving, but it's a slog. I'll take a liberty here or there with scoring--a mulligan, a ball that needs a slightly better lie (ground under repair or a manmade hazard in the swing path? Sure!)--but I try not to do much of it, so my reported scores are probably inflated by 1-2 strokes per round. I'm not pure of heart on scoring--and I never play for money, so it really doesn't matter--

BUT...

There are a lot of people who's scores don't remotely reflect reality. I've heard people record their scores in the low 80s when I was in the high 90s and there's no way I took an additional 15 strokes. Inevitably there's a hole that you hear them say it out load as they write it down ("par"--wait a minute, I actually had a par, and you had at least one more, maybe two, strokes). And like I said, it doesn't actually matter, but what's the point of telling yourself and your friends that you shot an 83, when you really shot a 91?

I'm all for friends ignoring one or two silly things--the breakfast ball, a mulligan, that one stupid chip when the ball when two feet--but, well, I've made my point.

Preach it brother!


so if you’re just playing around by yourself or casually with friends and there’s no betting going on, the idea at least in my opinion is to enjoy yourself. So improving occasional lie or taking an occasional Mulligan really doesn’t mean much. A lot of amateurs do it and I see nothing wrong with it if it helps them have more fun on the golf course.

but when playing with people in a competitive environment where you’re betting a few dollars, or even friends where you’re betting five or 10 bucks or 20 bucks or whatever, as long as everybody’s playing by the same rules. Typically my friends will say “two off the first tea if you need them and then one Mulligan anywhere in the round”. 

that’s fair as long as everybody does that and nothing more and then really it doesn’t matter what the score is as long as your score is better than the guy you bet against.

[Honestbuckeye]

I'm with you. I'm a high handicap golfer too (23.7 as of today, to be precise). I carry an official USGA handicap even though I don't participate in tournaments or do anything that would require one.

As a result, I basically play the real rules about as closely as I can. With the exception of raking a putt <18" instead of holing out from time to time. And we make use of the MLR E-5 rule for OOB / lost balls because ain't nobody got time to go back for stroke & distance. And at our course (which basically doesn't mark GUR) if something is obviously GUR, we'll take free relief. But I don't take mulligans and I count every stroke, so my handicap has a pretty close correlation to my actual scores.

I don't understand the point of saying you scored better than you did. Especially if it's some egregious number that adds up to 5-10 strokes a round. Ultimately I don't care what anyone does unless I'm playing them for money, but I still just don't understand.

I'm a fan of the old saying...

Golf doesn't build character, it reveals it.

Well said! And the beautiful thing is Golf has a self adjusting truth element to it called the handicap.

If someone takes liberties with the rules and uses those falsely low scores to get a lower handicap, then they get into a match with people who have legitimate handicaps, and they almost always lose because they can’t score as well as their fake handicaps as they can!

In fact, if you travel in most private country clubs, you will find the opposite problem. People do anything they can to exaggerate on the high-end to get a higher handicap so when matches come around or the club championship, etc. they can play way better than their handicap.

right now I’m about a 12 handicap and I played a guy two weeks ago that was a 13 and he shot a 72 an extremely difficult course.  It was pretty obvious. He was about a five or six handicap.

[FearlessF]

In fact, if you travel in most private country clubs, you will find the opposite problem. People do anything they can to exaggerate on the high-end to get a higher handicap so when matches come around or the club championship, etc. they can play way better than their handicap.

those F er's are called sandbaggers - the lowest of the scum

[FearlessF]

if you're a double digit handicap or higher, you probably shouldn't even keep score - just less aggravation that way

If you're playin for $$$, then ya gotta keep score, ya gotta play by the rules and don't cheat!

if you're not playing for money, then just have fun

[betarhoalphadelta]

The thing that pisses me off is not that I suck at golf. It's the dichotomy between my inherent ability and the variance in my performance. 

I.e. I could be described as a really good bad golfer, or maybe as a really bad good golfer. 

My good shots are GOOD. I mean, I'm not crazy long, but for a 23.7 handicap at 47 years old, when I get a good drive it's 250-260 (and when I REALLY smoke one I've had >280--at sea level). My 7i is my 170 club. But even beyond that, it's the ballflight. Throughout my bag I can hit every club with a >100 ft apex. I've got positive shaft lean at impact, I compress it, I get good spin. I hit with good spin loft and my irons stop where they hit, and I can rip a ball back with a wedge. My natural shot shape is a nice high draw. Not even my son--who played 4 years on his HS golf team and is currently about an 11-12 handicap--and is actually pretty close to me now in distance--hits a ball that comes of the club like my good ones. 

It's just that there are too many bad ones. And too many "WTF?!" ones. And too many where I chunk a chip, or catch a greenside bunker shot clean and send it, etc... 

I'm the type of golfer that nobody is shocked if I shoot -1 over a span of 4 holes. My best stretches have been 6 pars in a row, and one round where I played 12 straight holes even par. I played once with my son and shot even on the front 9. The problem is that I'm also the type of golfer that nobody will be shocked if I shoot +11 over a span of 4 holes. That round I shot even on the front? +14 on the back! The atmospheric pressure difference between the ceiling and the floor is VAST. 

This is one of the reasons I can't enter a [net] tournament. My best rounds don't happen because I hit more good shots; they happen because I hit fewer absolutely atrocious ones. In the past 5 years as someone who basically plays 20-25 rounds a year, I've had three "exceptional score adjustment" on my handicap record from shooting low [for me] numbers--including one that's a -2 adjustment which is VERY rare. I know if I enter a net tournament and shoot one of my unicorn rounds, I'm going to end up in a fistfight in the parking lot because people will think I'm a sandbagger.  

I just need to get rich enough to retire, so I can play more often, so I can maybe get the consistency that will better reflect my actual ceiling skill level, rather than my floor performance. 

[SFBadger96]

Sounds like...golf.

I'm not that far off from you, except no natural draw. It's a frustrating game. And also awesome.

[FearlessF]

I'm grumpy 

A little over a year ago I was a 9 handicap 
Today I'm a 14

5 strokes in 18 holes doesn't sound like much but it's large 

[FearlessF]

Tough to search from my phone 

[FearlessF]

Sitting on a barstool at tallgrass taphouse in Manhattan.  Wishing my buddy Skicat was here and buying

[MrNubbz]

if you're not playing for money, then just have fun

Is that what you call it? Can't tell you how many times I'd come home just to find out latter the next day I went thru a poison ivory patch looking for my ball. It's the old saying "I’m hitting the woods just great, but I’m having a terrible time getting out of them"