funky_nomad

I saw a quote from a high heidyin on the DP Tour stating that the field would be expanded rather than those already confirmed losing their spot.

That's a great hole, but I can't remember a single other thing about the course Played the Roxburghe a couple of times a few years back when they had Open Days when you could play for a tenner a head, which felt like a cracking deal.

Played 54 holes over the weekend. Finished 3rd in the Monthly Medal at Ladybank on Saturday with a really steady round for nett 70, then hacked my way round Tulliallan for a just-about acceptable nett 74 (overall Handicap Index movement = -0.1 ). Suffice to say I wasn't at my best for a 4BBB open at Tulliallan yesterday, but still had to carry my partner who had an absolute shocker for the front nine and didn't contribute a single hole. We normally do pretty well in this format, but this year the prizes were a distant speck on the horizon...

CSS technically doesn't exist any more as there's no Standard Scratch, however there are moves afoot to relax the rigidity of the PCC adjustment: https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/controversial-world-handicap-system-calculation-faces-overhaul It's ridiculous that Medals with 100+ entrants played in weather which historically would have seen the CSS up by 2 or 3 from the SSS has had not a flicker on the PCC.

I think it's more to do with hubris being at play here, with those "bigger" names assuming that it's only a matter of time before the rest of the PGA Tour decide that the early adopters were correct all along and that the Majors will have to fall into line with their "vision". If Fleetwood does jump ship, it's easy to see the likes of Hatton and Willett following suit.

Scotscraig is pretty quirky in that it has squeezed a lot of golf into a pretty limited area. It can be a tough day there when it's playing hard and fast with any kind of wind, but it's always worth teeing up there (albeit Panmure is a much better course).

Rory really is coming out of the whole LIV saga very well indeed.

As predicted, immediately back to playing shite today - ended up shooting 88

Teed it up in the midweek medal last night a beautiful evening and Ladybank is running hard and fast, which really suits the course. After a horrendous season so far, and 3 weeks without picking up my sticks due to a combination of holidays and a wedding, I was prepared to take yet another hit in my inexorable rise to double figures. I really surprised myself by hitting pretty much everything out the middle (bar a horrendous gap wedge from 100 yards that cost me a double), and holed a few decent putts on the way to a nett 68. Woke up this morning to find that this has been lodged as my best-ever WHS Score Differential of 2.0, and I've taken 0.9 off my Handicap Index in one swoop. I'm now officially one of the top 13,300 male golfers in Scotland It's a stupid game, though - I fully expect to be back struggling to break 90 on Saturday whilst defending my second-best Score Differential...

The food in the Station Hotel in Portsoy (a couple of miles from Cullen) is plentiful and very tasty, although the rooms are pretty basic. It also has a pool table up the back of the bar.

With his hand position and speed of backswing, I'm amazed he doesn't hit a couple of shanks every round. My personal record is 6 on the bounce. On the same hole...

https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/report-london-venue-quits-as-host-of-liv-series-launch-party

Man, that looks just as brutal in the cold light of day as it did last night. I mean, we've all hit that very swing at some stage, and probably with great frequency, but at worst that's while while sitting on a good score during the monthly medal, not needing par down the last to win a major.

The dip for that drive on 18th took his head down as far as his navel. It's bad enough to see on a club golfer, but just horrible to watch on a tour pro.

Jeez, the head and shoulder dip on Pereira's downswing is ugly.

Got back last night from my wee trip north. Cullen was great fun with some absolutely mad holes, although the greens were really slow (maybe they don't cut them on a Monday - we pretty much had the course to ourselves). 3 birdies mixed with the same number of triples for 30 points just about sums things up. The burger from the van next to the clubhouse was immense, though. Maverston (just outside Elgin) was an absolute delight - fantastic layout, superb views, highly recommended if you're up that way. We played in very blowy conditions, so 32 points with a couple of blobs was pretty decent. Only thing letting the place down is the clubhouse, which is more like a leisure club cafe - you'd be struggling to get anything approaching a decent lunch if you wanted to use a day ticket. Hadn't played Kingussie in quite some time and with the trees now much more mature it's a much better track. The view from the 17th tee was almost worth the green fee on its own. Scored 35 points with a couple of blobs (+3 for 16 holes), best I've struck the ball since my enforced break last August. The fact I improved each day was a bonus - the game's getting there...

I'm on a wee trip north next week with some of the guys from my winter sweep. We're due to play Cullen, Maverston and Kingussie. Any views on the first 2 as I've only played Kingussie before?

Played Lundin Links this morning, it's in fantastic nick for early May. Opted to play a General Score off the whites and hit 82 with about 4 3-putts - pretty acceptable since I'm still maybe at 85% fitness just now. The pro there was telling us that Dumbarnie has closed for a fortnight as the greens are so bare they can't justify taking money off anyone...

Aye, it took me about 3 years and countless missed buffers to work out that straight beats long every time at Ladybank The new bunker complexes are messing with that formula, though, as quite a few of the green entrances have been narrowed so hitting long irons in on certain holes is much trickier than it used to be, so driver is getting much more of an airing than it used to.

It might require someone at your club to hit a refresh/accept button for your handicap to go live on HDID as it's Scottish Golf that "owns" the handicap data. Might be worth giving the club a wee nudge today to explain that you want to book comps and now have a handicap showing on SG.

@Detective Jimmy McNulty PGA List - Chump/Champ out, Varner in please World List - Hill out, Scott in please

I think the silence of his caddie also speaks volumes - these guys usually know what's happened with a great deal of accuracy and you could clearly tell how uncomfortable he was with what Berger was trying to pull.

Four Iron In The Soul is a terrific read.

Had my first game since August 20th today, comfortably the longest period I've ever gone without teeing it up since I began playing 40-odd years ago. I'm not sure whether it was the soft-ish conditions or muscle wastage, but I must've lost at least 20 yards off the tee in the last 7 months; and the less said about the quality of my short game the better. But I didn't care, it was just so glorious to be back out playing again, and making at least a few decent connections in amongst my (many) swings