The Pro Shop is my new Barbershop

Beyond those surface level conversation starters, though, there’s enough trust in our mutual discretion to speak freely about what’s going right and what has gone terribly wrong, in golf and life. Golf professionals listen to a lot of what people want to complain about, so I think they enjoy the idea of someone actually listening to them for a change.

Nine holes of Pinehurst area thoughts: Hole 5 – Moving on Up.

The truth of Matt’s final point, that playing up to just a slightly shorter overall yardage still presents interesting challenges yet in a less stressful manner, is the hallmark of a well-designed golf course. Moving up from one set of tees to a shorter set doesn’t magically make a good golf course boring or easy; it makes the challenges less stressful and more enjoyable.

Closing a sad chapter of my personal #GolfTwitter.

Best that I can tell, the online community lovingly referred to as #GolfTwitter has devolved into something indistinguishable from the rest of social media. What was once a thriving, welcoming collection of people that enjoyed discussing and sharing their golf thoughts and experiences has broken down. It’s been replaced by the same tribal, snarky cesspool…

What I learned from that one time I walked 81 holes of golf in 31 hours.

I’ve been thinking and reflecting upon my emergency, sanity-restoring one-man golf trip to the Sandhills of North Carolina to visit Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club, Hyland Golf Club, and Tobacco Road Golf Club. Here are my musings on what I experienced and what I learned from walking 36 holes at Mid Pines one Friday…

Managing Unrealistic Golf Expectations

Managing expectations is a tricky proposition, in golf as in life.  Balancing hopeful optimism and evidence from past performances without tilting expectations too far in either direction takes mental toughness and discipline, which probably requires a stronger mind than mine. The end of last season was a roller coaster ride that saw me playing the…

A Dirty Dozen: twelve terrible Bluegrass area golf holes

With the PGA Tour visiting Harbour Town and Augusta National this month, there has been plenty of discussion of good and bad golf architecture, favorite holes, restoring versus remodeling, and the like in recent days. This got me to thinking about some of the worst holes I regularly encounter locally, so that I could give…