Some "State of the GCA" Observations

[Kyle Harris]

Many changes will occur as Willy won't be packing his clubs for a few rounds while on business. Hopefully technology and business ethics will allow corporations to track employees who claim to be working "at home". No more golf on the company dime. Hallelujah!!!

Anybody paying for my time can't afford me.

[V_Halyard]

9. They know nothing, nor care anything about "the ball". They do however thoroughly enjoy seeing it go far, soooo.  #bifurcateion

I think you injected some of your own bias, in that last bit.  Most new golfers have no idea how far they drive the ball and wouldn't care about 10-20 yards they never knew existed.

Haha. That’s not an unfair assessment. I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.

He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With "Pro”, "V", "Tour" or “X” in the title.
He didn’t want to hear about Kirklands...
“Tried em... no”

Clearly you would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

[Tom_Doak]

I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.


He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With Pro” or “X” in the title.
Didn’t want to hear about Kirkland...
“Tried em... no”
Clearly you  would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

That would be a good topic for a thread here.  I'm sure there is a subset of golfers who are playing illegal equipment [and a collection of Chinese manufacturers producing illegal equipment] and I don't know if it's 1% or 5% of the market, but it will probably grow once the powers that be make new regulations on equipment.


Of course, if we had a whole thread on that, the powers that be would shut it down!

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.


He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With Pro” or “X” in the title.
Didn’t want to hear about Kirkland...
“Tried em... no”
Clearly you  would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

That would be a good topic for a thread here.  I'm sure there is a subset of golfers who are playing illegal equipment [and a collection of Chinese manufacturers producing illegal equipment] and I don't know if it's 1% or 5% of the market, but it will probably grow once the powers that be make new regulations on equipment.


Of course, if we had a whole thread on that, the powers that be would shut it down!

Reminds me of the Beverly Hills 90210 episode when Steve Sanders and his Dad (I believe they made his name Rush) played in a match against Barry Bonds, and Steve found out his dad was using illegal balls. Steve had to confront his Dad saying he had no desire to be a cheater. Really moved me. I miss early 90s television

[Thomas Dai]

Not sure of the tournament but wasn't there an after-the-event issue concerning the spec of the Ram ball that Tom Watson played in winning one particular tournament (probably circa 1980's)?
atb

[Peter Pallotta]

It reminds me of a round I played soon after I took up the game. I was paired up with a guy about my age (early 30s). I noticed that before every shot from the fairway he'd bend down and put his hand on the ball; I assumed he was just flicking off a little mud or grass or a fly, or maybe lining up the logo. But as the round progressed it became clear that his approach shots were by far the best part of his game -- the quality of those shots were much better than any of his drives or chips or recoveries. I started getting closer and paying more attention, and soon saw that what he was really doing was *teeing up* every shot. I mean, literally -- using a tee!
"Well", I thought to myself, "I suppose he's only cheating himself".
But I realized right then and there that the true 'spirit of the game' was actually whatever any individual golfer wanted it to be, i.e. it's the spirit of the their game.
I realized that my romantic notions are my own -- and need to be their own reward.

[V_Halyard]

And that reminds me of a round I played soon after I took up the game. I was paired up with a guy about my age (early 30s). I noticed that before every shot from the fairway he'd bend down and put his hand on the ball; I assumed he was just flicking off a little mud or grass or a fly, or maybe lining up the logo. But as the round progressed it became clear that his approach shots were by far the best part of his game -- the quality of those shots were much better than any of his drives or chips or recoveries. I started getting a little closer and paying more attention -- and soon saw that what he was really doing was *teeing up* every shot. I mean, literally -- using a tee!
"Well", I thought to myself, "I suppose he's only cheating himself".
But I realized right then and there that the true 'spirit of the game' was actually whatever an individual golfer wanted it to be.

   Lift clean and tee

[V_Halyard]

I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.


He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With Pro” or “X” in the title.
Didn’t want to hear about Kirkland...
“Tried em... no”
Clearly you  would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

That would be a good topic for a thread here.  I'm sure there is a subset of golfers who are playing illegal equipment [and a collection of Chinese manufacturers producing illegal equipment] and I don't know if it's 1% or 5% of the market, but it will probably grow once the powers that be make new regulations on equipment.

Of course, if we had a whole thread on that, the powers that be would shut it down!

... or the site gets rendered hostage for BitCoin.

[V_Halyard]

I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.


He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With Pro” or “X” in the title.
Didn’t want to hear about Kirkland...
“Tried em... no”
Clearly you  would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

That would be a good topic for a thread here.  I'm sure there is a subset of golfers who are playing illegal equipment [and a collection of Chinese manufacturers producing illegal equipment] and I don't know if it's 1% or 5% of the market, but it will probably grow once the powers that be make new regulations on equipment.


Of course, if we had a whole thread on that, the powers that be would shut it down!

Reminds me of the Beverly Hills 90210 episode when Steve Sanders and his Dad (I believe they made his name Rush) played in a match against Barry Bonds, and Steve found out his dad was using illegal balls. Steve had to confront his Dad saying he had no desire to be a cheater. Really moved me. I miss early 90s television

hahaha... I'm sure Luke, Tiffany and Tori are on Netflix, Amazon or Hulu.

[Daryl David]

It reminds me of a round I played soon after I took up the game. I was paired up with a guy about my age (early 30s). I noticed that before every shot from the fairway he'd bend down and put his hand on the ball; I assumed he was just flicking off a little mud or grass or a fly, or maybe lining up the logo. But as the round progressed it became clear that his approach shots were by far the best part of his game -- the quality of those shots were much better than any of his drives or chips or recoveries. I started getting closer and paying more attention, and soon saw that what he was really doing was *teeing up* every shot. I mean, literally -- using a tee!
"Well", I thought to myself, "I suppose he's only cheating himself".
But I realized right then and there that the true 'spirit of the game' was actually whatever any individual golfer wanted it to be, i.e. it's the spirit of the their game.
I realized that my romantic notions are my own -- and need to be their own reward.

You must have been playing with Bad Hair (Jack Warden) from Dead Solid Perfect.


“He tees it up everywhere, even in bunkers. And he uses the grease, boss”. “That’s ok Spec, grease don’t help a duck hook”. 

[Garland Bayley]

Haha. That’s not an unfair assessment. I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.

He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With "Pro”, "V", "Tour" or “X” in the title.
He didn’t want to hear about Kirklands...
“Tried em... no”

Clearly you would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

He wasn't interested in talking about any other ball, because he paid 40 cents each for his NITROs. He would not be able to tell the performance difference when hitting the ball. Now if he was playing the Polara ball he would easily see the performance difference.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

.

Garland,  I got a kick out of your profile picture here, it reminded me of what I have for my picture.  A very old image of me from Goodell Gymnasium dunking.  I basically forgot about that until I saw yours here.  Ironic that two old timers having a picture of them dunking on here both happen to be Hardrockers!

[Jeff Schley]

Who has the best vertical jump today?  You guys played above the rim!

[V_Halyard]

Haha. That’s not an unfair assessment. I was hypnotized by one guy I played with at Jeffersonville.  He was a 1/2 year into the game and fully committed to a sleeve (bag) of Orange NITRO’s. They had to be illegal, made a horror-film sound effect as they left his driver I’m sure he found erotic.

He was having a laugh riot on every shot.  In that case, my bias definitely worked against me as he knew exactly what ball he liked and it wasn’t anything With "Pro”, "V", "Tour" or “X” in the title.
He didn’t want to hear about Kirklands...
“Tried em... no”

Clearly you would have to pry the NITRO out of his cold dead golf glove.
 

He wasn't interested in talking about any other ball, because he paid 40 cents each for his NITROs. He would not be able to tell the performance difference when hitting the ball. Now if he was playing the Polara ball he would easily see the performance difference.

Bwahaa, Polara
...but how do they sound? 
 "Self Correcting" would have been an impressive chat trigger.

[Garland Bayley]

.

Garland,  I got a kick out of your profile picture here, it reminded me of what I have for my picture.  A very old image of me from Goodell Gymnasium dunking.  I basically forgot about that until I saw yours here.  Ironic that two old timers having a picture of them dunking on here both happen to be Hardrockers!

Goodell wasn't even a figment of anyone's imagination when I played. We played our home games at Rapid City Stevens High School gym. Tile laid on concrete. What a joy!?!?

The picture is unusual, because I am left handed, and did most of my dunking left handed.

I have wondered where my photo was since I saw yours. Finally ran across it in a photo album of pictures I took. Obviously I didn't take it so I didn't think to look for it there.

[Garland Bayley]

Bwahaa, Polara
...but how do they sound? 
 "Self Correcting" would have been an impressive chat trigger.

You must have more sensitive ears than me. I have carried the NITRO and an expensive three piece ball, playing the three piece, but putting the NITRO in play on holes that appeared easy to lose a ball. Didn't notice a sound difference. Had no idea the NITRO was nonconforming.