Winter Golf

I live in a cold weather state which makes golfing very difficult from November to late March. Was curious what everyone else does to keep their game fine tuned. I usually take a few lessons at local place that has heated tees. Also I recently bought a low priced golf simulator that lets me hit some shots in my basement. I am prepping for my golf leagues for next season. I have mentioned it before but I am using a website called ItsGoodGolf.com to manage my golf league. Its very easy to use has all the features I need and better yet it's free. I searched pretty hard last season to find the best free website I could for golf league management and it was by far the best. I actually found it on a similar blog to this one called MyGolfLeague.

Fall Golf

I live in Michigan which has some pretty cold fall weather.  I have found that most of the golfers I know stop golfing at the end of September. A lot of it has to do with bow season beginning, but I think some of it is burn out. Golf can be a frustrating activity and quite a few golfers are ready for a break. Day light starts to become a factor as well, since it makes golfing after work difficult. The past few years I have been trying to get my golf buddies to keep playing into November. How about you? What is your golf season and.what state do you live in?

Regripping your clubs

I recently undertook regripping my golf clubs.  I found a great deal online to get grips from 99 cents a piece. I couldn't pass up the deal and once I had purchased everything(glue, club holder, glue solvent) it cost about $30.  Removing the grips from my clubs was very easy. I just simply cut the grips off with a knife and since the grips were 6 to 7 years old most of the glue just fell right off.  I used the glue solvent to get the rest off. I recommend using a rag with solvent.  After that I applied the tape I had purchased by winding it around the shaft of the golf club.  I wet the grips and used an air compressor to help slide the grips on.  At first it didn't go so well.  I ruined the first few grips and had a loud pop when some of the grips actually popped from the compressed air.  Once I figured it out it was pretty easy. I would recommend buying two or three extra grips in case you ruin a few like I did.  Not sure if I would do it again but like most things I have to at least try it once.

Golf League Skins Games

Does your golf league have a skins game? Most leagues do. Some force everyone to participate, some allow partial participation. Either way its another way to make the game more interesting and fun. Most of the leagues that I have played in have had skins, closest to the pin, and sometimes money is given to the team or player who has the lowest net score. It allows someone to have bragging rights and lord it over his fellow competitors. It also can make someone feel obligated to buy a round of drinks if he wins all the money. Either way its all in good fun and with most leagues the fun comes pretty cheap. Usually players are able to enter with around $5 to $10. I highly recommend that you incorporate skins and other forms of friendly wagers into you golf league. Also it seems like most players split winnings with their teammates so sometimes you can win money even you play poorly.

Golf League Software

Both of my parents have managed their golf leagues for as long as I can remember. My mom uses software that looks like it's from the 80s. My dad uses microsoft word and a calculator. This year my brother is taking over managing or sunday golf league.we both agreed their has to be a better way to manage a golf league. A website online where all league members can log in and view stats. After some googling we found a few good sites but they ask charged $$. In this day and age e expect everything on the internet to be free. So we looked harder and found a great site called http://itsgoodgolf.com. ItsGoodGolf.com is the best free online golf league management software I could find. It does handicaps, lets you change the scoring rules and creates a league schedule for you if you want. It also has social aspects that make it great site for both the league manager and the league members. I highly recommend it.

League Handicaps

Handicaps in leagues are most argued about component of any league. Most of the arguments occur because the casual golfer doesn't understand how a league calculates their handicap. How many league managers have heard a league member say, "How my handicap go down when I shot a 50 last week?".

Handicaps can be very simple to fairly complicated. Below is a description of different components that leagues use to calculate handicaps.

Average Score times a percentage - League uses a set number of a golfers last rounds, take the average over par and multiplies it by a percentage.

Example:

Par is 35, Golfer shoots 6 rounds of 55. Percentage is 90%. Golfer's handicap is 9.

Drop Low and/or High Score - The best and or worst score of a golfers past few rounds is dropped.

Example:

Par is 35, Golfer shoots 4 rounds of 55, one round of 60 and one round of 54. We drop the 54 and 60 and only use the 4 rounds of 55.

A lot of the confusion happens when a league only uses a certain number of scores, for example the last 6. After the seventh round a score is dropped. If this score is well below or above average this score can dramatically impact a golfers handicap.