My 6-6-6 Strategy for Not Pulling My Hair Out on the Golf Course

June 30, 2021 by Sean Melia

There’s a well known thought process in baseball intended to help teams manage the highs and lows of a 162 game season. The idea is that every team is going win 60 games and lose 60 games during the season. The key is what teams do with those other 62 games. If a team manages to win 35 of those remaining games then thats a 95 win season. Not too shabby. The tricky part about this thinking is that teams never know what games fall into which bucket until the season is done. However, I do think it’s a solid was of managing a long season and it can work in golf, too.

Fighting off Golf's Demons in an 18-hole Qualifier

June 24, 2021 by Sean Melia in Golf

The horn blew as we walked off the 17th green at Fall River Country Club. We had been watching the dark thunder clouds roll in slowly, and I prayed after the first rumble that it might be far enough that we could play the final hole before we were called off the course.

My prayers weren’t answered. They rarely are on the golf course.

The Pressure of Playing a Golf Course Only One Time

May 12, 2021 by Sean Melia in Golf

Over the last year, I have played dozens of brand new courses as I try to play every course in Massachusetts. I have also returned to courses I have played previously. The courses I am familiar with aren’t always a warm blanket on a cool evening, some of them have their own little demons hiding around the course. Poor shots and big numbers spin in the back of my mind, but so do birdies and great par saves and what iron I like to hit into a particular par 3. The guess work is more limited, and that is a nice feeling. But there can be such a thing as too much knowledge.

A Case For Why Golf Needs More 12-Hole Courses

May 05, 2021 by Sean Melia in Golf

In golf’s case, the 9 hole and 18 hole rounds are etched in stone as “proper golf.” A nice neat package of holes. When I poked around the Internet for people’s thoughts on 12 hole golf courses, a lot of what I found was written either in the late 2000s (when golf courses were hurting for money and needed to sell off land) or from 2019/2020 as the game has exploded and courses fill with golfers looking for a safe way to socialize and exercise.

We Can Do Better Than the Word "Fun" When Talking About Golf Courses

April 21, 2021 by Sean Melia in Golf

The word “fun” has permeated sports writing and discussion over the last handful of years. In particular NBA and golf media have beaten the word so thoroughly into the ground that it’s lost all meaning. Damian Lillard is fun to watch. The Phoenix Suns are fun to watch. Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe discuss their most “fun” NBA League Pass teams each year.

Golf is the same.

The Dilemma of Choosing the Correct Tee Box

March 11, 2021 by Sean Melia

Playing a new golf course has the feeling of a courtship. There’s the research and website investigation. Sometimes a friend might set you up with a new course (“You’ll love this place. It’s way better than the last one, I promise. That was my bad.”). On the night before the round, you might head to Google Maps and check out a courses routing, just to have a better sense of what might be in store for you. If you’re lucky, the course might have some drone footage hole descriptions on the website. Yes, you read them a few days ago, but now it’s vital that you really understand the course. After all the this might the one.