Kebo Valley Golf Club , Bar Harbor, Me golf course has a great view and rates the course conditions from 1-10, we played when it was a 9, with the small loss due to extremely fast greens.  Kebo Valley Golf Club offers a number of challenges to the golfer, starting with a course rating that is extremely tough for women, with many choices for the men that can be much harder. For golfers who can set aside their awe at the view, a fun time can be had. 

Golf Challenge Number One: Raised Greens

One of the downsides of the raised greens at Kebo Valley Golf Club is they tend to be dry and very fast. To handle the small greens, high lofted shots are the only way to go. With enough backspin, they may actually stay on the green. Using a GPS device will help you identify the exact distance to travel. Part of the strategy should include getting as close to the green before chipping since drives to the green are likely to roll off or get stopped on the approach.

Golf Challenge Number Two: Hidden Fairways

One way to handle hidden fairways is to drive ahead and check out where the best place to hit your drive. A second way is to consult the handy course overview book provided with your greens fee, often it will show a point where to aim and also indicated the distances to any trouble you might find. A third way to handle it is by a sex change operation since the ladies tees are forward of this narrow tee. Another way is to pick an aiming point that lies in the area of the open space, especially if you can spot the 150 yard distance marker.

Golf Challenge Number Three: Bubbles Blocking the Fairway or Green

The name bubbles for the moguls in the pictures come from the celebrated bubble mountains at the center of Acadia National Park. If the ball lands on one of these, golfers will find they need to use an iron because the grass tends to be fairly heavy and the surface variable in direction. Take a practice shot and verify your follow through, chances are the ball trajectory will be angled.

Make sure you use a drive or a chip with a lot of loft to avoid these bubbles/moguls.

We visited Forest Lake Golf Club and because it was rather warm out, we decided to skip out on our putting practice. This is a very bad idea. My husband and I were not the only golfers coming in with three and four putts a hole--putting this badly is a serious ouch for your score. So what can you do to help our your putting at Forest Lake Golf Club?

One thing that will improve your putting on a golf course such as Forest Lake Golf Club is to make use of a golf range finding device. Each golf cart at Forest Lake Golf Club comes equipped with a ProShot Golf GPS device. Not only did it give the distance to the hole from your current location, but it also gave the distance to several spots on the green and other hazards such as sand traps. We still augmented the advice provided by the ProShot Golf GPS with our exact distance ranger finder. What both of these devices are supposed to do is get your approach shot as close to the hole as possible. That only works if your chipping is close to exact. So good chipping practice and club selection is in order.

The photograph of one of the greens at the Forest Lake Golf Club shows some of the difficulties involved with golfing this course:

1. the green is large
2. the green has multiple slopes
3. the flag is placed on an angle

So how do you handle putting on such surfaces:

1. practice putting uphill, downhill long distances before you go out to get a feel for how hard you should putt
2. when you near the flag, don't try to tap it in--you'll miss
3. slow down, imagine a line from the hole through your ball, then follow it on your putt
4. make sure you keep your head down until the ball stops
5. follow through to the hole, don't stop after tapping it

When our group started paying close attention to our putting, our putt count went down.

One reason that my husband and I report our scores as the number of strokes / the number of putts is to remind ourselves how much our score would go down if we dropped out putt count for the eighteen holes to below 36.

The photograph to the left shows one more reason why putting at Forest Lake Golf Course is difficult--complicated approaches insure that your chipping can put you into difficulties such as blocked by a tree, by a bunker, rolling into a lake, or sandy area on the lake fringes, sand hazards,  and woods.

Overall, Lake Forest Golf Club is sure to test your skills as a golfer.

Here's a brief look at some great golf deals.

While golfing today, my husband and I discussed why we liked  the other's putter, yet we selected such different ones. Here's some things to think about when selecting a putter.

#1: Check there are no moveable objects other than your golf ball on the green before picking up your putter.

About My Husband's Ping Putter

My husband bought his Ping Putter before I bought a new putter; when I tried his I fell in love with it and had to have one. 

What I liked about his putter was the light feel, the generally straight putt I had with my stroke, the center mark.

About My Never Compromise Putter

When I went to purchase my Never Compromise putter, I went to Pro Golf Discount in Tukwila, WA where my husband also purchased his putter. I went a good six months after my husband and there weren't any Ping Putters on hand. So I used the store's  handy putting green to try out a good variety of putters. What I found out was that because of my stroke, some putters gave me odd putts. Some I had less ability to find center. After numerous putts, I settled down on the Never Compromise putter which happened to be all the rage.

One difference between my putter and my husband's is the added weight at the back of the putter. I've found that this weight gives me a better sense of touch about how far the golf ball will travel. 

The Hang Test

My husband did the hang test--here's a good explanation for the various ways that putters differ.

The center line on my husband's putter when it aligns with the back of my putter held similarly doesn't line up the same as mine. In fact, he readjusted his line, by adding a notch at the top which helps him find a better center. I hope this helps with putting questions.

Or you could just go putter borrowing and testing just to improve your putting skills. Whatever works.

A number of things can go wrong with your putt that make you think, why did I do that?

And the biggest reason it happens is because you lose concentration and don't take your putts seriously.

1. Your putter can hit the grass, bumping off to one side or the other or preventing the follow through to the golf ball. 

Cure: Make sure you are holding the putter in a fixed position during your practice putt, then do your putt.

2. Your golf ball can hit the rim of the cup and go off to the side.

Cure: Well, this might not be your fault, but sometimes in the early morning after the cup is installed, a lip can be present around the hole from the installation. Step on the hole when you take the flag out.

3. Your golf ball goes too far.

Cure: Practice on the putting green before you go out. Practice how far your ball will go with a quarter, half, full stroke. Make sure that you do it for uphill and for downhill. 

4. Your golf ball veers off at the end mysteriously on short putts.

Cure: Follow through to the hole. On short putts, it often feels like you should just tap at the ball, following through to the hole will make it go in the direction you intend.

There's other tips, but if we all practice like Tiger Woods, we get better. His thirty foot putt today at the BMW Championship in the FEDEX Cup looked hot. Read more here: 
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1327058-bmw-championship-2012-tiger-woods-and-rory-mcilroy-make-playoffs-relevant