What Would a Top Tour Pro Shoot on a Typical Public Course?

[Shindig]

10 minutes ago, guitarget said:

"Do they have spectators to find the balls they hit into the woods?"  This is a big one, in my opinion.  While watching the recent Open, I often wondered how long it would take me or you to find a ball hit into that really long, thick stuff, while pros have spotters and spectators to help out.

This is a very good point.  I wonder this whenever I have to search for a ball:  if I had spectators, would I even be searching?  Sure, lost balls happen, plus there was that spectator who took Kevin Na's ball that one time, but more often than not, having spectators and volunteers matters quite a bit. 

[Vinsk]

I think we all know that there are certainly some advantages for the tour players; gallery backstops, signs, having people find a ball. But…who are we kiddin? They’re ridiculously good.

[pganapathy]

Let us be honest.  Most times the pro's can hit the ball where they want.  Their target zones are not the left or right side of fairway, but say 5 or 10 yards from the edge of the rough.

Realistically most pro's will shoot a couple under par on any given day, so I would have to say mid to high 60's and on a great day low 60's.  Of course, we do need to take into account the fact that shorter courses will generally be easier for the pro's since they can drive short par 4 and par 5 greens in under regulation.  So depending on the length and how difficult the public course is, somewhere in the 60's

[nevets88]

The thing I remember about that piece was IIRC it was the bumpy greens that he thought kept him from going low.

[Shorty]

4 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I think we all know that there are certainly some advantages for the tour players; gallery backstops, signs, having people find a ball. But…who are we kiddin? They’re ridiculously good.

NOOOOOO!!!!!! The point of these threads is to make you understand (which you clearly can't) that PGATour players are basically no better than us but they have the advantage of people finding their balls and perfectly manicured bunkers. Accept it, Vinsk - they're no better than you. You'd be 20 under after 4 rounds if you got those special ProV1s they reserve for the pros. And don't get me started about shafts......

[boogielicious]

36 minutes ago, Shorty said:

but they have the advantage of people finding their balls

Tell that to DeChambeau. I can’t recall what tournament, but he missed a short par 4 green 15 yards left recently and they could not find his ball in the rough. Long lonely ride back to the tee followed.

[Shorty]

1 minute ago, boogielicious said:

Tell that to DeChambeau. I can’t recall what tournament, but he missed a short par 4 green 15 yards left recently and they could not find his ball in the rough. Long lonely ride back to the tee followed.

It was the Masters, so that made the comedy even better.

His error, of course, was to hit driver. Most critics in the 15 to 23 handicap range would have simply hit their 3 wood off the tee (because their driver goes too far), then hit a wedge under the hole and holed a simple birdie putt.

 

[Shindig]

41 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Tell that to DeChambeau. I can’t recall what tournament, but he missed a short par 4 green 15 yards left recently and they could not find his ball in the rough. Long lonely ride back to the tee followed.

It wasn't a lack of observers that was his problem, it was a lack of observers who didn't dislike him that was the issue.  Everyone who saw where it went kept their mouth shut because they wanted him to not find it within the three minutes  

(I don't believe that happened the way I describe it, nor do I hope it did)

[phan52]

What would a tour pro shoot at your course? Bubba Watson helps us find out | Golf News and Tour Information | Golf Digest

Bubba Watson. 6,200 yards, par 70.

62

[imsys0042]

On 7/22/2021 at 3:55 PM, nevets88 said:

The thing I remember about that piece was IIRC it was the bumpy greens that he thought kept him from going low.

I’ve played several times on courses where my ball striking was really good and then the greens were either really slow, or rough, and it clearly kept me from going lower.   One time, years ago, I played on a wide open course with huge greens.   But they were slow as anything.  Hit 13 greens and putted horribly because they were like high carpet.

[nevets88]

Here's the video for the Watson piece mentioned above.

 

[iacas]

12 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Here's the video for the Watson piece mentioned above.

 

The conditions, particularly of the putting greens, don't appear to be "bad" at all there.

That stuff matters.

[dagolfer18]

Depends on where they’re playing. Most courses around me are fairly wide open. I’ll take Hillandale as an example. Not long at all for the pros, just over 6400 as a par 71. 

The four par 3s are mid length holes (one about 165, one about 180 and two that are 190). One of them has an all carry approach and one has a tough green.

The longest par 4 out there is only about 430 from the blues, which is driver-wedge for most pros, and a lot of them are fairly straightaway. Most are in the range of 370-400 from the blues.

All three par 5s are reachable in two, the longest clocking in at 510 and the shortest a mere 440. 

I know this is just one course, but I’ll say a pro can shoot mid 60s pretty easily.

[DeadMan]

22 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Here's the video for the Watson piece mentioned above.

 

Course Rating is 68.8 at this course, so it's not is a super difficult course for a pro. It's pretty short, too. 6100 yards is on the short end, even for a muni. Bubba's differential was -6.2, if the online calculator I used is right. Interesting to see.

[colin007]

11 hours ago, iacas said:

The conditions, particularly of the putting greens, don't appear to be "bad" at all there.

That stuff matters.

Yeah, the conditions/manicuring/upkeep actually looked like a higher end public course around here 

[flopster]

My previous home course was rated 74.2 slope 142 and 7090 from the tips but I could see a tour pro easily coming in at 64 and even close to breaking 60 after a couple more go around. The place had lots of elevation changes and lots and lots of places an average player would lose a ball.

[Aguirre]

Okay, so the question seems to be asking an average. I'd say low to mid 60's. If you're giving them practice rounds and stakes, yes many would break 60. With a full field of 144 or 156 pros, many. Particularly if you don't roll and cut the greens the way an average tour event would. Or grow out the rough, for that matter. 

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Aguirre said:

Okay, so the question seems to be asking an average. I'd say low to mid 60's. If you're giving them practice rounds and stakes, yes many would break 60. With a full field of 144 or 156 pros, many. Particularly if you don't roll and cut the greens the way an average tour event would. Or grow out the rough, for that matter. 

Nope.

Not rolling and cutting the greens, btw, makes it more difficult to score low. Not easier.