"Target Golf" - Now I Know what that Means...

[pittpanther]

I hope you don't have high hopes of improving your game much then, and instead just play to "enjoy" yourself. Or, hopefully I'm taking your definition of a hard course wrong. Tricked up courses, that aren't fair, I agree, I don't like those. But to just say you don't like hard courses I feel like goes against the whole point of playing golf.

At several different courses (including TPC Las Vegas) I had played many 6000-6500 yard rounds under 100, and many rounds where I lost only 1 or 2 balls. This Orlando course was a huge setback. Of course one of my goals is to improve, but playing this course didn't make me a better golfer. It frustrated and angered me, but the worst part is that it has shaken my confidence, and I haven't touched my clubs in a week. I will get back into it, but I can see how an experience like this could completely sour a beginner (or even an intermediate) to the game.

[saevel25]

This was on the golf channel last night during a special about the history of golf. They talked about how Pete Dye started to create courses that were 6000-6500 yards, but broke all the rules of golf design because he would put bunkers in wierd spots, and create a challenging course. Example is TPC sawgrass, it only has a few sand-traps, but they are put in places were they have maximum effect.

[treebound]

Is this the course in question?

http://www.magnoliaplantationgolfclu...ationgolfclub/


Looks kind of interesting. For the men's tees the rating runs from 68.7 to 75.5, slope runs from 126 to 138. I'd give it a shot if it was within my budget and if I was in the area.


The par-5 someone described above sounds like one on a course I played regularly while in California. Short drive to a 90degree left dogleg, then a medium wide fairway with a bunch of small ball-grabber trees/shrubs scattered around, and a lateral creekbed/drainage, and just before the green there were two tall leafy trees guarding the approach. Took me all summer one year but I finally par'd it, had to hit an iron off the tee and just about kiss the trees and brush on the left inside of the bend without going too far into the fairway. Then a decent shot either short of the creek to the left side of the left guard tree or a 2nd shot center-aimed at the bridge over the creek and lined up between the trees. If your 2nd shot was good you could either lob a short iron or wedge to the green from the left of the left guard tree, or run a low flying punch shot between the guards rolling the ball up onto the green. Then 2-putt and done. One birdie I saw, the player landed in the middle of the dogleg, then hit a low flyer just over the creek nearly hitting the bridge and dead center between the guards up onto the edge of the green, he nearly Eagled it.


I don't really mind a challenging course as long as the greens don't look like they belong on a putt-putt minigolf course. And greens with no level area on the side of a hill are just plain bad, up and around and up and around and up and around and up and maybe finally into the hole. Argh.

[Chief Broom]

I see a lot of masochism in golf. People who insist on playing the tips. People who search out the highest rated courses, and then insist on playing the tips just so they can say they did it. Hey it's a free country and if some folks enjoy doing this then more power to them, but I don't get it? I don't have a good time when I play poorly, and if the course is a big part of the reason I'm struggling, then it's not a course I enjoy playing. Now to be fair you do see resorts that offer multiple courses that are designed for different skill levels. This to me is the best compromise possible, and having the staff at these places help guide new players to the appropriate course and tees is how every course should be run.

I'm not a hack. I consider myself a bogey golfer, but I can work my way around pretty much any layout without totally embarrasing myself. But I really don't see where playing an insanely hard course helps anyone's game? A well struck shot at an Open venue is no different than one in an open field. But if you are constantly scrambling and just trying to get back into play your score suffers and advancing your game becomes secondary to mere survival. Naturally scratch golfers and low cappers are able to play such tests of the game and emerge victorious (well at least in the eyes of us mere mortals), but perhaps therein lies the need many have to test themselves in such fashion. To be able to say you put up a good number at a tough track means something.

Ultimately I bemoan the fact that in this world of limited resources that courses that can be considered easy or designed for the novice usually don't get as much care and attention as those made for the highly skilled. This is backward in the respect that there are far more novice golfers than there are those who play near scratch. But such is our mania...

[plugged]

I played the Prince Course in Princeville, HI two weeks ago and that was definitely target golf IMO. There were several holes where every shot had to hit a certain location or it was lost. Needless to say, course mmgt consisted of "only hit a shot that you KNOW you can make."

[leezer99]

At our course we love it when newbies come out with their Pro V's. It's always nice being able to pick up half a dozen balls throughout your round that you find in barancas, up the sides of hills or in any one of a dozen collection spots for balls on our course. Go ahead and hit driver on 3, 8, 9, 10 or 13... I'll know exactly where to pluck your ball from after you've given up looking.

[Thwak-Thwak-Ting]

Sounds very, very painful.