The Dan Plan - 10,000 Hours to Become a Pro Golfer (Dan McLaughlin)

[flopster]

Kota was not grinding if that's what you mean, Dan is just Dan and whatever happens happens.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RFKFREAK

My point was that I don't think they were playing for anything more than pride which translates at times to people not competing as hard.

Kota was not grinding if that's what you mean, Dan is just Dan and whatever happens happens.

Agree, and what's funny is he just missed 2 eagles (including on on the 18th) during the round and didn't think anything of it.

[DrvFrShow]

Maybe Dan's 2 HC is because he's playing mostly on a course that has a high slope rating, but is suited to his style of game. So when he plays out like this his weak spots show up because he's out of his comfort zone.

[flopster]

Exactly, we all are more comfortable on a course we play more often, being from Oregon I'm sure the conditions are a much slower course since it's going to be more wet and lush than other places, the slope part depends on how accurately it got rated, a lot of my rounds are on 135 slope and higher but when I do play something in the lower 120's I usually score within range, and when players come from other easier courses they shoot higher on average.

[Golfingdad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

Maybe Dan's 2 HC is because he's playing mostly on a course that has a high slope rating, but is suited to his style of game. So when he plays out like this his weak spots show up because he's out of his comfort zone.

Exactly, we all are more comfortable on a course we play more often, being from Oregon I'm sure the conditions are a much slower course since it's going to be more wet and lush than other places, the slope part depends on how accurately it got rated, a lot of my rounds are on 135 slope and higher but when I do play something in the lower 120's I usually score within range, and when players come from other easier courses they shoot higher on average.

I don't think that's what shes saying.  It's not about "comfort" of having played a certain course a lot ... it's about how that course may suit your game.  If you hit it a long way but spray it, you're gonna do better on a longer parkland style course with holes bordering other holes that you can recover from, as opposed to a shorter course that has holes bordered by hazards or OB everywhere ... regardless of how often you play either course.  On the other hand, a short but straight hitter might be the exact opposite.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

Maybe Dan's 2 HC is because he's playing mostly on a course that has a high slope rating, but is suited to his style of game. So when he plays out like this his weak spots show up because he's out of his comfort zone.

Exactly, we all are more comfortable on a course we play more often, being from Oregon I'm sure the conditions are a much slower course since it's going to be more wet and lush than other places, the slope part depends on how accurately it got rated, a lot of my rounds are on 135 slope and higher but when I do play something in the lower 120's I usually score within range, and when players come from other easier courses they shoot higher on average.

At my home courses, the CR and the slopes seem to be purely dictated by distance, and I remember someone mentioning this in some thread on this site.

As my swing got more solid, what I've observed is that distance and green speeds are the only real factors, the rest are mainly the mental effect of hazards and forced carries. There are tight holes on all courses, so maybe we get used to them on our home courses and need to think about them on unfamiliar ones thus making them seem more difficult?

So, I would think that a 2 HC could surmount any difficulties if he has some idea of the course layout, like having Kota and Andrew "Mirror" as guides.

[DrvFrShow]

Golfingdad has my meaning. I have a course in this area that's a long course with a high slope rating that I can score very well on because the fairways are wide and there is little water and no trees tightly bordering the fairway that they've let the branches grow out over the fairway to cut down approaches... unlike my home course that is a shorter course with a lower slope rating - my home course has a lot of water. Many times where I've hit my ball on my home course will end up in the water, but on this other course the ball would be playable. If I took my scores on this other course over the summer only I'd have a 19 handicap instead of a 24.7. It's an easier course for me because I'm a longer hitter.

[flopster]

Golfingdad has my meaning. I have a course in this area that's a long course with a high slope rating that I can score very well on because the fairways are wide and there is little water and no trees tightly bordering the fairway that they've let the branches grow out over the fairway to cut down approaches... unlike my home course that is a shorter course with a lower slope rating - my home course has a lot of water. Many times where I've hit my ball on my home course will end up in the water, but on this other course the ball would be playable. If I took my scores on this other course over the summer only I'd have a 19 handicap instead of a 24.7. It's an easier course for me because I'm a longer hitter.

That sounds odd, this is my home course, now for women the forward tees are 120 rate 71.7 but the next ones back slope 129 rate 75.4, odd mens slope rating is higher on the second set at 131 but rate is 70.4 obviously mens and womens ratings are done with different formulas. The thing is this course hardly has any level lies ( it's in the hills) and in the summer it dries out and the greens are very hard to hold and putt at a high stimp. I see guys who can shoot mid 80's pretty regularly at most other municipals struggle breaking 90 here. I'm not trying to toot my horn saying my course is tough but you can check out the reviews on yelp and come to your own conclusions, not all these higher slope courses are pushovers if I have a good day and break 80 then yeah I'll be posting 3.7 or whatever but I can remember shooting lower at places with slopes right at 125 or lower.

http://www.roddyranch.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/golf-club-at-roddy-ranch-antioch

[flopster]

Maybe Dan's 2 HC is because he's playing mostly on a course that has a high slope rating, but is suited to his style of game. So when he plays out like this his weak spots show up because he's out of his comfort zone.

Dan is most likely a vanity capper evidenced by his scores at tournaments when someone else writes down your own scores and makes you play strictly by the rules. One thing I see Dan does and it is such a rookie move is tossing the ball in the air after he picks it out of the cup, I guarantee no touring pro present or past has ever done anything so careless over and over, I have seen pros make small mistakes that cost them big but they are very isolated fluke incidents that caught them unexpectedly. All it will take is one time he happens to not get his hand just under that ball and it bounces off him into a playing partners ball and then watch the penalty strokes pile up. Also Dan doesn't have a single post on anything above 133 slope, when he plays courses that are anywhere near 140 slope he struggles.

[Golfingdad]

Golfingdad has my meaning. I have a course in this area that's a long course with a high slope rating that I can score very well on because the fairways are wide and there is little water and no trees tightly bordering the fairway that they've let the branches grow out over the fairway to cut down approaches... unlike my home course that is a shorter course with a lower slope rating - my home course has a lot of water. Many times where I've hit my ball on my home course will end up in the water, but on this other course the ball would be playable. If I took my scores on this other course over the summer only I'd have a 19 handicap instead of a 24.7. It's an easier course for me because I'm a longer hitter.

Same here.  Last 9 rounds on my "good" course, I've averaged 79.4.  It's 6800+ yards/72.2/125.  That is an average differential of about 6.2.  The course I play most frequently is super short (old folks community course) and rated easy 6000/68-ish/119.  My average score there is 79.5 for a rough average differential of 10.9.

If I played all of my rounds at the first course, my handicap would be somewhere around 4, whereas if I played all of my rounds at the second course, my handicap would be somewhere in the 8's, most likely.

So, changing nothing about my game, I could be giving 2 extra strokes or taking 2 extra strokes when I play in tournaments ... thus risking a label of "vanity capper" or, worse yet, of "sandbagger" from presumptuous people.

The fact is, nothing would have changes except circumstances.  Now, I'm not saying that Dan isn't a vanity capper because I just don't know.  But I am saying that there are other ways to have trouble reaching your "potential" in tournament settings than only being a vanity capper.

[DrvFrShow]

They rate women's based on length. Example is that a 400 yd hole is a par 5 for women from reds. A 230 yd hole is a par 4 for women. The average female player has a driver SS of 63 mph so the average drive is 160 yds. The white tees on my home course are 6260 and rate 74.8 and slope 122. Men's rating is 69.1, 113.

[Lihu]

They rate women's based on length. Example is that a 400 yd hole is a par 5 for women from reds. A 230 yd hole is a par 4 for women. The average female player has a driver SS of 63 mph so the average drive is 160 yds. The white tees on my home course are 6260 and rate 74.8 and slope 122. Men's rating is 69.1, 113.

These sound like they are also based upon length. Guessing the greens are also not that hard based upon the 113 rating?

[Golfingdad]

These sound like they are also based upon length.

Lihu, you've been here long enough that you should have read multiple times that ratings are always HEAVILY weighted towards length.

Come on.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

These sound like they are also based upon length.

Lihu, you've been here long enough that you should have read multiple times that ratings are always HEAVILY weighted towards length.

Come on.

Right, I just wanted to point out that it's not only women's tees that are based upon length, hence I added the word "also". . .

[DrvFrShow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

These sound like they are also based upon length. Guessing the greens are also not that hard based upon the 113 rating?

Heavily weighted to length. We have a saying about my home course. It giveth and it taketh away. There are 7 greens that are killers. There are 5 greens that are easy peasy. The remaining 6 are very average.

[Lihu]

Another course in the area where they removed the red tees has split pars. 390 yd par 4/5. 238 yd 3/4 (they didn't even bother with a fairway for the par 4 - you'd better be good pitching out of the second cut). 410 yd par 4/5. The course is a par 74 for me, and a par 71 for men. With a tail wind I can drive the 238 yd. Unfortunately the prevailing wind is always a head wind and usually about 15 mph. Slope is 116 for women. I guess since they removed the red tees the message is "women not welcome."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

These sound like they are also based upon length. Guessing the greens are also not that hard based upon the 113 rating?

Heavily weighted to length. We have a saying about my home course. It giveth and it taketh away. There are 7 greens that are killers. There are 5 greens that are easy peasy. The remaining 6 are very average.

It might be that the senior tees and the ladies tees have been merged as well. I talked a bit with some of the lady golfers, and they noted that there are a couple courses in our area where the senior tee ratings are the same as the ladies tee ratings. Plus, there are lots of conversion tables available on line for handicap purposes?

[Pretzel]

Even though ratings are heavily weighted to length, courses can be difficult without it. There's a nine hole course in my town that has a slope of 128 with a yardage of only about 6000. The course is crazy tight (think 15 yard fairways) with these huge old trees bordering all the holes. The greens are interesting too, as they're all kind of tiny and very firm. It plays like a links course a lot of the time in that the best play is to usually run the ball up and onto the greens rather than try to hit it high and stick it. It's a course with a lot of personality and makes for the hardest par 3 course you'll ever play if you drop a ball at 200 yards on each hole.

[Dave2512]

Even though ratings are heavily weighted to length, courses can be difficult without it.

There's a nine hole course in my town that has a slope of 128 with a yardage of only about 6000. The course is crazy tight (think 15 yard fairways) with these huge old trees bordering all the holes. The greens are interesting too, as they're all kind of tiny and very firm. It plays like a links course a lot of the time in that the best play is to usually run the ball up and onto the greens rather than try to hit it high and stick it. It's a course with a lot of personality and makes for the hardest par 3 course you'll ever play if you drop a ball at 200 yards on each hole.

BR is very funky and plays longer IMO due to the layout. There are two par 4's there I hit 7i from the tee to avoid trouble (2 and 8). Par 3's play long too, 1 over the crud to blind green and 6 is uphill. I am going to talk to Pete about better bunker upkeep in 2015, footprint beach. I've shot -3 and +10 there, very odd course.