It's no fun to shoot 100

[avghack]

I think setup is more important than design. The avg golfer is lucky to break 100. The avg good golfer who actually tracks their handicap is 15. So why "Bubba proof" the course? My home course is a prime example of a pretty good design with terrible set up. They watch the PGA and say I want our greens to run that fast... So they bought an expensive new roller and stopped watering. They're concrete right now. Seriously you might as well put a flag in the parking lot. I'd be surprised if our pro could break 80 on his own course. They stopped cutting the rough too...thanks. I flew one 270 about 5 yds off the fairway and it didn't even bounce... It just buried. It took me 10 mins to find it. It was a miracle to break 90. I'm a good player and I live a block from 17 tee box, but they're taking the fun out of it. The PGA players were lying when they said it was fun not breaking par at Merion. Everyone loves making birdies and hacks like us should be happy with birdie chanses. Scrambling for bogie or double every hole sucks. It also turns away young players... I mean who wants to take 5 hrs looking for balls and 3 or 4 putting everything?

[Ernest Jones]

Agree. I lose enough balls as it is, I'd rather not lose them a couple feet off the fairway. A setup like that kind of flies in the face of the whole tee it forward initiative.

[JP golf]

While I like the challenge of deep rough (sometimes)...  We don't have spotters to help us find that buried little ball...  I can't stand losing a golf ball when you saw where it went and it wasn't a hazard...  If i'm 5-6 yards off the fairway with an open shot to the green and lose my ball in the rough....  yea not a happy camper...

[Ernest Jones]

Yes, to be clear, I don't might hitting out of rough, just hate taking penalties when it should be findable.

[wils5150]

I think setup is more important than design. The avg golfer is lucky to break 100. The avg good golfer who actually tracks their handicap is 15. So why "Bubba proof" the course? My home course is a prime example of a pretty good design with terrible set up. They watch the PGA and say I want our greens to run that fast... So they bought an expensive new roller and stopped watering. They're concrete right now. Seriously you might as well put a flag in the parking lot. I'd be surprised if our pro could break 80 on his own course. They stopped cutting the rough too...thanks. I flew one 270 about 5 yds off the fairway and it didn't even bounce... It just buried. It took me 10 mins to find it. It was a miracle to break 90. I'm a good player and I live a block from 17 tee box, but they're taking the fun out of it. The PGA players were lying when they said it was fun not breaking par at Merion. Everyone loves making birdies and hacks like us should be happy with birdie chanses. Scrambling for bogie or double every hole sucks. It also turns away young players... I mean who wants to take 5 hrs looking for balls and 3 or 4 putting everything?

welcome to TV golf and keeping up with the jones' Pretty much every superintendents nightmare ^^^^^^

[RH31]

I can't think of anything more frustrating in golf than hitting into rough that should be playable and it taking xx minutes to find a ball.

Total PITA!

[DoubleEagle]

Played Friday.  Shot a 99...Had 3 balls that should have been easily playable just off the fairway that were not found.  I figure that cost me at least 6 strokes--yep, it was frustrating...  As we were leaving, they were beginning to cut the rough a little for the weekend.

[imsys0042]

I agree with you, My course is setup to make golfers fail. Notably, there are a number if places where you can hit 20-50 yards safe and be thrown out of bounds because most holes have slopes that throw you out of play. There are a number of features that make it hard, It's a 142-145 slope depending on the combo of 3 nines that you play. Many members at my level (10 handicap) have not broken 80 and many shoot anywhere between low 80s to 100. It's a classic overdone course. It's kept very nice and you learn to play it, but it's just brutal if you are over a 4 handicap. A recent 6 handicap I played with says he won't use new balls on the course. Even with multiple tee boxes, it's hard to match, or better, your handicap, there if you post your scores from other courses. Very frustrating to basically take a couple of 7s and know your score is shot for the day.

[dave s]

Agree on the 'degree of difficulty' some courses prefer.  I heard an interesting comment from the GM of a resort complex in north central Indiana who said he was in a constant battle with the course superintendent on course setup. Course super had US Open on his mind, GM of the resort is thinking 'resort course' setup.

The place in question was a teaching facility with 2 18 hole courses.  People come take lessons to improve their game, then go play the two courses and still shoot 100 because of the course setup.  Of course, they don't understand why getting better isn't translating into lower scores.

I'm with others who don't feel missing a fairway by 5 yards should result in a lost ball.  That is too penal.

Played Longaberger in Columbus OH last weekend.  My 4 (and only 4) birdie opportunities resulted in 3 bogies because the greens putted like the parking lot.  Maybe FASTER than the parking lot.  Too hard (tough to hold even with short irons) and way too fast.  Getting beat up by the course and having good shots go unrewarded isn't fun.

dave

[imsys0042]

I guess I could sum it up with this....I prefer that a have more options to soften it or toughen it than the actual setup/design. They would literally have to bring a fleet up bulldozers to my place to address some of the member wishes. Which is silly. Shame on me for not 100% accepting it! I'll admit that. But there's little room to make the course easier if they want to. Also the tee boxes are frequently uneven and tough to get a flat lie. That's another winner.