Who would you rather be?

[inthehole]

I'll take 250 and somewhere on the fairway every day & twice on sunday.    I don't devote enough time to practice so I'm never confident bringing a hard swing to the course.   A nice controlled 250 is all I need... now I have to just work on my GIR's (never knew how bad I really was at GIRs until I read about the importance of this stat here, and started paying attention to GIRs).   Much work to be done ...

[mailman]

Distance is incredibly important to scoring. Your scenarios are a bit bogus in that the long hitter is not always in the trees (or OB on every other par five), and the short hitter is not always in the fairway. Distance is a huge advantage to shooting lower scores.

This!!!! I had 6 LONG drives today where my next shot was an 8 or 9 iron in to the green, with a few of those drives from the rough. 5 of those were GIR with the 6th a (n)GIR but each one of those were realistic birdie chances! My playing partners on the other hand were 60 or 70 yards behind trying to hit GIR from 200 yards with hybrids or woods from fairways but never converted those shots in to pars or even bogies! Regards Mailman

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iacas

Distance is incredibly important to scoring.

Your scenarios are a bit bogus in that the long hitter is not always in the trees (or OB on every other par five), and the short hitter is not always in the fairway.

Distance is a huge advantage to shooting lower scores.

This!!!!

I had 6 LONG drives today where my next shot was an 8 or 9 iron in to the green, with a few of those drives from the rough.

5 of those were GIR with the 6th a (n)GIR but each one of those were realistic birdie chances!

My playing partners on the other hand were 60 or 70 yards behind trying to hit GIR from 200 yards with hybrids or woods from fairways but never converted those shots in to pars or even bogies!

Regards

Mailman

Once again, that's fine if you play a wide open course.  It's all part of course management.  If you play courses like most I've played, 30 yards off the fairway could be deep woods, out of bounds, 3 foot tall native grass, water hazard, etc... none of which are going to result in a GIR.

[Golfingdad]

Once again, that's fine if you play a wide open course.  It's all part of course management.  If you play courses like most I've played, 30 yards off the fairway could be deep woods, out of bounds, 3 foot tall native grass, water hazard, etc... none of which are going to result in a GIR.

OK, then when you're playing the tight course, would you rather have to murder your driver 220 on every hole, or poke your 4 or 5 iron out there on every hole?

Then remember, after you do that - let's say, for a 400 yard straightaway par 4 - now you're left with 180 yards.  220 guy is hitting, I imagine, a 3 or 4 hybrid into the green?  Whereas 300 OB guy is hitting an 8 iron.

You still would rather be short and straight guy with no options instead of long and wild guy with choices?

[mailman]

It's par for the course really. My course is a mixture of parkland, woodland and links styles so it has some open holes BUT the par 5's and a lot of the par 4's in the woodland section are very tight. I have the worked hard over the winter to get the distance to hit fairways a long way up with my hybrid or even my 4 iron and even on the tight fairways it means my second shot is going to be an 8 or at worst a 7 iron which I far prefer to use than trying to go at a green a long way back with a hybrid or even a 5 iron. The thing is I can hit a PW 30 plus yards OB and that's when I'm trying to lay up with a 140 yard shot on a very tight long par 3 on our course. I really don't need a driver to be that far in the crap! :) Regards Mailman

[RFKFREAK]

OK, then when you're playing the tight course, would you rather have to murder your driver 220 on every hole, or poke your 4 or 5 iron out there on every hole?

Then remember, after you do that - let's say, for a 400 yard straightaway par 4 - now you're left with 180 yards.  220 guy is hitting, I imagine, a 3 or 4 hybrid into the green?  Whereas 300 OB guy is hitting an 8 iron.

You still would rather be short and straight guy with no options instead of long and wild guy with choices?

This.

When I'm able to poke it out there 280 and leave myself a wedge, it's so much easier to play the hole than like yesterday where I mishit my 3W and left myself a 4H to try and reach the green (which I didn't).

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fourputt

Once again, that's fine if you play a wide open course.  It's all part of course management.  If you play courses like most I've played, 30 yards off the fairway could be deep woods, out of bounds, 3 foot tall native grass, water hazard, etc... none of which are going to result in a GIR.

OK, then when you're playing the tight course, would you rather have to murder your driver 220 on every hole, or poke your 4 or 5 iron out there on every hole?

Then remember, after you do that - let's say, for a 400 yard straightaway par 4 - now you're left with 180 yards.  220 guy is hitting, I imagine, a 3 or 4 hybrid into the green?  Whereas 300 OB guy is hitting an 8 iron.

You still would rather be short and straight guy with no options instead of long and wild guy with choices?

30 yards off the fairway isn't "tight".  If you figure a 40 yard wide fairway, aim down the middle, then miss the fairway by 30 yards, you missed your target by 50 yards.  That's not just bad, that's horrid.  With the OP's contention that you miss that badly on a regular basis, then besides being a crappy golfer, you need to seriously rethink your shot strategy.

Unless you play a course with no hazards, no trees, no significant rough, no OB....

[DrvFrShow]

250 in the fairway, every time.

1. It's further than I hit now.

2. It's more accurate than I hit now.

This would mean that i would hit every one of my clubs further than I hit now, and hit them more accurately than I hit them now. So yeah, I'll take this every day. Now, I can work on my short game and putting.

[Shorty]

GIR on every par five, or ball OB every other par five trying to get on in two?

What percentage of par 5s have OB on either side of the fairway?

Those who think that distance is not important to scoring are not playing from the correct tees.

Long hitters are not always inaccurate. Short hitters are just as prone to OB and inaccuracy.

[Golfingdad]

30 yards off the fairway isn't "tight".  If you figure a 40 yard wide fairway, aim down the middle, then miss the fairway by 30 yards, you missed your target by 50 yards.  That's not just bad, that's horrid.  With the OP's contention that you miss that badly on a regular basis, then besides being a crappy golfer, you need to seriously rethink your shot strategy.

I don't get your point.

[RFKFREAK]

I don't get your point.

Maybe his point is that you're being way too generous with your usage of "tight" when applying it to a fairway where 30 yards off it has deep woods, out of bounds, 3 foot tall native grass, or a water hazard.

[Golfingdad]

Maybe his point is that you're being way too generous with your usage of "tight" when applying it to a fairway where 30 yards off it has deep woods, out of bounds, 3 foot tall native grass, or a water hazard.

What does 30 yards off the fairway have to do with anything?  The tight course I'm talking about is the one HE described, and I'm simply saying that 300 yard guy can leave all of the long clubs, and thus, the 30 yard wide shots, in the bag.  Pull out 5 irons all day long and hit the same part of the fairway that 220 guy is hitting.  then have 5 less clubs into the green as well.

Unless he thinks that guy is also spraying his 5 iron 30 yards off the fairway???

[mailman]

High handicappers do spray and pray with every club in their bag though so I'd rather be in trouble a long way up than in trouble a long way back! Mailman

[Ernest Jones]

I'll take 250 and somewhere on the fairway every day & twice on sunday.    I don't devote enough time to practice so I'm never confident bringing a hard swing to the course.   A nice controlled 250 is all I need... now I have to just work on my GIR's (never knew how bad I really was at GIRs until I read about the importance of this stat here, and started paying attention to GIRs).   Much work to be done ...

Gonna be hard to up those GIR if you're hitting approaches with hybrids and long irons instead of short irons and wedges. #distancematters

[RFKFREAK]

What does 30 yards off the fairway have to do with anything?  The tight course I'm talking about is the one HE described, and I'm simply saying that 300 yard guy can leave all of the long clubs, and thus, the 30 yard wide shots, in the bag.  Pull out 5 irons all day long and hit the same part of the fairway that 220 guy is hitting.  then have 5 less clubs into the green as well.

Unless he thinks that guy is also spraying his 5 iron 30 yards off the fairway???

Got me.  I'm just speculating based on how your discussion has evolved.

[RFKFREAK]

High handicappers do spray and pray with every club in their bag though so I'd rather be in trouble a long way up than in trouble a long way back!

Mailman

Not really.

I don't spray with my putter.

[Ernest Jones]

Not really. I don't spray with my putter. :smartass:

Liar. :-P

[RFKFREAK]

Liar. :-P

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