Playing extraordinarily long courses

[amoline]

Maybe this is a non-issue, but mostly I'm just curious for myself and maybe I'll have a couple of tips to pass along to my fellow club teammates at school. :) Being relatively new to golf, is there anything special to adjust in playing longer courses? Do you have any general tips for playing a really long course? Any personal anecdotes about a long course you've played yourself? The guys on the club team have an important tournament coming up in awhile, and the course 'we' (thank heavens I'm not playing in this tournament). Even though we have altitude helping us along a bit, the back tees from the course measure just almost at 8,100 yards. Includes a 538 par 4, and a 230 something par three over water. I'm sure some of massive yardages is to get players putting thinking caps on and partial plain intimidation. But if in a couple of years I'd like to try and join the tournaments with the team too... I just don't even think I can fathom that kind of yardage. If I'm lucky I might be able to get a driver to 230 with a bunch of roll on it? (Hoping that extra length off the tee comes with experience, and I won't be stuck at 230 with altitude on a driver forever, heh.) But anyway -- yeah. Like I said. Thoughts, advice, personal stories all welcomed.

[saevel25]

Maybe this is a non-issue, but mostly I'm just curious for myself and maybe I'll have a couple of tips to pass along to my fellow club teammates at school. :)

Being relatively new to golf, is there anything special to adjust in playing longer courses? Do you have any general tips for playing a really long course? Any personal anecdotes about a long course you've played yourself?

I recommend playing what ever tees fit you game.

Ask yourself this, what yardage do you hit your 6 iron. Then add your driver distance. This should be the average par 4 distance you should be playing on the course. PGA Tour players average mid-irons for their approach shots. I recommend you find the tees that fit your game.

[Patch]

I have often thought the longer the course, the more thought the player should put forth while playing it. Of course the lower the player's hdcp, the less thought will be involved, and vice versa.

I know when I play a longer course than I usually play, I always remember what my game is. 6000 yards or 8000 yards I hit my clubs the same distance regardless of the overall course yardage. The other thing I don't do on longer courses is get in a hurry. I play them the same way I play the shorter courses.

Another thing I think about is how players, based on their hndcp, can make a course play longer, or shorter than advertised.

My over all advice is don't get in a hurry, and rely more on the part of your brain that handles your course management .

[amoline]

Thanks both for the replies. As I said, thankfully I'm not playing this time around! But since it is a tournament, I assume everyone would play from the same (likely the back?) tees? Unless I don't know about that either! :) Good thoughts, both of you! I'm definitely in no hurry to go out and play that sort of long course. Someday. Someday I'll get longer yardages too, even if it kills me.

[WUTiger]

One thing that can influence distance is turf conditions. Years ago Fort Sill army base in Oklahoma had two active golf courses. Fort Sill Golf Club played about 6,400 from the blues (prior to rebuild circa 2000), while Cedar Lake Golf Course played about 6,700 from the blues.

FSGC had softer turf, and large oak and sycamore trees lining the fairways, due to better water sources.

Cedar Lake had harder clay turf, and many holes had smaller trees along the roughline. And, it had longer, flatter greens which matched my chip-and-run game better than the smaller, often crowned  FSGC greens.

I regularly shot 2 to 4 strokes better on the longer Cedar Lakes course.

[Mike Boatright]

Well if you can hit it over 300 yards then you don't have a problem.

[davechen]

Recently I played Bethpage Black, which was extraordinarily long.  I'm not a long hitter, and we played from the whites, but that was still 6773 yards.  There were a lot of long par 4's, over 400 yards, including one that was 457.  

For me, I just had to reset my expectations and accept that bogies would be a good score on a number of those holes.  I'm a bogie golfer, and since it was such a long, hard course, I was just hoping to stay below 100.  So I was happy with my 98.  As it turned out, from a handicapping standpoint that was it was one of my best results.  The slope of that course was crazy, 145, because it's so long.

So my suggestion is to just accept that a course is long for all the players and not let it psych you out.

[ncarlsongolf]

My tips for playing an extraordinarily long golf course is to manage your misses.  You really have to plan out where the best place to chip from is going to be.  Because you are going to be approaching many of the greens with woods, hybrids, or long irons it is important to know where the best place to chip from is going to be. If the pin is in the front right corner of the green you want to play a club that if you pure it, is going to the back edge but if you slightly miss hit the club will still be pin high.  The only place you can't leave the approach shot is going to be short right.  So aiming middle, or middle left and managing your expectations on those very long holes.  They might be playing to a Par of 4.5 or more, don't let your players think a bogey on those holes are going to ruin their round.  

[Sante TwoGloves]

take extra balls.

[rkim291968]

I face this every round.  I don't hit long and my course tournaments are from championship tee which is really long for me.   My recommendation is, for warm up, practice your approach shot more.  Your approach shots are likely have to be longer, say 4i vs the usual short iron?

Edited October 13, 2015 by rkim291968

[natureboy]

My tips for playing an extraordinarily long golf course is to manage your misses.  You really have to plan out where the best place to chip from is going to be.  Because you are going to be approaching many of the greens with woods, hybrids, or long irons it is important to know where the best place to chip from is going to be. If the pin is in the front right corner of the green you want to play a club that if you pure it, is going to the back edge but if you slightly miss hit the club will still be pin high.  The only place you can't leave the approach shot is going to be short right.  So aiming middle, or middle left and managing your expectations on those very long holes.  They might be playing to a Par of 4.5 or more, don't let your players think a bogey on those holes are going to ruin their round.  

Curious why a right front pin makes a short right miss so bad. I would assume a miss like that is closer to the hole. Is your strategy because you are likely to end up in a greenside bunker and short-sided with a short right miss? If no bunker, I would think a short chip / pitch could get you closer to the pin on average than a long (over 60') from the back of the green - especially if the green has a lot of contour.

[ncarlsongolf]

Curious why a right front pin makes a short right miss so bad. I would assume a miss like that is closer to the hole. Is your strategy because you are likely to end up in a greenside bunker and short-sided with a short right miss? If no bunker, I would think a short chip / pitch could get you closer to the pin on average than a long (over 60') from the back of the green - especially if the green has a lot of contour.

If you have the pin on the right side of the green, especially front right and you miss short right you have short sided yourself.  Make the chip a lot more difficult.  If you miss to the middle left on the green or even just off the left side you have a lot more green to work with and thus a lot more shot options from there.  It is always going to be easier to get up and down with more green to work with, regardless of contour of the green or green speed.  Short siding yourself is always going to be a harder recovery shot

 

http://gtp.usgtf.com/approach-shots/   <--- is a good read regarding this subject.

[iacas]

If you have the pin on the right side of the green, especially front right and you miss short right you have short sided yourself.  Make the chip a lot more difficult.

That's a common misconception (most of the time). I think I'll write up a Swing Thoughts post on that.

And to be clear (since it may be hours or days before I can get the post up), I'm not saying missing the green isn't bad. The "fat side" includes the green, and hitting the green is almost always better. I'm just saying that if you have a short game shot, like most of the rest of the game, closer to the hole is better. I'd rather have a 20-foot pitch shot than a 100-foot pitch shot.

[ncarlsongolf]

That's a common misconception (most of the time). I think I'll write up a Swing Thoughts post on that.

And to be clear (since it may be hours or days before I can get the post up), I'm not saying missing the green isn't bad. The "fat side" includes the green, and hitting the green is almost always better. I'm just saying that if you have a short game shot, like most of the rest of the game, closer to the hole is better. I'd rather have a 20-foot pitch shot than a 100-foot pitch shot.

But, I would rather have a 25 yard chip/pitch than a dicey 5 yard chip with only 4 paces of green to work with!  I do see both sides of the argument however short sided for a mid handicap is not the place to be.

[Lihu]

But, I would rather have a 25 yard chip/pitch than a dicey 5 yard chip with only 4 paces of green to work with!  I do see both sides of the argument however short sided for a mid handicap is not the place to be.

 

I'm a mid handicap (11) and had this exact situation this morning. I aimed for the approach bank in hopes of getting the shot to stop on the small patch of rough, but it ended up hitting the green with enough spin to hold pin high with a 6 foot putt and only 3 yards to the other side of the green. Next time around I will plan for my miss the way it happened, this time it was pure luck.

On topic, wild courses couldn't get me on anything longer than 7000 yards.

[Tat14]

How do I adjust to longer courses? Avoidance.

I like to play it forward because Driver / short iron is a fun way to play. Not the only way to play, but...

IMHO, you have to be able to get off the tee well before anything over 6200 will be fun. If this chosen course you mentioned in the OP is that long, I imagine the selected players probably drive the ball well enough.

[iacas]

But, I would rather have a 25 yard chip/pitch than a dicey 5 yard chip with only 4 paces of green to work with!  I do see both sides of the argument however short sided for a mid handicap is not the place to be.

I'll write it up later, but basically… in most situations, you're far better off with the 5-yard chip.

[ncarlsongolf]

I'll write it up later, but basically… in most situations, you're far better off with the 5-yard chip.

Can you let me know when you do write it up I would really enjoy reading it.  I know I have always been from the school of never short side yourself, even watching tour coverage and having those guys bail out to the "fat" of the green and not ever missing on the short side.  I have always had that in my head.  I am open to new ideas just fail to (as of yet) see how it would be easier for most amateurs to get up and down from a short sided position vs. having green to work with.