17 at Sawgrass - What Would You Do?

[CarlSpackler]

I'm heading to the drop zone. 

[InTheTrees]

I'd reload on the tee. I trust my full swing more than my possibly twitchy half swing and that first shot I dunked gave me some practice.

[WUTiger]

3 hours ago, David in FL said:

Atlantic...  

OK, but I don't like hitting partial wedges over the Atlantic either! 

[onthehunt526]

I would re-tee. I can't hit a wedge to save my life (I can just either fat or thin) If I hit 8 or 9i in the water. I'm hitting it again. If I put that in the water, i'll hit it again.  Then after three times in the water, I'm walking to the 18th tee.

[p1n9183]

I heard from the commentators that the grass grouth was against the shot on the drop zone, so that makes the 65 yards shot even harder to judge the correct distance.

I will choose the shorter shot everytime but what i wrote above make me doubt.  

[NCGolfer]

Drop zone.  Would prefer to not try and hit the same exact shot I just dunked...and prefer the shorter wedge shot.  Not as afraid of those shots.

[Golfingdad]

3 hours ago, p1n9183 said:

I heard from the commentators that the grass grouth was against the shot on the drop zone, so that makes the 65 yards shot even harder to judge the correct distance.

I will choose the shorter shot everytime but what i wrote above make me doubt.  

I've heard the announcers say nonsense like this before and my only question is ... what does that even mean??  Fairway grass is cut really tight, the ball is contacted by the club BEFORE the club hits the ground, and the path of the ball immediately upon impact is UP ... so what the heck does the grass have to do with anything?

I'm pretty sure that this is just TV commentators doing what they do best ... talking out of their butts. ;)

[Hategolf]

I don't see the reward by re-loading from the tee..a shorter shot should be more forgiving than trying to hit an island from 145..

I'd drop.

[Shorty]

On 14/05/2017 at 1:26 PM, billchao said:

I'm not worried about stopping the ball at either distance but the shorter shot is significantly easier. 

It is possible that you have never played a course with fast greens.

[jamo]

I'll take the shorter shot, but I can see why the decision would give some people pause. Neither of the options are particularly attractive.

[billchao]

12 hours ago, Shorty said:

It is possible that you have never played a course with fast greens.

And you'd be wrong.

But we're not talking about what I'd do after I hit my first putt into the water. 

[Pretzel]

12 hours ago, Shorty said:

It is possible that you have never played a course with fast greens.

Even playing a course with fast and firm greens it is possible to stop the golf ball on that lower shelf. If you slightly open the face of your wedge and make crisp contact you can get a shot with high spin and a fairly steep trajectory that stops within 5-10 feet even on a firm and fast green. 

[MuniGrit]

25 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

Even playing a course with fast and firm greens it is possible to stop the golf ball on that lower shelf. If you slightly open the face of your wedge and make crisp contact you can get a shot with high spin and a fairly steep trajectory that stops within 5-10 feet even on a firm and fast green. 

The pros were having trouble from the drop zone on that front left pin location from the drop zone.

[Pretzel]

35 minutes ago, MuniGrit said:

The pros were having trouble from the drop zone on that front left pin location from the drop zone.

You could get the ball closer from the tee, yes, but the average distance from the hole is going to be a lot more than it is from the drop zone. You have the spin off the tee to get the ball to end up a couple feet from the hole, but the odds of that happening are very low and the average approach distance would still likely be further from the hole than it is from the drop zone. 

I'd be willing to bet if you took the entire field and had them hit five shots from the tee and five from the drop zone, the average proximity to the hole from the drop zone would be less than the average proximity to the hole from the tee (especially since more people are going to dunk it in the water off the tee than from the drop zone).

[MuniGrit]

54 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

You could get the ball closer from the tee, yes, but the average distance from the hole is going to be a lot more than it is from the drop zone. You have the spin off the tee to get the ball to end up a couple feet from the hole, but the odds of that happening are very low and the average approach distance would still likely be further from the hole than it is from the drop zone. 

I'd be willing to bet if you took the entire field and had them hit five shots from the tee and five from the drop zone, the average proximity to the hole from the drop zone would be less than the average proximity to the hole from the tee (especially since more people are going to dunk it in the water off the tee than from the drop zone).

Like I said in my initial post I would use the pin placement to determine whether or not to go to drop zone. Front left rd 3 you could definitely get closer from the tee as it was too close and downwind when they were playing to knock it close. 

[Pretzel]

1 hour ago, MuniGrit said:

Like I said in my initial post I would use the pin placement to determine whether or not to go to drop zone. Front left rd 3 you could definitely get closer from the tee as it was too close and downwind when they were playing to knock it close. 

My argument is not that you can get it closer from the drop zone, but that it's the smarter play to make because the average shot will be better. The exceptional shot from the tee will likely be closer than the exceptional shot from the drop zone, I readily admit that much. It's not the back nine on Sunday though, so it wasn't time in the tournament yet to take a risky gamble that could potentially give you a marginally better result when the other play is both safer (you're less likely to dunk it again) and will give you a better result (closer to the hole on average).

Edited May 16, 2017 by Pretzel

[Largobuc]

Playing there next year. My buddy is getting married there, we have discussed this very topic and have agreed to re-tee as we will never play there again. Plus with our scores it really doesn't matter an 8 there will match a couple others on the card.

[iacas]

On 5/16/2017 at 6:38 PM, Pretzel said:

My argument is not that you can get it closer from the drop zone, but that it's the smarter play to make because the average shot will be better. The exceptional shot from the tee will likely be closer than the exceptional shot from the drop zone, I readily admit that much. It's not the back nine on Sunday though, so it wasn't time in the tournament yet to take a risky gamble that could potentially give you a marginally better result when the other play is both safer (you're less likely to dunk it again) and will give you a better result (closer to the hole on average).

This is why I voted drop zone, absolutely.

(Assuming I'm playing for the best score, not to say something like "I holed out from the tee on 17 at Sawgrass!" or something.)