The (No) Sixes Challenge

[mdl]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

That's bogus and you know it.

The game of golf is about positioning your ball so that you can have a better chance on your next shot. No, you shouldn't ever really be thinking a HOLE ahead, but thinking a shot or two on that hole ahead is always done.

Why don't you hit your pitching wedge off every tee? Because you're going to be too far from the hole. So you hit your driver, and you hit it to the right side of the fairway because the left side has a big tree that may affect your second shot.

Good golfers are always thinking about their next shot, or they'd either go for everything or play safe with everything. Instead, the challenge is to play about as aggressively as our skill will allow us to.

This seems an uncharitable read.  You could just as well interpret "what I'm going to shoot" as, he feels he does a good job not thinking about scoring, either for the round or for the current hole.  As in, he's not thinking, need to do XYZ from here to keep it at bogey.  He's thinking about what action for his next shot gives him the best chance to hole out from where he is in the fewest strokes.  Which is pretty much exactly what you're advocating...

[GolfLug]

Fail. 

Made three 6s last Friday. 

Blew it on the 1st hole last week and............2nd and 18th. Small excuse.. was a reasonably tough course I played for the very first time (Spring Creek, VA - 76.3/143). 

ALL three result of poor tee shots:

1st Hole - Tough longish opener.

Shot 1: Flared drive short and right in the rough.

Shot 2: Hack out slightly forward barely onto the fairway. 178 left to a raised green with a false front and side. 

Shot 3: 5 iron to nGIR

Shot 4: Pitch up (ball had rolled downhill til almost 25 yards from the false side) to 25ish feet.

Shots 5&6: Ho hum 2 putt. 

2nd Hole - Straightforward mid-length par 5:

Shot 1: ANOTHER flared right drive into the trees!!

Shot 2: Pitch out slightly backward to middle of the fairway.. 334 left to the pin.

Shot 3: 4 iron (there was enough trouble left form me to not want to risk with anything longer. 

Shot 4: 8 iron on to the green - 40 ish feet left. 

Shots 5&6: 2 putts..

 

I really steadied up the driver after this for rest of the round until..

 

18th Hole - Mid length but trouble left and uphill bank right all the way.  

Shot 1: Pulled straight left into the water. Good distance though. Drove great all day after 2nd hole till this.. 

Shot 2: Drop 

Shot 3: 2 hybrid to 128 yards.

Shot 4: PW on to green to 25ish feet.

Shot 5&6: 2 putts.

Beyond these, I did not really even threaten 6.

Shot 84, with 9 bogeys and a bird. All in all, I hung in there and even after the first two holes stayed determine to not make 6. Only one penalty ALL day on a fairly tough course.

I love this challenge and the new thought process. #nosixes  

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by GolfLug

[iacas]

47 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Well for the HI level you suggest for this, wouldnt there exist par5s where the average score could creep up to well over 5.0, instead of <<5.0?

Probably, but I fail to see what you’re getting at.

24 minutes ago, mdl said:

This seems an uncharitable read.

Okay.

I just used it as a jumping off point to talk about this challenge. Yes I took it literally, but so do many other golfers in taking things “one shot at a time.” After all you can’t hit two shots at the same time but you can think ahead. Many golfers do not. It’s important to avoiding sixes.

[mdl]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

I just used it as a jumping off point to talk about this challenge. Yes I took it literally, but so do many other golfers in taking things “one shot at a time.” After all you can’t hit two shots at the same time but you can think ahead. Many golfers do not. It’s important to avoiding sixes.

Fair enough.  Deep breath.

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, mdl said:

Fair enough.  Deep breath.

I also would have typed more in my last response, but I was on my phone. And in my defense, "bogus" isn't exactly "strongly worded" or anything.

Golf is more like chess (or checkers) than people often want to admit. You have to think ahead. Thinking ahead to giving yourself a par putt on a par four, or a birdie putt or easy nGIR on a par five is critical here.

Anyway, did anyone meet the challenge today? Who will be next…?

[cutchemist42]

16 hours ago, iacas said:

Probably, but I fail to see what you’re getting at.

Okay.

I just used it as a jumping off point to talk about this challenge. Yes I took it literally, but so do many other golfers in taking things “one shot at a time.” After all you can’t hit two shots at the same time but you can think ahead. Many golfers do not. It’s important to avoiding sixes.

Im just having trouble understanding the +1/+2 on the par3 as acceptable, but not a +1 on a par5? I guess though, the chances of someone that can do this challenge has a small chance of shooting a +2 on a par3?

 

[saevel25]

32 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Im just having trouble understanding the +1/+2 on the par3 as acceptable, but not a +1 on a par5? I guess though, the chances of someone that can do this challenge has a small chance of shooting a +2 on a par3?

Par 3's are tougher than par 5's. On some holes you have to hit a good shot of the tee to put par or better in play. If you hit a ball into a hazard you basically are taking stroke and distance if a course doesn't have a drop zone. If you hit a bad drive on a par 5, you can hit it back down the fairway (typically), and have a shot at getting it near the green. Par 5's tend to have less hazards around the green versus par 3's.

[Missouri Swede]

12 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Par 3's are tougher than par 5's. On some holes you have to hit a good shot of the tee to put par or better in play. If you hit a ball into a hazard you basically are taking stroke and distance if a course doesn't have a drop zone. If you hit a bad drive on a par 5, you can hit it back down the fairway (typically), and have a shot at getting it near the green. Par 5's tend to have less hazards around the green versus par 3's.

I think the question was regarding this challenge. Even I can score 5 or better on all par 3 holes on my course in a round. But to avoid bogey on all par 5 holes? That’s pretty tough for me.

[saevel25]

1 minute ago, Missouri Swede said:

I think the question was regarding this challenge. Even I can score 5 or better on all par 3 holes on my course in a round. But to avoid bogey on all par 5 holes? That’s pretty tough for me.

Oh ok. Ooops

[Lihu]

6 minutes ago, Missouri Swede said:

I think the question was regarding this challenge. Even I can score 5 or better on all par 3 holes on my course in a round. But to avoid bogey on all par 5 holes? That’s pretty tough for me.

All of it is pretty tough.

[dennyjones]

Three of the par 5s on my home course are relatively easy.  #3 is my nemesis hole.   I played 9 last night before dark and except for my problem hole....   This challenge is hard but achievable.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, cutchemist42 said:

Im just having trouble understanding the +1/+2 on the par3 as acceptable, but not a +1 on a par5? I guess though, the chances of someone that can do this challenge has a small chance of shooting a +2 on a par3?

I'm not sure what's tough to understand?

I didn't say it was acceptable.

Bogey a par three and it's just a 4. That doesn't add up as quickly as a 6.

PGA Tour averages on par fives are always under par. On par threes they're often over par.

Someone wrote in a book once "Par Threes are Hard." Not triple bogey hard, but hard.

And I don't remember the last time I even doubled a par three.

[Missouri Swede]

7 hours ago, Missouri Swede said:

I think the question was regarding this challenge. Even I can score 5 or better on all par 3 holes on my course in a round. But to avoid bogey on all par 5 holes? That’s pretty tough for me.

And of course, no sooner do I post the above, and I go out and shoot par on all par 5 holes today. 

And I shot 5 or better on the par 3 holes. 

And the par 4 holes. Well, I'm not ready for this award yet. 

 

[jsgolfer]

I played in a one day member guest today and was cruising along very well, 2 over through 13 and had the reachable par 5 14 next. Hit my shot a little right hits a hard spot jumps left into trees, I pitch out get it near the green and just miss 10 foot for par, so my no sixes round died. Ended up shooting 36-38-74 15 pars and 3 bogeys. 

[Ty_Webb]

Miserable fail at my attempt today. Started okay, then went off the rails a bit.

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First six was a par five, laid up 50 yards away in two, chunked my pitch from a bare lie, left my 75 foot putt 6 feet short and missed

Second six was a par four, middle of the green with my second shot. Flag was cut on the edge of a cliff and my approach putt from about 50 feet that I thought was uphill turned out not to be. Off the green, failed to get up and down

The first seven was a doozy. Par 4, water left and I pushed my drive a little bit, a foot to the right of the fairway bunker, standing in the bunker with the ball about 3 feet above my feet. Tried standing in between and the ground collapsed, so I had to stand in the bunker. In thick rough too. Moved it about six inches. Slightly better lie, got it out in the fairway. Middle of the green (virtually dead center) and that left me about 50 feet away. Hit that about 4 feet past and left my 4 footer hanging on the top lip.

Second seven was a par five. Good drive. 240 to the flag. Downwind. 3 wood was too much, so I hit 2 iron and fanned it right into the rough short right. Bare muddy lie (absolute horror show). Hit it pretty well, but it landed firmly and bounced over the green. Now I'm down on a run off area with a 6 foot bank in front of me and about 6 feet of green between the edge of the green and the hole. Failed to get it up there, back to my feet. Then got it to the edge of the green and missed that.

By my count I think I made no tactical errors for my two 6s and two 7s. Just poor shots at the wrong moments and a couple of dreadful lies. Back to the drawing board.

[sjduffers]

As a way of showing an example, I just shot an OK (not great by any means) round, for me, of 82.  I had 5 sixes, yes 5!  I bogeyed (stupidly, I might add) all 4 par 5s and managed a double on a par 4, after being out of position from the tee and in a greenside bunker in 3, failing the sand save.

As you can do the quick math, 5 times sixes is already 30, and that's on less then 1/3 of the holes!  Not good. At. All. 

[poser]

No sixes today even round 72.  Couldn't get any putts to fall.  Only birdied one par5 and had one other birdie on a hard par4.  Pretty boring round of golf considering I've been battling some hooks.  It all comes down to me and my tee shot if I get it in play I can play a decent round. 

[iacas]

Congrats @poser.