disaster

I'm aligning my putts with a line I have on my ball. So I actually have to mark it to align the ball correctly

I am watching right now, and there was quite a strange ruling IMO. Has anyone seen it? Thongchai Jaidee and Rafa Cabrera-Bello both hit into a greenside bunker and did so in such a way, that their balls touched each other. So what did they do? Rafa, whose ball was closer to the hole, marked his ball with a tee and then moved it two clubhead-lengths to the side, so that Jaidee was able to hit his shot without blasting the marker out. So far, nothing special. But then, after Jaidee's shot, Cabrera-Bello raked the part of the bunker, where the balls lied, himself, before putting the ball back into the bunker. All of course while a referee was watching them. So the marking and all is imho pretty basic, but he did rake the bunker himself before playing. Why didn't the let Jaidee (or his caddy) do the raking? The way they proceeded, Rafa was obviously testing the bunker. Best part of this whole coincidence: While the two were discussing the ruling with the referee, Henrik Stenson simply holed a 20+ yard putt :D

Maybe some history on Vice :) It's a German golf start-up, I think they started around 5 ago, but first they had a different name (Flake). Their business idea is to produce high quality golf balls (which can compete with the big names), but they are not sold in golf stores or pro shops, their only distribution is their website. This allows them to cut the cost for the intermediate dealer and thus the top vice balls are (at least here in Germany) at half the price of a ProV1(x). They do make a little bit of advertisement here and they also sponsor the German golf league. As for myself, I have to admit that I have never really tried them. I'm not a big fan of trying out everything once I found something I like (and I do like the ProV1x and the TPx).

BOOOM

I'll always rather wait a little bit longer, especially in tournaments. Not only to avoid hitting people, but I think that it is a big distraction if you hear the ball plop 30 yards behind yourself. Imagine you are concentrating, just starting your backswing and suddenly *plong*.

To be honest, my advice would be - especially since it's your first big tourney - to play a lot more conservatively. My number one advice is to keep the ball in play and to avoid attacking pins unless you only have a short iron/wedge. We had a big tourney a few weeks back at my home course which - when it is wet, which it was - plays rather long for me. Still, I hot mostly 3 wood of the tee. As a result I had to hit a couple of 5 or 4 iron or even hybrid into the green. But if you play these shots smartly and avoid attacking pins, you will either have an easy chip or a 2-putt for par. I shot par that day (even though my putter was really cold) which was the second best round, simply by avoiding danger. Another thing: Personally, if I play in important tourneys, I am always a little bit stiff, especially at the beginning of the round. My grip gets to tight and my backswing might become too fast. The grip sometimes leads to pure chipping and the backswing can lead to all kinds of problems. But I've learned to deal with it and now it's not a big thing for me anymore. Of course, just because it happens to me, doesn't mean it'll happen to you. Therefore, my advice is rather simple: Just be prepared that it MIGHT happen. Don't expect that you will be able to show your best golf in your first big tourney.

From the European Tour live blog: Commentator: "He has 125 to the front. Pin is on 33. So 168 yards, into the wind, playing about 190" #LinksGolf But to be fair, only 2 clubs more seems still reasonable. If you are unlucky, you easily have to take 3 or more clubs more. ;)

I really liked Merion a few years back... too bad it'll probably never host a US Open again :(

I am watching right now. The rough seems to be quite brutal (not quite US open like I guess, but a lot harder than on a lot of other Tour courses). One of the players said that you can only hit 8 iron at most out of the second cut. There have already been some double bogeys. Not surprisingly, if one can find the fairways, scoring is quite good. Soft and moderately sloped greens. Just in this moment, one player just lost a ball in the high rough and had to go back to the tee

That's not a good reason. Neither is the fact that "a team" is 5 (heck, where exactly is 5 a golf team?) - that's just the current rules, and the discussion is all about changing them. I would prefer a system like we have it here in Germany in your league system: You have x players (we have 8, but of course 5 is fine also), but you also have 1 or 2 alternates. You can always substitute one of the 8 players by one of the alternates before their first tee shot. The reason does not matter, whether he plays like crap on that day or whether he is injured. This avoids having a situation like in the NCAA finals where the had to give away one point, but it also avoids the problem of faking in an injury if somebody plays poorly, because every other team has the right to change on player also.

That's a though, but interesting, question. I think my long game would probably be a A- or B. I can hit it quite solid and close to the pin from 150 yards in, but my main weakness in my long game is my lack of distance. I am often 10-20 yards short off the tee, and that can make quite a difference. Short game overall is hard to tell, because there is a lot of fluctuation. I am really good out of the bunker, I am reasonably good on short chips, I am rather poor on long chips/short pitches. So overall I would give myself a C- Putting has always been my weakness. I would give myself a D

I know that this was a specific example. Yet there are some things to consider, why I chose it: a) This is a "standard" course which you can find here all over the country. Not comparable with the PGA Tour conditions (and that is what we are looking for in this thread). b) It was - I think - in the very first year Kaymer went pro. He was playing to get to the Challenge Tour and the European Tour. So I think that there is a lot more pressure on the line than if you compare it with a just-for-fun round on any course. He surely wasn't one of the best of the world at this time of his career. c) All 3 of these rounds were pretty good. I'm not saying that they'd shoot 59 everytime, but in this case, he shot a 59 followed by a 62. This certainly shows you that you can score extremely well on such a course.

When Martin Kaymer just became a professional, he played a 3rd-tier pro event at a course close by (not my home course though). That course is par 72, CR 74.4 and 7100 yards. The guy won this tournament with rounds of 68, 59 and 62. Given the fact that my acutal home course is even shorter and easier, I think the PGA Tour players would play a sub-60 score not everytime, but certainly every now and then with average scores in the low 60s

I totally agree, I was a little bit surprised as well .. espcially given the fact the the leaders are all afternoon starters. But this page ( http://www.europeantour.com/sportteller-2/interactive-recap-day-one-ireland/ ) states a morning average of 73.4 whereas the afternoon average was 74.5. Maybe the made a mistake there or its a case of selective perception ;)

DJ is at -6/T4 with -0.08 strokes gained putting. He must have had a really great ball striking day

Interestingly, the scoring average in the morning was a full shot better than it was in the afternoon.

Just some info on how the German system works (personally, I do not know whether other countries here in Europe use the same system as well). Just to warn you, it's quite complicated ;) German handicaps can be as high as -54. We also have CR and slope rating, and for each handicap there is a course handicap, which depends on CR and slope (I think this is the same in the US). Unlike in the US, you cannot just enter your round for your handicap. You can either play in tournaments (there are lots of them in every club, and it's not like the regular tournaments are 'big' in the sense that they are some kind of championships) or you can play a so called 'Extra Day Score' (not possible for HI class 1 - see below). In this case you (and at least one other person) can play 18 holes and the result will count for your handicap. Note that these EDS rounds have to be registered in advance. In order to calculate how your HI changes, Stableford scoring system based on your course handicap is applied. A net par gives 2 points, net birdie gives 3 points, net bogey 1 and so forth (standard Stabelford). If you shoot exactly 36 points, nothing happens. If you are better, your HI will improve. If you are worse than a certain threshold, your handicap will become worse. This threshold and how your handicap changes depends on your current HI. There are 6 classes: Class 1 - up to 4.4: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 0.1. If you shoot worse than 35, you will get 0.1 added to your HI Class 2 - 4.5 to 11.4: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 0.2. If you shoot worse than 34, you will get 0.1 added to your HI Class 3 - 11.5 to 18.4: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 0.3. If you shoot worse than 33, you will get 0.1 added to your HI Class 4 - 18.5 to 26.4: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 0.4. If you shoot worse than 32, you will get 0.1 added to your HI Class 5 - 26.5 to 36: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 0.5. You cannot become worse Class 6 - 36 to 54: For every point better than 36 points, your HI will improve by 1. You cannot become worse Note that your HI will always become worse by only 0.1 points. Does not matter if you shoot 30 or 3 stableford points. It is NOT 0.1 points per point worse. We actually also have 9 hole tournaments which can affect your HI (this does not hold for HI class 1). In this case, a player automatically gets 18 points for the 9 holes he didn't play. Also, the thresholds for degradation are 1 shot higher. Note that the Stableford scoring system for HI changes is also applied in stroke play tournaments. So technically, a scratch player could shoot a 90 and still improve his handicap (if he shoots a 25 at one hole and only birdies and pars on the rest)

To be fair, the drive was only about 310 yards - so quite easy to achieve ;) I just checked it on google maps :D Nevertheless, a great second shot. Love how he didn't even see or realize that he just holed out ;)

He was looking up to his ball with a rules official who had binoculars I think.

You have to find out what your weaknesses are and then you have to get rid of them (analyse your rounds). I have been at ~3 for a very long time. I felt my game got better and better, but my scores didn't. The reason was that my ball striking was extremely good, yet I was unable to sink any putts. I remember one round, where I hit 17 greens and shot +4 (4 3-putts, no birdies). So basically, my putting was holding me back. I started to work on it more, and - more importantly - I started to work on it with a plan. Now that's important. Don't just hit balls (or putts) during practice, but you have to know how to practice correctly. Having changed my practice routines, I got from 3 to 1 in one year and then down my current +0.2, which is my personal best so far And you have to keep in mind, getting better at golf is an exponential task. It's a lot easier to get to 3 or 4 than to get from 4 to scratch. From there getting to +2 is even harder.

Why not play a par 6 ;) ? http://www.penatigolfresort.sk/en/golf/legend-course/jamka-15b/ (note that its length is given in metres) Note, the hole was actually played on the Challange Tour (2nd tier European Tour) Personally, I haven't played any real "monster" holes yet. The longest one I can remember is a 610 yards par 5 which has quite the upslope, so it plays probably more like 650 yards

Do you know how large these scoring zones are really in diameter and how wide that 215yd 10point-scoring zone is? I'd probably only go for 150 and above because you get much more points if your shot is a bit off than you would do for the shorter targets, and generally my misses aren't so far off - as long as I don't take a driver -.-

Well, here in Germany it is actually quite common for the top tennis players to compete in the German league for their teams (if they have no professional events at these dates). These club teams consists of mostly amateurs. On the other hand, I know that some of the top amateur golfers actually get paid by their clubs. Not directly, but they have some "jobs" in the club or a sponsoring company.

I think you might mix something up here. It's not like you can hit as many provisionals as you like for free and than if you hit a good one, you take that. This rule just allows you to play that ONE provisional ball so often until you reached the point where your original ball should be. This is just to avoid having to walk back: Assume you hit a drive 250 yds into some bushes and then duff your provisional ball only 50 yards. If you weren't allowed to take multiple shots with the provisional that would mean that you would need to walk the 250yds to look for your original one, then you don't find it, then you have to walk 200yds back to play the provisional one. It's just a pace of play thing really

This is not really a question on rules per se, but a historical and background question: Golf is the only sport that I know of, where there is such a strict separation between professionals and amateurs (there might be others, but I don't know any right now). We all know the consequences of that: Amateurs, even if they qualify for a professional event, are not allowed to win their share of the prize fund. On the other hand, professionals give up their rights as an amateur which are .... uhm .. well, they don't have a handicap anymore and might not compete in your club's fun tourneys anymore ... For me, I only see disadvantages of that system: No professional is willing to compete in small amateur tournaments, where is not going to win anything anyway. And the number of amateurs which have the skill to compete and qualify for a tour event is very small anyway. So the question is: Why do we have this separation? I am sure there is some historical reason behind it. But even more importantly: Should be abolish it? And since this is a forum, feel free to post your opinion on this topic :) The reason for this thread is that I was chatting with some non-golfing friends yesterday and they were quite baffled that I for example could participate in a 3rd tier tour event here (if I pay the fee), but have no chance of winning anything.