rvanculin

I am as big a proponent of manual transmissions as anyone, but if you drive a lot in an urban or hilly environment, you may rue it over time. I live in a rural area, so I love manuals.

In all of the different vehicles I've owned (many), I've found that nothing rides like an Audi. I still miss mine and hope to get another one when my kids move out, haha. If I was in the market for a new vehicle for just me and the family wasn't a consideration, it would be an Audi. I enjoy my Hyundai Sonata. It's the 2.0 turbo sport model and I think it has 245 hp. It's peppy, and, when in Sport mode, the turbo spools almost instantaneously. On the lease vs buy argument, the miles end up being limiting for me. I do about 25k miles per year on my car, unfortunately.

This was a tough one. Like many have said, for me it is a spectrum. I live in VA but have family in Ohio and Philly, so I visit both places regularly. If I'm only going to be in the area for a few days, I would lean towards playing a course I know and like. If I'm going to be in the area for more than a few days, I would try a new course, and if I don't like it, I can follow it up with a course that is a favorite of mine.

I like the rule where everyone uses the same ball. I think it would be cool to have a tournament where everyone uses all the same clubs. You show up, and have a finite amount of time with your clubs on the range to figure them out, then play. I don’t care if it’s not fair to everyone, golf ain’t fair. Also, I would like to see them make the driver heads smaller, about the same as fairway woods. No more unlimited forgiveness so you can hit it 315 off the end of the toe.

Come to think of it, I have witnessed a fist fight on the course caused by slow play. It was a few holes ahead in different groups. This was a few holes after the slow play afforded a few guys the opportunity to share some drugs during the wait time, lol. That’s what you get for booking a single in NJ and getting paired up, haha.

So, the book is on the way, thanks to Darkfrog, but what about when you start way behind a group and catch up? Should I just play slower? I played in a 3-some today and we played through another 3 at the tune. Course is wide open in front of us. By 13, we catch another 3, and they take 15 minutes to play a 125-yard par 3 with no really hazard. That kind of stuff ruins my day. You lose all flow and rhythm. What are you supposed to do?

I’m going to read this, then gift it to the head pro at my club, lol. Required reading for all new members.

It is definitely unnerving. And I definitely hit it super-thin because I was worried about taking a chunk out of the putting green, haha.

The longest I've played from the tips is 7,270, at Moraine CC. The cool thing there is that the back tees on the first hole are on the back of the practice green. So, you have to ask everyone to get off the green so you can tee off. The longest hybrid setup I've played was around 7,400 yards, at the Pete Dye River Course at VA Tech. It's 7,685 from the tips, and 7,180 from the one-ups, and we played half of each.

I would agree with most and say my longest iron, which is a 4-iron. I've played some courses where I had to hit hybrid into par 4's, and that makes for a long day. To decided which tees to play, I look at the total yardage compared to the par 3 yardages. I played a 6900 yd course that was miserable because I was hitting 3H into par 4's and 9i into par 3's. I really enjoyed a 7400 yard course where I was hitting 3H into the par 3's and never hit longer than 4i into a par 4. Also, on the latter, the par 5's were usually reachable in 2, which if fine by me.

Historicaerials.com is a great resource to see what a lot of golf courses used to look like. Obviously, you have better luck in more populated areas. I’ve always felt like Piqua Country Club has a good Ross feel to it. He really only did 9 holes, then Jack Kidwell did the other 9, then it had to be moved a little for the I-75 expansion. But, you can see the original layout on that website.

I think this concept makes sense if you think of it like merging on the highway, when you go from 3 lanes to 2, or similar. If everyone could just zipper in at, say, 55 mph, you're still slowing down, but it's much better than when people try to slam into a spot where there isn't room, everyone slams on brakes, and we're at 15 mph.

My issue with playing through on a par 5 is that the group who let you play through will then stand in the fairway with hands on hips for 300 yards so they can go for the green in 2. So the group behind them waits on the tee while they wait for you to finish so they can top their 3W from an unreachable distance.

I always prefer playing through on par 3’s, and never on a par 5 or driveable par 4. I think the following works best: Group A hits tee shots to green. When Group B gets to the tee, let them hit tee shots. Both groups go to green, where Group B finishes and heads to the next tee, while Group A finishes.

I’ve found that the best and most true Golden Age courses are the ones that just never had the money to be re-invented. I played 2 excellent DR courses last week, that I believe are pretty true to the original design. Both are in Philadelphia. The Union League at Torresdale and LuLu Country Club. Both also have greens that no architect would build today. I would love to see more courses like they used to be, but unfortunately, today’s green speeds require greens to be toned down.

I absolutely cannot stand unsolicited advice on the golf course. I used to regularly play a weekly 9-hole scramble at my club. I'm usually the A player, and I try to be encouraging, which usually leads to people being comfortable enough to "help" me with my swing. On the 9th hole, we were trying to drive a par 4 hitting over trees. After saying I struggle hitting the ball high, my D player suggests I could hit it higher if I got a lower lofted driver! Haha, he was dead serious.

@iacas, that was a very long refute when we are 99% agreeing. I'm merely say there are very rare situations where you really should move up a tee. Ballyhack, for me, from the Big Lick tees, was that situation. There was literally a hole where I had a 4-iron that should have been a 9-iron, but I couldn't get my drive to the downslope in the fairway. That's getting into minutia, though. Also, I once played with a father and son who were both bogey golfers, and let their egos talk them into playing the 7,000 yard tees on a course we'd never seen. It was a huge mistake.

I have to say that I 100% agree that slow people will be slow no matter where they are playing. I have gotten a lot of people into playing golf, and they all say "You won't want to play with me, I'm no good." I always respond "I don't care how well you play, I care how quick you play." And I've never heard someone take the blame for being slow, everyone thinks they are quick.

I think it is certainly possible to get a 10-shot difference in moving only 1 set of tees. I would think it is very rare, though, and varies based on each players and his/her strengths and weaknesses. If you are going from hitting mid irons and short irons to hybrids and mid irons, especially on a course with long greenside rough, it can happen. If you will pardon my own anecdotal evidence, there are a few courses that I have played where I can see this happening. Ballyhack, Moraine CC, The Golf Club. Ballyhack, for example, I played from the tips on a pretty windy day and it was my first time seeing the course. Same situation as playing PH #2, really. It is a bucket-list course, and I knew I likely wouldn't be back. The course was playing so long, I wasn't driving the ball in areas where I could get some roll on my tee shots. Anyway, not to derail the thread again, but I could see this kind of thing happening at #2. Never played it personally, but if you're approaching the greens with a long iron or hybrid, I doubt you would hold many, and they are notorious for being very difficult to chip and putt to save those shots. PS- You can say whatever you want, but if you don't think billchao and Erik were being dismissive and condescending, then you're just being disingenuous. I don't really care, either way, though. Everyone has a different experience, and we're all experts on the internet, right?

I’ve always found that telling someone to take their 5-iron carry distance and multiply by 36 and that’s a pretty good indicator of a distance you might enjoy. 175 x 36 = 6,300 yards Literally everyone here is assuming that their own personal experiences are the gospel truth. We should all know that, but no one believes it. But, since this is already a room full of experts, I’ll show myself to the door...

Bought and am reading Lowest Score Wins!

The best way method I have found for determining what tee you should play is to take your 5i carry distance and multiply it by 36. If you hit your 5 iron 165 yards: 165 x 36 = 5,940 yards. Whenever I play a course using this method to pick the tees, I almost always use every club in my bag, rather than hitting wedge or hybrid into every par 3 and 4. Also, there is no mention of 'senior' or 'ladies' tees in the USGA rules or handicapping manual. Just play the tees that allow you to reach the par 4's and 3's in regulation. I also would say if you play a course and the hazards never come into play, you are playing too short or too long.

Not a huge discrepancy, but there is also a halfway house at MP. Also, hole 3, you said they tied, but gave the win to PN. Both great courses, though.

I have played this hole, and I will say that the angles do matter on this particular hole. If you could see the green, it has 3 distinct areas where Andy places the pin positions. The day I played, there was a pin in the 'A' section and the 'C' section of Andy's video. If the flag is in 'C', you ideally need to leave yourself a full wedge or be past the lion's mouth bunker if going for the green. If it's in 'A', you want to be short left. If the hole is in 'B', you might just want to leave a full wedge. You never want to be right of this green. There is a podcast or video, can't remember which, where Andy was talking about playing with ZB and Andy was on the "correct" side of the fairway, and Zac on the "incorrect" as the angles go. Andy said even though Zac was in the fairway, he could not hold the green. He said he dropped ball after ball and couldn't get one to stay on the green. Also, I haven't finished Erik's book yet, but to the gui who said a Tour pro and Mid Am qualifier don't understand course strategy, I hope I can get to your level of enlightenment.

Tot Hill Farm, like TR, is a course that isn't difficult if you hit the center of the fairway and the correct tier of every green. That being said, THF has more elevation change and the greens, while subdued compared to TR, have various and angles you may need to hit in order to have a reasonably makeable putt. There are angles and lines that give you an advantage, but, as mentioned, you never need to take on risk to shoot a ho-hum 72. All that being said, I hit one of the best shots of my life there that would never be advised by anyone who wrote a book about scoring. 😉 Probably about a 2% chance of success.