skinsscalper

Quote: Originally Posted by Fraser +1 I was horrified to play with someone about six weeks who politely scolded me for repairing my own pitchmarks on the basis 'that's what the greenkeepers are for' I continued to repair my own! Your "someone" is an idiot. I applaud you for doing the right thing. Not only is it important to repair your ballmarks, but the faster the better. A ball mark that is repaired immediately will begin the recuperation process almost immediately. A ball mark left for a day or more will take aver two weeks to completely repair. An unrepaired ball mark will stick around for well over a month. Your golf partner is becoming all too common. There are two types of people on a golf course. Golfers and ass-wipes with clubs. A golfer repairs his ball marks, fills his divots, and rakes his damage in bunkers as a courtesy to the fellow golfers who play behind him. It's called golf etiquette. An ass-wipe with clubs doesn't even understand the concept.

Not trying to be a smart ass here, so bear with me, but I didn't even know they MADE a 15 degree driver. Isn't that really a 3 wood?

Had one of my best shots yesterday. About 165 out from a bunker (sitting up nicely). Stuck it to about a foot and a half from the pin with a 7 iron. Wore a smile for the rest of the day. That type of thing on a golf course NEVER happens for me.

This is the course I play and work at (thank goodness, because otherwise I'd never be able to afford to play there) http://www.torreon.com/golf

That's absolutely impossible on some courses. On our course, many of our tee boxes are no more that 7-8 yards deep. Many of them are even smaller than that. A previous poster had it correct. The yardage marked on the tee or score card is from the yardage marker on the tee (if your course actually has that marker) to the middle of the green. It has never been intended to use as a "distance to the pin". Same with yardage markers in the fairway or on sprinkler heads. Our sprinkler heads actually have a front, middle and rear yardage posted on them (in red, white, and yellow respectively).

One I use all the time when I hit a horrible shot is: The only thing that kept that sucker out of the hole was distance and direction. Otherwise, I think I nailed it!

The above quote is correct. The practice spelled out by the OP is completely unacceptable if the Superintendent has a modicum of professionalism. First of all, it's unfair. Second of all, it completely slows down the pace of play. If the track you play at is a daily fee course, that type of practice will cost the club $100.00's of dollars a day due to the backed up tee times. When walk ons pull up to the club and find out there's an hour wait to even get on, many will just get back in their cars and look elsewhere. The standard that we use at our course is a minimum of a flagstick away from the edge. I'm not even really comfortable with that and instruct our crew to use that particular standard only when it's absolutely necessary (damage to the green, etc.). The above quote is true. Sometimes even that standard isn't enough. Often times our greens stimp out at 12+. That is VERY, VERY fast. Often you'll actually find a hole location that IS flat for a good 5-8 feet around it. Unfortunately, the surrounding terrain makes it near impossible to stop the ball within three feet of the cup (our standard). Our set up crew is trained to roll a ball to the cup (or in some instances simply drop a ball at the top of a slope close to the hole). If they can't get a ball to stop within three feet of the hole, then a new pin placement needs to be selected. This, also, is completely unacceptable. Any Assistant worth his salt knows damn well that poor pin placement is bad business for the ENTIRE operation. If a Super (or his assistant) sends out a guy that continually sets poor placements, then he's a fool, and the course setter, himself, is NO greenskeeper. It's becoming all too common that people are sent out to do jobs that they don't understand on the golf course and they certainly don't understand the impact that it has on their clientele. It's a result of poor training and a failure that lands squarely on the head of the Superintendant and his assistant. That is THEIR JOB. When I finally land my own Superintendent's gig, I won't even consider a guy that doesn't actually play golf to go out and set up my course. No way. No how. One thing that's been lost in the mad golf rush of the last 10-15 years is that cutting cups was a duty that was ONLY performed by the Superintendent. It was that important and that revered. It was that way for years. It's an important assignment that affects many aspects of the course itself. From pace of play to customer satisfaction. Nobody has fond memories of the day that they shot 112 and putted 48 times. It reflects poorly on your club. Our crew is instructed to set the easiest pins possible on a daily basis. Tournament setups are for just that. TOURNAMENTS. And even at that rate, there HAS to be a good level of fairness. You want to tuck a pin behind a bunker? Fine, just don't tuck it behind a bunker on a 25degree angled slope. You have to give the palyers a REASONABLE chance to score. Sorry about the rant, it's just one of those things that irks the sh!t out of me. Oh, hi, BTW. My name is Randy. I'm an Assistant Superintendent at a Golf Club in AZ. First time poster (I have a tendency to jump right in *shrugs*).