15 inch golf hole.... Telegraph hits it OOB

[MadAdey]

How many people have encountered these god forsaken bigger holes. I have on temporary greens a few times, all you have to do is smash your chips into the back of the hole and they go in, with a real hole they would not drop and go 8 foot past leaving with a 2 putt for bogey rather than the birdie I got from chipping in. Bigger holes just removes the skill of the short game and emphasizes the long game. Which we all know that being able to hit the ball does not make you a good golfer.

Beginners should be playing on shorter courses, that would make it easier for them to get to the green, but they would still need to develop the skills that the short game requires.

The Americans have got it right IMO. Their courses have multiple tees that are all rated (standard scratch). Unlike us that have Ladies, Mens and Competition tees, they have LAdies tees, mens short course/ladies comp tees, mens tees and mens comp tees. I have put a table below of the course that I play at when I am over there. You can see the difference between the short course and standard mens is 600 yards and 3 shots on the rating. IT is not just shorter, the tees are also put in easier positions removing some of the doglegs and taking some of the carries to the fairway out. There did not seem to be any stigma attached to playing the shorter course and plenty of people did.

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[Slab]

5 rated/measured tee boxes pretty much the norm here too and completely changes the course

as an example, one course (happen to have a card handy) has the following

Pro tee course length = 6,452m
Championship = 5,944m
Tournament = 5,242m
Ladies Champ = 5,242m
Red tee = 4,536

I think there should definitely be more of this type of choice/variety on courses with current hole size

 

[MadAdey]

5 rated/measured tee boxes pretty much the norm here too and completely changes the course

as an example, one course (happen to have a card handy) has the following

Pro tee course length = 6,452m
Championship = 5,944m
Tournament = 5,242m
Ladies Champ = 5,242m
Red tee = 4,536

I think there should definitely be more of this type of choice/variety on courses with current hole size

How many places are like this though? Most members clubs have 3 tees, Ladies, mens and competition. Clubs should be encouraged to install a set of tees to create a short course for beginners. Not tell people to play from the ladies tees, as who is going to be seen playing from the ladies tees. But if the men had 3 sets of tees, one of them being a short course aimed at beginners that was considerably shorter than the normal course, they would get a lot of benefit from that.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

If they want to open courses like that in the US let them. It may spread to a few places over here in time but I really don't think it will ever take off. However if it gets new players into the sport then great but sooner or later if you want to play golf you'll have to earn to get it in the small hole. Even if you just want to play at societies or business days, they will all be on proper courses so if you haven't learned to putt you'll never enjoy it

 

[vkurup]

I have always said the same things.
1) If course have places (e.g. my club has 3 courses, 18 hole beginner, 9 intermediate, 18 Main) then they should look to introduce two holes per hole (like the US course I described in the first post) - a regular 4.5 hole and a slightly bigger kid/beginner hole (though 15 inch is taking the mic, lets go for 8inch or so). If they did that on my course, I can see Jr playing on that and then very quickly challenging each other for going to the smaller hole. ... by this point they would be hooked.

2) On course which have only one course, why not add a forward tee for beginners such that the regular course is converted into a P3 course. They can have a 5 tee course including the 'forward' tee. As people improve they can progressively move back down the line. The course does not have to spend a lot of money to do this... just start thinking out of the (tee) box.

 

[MadAdey]

I have always said the same things.
1) If course have places (e.g. my club has 3 courses, 18 hole beginner, 9 intermediate, 18 Main) then they should look to introduce two holes per hole (like the US course I described in the first post) - a regular 4.5 hole and a slightly bigger kid/beginner hole (though 15 inch is taking the mic, lets go for 8inch or so). If they did that on my course, I can see Jr playing on that and then very quickly challenging each other for going to the smaller hole. ... by this point they would be hooked.

2) On course which have only one course, why not add a forward tee for beginners such that the regular course is converted into a P3 course. They can have a 5 tee course including the 'forward' tee. As people improve they can progressively move back down the line. The course does not have to spend a lot of money to do this... just start thinking out of the (tee) box.

Not too sure about turning a full sized course into a par 3 one though. I just think in my head that it will cause a lot of standing around for others as someone plays it as a par 3, but you get the idea that I was saying earlier in the thread when I highlighted a course in america that has a 1000 yard difference between the front and back mens tees.

IMO if courses installed beginner tee boxes and there was some kind of regulation on hole lengths like a normal course but shorter it could work. Say all par 3's 100-150, par 4's 250-350 and par 5's 450-500, I think that would work nicely. Take away the stupid long par 4's and par 3's as I do not know what benefit it is to a beginner trying to hit balls at a 200 yard par 3, it's difficult enough for seasoned golfers.

The other thing is with this short course idea is that a lot of people would probably use it. I know if I popped in on my own after work I would probably have a knock round it. Seniors and juniors would probably use it on a day to day basis with it being a lot shorter, see where I am going with this? Give people a course that they can play and hit all greens in regulation and naturally you have to speed things up. Get the courses all rated correctly. The one I highlighted earlier has 5 shot difference in rating between the long and short course. So now you could actually have someone say off 28 use the short course and play someone off scratch that is using the long course. The person off 28 would need to shoot 23 over to shoot nett par and the scratch player 1 over.

I think there is a lot more avenues to explore before going to bigger holes.