rulie
Head Pro
It's only about 5 yards off the right edge of the fairway, on a shot where you are probably using a 3-wood!
You mean like the 15th and 16th holes at the Old Course? Not particularly close or strange.
It's only about 5 yards off the right edge of the fairway, on a shot where you are probably using a 3-wood!
As I have already stated, it is a mostly dark brown stake with about the top 6" painted white. Quite difficult to see from 200 yards, especially against a background of trees and bushes, plus our brown painted driving range building. I was aiming towards the right side of the fairway because there is loads of trouble on the left, including deep rough and loads of bunkers, and just pushed my shot a bit. Even then it needed a very unfortunate bounce off the fairway to go into this new OOB!It was a poor shot, nothing to do with the stake placement.
You don't look to hit your ball at White stakes, you aim for the fairway!
So Del, you're about to play a shot on a par 5 where, if the oob stakes were in their normal position, it would have meant a mis hit going oob at 215 yards but with the stake being moved in 15 yards the same mis hit going oob at 200 yards and because of trouble on the left you aim in the general direction of the oob.
I would question the thinking behind playing this particular shot in the 1st place. You're hitting a shot with less than 10% margin of error for the distance, with a long club, and its only ever a lay up come what may, given its a par 5. Surely there is a much more sensible strategy where the oob is not an issue?
Also, why not start a campaign to get your club to paint all oob stakes all white?
Photo of the offending OOB stake on this link:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...20658480.76471.100000941436721&type=1&theater
Have a look at the Seniors Stableford Championship at Batchworth Park on HDID. You will see I came 2nd by one point with a better back 9. This incident cost me a 7 with a stroke and distance penalty, whereas I probably could have scored 6 with just a penalty drop.
I've checked the scores on HDID and the winner had a par down the offending hole.
Due to the narrowing of the fairway, I reckon he played a very conservative 5 iron second shot to set himself up for an easy 9 iron into the green, two putts (to a very small hole) and 3 points.
A very valuable lesson in course management, even if he does play off of 23
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The 23 handicapper actually ripped a driver str8 at the OOB marker and stopped 10 feet short of it, ripped a 3 wood to 8 feet and then 3 putted for a Par. The birdie putt lipped out. They should make the holes bigger.
I've checked the scores on HDID and the winner had a par down the offending hole.
Due to the narrowing of the fairway, I reckon he played a very conservative 5 iron second shot to set himself up for an easy 9 iron into the green, two putts (to a very small hole) and 3 points.
A very valuable lesson in course management, even if he does play off of 23
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It would be great if you would answer my post 104
But it seemed a reasonable risk in a Stableford.
I was playing particularly well that day. I hit a great drive at this short par-5 hole, which left me just in range of the green with a 3 wood, so I went for it. As I have explained repeatedly, most of the real bad trouble (bunkers and deep rough) is on the left, so it is normal to aim towards the right edge of the green. I did this, but didn't quite get hold of the shot and pushed it slightly right, the wind pushed it further right and then it took a horrible bounce off the fairway into the bush with the relocated OOB stake on the fairway side. I could have laid up, and probably would have done so in a medal, but it seemed a reasonable risk in a Stableford.
It would be great if you would answer my post 104
If the temporary work has finished, could you not ask someone to put the stake back?
The rest of that post (containing the reason for the question) was simply wrong, so ignoring the question was semi-reasonable! Your '10% margin for error' should probably be something like '70% or more' - because it's not forward distance margin for error, it's to the right! Though the photo doesn't clarify that much - it's a pretty straight hole really with that bush 5-10 yds to the right of the fairway. The bush is a bit of a consideration, but OOB wouldn't (normally) be!
If the line between the 2 visible posts is a North-South one (it's not but...) then the Fairway is 5-10 yards somewhere between South-East and South-South-East of that line. And the next OOB post is about the same distance away as the furthest one visible, but in an 'East-South-East' direction to that line!
Whole-heartedly agree with this! In fact, it should have been done immediately the County Ladies tournament - where the change was daft in the first place imo!