JustOne
Ryder Cup Winner
Hey no worries, I'm in a good mood, I just wrote an almighty reply and it didn't post properly so now I have to write it again... fortunately it'll probably be more mellow than the first one....
Firstly. All the courses we have played recently have been courses I've never seen in my life and on occasions the games have been relatively important.
I don't know how far it is to the trees on the right or the ditch on the left. If you hit your driver and get close then I know it's a soft 5 wood for me. I could walk onto the tee on every hole with a driver like you do because you can't reach the trouble... and then go put it away again. 380yd holes doesn't mean driver for all of us.
When you tee off you are playing to what you can see, all you need to worry about is the 50yds of rough in front of the tee box. I need to know what IS over that slope that is 250yds away or those trees on the right are they 250 or 280 yds away. My swing thoughts aren't "I hope I get this past the ladies tee".
If I am going for a par5 in 2 shots (not something you'd need to worry about) then I need to know where the best place is to be on the fairway, can I carry that bunker, is that lake on the left reachable... not whether I might make it there in 3 if I knobble a couple of hybrids 140yds each.
Secondly. After hitting my shot I'm happy to head off at a million miles per hour towards my ball, size up my next shot and wait to hit it... but I have to walk at the pace of your power trolley and hang back for you to hit your next shot, isn't it rude to walk in front of the slower guy?
Sometimes I have to head over to the rough to help you find your ball as I'm the one who saw where it went and will probably be the person who finds it. After you find it and knobble it 100yds I still have to get to my ball and size up what is in front of me on the course I don't know.
I'm happy not to look for your ball and head straight over to mine, I can then think about my next shot for 5 whole minutes whilst you look for your ball and read the course planner for the holes ahead if you prefer... we don't need to chat either.
When I play courses that I have played before I generally know which club i'm going to hit and what is where.... when we played the Addington on the first round I walked up the slope on the Par5 second hole to see where the green was, on the second round I didn't need to and promptly hit a 3-wood to 10 feet setting up an eagle.
If we only played the one round then I guess I would be classed as a time waster as I only made birdie the first time (and only a flippin' birdie the second time - stupid soggy greens!). You didn't need to go look over the slope as your hybrid doesn't go that far and you were more likely to have picked up than reached the green in two.
At Copthorne on the 14th if you go more than 6 feet off the back you are going to bogey the hole or lose your ball in the prickles.. I don't have that many shots to play with so I need to know what the best shot to hit is, and the best place to try and leave the ball - even if the shot doesn't come off. At Copthorne I have no problem zipping round in a couple of hours, I know the course well. The par5 8th is driver, 9-iron if you land just left of the tree to the right and get the run, the par5 13th is driver, 6-iron if you can get to the big oak tree on the left... I don't know what it is for 3 hybrids.
Thirdly.... actually I'm not going to write a thirdly, there's not a lot of need. All I can say is that when we play Hever on Sunday in our practice round for the Open I'm happy to let you guys tee off first and I'll follow along behind. I have never played that course either and actually want to play to WIN the event in May. Making a putt for double bogey and a point isn't really my cuppa tea, I'd rather look at the course planner and wonder if that ditch 320yds away is in range if my ball makes it to the downslope.
... As it happened ours was the only match that went down the last hole to the very last putt (his putt actually!).
