Firm courses

[Bobthesock]

Not a complaint about how dry the courses are at the minute but does anyone else find it so much more difficult?
You would think the extra 50 yards off the tee would make the game easy but I just can't get the ball close to the hole.
Landed a PW short of the green today and ran 10 yards off the back.
Maybe it's just me but I think golf is so much harder when it's like this

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Nothing compared to 1976.
I recall a second shot on a par 5 where I used a putter from about 120 yards out aiming for and hoping it would finish in a greenside bunker
I also played a mid week medal with a bag containing only irons 2,4,6,8, wedge and sand iron and shot a gross 68.

 

[Bdill93]

Not a complaint about how dry the courses are at the minute but does anyone else find it so much more difficult?
You would think the extra 50 yards off the tee would make the game easy but I just can't get the ball close to the hole.
Landed a PW short of the green today and ran 10 yards off the back.
Maybe it's just me but I think golf is so much harder when it's like this

Our course is very much like this in summer. It’s all about adaptation I suppose but it’s always painful hitting a good shot and it not resulting in a good outcome due to weird bounces etc.

You do also see way more comps won by guys in the 20-30 HC bracket than normal too. Far easier for them to have their days in the sun. Our midweek comps don’t and won’t introduce divisions but we have them on Saturday and they’re keeping things slightly more even.

 

[Jigger]

Not a complaint about how dry the courses are at the minute but does anyone else find it so much more difficult?
You would think the extra 50 yards off the tee would make the game easy but I just can't get the ball close to the hole.
Landed a PW short of the green today and ran 10 yards off the back.
Maybe it's just me but I think golf is so much harder when it's like this

Did exactly the same today!

 

[Bobthesock]

Our course is very much like this in summer. It’s all about adaptation I suppose but it’s always painful hitting a good shot and it not resulting in a good outcome due to weird bounces etc.

You do also see way more comps won by guys in the 20-30 HC bracket than normal too. Far easier for them to have their days in the sun. Our midweek comps don’t and won’t introduce divisions but we have them on Saturday and they’re keeping things slightly more even.

Makes sense really. The higher handicappers are enjoying the extra run and only need to make bogey so they don't need to get it close. Plus fat shots are still getting a lot closer than they normally would

 

[Teebs]

Average drive distance yesterday was 285 which was nice.
Hit driver / 7 iron to a par 5 and a long par 4 (which I hit driver & 5 iron to in the May Medal) was a driver / PW yesterday.

Biggest issue is holding greens if you don't get the exact strike to generate the spin and/or hard bounces when you do land it perfectly.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

As a short hitter I prefer the firm ground. Yes, it brings difficulties in terms of hitting and holding greens, play it like links being the answer, but it increases my chances of reaching par 4's in 2, it means irons into greens rather than hybrids.

This doesn't necessarily mean better scores but it does give the chance of better scores for me. I'll take that.

 

[timd77]

I much prefer it like this, I really struggle with my short game in the soft conditions, club just goes straight into the ground for any mis hits, whereas the firmness adds a bit of forgiveness. However, our club seem to be protecting a lot of the greens and are therefore placing pins at the front of most. Makes it nigh on impossible to get close because you either need spin or you’ve got to land short of the green and hope for a kind bounce.

Definitely not complaining though!

 

[Billysboots]

Our place plays way more difficult in the summer. Yes, the firm fairways mean more run, but they also bring the second cut into play far more as balls are running through the fairway and first cut a lot easier.

You just need to adapt. In winter I hit driver on virtually every par 4 and 5. Now it probably comes out twice a round. It’s 2 iron off the tee to keep it in play. And several approach shots are now deliberately landed short because most of the trouble round the greens is long.

 

[IanM]

.....you find you self getting to places you don't normally get!!

 

[HeftyHacker]

Ours is playing really difficult at the moment.

Combination of firm conditions, a course where you never get a flat lie and the rough being incredibly thick and lush at the moment (and grown out where in previous years it had been cut to first cut length) means that I've had a good few tee shots land on the side of the fairway, get a horrible bounce and disappear, never to be seen again.

On top of that the greens are getting pretty firm now and we have a few that slope front to back so they're becoming increasingly difficult to stop on.

 

[D-S]

As we are all hitting it 30+ yards further then surely we must all be scoring better as this is what the stats say, this must be true as stats don’t lie - please see the ‘Drive for show’ thread for copious (and I mean copious) amounts of arguing this case.

 

[Billysboots]

As we are all hitting it 30+ yards further then surely we must all be scoring better as this is what the stats say, this must be true as stats don’t lie - please see the ‘Drive for show’ thread for copious (and I mean copious) amounts of arguing this case.

Our scores are consistently higher on the summer.

In the off season, when the rough dies back, there is no penalty for missing fairways so everyone just blazes away with driver. The same tactic is only used this time of year by those to whom course management is an alien concept.

To the tournament pro length off the tee is perhaps an advantage. To the mere mortal, especially in the summer, any distance must be allied with a good degree of accuracy.

 

[Imurg]

Getting tougher at my place too.
The extra roll can be useful to shorter hitters but if you have any length it just puts you further off line, behind trees or into the bushes.
Except on some holes though..
Our 3rd is an up and over, down the other side and up to the green kind of hole and it slopes right to left.
To stay on the fairway you have to aim a touch right of a marker post. The ball the runs through light rough, catches the downslope and leaves you a short iron in.
Except, right now, the rough is lush and clingy. The ball doesn't get through, stays at the top,of the hill and you have 200 yards to get to the green.
And the greens are firming up despite the Greenkeepers dousing them with a swimming pool's worth of water.....it just soaks in and disappears.
Head Greeny likens it to pouring water down the sink....

 

[jim8flog]

I think it was summed up in our monthly handicap medal yesterday when I left the club late afternoon I was 4th on countback with a nett one over par, PCC of plus 1
I was 2 shots clear of anyone in in our Saturday group and a quick glace at the computer as I came in showed about 20% of the NRd.

Where I play if you have to land deliberately short you can get all sorts of weird bounces and will very often end up in the bunker.

As others have said a major factor at the moment is the length of the rough no more than a few feet off the fairway on some holes. I made a bad decision I should have taken unplayable on one hole rather than just trying to knock the ball back to the fairway and it cost me a double bogey.

 

[Billysboots]

I think it was summed up in our monthly handicap medal yesterday when I left the club late afternoon I was 4th on countback with a nett one over par, PCC of plus 1
I was 2 shots clear of anyone in in our Saturday group and a quick glace at the computer as I came in showed about 20% of the NRd.

Where I play if you have to land deliberately short you can get all sorts of weird bounces and will very often end up in the bunker.

As others have said a major factor at the moment is the length of the rough no more than a few feet off the fairway on some holes. I made a bad decision I should have taken unplayable on one hole rather than just trying to knock the ball back to the fairway and it cost me a double bogey.

In a bogey comp at ours three weeks ago only two players from a field of nearly 100 beat the course. In years gone by, when the rough was less punishing, we’d see scores as good as 7 or 8 up winning the same competition.

Lots of grumbles about how tough the course is playing, but I love it. It really focuses the mind when you can’t just tee it up and whack the cover off it.

 

[Neilds]

104 people in our medal yesterday and only 7 were under par. No really horrendous scores but plenty in the mid 80s. Going through the green despite landing short seemed to be the topic in the bar afterwards

 

[RichA]

First round for a week today. What a difference.
Hit PW from 150, downhill towards the green. Expected it to land short and roll on. Landed on the green, took off like a kid's bouncy ball and finished in the rough 40 yards past the pin. Similar levels of comedy for at least one of us on most other holes too.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I realised today that I haven't needed to repair a pitch mark for a couple of weeks, neither have any pp. Whilst people might continue to not rake bunkers, at least there is not an issue with people failing to repair pitch marks because there aren't any

 

[Backache]

As a fully paid up member of the very short hitters club it suits me just fine.
Had an eagle today on a par five with a putt on a green I haven't been on in two for a few years now.