Golf Random Irritations

harpo_72

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Was at the practice ground, hit a few balls and had a chat with an older member. Conversation turned to the level of rough. Currently we have 1.5 meters of second cut before going to gorse or knee high grass. The course looks fabulously defined, but any stray balls are gone.. you need to hit a provisional ball and many are not! So a club that prides itself on being a nice timely round is turning into a lot of waiting on tee , frustrated golfers running back and those who don’t care and just hand in NRs.
The point is the course isn’t difficult beyond a 230-240 yard carry, so we have an abundance of low handicap golfers, the fairways widen at these points and there are no bunkers… making it a 150yard or less in. Couple that with small greens and you have guys laying up to avoid traps or rough and they are left with 180+ yards in to a green that is 36 yards deep and 20 yards wide .. so the seniors are stuffed, the mid handicapper is either losing balls or stuck and the low handicap players are having their egos falsely inflated….
Now they have adders in the rough so that’s really positive as well … also ticks ..
I have been working on getting my driver carry up and it’s getting there, but I am an ageing golfer and this fight to maintain distance is a losing battle given the 40hrs a week of work, and family life that take time - and I want to enjoy my golf, I don’t want hear how easy the course is when I know the real situation.. nor do I want a tick or adder bite.
Feel like writing to greens committee and suggesting this, but they are a bit obtuse and you get labelled a troublesome member. There are no other reasonable clubs in the area either ☹️ And I have said to the missus I want to move as I am bored ( guess that’s a result of a decade of travelling for work!)
 

Lord Tyrion

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@harpo_72 , that sounds like a good way to drive away members ☹. I've been at places where they have the old hole like this and it just seems designed to annoy the bulk of golfers. Looks attractive but is impractical. To be across the course like that must be very hard work indeed.
 

harpo_72

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@harpo_72 , that sounds like a good way to drive away members ☹. I've been at places where they have the old hole like this and it just seems designed to annoy the bulk of golfers. Looks attractive but is impractical. To be across the course like that must be very hard work indeed.
Yes I was going to make a note of the holes that basically are gift holes to the low handicappers and then I was going to play them off the red tees to see if my hypothesis was correct.. whilst avoiding the adders
 

Crazyface

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Senior comp won at my place with a bloke scoring 101 !!!! With a H/C of......42 !!!! Making the winning score.....an unbeatable 59 !!!!

Yup, I'm staying well clear until this madness stops.
 

williamalex1

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Senior comp won at my place with a bloke scoring 101 !!!! With a H/C of......42 !!!! Making the winning score.....an unbeatable 59 !!!!

Yup, I'm staying well clear until this madness stops.
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: I heard a few weeks ago that a new member won a comp with a net 55, but he was a low 35 handicapper :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

Canary Kid

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Senior comp won at my place with a bloke scoring 101 !!!! With a H/C of......42 !!!! Making the winning score.....an unbeatable 59 !!!!

Yup, I'm staying well clear until this madness stops.

Some clubs don’t allow players over a given handicap to win comps … precisely for this reason.
 

patricks148

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Was at the practice ground, hit a few balls and had a chat with an older member. Conversation turned to the level of rough. Currently we have 1.5 meters of second cut before going to gorse or knee high grass. The course looks fabulously defined, but any stray balls are gone.. you need to hit a provisional ball and many are not! So a club that prides itself on being a nice timely round is turning into a lot of waiting on tee , frustrated golfers running back and those who don’t care and just hand in NRs.
The point is the course isn’t difficult beyond a 230-240 yard carry, so we have an abundance of low handicap golfers, the fairways widen at these points and there are no bunkers… making it a 150yard or less in. Couple that with small greens and you have guys laying up to avoid traps or rough and they are left with 180+ yards in to a green that is 36 yards deep and 20 yards wide .. so the seniors are stuffed, the mid handicapper is either losing balls or stuck and the low handicap players are having their egos falsely inflated….
Now they have adders in the rough so that’s really positive as well … also ticks ..
I have been working on getting my driver carry up and it’s getting there, but I am an ageing golfer and this fight to maintain distance is a losing battle given the 40hrs a week of work, and family life that take time - and I want to enjoy my golf, I don’t want hear how easy the course is when I know the real situation.. nor do I want a tick or adder bite.
Feel like writing to greens committee and suggesting this, but they are a bit obtuse and you get labelled a troublesome member. There are no other reasonable clubs in the area either ☹️ And I have said to the missus I want to move as I am bored ( guess that’s a result of a decade of travelling for work!)
I understand what you are saying, you want to be able to enjoy a game without losing balls all over the course, but I suppose you have to temper that with competitions. You want to reward good shots on the fairway, rather that be able to spray it around and still score well. Of course lower players are going to be rewarded, but take that away and take away the need to hit it straight and the advantage of hitting the fairway. The old tourvean had the same problem some 10 or 12 years ago. Though it was a short course it rewarded straight hitters. The rough it parts was pretty brutal, but had a fair few holes were less that 300. If you were straight you could score, but miss and it was bogey or worse. The seniors did a fair bit of complaining and it was decided to cut much of the rough back, some to 1st cut length. The seniors were happy, scores rocketed from a winner of high 30,s points to high 40,s. Within a few years, most of the low guys left for other clubs or just didn't bother with playing comps. There has to be a happy medium where all cat of golfer has a chance in comps anyway. We have added two extra sets of tees in front of the old ladies that have been rated, so can still be used for handicap.
 

harpo_72

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I understand what you are saying, you want to be able to enjoy a game without losing balls all over the course, but I suppose you have to temper that with competitions. You want to reward good shots on the fairway, rather that be able to spray it around and still score well. Of course lower players are going to be rewarded, but take that away and take away the need to hit it straight and the advantage of hitting the fairway. The old tourvean had the same problem some 10 or 12 years ago. Though it was a short course it rewarded straight hitters. The rough it parts was pretty brutal, but had a fair few holes were less that 300. If you were straight you could score, but miss and it was bogey or worse. The seniors did a fair bit of complaining and it was decided to cut much of the rough back, some to 1st cut length. The seniors were happy, scores rocketed from a winner of high 30,s points to high 40,s. Within a few years, most of the low guys left for other clubs or just didn't bother with playing comps. There has to be a happy medium where all cat of golfer has a chance in comps anyway. We have added two extra sets of tees in front of the old ladies that have been rated, so can still be used for handicap.
Actually I hit straight but I am hitting into a 10yard wide space in places, another 5-10yards of carry and I have 20-30yards width to play.
So in essence the low boys throw the kitchen sink at it and they are fine no punishment for a stray shot nor a bunker that is 5-6ft deep.
All I am suggesting is they bring the long boys back add an element of skill back to the game and make them work. Dump a bunker or put a serious of ripples (like the Himalayas at princes) and then the challenge will be there.
We have divisions but the lows and the extremely highs dominate..
strangely off the black tees the lows start to struggle as the bunkers start to get them on certain holes.
 
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patricks148

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Actually I hit straight but I am hitting into a 10yard wide space in places, another 5-10yards of carry and I have 20-30yards width to play.
So in essence the low boys throw the kitchen sink at it and they are fine no punishment for a stray shot nor a bunker that is 5-6ft deep
They have done the same with nairn, bunkers in the middle of the fairways at 250, all the young low guys carry them no problem. Interesting fact of out 10 silver comps last year 9 were won by plus handicaps, they were all played from July rather than from May. Up until the Amateur at the end of June we had 5 all had been won by high handicaps, there was little or no rough, last year because the comps came later the rough was up. I've managed to win a few times over the years there, but now of 3 I have zero chance, bunkers all on my Sunday best drive and with all the lower plus handicaps at the club who are a young, not a chance in he'll of a gross prize, I'd have to shoot under par to have a chance, and with the course at least 3 shots harder than the old set up.. not a chance..
The game can be frustrating ?
 

harpo_72

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They have done the same with nairn, bunkers in the middle of the fairways at 250, all the young low guys carry them no problem. Interesting fact of out 10 silver comps last year 9 were won by plus handicaps, they were all played from July rather than from May. Up until the Amateur at the end of June we had 5 all had been won by high handicaps, there was little or no rough, last year because the comps came later the rough was up. I've managed to win a few times over the years there, but now of 3 I have zero chance, bunkers all on my Sunday best drive and with all the lower plus handicaps at the club who are a young, not a chance in he'll of a gross prize, I'd have to shoot under par to have a chance, and with the course at least 3 shots harder than the old set up.. not a chance..
The game can be frustrating ?
Ellesborough had a good balance when I played there last, the +1 handicapper who pushed the ball out 300 yards was still in range of all of us single figure players.
Not sure if it has maintained that balance perhaps imurg and fragger can comment.
The point is these low guys have opportunities to play some pretty good competitions and the clubs have a responsibility to appeal across all standards and not marginalise. The game should be a challenge and dare I say it as you get past one the course should offer you another . I suppose Ellesborough challenged with its greens
 

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Ellesborough had a good balance when I played there last, the +1 handicapper who pushed the ball out 300 yards was still in range of all of us single figure players.
Not sure if it has maintained that balance perhaps imurg and fragger can comment.
The point is these low guys have opportunities to play some pretty good competitions and the clubs have a responsibility to appeal across all standards and not marginalise. The game should be a challenge and dare I say it as you get past one the course should offer you another . I suppose Ellesborough challenged with its greens

I think clubs need to decide what sort of course the members want to play. Tough challenging rough to punish wayward drives may be what plus handicappers want. But a friendly set up with benign rough may be what older or higher handicappers want to see, and they are likely the majority. Not generally possible to be all things to all people.
 

harpo_72

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I think clubs need to decide what sort of course the members want to play. Tough challenging rough to punish wayward drives may be what plus handicappers want. But a friendly set up with benign rough may be what older or higher handicappers want to see, and they are likely the majority. Not generally possible to be all things to all people.
I think some Clubs can cater for most members, but as you say, the people funding the club should get first priority. I can see frustration creeping in and to an extent I have become frustrated as well .. I never felt I would lose the passion for this game but yeah I have. I don’t normally give up and grind rounds out, but this year, it has been a case of who cares get a beer .. and think about what I could have done more constructively with my time. Bad golf is boring, but playing a good shot and getting no return is annoying and putting the effort and work in and not seeing a score improvement is demoralising.. I haven’t entered any individual competitions now for the foreseeable future, I will just let the match play individual and pairs run it’s course but I won’t bother too much now.
 

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I think some Clubs can cater for most members, but as you say, the people funding the club should get first priority. I can see frustration creeping in and to an extent I have become frustrated as well .. I never felt I would lose the passion for this game but yeah I have. I don’t normally give up and grind rounds out, but this year, it has been a case of who cares get a beer .. and think about what I could have done more constructively with my time. Bad golf is boring, but playing a good shot and getting no return is annoying and putting the effort and work in and not seeing a score improvement is demoralising.. I haven’t entered any individual competitions now for the foreseeable future, I will just let the match play individual and pairs run it’s course but I won’t bother too much now.

Isn't this the exact situation where you make better use of the teeing grounds!? If you cant make the carries, use a forward tee! Then you'll be playing the same (enjoyable) course as the longer hitters?
 

harpo_72

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Isn't this the exact situation where you make better use of the teeing grounds!? If you cant make the carries, use a forward tee! Then you'll be playing the same (enjoyable) course as the longer hitters?
Yes for a friendly but when the comps move to the white which is mostly used, black only on occasions which makes life easier
 

sweaty sock

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Also if its significantly easier (in comparison) for better players then the slope rating should reflect this and handicaps should account for the difference.

(Said in partial jest, as I know I'm technically correct, but also hopelessly naive!)
 

harpo_72

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Also if its significantly easier (in comparison) for better players then the slope rating should reflect this and handicaps should account for the difference.

(Said in partial jest, as I know I'm technically correct, but also hopelessly naive!)
That’s exactly that the slope rating has been affected so the course sounds easier and I am pretty sure the average visitor is going to get a bit of a shock and the lows well they will just pummel it. Unless of course they are a low who is short, by that I mean a driver carry of 220-240 yards (and actually that is not short that’s pretty reasonable) . Basically the course is promoting bomb and flop. There is no finesse on some of these holes .. so we have probably some really good middle aged golfers who are going back up the handicaps - they will smash in some good away scores though.
 

patricks148

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I think some Clubs can cater for most members, but as you say, the people funding the club should get first priority. I can see frustration creeping in and to an extent I have become frustrated as well .. I never felt I would lose the passion for this game but yeah I have. I don’t normally give up and grind rounds out, but this year, it has been a case of who cares get a beer .. and think about what I could have done more constructively with my time. Bad golf is boring, but playing a good shot and getting no return is annoying and putting the effort and work in and not seeing a score improvement is demoralising.. I haven’t entered any individual competitions now for the foreseeable future, I will just let the match play individual and pairs run it’s course but I won’t bother too much now.
I can see me going the same way, why bother paying for comps when you have zero chance of a win, it used to be the only way to get you handicap low, but with WHS I can see a few just giving comps, esp if you are middle ground
 

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I can see me going the same way, why bother paying for comps when you have zero chance of a win, it used to be the only way to get you handicap low, but with WHS I can see a few just giving comps, esp if you are middle ground

Noticed this already

Mid week comps used to be 20-30 people a week

We have had 3-15 recently

People see no names down don't enter
Weather bit rubbish don't enter

They still play just don't pay

Annoying tbh

I'll always enter even if I'm first
 

Tashyboy

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Yes I was going to make a note of the holes that basically are gift holes to the low handicappers and then I was going to play them off the red tees to see if my hypothesis was corplusrect.. whilst avoiding the adders
Ave said this before about our SI 1. its175 carry to the fairway. Waist high grass down the right. Trees to the left. You have to nail it to hit the fairway. Yet lower handicappers that can hit 200 yd drives. The fairway opens up and grass goes wispy. If you are 175 you play a provisional..if 200 plus you don't.
 

williamalex1

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Ave said this before about our SI 1. its175 carry to the fairway. Waist high grass down the right. Trees to the left. You have to nail it to hit the fairway. Yet lower handicappers that can hit 200 yd drives. The fairway opens up and grass goes wispy. If you are 175 you play a provisional..if 200 plus you don't.
We have the choice of the white or shorter yellow tees playing our Tuesday medals, both are measured courses . The handicaps are adjusted by the computer.
 
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