HawkeyeMS
Ryder Cup Winner
Not with my arrow straight driving Homer :rofl:
How long is the rough on your course?
- Thread starter delc
- Start date
Not with my arrow straight driving Homer :rofl:
We had an invitational day earlier this week were there was a temporary local rule that if you lost a ball in the rough and couldn't find it within one minute, you could place a substitute ball within one club length of the point of entry under penalty of one stroke. Ditto unplayable lies in the rough. Sort of hackers' rules, but at least it speeded up play. As a fourball we got round in 4 hours, losing 8 balls in the process. 4 of these balls were lost by 2 players on one hole! All the players in my team were reasonably good mid handicappers. 
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woody69
Journeyman Pro
We had an invitational day earlier this week were there was a temporary local rule that if you lost a ball in the rough and couldn't find it within one minute, you could place a substitute ball within one club length of the point of entry under penalty of one stroke. Ditto unplayable lies in the rough. Sort of hackers' rules, but at least it speeded up play. As a fourball we got round in 4 hours, losing 8 balls in the process. 4 of these balls were lost by 2 players on one hole! All the players in my team were reasonably good mid handicappers.
Was that LR authorised by the R&A seeing as it effectively waives a rule of golf?
long, fairways and greens getting very firm, i imag the King trophy is 2 weeks will see each player hitting at least 2 balls of every tee
D
Deleted member 1147
Guest
I'd imagine it was a 4BBB, so it's not as if handicaps would be affected.
timd77
Assistant Pro
We had a society day at Shrigley Hall a few weeks back. Lovely course, fantastic views, but the rough was a nightmare particularly on day 1…
As others have said, hitting a decent shot that rolls in by a few yards and it's lost is a killer. Especially difficult when playing a blind shot. Must've a dozen balls on the first day. At the halfway house the marker had the cheek to tell us that we were about an hour behind and that we needed to hurry up. When we pointed out that it's because we've spent at least 5 minutes on every hole searching for a ball, he admitted that they hadn't cut the rough because the mower was broken!
The next day we complained in the club shop and they were very good and didn't charge us for buggy hire, so that more or less made up for the cost but not the frustration. Then, about an hour into the round, the greenkeepers were out in force cutting it down…must've found 10 balls after that!
Obviously it would be nice if we played better and were more accurate, but we're not and did put a bit of dampener on the first day.
As others have said, hitting a decent shot that rolls in by a few yards and it's lost is a killer. Especially difficult when playing a blind shot. Must've a dozen balls on the first day. At the halfway house the marker had the cheek to tell us that we were about an hour behind and that we needed to hurry up. When we pointed out that it's because we've spent at least 5 minutes on every hole searching for a ball, he admitted that they hadn't cut the rough because the mower was broken!
The next day we complained in the club shop and they were very good and didn't charge us for buggy hire, so that more or less made up for the cost but not the frustration. Then, about an hour into the round, the greenkeepers were out in force cutting it down…must've found 10 balls after that!
Obviously it would be nice if we played better and were more accurate, but we're not and did put a bit of dampener on the first day.
U
It was a 4 ball team competition with the best 2 Stableford scores on each hole to count. So not a qualifier and handicaps not affected. In the circumstances. I thought the local rule was quite sensible. I played in a qualifier yesterday and did a good line in provisional shots after my first ball disappeared into the deep rough. I only scored 25 points and my handicap will probably go up by 0.1.:angry:
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
So you had a local rule to make the game easier ??
woody69
Journeyman Pro
Next he'll be telling us they have a LR that has made the holes bigger.
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
Quicker rather than easier!
No its easier - simple as that
Bit of a joke of a rule they created tbh
But with the rough as it is, it would have probably taken over 5 hours for 4 ball teams to get round if they had to search for 5 minutes every time a ball went into the deep rough. The strokeplay qualifier I played on Thursday did take almost that long, even though we played in 3-balls, without the temporary local rule.
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
Then you follow proper ettiquete and let groups through if you need to search for the ball or how about this for an idea - dont put the ball in the rough !
Your LR made a joke of a comp
Andy808
Tour Winner
The first cut is fine but it's not very wide and you're in the trees where the rough is insanely deep.
If you hit it in the trees then it's a lost ball so a provisional is always required which can be a bit of a nightmare when it's as close as 5 yards from a couple of the greens.
If you hit it in the trees then it's a lost ball so a provisional is always required which can be a bit of a nightmare when it's as close as 5 yards from a couple of the greens.
2 balls lost for me today and 1 lost for the current club champion I was playing with, all just marginally found the rough after a single bounce on the fairway and never to be seen again!
We have fairway then about 18" of 1st cut, less in some areas, then its knee high rough wispy straw grass, quite clumpy at its fringe to the 1st cut which is worse if your ball just rolls up to it, almost impossible to get a club behind the ball! Some areas do have an area of rough 2nd cut which is about 70mm and covers a ball, its very dense and takes a shot off you very easily! We also have huge gorse plantations down some fairways, only a few feet from the 1st cut, go near them and you can forget it!
I don't accept the criticism some greens staff get, this current weather means the growth is very quick and their priority will be to maintain the fairways, greens and tee boxes, no sooner than they do them and no doubt plan to get to the rough, the growth in those areas is back again! As such the rough will get done as & when, its not ideal but unless we all want are subs to go up to employ more greens staff, we just have to suck it up.
We have fairway then about 18" of 1st cut, less in some areas, then its knee high rough wispy straw grass, quite clumpy at its fringe to the 1st cut which is worse if your ball just rolls up to it, almost impossible to get a club behind the ball! Some areas do have an area of rough 2nd cut which is about 70mm and covers a ball, its very dense and takes a shot off you very easily! We also have huge gorse plantations down some fairways, only a few feet from the 1st cut, go near them and you can forget it!
I don't accept the criticism some greens staff get, this current weather means the growth is very quick and their priority will be to maintain the fairways, greens and tee boxes, no sooner than they do them and no doubt plan to get to the rough, the growth in those areas is back again! As such the rough will get done as & when, its not ideal but unless we all want are subs to go up to employ more greens staff, we just have to suck it up.
I never understand this, I think trees are a hazard in their own right, why grow the rough up in them also not allowing you to find your ball and chip out, sideways if necessary!
HawkeyeMS
Ryder Cup Winner
Update. The course is looking great and the rough is as described beforehand and perfectly fair.
Foxholer
Blackballed
I believe every HGK and/or Course Manager would like to trim the rough around trees but, in many cases, hasn't sufficient resources to allow him to do so! Now is actually the absolute busiest time of the year for Greenies as the growth of everything - including pests - is at its peak. In all but some extremely rare cases, getting and keeping the rough down in /around copses is a job for strimmer, so very time consuming. And, in most cases, it needs to be done twice - at least once - a week to be effective!
So golfers really have a choice. Or at least there is one made for them. Do they want greens that are fast and true, healthy and will potentially be better next year, but rough that will severely punish a very bad shot and reasonable subs? Or less of a challenge, on greens that are not as good as they could be, are likely to get poorer, and subs that are more than they would like!
It's the usual 3-way challenge that needs to be balanced - Functionality, Cost and Quality. It's the courses/Clubs that manage those 'best' that survive/grow, while those that don't will not.
And remember that, in virtually every club, 70% of members/customers probably think they could run the Pro Shop better, 80% the House/Bar/Dining and 90% would do a better job as HGK than the guy that has the skills and training and has probably been doing it for 20 years!
ForeRighty
Head Pro
Unfortunately the owners of our course have cut all the rough back and lost any definition we had. I agree rough can contribute to slow play however no rough is horrible out course currently looks like a cow field!
Sounds ideal! How do I join?
