is this golf?

[davemc1]

You hit your approach, be it 50, 100, 150, 200yrds (distance I think is irrelevant) to 3 feet. BUT, its the wrong side of the hole on a fast sloping green.

You know the putt is perilous. You nudge it so if on a flat green it would go no more than 3-4 inches. The ball catches a break misses the hole and keeps going, and going and going. Ends up a least a dozen feet from the hole.

Obviously Ive fell foul of this recently, so the reason of the post. But is this too tough for a hc golfer? Or is it just a tough learning curve? Or option c, sour grapes?

 

[chrisg]

One of the greens on the course I play most often is like this, the rest of the hole is fairly benign, but due to the green it's by far my worst hole on the course.. leave yourself a down-hiller and it's all or nothing

 

[ScienceBoy]

Ive 13 putted from 8 feet, that was not golf.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I remember Blackmoor in particular being like that. I guess it's about knowing where to leave the approach although it's a pain in the backside to have a six footer coming back from half that distance

 

[Leereed]

A course we use to be members of were like that, you get the wrong side of the hole and you were 3 putting all day long. the 18th if you went long and you could not stop it rolling 30 yards off the green.
dont mind courses hard if fair.

 

[GG26]

It was like that on several holes at Ullesthorpe yesterday. Almost impossible to get close if you were putting from above the hole.

 

[Imurg]

I remember Blackmoor in particular being like that. I guess it's about knowing where to leave the approach although it's a pain in the backside to have a six footer coming back from half that distance

The pros can do this but are the majority of us good enough with our distance control to deliberately leave an uphill putt from more than 50-60 yards out...?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The pros can do this but are the majority of us good enough with our distance control to deliberately leave an uphill putt from more than 50-60 yards out...?

Very true but most of playing the same course regularly will get to know where to miss on certain holes even if that does mean we're not putting it to three feet every time. We have a couple of greens, particularly the fourth where you have to play right of the hole and it will feed down. If you leave it above the hole it's very slick

 

[KenL]

http://www.randa.org/en/Rules-and-A...unning-a-Competition.aspx?chapter=4&section=2

Not enough (if any) greenkeepers pay enough attention to the guidance given by the R&A.
Putting pins on pretty severe slopes when there is not need to really does my head in!

 

[guest100718]

There's a hole at dunstable downs that I putted off a few times as the pin was to close to the front with a very steep drop off.

 

[duncan mackie]

Yes this is golf - far to many courses ask no questions of the player's at all; and when you visit a real course you get to look stupid.

Do not get me wrong, if a ball will not stay when placed in the vicinity of the hole then it's wrong - but placing the ball into the correct position to be able to approach the hole is a critical part of the game (although of course you can play 100 courses over 20 years without it ever seeming to matter at all...)

 

[freddielong]

You hit your approach, be it 50, 100, 150, 200yrds (distance I think is irrelevant) to 3 feet. BUT, its the wrong side of the hole on a fast sloping green.

You know the putt is perilous. You nudge it so if on a flat green it would go no more than 3-4 inches. The ball catches a break misses the hole and keeps going, and going and going. Ends up a least a dozen feet from the hole.

Obviously Ive fell foul of this recently, so the reason of the post. But is this too tough for a hc golfer? Or is it just a tough learning curve? Or option c, sour grapes?

Of course it's golf it's all part of hitting the ball in the right places missing on the correct side etc

How many times do you see a pro play to leave themselves an uphill putt or hit the middle of the green due to slope that would make a putt almost impossible, watch the 14th at Augusta in April.

 

[99problemsbutapitchaint1]

Ive 13 putted from 8 feet, that was not golf.

Having never done this, i now feel like a pretty hot putter, I have not even 12 putted..

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

I don't have a problem with this, it's why we have handicaps. Might be frustrating but it's all part of the challenge

 

[Pin-seeker]

All part of the game.
Very frustrating tho.downhill putt,it's either in the hole or off the green.

 

[Crow]

I agree with Dave to a degree as mine was the course in question.

Many of the holes have big slopes and if the greens are too fast then some hole positions can become impossible, on the day in question the speed was faster than usual (as it was an open and a qualifier) and getting above the hole was a big no-no. But I'd say that only one hole was bordering on the unplayable and that was the sixth which is notorious when the hole is cut on the right side. (Although Fish holed a great right to left breaker for his par!)

But in my deference Dave, I did offer two bits of advice before we teed off.
1. keep your ball towards the left side on the first 8 holes as it's OB right on all of them.
2. Try and get below the hole when approaching the green as there are some big slopes,
While on the course I tried to state which way the green sloped if there was a big slope, I even did this individually to everybody on the 6th!

Think yourself lucky though, you only had to play it once, I have to put up with it week in week out.

 

[GG26]

Missed that you started the thread Dave. I felt sorry for you mate, a couple of times you ended up above the hole and gave the ball a feather touch and saw it trickle 15 feet past. I don't think that I had any putts as difficult as yours, but that was more down to luck than judgement, although I did have a couple of pitch shots that kept rolling down the greens.

As Nick says though it was an open and I guess the pin positions were going to be tough and your advice was appreciated Nick. I'm am glad that I had the opportunity to play on greens which give an idea of what the professionals in the big tournaments have to contend with. Presumably Nick, the pin positions are not that tough on most weeks?

 

[Crow]

Missed that you started the thread Dave. I felt sorry for you mate, a couple of times you ended up above the hole and gave the ball a feather touch and saw it trickle 15 feet past. I don't think that I had any putts as difficult as yours, but that was more down to luck than judgement, although I did have a couple of pitch shots that kept rolling down the greens.

As Nick says though it was an open and I guess the pin positions were going to be tough and your advice was appreciated Nick. I'm am glad that I had the opportunity to play on greens which give an idea of what the professionals in the big tournaments have to contend with. Presumably Nick, the pin positions are not that tough on most weeks?

Hi Mike,

I think that the professionals play on greens even faster than that, but probably without such slopes so near the hole!

The hole positions weren't unusual but the green speed was as fast as I've seen it this year.

 

[RollinThunder]

I agree that only a small percentage of the members on this forum will be able to choose which side of the pin to hit their approach, but I think that even for a mid/high-handicapper, with some knowledge of the course, and some knowledge of your club distances, you can choose to hit the front or back half of the green, just by clubbing up or down. The hole-by-hole breakdown of my course tells you which part of the green to favour, so if I want the front, I might go with a 9i and try to roll it on, or if I want the back, go with a 8i and try to land it on the green, and if I get lucky, it might just stop near the pin. That's with the length of the shot though, I wouldn't have a hope in hell of choosing what side of the green I want to hit .

 

[jpjeffery]

Ive 13 putted from 8 feet, that was not golf.

Just let me check, please. You THIRTEEN putted?