Long courses

[ForeRighty]

Do you enjoy the challenge once in a while or would you be happy to play a long course week in week out.

Personally the enjoyment for me is being rewarded for taking a driver off tee finding the fairway and having a mid to short iron too green not a rescue or 3wood.

 

[Hobbit]

I like a course that requires me to hit every club in the bag, testing every part of my game. It doesn't have to be long to do that, e.g. a mid length par 4 with a strategically placed bunker might mean a 3 wood off the tee followed by a long iron into the green.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

What do you call long?

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

What do you call long?

I call long playing RickG's course The Centurion long. 7200 yards off the back in November with zero roll out. Good fun tho'

 

[Hacker Khan]

Kind of depends on the weather for me. In the winter with not much roll and strong winds, long par 4s do get a bit tiresome if you are at my level. But don't mind longish holes in the summer where the balls are flying a club longer and you get some roll to help as well.

But as already mentioned, I'd prefer to be challenged by the course layout with strategically placed hazards and guarded greens, not just the fact that it's 2 worldy hits for me to reach a par 4.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

My course is 6400 off the whites and for my my standard that's plenty especially in the winter. I don't mind longer courses but I wouldn't want to be playing these regularly off the whites, especially in wet and windy conditions. I can imagine it could get a little soul destroying hitting driver, long iron or fairway wood and then a mid-short iron in all the time especially on 430-460 yard par 4's. Even in the summer these sort of holes tend to be out of my range and so I use my shots to lay up to a good wedge distance. Just not sure I'd enjoy doing it all the time.

 

[hors limite]

I'm with Homer and Hacker. Not the biggest hitter in the world and do get fed up with par 4s that are driver then 3 wood one after another.

 

[ForeRighty]

My current course is 6600 yards long in places and misses are that punishing but recently played a few very interesting courses warley park and essendon old course and at 6200 yards found the varied layout, plotting your way round very challenging but extremely satisfying if hitting it in right place off tee.

 

[shewy]

Ours is 6570 and to me as a short hitter it's long, plenty of par 4's where I have to play as a par 5,O prefer shorter more interesting courses, you should have to think about the shot not just boom it down the middle every time.The way i see it the long course just suits long hitters,maybe you should have a handicap sort of tee box thing going on wherebye shorter hitters can tee it up a bit lol (red tee's anyone) in a comp that would be great.
I struggle to shoot my hcp in a comp off the whites, whereas a long hitter has amuch bigger advantage,tg I have adecent short game!

 

[Alex1975]

Don't like short courses, always feel hemmed in. Ours is a resonable 6440 yards off the whites and I find if I go somewhere like Batchworth Park with my inlaws I end up driver wedge most holes... its dull.

 

[JCW]

Parkstone is 6300 and some of the holes play longer and i think its fine , I was a member at Dudsbury which was 6994 and played to it and was more like 7300 in the winter as it had no run and water in play on 14 holes .I got down to 4 around there and never managed it elsewhere , Greens were big and fairways wide which is the modern way for golf courses , wide fairways , 2 loops of 9 both starting and ending at the clubhouse , do i like it , no as it gets boring just bombing the driver off the tee to wide fairways , every hole bar the par 3`s is a driver , much rather play a shorter course that test your course management .........................EYG

 

[Bratty]

I played the K Club Ryder Cup course (for €33 - don't hate me! ) off the whites, although some were on the blue tees, so it played about 7,000 yards!

I found it a bit exhausting hitting a great drive (10 yards behind my pro brother-in-law!) but then hitting a 5 iron into a well-protected green (he hit 8 iron).

Something in the region of 6,200 - 6,500 is about right, I think. Good mix of longer holes and short testers.

 

[hovis]

Played the 2010 off the tournament tee's. Driver 3 iron did start to get borring after a while

 

[CliveW]

A lot depends on how the course is laid out. We have two championship courses which are 6866 yds and 6630 yds off the whites but 7007 and 6689 off the blues. Neither seem to be too long for me. On the other hand, Trump International can be played off anything from 6329 up to 7428 and is extremely tough from all as there is long carry from tee to fairway. The Roxburghe is another course where you require a good tee shot to reach the fairways.

 

[delc]

Don't like short courses, always feel hemmed in. Ours is a resonable 6440 yards off the whites and I find if I go somewhere like Batchworth Park with my inlaws I end up driver wedge most holes... its dull.

Are you playing Batchworth Park off the Ladies red tees? It's 6723 yards off the blue tees (i.e longer than your course) and 6350 off the whites!

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

A bit of variety is nice. My course is 6500 which is about right for regular play. Quite enjoy a long course, always play from the longest possible tees when playing away. Played a scratch open on Saturday on a 6100 yard course. Made 4 birdies and they were all on the few long holes on the course (205y par3, 560y par5, 440y par4 and 410y par4 )

 

[woody69]

Off our blues it's 6996 and feels very long. Yellows it's stil 6579 but I enjoy that a lot more. I'm not a long hitter and in winter it's even harder.

 

[Imurg]

My place is 6000.
Last week we played Magnolia Park at 6500.
It didn't seem to be much longer for 2 reasons.
Firstly, the fairways were running - big time!
Secondly, the difference in yardage was primarily down to having 2 x 400 yard par 4's extra where we have 2 x 170 yard par 3's
One of the par 5's was a bit longer than ours but the par 4's were similar in length.
Off the White tees MP measures 7000.....looking at how it played last week there would be only 2 x par 4's and the par 3's that I wouldn't need to use a driver on.
There's only 3 holes on my course where I always use the driver + about 5 or 6 where a 3 wood can be a better bet.

So the long course = get the big dog out on most holes
Short course = I have to think about it...

Give me a 6-6500 harder any day-we don't need more...

 

[Canary_Yellow]

My place is 6,450 off the whites, and I think that's a decent length. It has three par 3's and three par 5's. The par 5's are all very reachable in 3 so long as you play a good tee shot, and two of them potentially reachable in 2 but it's very much risk / reward.

The 12 par 4's range from 295 yards to 455 yards, (2 in the range of 295 to 340, 4 between 340 and 380, 4 between 380 and 420 and 2 longer than 420).

It's a good variety and the challenge comes from dog legs and undulating ground, not distance. I find it to be an ideal challenge.

Clearly, being a long hitter is part of the modern game at the elite end of the spectrum, however I don't think that needs to filter down to the way courses defend themselves from the average club golfer.

 

[Hacker Khan]

My place is 6,450 off the whites, and I think that's a decent length. It has three par 3's and three par 5's. The par 5's are all very reachable in 3 so long as you play a good tee shot, and two of them potentially reachable in 2 but it's very much risk / reward.

The 12 par 4's range from 295 yards to 455 yards, (2 in the range of 295 to 340, 4 between 340 and 380, 4 between 380 and 420 and 2 longer than 420).

It's a good variety and the challenge comes from dog legs and undulating ground, not distance. I find it to be an ideal challenge.

Clearly, being a long hitter is part of the modern game at the elite end of the spectrum, however I don't think that needs to filter down to the way courses defend themselves from the average club golfer.

To be honest I think the average golfer is quite capable of making a course difficult enough without it needed to be long. Trust me, I know.

I suspect most clubs would not just lengthen the course as people will get fed up from being beaten up all the time. There has to be some enjoyment in the game if you are playing for fun like amateurs do, and whilst I appreciate people get enjoyment from facing a hard challenge and succeeding, a lot of others may well go somewhere else if it becomes a slog most of the time. Especially in these times of falling participation in the game, as there is a lot of choice out there nowadays.