overgrown rough

[williamalex1]

what's the point of rough being deeper than say 4 inches , at that depth your penalised anyway and have to hack it out back to the fairway if you can.with knee length rough. its a lost ball and time wasted searching, even if a provisional is played . also it looks very untidy , so greenkeepers get cutting, the longer you leave it the slower the game becomes . and after all it's only club golf, not open championships . 75% of club golfers are in double figures

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Totally agree. We've some patches on some holes very close to the fairway and in prime location for a lot of club golfers. It slows the pace of play down and if I'm honest takes away a lot of enjoyment. No-one wants to spend ages looking for lost balls and they don't have to run far into this stuff to disappear. Even if you find it a lot of ladies, seniors and juniors don't have the strength to hack it back out and there is nowhere else to drop it.

The club have a degree of responsibility to make the course a tough test but playable. It doesn't have to be that deep and thick to be a punishment

 

[Imurg]

Take a moment to think of the greenkeepers.
They have their normal jobs - greens, fairways, tee boxes etc etc

Now, all of a sudden the grass has exploded into life. 2 weeks ago everywhere was underwater. Certainly at our place they couldn't get the mowers on the course for a couple of days at least as it was too wet. At others it was over a week.
But the grass kept growing.
Now they have a choice
Cut the rough down - and there's a huge areas of this over the course, probably more than the fairways and green combined or make the course playable by doing the green,tees and fairways...?
Given the choice I'd go with the latter.
Rough is always bad at this time of year, especially if it's been wet.

 

[Foxholer]

Yep. Spring has finally arrived.

Just over 3 weeks to the longest day - then the days get shorter!:angry:

 

[williamalex1]

Yep. Spring has finally arrived.

Just over 3 weeks to the longest day - then the days get shorter!:angry:

yes but what about the rough

 

[Imurg]

It's rough - don't hit it in there.....

 

[Oddsocks]

It's rough - don't hit it in there.....

i dont have a problem with long rough, as above hit the short stuff.

what i dont like is bland rough with no markers meaning you have no landmark to go off when looking for a ball.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It's rough - don't hit it in there.....

There is an area on the 4th about 10 yards off the fairway to the right. Which direction do the majority of golfers hit? Another similar area on the 9th and a deep patch to the left with the semi 5 paces wide when we measured it. It goes on. I agree don't go in there and as a single figure golfer chances are you won't. However for me and many of my fellow members our games aren't that good and to be honest these areas aren't actually too far away at all from the fairway and with minimal semi to slow the ball down before it gets there.

I take your point about it being a time consuming job, but surely two days assigned to it now makes it so much better for the rest of the summer and will certainly improve the pace of play, make rounds more enjoyable and members might actually praise the greenkeepers for a change (even though they do do a decent enough job)

 

[williamalex1]

There is an area on the 4th about 10 yards off the fairway to the right. Which direction do the majority of golfers hit? Another similar area on the 9th and a deep patch to the left with the semi 5 paces wide when we measured it. It goes on. I agree don't go in there and as a single figure golfer chances are you won't. However for me and many of my fellow members our games aren't that good and to be honest these areas aren't actually too far away at all from the fairway and with minimal semi to slow the ball down before it gets there.

I take your point about it being a time consuming job, but surely two days assigned to it now makes it so much better for the rest of the summer and will certainly improve the pace of play, make rounds more enjoyable and members might actually praise the greenkeepers for a change (even though they do do a decent enough job)

yes yes yes please keep it up . that brings back memories

 

[garyinderry]

i dont have a problem with long rough, as above hit the short stuff.

what i dont like is bland rough with no markers meaning you have no landmark to go off when looking for a ball.

speaking of markers ...

i played prehen in derry ( the other course in derry) on friday and they have sticks for markers at (red) 110yards and 165yards (white). at my home club foyle we only have the sticks at the white and a red stone in the middle of the fairway at the 110yards mark. i found that the sticks allowed me to plot my way around the course with ease. i mangaged to shoot 33 at my first attempt at a tricky parkland course.the only holes a blanked were two par 3's that i seleced the wrong club for. i think every course should have these sticks visable on every par 4 and 5.

 

[Hobbit]

If it was a lake or a river/ditch you'd play accordingly. Its rough............ but everyone talks about pace of play and manicured rough.

I don't have a problem with however deep its is but do prefer it to be graded, i.e. a few inches when it just off the fairway up to waist high to catch the totally carved shot.

At the end of the day you can see it, know its there, so play the hole with it in mind.

 

[patricks148]

My club have let it grow up for the Cutis Cup is two weeks. Course playing really tough at the moment. if you put it i the rough normally you could at least get the ball out say 100 yards. not anymore. We don't even have fairway bunkers anymore they are now 10 yards in the rough can't see the point in that.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

I played with my low handicap daughter at a club open foursomes a couple of years ago.
The couple we partnered were both mid twenties wannabees off single handicaps. They did not seem overjoyed to be playing with a woman.
The rough was fairly tough but the fairways were very forgiving.
This pair hit it all over the place and lost about four balls.
One of the guys windged constantly about the rough during the round and carried on with his girlie windging during tea.
My daughter reached the end of her tether and ripped into him. Finishing with 'he should not be entering open competitions like this if he can't hit fairways that wide.
His face was priceles and he surprisingly offered a humble apology

 

[moonraker]

Yes no likes deep rough unfortunally at our club is in a SSSI area, we can only cut it at the begin of the season and once more,

 

[Slab]

I wonder if clubs use the excuse of making the course a 'test' when they simply don't keep the 1st cut of rough down becasue of poor planning/reactions etc

I'm sure we've all examples of where the rough is entirely inappropraite (10" deep at the foot of a left to right sloping/banked fairway etc) It means the landing area is a few feet in width.

That ain't club golf!

I left a club I was a member at because they let the rough immediatly adjacent to the fairways go to seed length across much of the course, even a sleeve a round on top of fees is no small investment

 

[Deleted member 1147]

How deep do you guys reckon the rough should be under trees?


I ask because at my track in some places, no more than 5 or 6 paces from the edge of the fairway the trees start and the rough is knee deep.
To me the hazard there is the trees and you are punished by having to hack out, or you try a Seve escape shot and often with a hampered swing.
It just isn't possible at present and if you do find a ball it takes alot of effort to move it at all with a full swing. Let alone try anything or have a hampered swing.

 

[Imurg]

How deep do you guys reckon the rough should be under trees?


I ask because at my track in some places, no more than 5 or 6 paces from the edge of the fairway the trees start and the rough is knee deep.
To me the hazard there is the trees and you are punished by having to hack out, or you try a Seve escape shot and often with a hampered swing.
It just isn't possible at present and if you do find a ball it takes alot of effort to move it at all with a full swing. Let alone try anything or have a hampered swing.

THis was one of my points - it's penalty enough being in the trees, not having a shot to the green, having to hack out - why slow things up by growing the rough..

Kind of different if they haven't had time to get to it - see earlier post.

 

[DaveM]

Don't care how deep the rough is. I very rarely go in it (I don't hit it that far) :rofl:

 

[Shanks a lot!]

Went on our course last night, and 4 or 5 yards either side of a few fairways was the longest rough i've seen since I started playing. Anything less than perfect position was truly punishing, and I lost 3 balls. Was not happy, but with the rest of the course looking in good nick I won't get on the greenkeeper's back about it.

 

[thecraw]

Knee high, bring it on , never met any jungle I couldn't eventually hack out of! With these new cheating handicap laws the worst I'm going to have on my card is a double bogey - and I can do that from the middle of the short stuff quite easily as well!