Playing better on longer / harder courses

Tongo

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Anyone else find they do this? I seem to play better on courses that are longer / harder. I guess its a psychological thing where I concentrate more whereas on courses that are shorter / easier (in my mind) I probably don't focus as much and make sloppy mistakes.
 

Orikoru

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Not really. Depends how good my fairway woods are working. Before I found the Cobra F9s I had literally no long game at all off the deck so longer courses would kill me. Since I got them I can finally hit a fairway wood though so at least I have a chance.
 

MadAdey

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I read a study on this subject as to why this happens with a lot of average golfers and it did make a lot of sense.

On harder courses what they noticed is that players stared to use a variety of clubs off the tee as they put a emphasis on keeping the ball in play as opposed to getting it out there as far as possible. When going for the green players started concentrating more on just finding the middle of the green rather thah hitting at flags, so they swung easier as they increased the target size and that in turn increased the margin of error, so a bad shot did not end up in as much trouble.

On long courses that are played they found that the average golfer did not have the distance to find the trouble from the tee and also the longer course tended to be more open so the wayward drives would not get in so much trouble. But with the fairways being more open it enabled players to just hit hte ball and not be so worried about what trouble their ball might end up in.

That was it in a nutshell. There was lot more to it and it went indepth more into the phsychological factors, but who wants to read all of that.
 

Slab

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^^^^^
The above makes sense

For me, I play 'better' in that I don't have so many shots in trouble and don't lose many balls
Unfortunately it also means I use all my handicap just getting to the greens, so lots more 1 pointers even though I might keep the same ball all day
 

RichA

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Our course is just over 6600 yards and hilly. I guess I've got used to it, but I've heard visitors describe it as a brutal slog.
Not much margin for error on 450 yard par 4s and 600 yard par 5s.
I quite like the look of some of the courses the YouTubers play, where every par 4 seems to be 320 yards and every par 5 is reachable in 2.
 

jim8flog

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When I was a relatively big hitter it made no difference to me - right club for the distance needed. So it came down to accuracy.

Now I am a relatively short hitter it does make a difference simply because I am needing a longer club with all the extra accuracy problems that means.
 

harpo_72

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So are we saying the whs system is not working because your scoring better than the shot allocation?
I don’t mind long courses, 450yards is 3 x 8 irons 500 is 2 x5 iron + 9 iron .. not really interesting golf but an easy way to go round in 18 over without stress.
But a par 3 or frequent par 3 in excess of 190yards, is a challenge! And that to me is how I judge the difficulty of a course. I look at the par 3 length and geography.. then I look at offset holes and if there isn’t an equal number of sub 380 yard par 4s it could be a challenge to score
 

Backache

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I have as many things go wrong with irons as with woods, taking irons of the tee on a par five would leave me in real trouble.
I have to use a driver.
 

Lord Tyrion

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I find I play better on harder courses, not necessarily on longer courses. Post #8 nails it, I concentrate more, I pick a target more. Pure length still kills me as I am not a long hitter so being long and hard stops a course being fun for me. As an example I played The Roxburghe off the whites in a strong wind at an Open. I was half the person by the end of the round but I am looking to go back and play it off the yellows. The course will still be tough but it wont be tough and long.
 

Oddsocks

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So are we saying the whs system is not working because your scoring better than the shot allocation?
I don’t mind long courses, 450yards is 3 x 8 irons 500 is 2 x5 iron + 9 iron .. not really interesting golf but an easy way to go round in 18 over without stress.
But a par 3 or frequent par 3 in excess of 190yards, is a challenge! And that to me is how I judge the difficulty of a course. I look at the par 3 length and geography.. then I look at offset holes and if there isn’t an equal number of sub 380 yard par 4s it could be a challenge to score

Interesting concept and one very relevant to my old course, maybe not on the club choice due to the undulations but I get the merit.it falls over when you get to cat 2 and on a non shot par 4 that’s 480 into the wind…. You get the picture.

By comparison that theory works very well at my current track. One par3 at 210 downhill , the rest are mid to long irons.
 
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I was lucky enough to play 4 Rounds over 2 days at Royal Liverpool a few years back, the first day was off the back tees and the course was only 200yds shorter than the set up for the Open.

I really enjoyed it and as others have said, my biggest worry was simply finding the fairway on most holes as the hazards were out of reach.

The 2nd day was off the yellows and I spent that day playing out of hazards for my 2nd shot.
 

harpo_72

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Interesting concept and one very relevant to my old course, maybe not on the club choice due to the undulations but I get the merit.it falls over when you get to cat 2 and on a non shot par 4 that’s 480 into the wind…. You get the picture.

By comparison that theory works very well at my current track. One par3 at 210 downhill , the rest are mid to long irons.
We have a 440 yd par 4 uphill and is more often into the wind, plus tiger line is protected by a bunker from 220-230 yards. Then into a ripply green.
It stops most getting there in 2, but where you lose there will be opportunities to gain
 

MadAdey

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We have a 440 yd par 4 uphill and is more often into the wind, plus tiger line is protected by a bunker from 220-230 yards. Then into a ripply green.
It stops most getting there in 2, but where you lose there will be opportunities to gain

This is great example where you have to play to your handicap. A hole that needs 2 big accurate shots, forget it as a par 4 for most and play it as a 5. Gaurantee you can more 4s on a hole like this and a lot less 6s if you play it as a a 5.
 
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