The Great Stableford Experiment

[Tiger]

Lmao! Ah the comedy genius. You guys bring much humour into my oft grey world

 

[RGDave]

Some holes are genuine lay up holes, others are long wide open holes. Dont worry about it so much, in fact make out a strategy now, ie what you want to do off each tee, forget the rest, you cant plan for 50 yard tops and out of the screws drives.

This is the thing, isn't it? It's one thing to have a plan and another to be able to adapt it "live" on a shot-by-shot basis. That is where experience counts.

I went out with a plan t'other day in a stableford over an Open Q course. Everything was on target until the 5th, which went horribly wrong, but I had a putt for a point, so at least I had a chance. The next 3 are extremely tough holes for me but I've worked out my strategy over many, many years and it paid off with comfortable bogey-par-bogey. Just a point off target (overall), I reached the 9th, clipped a tree narrowly off target (it's a med-long par 3) and made 5 out of nowhere, mainly because my ball dropped into an unplayable. These things happen. That made me 3 points adrift, which was my finishing score.

There is nothing at all I could have done differently on the two holes (par 3s) because sometimes you've got to hit the club for the green, especially when there is 90% gorse and rough to the apron.
So, 16 holes played 1 shot better than planned and 2 doubles with no points on two par 3s....

Rather oddly, I was actually very pleased. I attacked when I could and made all the right moves to avoid disaster. Sometimes it goes like this. Best strategy came on the very last hole of the day. 195 to the last green (par 4), but with a cross bunker large enough to bury a house, so a carry would need to be high enough at 180-ish. I laid up with a 7 iron. Not the most exciting play, but a guaranteed 5. To do this kind of thing though, you need to trust your swing (I hit the 7 into an area smaller than a green) and knew 95% that the remaining 40-50 yards was only going to take 3 shots, maybe 2.

 

[Smiffy]

A few years ago now, a group of us visited Old Thorns in Hampshire for the week-end. The starter was really helpful and a mate of mine (Ray Taylor) bought him a pint and sat down with him prior to our first game. Ray pulled out his strokesaver and the guy was giving him pointers on the best way to play each hole, where to drive to, where to lay up etc. etc. Ray duly marked his strokesaver with little crosses and felt confident that he had the upper hand over the other 7 guys in the group.
I think the knob came last over 4 rounds.
My how we laughed....