tough or easy golf couses

[lynchy76]

Hello i play mostly municipal golf courses in the West Midlands area ( due to budget) and a few people seem to say they are mickey mouse courses compared to private courses.
I have played on a lot of private courses : West Midland Golf Course, Widney Manor, Forest of Arden ( alyesbury), Wishaw and The windmill Village to name but a few and some think they are sometimes think they can be easier to play on due to the condition better fairways, green ect.
I started playing 4 years ago and have a 14.5 handicap according to golfshake website and have done some alright scores on private courses. I am thinking this a false handicap as I mostly play on municipal or shorter courses.

 

[G_Mulligan]

I don't know enough about it to explain exactly but courses have an SSS which tells you how tough or easy they are. If you can find these out they can give you a guideline on how your course compares. I do agree with you that good courses have better greens and fairways making it easier to hit shots but that just means I have nothing to blame if the greens are perfect.

I like my course as it is not too long but still some challenging holes and the greens are good (in the summer anyway)

 

[sweatysock41]

I know most of the courses you have mentioned, including most of the Birmingham municipals and Brandon Wood muni in Coventry. I would not describe the majority of them as easy. One or two are short but that is reflected in the SSS and par.

Certainly Windmill Village and Widney Manor I would describe as easier than say Pype Hayes or Cocksmoor Woods. Brandon Wood in Coventry is a very good test of golf and that is a municipal.

I am sure that there are others on here who will also know of muni's that are a good test - I know Thorpe Wood in Peterboro is highly thought of for a muni course. However, they do get a lot of traffic and sometimes, especially when the weather has been iffy that will affect your scores for the worse.

As for a dodgy handicap, when you entered your scores you will have entered the par and SSS for the course, that in conjunction with your score dictates your actual handicap. This would be the same no matter if it were a private or municipal.

 

[Herbie]

Answering the OP question...

If you mean tough as in poor quality I think everyone loses the will to give their best attention to a really naff course or in particular to naff greens so by that fact alone they become hard to play.

As for decent courses where you can clearly define between easy to play and hard due to the design, length and number of hazards, I tend to play better on harder courses in that sense. (But not always lol)

So I prefer tough courses as opposed to farmers fields.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I can make any course tough. I think any course with good greens will always be a better test than ones with poor ones. The same with the tee boxes bunkers etc. If a course is well maintained ad you play to the SSS then you've done well. A course with unreliable greens, poor surfaces to play off and bunkers like builders sites make it a lottery and even good ball striking rounds can be punished. My advice is do some homework and work out which are the best kept that you can afford to play. You'll enjoy it more if the course at least gives you a chance to score

 

[sweatysock41]

Answering the OP question...

If you mean tough as in poor quality I think everyone loses the will to give their best attention to a really naff course or in particular to naff greens so by that fact alone they become hard to play.

As for decent courses where you can clearly define between easy to play and hard due to the design, length and number of hazards, I tend to play better on harder courses in that sense. (But not always lol)

So I prefer tough courses as opposed to farmers fields.

I wouldn't describe the Municipals the OP was mentioning as 'Farmers Fields'
They are in the most part well looked after courses that just happen to get a lot more traffic than a private course. One of the private courses mentioned was built on a tip vents around the course to let the methane escape,now that one I would include as poor.

I totally agree with your statement that if a course is in bad nick you quickly become disheartened, but, going back to the OPs statement about 'Mickey Mouse' courses the municipals in the West Midlands are certainly not 'Mickey Mouse'.

 

[stevek1969]

I wouldn't say Municipal courses are easy far from it there's one in Dundee,Camperdown Park a cracking course and tighter than coats of paint in places.
You make what you can of it as thats where you play if thats your handicap the so be it ,keep it and enjoy your golf we've all got to play some place

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I've played some very tough muni's. The Downshire near me is one of the best in the country (was voted in the top 10 public courses a few years back) and is council owned and always in great condition even though it is often open in the winter when it shouldn't be. This time of year through to the heavy rains we get late November (or snow) it'll be a good test for most golfers.

 

[RGDave]

Hello i play mostly municipal golf courses in the West Midlands area ( due to budget) and a few people seem to say they are mickey mouse courses compared to private courses.

Mickey mouse isn't necessarily easy.

When I played in the "Birmingham Alliance" comps, the lads from the 9 hole and short courses always won....something to do with SSS/handicap I suspect.

I often played at Lickey Hills, Cocksmoor Woods, Pype Hayes and the one by the airport (Hatchford Brook?). Admittedly, my lowest rounds were silly low but my home course (Lickey Hills) was a tough bas... no matter how good you were.

 

[MashieNiblick]

The relative difficulty of golf courses is reflected in their SSS (Standard Scratch Score) which is what a scratch player is expected to shoot. It is not the same as par and a tough course will have a higher SSS than an easy course of the same par. SSS is worked out by a number of factors. Explanation here

http://www.congu.com/faqs/sss.pdf

Handicaps are assessed against SSS not par. The SSS can be adjusted in a qualifying competition for handicaps if conditions are paticularly easy or hard (calculated on the basis of the scores) to give a competition scratch score (CSS).

So if a handicap is properly calculated it should already take into account the relative difficulty of the courses on which the handicap scores were made.

Having said that I've played some really tough courses on which I doubt I could maintain my h/c and others on which I think I could maintain a lower one. I'd guess it's the same for most of us.

Generally it should be easier to play well on a well maintained course but if the course is harder to start with that might not necessarily result in a lower score.

If you've mainatined your handicap properly I wouldn't worry about what courses you're playing but maybe don't expect to beat your h/c when you get that once in a lifetime chance to tee it up on the tombstones at Turnberry.