Played at my buddy’s club for a one day member/guest. It’s a classic Donald Ross style course, small greens, shorter in length. Wind was absolutely whipping, constant 15-20mph with much stronger breezes. The holes into the wind weren’t terrible because it’s not that long. Only really tough one was the 190 par three that I had to hit my 21 degree hybrid into because it was directly into the wind. It barely got there. For reference about the wind, on a prior hole with the wind and my ball sitting up in the rough I carried the same club ~230.
The greens were easily the fastest I’ve played all year. They had cut and rolled them and with the wind, good luck with a two putt. I’ve played this place a bunch and I knew everything was straighter than it looked. With how much faster they were I tried to account for more break but they were still pretty level. All of that to say, I only holed one putt over 12 feet.
I’m not the most articulate when using adjectives or analogies but sometimes green are hard like pavement and fast where a good iron shot will hit and bounce hard. These weren’t that. A good high iron shot would make a decent pitch mark and hold the green. I’ve been fortunate to play a bunch of places that have had tour events and these greens were all easily faster while having the same level of receptiveness. If that makes sense.
It was a two-ball event, gross and net. I think we finished 77/70. Nowhere close to winning. I was stroking on more holes than my partner and had a bunch of bogeys, net pars, and a couple pars, net birds. Guys we played with had played college golf so we knew we weren’t really going to compete to win but fun nonetheless.
I know what you’re talking about wrt to fast/hard greens.
Played one of my best rounds of the summer yesterday considering the guy who dug the holes was a diabolical asshole. Never seen pins in such ridiculous places, every one was either within 5 feet of the edge of the green or right on a slope or at the bottom or top of a slope, was crazy. A guy in the group had a putt on the 2nd hole that I think would have been physically impossible to keep the ball inside 12 feet if you didn’t hit the cup.
44-43 with 38 putts and four 3 putts, if we had some normal pin placements I probably shoot 83 which would be my lowest score in 5+ years. Irons were on fire, hit 9 GIR (I average 4 per round over my last 20) and had 3 holes where i went in the water off the tee but then hit the green off my drop and saved bogey. GIR on 4 of the 5 par 3s with two of those being inside 10 feet (missed the birdie putts of course)
What’s the general rule when you behind another group? When do you usually tee off? I wait until they are on the green or just when they are far enough you won’t be close to them?
Typically as soon as they’re done in the fairway and get in their cart and start driving away I’ll start my address. If they are like clearly out of my range (240+) I’ll just hit into them. My friend just hits into them no matter what and he’s like 300 carry off the tee so I always tell him he’s gonna kill someone someday and I won’t back him up in court.
I’ve played enough golf in my life that I’ve been hit a couple times. If I’m 300+ out and a ball rolls up to me in the fairway they’ll get a genuine “nice ball” if we converge or meet somewhere. Same thing if we’re on the green and the guys behind us are in “once in my life kind shot” range. They get a “nice ball”.
I’ve hit someone walking off the green once on a long par 5 where I smoked a 3w. I yelled “fore” as it was in the air and immediately went up and apologized saying I could have waited. I insisted I buy a round from the beer girl for them where they joked I could hit at them all day if I kept buying.
If I’m clearly in range and don’t get a “fore!” my reactions have ranged from chipping the ball back to them like 50 yards or so, plugging it into the fairway, or tossing it into water/the woods. Yeah, those things are passive aggressive and not in line with golf standards but getting hit with a ball fucking hurts, especially if you’re not gonna warn me.
Yea i’ve been hit twice. One rolled up so it was nbd but one hit me on the fly in the leg. I was standing 20 yards behind the green of a 90 yard par 3. Absolutely no fore. I was just like, “really man?” But it seemed like he had just somehow picked the wrong club and didnt know his yardages at all so i let it go.
One time though this group kept hitting into us and whizzing drives over our heads and I got so pissed off. I told them “look you can clearly see the group ahead of us, we cant play any faster. Can you just stop?” And then they kept doing it. At which point I started just hitting their balls off the fairway in random directions. They didnt really do anything about it though, which was weird. They also didnt stop. They seemed very drunk.
My typical reaction to the no-fore close call is to yell FORE extremely loudly back at them.
To answer the question. On par 3s I don’t hit until the carts are pulling away or if waking they’re 20+ yards off as I’ve come too close in the past (Same with irons from the fairway). Off the tee with driver I wait until I know I can’t reach them on my best swing. From the fairway to the green on par 5s I wait until they’re completely off if I’m trying to go for it. If I absolutely know I won’t reach I’ll let one roll up to 20 yards or so short.
The one sort of exception is on driveable par 4s. I play a course regularly that I hit maybe 5% of the time. It’s directly up a hill. It’s generally accepted there that it’s okay to tee off while people are on the green. On unfamiliar courses with holes like that I’ll usually always wait or the group in front will wave us up.
My drives are getting solid. I have a severe inconsistency problem on my 3/5 woods which I assume is just a lack of practice. Chipping game is getting better now that I focus on “lifting” the ball. Going on vacation to Michigan next week and probably going to bring the clubs to play a round. This game is addicting.
I know unsolicited golf advice is frowned upon, but I believe any instructor will tell you not to do/think this. Let the bounce and loft of the club do the work. You don’t need to “force” the ball into the air on standard type chip/pitch shots. At least IME when I use to do that I got too handsy with it. I don’t have the natural talent or time to practice that way. Now my chipping/pitching focuses on using my bigger arm/core muscles and just let the loft of the club I’m using do all the “lifting”.
Sounds like you’re just starting out and really like it so far. Awesome! It really is a fun game that is super humbling a majority of the time.
Golf, where I can get 9/11 up and downs including two from 40+ yards but cant get the ball off the ground otherwise. I think the longest shot i hit today was 140. I’m close to quitting, cant take many more of these kinds of days.
Going to go play my very easy par 59 to try to boost my confidence… if i have a bad round today this could honestly be it for me. I’ve never really been closer to quitting. I love the game but it does not love me. So tired of having days where i can’t advance the ball farther than 150 yards
Round from yesterday. Always happy with a sub 40 round here, even with 2 disaster holes. Nothing better than splitting the fairway and carding a triple on the 1st hole, lol. Continue to putt well thanks to the new grip I had installed, sorry I didn’t do it sooner.
Don’t quit @jmakin !! I’ve had the same thoughts numerous times but the golf addict in me always wins out. I still get extremely angry out there at times, need to learn that it doesn’t help anything.
Focus on one thing to work on when playing/practicing and just forget about the rest. I’m trying that now and it seems to help a bit. Still get angry though, just my nature. Good rounds are ahead for you, just look at some of your old posts.
At the very least, don’t quit this hobby til you find a new one.
Yea i had a bad weekend. I shot +18 yesterday which was pretty abysmal but good considering how many strokes i was losing tee to green, even on the par 3’s. My short game and putting are great, that’s what’s so frustrating. Get me around the green and I’m deadly within 100, really deadly within 50. But like, I just can’t really seem to get there. Every time i make progress it’s minimal and then it’s like i have forgotten everything and i can’t even hit the ball again.
Could be my head movement, could be not getting my weight through impact, or all of the above. Idc anymore. I’ve spent so much damn money on this game to just suck week after week.
I paused my lessons, gonna take a month to work out and get my head right and then maybe start hitting the range again, but it’s a big if. If i start working out and see some gains on the range then that could pull me back in. But i’m absolutely not going back to this game if my drive is 200 yards on a good day, it’s just not a fun way to play the game at all.what’s frustrating is i was bombing it out 240+ for a minute but i havent seen one of those in weeks.
What’s also funny is i made two birdies yesterday and some really good shots and that still wasn’t enough to change my mind. I cant drive the ball.
