Time for another test

[ezra76]

I'm gonna head down to a 9 hole track I haven't played in a while. I can't remember what the best I've shot there is but surely over 45. I was looking at the scorecard and chuckling, they only have one par 4 over 400 and the par 5 is 550 but all downhill to the green. Also there is a par 3 just over 200 but downhill. I've hit it with a 4iron in past, I think I should easily reach with a 6 now. I guess I'll see how much better I am than over a year ago. Probably shoot 51 and lose 4 balls now that I posted this.

You guys ever test your progress by playing different courses every few months or whatever?

[emc]

Of course. You have to play different courses in order to keep your handicap correct. Playing on the samecourse the whole time means that you learn all its kicks and 'no-go' areas so you'll score better on it

[demon]

I rarely play the same course on a regular basis. I try to cycle through the local courses as much as possible and once I find a course that is too crappy I never return for atleast one year, unless it is super cheap.

[JEFF4i]

I play about 3 different courses in circulation so that I don't get...bored of one. However, my home course is so difficult it is hard to.

[Eracer]

I play different courses all the time. I like the variety, and find that I have to think more about each individual shot, which I believe is a positive thing.

[ezra76]

Well I jinxed myself again. It was super slow, I had to wait for 4 4somes to tee off. It took 3hrs. to play 9. I shot 46 but was getting better at the end. Fades are slowly but surely turning into slices again.

[JEFF4i]

And this is a good thing?

I hate long rounds, finally around this year I am starting to play well even during them. Use to get to me really bad.

[Sandpiper3]

lol, i play better when things slow up, then i have less things to worry about (ie keeping up to the group ahead on faster days).

I play my home course alot, but i do get out and play other courses a good amount to. But probly played about 65% of my golf this year on my home course.

[Augster]

My game doesn't travel at all. It's like emc said. I know my home course's ins and outs and any day I shoot worse than 78 is a very bad day. Most times I can play shitty and still shoot 75.

Then I go to another course. Any other course. And bet with my (mostly) home course handicap, and just get killed. Sometimes I "have it" and can break 80, most times not. The first time I play a course, I RARELY break 85, and I'm supposedly a 6.

I just wish my game traveled a little bit better. But Ezra you are exactly on. It is fun to go to some "old tracks" after your skill have improved. Though, it is tough to score because in the back of your mind it's tough to get yourself to hit 2 clubs less into greens than before. Sometimes it just feels "wrong".

My home course 9 in my home town is a shitty little 9 holer that the ground is extremely hard with lots of roll. Par 33. No par 5's, 3 par 3's and all but 1 par 4 is driveable. On the first hole, 255 I used to hit driver, now I hit my 2-hybrid. The second hole, 285, I used to hit driver, now I hit 3-wood over if I hit it too good. 3rd hole 300 is also a 3-wood now. etc. etc. etc. Kind of fun, and much easier, but I sure hit over the greens for a while until I started to club down.

[Sandpiper3]

Then I go to another course. Any other course. And bet with my (mostly) home course handicap, and just get killed. Sometimes I "have it" and can break 80, most times not.

This was one thing i practised sooooo hard to get rid of. What you want is not so much play the course, but play the game. I started playing the course and got really good at my two courses i play alot, shooting scores like yours, and same as yours on other courses too.

As long as you can keep a solid mindset on any course, a 7i with a little wind at your back is the same on the local muni as it is at Augusta National (all though that would psyc anyone out that their score would skyrocket).

For tournaments, for me anyway, i can play the course once, and i have a photographic memory, so i can "hit" every shot on that hole, each side of the hole ive hit off that "general" kinda sloping fairway/rough, and i can get the idea of the course. Just play through the holes in your head and you can get to know it a lot quicker.

[IrishGolfer]

Over the years, with college, work and travel I have been lucky to play a lot of golf on a lot of different courses.

At my peak, when I was 18-19 I was great at my home club. Put me on another course and I folded like a deck chair. Put me on a links course and I couldn't play at all. I couldn't handle the wind, or play running shots.

Now 20 years later I have pretty much played over every terrain in most conditions and I think SandP is right, I play the shot now and not the course. I am as comfortable over links as I am parkland.

My index is not as low as it was but I think I am a better golfer overall. Sure I still have my favorite courses, where I always tend to play well, and some which for some reason I find it hard to post a number, but I do enjoy the variation and the challenges that go with it.

[Sandpiper3]

Put me on a links course and I couldn't play at all. I couldn't handle the wind, or play running shots.

How bad i want to go over the pond and play REAL links golf!!!!! anyone wana pay for my plane ticket over there??? donate to my experience?? I promise ill pay u back with my first PGA victory

[IrishGolfer]

That's why I admire TW, Watson, Jones, Hogan, Nicklaus and even Hefty. They had to come over from the US and learn how to play these shots in order to compete. Michelson hitting stinger 3 irons 10 ft off the ground, playing pitch and runs from 80 yards, putting from 60ft off the green, allowing for 6" of break on a flat putt becasue of how strong the wind is, playing from the finest powder sand, experience gorse etc.

The you get some dudes who say its not real golf, too much down to luck, unfair etc.

Champions play the course facing them and the challenges that come with it.

[Crossfire]

I for some reason don't have that problem, mostly because i set aside maybe 40 balls on the range, and "play a different course every day, i'll pick markers to where i have to hit my drive or lay up for a dogleg just on memory, and its decently fun. Weird look when you grab a different club for every ball though.