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Goals in golf

trumb1mj

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Dec 19, 2007
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My goal was to be a .500 hitter at breaking 80, and at 65, I'm still close to being that.

This season I got out into the deep water and put up a 74, my best round in at least a decade. That's hardly typical, however. Dropping a putt for 79 is an elation, and frankly, always has been.

Playing several times a week as a retiree is helpful in keeping it together.

If I played mostly weekends as when I was still working, my game would have diminished a lot more, I'm pretty sure.


Earlier this season I played a course that I had only shot in the 70s on a handful of times. I struggled all the way around the course and never really added them up. Sank a long putt on the 18th and went to the bar for a cold one.

My buddy added them up and said, "79". I about shat my pants. Golf :)
 

xamilo

Right Curving Driver....
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Dec 22, 2007
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exactly my point. Moving up a tee box or 2 doesn't make you better at course management.

Most courses I have played won't make a big difference if I changed the tees. A 230 to a 280 hole would mean I use my Driver instead of my 3W (which I'm actually more comfortable with), will land on a similar spot and take the same 7 strokes to reach the hole for a triple bogey :D
 

EHokie

They Like it When I Wag
Jun 24, 2008
228
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Charlotte, NC
Earlier this season I played a course that I had only shot in the 70s on a handful of times. I struggled all the way around the course and never really added them up. Sank a long putt on the 18th and went to the bar for a cold one.

My buddy added them up and said, "79". I about shat my pants. Golf :)

Those are the moments that keep us fools coming back for more ;)
 

Augster

Rules Nerd
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Mar 9, 2005
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Not to be daft, and not to cap on anyone, but to claim any golfer wouldn't shoot lower scores and play a faster round from far forward tees is ridiculous.

If you played a 30 yard hole and called it a par 4, how often would you birdie? If you played a 600 yard hole and called it a par 4, how often would your birdie? The par is the same, the only thing changed is the yardage.

The smaller the distance a golfer, any golfer, has to cover from tee to green the more likely that golfer is to keep his ball in play.

I have always said golfers should play the far forward tees, ladies/reds what have you, until they are shooting par or better 8/10 times. Then move back a set.

Most golfers would never move back to the next set.

Then the claim of "I have to play the tips to be challenged" is bunk also. Playing the tips and shooting anything above the course rating means you aren't playing the correct tees. You should be challenging par every time out. If you aren't, move up until you are. Playing the "whole course" is fun, I do it every time I play a new course or a course I don't play often. But I know I shouldn't be playing them, I'm not good enough. I'm long enough, absolutely, but length (how far you hit it) shouldn't add in at all. What you are going to score should be the determiner of which tees to play. If you say, "Well if I have a good day I should break 85", move up until you say, "If I have a good day I should be around 67-68". If you can't say that from the farthest forward tees, at least you can say, "I'm as far forward as they'll let me go. I guess I'll play from here."

Now I can see if you are practicing for a tourney or whatnot, then yes, play those tees to practice from there. Get your sight lines down etc. Regular rounds out with your pals? Red tees until you are good enough to move back.

Shooting around par, or under par, is a LOT of fun. It's WAY more fun to do from the tips than it is from the reds. But if you have ZERO chance of shooting even or better from the tips, or the blues, or the whites, keep moving forward and play the game it is supposed to be played. By putting a ball in play, putting it on the green, and either making birdie or par and moving on.

That's golf.
 

BigJim13

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Aug 13, 2006
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Not to be daft, and not to cap on anyone, but to claim any golfer wouldn't shoot lower scores and play a faster round from far forward tees is ridiculous.

If you played a 30 yard hole and called it a par 4, how often would you birdie? If you played a 600 yard hole and called it a par 4, how often would your birdie? The par is the same, the only thing changed is the yardage.

The smaller the distance a golfer, any golfer, has to cover from tee to green the more likely that golfer is to keep his ball in play.

I have always said golfers should play the far forward tees, ladies/reds what have you, until they are shooting par or better 8/10 times. Then move back a set.

Most golfers would never move back to the next set.

Then the claim of "I have to play the tips to be challenged" is bunk also. Playing the tips and shooting anything above the course rating means you aren't playing the correct tees. You should be challenging par every time out. If you aren't, move up until you are. Playing the "whole course" is fun, I do it every time I play a new course or a course I don't play often. But I know I shouldn't be playing them, I'm not good enough. I'm long enough, absolutely, but length (how far you hit it) shouldn't add in at all. What you are going to score should be the determiner of which tees to play. If you say, "Well if I have a good day I should break 85", move up until you say, "If I have a good day I should be around 67-68". If you can't say that from the farthest forward tees, at least you can say, "I'm as far forward as they'll let me go. I guess I'll play from here."

Now I can see if you are practicing for a tourney or whatnot, then yes, play those tees to practice from there. Get your sight lines down etc. Regular rounds out with your pals? Red tees until you are good enough to move back.

Shooting around par, or under par, is a LOT of fun. It's WAY more fun to do from the tips than it is from the reds. But if you have ZERO chance of shooting even or better from the tips, or the blues, or the whites, keep moving forward and play the game it is supposed to be played. By putting a ball in play, putting it on the green, and either making birdie or par and moving on.

That's golf.

I respect your opinion. Not disagreeing that by playing a shorter course will take less time, not sure where that came from. Generally it will but not always.

My argument all along is that by moving up one or two sets of tees will not affect your score as much as some seem to think. All things being equal, unless you have a solid short game, if you move up one or two tees I would be willing to be money you score within 3 strokes of what you normally score from the original set of tees.

That's my arugment in a nutshell. Now obviously if the tees are 100 yds apart that will make a larger difference, but almost every course I have ever played there has been at MOST a 20 yd difference between the red (forward) tees and the Blacks (tips). 20 yards per hole and I would argue for most golfers, will not make that much difference in score UNLESS you have a solid short game.
 

nututhugame

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It's not, "I have to play the tips to be challenged." It's, "I play the tips because it brings more hazards into play for me." And Augster, I get 4 or 5 on par 3's as easily as I do par 4's. Shorter does not mean easier. If one cannot hit a green with a short iron, or takes 3-4 strokes to get down from just off the green it makes what tee boxes they play less relevant. especially if they are a long hitter from the tee.
 

TEA Time

Grumpy Gilmore
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My goal is to replicate Ben Hogan's swing, without it looking anything like Ben Hogan's swing.
 

Augster

Rules Nerd
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Mar 9, 2005
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I play a short course, 6371 from the tips, par 71. From the reds it's 5152, an 81 yard average per hole and I'd say that is more typical from back tees to front tees. More so on bigger courses. Your average lady can only hit it so far.

One also has to think big picture. In the short run, you will score similiarly as you have your current short game. Shorten up the course, and you will be faced with many, many more chipping/short pitch situations. The more practice you have at them, the better you will become. Long term, you'll end up with a better short game if you ever want to score from the upper tees.

And once you score well from the front tees, it'll make it easier to score from every set of tees as you will have honed your short game and your wedge game in order to be able to shoot even par 8/10 times from the front tees.

And if everyone did this, there would be no "shame" in playing the upper tees. It's like the 3-wheel push cart. 5 years ago you'd laugh at someone pushing one. It looked stupid on the course. Now I rarely see anyone walking that isn't using a 3-wheel, and now 4-wheel push carts. The stigma of push carts being only for ladies has changed.

So I do agree, that in the short term, a player would shoot scores from the front tees that would be within a shot or two of his average of from the "men's" tees. It's very immasculating. But over time, say 50-100 rounds, I would expect the player's average score to be substantially less. Their course management would be better and their short game would be better which are both skills that will transfer to all tee boxes.
 
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csmartin85

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Aug 26, 2012
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I played the front nine of Homeplace today and shot 43. I didn't hit my irons very well and my 3 wood was problematic again. On a positive note, I hit my driver well and putted well. It was my first round in a week and I felt a little rusty. I finished the last 4 holes par, par, par, par.
 

thekid65

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Jan 2, 2009
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I respectfully disagree. I feel like distance is the deciding factor on which set of tees to play. Some guys hit it long and would be playing driver-wedge on every par 4. Longer hitters use the back tees to force the rest of their clubs out of their bag. Driver / 80yd wedge gets old, whether I'm hitting the green or not.

You get to see more different shots playing an appropriate length course. You should be using most of your clubs, you know? If we're all in agreement that short game is everything, the length of the course shouldn't be so dependent upon scoring, no? Miss a green from 160 or 130, still trying to get up and down for par.

Longer hitters playing from the whites aren't getting to play golf, really, IMO. I respect your opinion and I see where you're coming from, but I disagree.

If he is hitting the fairway everytime, and having a wedge into every green, and still playing in the 90's, than he obviously needs the practice with his short game. I seriously doubt hes in the fairway all the time being how relatively short he's been playing. I'm wagering a lot of his long drives are significantly left or right, to where hes playing a lot more distance than 80 yds on his second.

I guess I just get very irritated playing behind a foursome that's playing from tee-boxes that are obviously well beyond their game. I expect people playing from the tips to be shooting in the 70's consistently...and if you arent, dont make me wait on you because you're playing beyond your ability.
 

BigJim13

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[quote="thekid65, post: 379144, member: 5734

I guess I just get very irritated playing behind a foursome that's playing from tee-boxes that are obviously well beyond their game. I expect people playing from the tips to be shooting in the 70's consistently...and if you arent, dont make me wait on you because you're playing beyond your ability.[/quote]

And this goes back to my original statement, I dont care what tees you play as long as you don't hold up play.
 

nututhugame

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If I shortened up the course it wouldn't present me with any more or less chipping situations, all it would do is make me hit whatever club would leave me with 115 yards in from the tee. From the ladies tees I would never hit a driver except maybe on par 5's and probably not even then. All that would do is make me better at hitting less than driver off of the tee with a perfect lie that I can create. I'm not dumb enough to go pound a club that's going to leave me with 65 yard shots.... who does that?
I put a premium on a full swing approach and I pretty much live or die by it unless i'm dying by the driver and not even getting to that point. And if I am dying by the driver i'm playing recovery golf anyways which is really an entirely different game and usually puts my short game a lot more into play that day. Those days i'm surviving rather than scoring anyways and it still wouldn't matter if I moved up one tee box.
 

trumb1mj

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Dec 19, 2007
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If I shortened up the course it wouldn't present me with any more or less chipping situations, all it would do is make me hit whatever club would leave me with 115 yards in from the tee. From the ladies tees I would never hit a driver except maybe on par 5's and probably not even then. All that would do is make me better at hitting less than driver off of the tee with a perfect lie that I can create. I'm not dumb enough to go pound a club that's going to leave me with 65 yard shots.... who does that?
I put a premium on a full swing approach and I pretty much live or die by it unless i'm dying by the driver and not even getting to that point. And if I am dying by the driver i'm playing recovery golf anyways which is really an entirely different game and usually puts my short game a lot more into play that day. Those days i'm surviving rather than scoring anyways and it still wouldn't matter if I moved up one tee box.

I read something recently about that mentality: 65 yards vs. a full club shot. I think it was a golf digest article about hitting it as far as possible from unreachable locations--like on a par 5.

The article was advising giving yourself those short tweener shots versus a comfy 100 yard shot.

I have always played golf to the 140-150 range to try and increase fairways hit and give myself a nice 9i to the green. It really puts a premium on fairway woods and irons off the tee.

I'm not sure which philosophy to use but some experts definitely think hitting it as far as possible is the way to go...
 

MCDavis

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My goal is to replicate Ben Hogan's swing, without it looking anything like Ben Hogan's swing.
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