Poll: Equipment rollback at your home course?

[Shupe]

The distance debate has been fairly heated lately.  I am curious to see how many people believe their home course would play better in terms of design if the ball flew shorter only off of the tee.  A lot of the focus has been on the professional game, but I believe this is not be the correct target for an equipment rollback.

 

Almost all of the cross bunkers and design characteristics of my home course are out of play if you can carry the ball 275+ from the back tees, which many of our members can do.  
 

Also, many of the new courses are taking up a major footprint in order to combat distance.  In my opinion the game would be far more sustainable if distance off the tee was limited in some way.

 

Note: I put this in general golf due to the wide range of variables associated with this post outside of just equipment.

[MtlJeff]

i wrote other because i don't think it's all related to swing speed. 

 

My course is awesome, our original 18 is one of the best courses in Quebec. Even a long (amateur) hitter will use most of their clubs during a round. The back 9 you can only see 2 flags from the tee box, lot of doglegs , thick pines etc. 

 

A pro would likely destroy it because pros are pros. 

 

But even the top Quebec ams considered it one of the tougher tests out there when it hosted tournaments. So i'm going with a hard no on making it more interesting. It's plenty interesting now

[Warrior42111]

I also voted with other. I do not have a home course so I play around my area.  Not thinking in general of my personal game but the average golfer:

 

I think playing the appropriate tees is a factor. Also considering that most golfers can't break 100 is another big factor, making the game much more difficult for the majority who struggle anyways to appease the 10% who maybe can bomb it up or over hazards seems like it would cause issue with pace among other things.

 

The foot print can be mitigated, at least for the average hack like me with tighter wooded designs. doglegs with tall trees or trouble close enough that it will always lead to more conservative club play, again from the average golfer. A great player who is both long and straight will destroy any course when on. But again what percentage of golfers fall into that category?

 

To the equipment rollback idea, I just don't agree with it being useful. I mean COR max has been around since 2003 I think? Penalizing someone for being bigger, faster, stronger just seems like a poor move. Anyways we have the handicap system so if someone didn't have to deal with hazards on a couple holes it could be reflected there as a part of their game as a whole.

 

Back to the original question thinking of the holes of courses I frequent, yeah some holes can be taken advantage of, others not so much or become more boring. Reaching risk reward par 5 vs a true 3 shot par 5 as one example where it works the other way. So it kind of becomes a wash in interesting holes lost to gained imo.

[scooterhd2]

No, the last thing I need is more trouble off the tee.

[BombinJim]

No way my course (Savannah Harbor) would play “better” if the ball flew shorter. The tips are nearly 7300 yds, we have a 660 yd Par 5, wind is always a factor, fairways are often saturated with rain so no roll, etc. From a hazard perspective, the fairway bunkers would still be in play and water hazards would be more challenging to clear. The green defenses would be exaggerated too having a longer club to reach GIR.

[dmecca2]

My course is filled with better players. We fill a team of 12 guys with no one above scratch and we host 6 man matches from other clubs. If the ball flew shorter off the tee, the back tees would be unplayable. Our forced carries are already long and our par 3's already stretch from 190 to our longest of 240. Furthermore, when the older players play the member tees, all of the trouble is still in play for them. If they hit the ball shorter off the tee there's no way they could carry our trouble. 

 

When I look at the courses around the area, there is definitely one course that would favor a rollback. An older course built on a smaller plot of land, when a bomber shows up there it's easy to pick the course apart off the tee, but the greens are very difficult and defend against low scores. If I hit the ball shorter off the tee there, some bunkers and trees would be in play and make the course more difficult. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by dmecca2

[SNIPERBBB]

It would make a few holes here unplayable from anything but the senior/lady tees.

[Krt22]

Nope, its already long enough that very few even play from the tips. 

[clevited]

On 1/19/2021 at 10:45 AM, Krt22 said:

Nope, its already long enough that very few even play from the tips. 

Diddo here.