How do you handle disappointment on run down courses

[Jackal66]

My Son & the school team played on a horrible course  today. 

We usually  don't  play against this particular school, but thought it would be good practice.

All the greens were dead with mold, fungus,  weeds, and sod all over them. 

My Son usually shoot -2 / +3 on the local  courses.

The other  kids are a little over par.

They couldn't  score at all on this course.

I told  them it was a 'walking driving range", but  they were still down about it.

Below  are some pics.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Jackal66

[caniac6]

Just have to accept it, and do the best you can. Same course for both teams.

[Jackal66]

5 minutes ago, caniac6 said:

Just have to accept it, and do the best you can. Same course for both teams.

That's pretty much what we told them.

The home team was used to it, and knew which side to aim for ,etc.

Depending on the bounce, you have to take  what it gives you.

[FredZollner]

A coaches' agreement to treat the entire course as GUR? (That whole section of the green would be GUR in any legit tournament imo.)

[Abh159]

Played on courses much, much worse than that when I was in high school. I'm talking places where the "greens" were literally just mounds of dirt/sand with the occasional patch of grass on it. If those are the worst conditions the team encounters they should consider themselves lucky.

 

At the end of the day you just have to do the best you can and then move on. No point in worrying about something you can't control. As someone else said earlier... both teams had to play on it. 

[Kmagnuss]

At the end of the day they got to play golf for free.  Could be worse.

[sprcoop]

I tough it out for 18 and never go back. 

 

Was looking forward to playing "Rio Rico" an Robert Trent Jones, Sr. track south of Tucson.  The pics on the website were beautiful.  Got there and the driving range was knee high weeds, the range balls were 30 years old passed out in rusty coffee cans.  Only the front nine was open, looked abandoned, and there was a guy mowing the course with a Craftsman push mower.

 

The greens were so bad we played anything in the steel was good.  The pic you showed could have been Augusta by comparison.

 

I think it's completely closed now.

[Tupperwolf]

Rub o' the green laddie.

 

We are pretty spoiled these days.  Imagine what Old Tom Morris had to work with before he discovered top-dressing.  Bare dirt greens full of rabbit holes and sheep hoof prints.  Not to mention the other stuff sheep leave behind.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Tupperwolf

[TCGolfer35]

1 hour ago, Jackal66 said:

My Son & the school team played on a horrible course  today. 

We usually  don't  play against this particular school, but thought it would be good practice.

All the greens were dead with mold, fungus,  weeds, and sod all over them. 

My Son usually shoot -2 / +3 on the local  courses.

The other  kids are a little over par.

They couldn't  score at all on this course.

I told  them it was a 'walking driving range", but  they were still down about it.

Below  are some pics.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Looks brutal but nothing you can do! Just gotta do your best and never go back. 

[elwhippy]

Beer is good.

[VNutz]

I try to think, "I could just go to work". That usually fixes it. A bad day on the course, or a day on a bad course is so much better than most days elsewhere.

[miamistomp]

1 hour ago, Kmagnuss said:

At the end of the day they got to play golf for free.  Could be worse.

 What da ya want for nothing? ... a rubber biscuit?

[Jackal66]

Thanks for the good replies everyone.

I'll  show this to my Son and this will lighten the mood.

[MtlJeff]

This happens in other sports too, as others have said sometimes you just have to play on the field you have and deal with it. I played HS football and basketball...we played on courts where the 3pt line got cut off due to lack of space at one school LOL. I played on football fields that were basically dirt.

 

It's high school--it builds character!

[ssp]

A new experience and new appreciation for their own home course.

[bobfoster]

Actually - another viewpoint here.

 

While the kids wouldn't choose it on purpose, it is a fantastic invitation to practice what ordinarily wouldn't be. A whole course full of raw, spotty, terrible conditions. Thing is, on most courses, even the best, there are occasionally bad conditions. Bare ground. Small gnarly spots on the odd fairway. Ugly places under trees, or where spectators have stomped stuff down. 

 

Almost no one, however, practices for that. They hit off of flat mats or level grass at ranges. Out of nice sand in practice traps. 

 

There's a story about Tiger when he was young. Now and then as part of practice, he'd take entire buckets of balls and dump them in the absolutely worst places he could find on a course. Let them roll randomly into bad lies. On purpose. Into disgusting muddy ditches. Next to water hazards that gave him almost impossible stances. On fairways so bare they were little other than hard dirt. Almost no one practices like that. He did. 

 

The courses he played as a pro were obviously in better condition than almost any courses amateurs get to play. Courses will often prepare for weeks getting ready for a stop on the pro tour. They all want to appear at their best. But they almost all wind up having a few odd spots where things are as bad as the pictures of the course your son played. Tiger had the apparently miraculous ability to get himself out of horrible trouble. But it wasn't miraculous. He practiced getting out of horrible trouble.

 

So - just a thought, should your son encounter such conditions again. With the right attitude, the apparent curse of a really bad course can be turned into an almost fun opportunity to practice shots that he'd probably never deliberately practice. 

 

My $0.02

Edited September 15, 2021 by bobfoster

[Jackal66]

5 hours ago, bobfoster said:

Actually - another viewpoint here.

 

While the kids wouldn't choose it on purpose, it is a fantastic invitation to practice what ordinarily wouldn't be. A whole course full of raw, spotty, terrible conditions. Thing is, on most courses, even the best, there are occasionally bad conditions. Bare ground. Small gnarly spots on the odd fairway. Ugly places under trees, or where spectators have stomped stuff down. 

 

Almost no one, however, practices for that. They hit off of flat mats or level grass at ranges. Out of nice sand in practice traps. 

 

There's a story about Tiger when he was young. Now and then as part of practice, he'd take entire buckets of balls and dump them in the absolutely worst places he could find on a course. Let them roll randomly into bad lies. On purpose. Into disgusting muddy ditches. Next to water hazards that gave him almost impossible stances. On fairways so bare they were little other than hard dirt. Almost no one practices like that. He did. 

 

The courses he played as a pro were obviously in better condition than almost any courses amateurs get to play. Courses will often prepare for weeks getting ready for a stop on the pro tour. They all want to appear at their best. But they almost all wind up having a few odd spots where things are as bad as the pictures of the course your son played. Tiger had the apparently miraculous ability to get himself out of horrible trouble. But it wasn't miraculous. He practiced getting out of horrible trouble.

 

So - just a thought, should your son encounter such conditions again. With the right attitude, the apparent curse of a really bad course can be turned into an almost fun opportunity to practice shots that he'd probably never deliberately practice. 

 

My $0.02

Great way to look at it.👍👍👍💯💯💯

[MattyO1984]

Two things I would take from it, one gratitude from the fact that the course or courses they usually play are better than this. For some people, this course might be as good as it gets and I am sure that they still enjoy their golf and are proud of their patch. It might not be Augusta but it’s their course and that is good enough.

 

Second as Bob has said above, it’s a huge learning experience. The more conditions that they can play in at a younger age the better - there is no doubt about. 

[phizzy30]

You guys should come out here and play Victoria Lakes in Carson.  The city stopped pouring money into it so the only green parts of the course are some of the tee boxes and most of the greens.  Aside from that, there is no fairway or rough, just a bunch of dead grass and dirt on what should be the fairway and rough.  Played there once last year and never going back there again.  

[DonatelloNobodie]

Everyone plays the same course.  How one approaches and deals with difficult conditions say a lot about mental and physical skills.  Expecting perfect conditions and whining about poor ones is not indicative of a mature golfer.

[ArtMBgolf]

If anyone plays a lot of golf, they will encounter worse than expected 
conditions at times, even paying real $$$ for a good course with
aerated greens, cart path only for overseeded wet fairways, etc.        

[Primo1868]

As others have said, just need to stick to playing the best game they know how. This was pretty similar to my high school golf experience at some clubs. We’d go there and beat them on their turf, then they’d come to our 4/5 star course and get stomped on our turf!