Easy course vs hard course and impact on your game

[jetandollie]

I played for the last 3 years with my home course at 6,750 yards with a rating of 72.1 and a slope of 130. 

 

I've recently switched to the smaller 9 hole course in town that as an 18 hole course plays at 5,820 yards with a rating of 68 and a slope of 118. 

 

The switch was for two reasons:

 

1. The smaller town course allows dogs and I can get around in ~90 minutes or less walking (9). With work season picking up now, time is in a crunch, and golf is just better with dogs when possible. 

 

2. Other course has become more tourist focused, rounds averaging 5 hours, oddly for $130 vs $35, it's in worse shape than the town course. 

 

Putting personal enjoyment and fun on the side (the small course is more peaceful) I was playing today and wondering if you get good and consistently play well at an easy course, is it harder for your game to travel to other difficult courses rather than if you were always playing the more difficult course?

[blades_are_life]

My personal guess would be that it depends on whether the easier course lulls you into a sense of complacency or whether it gives you the space to consolidate internal self-belief.

[North Butte]

If "easy" means you can play completely brain dead, out in an open field, with no judgement or planning needed before each shot that's boring golf. It will come entirely down to avoiding bad execution. 

 

If "easy" means a course is within your ability to tear apart when each hole is played in a specific way but it will still cost you strokes when you play the wrong shots, that can be fun. 

 

Put another way, I'm a 12-handicap. I've not much interest in a course where I can play badly, hack the ball around, make zero decisions other than what club to pull and still shoot 82 or 84. But I love courses where on a bad day I might shoot 85+ but they're "easy" enough that on my best day I can go low in the mid-70's. 

[jdl]

I made a similar switch to you, happened during covid. Was playing at a pretty tough track, blue tees were 72.9/132, very much a target golf course with lots of "environmentally protected" hazards, etc. When they shut down for covid, they wouldn't pro-rate memberships for that season despite being closed for 6 weeks, so I went back to a course I'd played previously. Much shorter, par 70 that is 68/119 from the middle tees. Pluses are that it's much cheaper, I can walk it for $54 on weekends ($35 during the week at the "senior" rate!). This course is still pretty tight on many holes so you do have to keep it straight but overall much easier. 

 

I do think an easier course will lead to a more aggressive mind set. At my old course, breaking 80 felt like a huge achievement whereas now I can play what feels like a terrible round and still be in the low 80s. I do notice when going to play at harder courses it's a little tougher than when I was playing one regularly.

[RoyalMustang]

It "should" be the same from a handicap perspective. Of course anyone will shoot better on average for a 68/115 course than they will a 73/135. 

 

I find it comes down to personal strengths and weaknesses. If the course is tight and you are long off the tee but not crazy accurate, it may result in a higher overall score. Conversely, the longer, more wide open course favors that type of player. 

 

I was on a really tough course for a year (74.5/145) that was only 6700 yards. It was super narrow. I don't think it made me a "better" player. What would have made me a better player there was to improve my swing and hit more fairways. That course almost seemed to be built for "old man" golf: hit it short but in the fairway. Longer players could go low but only if they were accurate off the tee; being good off the tee left you with a 50-yard pitch and a birdie chance: even missing the fairway by 5 feet left you with a punch and a prayer. 

 

I went back a few weeks ago and found it to be a bit easier: I was hitting the ball better as I had made some swing improvements. My new course is 73.6/134 at 7000 yards and it favors a different type of player. But mostly, my improvement was down to me making better swings. 

 

Just playing a really hard course didn't somehow improve my skill set.  Decision making? Perhaps, but I think these are important on even a course of moderate difficulty. The best courses will have multiple options. Crappy ones, like the one I mentioned above (hard/narrow) don't give you even a semblance of different shot options. It's "hit it here or else" golf, and that comes down to ball-striking skill. Play a course like that without the skills and you will just get frustrated, day after day. 

[tatertot]

You get better challenging yourself. Playing better competition and playing tougher courses is the path to improvement.

[Jeff58]

Having your dog is worth 2.4 strokes. Been proven 👍.

[ShortGolfer]

There are plenty of ways to make an easier course play tougher, particularly if you are playing on a 9 hole town course.

If play is slow that day, drop another ball and play worst ball instead of best ball.  Aim for the bunkers instead of away from them.

Play a Par 3s as very short Par 4s.  Can you consistently get up and down with a short sided lob shot?

Experiment with different shots out of the tee box.  How good is your 3W off the deck from the tee box?

 

I would play the 9 hole course and figure out how to make it challenging.

Edited July 28, 2023 by ShortGolfer

[RoyalMustang]

16 minutes ago, ShortGolfer said:

There are plenty of ways to make an easier course play tougher, particularly if you are playing on a 9 hole town course.

If play is slow that day, drop another ball and play worst ball instead of best ball.  Aim for the bunkers instead of away from them.

Play a Par 3s as very short Par 4s.  Can you consistently get up and down with a short sided lob shot?

Experiment with different shots out of the tee box.  How good is your 3W off the deck from the tee box?

 

I would play the 9 hole course and figure out how to make it challenging.

 

We have a course like that here: they let you go around as many times as you want if it's slow for your $15. 

 

I do what you are describing: play the first 9 from the regular tees, the 2nd 9 with only a handful of clubs, and the 3rd nine with some "rules" that will limit what I can do.

 

It's like going to the climbing gym and making routes tougher by doing a set route, then eliminating one hold from the route, then another, then another, until the problem becomes very, very difficult. 

[Kai Slater]

Easy course or hard course, I still suck at this game.  Any round I play, no matter where, I'm going to hit some good shots and some bad shots.   Problem with the harder (i.e. nicer) courses that I've played is most of them have forced carries over water/sand/marsh, which messes me up quite a bit since I favor the bump'n'run approaches.  Our local muni courses, although not as "nice" often have smooth hazard free approaches in front of the greens, allowing for the ground game.  

[kobe123]

IMO, you can get good anywhere. Now with this course being shorter, you're going to get better with shorter irons and hopefully have more scoring opportunities. With this, I recommend practicing long irons occasionally. The last thing you want to do is hit a bunch of short irons, then go to a longer course and struggle with long irons.

 

I did the opposite of you, I just joined a course with a course rating of 76.7/148. I've noticed I've gotten much better because it takes a lot more focus. Do I score better in terms of an overall lower score? Absolutely not. Do I travel to other courses and think they are easier, absolutely. 

[SNIPERBBB]

Harder courses force you to get better or you will just be perpetually lost in the woods. You'll have to learn to be more accurate and hit more shot types than what's required at an easier course. 

[ferrispgm]

Easy courses are great for learning how to score, boost confidence, and a great place to try and take whatever it is you are working on at the range to the course.  I don't find them helpful when trying to improve the quality of player you are though.  IMO, if you want to become a good player and have a game that travels, that is best done on a tough course.

 

What works for me is this:  Get a lesson, work on the range and play some easy muni's for a couple months while working on it.  Then once it's going decent, take it to a tougher course.  Once it's pretty well ingrained I try to play tougher courses until I have a few bad rounds then back to the easier courses.