When a course has you number

[PINGWRXforeme]

What to do?

I have one course in my area that I cant for the life of my play well at. It is very tight and the greens can be tricky, but I'm getting upset playing there. It always seems to get the best of me. Please help.

[MadGolfer76]

Do you like it, or is it a challenge you want to meet? The simplest solution is just - don't play there. If you want to meet the challenge, however, you have to play the shots that the course demands. Don't be playing draws on holes that require a fade. That sort of thing.

[JJK947]

You need to reevaluate your game plan on this course. Some details about the course and what shots you are struggling with on it would help.

But in general, one thing you can do is play the course backwards in your mind. Where are the safest areas of the green to putt (collection areas, mounds, ridges, etc)? Where is the best place around the green to miss (leave yourself uphill chip)? Where is the easiest area in the FW to approach the green from? Just ask your self some of these questions and see if you are playing the course properly for your game.

[RRFireblade]

Change it up completely, get a different look. Hit irons off tees you haven't and/or play from different parts of the box. Give it a different look so your not seeing the same things that have 'gotten' you in the past.

Plus its fun to do that anyway.

[SpinMill75]

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome...



Whatever you've been doing hasn't worked, so you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a game plan that will help you change your approach.



-spin

[_MS22_]

Why is it that you score badly there?

Do you struggle with all courses that are tight? Or is it more of a mental thing? If you normally play courses that are more open and you score better that is an easy fix, start hitting more fairways. I have a friend that plays a few local courses very very well, however when there is a qualifier or tourney at my club he blows up -- we have no bailout, no parallel fairways, nothing to save errant tee shots save for a friendly kick by the trees . . . and don't bank on that route. Me? I'd go there with my bag minus the driver, play a tee box or two up and go try to shoot the lights out.

That or make yourself a yardage book for the course, find out where you need to be on every hole from the tee, on layups, where on the greens not to miss, etc. There are a few courses, or holes on a few that do not suit my eye, and I'll normally hit hybrid off the tee and just hope for par and move on. If certain holes do not fit your eye/game why try to force scoring on them? You are going to make more pars than birdies, and par isn't all that bad anyway. Minimize the bleeding and get out of there!

[PINGWRXforeme]

Thx for the info. I'm going to try the completely different approach next time. Irons off tees and see what happens. This happens to be where I played in a leugue last year and will this year. It just bums me out that I can't get in the mid 30's here but seem to at other tracks.

[mctrees02]

I just went through the same thing with a course in DFW that I hate playing. Some of the problem is poor design on a few holes but in general my problem comes from getting in bad places off the tee by trying to bite off too much. I reached the 18th tee needing a par to beat my course best by 6 shots. Instead of knowing I had it in the bag, I pulled out a 4 iron on a 400 yard hole (with the pin in the back). I striped back to back 4 irons and just rolled through the green. I had a tricky chip to a back pin and got it to 8 feet. I missed the par putt but walked off with what was my low round on the course. I believe this was a direct result of drawing up a new gameplan for the track.

I'm a 10.5 index that typically hits 6 greens per round (33.1% over last 20 rounds). However on this course I average less than 4 greens/round. For the first round with the new plan, I hit 7 greens, averaged 2 putts/GIR, and bested my previous low score by 5 shots. I've got another tough course coming up in a tournament in a few weeks and I've already started working on a gameplan to score better on that track as well.

[bub72ck]

Completely OT but why is this subject in the courses, membership, and travel section? The OP never mentions a specific course and doesn't indicate he is a member there? I assume he traveled to get to the course so maybe that's it. Anyway, rant over.

As for the subject at hand, is the course difficult because its difficult or difficult because its unfair? We have a few courses around here that are hard becuase they don't reward good shots. I choose not to play them becuase I don't they give accurate feedback. Do you feel like you are hitting quality shots that aren't being rewarded properly?

[allegrolink]

I play one course each year that always kicks my butt. Not the hardest course but always my highest score.

It demands excellent long irons and hybrids into often small and always fast greens. This is not the best part of my game. Any length advantage I normally enjoy is taken away on four holes where water runs across the fairway and forces a 180 - 200 yard second shot even from my best drives. And then the greens are as tough as any course I play.

This year, I hope to improve my long iron play and be ready. Of course my chipping and putting need to be awesome to have a chance at getting it off the highest score honors

[joekelli]

I feel for you!!!! i have played one course the last 3 weeks and played great on the front. 38, 36, 41 and have shot 47 all three times on the back!

This is my old home course when I was in high school. It is driving me crazy and i really want to figure it out!

[mich_ping]

When I was in high school...there was a course that I had a lot of trouble with. We had to play it all of the time, since it hosted some tourneys and other events.
My coach gave me some good advice (that really only works when you play a course a bunch of times, and works better on a shorter course).

One round, he had me hit from the tee the club that I WANTED to hit into the green on a given hole. That would help me then by having to play my second shot with the club I woudl have to hit off the tee in a normal round. This was drastic, but it helped me. What he was trying to show me was that I do not have to hit driver on every hole and that when I don't hit driver, I need to pick my spots better.

What I found too was that I don't want to hit a SW into every hole. Some greens are tucked and require you to work a second shot around some trees. Some greens are sloped and spin may be an issue with a wedge...blah blah...

I am not suggesting my example, as that was a coach proving a point to a stupid kid that wanted to hit driver all of the time.

What I am suggesting that is that you do whatever you need to do in order to have a "game plan" for playing the course. Really know where you want to hit your tee shots to, what part of the green do you want to try to hit, etc.

The more you plan for a course and understand it, the less frightening the course becomes.

[lukesmurf59]

Strange as it seems, I prefer very difficult courses. I always seem to play just as good on them as on normal courses. There are definitely some courses I just always play bad at, most of them tend to be courses that favor a left-to-right ball. When we get to courses where the greens esp favor a draw, I can play just as good as an easy course and much better relative to the increase in scores that others see. I'm not as good on courses that are birdie fests.

My advice would be to find someone who loves the course and always plays it well there and play with him and follow what he does. try to mimick his style of play there. make sure he is on your handicap level though. If you're a fifteen don't follow around a scratch who will be playing a totally different game.

[Peter K.]

MODS: Did this thread REALLY need to be moved?

Over-moderation, IMO.

[wvuwhat]

There's a place here. 1757 Golf Club in Dulles, VA. It's maybe a mile or two from where I live. I have never had a good round there. It's always in good condition, but it's not fun to play. Plus, if you go there any time before noon, any day of the week, you're looking at a 6 hour round.

I've stopped after 4 or 5 holes and gone back into the clubhouse wanting a raincheck 2 times. I'm not usually a complainer, but if it takes 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours to get halfway through the front nine I'm not playing any more holes. Not to mention it's 100 or so a round.

I'd rather drive an hour and pay half the price and spend half the time on the course (read: Bull Run Golf Club, VA National, Cannon Ridge).

[mctrees02]

[quote name='wvuwhat' timestamp='1334459916' post='4723670']
There's a place here. 1757 Golf Club in Dulles, VA. It's maybe a mile or two from where I live. I have never had a good round there. It's always in good condition, but it's not fun to play. Plus, if you go there any time before noon, any day of the week, you're looking at a 6 hour round.

I've stopped after 4 or 5 holes and gone back into the clubhouse wanting a raincheck 2 times. I'm not usually a complainer, but if it takes 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours to get halfway through the front nine I'm not playing any more holes. Not to mention it's 100 or so a round.

I'd rather drive an hour and pay half the price and spend half the time on the course (read: Bull Run Golf Club, VA National, Cannon Ridge).
[/quote]

Ummm...I think you posted in the wrong thread.

[wvuwhat]

[quote name='mctrees02' timestamp='1334462778' post='4723896']
[quote name='wvuwhat' timestamp='1334459916' post='4723670']
There's a place here. 1757 Golf Club in Dulles, VA. It's maybe a mile or two from where I live. I have never had a good round there. It's always in good condition, but it's not fun to play. Plus, if you go there any time before noon, any day of the week, you're looking at a 6 hour round.

I've stopped after 4 or 5 holes and gone back into the clubhouse wanting a raincheck 2 times. I'm not usually a complainer, but if it takes 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours to get halfway through the front nine I'm not playing any more holes. Not to mention it's 100 or so a round.

I'd rather drive an hour and pay half the price and spend half the time on the course (read: Bull Run Golf Club, VA National, Cannon Ridge).
[/quote]

Ummm...I think you posted in the wrong thread.
[/quote]

Ummm. I think you're wrong.

[Sniperman]

I've had a similar experience at one of the local courses I frequent. It is supposed to be the easier of the two courses, but it always ends up biting me in the rear. So when I finally got fed up, the first thing I did was note where I would pencil in the high numbers. And sure enough, there were at least 3 or 4 holes that I always played poorly. Having that knowledge, I evaluated what I was doing wrong and the main culprit was using the wrong club. As someone else had noted, it's all about course management...but I think it will help if you can identify which holes give you the most trouble. And the holes that were adding shots to my card were not even the most difficult!

Find those holes, re-evaluate, manage well and hopefully you shave off 4-5 shots!

Good luck!