Archive for the ‘Course Management’ Category

Excuses, excuses

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Barb Hanson

There are a million excuses for not playing well. The weather was too hot. The hole locations were too hard. The course was in poor condition. You didn’t sleep well the night before. You were distracted by someone or something, etc. etc. etc. We’ve all heard something similar. Better players don’t make excuses. They focus their energy on playing the best they can under the conditions of the day. In golf, as in life, there are things you can control and things you can’t control. You can’t control the weather, the condition of the course, the hole locations, other players, the pace of play ahead of you, lies, breaks or shots you’ve already played. You can control your attitude, your temper, your diet, your warm-up, your readiness to play and your strategy. Learn the difference between these two things and then focus your energies on what you can control.

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  • Look ahead, not behind!

    Friday, October 23rd, 2009

    Look ahead, not behind. This phrase applies to more than one area of golf.

    First of all it’s very important in maintaining a good pace of play. The location of the group behind you is not important. The location of the group ahead of you is. You should be within a shot or two of the group ahead or YOU are playing too slowly.

    Secondly, you can’t do anything about the shot you just made. The only shot that’s important is the shot you are about to make. Put the best possible swing on each shot and after that, what happens happens. Move on and look ahead.  As a friend of mine told me, “Pick up your bag and walk to your ball.” That’s all you can do.

    Where’s the tee for me?

    Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
    Barb Hanson

    Barb Hanson

    It happened again. I played a new course that boasted “a tee for every game,” but there was no tee for me. This seems to be happening a lot especially with newer courses. There’s a forward tee somewhere between 4800 and 5000 yards. Then the tees lengthen to 5900 or 6000 yards followed by 6200, 6400, 6600 and maybe a championship tee close to 7000 yards.

    I’m a 10-handicap who would like more length than 5000 yards. Something between 5400 and 5700 would be nice. But several times this summer I’ve had to “design my own course” in order to play a course that I find enjoyable.

    I feel like the golf course architects are skipping a whole segment of golfers when they set up tees as described above. If men get a choice of 4 or 5 different lengths, shouldn’t women get at least 2 choices?

    Finding your distance

    Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

    Have you ever noticed how many different kinds of distance markings are used on the golf course? Before beginning a round of golf – especially on an unfamiliar course – it’s a good idea to find out what kind of marking system is being used. You can ask in the pro shop or check with the starter. Sometimes it’s even mentioned on the scorecard.

    Some possibilities:

    • GPS on your motorized cart. (If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’m a walker. So if yardages are only provided by the GPS system, I’m at a disadvantage. I think that golf courses need to provide yardages for both walkers and riders.)
    • Yardage books (usually for purchase in the pro shop)
    • 150-yd stake, pole or disk
    • Colored disks in the fairway (generally blue = 200, white = 150,  red = 100)
    • Yardage indicators on cart paths – a colored line or number
    • Disks along the side of the fairway in 25-yd. increments
    • Specific yardages on sprinkler heads

    These days the hand-held GPS device is becoming more popular. I guess I’m old-fashioned in believing that determining yardage is part of the mental part of the game. I enjoy using the course markings to figure out my yardage.

    As important as accurate yardage is, I realize my limitations as an amateur golfer and don’t get hung up on whether the yardage is 135 or 139, I’m not good enough to hone in to that extent. I only need an estimate and then I can take into account some other factors, i.e. pin position, wind, slope of the fairway, etc.

    Furthermore for me (and most amateurs) there’s an optimal distance, beyond which I have no club in my bag that’s long enough. I laughed when I saw a sprinkler head that said, “Just hit it!”

    Taking all this into account, you should be able to figure your distance quite rapidly and make your club selection. Don’t model the pros on this issue; they often take a lot of time making a club selection, because it really does make a difference to them.