Spyglass Hill

[johnk]

Interesting.

ps - remove the infininte putting issue at Pasa by slowing the greens, just allowing for so many more pin placements, and then I'd perhaps get it to 5-5, maybe 6-4 in favor of Pasa.  But playing the same boring pins because so many places are unpinnable, well... Pasa loses a lot of its interest.

Same boring pins!  Ha!  I recall playing last time with a certain frequent poster, when we espied the rarest of birds - the PasaT equivalent of the great Auk... long since thought extinct.  AND aforementioned poster almost bagged the bird...

How quickly we forget...

[THuckaby2]

JK:

That's not forgotten at all.  If you'll recall, I commented on how lucky we were that day... the fun pins were doable because the wet conditions meant that they hadn't done the normal cutting of the greens.  In fact those was PERFECT Pasa green conditions, as I also commented that day.

So we got a great one on 11, one that never happens when it's dry... we also got 2nd rarest on 16 - middle shelf (the rarest of all is front shelf, the one that caused Tiger to do a full on club helicopter in his college days).  And no comment re results of play on that hole.  

Just do understand days like that are sadly few and far between....

And that's what makes Pasa, most days, less interesting than Spyglass - because it's frustrating in that it CAN be so damn fun, but they are forced to dumb down the pin positions due to the insane speed!

TH

[johnk]

I tend to look at it as serendipity when the pins are in the rare locations.  I kinda was dismayed to see someone represent the "regular" pins as "boring" but I know what you mean...

Also, here's proof about Spyglass being easier.    He's probably gonna birdie one of the last 3...  The front nine can be had at Spyglass (not by me, but still)

Round 1 - Spyglass Hill GC
Hole   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   OUT   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   IN   TOT

Rnd 1   4   3   3   3   2   4   4   3   4   30   4   4   3   4   4   3   -   -   -   -   -
Status   -1   -2   -2   -3   -4   -4   -5   -6   -6       -6   -7   -7   -7   -8   -8   -   -   -       -8

[THuckaby2]

JK:

I too have been following Lefty's round with amazement.  These guys truly are good.

But please... the college kids get mid-60s scores at Pasa these days.  Absent crazy pins, try to imagine what Lefty, Vijay, Tiger, etc. would score there....

 

As for the pins at Pasa, it just plain sucks that they can't use so many spots on the greens due to absurdity and gravity.  That's all I mean.  Thus one rarely gets the pins that would be so fun to play, and that to me is fustrating.

Case in point is prior to the round with you, I had gotten the same pin on 11 - front shelf - at least the last 6 times in a row I had played the course.  Same goes for 16 - the only doable pin was somewhere on top shelf.  Same goes for 8 - far back on the green.  Back left on 9.  And these are just the ones that are the most obvious.  And then in the odd times they bit the bullet and used a different pin on any of these holes, it was goofy golf / infinite putting as the ball wouldn't stay anywhere near the hole due to gravity.  That's not golf.

So this to me goes beyond serendipity... it's a case of a golf course ruining itself due to silly green speeds.

Make it the way it was the day we played - absent the hail, obviously - and I'd put it 7:3 in favor of Pasa, like redanman says.

Sadly, that isn't the reality.

TH

[Andy Silis]

Lefty finished. 62 ( -10 ) Course Record!!!!!!------Must be that new strategy of his where he analyzed his 2004 performance and concluded that the 3 guys ahead of him in the final tour standings had one thing in common. They all were ahead of him in the driving distance stats. Now the new ( old?! ) Phil is bombs away off the tee again!!!!!!

Time will tell!

[Joel_Stewart]

Rnd 1
4 3 3 3 2 4 4 3 4 30 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 3 3 32 62

He birdies 4 of the first 5 holes.  Awesome (but its not the ball).

[Lance Rieber]

Last time I was at Pasa the pin on 8 was in the middle-left of the green with the backstop right behind.  Short sided myself and aimed 20ft left and watched the ball roll backwards and to the right, up cozy to the pin.  16 was also middle left which I have played many times.  
Huck, what are some of the other pins that aren't used because of the speed that you have seen?
Lance

[THuckaby2]

Lance:

I pretty much described it above, to wit:

Case in point is prior to the round with you, I had gotten the same pin on 11 - front shelf - at least the last 6 times in a row I had played the course.  Same goes for 16 - the only doable pin was somewhere on top shelf.  Same goes for 8 - far back on the green.  Back left on 9.  And these are just the ones that are the most obvious.  And then in the odd times they bit the bullet and used a different pin on any of these holes, it was goofy golf / infinite putting as the ball wouldn't stay anywhere near the hole due to gravity.  That's not golf.

If you got a middle pin on 8, that is rare.  On fast days the ball won't settle anywhere near the middle of the green - they have to use all the way front or all the way back.

Same goes for middle shelf, particularly left side, on 16.  It's not that the ball won't settle there - obviously it will - but they don't tend to use it much, because any putts from the top level have no chance of stopping on the middle level (again, at speed).

Obviously the poster green for this is 11.  The ONLY doable spot at speed is front shelf.

Another tough one is 5.  Hell, at the speed they like to get the greens to, there is damn near NO doable pin position.  The only one close is front right, just past the tongue.  Anything middle-back, the ball won't stay put.

Oh hell, I likely do complain too much.  It just does bug me when these wonderful greens get sped up such that it's either goofy golf or vast unuseable parts.  That to me is now what golf should be.

TH