What Shots Are Hardest For Whom?

[Adam_F_Collins]

Is a dogleg right easier for high handicaps? Is a dogleg left easier for low handicappers?

What average distances do you use when considering a tee shot for a low hcp vs a high one? What about shots off the fairway?

What shots are the hardest for low handicappers?

[Phil_the_Author]

There is on shot that everyone who plays the game finds as the most difficult. It matters not the distance, hazards, location or weather. It is the next one!

[Brad Tufts]

I feel like the easiest/hardest shot for a player is one that fits/does not fit his mind's eye.  

For me (RH player), I can control a fade better than a draw, so if there is a dogleg right to cut, i am much more willing to try to go around the corner.  For a dogleg requiring a draw, I am more likely to play safe with a shorter club that does not challenge the corner.  The toughest looking shot is one where a fade is severely punished.  I will miss left every time to overcompensate.  As a low handicapper, the hardest shots for me are long bunker shots, low left-to-right shots (easier to trap a ball right to left), and controlling distance from the rough.

I dont know if this answers the distance question, but I will not contemplate a carry off the tee of over 240 yards on flat ground, even though my average drive usually falls in the 255-275 range.

-Brad

[A.G._Crockett]

What shots are the hardest for low handicappers?

A 4 ft. putt under pressure.

[Allan Hutton]

I find the hardest shot is any that will severely punish ones most common 'miss', no matter how simple the execution should be.  I find difficulty in the mental aspects, not necessarily the execution of a shot.

I have recently incurred the wrath of shank on pitch shots.  Whenever faced with a pitch, with trouble on the right, I am reduced to a wreck.  Fortunately, I can take a putter on many occasions and berate my playing partners for not understanding the joys involved in the ground game...if only they knew

Other than that, the 40 yard bunker shot is a classic!

[Tom_Doak]

For women, it is certainly the forced carry (of any length) from the fairway.  Even if it's only 50 yards, many women can only carry it 65, so they need to lay up right to the near side of the hazard to be sure they get across.  Sometimes that is a 30-yard layup!!

For high-handicap men, I think the hardest shot is a recovery from a deep bunker, or a pitch over the same which has to stop quickly from less than 50 yards.  They just don't know how to hit a cut shot.

These are generalizations ... every player is different and has different weaknesses.  But if you beat them up with either of the above problems, your course is not going to be well received.

[Matt_Sullivan]

As a 3 hcp, so I guess a relatively low hcp, I (a righthander):

-- from a technical standpoint, dislike tee shots on holes that suggest right to left tee shots but where there are hazards or ob on the left. If it is going to dog leg, I prefer it to go right.

-- from a mental standpoint, I don't like a second shot to a par 5 of between 220 and 240 yards where I am sitting in the middle of the fairway and there is serious trouble around the green (water or ob).  I feel I have to go for it (I always say to myself: "what else you gonna do -- wedge, wedge") but I get into trouble my fair share of times

I carry it about 265 yards off the tee. Unlike Brad I will take on the 240 yard carry most of the time (although only successfully some of the time!!)

[Mike Benham]

Tequila ...

[noonan]

A drive with trouble on both sides.

No room to bail is the hardest.

[Andy Troeger]

Having coached a girls' high school team for a few years I completely agree with Tom's comment that shots over water are the toughest for them. Even relatively simple shots over a small creek tend to be very scary, especially when they're still learning the game. I think shots over water tend to be very intimidating for most higher handicap golfers as well as nobody likes the thought of going through a lot of golf balls in one round due to not clearing water hazards. Also for the girls, long putts and any bunker shots tend to be difficult. For the better player, I think shots that tend to give multiple options can be difficult because players have a hard time committing to one option over the other. And of course, I have to agree with those dreaded four footers...

[RJ_Daley]

Aside from the concept of "the next shot", as a 12-13 index player,  the hardest is the need to hit a low hooking iron around trouble.  I can hit the cut low and run it bck up the gut fairly consistently.  But, under pressure, I can't hit that low hook.  Too bad that when I find myself needing a low hook, I can't just run to the range and hit a few practice shots, then jump back in.  If I were a better player, I wouldn't have to try all those circus shots.     But, pulling them off once in a while is the most fun.  So, maybe I can rejoice in my mediocrity as a player, because it offers me a chance to really shine or fail laughingly so.

[John Kirk]

A 25-50 yard pitch from the fairway length grass to the green.  Over a hazard or not, it's tough to sweep the ball off the turf properly.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I agree with Tom on women's forced carries.  Going back to the unfairer sex thread, I would also say some tee shots, since forward tees are so often awkwardly placed. I saw one recently behind a hedgerow!

As for average players,

The 350 yard tee shot, whereas for good players, not so much.....

Any shot with spin requirements, since it depends on clean contact and swing speed, both ususally in short supply.....

Long bunker shots.....

Downhill lies.....

Long Irons.......

Playing in front of an audience.......or caddy

For better players,

I disagree with tight tee shots. I think an Augusta 13 concept - creek left, 50 yards (formerly anyway) open space right is harder than any tee shot at Olympic or Medinah.......

I also disagree with a hazards on the low side of a preferred shot pattern, at least many players tell me they prefer that to aiming at a hazard and playig away......

Tough shots include,

Shots with conflicting possibilities as opposed to ones that lay out like a roadmap....

Downhill putts......esp. those that break right (for righies)

Any shot where the player says....."All I have to do to win is......."

[Sean_A]

How about layup dogleg holes?  I find these disturbing.

How bout drives which must clear a mature tree (for the best line)?  I don't care for this drive at all!

Oh yea, how bout the old shoot tee shot?  Nothing but the center of the club will work and there is water for the ball to drop in when it bangs off the trees.  This is my most dreaded shot.  I don't like the feel of confinement.  Many of the finese shots such as downhill bunker shots don't worry me because I don't expect to get the ball close.  It is the center of the face shot down a line of trees that gets me because it is all pyschological-negative thought stuff.  I real killer to the ego!

Ciao

Sean