What is the ultimate challenge for your game?

[rjsimper]

The unplayable courses thread got me thinking...

(and this often leads to trouble in and of itself)

But...

Given your individual game, what is the greatest challenge for you on a golf course - the one feature that a course could have that round after round, course after course, if it appears, you are in trouble.

For instance, if you hit the ball accurately, but low with little spin, then perhaps elevated, firm greens are the best way to defend par against your game...and an extreme appearance of this trait might be deemed unplayable by you.

If unplayable is a relative term, and I certainly think it is, then this should have a different answer for everyone.  Pine Valley might be "unplayable" to the high handicapper, but what about the low handicapper who sprays it and recovers...suddenly a course that places a premium on driving the ball might be unplayable for this LOW handicapper.

Me?  Tight hole corridors usually ruin me.  I hit the ball a long way, and I hit it high.  Distance never bothers me.  Forced carries never bother me.  But you carve a course out of a forest with relatively narrow corridors and no parallel fairways, I'm in for a long day unless I have the tee game dialed in (more rare than not).

Give me a 7900 yard course with ravines fronting greens, 260 yard forced carries, and rock hard elevated greens with OB long on every hole, and I will be less apt to argue "unplayable" than I would on a 6500 yard course in northern Maine where the trees creep right to the edges of the fairways, and the underbrush in the forest prevents you from finding your ball.  

I played with a guy in college who would probably shoot around even on such a course every single time...I'd be lucky to be under 85...but on the 7900 yard course, he'd be playing to a par of 80 and probably cursing the architect when he can't reach the fairway.

[cary lichtenstein]

I hit the ball from right to left and once played an old course where the trees invaded the right side of the fairway on every hole. It gave me fits and never went back.

[Jordan Wall]

For me it is simply hitting a green.  The other day I shot 78, while missing just one fairway.  Length isnt a problem but I still only hit 7 greens .  The ultimate challenge for me, I guess, is hitting my irons accurately.  If I can somehow get those down I will be fine, because even my short game is OK.  I got up and down from sand 2 of 4 times, and only had 24 putts.  Man, what I would give to have some accurate irons

[cary lichtenstein]

Jordon:

You need to play courses with bigger greens

[Lloyd_Cole]

I find chipping from PGA Tour style rough around super fast greens the toughest shot. Possibly because it is hard not to try to be too cute. Out of a rotten lie in a bunker, I'd be happy to hit the green, but somehow being only a few feet from the putting surface, it's hard not to think that one should be able to chip it close.. But I'm working on it.

[Peter Pallotta]

For me, put a visual distraction of some kind (it doesn't even have to be a hazard) out on the left-hand side somewhere, but especially about 50 yards short of where I'd expect to land my drive, and I'm done for: I will draw, hook, or duck hook it, whatever, depending on what it takes to make sure I drive my ball right into the middle of the damn thing. I think I have some kind of problem.
P

[Paul Payne]

I am a pretty good driver as far as accuracy goes and am a decent iron player especially from 150 to 210.

What I really struggle with is that I do not impart a lot spin on the ball so when I am playing fast and firm greens I need to account for this. This becomes especially toublesome when there are hazards placed on the front side of the green. Even still many holes will allow you a corridor to get through but I get absolutely petrified when it is fast, firm, and there is not access from the front.

At that point it is probably as much a mind game as anything.

[Andy Troeger]

Better question...what part of the game is NOT the ultimate challenge!

But since that's not what was asked...I'm going with chipping/pitching. I got so bad one day a few years ago that I putted a few times out of the rough (more effectively than you'd think evidently...I shot 75 and did miss some greens).

Essentially the shots I have the most trouble with are those that I have to get high in the air. If I can play a low chip-and-run or a putt or something to that effect I am not bad, but the pitch over a bunker or something can be hit or miss. It usually depends on whether I am looking at the flag before I start my downswing (that whole keep your head down tip works)!

Runner-up: courses that have very narrow playing corridors. I do much better on courses with junk on both sides but wide fairways in between than I do narrow tree-lined fairways. Needless to say I won't be competing in any US Opens anytime soon.

[A.G._Crockett]

Unlevel lies in the fairway, especially downhill.

[Jim Thompson]

For me its a feature line that goes from 4:30 to 10:30 on the clock, be it a bunker face or worse yet a step in a green complex (like our fifth).  Visually that angle is very difficult to deal with for me.  That said if it increases say 3:30 to 9:30 it poses no threat.

Cheers!

JT

[Dan Moore]

Anything that creates indecision over the ball particulary on the shot into the green.  Example:  creating a distance illusion with bunkers that are 25 yards short of a green or having a green target that is visually disguised making what is a reasonable target appear pinched or much smaller than it actually is.  

[Craig Sweet]

Keeping my cool while playing behind a group that thinks a 6 hour round is normal.

[Tim Bert]

Keeping my cool trying to enjoy my leisurely six-hour round while some jerks behind me are trying to play in four!

 

Couldn't resist!

[Craig Sweet]

Those new super Tiger Nike balls, driven by my Ping G12 titanium 590cc club will seem like RPG's raining down on you...

[Tim Bert]

Fortunately, I'm thin as a rail, so the odds of any of your shots actually hitting me are, well.... thin.

Now, let me line that putt up one more time - from a third angle.

[Craig Sweet]

and....have it....lip out.....quickly now....rake it back and try it again....

[A_Clay_Man]

I find that day in day out challenges, usually involve something similar to false fronts, or, if it's an internal green contour, having the ability to trick my mind into hitting the putt hard enough, to get up the slope and to the hole. Currently my method is to grip tighter to fool the mind and it appears to work.

Lloyd Cole, have you tried lifting the club up faster and coming down steeper? It then becomes a matter of realizing how little backswing is needed to carry the ball just onto the green because its gonna run a ways.

[Tom_Doak]

My real problem is simply boredom.  I will fall asleep on the holes which are the least interesting and sometimes the least challenging, and it will cost me a couple of strokes a round, easily.

But other than that, my problem is from 90 yards down to chipping, which used to be one of the strongest parts of my game and now is certainly the weakest.  And that will cost you big time.

[Andy Doyle]

Two recent problem areas:

Long irons from the rough & fairway bunker shots needing to carry any kind of lip.

Most consistently, though - chipping from very tight lies, especially when you have to carry a bunker or there is trouble long.  I generally have a pretty decent short game, but firm, tight lies give me fits.  I would much rather be in greenside rough.  Makes me wonder why more courses don't keep the areas around the greens really short instead of using higher rough as a hazard.

Andy

[Brad Tufts]

Good Question....

For me (close to scratch, 0.4), the hardest shot is when i'm forced to draw the ball.  I generally work with a slight fade or straight ball (although I continually wish i could hit it right to left), and when forced, i can fade a ball 5 yards or 20 yards around obstacles, to tucked pins, etc...But when I have to draw, the ball, I can only snap it.  Usually in this situation it goes straight, which doesn't kill me, but not ideal.

Ironically, I also have more trouble on left to right putts (big
breaking) than right to left.  Not a huge deal, but the ideal 10-footer in my mind's eye is uphill, breaking slightly right to left.

Tom's "weakness" is also one of mine as well, as I'm more apt to concentrate on a harder, more interesting hole and make pars, and make a couple of bogeys on throwaway shorter holes.

Simper, your ideal course to hate sounds alot like Sugarloaf.

[John Kirk]

Andy Doyle stole my thunder.  I agree.

Fairway bunker shots and 20-50 yard pitches from the short grass.

[RJ_Daley]

I have a hard time with tee shots with a dog leg left, yet high ground and trees up the right.  Obviously the shot calls for a bit of a draw (me being right handed) and I can draw the ball at times. But with that high ground visual up the right,  I seem to have a compunction causing me to hit the high slice even if I set up to hit the draw.

[Adam_F_Collins]

long, tight approaches (200+) and chipping. I also lose a lot of strokes over-reading putts. The greens I usually play on are too slow to move as much as I read into them.

Come to think of it, maybe they all play into eachother...

I fear the long approach because I can't depend on my chipping, then I miss my chip because it's do-or-die, then I over-read my putt because my poor chip has left me too far from the hole.

Chain of pain.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Lloyd Cole, have you tried lifting the club up faster and coming down steeper? It then becomes a matter of realizing how little backswing is needed to carry the ball just onto the green because its gonna run a ways.

Adam, That is excatly what I've been working on but it's a tough move to get used to when you've spent 30 years trying not to pick up the club on all other shots..

[Sean_A]

I really struggle with false fronts and getting the ball back to deep pins.  I reckon this has been drilled into since youth.  It was nearly always better to be below the hole on the course I grew up on.  So I blame Ross for my struggles.

I used to be able to fade the ball on demand with a driver.  With my new driver, a Great Big Bertha II 9 degree 350ish cc(I think the model has been out maybe 3 years), I can't count on a fade to save a penny.  I tend to play right to left.  Do other people struggle to fade with these new drivers?  Is there a design element which discourages fading?

Ciao

Sean