Sebonack/Jack's Opening Round

[Brad Klein]

Redanman, I don't use GPS, makes it makes me feel like I'm watching TV. I also think it makes architects lazy because they figure it doesn't matter what they show or shape or obscure or polish, people will view it on a screen anyway. I try to walk anyway, but will turn it off (if possible) from the cart if riding and just use whatever markers are out there.

[Brad Klein]

Bill, less is always better, though I actually like the look of 150-yard barber poles on daily-fees and find they speed up play. Otherwise, nothing obtrusive and certainly nothing candy colored like Red-White-Blue polka dots in mid-fairway. Unobtrusive sprinkler heads with center-of-the green markings are fine, or a good yardage book. Clubs that denote yardage to the front of the green and expect you to add or supply the data with a pin sheet are flattering golfers but fooling them and lead to lots of wasted time. And yes, I have shoeboxes of yardage books, including quite a few old majors -- or at least from the 1970s and 1980s, which (to date myself) are now old.

We're getting away from Sebonack. I love the idea of their independent, self-run caddie program but find yardage devices incongruent with the tone and culture of the place and the surrounds.

[TEPaul]

"Jack obviously carriues one of the devices on his bag. He is, after all, frequently shown in magazine ads endorsing Laser Link and has his own Quick Shot device, and the flagstickls at Sebonack have the prism for them. I just don't like using them. I was raised on stepping off yardages, honed that while caddying on Tour. Doak's caddie, by the way, also had a Laser Link Quick Shot in hand but the battery died so he was either eyeballing each shot or, occasionally, getting some help from the other caddies. But obviously Nicklaus plays a different game than Doak does and plays an aerial game to a specific target, which I usually can locate easily enough."

Bradley S:

If Jack actually carries one in his bag why the hell didn't he just get it out and use it himself? At least that would've taken some pressure off of you after your dog ate your Sebonack yardage book and you suffer from some moral dilemma with rangefinders?

I wish the hell I could've caddie for Nicklaus out there. He might've said something like;  "What is this somewhere between 165 and 185 and what do I have here something like a 6 or 7 iron?"

If I were you I would've said:

"Jack, you really are the Greatest, you know, and you are obviously completely right, it's obviously somewhere between 165 and 185 and you clearly do have either a 6 or a 7 iron here but unfortunately I have no idea which you should hit, because I'm sort of a hack myself and you're the Greatest who ever lived and you'll be hitting the shot anyway, not me, and my dog ate my Sebonack yardage notes and I have a mortal moral dilemma with rangefinders. So I'd say you should just pick between a 6 or 7 iron yourself and if you really can't decide and since you really are the Greatest that ever lived and so damn good maybe you could even hit both of them at the same time if you really are undecided."

Furthermore, Bradley S., after Jack misclubed himself on one of those shots you could also say:

"Jack, you are the greatest golfer whoever lived but did anyone ever tell you you're worse than a worthless imcompetent as a caddy?"

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I find the 150 bush or stick or the 100, 150, 200 to be all that is really needed. I like the 150 combined with a strokesaver best of all. the GPS and rangefinders are nice but pacing off etc is part of the preshot routine I like and enjoy.

[Bill_McBride]

I've told this story before about figuring out distance on a course with no markers, but love it too much not to trot it out at this point.  At the Valley Club of Montecito, there are no markers anywhere but on the scorecard there are some hieroglyphics that show the distances for each hole from certain icons that represent types of trees, sprinkler heads, sprinkler boxes, bunkers, etc.  There is a little guide to which kind of tree each "tree" icon represents.  It's pretty tricky until you figure it out, and they haven't reprinted it since a couple or more trees fell down.  One icon is for an elm, another a pine, another an oak, etc etc.

A member friend of mine was playing with a non-member friend who finally got irritated about this and said, "You've got to be a f&%$*ing arborist to play this course!"  

I don't know if anybody there is using a Bushnell or not, but I'll bet they don't have the prisms in the pins.

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