Here's my idea of ground game . . .

[Jason Blasberg]

New back tee measuring 485 yards, down hill but a back pin adds 20 yards to the card . . .

With a (1) club helping wind I rip a driver, slight draw that carries a gentle ridge (but not a forced carry) and catches a down slope . . . I'm 155 center, pin is up 5.  

I punch a 7 iron about 90 yards in the air, 10 feet off the ground, ball lands 55 yards short of the green on the high left side of a slope that feeds to the green . . .  

Ball ends up 10 feet below the hole and I make the birdie    (and it actually happened 5 hours ago).

What's yours?

[Doug Siebert]

I remember a really good one from the last time I played (which was almost three weeks ago unfortunately...)  Hole is 451, off a high ridge to a flat fairway down below -- great hole to hit some massive drives when there's a helping wind, but it was relatively windless.  Unfortunately I hit a massive hook, about 70 yards left of my target line, over the treeline and 2' tall unmaintained area into the rough of an adjacent fairway.

I guesstimated I had about 175 left but had to keep the ball below about 15' out to about 30-40 yards ahead due to the trees in the way.  I punch hooked a low 5 iron with a 3/4 swing and landed it about 15 yards short of the green, it skipped a couple times, ran up on the green to the back right edge, where I two putted for a very nice par.  This is the only course in the area that's got a reliable ground game happening 95% of the time.  Dunno why, but for some reason it drains very well unless it has just had a soaking rain.  Due to it mostly not having trees in play (unless you hit a truly wild shot like I did that day) having some interesting landforms (some natural, some artificial but done well) and being very exposed to the wind due to much of it playing up/down a high ridge it is the linksiest course in Iowa that I'm aware of.

I'm looking forward to some Indian Summer days in November once they've turned off the sprinklers and it gets REALLY firm and fast.  Give me a 70F day with a 35 mph wind and I'll be in heaven out there!

[John_Conley]

What's yours?

The bio for one of the Big Break VI golfers says he hit a drive nearly 700 yards.

[Tim Taylor]

Yeah, but if you read the fine print he says he carried 673 yards

Tim

What's yours?

The bio for one of the Big Break VI golfers says he hit a drive nearly 700 yards.

[Michael Kennedy]

About 7-8 years ago I was at Royal Dornoch, playing the course for the first time.  On the 16th, an uphill 402y par 4 with gorse right and a quarry well off the left side of the fairway, the caddy says to me, "...keep it right." I hit what I thought was a perfect little draw up the right-center.

As I turned with a smug look towards the caddy, I saw him frown.  Before the ball even hit the ground, he says,  "Aye, too far left."  

I spun around and saw the drive land in the middle/left center of the fairway.  It immediately began rolling hard to the left like a ball bearing on a linoleum countertop.  It disappeared over the edge of the quarry, never to be seen again.  "Better hit another."

It was the coolest thing I had ever seen - just barely beating out the gathering bunkers on the right hand side of #3.  Here's a link to a pic of #3 on Dornoch's website.  As was the case with #16, on #3 I had hit what I thought was a nice drive up the right center of the fairway, only to find my ball in the sand against the sod.

The truest measure of how much one appreciates the ground game is whether or not you're willing to be slapped by the contours that feed you!  

[ed_getka]

#3 Kingsley Club (par 4, slight dogleg right). I have a 3 iron in and the hole is far right. The pin is guarded by two bunkers front right, but there is some slope to the left of the bunkering that I knew could help my ball move to the right around the bunkers, and then there is a diagonal ridge running toward the back right part of the green that I thought would help a little more to move the ball right. My plan was to use those ground features, but I pulled my shot what I thought was too much. Fortunately it caught the slope I was trying for and then went up onto the ridge and lost speed then turned sharp right and rolled down into the hole (which I wouldn't have thought was possible, I was just trying to get on the right side of the ridge). Eagle! Unfortunately I didn't see it go in, but David Moriarty was up near the green and gave us the play by play. It was a fun story to share with Mike DeVries who designed it.

[Bill_McBride]

My one and only hole in one in many years of golf.    Playing the 16th at Stevinson Ranch in the 2005 Kings Putter, 216 yards into a brisk wind, over the water, I aimed a cut driver left toward a slope short and left of the green.  What fun to watch the ball take that slope, run up onto the green, still left to right, and roll directly into the hole!

 

[peter_p]

1980. Ballybunion (Old) cemetery hole, #1. Decent drive (for me) leaves me about 150. Second swing hits about 2.5" behind the ball, topping it at most five yards. Despite the all the humps in the fairway, decide to bump and run a five iron. Tap in par.  

[Doug Ralston]

Ealier this year I had it 135 center of the fairway on a hole guarded in front by a creek and fl/fr by bunkers, slightly downhill all the way. A natural high 8-iron, I 'cleverly' bladed the sucker, it flew inches off the ground about 90 yds, landed just short of the creek/ditch, bounced over, hit 'something' hard, bounced high over the left-front bunker, landed just short of the green, dove 45 degrees right, straight at the hole. Stopped a few inches from the hole. Dontcha just hate it when those do not fall?  

Well, truth is, I am always playing better when I hit the ball high. Most courses in my area are 'target' golf. But at least I wanted you to know I COULD play the ground games, if I wanted to ....... *inno*

Doug

[Mike_Sweeney]

Neil putting from 150 yards out on the 12th at Sand Hills!

[Michael Kennedy]

A lag putt from 150y is indeed a record in my book....

[Jason Blasberg]

The truest measure of how much one appreciates the ground game is whether or not you're willing to be slapped by the contours that feed you!  

Well said, enough of us don't appreciate the vagaries of golf . . .

[PThomas]

My one and only hole in one in many years of golf.    Playing the 16th at Stevinson Ranch in the 2005 Kings Putter, 216 yards into a brisk wind, over the water, I aimed a cut driver left toward a slope short and left of the green.  What fun to watch the ball take that slope, run up onto the green, still left to right, and roll directly into the hole!

 

I can personally attest to the coolness of that shot!

[Jason Blasberg]

btw, same hole the other day into the wind and and to a back I hit driver-high cut 4 iron trying a heroic carry over the front right greenside bunkers.

[Mike Hoak]

This summer I was on the second hole at Pasatiempo.  I pulled my drive and it stopped about a foot from the lip of the left hand fairway bunker.  I had to stand in the bunker to hit the shot with the ball well above my feet.  A large overhanging tree blocked any approach directly at the left side of the green.  I played a low hook that landed about 30 yards short of the green, caught the slope in the fairway and then kept heading left as it took the slope of the green (which cants hard from right to left).  The ball ended up 5 feet from the pin.  I could throw down another 500 golf balls and never do that again.

[Ted Kramer]

Best I've ever seen was a RIPPED low 6 iron draw from about 150 yards into a serious wind to a back left pin on PD #4. My buddies ball landed well before the green, bounced once and hit the ground rolling like a putt. It stopped about 15 feet short of the pin.

That was one of the most memorable shots I've ever seen.

-Ted

[paul cowley]

Par five ....I bust a driver behind a big pine... bump back to fairway with a putter...hit driver from the deck...putt the next for birdie.

[Andy Doyle]

Played Kapalua Plantation for the first time last Thursday.  Gorgeous day, 2 - 3 club wind.

On #7, a 484 yard par 4 (playing downhill and downwind), I hit my drive 356 yards - about 100+ yards farther than normal for me.  Hit my gap wedge about 15 yards short of the green and watched it bounce on to the green where it then trickled about 60 feet past the hole.  I, of course, 3-putted.

Guy I'm playing with hits his drive about 5 yards ahead of mine.  He completely lays sod over his ball with his sand wedge.  His ball flies about 40 yards and disappears down the hill.  It reappears about a minute later, barely rolls onto the green and stops 10 feet past the hole.  He makes birdie.

One of the most fun days I've ever had on a golf course.

Andy

[Jim Franklin]

#7 at Ballyneal with the wind into us at about 30MPH, right side of the fairway, 130 yards out in a driving rain, punch 6 iron rolls up the left side of the green and along the high sloping green and settles 2 feet from the cup. When it rains that hard and you can still run shots up to the green, THAT is a ground game.

[Brad Tufts]

#8 at Carne....about 415 or 420 yards....wind hard out of our back right quarter...hit 2 iron 285 down the middle, somehow the ball stops on the upslope of what looks like a pimple in the mostly flat fairway, about 3 feet high and 3 of 4 yards wide...The green is in a bowl at the end of the fairway, probably 20-25 feet down a gradual slope...I figured if I hit a normal wedge, the slope would shoot the ball straight up, and it may go 200 yards with the wind....so i hit a chip, one that would run out maybe 50 feet on a lush American green....the ball bounces, bounce, bounce, bounce....trickles down the hill, on the green, 15 feet.  Only made par, but is there anything more fun than pulling off what you planned?