How often do you approach the green from the ground?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Yes..

And here's a quote from a real sucker. Can you guess who?

I always believe in golf should have open front.  You should be able to utilize the ground and don't take away the short game.  I play golf courses on Tour and we all see it, miss the green, automatic lobwedge, hack it out of the rough.  That to me is not fun golf.  Fun golf is Pinehurst.  Fun golf is playing links golf.  Fun golf is learning to how to maneuver the ball on the ground and give yourself options.  One of the hardest up and downs is when you have options.  You have so many different ways to play and you see a lot of pros really mess up easy shots because they have so many different options.  I think that's taken away from the game of golf now, and ridiculous at how the modern golf courses are designed, that's how they are designed is they have taken that option away and that's too bad.

 Tiger Woods

Tell me do Fazio courses feature open fronts on their greens as a rule or are they normally designed with the aerial game in mind?  

[Mike_Cirba]

I also forgot about Neil Regan, who reportedly plays the true ground game with his 150 yard putted approaches.  

[Tommy Williamsen]

The wind has a determining factor for me whether or not I play the ball through the air or along the ground. I find it easier to control the distance along the ground when it is very windy.  I love it when it is windy and I am playing a match.  I greww up on a course where i learned to play a low running shot.  Even in semi-wet conditions the ground game is possible.  

[Mike_Cirba]

Mike, this will tell you everything you need to know about how little I care about scoring: I'd say that once every two or three rounds, I'll whip out a 4 iron and hit it lefty from 100 yards, just for the challenge of it, to see if I can do it.  

Don't ask me why.  I know it makes no sense.  But doggone it, I've hit a gazillion aerial lob wedges (and before they existed, sand wedges) over 30 years playing golf.  Where's the challenge in doing that?  There is nothing new under that sun anymore.  

Now hitting flipped over 4 irons lefty -- well that's another story!

Shivas,

I know the feeling exactly.

The most memorable shots I hit all year were times I threw away the wedge-9-iron option from 125 or so yards and instead played a knockdown 6-iron.   I hit one on the 13th at Reading CC to kick-in distance that was particularly memorable.

Also, the day at Tallgrass with Jason Blasberg and Kyle Harris in 40-50mph winds was particularly fun, and we invented all sorts of shots from the strangest distances.

Nothing like flushing a 4-iron from 120, or playing a 400 yard hole with a 360 yard drive followed by a 40 yard putt!  

[Phil Benedict]

One architectural feature that inhibits the use of the ground is elevated greens.  It's hard to run the ball up a ridge or hill.  As my father aged he could no longer fly the ball to the greens, even from pretty short distances, so courses featuring elevated greens were a big problem.  We used to play a course called Troy Burne (Tom Lehman) where he hardly ever finished a hole because so many of the greens were elevated.

[Sean Leary]

It is hard here in the Pacific NW (other than Bandon) to use thr ground game due to wet conditions for a great portion of the year.  When it is dry enough to do it, I often lack the confidence/practice to pull it off because of nonuse the rast of the year...

[John Kirk]

The number one reason for using the ground game has been overlooked so far:

To impress and amuse your friends.

[JESII]

Jim,

Do you think Hidden Creek challenges the scratch player?

MikeC and TomD,

Sorry to disappear for a while after a direct question.

Mike,

great question. My only trip around was the one with you and Eric during Pat's event there last year...I would say yes, Hidden Creek would provide a challenge. I felt likt the further you hit it off the tee the more precise you needed to be. I also felt the greens created a significant incentive to try to get into the proper position for an approach to the green. This may have been a combination of the architecture and the maintenance.

I cannot recall many other courses that would offer all that to such a wide range of abilities.

[gookin]

From my view a "key" point of the ground game is to present a viable strategic choice. The more often in a given round the player is presented with alternative routes to get from the tee to the pin the more fun the couse is to play.