Has GolfClubAtlas Helped Your Game at All?

[Phil Benedict]

I have become much more aware of angles since I discovered this site.  Sometimes the angles the architect intended you to think about but also angles that favor my game.  It seems obvious now that I prefer to approach a green from the left side of the hole because I usually draw my irons, but I didn't really think about it before.  There's a hole on my course where my favorite angle to approach the green is about 25-yards left of the fairway.  

I think the emphasis on angles in GolfClubAtlas has increased my awareness of how they relate to my game.

[Mike Benham]

But you aren't answering your own question, assuming "helped" means lower your scores?

It is the opinion of many on this board, that GCA has not helped and in fact, hurt their games.

[Tom Huckaby]

Has it helped my enjoyment of the game?  Heck yeah.  I've met a bunch of nice people and yeah, been to a bunch of nice places, primarily through this website.  I also likely have thought of things when viewing courses that I wouldn't have otherwise.

But has it helped the quality of my play?  GOOD GOD NO!  I now sometimes find myself looking to assess things and trying to figure out things when dammit I should just be getting the damn ball in the damn hole.

This place is a CURSE for competitive play.

TH
ps to Mike - great minds.  

[Joe Hancock]

I now speak "minimalist" much more fluently.

It helps.

Joe

[JSlonis]

Phil,

It is funny that you mentioned "angles", because after reading just the title of the thread, that was the first thing I thought of.  It's funny how a certain shot can look so much better to your eye when approached from just a slightly different perspective.

I have had a different result than many others on this site in regard to their games.  I think I manage my game better after becoming more educated about golf course architecture.  For me, it translates into what I now look for when playing a course or a particular hole.  In a competitive situation, I'm able to shut off being overly analytical about design, but in the big picture, having a better understanding of what the architect has created has been helpful from a strategic standpoint.

[Tom Huckaby]

Of course now there goes Jamie, the exception to most rules.  Sure a great player like you can rise above and make use of this stuff.  Me?  The more I think when trying to play competitively, the worse I do.

 

[JSlonis]

Tom,

C'mon...you can look at a particular hole and breakdown what the best strategy would be for your game without getting to analytical.

Like I said, I think it helps my game in a larger perspective.  It may not make sense, but by widening my view of a courses architecture, it helps me not get too bogged down in the smaller details that can affect my game.  Does that make any sense?

It's not that I'm not target oriented, I am...it's just that with a broader view of a hole or a single shot, it frees my mind up just a bit.  Maybe a better way to say it would be...I manage my misses better.

[Tom Huckaby]

Jamie:

I refuse to believe a great player like you couldn't do that VERY WELL long before you started participating here.  Breaking down the best strategy for one's game is a very fundamental part of what goes into competitive success (at least for those not blessed with Woodsian talent), and I agree it's not rocket science, but it matters.

So I am not letting you off the hook.  There's no way this place made you better at that.

Now if thinking about other things - be it baseball, what's for dinner tonight, what weird angles there are on a golf hole - helps you free your mind from other details that otherwise were bogging you down, then that's great, I can buy that.  

But I refuse to give this place too much credit.  As I say, baseball or the best recipe for roast mutton would have the same effect.

 

[TEPaul]

Has GOLFCLUBATLAS.com helped my game?

God no, it virtually annihilated my game, pretty much stopped me from playing altogether.

But I'm glad you asked the question Phil. Sometimes I almost forget that you're supposed to play these courses, not just talk about them.

The other thing that occurs to me more often these days is all those great old dead guys up there in Architect's Heaven looking down on this website and the things we say about them and their courses and how much they probably all say to each other up there;

"Damn, too bad we didn't know we were that smart when we were down there practicing!"

[Phil Benedict]

Huck,

Speaking for myself, pre-GCA I tended to focus 90% on the physical part of golf.  I still tend to tilt towards shot values and things of that nature, but talking about architecture has upped my awareness that good architects were mindful of the mental challenge as well.  I think this has filtered into the way I play and has been for the better.

I'm not a Jamie calibre player and have virtually no competitive experience.

[Tom Huckaby]

Phil:

That's cool, I get that.  And mainly I am just slinging shit here.  But Jamie remains on the hook.

 

Not to be a jerk... and slap me if this is inappropriate... but most good players figure out the strategic part of this game very very early.  Oh sure you have some mindless John Dalys, but they are a tiny exception.  For the most part, assessing and playing the "right" shot if lowest score is the goal (ie competitive play) is pretty fundamental.   If this place has helped you achieve that, then that is great.  But once one has achieved that... well... I do believe that what hyper-focus on architecture (the coin of the realm here) does is get these players to OVERTHINK what otherwise should be a simple exercise.  And to that end, it hurts their games.

But I could be completely full of shit.  I often am.

TH

[John Mayhugh]

Has it helped my enjoyment of the game?  Heck yeah.  I've met a bunch of nice people and yeah, been to a bunch of nice places, primarily through this website.  I also likely have thought of things when viewing courses that I wouldn't have otherwise.

But has it helped the quality of my play?  GOOD GOD NO!  I now sometimes find myself looking to assess things and trying to figure out things when dammit I should just be getting the damn ball in the damn hole.

No way I could say it better than this.

[JSlonis]

Tom,

You're correct, a large part of playing good golf is managing your game.  I suppose without ever really paying attention to it, I've been pretty decent at this aspect of my game. With golf course architecture and any subject really, obviously the more you understand and are educated about something, the better off you are.  Unless you are like everyone else on GCA who's "architectural Hyper-Awareness" has totally seized their brains and consequently wrecked their games.

Even if it was just a small part, I'll stick by my original remarks and say that the knowledge gained on GCA and architecture in general has helped my game.  It also doesn't hurt that I can sometimes drive it okay, hit it on the greens and hole an occasional putt.

[Tom Huckaby]

Jamie:

OK, OK.  If you say so, then it is so - for you!  But while I do believe all knowledge is good knowledge, overuse of such can indeed cloud issues which ought to remain simple.

And I do find that happening to me when I foray back into competitive golf.

Thankfully I don't do it all that often.

TH

[Phil Benedict]

Huck,

I may be a bit of a special case because, while I don't consider myself a good player, I have ability (power and the ability to curve the ball).  I honestly believe that more knowledge of GCA has made me think more about what I need to incorporate in my game to improve (eg more control over trajectory).  This is probably at the margin but it's real nonetheless.

[Tom Huckaby]

Phil:  ok, so I am getting beaten down here by those for whom this place is a benefit to their games.

 

That's cool - I believe you, as I believe Jamie.

I do want you to report back though after you have played competitively, if that ever happens.  

TH

[JSlonis]

Huck,

See edited statement above...Is that more like it?

[Tom Huckaby]

That was a fine edit.  See how easy it is to come to an agreed middle ground?

You and I could teach Mucci a thing or two.

 

[TEPaul]

It's probably appropriate to bring up what Tiger Woods said recently about getting into architecture and his game. I think he said now that's he's gotten into architecture he's noticing a lot more than he ever has before and that maybe that's not a good thing for his game.  

[Tom Huckaby]

Thank you, Tom.  My case needed some help.

But then again what does that guy know anyway?

TH

[John Moore II]

I can't say that my game has been harmed or helped since joining this site. But I do notice far more on the course. I look more at the routing of holes and things of that nature.

[JSlonis]

It's probably appropriate to bring up what Tiger Woods said recently about getting into architecture and his game. I think he said now that's he's gotten into architecture he's noticing a lot more than he ever has before and that maybe that's not a good thing for his game.  

There you go Huck.  

A perfect example to further illustrate yet another reason why I'm a lowly amateur.

[Tom Huckaby]

Jamie:  well there's lowly and then there's lowly....

But heck, again, what does that guy know?  He didn't convince me to carry the god-have-they-saved-my-game hybrids.

 

[Mike Benham]

It's not that I'm not target oriented, I am...it's just that with a broader view of a hole or a single shot, it frees my mind up just a bit.  Maybe a better way to say it would be...I manage my misses better.

Jamie -

As a golfer of your caliber, you know that it ultimately gets down to the execution of the shot.

But do you manage your misses better because you understand the GCA of the course or because you have a better idea of your "normal miss"?

Mike

[Andy Troeger]

Has it helped my enjoyment of the game?  Heck yeah.  I've met a bunch of nice people and yeah, been to a bunch of nice places, primarily through this website.  I also likely have thought of things when viewing courses that I wouldn't have otherwise.

But has it helped the quality of my play?  GOOD GOD NO!  I now sometimes find myself looking to assess things and trying to figure out things when dammit I should just be getting the damn ball in the damn hole.

This place is a CURSE for competitive play.

I think this has already been seconded so I will add a third. It probably hasn't hurt, but it certainly hasn't helped!