[John Kavanaugh]

Do people who "think they will never get back to a course" miss out on fun and features?  Should you study a course before or after you play it?  Do bizarroly bad shots require a mulligan from the architecture student?  What are answers to these and other questions before another perfectly good thread gets destroyed in a muck of huckinenss only eight holes in.  Oh...and just to throw in one of mine...Can spite be a valuable learning tool?

[Tony_Chapman]

John -- Probably. Do you think I might have missed something during my ONE round at Pebble Beach? I think if time allows and you enjoy studying a course you should do it whenever the time warrants.

I don't know what you can learn from spite. Give me an example of your spite.

[John Kavanaugh]

Sometimes I enjoy a round in spite of myself.

[John Kavanaugh]

I do think it is better to not study or even carry a card before or when playing a course for the first time.  My favorite story is about the first time I played Torrey and thought I made a good par on the par 5 12th...until I got to the 13th tee and asked my playing partners if the course had two par 5's in a row.

[Tony_Chapman]

I do think it is better to not study or even carry a card before or when playing a course for the first time.  My favorite story is about the first time I played Torrey and thought I made a good par on the par 5 12th...until I got to the 13th tee and asked my playing partners if the course had two par 5's in a row.

If you didn't have a scorecard, how did you know that the 13th was a par-5 whe you were on the tee?

[Tony_Chapman]

Because he's seen the 13th a billion times on TV?

John, the same thing happened to me on the 10th at Sand Hills. I thought I made a hell of a par until I found out it was a bogey...

Shouldn't he have know, then, that 12 was a par-4?

[John Kavanaugh]

Because he's seen the 13th a billion times on TV?

John, the same thing happened to me on the 10th at Sand Hills. I thought I made a hell of a par until I found out it was a bogey...or maybe I was pissed at 3 jacking for par until I found out it was a bogey...I don't remember, really.

Sometimes when you are walking you walk past the tee marker and sometimes not.  And while standing on the 13th tee it is obviously a par 5...I'm sure I was hoping it was.  God knows that at 505 yds uphil into the wind the 12th sure as hell looks like a par 5 and I hit driver, seven wood out of the rough, seven iron, putt, putt.

[George Pazin]

I do think it is better to not study or even carry a card before or when playing a course for the first time.  My favorite story is about the first time I played Torrey and thought I made a good par on the par 5 12th...until I got to the 13th tee and asked my playing partners if the course had two par 5's in a row.

If you didn't have a scorecard, how did you know that the 13th was a par-5 whe you were on the tee?

Even Jax can eyeball that one.

[John Kavanaugh]

I don't recall the hole number but Ballyneal has the very rare par 3 that you have to ask.

[George Pazin]

Do people who "think they will never get back to a course" miss out on fun and features?

Of course.

Should you study a course before or after you play it?

Depends on the person and why he plays. If you're just out to have fun, I'd say don't even bother studying. If you really want to learn the most, you certainly need to study afterwards - whether you do before depends on how much you value surprise, deception, that sort of thing.

What are answers to these and other questions before another perfectly good thread gets destroyed in a muck of huckinenss only eight holes in.  Oh...and just to throw in one of mine...Can spite be a valuable learning tool?

Don't know. You place a higher value on spite than anyone I know.

 

[John Kavanaugh]

Here is an example of spite working for me.  I am currently the low bidder of four of the auction items for Bob Labbance.  You guys know as great a deal as each of those are I can't get stuck with all four so no one is goint to bid against me out of spite.  I'm going to get stuck playing four great courses at way lower than market price.  Ouch.

[Peter Pallotta]

John -
I'm thinking there's lots of ways of "knowing".  The modern world seems to value mostly the kind that can be talked and written about.  Maybe the one-time player could know a course pretty well with his feet, say, or with his heart...but unfortunately they don't do no writing.

I'd imagine there's also the excellent player's way of knowing a course. He/she knows it enough to score well on it...which I guess is the name of the game and thus at least as important as any other lens.   

Peter

[Sean_A]

Do folks actually study courses?  I may take the extra look, drop a ball and replay a shot once in a while or hit a few extra putts, but I don't think I ever studied a course.  I play courses, take pix  and mentally record observations. 

Without a doubt I miss stuff probably because I don't get paid to notice stuff.  Learning courses isn't magic and it doesn't require any special skills.  I pay to have fun and take away my impressions - which are only snapshots of golf course reality.  It takes a lot of time and plays to really know a course of merit. 

As for spite, I can't help you there.

Ciao

[TEPaul]

"Should you study a course before or after you play it?"

Definitely, and then you should watch very carefully as other golfers of varying levels of abiliity play it. On really great architecture you can tell what a course looks like in a single visit but you'll never come close to understanding the various ways it can and does play---eg the "littler things" about it that can make it what it is. For instance, I still find some neat little features and playabilities at Pine Valley and I've been going down there now for thirty years. 

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