how hard is it (esp for pros) to play well on a course you dont like?

[PThomas]

I guess Lefty has stated that he doesnt like Cog Hill, and he has never really played well there.

has Lefty talked himself into not playing well there?  Trevino didnt like AUgusta, although at least part of that dislike was due to the atmosphere there, not the course....another fader of the golf ball did pretty well there over the years....

do lots of pros skip events because of the DESIGN of the course?  not the conditioning, not the lack of cool things for their family to do in that town, but because of the design of the course??

i guess if a course favored a draw a lot and you were a fader, that might make one skip it...

thought?

[Adrian_Stiff]

Paul - The modern top pro's gear up around the 4 majors, if a major was at course they did not like they wont really miss that, but they need rest and loosely play 3 out of 4 tournaments. The biggest reason to miss a tournament is money,  but they do consider missing courses they dont like because their game might not suit and they cant make money, also travelling and its affects on their global planning might mean a miss.

[Tom_Doak]

Paul:

The pros play where they think their chances are the best of playing well.  For most, that's more a function of which courses suit their game, more than whether they "like" it, psychologically or aesthetically or design-wise.

I can say that Ben Crenshaw would sometimes lose concentration on holes where he didn't like the architecture.  I watched him several times in the 80's playing some hole or other that he'd told me he didn't like, and just as I was thinking about it, he'd dump a ball in the water or block a tee shot into the trees.

[John Moore II]

I think it is fairly hard to play on a course that you don't like, or a hole you don't like. I didn't like The Pit from the start, played semi-bad the first time I played and when I returned, I played worse because all I could think about all day was how bad I thought this hole was, or how this green was stupid. Same goes with Maryland National yesterday. I dumped a ball into the hazard on 6 because I was thinking about how stupid the hole looked and how it just didn't set up well (did the same thing on 14, though there were additional factors in play there). Yeah, its really hard to play a course or hole you don't like because rather than thinking about the shot at hand, you're thinking about how stupid the hole looks.

[Pat Burke]

It depends.  I rarely played well enough to just "skip" all the courses I disliked.  Had I won
or made enough, there were definitely some courses I would skip. 
That being said, as a little known guy, if I was playing well, I could play a course I didn't like, or that didn't suit me.  Typically, there were a few courses, that if I was anything other than "on", I was in trouble.  (TPC Scottsdale, Torrey, Warwick for example).
Other courses, just showing up, made me feel like I was playing better for some reason (Atlanta CC, Bay, Hill, Pebble)

I set up a schedule based on places I enjoyed, plus there were a few events that treated, even schmucks like me, so incredibly, that I would do anything if it helped them (Castle Pines, Bay Hill, Colonial).

[Steve Hyden]

I think it is fairly hard to play on a course that you don't like, or a hole you don't like. I didn't like The Pit from the start, played semi-bad the first time I played and when I returned, I played worse because all I could think about all day was how bad I thought this hole was, or how this green was stupid. Same goes with Maryland National yesterday. I dumped a ball into the hazard on 6 because I was thinking about how stupid the hole looked and how it just didn't set up well (did the same thing on 14, though there were additional factors in play there). Yeah, its really hard to play a course or hole you don't like because rather than thinking about the shot at hand, you're thinking about how stupid the hole looks.

I didn't mind The Pit until we got to that ridiculous par 3 where you hit through a chute about two yards wide.  Can't remember the hole - it was many years ago - but I would never go back.

I almost never play well at courses I don't like.  What's the antonym for "inspiration?"

[Matthew Petersen]

It seems like this can be a bit of a "chicken or the egg" argument. I got the impression from Phil's comments that his lackluster feelings toward the golf course were more the product of his poor play there than the other way around.

But as for my feelings about a golf course vs. how I play there, it depends on why I have those feelings about the course. The local muni five minutes from my house does not have an abundance of well-designed holes. It's generally just a bland course. But it's not exactly an exacting test of golf and so I am very capable of playing well there. For that matter I could say the same thing about Quintero. That's a high end, beautiful golf course. But I also found it to be a pretty bland course, with the exception of what quickly became repetitive drop shot par 3s. And I played well there. But that's disliking a course because I think it's uninteresting.

The other reason for disliking a course is, essentially, thinking it's poor architecture (what many would simply term "unfair"). Most often that is going to be because the course does not suit your game. So of course you're not likely to play well there. And that's where you get into the "which came first?" argument.

[Phil_the_Author]

Without question Tiger avoids Pebble Beach whenever he can because of the Poa...