Distance aids

[Brent Hutto]

Do you aim for the middle of the green from 110 yards? From 80 yards? From ten feet into the fringe? How about from 220 yards when there is trouble on 3 sides of the green but a open, flat area in front?

Middle of the green is usually good on courses with tiny greens or on courses with large greens when you're hitting a 5, 6, 7-iron from somewhere out in the 150's and 160's yardage-wise. But on most courses, at some point you're not trying to play it safe pencil in hand or not. There's got to be some green-light threshold where it's perfectly reasonable to hit the ball at the hole.

For me the range between where I don't need to know the yardage (say 20-30 yards off the green typically) and where I'm just trying to find a safe spot on dry land and middle of the green is a great result (anything over 140 yards or so) includes the majority of my shots into greens. For the half-dozen times a round I'm hitting something like an 8-iron from the middle of the fairway, I do not consider middle of the green when the flag is across a ridge 40 feet away to be something to aim for.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Red, white, and blue flags in lieu of a pin sheet are fine.

They are great. We don't have them.
Brent, my original comment said 'with more than a 9 iron'. Chipping I don't need a device, not yet anyway.

[Patrick_Mucci]

"The middle of the green is always good" - nice line.

Anyone every played a full 18-hole course but with no flagsticks/pins present, just the cups? Pretty soon your whole course management approach changes.

Thomas,

That experiment was conducted years ago and in that experiment, they found that scores were lower without the flags.

Rather than go pin hunting, golfers opted for the middle of the green and the results were better.

Part of the lure of the game may be that the course presents itself in such a way that we conceptualize shots and strategies that are beyond our ability to execute.

[Thomas Dai]

Pat,

We're in agreement on this one.......the very same outcome as when I (and some others) conducted the exact same experiment a few years back, ie just as you say, "Rather than go pin hunting, golfers opted for the middle of the green and the results were better."

You make a very valid point too when you say that "Part of the lure of the game may be that the course presents itself in such a way that we conceptualize shots and strategies that are beyond our ability to execute." Part of the attraction maybe, testing yourself.

All the best.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Thomas,

I think the prospect of pulling off a difficult shot provides rewards that extend far beyond the hole and round being played.
It transcends the moment, the day and the year.
It's something that gets etched into our memory banks forever.

Can't we all think back to a miracle shot we hit, one that's remained a great memory for years and years.

I think, electing to meet a challenge that may be far above our general ability, and then pulling it off, is one of the great joys and virtues of the game of golf.

I think that mentality is what also drives golfers to want to play the same courses, the same holes that the best golfers in the world play, PGA and US Open courses.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Red, white, and blue flags in lieu of a pin sheet are fine.

They are great. We don't have them.
Brent, my original comment said 'with more than a 9 iron'. Chipping I don't need a device, not yet anyway.

I don't know - Maybe I'm too stuck in my ways but the different colour flagsticks irk me... I like my yellow out, red in.... Just about come to accept red out, blue in at my home club (with yellow as third nine)

"The middle of the green is always good" - nice line.

Anyone every played a full 18-hole course but with no flagsticks/pins present, just the cups? Pretty soon your whole course management approach changes.

Thomas,

That experiment was conducted years ago and in that experiment, they found that scores were lower without the flags.

Rather than go pin hunting, golfers opted for the middle of the green and the results were better.

Part of the lure of the game may be that the course presents itself in such a way that we conceptualize shots and strategies that are beyond our ability to execute.

That's fascinating - I didn't know about that experiment.

Surely those results would be an indicator that we all play far too much emphasis on the actual distance / direction when we should be allowing a much larger tolerance?

[Lou_Duran]

Thomas,

I think the prospect of pulling off a difficult shot provides rewards that extend far beyond the hole and round being played.
It transcends the moment, the day and the year.
It's something that gets etched into our memory banks forever.

Can't we all think back to a miracle shot we hit, one that's remained a great memory for years and years.

I think, electing to meet a challenge that may be far above our general ability, and then pulling it off, is one of the great joys and virtues of the game of golf.

I think that mentality is what also drives golfers to want to play the same courses, the same holes that the best golfers in the world play, PGA and US Open courses.

A fundamental truth.  Adversity sometimes propels us to our best.  It gives us a glimpse of what can be- if I did it once, why not again?  Some of my best memories are of shots with low odds of success that I pulled off.  Par on a very difficult hole is more satisfying for me than a birdie on one that's been set up as a give-away.  In the endeavor to make golf more "fun" and accessible to a wider audience, I hope we don't dumb down the experience and lose that aspect.

Ally,

Actually, I don't like color schemes either.  R-W-B is commonly used in the U.S. for obvious reasons.  Some courses use a whiffle ball or a small flag on the pin, its height adjusted for the hole position.  I don't like them because I can't see.  Another is the F-M-B rotation or pin sheet number.  I am a happy camper just knowing yards from the center.

[Dave McCollum]

I passed on this thread with a “who cares?” shrug.  I was about as interested in this thread as most golfers are in who designed a golf course.  Then I noticed it ran for five pages.

By some perverse coincidence, the next thread I read was about Tom Doak getting inducted into the Michigan HOF.  The thought popped into my head that knowing the architect and the history of the course compromises the pure experience of savoring the architectural aesthetics while playing the course.  I was amused by my little joke about how earnestly we indulge in our obsession at times.

[Bill_McBride]

Thomas,

I think the prospect of pulling off a difficult shot provides rewards that extend far beyond the hole and round being played.
It transcends the moment, the day and the year.
It's something that gets etched into our memory banks forever.

Can't we all think back to a miracle shot we hit, one that's remained a great memory for years and years.

I think, electing to meet a challenge that may be far above our general ability, and then pulling it off, is one of the great joys and virtues of the game of golf.

I think that mentality is what also drives golfers to want to play the same courses, the same holes that the best golfers in the world play, PGA and US Open courses.

A fundamental truth.  Adversity sometimes propels us to our best.  It gives us a glimpse of what can be- if I did it once, why not again?  Some of my best memories are of shots with low odds of success that I pulled off.  Par on a very difficult hole is more satisfying for me than a birdie on one that's been set up as a give-away.  In the endeavor to make golf more "fun" and accessible to a wider audience, I hope we don't dumb down the experience and lose that aspect.

Ally,

Actually, I don't like color schemes either.  R-W-B is commonly used in the U.S. for obvious reasons.  Some courses use a whiffle ball or a small flag on the pin, its height adjusted for the hole position.  I don't like them because I can't see.  Another is the F-M-B rotation or pin sheet number.  I am a happy camper just knowing yards from the center.

I really hate front-middle-back which we used at our club for a while. It seemed like I must have been playing every three or six days because the pins were in the same zone every time I played!

[Joe Bentham]

My buddy Aaron and his range finder....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmEVsgcluE