Most Boring Opening Shot In Golf

[Wade Whitehead]

So, is there a less interesting opening shot on any great golf course, in terms of the required shot?

WW

[Adrian_Stiff]

So, is there a less interesting opening shot on any great golf course, in terms of the required shot?

WW

Wade if you don't find that tee shot interesting I think you should be taking up another game. The interests may in this case be outside things like rough, bunkers water and trees, but in that atmosphere just hitting the golf ball with your arse twitching and a rattlesnake in your hand is a feat in itself.

[Mark Pearce]

Any 20 yard wide fairway with 4inch deep rough on either side is a far, far less interesting tee shot.  So yes, there are several.

[Doug Siebert]

It doesn't make great TV, but when delays caused coverage to start with everyone playing off 1, there's not much else to show until there are enough groups out on the course.

If it was the opening tee shot at the course you play every week it would be boring, but the atmosphere, the audience and the fact for most of us it is a rare treat make it anything but.  The tee shot would be a lot more boring if they razed the clubhouse and built a teebox there, because we'd all be hitting drivers with the modern can't-miss 460cc head.  Personally I find starting the round with a long iron a lot more difficult, because you know it doesn't take all that big of a mishit before you're going to have a more challenging approach than you'd like - risking Tiger's opening round fate.

[Alex Miller]

So, is there a less interesting opening shot on any great golf course, in terms of the required shot?

WW

Depends. I think it's far more boring to ask a golfer to hit 1 type of shot so they can set themselves up for an approach that only allows for one type of shot.

[Thomas Dai]

Not sure if it's true or one of those tales that develops with time, but I was told of a player who was so nervous on the 1st tee at TOC that, after a couple of whiffs, teed off with a putter. True or false?
Atb

[Chris DeNigris]

To watch on TV dozens of pros hit irons- not terribly exciting.  To stand there yourself with a club in your sweaty hands and your stomach working itself upward towards your throat- especially for the first time and with a busload of tourists in the process of forming the most dreaded gallery of your life- likely the least boring first hole you'll experience this week.

[Brent Carlson]

It was about 35 degrees with a strong wind.  I was bundled up in four layers, and could hardly make a shoulder turn.  I hit a push slice out of bounds. 

Now most players will not do that, but try waiting three hours at the starters hit in freezing weather for an open slot.  Anything can happen. 

[David Kelly]

So, is there a less interesting opening shot on any great golf course, in terms of the required shot?

To hell with a "required shot," the beauty of The Old Course is that there is never a required shot.

[Mark Chaplin]

I'm sure when the Old Course evolved the excitement of Wade's TV viewing wasn't on the agenda. In many ways the hole's apparent simplicity is a major part of the challenge, as it is for much of TOC.

[Wade Whitehead]

Appreciate the responses, guys.

Just asking, having not been there (obviously), but observing that it's just about impossible for players in the championship to hit a poor opening shot.  They can hit it anywhere and it works.

It has less to do with television excitement than I may have made it sound.  It's really a question of whether or not almost any shot works from the first tee at The Old Course.

Thanks the responses.

WW

[mike_beene]

I have posted this before: I am guilty of an OB left on 1 and a near OB with my third.People on the rail and for my fourth I hit an 8 iron so fat it went 20 yards.Seems like I parred the rest of the front 9 holes. Not sure why this happened because I had played there a number of times before.