Tiger and me

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I note that many courses can be played at (men's) lengths from about 5,700 yards to 7,500 yards depending on the tees selected.  I should not like to play from the 7,500-yard tees and I would be incapable of doing so, but I do not much enjoy teeing off 100 yards or more in front of the design-tees on every single hole.  Furthermore, if I hit a 220 yard top-drawer drive to the same place that Tiger Woods hits a 340 yard drive and we are both left with 180 yards to the flag, he is pondering whether to float a 9-iron or hit a wedge flat out, while I am fingering my trusty 5-wood.  So, even providing forward tees for the elderly and infirm does not guarantee an equally interesting round for us both from our very different sets of tees.  

One of the few courses which, to my mind, seems to fulfil these very different needs is TOC.  Are there other suggestions for courses where Tiger and I might play a social round and have equal fun and equal challenge from our respective tees?

[THuckaby2]

Mark:

That's a great question, one that hopefully some here will answer.  As for me, I am going to cheat a little and answer your question with a question:

why should any course even attempt to allow for you and Tiger to "play a social round and have equal fun and equal challenge from our respective tees"?

It seems to me that this attempt to make a course everything for everyone can do more harm than good.  Some courses will challenge and amuse Tiger, some courses will challenge and amuse you, and it doesn't seem worth it to me to expect that any course will do both.

Because you're not going to be playing a social round with a pro golfer of that type any time soon... are you?  And if you are... well... let's just expect Tiger to "dumb down" to your level.  I think he'd enjoy it.

 

I don't mean that sarcastically, by the way - more whimsically.

My main point is that challenging for the top pros is SO off the charts different than challenging for us mortals that it's silly to even bother making such work on the same course.  They have theirs, we have ours, and it seems to me both sides are quite content.

TH

[ed_getka]

Mark,
  Painswick fits the bill, Tiger's neurons would be short circuiting.

[THuckaby2]

Mark - on the other hand, I've said many times in here that the best of all courses are those on which championships can be held and on which normal members can also have fun.  There are only VERY few that meet this - Shinnecock Hills comes to mind - but that's why they are the best.

So as you can see, this is a GREAT question, one that is very tough to answer!

My take remains though that setting out to CREATE a course like this now might be self-defeating.  That is, it seems to me to make more sense to build one or the other, and hopefully err BIG TIME on the side of making it playable for members.  That is we build 100 courses like this for every one that attempts to give Tiger a challenge.

So many new courses try to be all things for all golfers and in so doing end up being nothing for anyone instead.

TH

[Tommy Williamsen]

Mark I think there are some courses where both you and Tiger might have an equal amount of fun from the same tees.  Two that come to mind are Shoreacres and Yeamans Hall.  In your neck of the woods both courses at The Berkshire or the Old Course at Sunningdale would work.  The tee shots might be boring for Tiger, but they would also require some thought.

[johnk]

I think you could have a fun social/challenging round with Tiger if you leveled the game with him some other way - not distance related.  Some game setup with one or more of the following rules:

 - he plays left handed
 - uses hickory shafts
 - you call every shot he has to hit - shape & trajectory wise, if he doesn't shape it correctly, it's stroke and distance.
 - he plays with only 1 club

etc.

Left handed with shape-calling might be a pretty even match...

[Travis Ripley]

Kingsbarns.  seems to be set up like that.  when i played it, we were paired with a couple who are really not good players at all but they had been playing it all week and thought it was great.  i think that's a complement to the design.  

my dad has been about a 4-5 hcp player for 30 years, i used to be about that...but due to lack of play am about 9-10.  and we all got around pretty good.  and the back tees were *way on back* on  few holes.  we didn't play them, obviously.    

the wide fairways are forgiving for your avg. player in the wind, and strategic for tournament play vis a vis the wind, green complex, and hole position.  

     

[Mark_F]

Mark,

I would have thought the answer was obvious.  

Royal Porthcawl.  Sans howling gales, surely not too difficult for you, and we all know the mental torture Woods would be undergoing as he drove through the front gate...