Re: Any UK Golfers here?

On 2 Feb 2006 08:25:24 -0800, "Simon" <hancock_simon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

1) Walking v riding in golf carts

You just don't see golf carts in the UK. There may be a few resort
hotel courses that have them, but I don't think any real golfers would
be seen dead in one.

I understand mountain courses requiring carts. And some courses are
designed to give the largest number of houses an opportunity to claim
to be part of a golf course community, spreading out the walk from pin
to tee.

But I was really irritated when I went to a municipal course last
October and asked where the pin placement was - I was told that the
GPS on the carts knew. I said I was walking. I was told that the
cart was part of the greens fee. I said I was walking. They were
sorry but they couldn't help me.

They did have paper score cards though, without pictures of the holes.

2) Choosing which tees to play according to ability

We don't get any choice in tees here. You play the course as you find
it. If you are too short to reach a green in regulation, that's just
hard luck. Your handicap accounts for that. A good course should be
designed with a mixture of short, medium and long holes, so the long
hitters aren't always hitting 3 wood, wedge and the shorter hitters
aren't always hitting 2 woods. Golf is meant to be a challenge. If you
find it too difficult do you (a) accept your limitations and/or try to
improve or (b) try to make the game easier?
I've never liked the kind of posts that say "It's not fair - I can't
reach the green in two, I want to play from the forward tees"

So what's the difference between having different tees on one course
or different courses?

Lady's tees make it more likely for women to play - but otherwise, we
can pick easy or difficult courses. I like switching tees at my
course for the experience of playing it differently.

3) The lack of (and lack of interest in) competitive golf in the US.
I've just counted up - our club has 92 singles strokeplay competitions
this year!

Yep. The U.S. has a reputation for making everything competitive -
but this isn't always so. There are lots more recreational and
casual golfers here than there are competitive golfers.

I'm just going by the general posts I see in RSG. It seems like the
only references I see to competitions are team comps and scrambles. How
many club strokeplay events are available to the average US player?

Club events usually have stroke play competition here. Business
outings tend to be designed around team events that don't make the
worst player look too bad. That's scrambles.

I've never seen anybody play the rule book definition of four-some
here. The first time I played match was in a Men's club draw - most
all "serious" golf is medal play - probably because that's what we see
on TV.

4) Handicaps based on casual play

I've never been that comfortable with the idea that you could get a
handicap from unchecked, partial rounds that don't even have to have
been played by the rules. I think our system of only using rounds from
official strokeplay competitions is much more reliable.

I'm the opposite. Handicaps are a great idea for gambling, giving
bettors a starting place to make their bets. But the net club
champion is not a real champion. Flight the club if you want, but
play head to head.

5) Whether to follow the Rules of Golf all the time

I think it's funny seeing the posts about guys getting all defensive
about how they justify 'emulating' penalties for lost balls. Often this
is on the grounds that the following group would get angry if you
really played by the rules and walked back to the tee. For one, people
tend to hit provisionals here, so you might only have to walk back
about once a season. If you had to do that, you'd let the following
group through and you'd usually get a sympathetic response from the
group you let through.

If they aren't playing for anything, let them play whatever game they
want. Sort of like playing soccer in an alley, bouncing the ball
off the walls - it's a different game and can still be fun.

The danger is that their strategies change and you don't get good
enough practice with all of the shots they need.

I let consideration trump the rules - if the course is crowded, and
I'm not playing for anything, I emulate stroke and distance. But
that is with full knowledge of what I'm doing. When a buddy asks
advice in a casual game, I preface my reply with "this is advice and
thus illegal, but...". This keeps both of us aware of what the
rules are so that we are ready when we play rounds that count.

6) Playing strokeplay even in friendly games

I guess this may be linked to the fact that every round needs to be
submitted for handicap, so there is pressure to put in a score for each
hole. I don't think I've ever seen anyone play strokeplay in a
non-competitive play over here. It's always matchplay or stableford

I can appreciate having match play for casual rounds. Stableford
seems like another way of scoring medal play rounds. I don't see
that it is more suitable for non-competitive play than for competitive
play.

7) Endless debates about the minutiae of the golf swing from people who
probably can't break 90.

My view is that if you don't have the physical ability or coordination
to break 80 after a couple of years, then I can't see how you could
have the physical ability to implement the complex swing mechanics that
are discussed. I don't think it's a US v UK thing, more a RSG thing.
I've never met a golfer who has discussed the swing in the way it is
discussed here.

I agree. When we get together to talk golf on the Internet, what is
there to talk about? Swing mechanics is interesting, the tournament
we saw on TV is interesting - but the 5th hole on the local course was
only seen by one of us. It may not help our game, but talking about
golf theory is still fun stuff while waiting for a program to compile.

Our discussion of the golf swing isn't all about theory though. Some
of it is pretty basic - how to cure a slice for instance. And it
isn't the single digit handicap person who is stuck with an incurable
slice.

I post a lot because I enjoy these discussions. There are some real
big threads with people putting down other people that don't interest
me at all - and I rarely post in those threads. Golf is what I
enjoy. I've learned some useful stuff, and some useless stuff about
golf - and had fun doing so.
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Any UK Golfers here?
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