The coaches & GMs of the two courses in my organization try to play a round with each other at least once a week because we all agreed that we did not get into the golf industry not to be able to play golf which is a very common theme in the industry in today’s commercial brand of golf but with the winter freeze we were shut down right at 4 weeks it was bitter cold days in the low 30s feeling like low 20s but I was still able to get in Module work 4 days a week. Well the weather broke to the mid 60s and everyone was chomping at the bits.
The guys wanted to see how their games stood up to the break so they voted to play from the back of the tee boxes on a damp course which made the course play almost 6900 yards it seemed like. Now granted these are some good players all of which played on college golf teams and can get their ball around the golf course.
I have my Toney Penna woods today and my blades as usual in the bag and everyone else has modern equipment we all are striping the ball but I can see the rust on the guys especially the closer they get to the green. But the one thing that stood out was my driver was striped down the middle time after time whereas their modern drivers were a little erratic due to rust but still their slight mishits still had their drives 10-15 yards in front of my well struck persimmon drive and when they struck their modern drivers well they were 40 yards ahead of my drive hitting a mid iron while I had a long iron in my hand.
I played well finishing plus one but I had to work twice as hard as they did to achieve that plus 1. I told them next week when we meet for our business round we are playing from 6400 yards and I don’t care what they have in their bags because at 6400 yards it’s a fair fight again. At 6900+ yards it’s just not a fair fight but there is a caveat. I had a good round and I was able to showcase a skill set that they have allowed to diminish.
Hitting a 3 iron onto a green and two of the players missed the same green with a 6 iron and one with an 8 iron, I saw the defeat in their eyes seeing me hit first and get on the green put pressure on them and that pressure created a long and left miss which turned getting up and down into a Houdini side show on a few holes.
This is a beautiful sport and I do truly believe it’s a sport with a game inside of the sport. It does allow for all three levels of golf to be played on the same course even in the same group but before the ball is tee up on the first tee some basic rules need to be applied.
Hickory Golf play from 6000 or less
Classic Golf played from 6500 or less
Modern Golf played from 6600 or more
Granted these are yardages I would also only suggest to accomplished players everyone else play from wherever you have the most fun.
Cheers
