I love any day playing golf. But I just don’t find super tight courses to be fun. Maybe I was raised to love links style…I have no issues with uneven lies, distance, pot bunkers, etc.
But some of these courses in the states are tight. The one I played last weekend had fairways that averaged 20y wide, with a lot of tree overhang on both sides, and extremely dense foliage. See above, this one was 15y!
I’m a 5 handicap, I can get around most courses, but for me this made Carnoustie look a cakewalk. It was impossible to keep the ball in play. I had to play only punch shots on the back 9 so I could keep my score below 90.
And the weirdest part, the slope and rating were super low (70/123) so it’s an “easy” course. But as someone that can’t hit a straight shot, this was near impossible.
Is this how you play these courses, just super low punch shots?
by LikelySatanist
31 Comments
This is my nightmare
The perfect course to me is the midpoint between this and a links course. Wider fairways, but trees lining most/every hole.
Yes, it will make you a better golfer in the long run.
This is my home course, very tight.
https://preview.redd.it/1if713t1giwf1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bdfb8baae9bb0f84b92449452bf1e31a86f53dd3
My preference for making a course harder is not narrower fairways but with well-guarded greens forcing challenging approach shots. Reasoning being, you have way more options/things to think about for challenging approach shots than tight tee shots. Tight tee shots just force you to club down, there’s really no other thought process. Like you said, you spent 9 holes hitting only one type of shot, punches.
Challenging approaches make you think about whether you want to hit it low and roll it in or throw it up and make it stop, whether or not and how much you need it to spin, how you’re going to use the contours of the green/fringe to get the ball closest to the hole, whether or not you want to challenge the flag or go for a different section of green, etc.
My hands hurts just from looking at this image because all I’d be doing is jotting down big numbers all day.
No. I like Doak’s philosophy. There’s penalty areas, but he always leaves you an out, so that if you execute a great follow-up shot, you can get yourself back in position to try to get up and down.
Tight tracks like this is just playing defensive target golf all day. In the trees? Chop out, pray for bogey. That’s all you can do.
Trees are annoying but at least you can often find your ball and hit out of them, even if you have to go lateral. What I hate is narrow fairways with houses and OB everywhere
This was what Bayonet was like before all the trees came down. Leave the driver in the car.
No. Absolutely not
Holy shit it’s Butternut! My home (and favorite) course! This course isn’t easy with how tight it is, and 10 is one of the most punishing holes around. A 600 yard par 5, with 480 just to get a look at the hole, which is tucked to the right, down hill, over water, with woods tight on the back. This course is an absolute gem despite the narrow fairways. It will test your game in the best way. Some really fun features and beautiful foliage this time of year. The driveable green over the marsh on 8 is another marquee hole with great views and awesome risk reward. Never thought I’d see this beauty on here. 11/10 course.
Id hit the fairway everytime. Two holes over.
No. Not at all. Golf is not a game of perfect. Courses like harbor Town made me feel like I had to hit every shot perfectly otherwise it was automatic bogey or worse. There was no miracle shot or great recovery. You had to punch out 90 degrees or even backwards.
And there are some holes where you can’t even club down to be safe. You had to clear the dog leg and trees to get any chance at the green.
Tee it up low, and only 75% swing power. Let it rip down the fairway chasing calves height. Lol
This image made my palms sweat just writing this comment.
A LOT of pre WW2 courses (talking NE and Mid Atlantic US) didn’t have a lot of evergreens lining the fairways until many planted them in the 1950s. As you experienced, it was very difficult to hit the fairways and that resulted in a LOT of punch outs. I’m kind of surprised to read/see your post because almost as many of those courses started to take them out after 2000 because the shade delayed snow thaw off the greens and tee boxes and the evergreens restricted ‘air flow’. My course and many others have lower average scores now that a lot of the evergreens/pines have been removed. The off-set of the ‘isolation’ of the evergreens — for some — is that removal ‘opened up vistas’. A good example of this was Oakmont this year. The broadcast showed how different it looked from when it hosted a major in the 1990s.
Yeah, I love squirrel hunting with golf balls 🙂
As a female golfer, I don’t get the distance that men can, but I can hit the ball straight 95% of the time. I would be fine on this course.
This is my nightmare because of other golfers who don’t shout fore. If you can’t hit the ball straight and are not prepared to shout, don’t play this sort of course.
I love playing tight courses but won’t venture out unless it’s an empty course.
Might have to bring 2 dozen balls with me just in case
They’re gimmicky imo. Forcing you to hit one type of shot for basically the entire round isn’t challenging. It’s unimaginative. Tight chute on a tee shot or two? Sure. Narrow landing area off the tee on a potentially reachable par 5? Great. But having the entire fairway 15y-20y wide and densely lined with trees is just a cheap way of making a boring course difficult.
If the course is shorter, then tight fairways are fair. I actually like hitting my driving iron off the tee.
But a 420yd hole, with a sliver for a fairway? And trouble on both sides? Those are just bullshit. I couldn’t imagine having fun with 16 holes of that.
No I don’t
And I don’t like that boring back and forth parallel holes like in thepucture
If that was my home course I’d have to learn to bank it off the trees back onto the fairways
No thanks. I should play these types of courses more, but they’re awful for me, especially in the fall.
Butternut Farm? This looks like my neck of the woods. If it is that course then yea, I don’t pull a driver until maybe the 10th hole? But mainly a course like this turns into basically “pin hunting” every shot. Turns it into a good course management practice.
Oh hey that looks like one of my home courses. Beautiful course in the middle of a state park, but sweet mother of innocent baby Christ, the number of pine tree lined, 20 yard wide fairways…. A solid 15/18. Infuriating if you’re having an off day with the driver.
Do they test your skill in golf? Yes. Do I enjoy playing them? No
I brought a company outing here once. twas a DISASTER.
No, absolutely hate it.
I don’t enjoy it, but I do think it’s the easiest way to improve your all round game. Not only does it force you to be accurate off the tee, it teaches you to make good decisions, how to hit out the rough, how to hit recovery shots and pretty much everything you can’t learn on the range. And it will do so quicker than a wide open course.