First course is a fun, little public course with some nice views in central Texas.
Pine Forest Golf Course Bastrop
Backdrop of the #7 Tee
A lot of cliffs act as boundaries on the front side causing blind approaches to the green on dog-legs
Backside offers some amazing views when you get to the top of the hill. This is the 11th green; you have to hit across a huge canyon from the tee.
Second course is called Wolfdancer. Its Hilton-Hyatt's new resort just on the other side of Bastrop. Track is barely a year old.
Some classy par 3's.
Pine Forest is only $40 including cart.
Wolfdancer is $89 twilight ($165 regular), but I like to splurge once a year to play a premium track.
Its a group of 5 with HDCPs ranging from 3 to 10, so it should be a really fun and competitive WOLF and Skins game going on among the group. I'll probably play a Nassau with one guy in the group for $10 a side and the total.
I pretty much avoid any course that allows 5 in a group. They invariably slow down play. My experience in playing league golf is that no one plays slower than the A-flighters. They all seem to think they’re on the tour, lining up their putts from six different angles and whatnot.
Joe in PB wrote:
Yeah I'm the dumbass
schmick, speaking about Larry Nassar's pubescent and prepubescent victims wrote:
They couldn't even kick that doctors ass
Seems they rather just lay there, get fucked and play victim
Goober McTuber wrote:I pretty much avoid any course that allows 5 in a group. They invariably slow down play. My experience in playing league golf is that no one plays slower than the A-flighters. They all seem to think they’re on the tour, lining up their putts from six different angles and whatnot.
Slowest guy in the group happens to be the best player. He carries a 3 hdcp and is consistent which means he shoots between a 74 - 76 virtually every time we go out there. Its really tough to slow a group down when you are hitting fairways and greens for most of the day, but if he does slow down a bit, we all know each other well enough to tell him to hurry the fuck up.
Me, I'm probably the 3rd best in the group at a 7, but I play extremely fast. I remember being off for a week a couple of years ago and playing 63 in a day all by my lonesome on a local course. I finished my first round in just over 2 hours by firing a little 75. I'm sure if I wasn't playing speed golf and lined up a few more puts, I would have been in the red, but I just wanted to play as much as I could.
there appears to be little room for error on that particular hole.....
a 130 slope from the blues...damn, tough track.....
Arthur Hills.....one of the best there is.....
Yea, but they offer a forecaddy service. So you're not going to lose nearly as many balls.
BTW: I'll never understand how they figure slope. The white tees are 500 yards further back than the blues, and the slope is only 2 strokes lower? Yet the rating is nearly 3 full strokes lower?
BSmack wrote:The white tees are 500 yards further back than the blues, and the slope is only 2 strokes lower? Yet the rating is nearly 3 full strokes lower?
I know you meant "500 yards shorter", but that's neither here nor there.....
Any of the serious golf wonks want to try to explain that? Maybe a typo?
Q would be much more qualified than I, but I'm assuming the relatively close slope rating for a set of tees maybe related to different difficulties each set of tees presents....
for example, I played the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course (yeah, the one that has four holes inside the raceway) from the Blue Tees (Gold Tees are the "tips"-save your Ken resets because I'm not reading them) but as I'm apt to do when playing a course I've never played before, I'll generally play the three hardest rated holes from the very back tees (if I'm playing from a forward set of tees)....
the hardest rated hole at the Brickyard is the Par 4 5th Hole.....from the Gold Tees the hole plays 453 yards, while from the Blue Tees, the hole plays 405....in this instance, the tee shot from the Blue Tees was more difficult, because the landing area for the forward tees is much narrower and the rough was much thicker than the landing area from the Gold Tees, assuming tee shots of about 270 to 280....
the third hardest hole is the Par 5 2nd, which plays 560 from the Gold and 510 from the Blue tees, however, the angle of the forward tees was such that the tee shot from the Blue Tees was as difficult as the tee shot from Gold Tees....on that particular hole, I played balls from both tees and trust me on this, playing from the Blue tees was no great advantage.....
I think that's why you can see a big yardage difference, but rated similar in terms of difficulty...
btw, the Brickyard Course kicked my ass the first time I played it.....not so much the second time.....
experience goes a long way on that particular course......
the first hole inside the speedway.....No. 7, looks like kind of a docile hole until...
you get to what has to be one of the deepest fucking greens I've ever seen....could be as much as 3 clubs difference between a pin on the front and a pin on the back (where it was the day this pic was taken)
that's only about 1/2 the green, but that's all I could fit into the photo....
Last edited by Felix on Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I think felix explained it right. Certain obstacles can come into play from the shorter tees than what you might get from the tips making some holes more difficult when shortened. I think the distance and obstacle % varies in weighing the overall difficulty depending on the effect it could have on one's score. So, I'm sure when a team of USGA officials are sent out to take their measurements and then play the course, that is how they come to some odd conclusions from one set tees to another when calculating the slope rating of a course.
Agree with Felix, that par 3 pictured looks like a potential big number waiting to happen.
And I rarely see gold tees, but my memory tells me that's the senior tees around these parts, usually just in front of the ladies'(if I remember right). The tips are always black on the courses I ever play.
And I play in 5somes on some courses. But we always ask beforehand, and either do it on hacker courses on weekends when it's slow paced already, or weedays when it's wide open, and immediately stop and let any other groups that catch up play through. Then again, people are known for being courteous in this neck of the woods, so maybe things are different elsewhere. It's never been a problem, regardless. Although we do have a slower-than-the-second-coming player in the bunch(who oddly enough, is the only one of my regular hardcore golf buddies who I consistantly beat... go figure). I'm actually a fairly fast player, as are most of my usual golf buds, except one.
Which brings me to...
Question for slow players -- Why?
That beautiful, textbook, training-video-esque set of 30 practice swings looks absolutely nothing like the ugly hack you take when you actually adress the ball, so...
Why?
And that putt you lined up for 5 minutes(after not even looking at it while the other players took theirs) missed the freaking hole by 2 freaking feet. Maybe a little less thinking, and a little more instict, maybe?
Okay, I guess you can call those bluffs and not cliffs. Obviously the U&L has much more to offer when it comes to undulating tracks, but for a 2 1/2 hour drive outside of H-Town I'll take the hilly stuff.
And yes, it is a small canyon/over-sized crevice that you have to shoot across from the tee.
Since Rumple is new, I'll reset one of my favorite pics(the rest have seen it).
180 yards out, 180 feet down. All that brush surrounding the green is actually lining a creek that you can't see.
The course itself isn't much to speak of, and is way across town, and the "mountain view" that's its namesake is really only visible from the first fairway. Used to be a fun "get drunk" course, but now they think it's made of gold or something. If I'm going to pony up real greens fees, I can think of many places nicer.
But Mountain View does have that crazy par 3 going for it. There's a freaking gaurd rail on the cart path going down...legend has it that the freeway-style gaurd rail was necessitated by someone dying trying to drive a cart down the path... but that's sounds like a legend, to me. I did see one that a drunk put in a ravine while negotiating the path, though... they somehow missed the gaurd rail.
Matter of fact, the teebox consists of a driving range mat. I guess it's too dangerous to try and maintain/mow grass there, since that first step forward is a doozy, which you really can't see in the pic. And while that pic looks all spiffy, they rarely mow the grass on the hill. Get under a fatty and hit it short, and you're in deep shit. That hole can pony up some 10s... that green is tougher to hit that it looks. I seem to remember either ripping a PW, or a smooth 9 being plenty. Leaves one hell of a ballmark if you do nail the green. There's some contour, too, and they can really jack up the pin placement if they want... nothing like a 4 putt after you took 4 to even get there. I've gotten KILLED on that hole a couple of times. That one can make or break a round on an otherwise easy course.
And I rarely see gold tees, but my memory tells me that's the senior tees around these parts, usually just in front of the ladies'(if I remember right). The tips are always black on the courses I ever play.
you need to get out of the U&L Dins....the majority of the courses here employ different coloring designations for the "tips"....for example one course I play pretty regularly the very back tees are "whites", with "blues" being the mens tournament tees, black being the "regular" mens tees, red being the "forward" mens tees, and yellow being the womens tees....
on another, the tartan tees are the tips, black regular mens, blue the forward mens, red the ladies back tees, and green being the forward ladies tees......
I read an article in Golf Digest that indicated this is a trend that many golf course operators now going to, in order to eliminate a certain "stigma" associated with certain colored tees....
I for one have no problem with anybody playing from whatever set of tees makes the game most enjoyable....I've played from the tips with guys who had no business playing from that particular set of tees and it inevitably turns into a test of intestinal fortitude, with the course ALWAYS winning...
Felix wrote:on another, the tartan tees are the tips, black regular mens, blue the forward mens, red the ladies back tees, and green being the forward ladies tees......
Actyually, I was unaware of regional differences. Heck, you've golfed the U&L... I've never seen anything besides red - ladies, white - mens front, blue - men's regular, black -- tips.
I'm not suprised there's differnces. As I'm sure you've noticed, golf difers slightly from place to place. I'm sure you've noticed that about 99.9% of greens in the U&L are significantly elevated, usually with really steep aprons. When I see tournies from other places, I don't see the same thing. I imagine this has to do with keeping the course playable during the Wet Season, whereas most of the northern half of the country doesn't have playable courses in the winter months, and doesn't have the regular-but-light spring rains, so it doesn't necessitate steeply elevated greens.
Which is why you see the Cascadians pounding the ball into the apron to get up on rock-hard greens in summer, rather than excusively using the "high and hot" theory(which is money here when it's wet).
I for one have no problem with anybody playing from whatever set of tees makes the game most enjoyable.
Dinsdale wrote:
How much did Ken pay you to post that?
fukker......
the thing is I can't count the number of times I'll wander out to my local track for a quick 18, and have been paired with people that when I say I'm playing from the back tees, they somehow feel obligated to play the same set of tees, when they should in fact probably be playing from the kid's tees....but testosterone always gets the best of them...
after two or three holes of watching them fumble fuck around, I reiterate to them that they should play from the tees they NORMALLY PLAY....90% of the time (after getting their asses kicked around) they'll move forward and it's much more enjoyable for them, which in turn makes it more enjoyable for me....I'd rather play from the forward tees than listen to some fucking 21 handicap hack spend 4 hours complaining that "this isn't how I normally play", "I'm a lot better than I'm showing right now" (btw, no you're not), or "I don't know why I'm playing so bad" (I do..... not only are you playing from the wrong set of tees, but you also fucking suck)
damn you Dins, you got me all worked up now.......
Felix wrote:
after two or three holes of watching them fumble fuck around, I reiterate to them that they should play from the tees they NORMALLY PLAY....90% of the time (after getting their asses kicked around) they'll move forward and it's much more enjoyable for them, which in turn makes it more enjoyable for me....I'd rather play from the forward tees than listen to some fucking 21 handicap hack spend 4 hours complaining that "this isn't how I normally play", "I'm a lot better than I'm showing right now" (btw, no you're not), or "I don't know why I'm playing so bad" (I do..... not only are you playing from the wrong set of tees, but you also fucking suck.
we have a saying at the SHOP about that dude: he has a LOFT problem....Lack Of Fukking Talent
Yup, the phrase "that shot had some LOFT to it" comes up a lot with me and mine.
Some courses are significantly different from the fronts to the tips, some aren't.
But really, on a long course, I don't think it's that big a deal. You either poke it up the middle or you don't. Am I more likely to hit the green with a 6 than a 4? Well, yeah, probably. But if I've got my ballstrike on(you never know), I'm probably going to get close, either way. The bump and runs and greensiders make the score, not the distance of the tee...speaking for mid/high cappers, anyway. Low cappers are looking to hit regulation every time, and the difference betwen upping with a 4 or a 6 makes a big difference.
On short courses... give me the tips. As much as I like to score low (ALL THINGS BEING RELATIVE), I enjoy the challenge more. And as was brought up when Ken made his bold "you're SUPPOSED to play the whites" proclaimation(might have been a different board), if I'm hitting a freaking sandwedge into every freaking green(or at least every time I hit a deece drive), it's freaking lame. How about mixing in a 7, an 8, and even a 6 once in a while. I've got a pile of wedges these days(I play 4 these days, screw a buncha fairway woods, and my set never had a 3I, and I've grown used to not having one), and it's nice to hit more than one of them. Driver, sandwedge... driver, sandwedge... driver, sandwedge...whatever.
Speaking of wedges, I'm starting to get used to my bitchin 60*(that I paid $2 for). I think it's a really ancient but little used Titlist, but I'm not sure. Dialing in a new wedge is a bitch, but I've been hitting it around the backyard, and am starting to get the distances down. Sliced a driver into the tress recently, and opened it up a little, and flattened the swing, and holy smokes, I went straight over the huge douglas firs directly in front of me. Came up a little short, but I was like 80 out, so with it open, I wasn't expecting much. But driving into the forest and getting it to the fringe didn't hurt my feelings. Of course, being me, I think I might have still found a way to boge...because that is how I roll. Maybe I did get that one up and down...don't remember. Smart money is on the bogey, though.
Spun one clean back off the green from about 120 out with my cool new 50*. Jerking them around the green looks cool, anyway. Doesn't help the score if you spin it clean back off the green, but at least you look cool doing it.
Speaking of, one of my buds who has MADGAME (the guy I call The Clinic...hovers around 1 or scratch, somewhere in there) got some of those Srixon balls that Furyk pimps. Dude says that nothing, and he reitertaretd "nothing" grabs the greens and can be jacked around like those. He'll only play them on the hardest of greens, he says. Funny thing is, he's got stocks of every high-end ball you can think of, and he always liked these cheapass Maxfli things(can't remember the model) when greens weren't holding well. But now, that's changed. He highly recommended the Srixon for tough-to-holders, and recommended against on the soft, grabby stuff. I've never played one, but it sounds like it might make par 3s fun.
As far as joining up with others...guilty. If I join someone else's group(although I so rarely head to the course alone, there's not much in it), I play whatever tees my "hosts" are. Then again, I usually play blues in summer. If I drive it straight, I hit it a long way, and tee selection usually isn't an issue. If I hit it crooked(pretty safe bet lately), it doesn't really matter either, does it? Chunking out of the trees is chunking out of the trees, right?(I hit a PSYCHO low hook from deeeeep in the trees recently, and found the green with it...one of my few happy moments that day...I've been sucking lately... might have something to do with blowing up my back again...just when things were looking up, and after a couple of injury free years, was hitting the ball pretty good.) Just can't get the hips in the right place at the right time when the back isn't working right, although I've found booze helps... at first.
Dinsdale wrote:And as was brought up when Ken made his bold "you're SUPPOSED to play the whites" proclaimation (might have been a different board)
If you can't even remember where I posted it, we're supposed to trust that you remember the content/context? Riiiiight.
You're incorrect. Waaaay off base.
My stance mirrors that of felix's. Separate tees are there for a reason. Tee off from where your abilites/length dictate you should. If you're a 15-20 handicapper, the last thing I want to see some dipshit teeing from the tips. If you're a 7-10, tee from where you see fit, imo.
My 'cap fluctuates between 7-10 throughout the year... I take it course by course. If it's an especially long course, I'll move up from the tips. If it's average in length or shorter, tips for me. I am reasonably straight off the tees (average about 240-250 yds) and am a pretty darned good iron player. I can work the ball left or right (just how much it moves each way is the fly in the ointment and my downfall many times). I can play knockdowns w/a fair amount of consistency (it's actually my favorite shot). If I'm leaving myself w/180-210 yd. approaches on par 4 after par 4, I have few opportunities to utilize these shots. Then wtf is the point? In short, I'd say I play from the tips 75% of rounds w/the other 25% one forward.
if I'm hitting a freaking sandwedge into every freaking green(or at least every time I hit a deece drive), it's freaking lame
You bring up a good point about this, but its lame for me in a different sense. I seem to struggle controlling my distance and overall consistancy with my 8-SW, so playing the "whites" creates a disadvantage for me unless the hole is in the 300 - 330 range, then I can just chip or putt on my second shot. Other than that, get me on a hole that is between 350 - 420 and I will struggle to get it close on my second shot. I'm all about my 3 - 7. That is where my game is at its best...long irons. I kind of fit into the rare breed of golfers who applaud the 480 yard monster par 4s. I'll take driver, long iron everyday.
Dinsdale wrote:And as was brought up when Ken made his bold "you're SUPPOSED to play the whites" proclaimation (might have been a different board)
If you can't even remember where I posted it, we're supposed to trust that you remember the content/context? Riiiiight.
You're incorrect. Waaaay off base.
My stance mirrors that of felix's. Separate tees are there for a reason. Tee off from where your abilites/length dictate you should. If you're a 15-20 handicapper, the last thing I want to see some dipshit teeing from the tips. If you're a 7-10, tee from where you see fit, imo.
My 'cap fluctuates between 7-10 throughout the year... I take it course by course. If it's an especially long course, I'll move up from the tips. If it's average in length or shorter, tips for me. I am reasonably straight off the tees (average about 240-250 yds) and am a pretty darned good iron player. I can work the ball left or right (just how much it moves each way is the fly in the ointment and my downfall many times). I can play knockdowns w/a fair amount of consistency (it's actually my favorite shot). If I'm leaving myself w/180-210 yd. approaches on par 4 after par 4, I have few opportunities to utilize these shots. Then wtf is the point? In short, I'd say I play from the tips 75% of rounds w/the other 25% one forward.
Sure, Kendra, next thing you’ll be telling us that you don’t really drive a pink Jetta, it’s a red Testarossa. Or that your wife doesn’t really keep your balls in a small box on her nightstand.
Joe in PB wrote:
Yeah I'm the dumbass
schmick, speaking about Larry Nassar's pubescent and prepubescent victims wrote:
They couldn't even kick that doctors ass
Seems they rather just lay there, get fucked and play victim
Oh, if you like Ken, I'm sure I can drum up witnesses to the whole "the course designers MEANT for it to be played from the whites."
Regardless, I was just trying to get you to fess up to the "240 all day long" bit. Aren't you a pretty big, lanky guy, too?
Do you beat your husband on an occasion?
But really, props. It must take a lot of muscle control to fight off the æffects of gravity, since just letting the club fall into the ball should be good for at least 250.
Ya' know, rump... I've always lived by the unwritten rule a certain mod PM'ed my way after I laid a bit of smack when I first entered the golf forum. It was politely and professionally stated that smack isn't allowed here. Rather, it's a place to talk good golf and good fun; backburner the smack. Since, I've lived by that in this forum.
But ya' know what? Fuck that for a moment.
You're an A-1 pussy. Wanna know how I'm so certain of that? Easy... you can't develop even a the smallest amount of smack required to fill a thimble. Obviously challenged enough that you can't glean something from what I've posted in the past (there is a search function, fancy that), you suck off of other posters.
Shit, you don't even know what the origin of your 'smack' directed at me was, do you? Of course not. So, you go into it 'blind' and post about distance off the tee simply 'cuz others have alluded to it. No substance from your end. Nothing. Just a remora. Hell, the ass end of a remora.
At least some of the others here DO have a grasp of the history of said 'smack'. Fine by me, even though it's unfounded. But you on the other hand, are simply a smackless simpleton, w/out the least bit of creativity, who depends entirely on others for their material.
I'm not sure if we ever had a "no smack in the golf forum" rule per se, it's just not done that much.
But you know what? Ken has been a solid, solid jungle guy golf forum poster from the onset. He can do whatever the hell he wants in here, pending 3Putt's approval.
Okay, Ken. I'm sorry for making fun of you and making you melt and stuff.
Moving on...
Sorry there are no pics, but the wife took the digital camera for her trip. Well, I played both tracks and absolutely got slaughtered out there. My short game was brutal and my short irons killed me on the 3s and 4s. I was hitting a hybrid on just about evey par 4 out there and had an approach of 100 - 160 yards leaving me my 8 - SW. I just could not get it done. My 3 rounds for the weekend were 86, 83, 86. And that 83 was most I have ever grinded. When I recap that round, I seriously do not know how I shot an 83. I think I made 7 twelve footers to scramble for par or bogey in that horrid round. Turns out, the entire group got their asses handed to them by both tracks as the low score for the entire weekend was 78 by the second best player in the group. He was the big winner for the weekend taking home almost $200 in Wolf, Skins, and Greenies. Other than that, I had a lot of fun playing Pine Forest and Wolfdancer. I want to play wolfdancer again, so I don't have to guess where the best place is to leave my approach shots. Next time, I'll take pics of the scenic holes (par 3s especially).
Sidebar:
Luckily, I was nails on the poker table at night with the crew. I won all of my losses from the golf and part of the green fees. Omaha was my best friend on Saturday night.
