Ms. Cups spent much of her early working years in the golf industry at various tournaments and events. Because of this, she made friends who continue to work in golf. One of her best friends, through her work/living location/etc. is able to regularly get tee times at TPC Sawgrass (or is it just Sawgrass? I’m always bad at that…).
She’s having a birthday party (of sorts) for her husband, which includes a golf outing at Sawgrass that I am a part of.
Here’s the good news: I’m not playing the Stadium Course, which is the REAL professional one (with the famous 17 hole).
Here’s the bad news: It’s still a professional course and I’m, like, reeeeaaalllyyy not good at golf. I just picked up the game a couple years ago, and I have barely the time or money to play. This whole thing went down yesterday evening, and we’re heading to Jacksonville tonight, so I can’t even practice!
I’m stoked beyond belief that I get to play there, but I’m really quite nervous as to how I’m going to play. Not to mention, everyone else playing is good (if not very good) at golf. So I’m going to go there with an open mind, I’m going to have fun, but I really wish I could have at least ONE day to practice!
Before teeing off…
“OK, everybody. I’ve decided to go easy on you all. I’m a left handed golfer but to make things fair, I will play right handed today.”
It takes years of practice to become good at golf. It’s a really hard game. Just go and hit your ball. Standing over it for 30 seconds isn’t going to help. Just hitting it without thinking will probably help your game
I presume you will be playing the old Sawgrass course, which they played the TPC at for like 6 years before the Stadium Course was built. I watched Jack Nicklaus win there in '77, and it broke my heart when he flung his ball right at me after the tournament ended, and I foolishly tried to catch it one handed, and didn’t…
I’m a very average golfer. I can have good games, and I can have terrible games.
I also have golfed with terrible golfers and it’s no big deal unless the terrible golfer is really slowing the pace of the game. No one but you will care what you score, but they will care if you take it seriously, start getting angry, or slow down the pace. As long as you do neither of these three things no one will care.
Someone shooting 130, having fun and not impacting the pace of the game will be a joy to golf with any time.
I’ve been playing golf for a couple of decades and still can’t break 100 very often. But it’s those 2-3 perfect 290-yard drives per round that keep me going back. That said, I wouldn’t even hesitate to play the Stadium Course if ever given the opportunity. I’d bring at least a dozen balls though… just for the 17th!
Did you get this backwards? I usually use a ‘longer’ club out of the rough (if the distance reads 6, pull the 5) and it generally works out okay. The rough takes club head speed (and thus distance) away.
OP: You won’t see this before you play, but enjoy the hell out of it! The advice given above is perfect. Just don’t slow your playing partners down and they won’t give a shit how you play.
Heavy rough will often require that you use a more lofted club to exit it, in order to ensure that your club or shot isn’t just swallowed up by the grass. But, yes, in general one uses a longer club for rough shots because the ball won’t go as far, since the grass impedes the clubhead at the bottom of the swing, etc.
Be polite, applaud your fellow golfer’s good shots, don’t brag about your own (even the old ‘Wow, I never thought I would hit one that well! What a surprise’ etc), don’t be slow, respect the game, have fun, know your limitations (eg, if it’s a 300 yard carry over the water, OK, have one whack at it, but when you fail, just play around it and get on with the game).
I guarantee that no matter how badly you play, every golfer there will have had a day sometime, somewhere that was worse. We all have.
This. If you’re slowing down your party, just pick up and move on. I once had the misfortune of being put in a party of people who had no idea how to play. much less the skills and etiquette. One of them took it seriously–he’d watched a few PGA tourneys on TV–and it wasn’t pretty. We had been passed by two groups by the time we got to the third tee. I was out for a fun round, and thanks to Serious Wannabe-Golfer, it stopped being fun. I just said, “I’m going ahead, thanks for the play,” and teed off on the fourth while they were still looking for their ball on the third. (I estimated my score on the third; I just wanted to get the hell away from these crazies.)
Well I’m back! It was exactly as I thought it would be, a fun experience to have, but way way over my golf playing price range!I probably hit 2 good shots the entire game.
Unfortunately for me, we didn’t play Stadium Course. We ended up playing Dye’s Valley. They’ve played Stadium before, so maybe next year
I’ll lump these all together.
The way it ended up was that, despite the fact that I shot about 350 shots per hole, I never slowed us down. We were butting up against the group in front of us virtually the entire time, so I was able to do what I could. Most holes ended up like this:
I went to the tee box, I shot a ball that went god knows where, so I put another one on, did the same thing and then eventually gave up. The guys never cared (and would even suggest me trying more when I would give up on one). I skipped a couple holes and generally just did what I could.
I really need more lessons is what I figured out. The guy I shared my cart with (Ms. Cups’ friend’s husband) was saying that he’s no expert but says I have good form but something is lost in translation.
I did discover something though, I’m actually quite decent at putting. I made a 20 footer from the fringe and I was really close on some other greens.
Normally you would be correct but for a new golfer, advancing the ball is key. Easier to do with a lofted club and less likely to have a terrible shot.
