brenttharp

I live 3 miles from Torrey Pines, but for the purposes of this survey, it's gotta be either Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club (only $100k initiation fee and two member recs! And to add insult to injury, they let the public walk the perimeter walkway so they can see what they can never have) or The Farms Golf Club. A local guy I know is a member at The Farms. When I mention taking me there as a guest, he chortles hysterically.

I played once with a guy who was a 7 or 8 who kept his own version of a scorecard. He showed me that he added the 7 or 8 strokes where he believed he was most likely to need them. Then he shot to those numbers. He said it better reflected how well he was playing a hole, and it was mentally/emotionally more satisfying because it meant that when he played well, he was at par, whereas when he was over, he could see more clearly what he needed to work on.

I like courses that post the numbers on their scorecards or at the shop. I've found that the courses that are serious about enforcing pace of play are VERY upfront about their expectations of distance and handicap for the various tees, as they state it explicitly.

The golf gods never give us a break. I finished a round a couple weeks ago and was quite pleased with my score until my playing partner reminded me that par from the tees we had played was 68, not 72. I often find par 5 holes easier than the rest, but there's more room for error, provided one can hit far enough. Sometimes, a 260-yard par 4 is only 180 from the forward tee, but when the HDCP is considered, it's really one of the strokes in that four-stroke difference, so it's a 180-yard green instead of a, say, 60-yard layup.

If they're ridiculing other players for that, I'd call it stupidity.

If you hit it harder, it will go farther.