Been playing for just over a year and struggling for consistency. I know a lot of it is still down to technique but I’m beginning to wonder if I should upgrade my clubs or whether that is just deluding myself that they will improve my game.
Ive got a basic Fazer beginners set that cost £200 for irons, drivers bag etc. Would I get any joy with a new set of irons ( or good second hand) and any tips on what to buy. Wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of hundred again
I play at a marriott, a multi billion pound company, yet our course manager does not play golf. Course preparation shows that. I have never understood how the person responsible for setting up a course is not an experienced knowledgeable golfer. At 1400 quid a year it really is annoying.
Most golfers are like most football fans they know very little, and do not care or know how to treat a golf course.
I have had that said to me 'you dont play golf you dont know how to set the course up'. I would say so C&G = NVQ level 3 and 20 years of experience counts for nothing. Mostly said to me from double figures handy caps who by being double figures arent that good at golf. I played of 5. I once ask "as seeing as you think its important I play golf I am happy to play in works time if it's part of my job". They said no play in your own time. I asked the question to him he was a double windows salesman "how many windows do you fit in your spare time as its important you know how to fit them " ;)
One head of greens asked me to play around with him, I borrowed clubs from the clubs pro, I hadnt played for about 10yrs and beat him easy all the things he said that was wrong with the course I didnt go anywhere them. Nothing wrong with the course it was his game that was wrong. Bunker were wrong not enough sand , I put my bunker shot within 6 inches of the hole, he couldnt get out of the bunkers !.
I have managed golf course, sports grounds ( football, hockey, cricket, tennis and bowling greens ), private schools and all those together never moaned as much as golfers do in a month !.
Members would moan about pitch marks saying greenkeeper should repair them after ever society had played because members never leave a pitch mark. So one friday evening me and a fellow greenkeeper went to the 15th green at 9pm and repaired every pitch mark. Than first thing monday morning we went out and put a golf ball in each pitch mark and took a photo to show the members how many pitch mark's were left by them over the weekend. The secretary wouldnt put the picture up he said it would cause to much trouble to show 167 pitch marks left by the members over the weekend.
Enjoy your golf I am well rid of greenkeeping, the wages arent there now for the amount of hassle ;)
Golfers try to play the course how they want the course not how it is ;)
well said!
A golf course is played as it is, the same for everyone who plays on the day.
The joy of golf is not the perfect picture, but an art you paint by numbers!
The golf course is a land with many places to explore, but it’s up to the player where they choose to visit on the map!
There is no better feeling than teeing it up on a course you’ve never played before, embracing all the abnormalities and quirk’s it can throw at you, whilst full engrossed in the complexity of the next shot/putt.
Some people will complain about anything, instead of actually enjoying the fact they are blessed to be able to play golf at all!
I know there's a lot of 'em around, but it's a car I never rated.
One complaint we use to get was the "greens arent fast enough". Now as most members are double figures handy capp'ers I would aim for the greens to run between 9 and 10 on the stim meter. This one year I thought sod it you want fast I'll give you fast. I got the green speed up ! it took us 2 weeks to get the greens to the speed I want, around 12 on the stim meter. That weekend rounds were taking over 6 hrs because they couldnt handle the greens, taking 6 or more putts, putting of the greens because I had the greens like glass lol.
Was called into a meeting on Monday morning moaning about the speed lucky for me I had it in writing to speed the greens up to about 12, trouble was they didnt know what 12 on the stim was like lol
most club golfers can’t handle the greens running at around 8 for 1 high (8ft run out for a 1ft rise slope)
Never mind 9,10, and upwards.
The slope of the greens dictates the maximum speed a green can run at.
The biggest influence on green speed is the wind factor, something at lot of players dont know.
especially now most of the uk greens have changed to bent grass from the slower bumpy meadow grass
(Poa annua).
We had a green the 5th surrounded by trees after the club had 6 USGA built due to a dual carriageway going through the course the committee decided to replace the 5th green with a USGA spec green.
I said build it 10 yards away from the old site and the trees that way it wont be surrounded by trees and well grow better and well be in play most of the year ( in the winter it had no sun for about 5 months of the year ).
The committee said no it will ruin the hole and make it to short. I said we could move the tee make 10 yards backing the tee shot more exciting going through a corridor of trees. Again no came the reply.
So the club spent 35k building a new USGA spec green in the same place as the old green, but built a temporary green about 20 short of it !.
This green has the same problem as the old green even after 10 years in the winter they had to use the temp green. If only the club had moved it 10 yards basically making the back of the new green were the front on the old green than it would have been played nearly all year.
When we grew in the 6 new USGA spec our head of greens at the time told the members that these are all year round greens no need for temps ever again. I told the club even after we open the greens we will still need to close them for a rest period and after about 2 to 3 seasons than we wont.
Open in June and they played them straight through till February by which time they were thread bear. I had given the club reports on how to grow them in but was ignored.
You cant just leave the green to grow in after a year than suddenly open it the greens needs to get use to having foot traffic.
Lucky the captain believe me and we closed the greens in feb. We had a good spring and the greens recoved well and we never had to close them again.
I do find it odd that a club can spend 180k on 6 greens than leave the decision making up to a building supply company director and not they highly qualified head/course manager.
Still that's a bog standard members club I guess.
I think courses of the top courses are in good hands as they seem to respect their greenkeeper it's the ordinary members club that arent great to work for.
A colleague of mine managers this years open course and over the last the he has done a great job in clearing the course of rye grass, which shouldnt be on a links course !
He had the backing of the club and the STRI.
When I took over at my club I want to try and reduce the Poa, by using less feed, less irritation, more aeration. I told the members the greens would take a step backward which they did. The members moaned wanted me sacked because they preferred soft, wet poa greens as it made them look better golfers even though the greens were dieing. I survived the summer and the greens stayed on main greens most of the winter and come the summer they were much better.
Greenkeeper is now so scientific which I enjoyed that side of it ! Ever year the club would bring in an agronomist from the STRI to inspect my work ( club always thought it wasnt great but kept me for 22 years lol before being made redundant ! ).
I always go a good report from them and a few times was told I should go to one of the top courses, but I didnt fancy moving.
It's just a shame that so many golfers will blame the greenkeeping staff for their inability to play the shot they think they can.
Lots of good greenkeeper have left the industry now and most members club have an ageing team just waiting to retire. I feel in a few years they will be a big drop of in the standard of members clubs due to this. It only takes about 18 months for the drop in standards to show but years to correct. Early starts, low pay lots of moans. The thing that would get me was I was a highly qualified greenkeeper yet the members didnt respect that, thought anyone could maintain a course. Members thought more of the cleaner than us yet without us there is no club.
I loved greenkeeping still miss it as I know I was good at my job. Loved the early morning and producing a good course most of the time to a to higher standard for the average player. The low handy cappers didnt moan much at all if they did it was because the course was to easy and higher handy cappers would beat them lol.
I miss greenkeeping but sadly I would never go back, I like a stress free life now like so many of my mates who are also ex greenkeeper now, such a lost to the industry.
Very interesting post mate. Amateur golf committees are a joke, making decisions only a qualified, experienced person can. Power goes to their heads.
I play in a pro am at a club in the Cotswolds, burford. The green keeper is a lovely bloke. Really know a his stuff, 5 handicap, and we have played with him in the comp a few times. He talks us around "His course" as we have played, it is beautiful.He gets no interference from the greens committee, and makes all the big decisions. That would be the ideal for me, and i do think the course manager should play the course and be paid for doing so.
Some golfers are nobs. Played with a "new" member this morning. 4 handicap. Stood all around his ball in the deep rough and parted it with his hands, marked his ball with his hands covering it, alerted me to him nicking three inches on every putt.. Told him on the sixth, that I had seen what he was doing. Shall not be playing with him again, and everyone had been alerted,
Agree about amateur committees. One year we had a low handicap head of greens he was a left hander ! He got us to build a new tee on the 14th which was up hill and ran from left to right into woodland. Every right handed golf me included would start the ball of to the left hopefully landing on the left of the fairway so if the ball ran it would stay on the right hand side of the fairway.
He built this tee to the left of the fairway which meant there was a big tree in the way if you started of left lol. Its was ok for him as he would start his tee shot of to the right to bring it back to the left. I would stand on the tee and not have a shot. I said to him that theres no shot for a right hander, he said I know I need one hole that's set up for a left hander lol. Even if I hit dead straight I just miss the tree but the ball would always end up run down the left to right slope into the semi rough as you only had half the fairway to work with lol
The club spent about 15k building this tee that 99% of the members hated lol
Over a ten year period each committee every year would change the bunkers, change sand, the lining, to drainage, the shape. All the members thought the sand was wrong. So one year we changed all the sand for white sand which costs 3 times the price of the old sand. Two years later we took all that white sand out and replaced with the original type of sand. I think over the 10 year period the club spent well over 200k on 46 bunkers. They didnt have a clue what shape particles or size of sand they should be using.
I would write reports etc saying what's best , that the bunkers arent deep enough that's why we lose sand to wind blow etc. But they had seen white sand on a parkland course so wanted it on our exposed, hill top course about 3 miles from the north sea lol, of course it just kept blowing away leave some parts of the bunker bare some parts to deep and lots of sand across the greens etc !!
Wrong sand, wrong course, wrong bunkers. This sand was ok in the right place but we need a heavier sand and deeper bunkers due to strong winds !
Amateur committees cost they clubs 1000's of wasted money. Members course would so much better if they just left the head/course manager to manage the course.
One course i was a member at let the Captain each year, build a bunker, or whatever change he wanted normally in the wrong spot, just as you described.