Shooting for a Course Record

[Hilltopper]

I was out at Brahan today (the single greatest course ever) and I had a run at my course record which is 10 under par. I was 10 under on hole 15 and I had a 25 foot putt for a birdie to go to 11 under. Before I putted I thought, "I can birdie all three of the holes left plus this one. 14 down!" Well I don't need to tell you that I doinked the putt then bogied 16 and 17. I recovered and birdied 18 finishing one shot below my record. A measely 45. :mad:

Anyway my question is this. Which is better, to shoot really low really quickly to get to the record or sneak up on it and overtake it on the last hole? Right now I'm thinking it would have been better to sneak up on it.

Josh

["Tiger"]

how bout not gettin cocky, then it doesn't matter how you get it. And Brahan? the best course ever? HAHAHAHAHAHA...HA...HA, ok now I'm done :cool:

[Hilltopper]

Find me a better course :D ! Name one course that was designed nearly 30 years ago that has stood up as well. Play it with a zepher and get a feel for what it was originally like. Here's the thing, we get blinded by length today. Better discs have increased hole lengths exponentially. Take away the modern disc and look for the shot variety. Brahan will force you to learn to control different types of shots.

Realistically I could play the original 18 at George Ward (also a very well designed course) with just a right handed hyser shot and shoot almost as well as if I had several shots in my bag, as long as I could throw 350 feet or so. I'd have problems on 3, 12 long, and 15 right. At Brahan I would be looking at serious problems on 3, 7, 11, 13, 14 and 17. I can't throw lefty hyzer shots well on 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 18. I really need to throw at least 250 feet straight on 3, 10, 13, 16, and 17.

Good courses require more shots than just a long right handed hyzer!!!!! Sorry, this is my pet peeve. I can see why UAH is a well designed course, even though I HATE playing it. It doesn't suit my game well. Admittedly Brahan does. I can tell the difference between Brahan and your typical North MS pitch and putt, why do other people struggle with knowing the difference, relegating all short courses as wastes of time?

We would all have better games if we had started at Brahan with only a classic Roc as our disc.

Yours short armedly,
Josh

[Parkntwoputt]

Good shoot'n Thumber Boy.

I like courses that play links style golf. Granted, that does add length but not specifically shot length. You can make some wicked turns every 250-300ft and stretch a course out over 7000 really quick.

The best courses I ever played are ones that required strategy off the tee box to set up your next shot so you could then reach the green and putt. Failure of perfection on any shot cumulated into a bogey or worse really quick. Playing true par 4 and 5 holes is a great way to develop a good overall game.

Brahan and GW are both of the pitch and putt genre, except that you can fit two Brahan's in one GW. GW you just need a driver off the box unlike Brahan, as most of GW's holes are reachable from the teebox, not easy but reachable.

When you mentioned needing to throw far, there has been only one hole I have ever, ever, ever played where you HAD to throw over 300ft. That was on the Strawbale Fields course on the CR2 Ranch in San Saba. The total hole length was somewhere around 850ft, but you teed off from a penisula cliff and shot over a 100ft deep ravine to the fairway 300ft away. The fairway was only 80ft wide with a cliff on the left and OB on the right. If you missed the fairway you had to go to the drop zone on the other side of the ravine. Most courses, while long have par routes where accurate short arms can still manage a good score.

[Justin L]

Nice round!

I really enjoy Brahan, but for some reason i can't ever tie a round together...I can usually hit 5 birdies no problem, its the 3 bogies that kill me...

I head you guys were in B'ham today and you didn't make it to Trussville for doubles?!?! You missed the first official Trussville doubles!

[Hilltopper]

We didn't have time to go to doubles. Just enough to get a quick round in at George Ward. We did try to go to Trussville and ended up at Crosspoint Church. We couldn't find the course so we went to eat and ran into Tom and Kris.

Josh