time for a new club

Just played my second best round at northwest national golf club in Rainford in 4 years only to lose a very important game because I 4 putted on a green with the most ridiculous pin position, the ground staff either have no clue whatsoever or they are acting on really bad advice, the course is in really poor condition at the moment, the tees are lumpy and bumpy with long grass add to that the fact they're not level and its not a good start, the fairways are average at best and the greens for the most part are a disgrace, the worst of it is that we had our club championship last Saturday/Sunday and the 5 ridiculous pin positions were noted straight away by the players, we asked for them to be moved for Sunday and at no surprise to us they were left in the same place, all 5 were literally on the down slopes of the greens, picture a Mackenzie type green with the pin on the down slope. you would have thought that in such an event the pin positions would have been changed for the second day anyway but not at NWN, I was playing my 4th and final match in the league to dubai, all level on 16, i hit the green in 2 as did my opponent ecept he was lucky enough to finish 10 ft directly below the hole were i was 15 ft above the hole, then disaster, lost the game there and then, looks like a new course for me next year.

Alan

'he was lucky enough to finish 10 ft directly below the hole were i was 15 ft above the hole'

Could be luck I guess or just good course management?

Yeah, that's what it was, his second time ever on my course and we both hit 6 irons to it,

The fact you both hit a 6 iron is irrelevant. I had a playing lesson today and on the par 3 second I hit an easy 5 iron and the pro hit a hard 7 iron. Both went exactly the same distance and were 2 feet apart

Did you not check out the pin positions the day before, especially as its your home course? I know when I had matches at my home course in the National Matchplay I would play the course a day or two before to get a feel for it and suss out the pin positions.

I also know our greens well enough to know where I absolutely do not want to be, no matter where the hole is put. Surely you would've known that being below the hole on that green was essential and played appropriately

Hi Alan Please don't take offense but your post has a hint of sour grapes about it. A loss is a loss is a loss, you both played the same course in the same conditions. To move clubs because of the condition of tee boxes and fairways is understandable, but to move courses because of tough pin positions is less so. At our level the fact that you both hit the same club but finished 25 ft apart is just how it is. He was lucky to finish below the hole in your opinion, but if you already knew how tough the pin position was then you have absolutely no excuse for going long ( even if it was only by 15 ft ) Stop blaming everything and everybody else and take some responsibility. Move clubs by all means but dont do it because you lost. Tim.

Chris, i'm not sure what your point is about hitting 5/7 irons the same, i was saying that the longer iron you hit in leaves you less chance of getting the ball to stop on a certain part of the the green, i'm also no where near your level in respect of absolutely not leaving myself on a certain part of the green

Tim, no offence taken, it's not sour grapes at all, my opponent went round 2 over gross off 3/4, any normal day i would expect to get well beaten but on this day i played out of my skin to be undone by bad green keeping, you both maybe right in that i put myself in the wrong position but he had no clue here the pin was and there fore WAS lucky, i'll assume that neither of you have played my course or you would know the condition that the members have put up with for 3 years, this was just the final straw for me, we have 27 holes of golf and no greenkeeper, we have a Polish general worker and an English labourer, neither have any qualifications whatsoever and its now become impossible for them to rescue the course and reality has set in, time to find a new and fair challenge

I was just saying that I don't think the club used is relevant. I've seen 30 yards difference between two players hitting a 6 iron

There are holes on our courses where the pin position does make a difference to club selection. For example, the 5th on Avening has a two tier green. If you are on the top tier and putt to the bottom tier then you will degreen it even if you just make the slope so if the pin is on the bottom it drives your club selection. I would also avoid back left on 5 and 17 on Cherington no matter where the flag is

For someone playing off 5.2 (congrats on the 4.4 shot drop since April by the way) I would certainly be expecting you to be able to pick front or back and left or right of a green with a 6 iron

Firstly thank you, secondly i tend to aim for the flag, maybe a new approach is needed

I was told by my coach to use the red, amber, green approach. Basically, there are certain pin positions or areas of the green that you shouldn't take on (red zones) as there is too much risk attached. The green zones are the ones you will take on every time and the amber zones are the ones where your lie and line in (and how younare playing) dictate whether you go for them or play safe. That approach has helped me

Alan

I think reading the post you may be over reacting slightly.

You play off 5.2 and come down 4.4 shots since April?? Thats majestic. I'd say keep doing what your doing and stop focusing on one tiny event.

Give it another 6 months at that rate and you will be on tour playing proper courses. ;-)

Out of interest Alan, how many rounds did you play to get cut that much? You must've played a lot of golf or had 8 or 9 worldy rounds because that would be something like 35-40 shots below your handicap or 40-50 shots in total below the 9.6 you were off at Minch in April

Funny you should ask that chris. If you look at his golf playing profile he has posted aa gross 1 over par round at his course in november of last year. Hmmmm this wasnt mentioned at minch

The course was the same for both players so it was purely down to who got lucky on the day.

I have often thought about changing golf clubs as I think my own golf club isn't worth the money that I'm paying.

The problem for me is that my present golf club is just so convenient for me. It's only five minute from my door to the car park.

There is a rule about the hole must be so far onto a green. Not sure of the actual distance, but you wouldn't want a hole one foot from the edge of the green.

We have the problem of the hole being put on a steep slope at my golf club. The only thing you can do is speak to somebody on the committee and see if they can arrange for the greenkeeper to not put the hole in a bad position.

Russ

Russell, that's why I have stayed there till now, it,s the closest club to me, as for my handicap, i won my first comp in 3 years about 7 weeks ago and got cut 3 shots on general play from 10 to 7, then last weekend we played our club championship and on the first day i shot a 2 over 74 and was cut from 7 to 5. The next day i shot about 89 and got .1 back

That's golf Alan....

There are quite a few decent golf clubs near me, which I have thought about joining.

A couple of things I need, to be able to pay monthly and a decent practice area.

Some of these clubs don't allow you to pay monthly, so I'm out!

Other I have thought about joining have poor practice areas (not that my golf club has brilliant practice areas!)

So, for the moment, I'm staying where I am.

Russ

Darren, in winter our course has 2 par 5's that are a drive and a wedge to the green because of where the winter tees are, the rest of the holes probably play on average 50 yards shorter, you can't take any score from the winter as a guide, beginning to think my face doesn't fit in here, Witch hunt anyone?

I thik youre reading tings into it that arent there Alan. Forums are about opinions and everyone's is valid. The AUP (aka the rules) are in place and if anyone gets personal or breaks the AUP in other ways I can and do delete posts

Hi Alan, from all that you have said it sounds like the extra time spent travelling to a new course would be well worth it. I cant believe that your club doesn't have a head or qualified green keeper !! who makes the decisions regarding the upkeep of the course ? Was the course tyned or even top dressed for example ? Do I remember correctly that it is a long tough course aswell ? Vote with your feet and find another club which can afford to look after its course and its members. As to the topic that your post ended up being about, here is my take on it. As you have posted yourself, nobody enjoys losing to a lucky shot / player and even less to someone who is perceived to be better than the handicap they have. The competition at Minchinhampton left a number of players feeling that they had no chance of winning (my swing on the day ensured that) due to the scores that you returned. As you well know, it is one of the most discussed topics at every level of our game. The fact that your handicap has fallen so quickly since the event only lends more weight to the argument. I hope that you don't take this as a personal attack or witch hunt as I am sure I am only saying what you know already. As I have said before, the fact that you are coming down means that you are playing very good golf, so embrace it, keep working hard and doing what you are doTiming. Try to get as low as you can as that is definitely my goal.

Tim have you dusted off the AP2's yet?

Tim, the course isn't overly long, about 6750 off the whites, they have also trimmed a lot of the rough down to nothing, the only real danger on the course is drainage ditches that run on a few of the front 9 and about 4 ponds, it's now one of those courses where you can spray it around on the front 9 ( not so much on the back) there's even a hole were they have stopped using the white tee as some of the players who play in the comps (25 is a big number of entries in our comps) can't hit the fairway from the whites so we play off the yellow and the old 18th ( now the 12th) has to be played from the yellows as people were putting balls onto the by-pass from the tee, same with the 11th, we don't have a clubhouse, we have to use the driving range as base, there aren't any changing rooms or lockers but on the plus side we have an excellent pro shop which is run by a very experienced family of pros who own about 5 shops on local courses, there's a good cafe menu at the range and that's it, we get promised every few weeks that work will start so we can use the main clubhouse every couple of weeks, this has been going on since the club opened 3 years ago and I don't see it happening ant time soon

Alan,

What about the profile that has you at 6.1 in April yet you played off 10 at Minchinhampton ?

i dont follow Martin

Gilbert,

I'll assume you mean me. So let me respond

Yes I have a coach. I say coach as opposed to teacher and there is a difference. Those who know me will tell you that my game has improved significantly since I have been with him

If a 5 handicapper cannot pick left or right, front or back of a green he must have a bloody good short game. I know many single figure golfers and all of them would be trying to hit an area of the green. Note "area", not "certain spot". Just because I am off 12 doesn't mean I wouldn't try to hit an area of a green. Wouldn't you do the same, also being off 12?

Finally, have you seen me play? If not then I don't think you are in a position to comment on my game. I have seen Alan play

As regards the moderator thing, I was letting Alan know that I wouldn't allow it to become a personal thing as he was appearing to be concerned and if I felt anyone overstepped the mark the post would be removed and a warning issued. I think you will find I removed a spam post in a response to you on another thread a few days ago that you got upset about and demanded they "never write to you again" (I also removed yours as it made no sense with the other removed)

If I got the wrong person I apologise. It was on the "Poor service" thread about lithium batteries you started. There was a spam post in response to your last post. Someone (I thought you) had responded to it asking them not to waste their time. I deleted the spam and the subsequent reply

Evening, I just deleted the post referring to someone withing the post title. Also seemed to be a duplicate of the above.

Steady Gilbert, Darren is the brains (apparently) behind the site. Top bloke, just don't get him to organise a game unless your garden needs a good watering.

I think he may be referring to Darren M

brains ? you must also have me confused Tim

Gilbert,

Your assuming that Alan gets offended or upset by comments made by people in these sites? He maybe similar to you & is not bothered one bit?

Very nice of you to try & defend Alan but I think he's big enough to do that himself?

Do you still walk the course these days or have you had to resort to a buggy? Hope I'm still playing this beautiful game when I'm your age.

For reference Darren is the god father of Golfshake. Google if you need clarification.

John, some of the comments do offend me but sadly for me I'm the type of person that normally says what I think and this for the most part doesn't go down well, for example, when we played the last game at Minch i was all but acused of cheating, it was said that my card was too similar to the card i put in last year and was i sure the scores were correct, after assuring that it was indeed all correct and above board, my marker was then quizzed in the same vain, I was really offended by this but held my tongue...untill now when it's all by the way side

Gilbert, I like the cut of your jib, i feel we have more in common other than our love for the game.