Some guys get it....

[BSmack]

Like Sean O'Hair...

"A trap is a trap, it's a hazard," said O'Hair. "You're not supposed to be there. The bunkers here are not hidden, you know where they are. So don't hit it there. If you don't hit it there, you don't have to worry about it."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory? ... 471&page=1

And other guys don't. Like Nick Price.

"I heard someone say earlier in the week that this is the way that they used to rake bunkers way back when and bunkers have always been hazards," the Zimbabwean said after carding a 69.

"I think the difference now is that the greens are running at 13 or 14 (in putting speed). Back in the bygone era, when they did it before, the greens were probably running at about six.

"It's different hitting out of a bunker to a green where you've got no chance to get any spin on the ball. So I disagree with it. I don't like it at all.

"I don't think there's one player out here that does. It's a bit of pot luck, to be honest.

"You can get in there and have a perfect lie when it lands on top of a groove, then you can have another one that goes in the trough, in the bottom of it, and you've got no chance."

IMO, this should be SOP at every tour event save maybe Pebble Beach and the Bob Hope. And if they did it there too, I wouldn't complain one bit. Fuck the celebrities. Let them and their 200 dollar wedges hack it out as well. :twisted:

[Dinsdale]

I'm sitting on the fence on this one.

Part of me thinks that making a bunker a multiple-shot penalty for all intents and purposers is a little much.

Another part of me likes my golf as hard as possible. Anymore, I play back tees. I play the course as hard as it can be played. Anymore, I don't care about the final score...to me, the harder it is, the more fun it is.

But tour pros are also playing for a paycheck -- I'm not. The more strokes I take, the more bang I get for my buck, and the more giggles me and my group get out of the deal -- not the case for a tour pro.


But, in the end...


"That's why they call it a 'hazard,' son."

[indyfrisco]

How funny. I just got my country club bill and newsletter. Here is a snippet from the newsletter from our pro:

Did you know? The bunker shot is the only shot in golf where you do not hit the ball?

Tip: When a tour player misses a green in regulation, he or she prefers the ball to be in a bunker rather than the daunting rough or devilish “collection areas” that are ever increasing at today’s tour venues.

Guess not so at the Memorial.

[BSmack]

After thinking it over, I get some of what Price is saying about the greens rolling much faster these days. So maybe they could dial the greens back a bit to compensate for the more penal bunkers. But I absolutely despise the idea that a lie in a bunker is now considered a "good miss".

[Qbert]

Bri' and Dins

i hear what you're saying.

its a Bunker.

what does everybody SQUAK about when the OPEN comes around?

avoid the Bunkers?

the bunkers are a hazard. RACK JACK for initiating the Policy that the Tour put in place at the 1st of the year.

Jack said it on the Thursday telecast...you want the bunkers to be hazards again? PGA said yes; and the Bunkers were re-raked probably last Sunday @ Muirfield (his words).

FVCK these pampered millionaires that forgot what it was like to play on a MUNI'.

its a Bunker--->hit the Green instead...you simple bastard.

if you can't? its called Short Game SKILLZ?

KWIT YER BITCHIN'

you're supposed to be the BEST of the Best Golfers in the World----->act like it.

[Derron]

After thinking it over, I get some of what Price is saying about the greens rolling much faster these days. So maybe they could dial the greens back a bit to compensate for the more penal bunkers

Not a fucking chance in hell. For some reason, some of the sick fucks that determine these things, which are the prima donna USGA Greens section pukes who dictate the stimp speed, cutting height etc.

They start working on these courses a fucking year before the pro event. When the time rolls around, they do this:

Start walk mowing the greens twice daily. Cutting height about .15 down to .10 in some cases.
Use a greens roller to flatten them out and push what ever green is left to what grain they want.

The PGA fuck then selects the cup placement each morning.

Now if you are mowing your greens at .12 or lower, double rolling them, they are going to stimp about 20. Then in the afternoon, since the greens cannot be handwatered during the round, they will dry up some more and stimp about 22, at which times the pros melt down.

The greens and the rest of the course are then usually closed to play for at least 2 months if they get lucky and don't kill the fucking greens.

It's not rocket science to get the greens stimping that, but its harder to slow them down and get a consistent result.

I don't see a multiple stroke penalty for a beach shot, since most hacks flail away at it in there anyway.

[Dinsdale]

I don't see a multiple stroke penalty for a beach shot, since most hacks flail away at it in there anyway.

Speaking of, Homey --


Ever play that Par 3 up on Lake Vancouver?

The "Hardest Par 3 in the country?"

Whatever it's called?

Bring mosquito repellent if you do...some freaking big badass ones up there.

Anyway, went about a year ago. And you ain't seen bunkers until you've seen those bunkers...that place would have been a real hoot, too, cept for the jet-fighter-sized mosquitos.

They have a freaking water hazard on a freaking green, for goodness sake. They have a bunker in a green, too, if I remember right.


They mellow the one bunker there, I guess -- apparently, too many people were having trouble getting back out -- sucker is 15 feet deep...with a staircase.

Novelty golf at its finest. There's a huge tree directly in front of a tee, for goodness' sake.

[Derron]

Ever play that Par 3 up on Lake Vancouver?

Never heard of it or played it. Did not even know it was there.

All I know about Lake Vancouver is that some idiot flight instructor and a student tried to do some kind of aerobatic manuver over it in a high time Cessna 150, and snapped a fucking wing off it and put her in the lake and killed them both. (Pilots remember other pilots stupidity)

It sounds more like a over sized miniature golf course to me. Tree in front of the green is reminsicent of that huge fucking rock in the middle of the fairway at one of the courses there at Welches...I bounced one off that rock and onto a dudes tile roof. Broke the fucking tile, I just kept walking. Stupid fuck should not have a tile roof on a golf course.

[Dinsdale]

It sounds more like a over sized miniature golf course to me.

Kinda sorta.

Check it out sometime -- last year was the first I heard of it (my friends took me there while liquored up on my birthday about 51 weeks ago. On our way out, my friend's dad says "you're going there...and it's your B-Day? Here..." and hands me a box of well-used balls. Guess you woulda had to have been there.

Dude -- there's a water hazard in a green.

BRING INSECT REPELLENT!

Bring booze...you'll need it.

Definitely worth checking out, just for the sheer novelty of it...but yeah, pretty much like miniature golf with 90 yard holes...crazy. Allegedly the USGA said it's the hardest par 3 in the country, FWIW. I actually got it started under par...and then the beer really started flowing. Hard to believe you can rack up two-digit scores on par 3 holes...but it certainly can be done.

Definitely something to check out someday. Can't say I'm in any huge hurry to go back, but I'm for sure glad I've played it...crazy. Right on the eastern bank of Lake Vancouver...forget the name of that street that runs alongside there(on the tip of my tongue), but then again, I usually avoid Spuncouver like the plague.

[A.C. Crut]

If touring pros think the bunkers at Muirfield suck, try playing in the bunkers raked by the epileptic snake killers I always seem to follow every time I play.

[Qbert]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

of course, RACK CRUT!

[Dinsdale]

RACK CRUT!

Indeed.


When the "golfers" on the course don't even know where to put the rake when they're done with it, it probably shouldn't be a suprise that that don't know how to use one for a poo, either.

[BSmack]

It's not rocket science to get the greens stimping that, but its harder to slow them down and get a consistent result.

Touche'

There is no way the tour pros would want to sacrifice their smooth as glass putting surfaces. That is why they are screaming bloody murder about the new rakes.

However, I do feel compelled to say that the USGA has nothing to do with the setup of PGA Tour events, only the US Open. Also, average tour greens stimp at around 11 or 12. Anything over 14 is like putting on a concrete sidewalk. A reading of 20 or more would have just about every tour pro putting off the green.

[Derron]

Anything over 14 is like putting on a concrete sidewalk. A reading of 20 or more would have just about every tour pro putting off the green.

The 20 stimp was sarcasm....and yes most tour events stimp 11 to 12. But get off the tour and everything changes. The courses and sponsors and shit like to fuck with the guys, and the supers was to make sure the pros don't go to far under par or set a new course record.

Its just a lot of fun to hear the pros pussy's bleed when they can't stick a green.

I helped a super at a private club get his members good one time. They wanted fast greens, and wanted him to get the new greens rollers.

All the members played on Friday, and the tourny was on Saturday with a bunch of CC members from around the state coming.

I had him double cut the greens down about .18 , and then we double rolled it with a greens mower set up with rollers. We stimped them right after cutting and then rolled 13 to 14. Real fucking fast.

They all teed off and started playing. They got a few down, but the breaks were all fucked up, you could not read the green at all and the fucking 2 and 3 putts just hit the leader board like crazy. All the visting CC members bitched and moaned, some of the home course homies did the same, and a few of the old boys thought it was funny as hell.

They would all set up a putt and then run the fucking ball about 10 feet past the cup....BBwwwaaahaaaaa