Turf and Distance

MidwayJ

I recently played some golf in Vermont, and I felt like a hopelessly short hitter off the tee. The turf seemed especially "sticky," so there was no roll whatsoever. I usually do not carry the ball more than 215 yards or so, but in other locales (Texas, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Alabama, etc.) my drives typically get quite a bit of roll out. With absolutely none, the courses played long relative to the stated yardage. Anything around 6,000 yards seemed plenty long.
I also made the mistake of bringing a 9 degree driver. I have a couple 10.5 degree drivers I definitely hit higher, and they no doubt carry the ball further.

I noticed similar results on a trip to Hilton Head, but in that case the fairways were obviously wet, so it made sense to have no roll in very soft conditions. In Vermont the balls seemed to get caught up in the grass even when dry. I learned what it will be like when I lose 25 yards from turning into an old man. 😊

Ringoblack

MidwayJ

That happens when you go to Vermont😉

sdandrea1

I'm 15 to 20 yards longer off the tee at our FL courses. Ground is harder and Bermuda is trimmed tight. Here in VA, everything is much softer. I get maybe 5 yards of roll out. Sometimes 5 feet.

mikeintopeka

sdandrea1 So, my competitor was just trying to play mind games with me when he said due to Florida being at sea level I needed more club to compensate for lack of distance? That somebitch!

Bankshot

sdandrea1 Interesting. I've heard it said more than a few times here in Michigan that you need to pull a little extra club when playing Bermuda fairways in Fla. That has been my experience, too, but I can't be sure it is just the Burmuda.

MidwayJ

Ringoblack That happens when you go to Vermont

It was totally worth it to be out of the Texas heat. The high temps were in the 70s!

rsvman

mikeintopeka Actually, golf balls fly slightly farther when the humidity is high. But obviously not as far at sea level as they do at elevation.

I grew up playing golf in the Rockies. Distances there are about 10% longer for every club. So your 150-yard club goes 165, your 230-yard drive is now 253. When I visit my Dad I am amazed at how far I can hit the ball. Plus there's usually no wind there, whereas on the course I play it's not uncommon for the wind to be gusting to 25 mph. Golf is so much easier in Utah!

But back to the original thought: a lot of people believe that when the air is really humid (like in Florida, southern Louisiana, Virginia in July/August, etc) that a golf ball will not fly as far, but it's completely the opposite. As for roll out, I don't think it's much different from bent grass to bermuda around here. It mostly depends on how much rain we've had in the past week (which is usually quite a bit, and therefore we usually don't get much roll out).

ode

Def makes a huge difference....been wet here all May and most if June, just can't seem to get a break from the rain....course actually closed last Friday as a canoes was necessary to navigate 12 and 13. Next week supposed to be nice, 70's and sunny

Gonna have to move up to the geezer's tee box Jay😈

PA-PLAYA

My club has had a notorious reputation for keeping the fairways/greens really soft the past several years. It looks nice and lush, but hardly any roll-out in the fairways. It was an aspect of golf that I wasn't too familiar with when I joined there 3 years ago, after having played other clubs where water usage was much more limited and one could expect an additional 15-20 yards of roll. The new GM that was brought in last fall got some great feedback from a lot of members and this year they've really cut back on the watering.... it's been great to see my tee shots rolling out a good bit on most of the holes these past few months. And the course is still nice and green despite that, not to mention that our grass is much healthier as a result. I think they still use too much water, but at least they're making an effort to change that.

Years ago I would go with a group in mid-late March to Myrtle Beach, which at that time of year can still be pretty cold on occasion. Cold, windy, ball wouldn't fly like it normally would in warmer weather... not to mention being at sea level. We'd play the middle tees, and even on relatively short 350-yard holes I'd be hitting mid-irons or longer into the greens. After a prolonged winter layoff no less. Talk about being humbled...

But I'm with you... give me enjoyable temps versus suffocating heat and humidity. I quit going to Myrtle Beach in the summer months (July-August) simply because no matter if I went out early, or later in the evenings, I would still be soaked in sweat within an hour of getting out of the car.

Myrtle is probably my favorite golf destination still... probably played 75-80 courses down there, lots of memories, love the area, people are incredibly friendly. But if you're not accustomed to playing in that type of heat and humidity - it's definitely not the place to go on a golf trip during the warmest part of the summer. I'd walk out of the townhouse rental at 7:30 in the morning to go play, and even at that time of the day it still felt like walking into an oven.

Provisional

We've had Monsoon season this year so ball just lands , splat.
Playing sub 6000 yd geezer golf tees anyway so whatever. Thinking of teeing up my second shots. POW!

mikeintopeka

I played one of Missouri's top rated courses yesterday for the first time and they had a deluge in the morning. Cart paths only and I too experienced 'splat' after every shot. It was pretty humbling to look on the cart's GPS to see drives that were ending up 190-200 off the tee pretty consistent.

I played it from the blue tees at almost 6400 yards vs the white member tees at 5600 (I don't remember that large of differential on any other courses) so I knew after the first tee ball I had bit off a big chunk of meat. I struggled on the first 4 holes going double, double, double, double and then just missed a short par putt trying to get up and down on a long par 3. So, I'm already 9 over and reassessing strategy (secretly thinking how do I break 95 or even 100). I'm hitting it really solid so I told myself to continue to keep it in play by swinging within myself and use at least one more club on every shot and shazam!

I ended up with a respectable (for me) 87 playing 7 over on the following 12 holes. There was very little chance I was going to get home in two on the remaining long par 4s of 407, 387, 387, and 429 but make hay on the par 3s and three par 5s. I went from 1-9 GIRs on the front to 5-9 on the back. Off the tee, it was like throwing darts without any roll so I hit all 14 fairways on the day thus never in any trouble. In my case, it was course AND mental management with the reality I need more practice on chipping to get it closer to the cup.

PA-PLAYA

mikeintopeka

That's a nice round. Sounds like the course was playing long and tough, but you made the adjustment and figured out how to play to your strengths on the holes that gave you some scoring opportunities, while accepting and sufficiently managing the other holes that were longer.

Not a whole lot more we can reasonably expect given that degree of challenge. Well done!