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judging distance.

• Infinito3010 3,689 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 11:47 AM

  Each club behaves differently.  I try never to hit an iron less than 1 avatar movement from the top. Which is 95%. 

  The way I judge distance, is as follows. Determine how much carry you get with full b/s and full shot in no wind.  Take the same club then apply neutral spin.  The dot at the horizontal.  How much did the ball carry, and how much did it roll.  So, take advantage of the replay feature and take notes.  Next use, moderate wind and examine the impact the wind has on carry using the same methods describe above.  It takes time, but in my opinion well worth the effort.

  As for elevation, wedges behave significantly different.  BPB is an excellent course in finding the impact of elevation on your wedges and irons.  Pick the easy tees, thus, you can examine the impact of elevation with irons and wedges.  Make note of the carry and roll.

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 11:57 AM

  CharlemagneRH:

  The reason why BPB 15 takes extra yardage on the approach (which increases as you move further away) isn't hard to figure out.  It has to do with the fact that the green is severely elevated, a PW will attain a higher apex than a 5-iron, and a PW will fall at a steeper angle than a 5-iron.

  That is all true, yet it is clearly not consistent from hole to hole, and in this sense each hole is "juiced" to play a certain way. Similar differences in elevation at Bethpage 5 and 18 clearly do not have the same effect as at Bethpage 15. These are the ins and outs of the game (in the sense of a computer game) that need to be figured out and dealt with to score well.

  (Charlemagne scores very well.)

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 12:37 PM

  zagraniczniak:

  Bethpage 5 and 18 clearly do not have the same effect as at Bethpage 15.

  15 is a case all by itself and while it  has a similar elevation change to 5 and 18, that change takes place almost at the end of the fairway. The other 2 holes it's a flatter rise starting in the fairway. The ends are the same but when you lay the arc of the club flight over it 15 doesn't allow anything but landing in the side of a hill with zero chance to get through. On the others sometimes you can top spin the ball through it because you're not driving into the side of a hill.

• hbthree 478 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 12:50 PM

  ThreeSpot:

  I've never seen anyone post that you shouldn't count avatar movements. What is the objection to a meter strip? They amount to exactly the same thing.

   

  LOL...On spot response!

   

  Harve

   

• lee22sharon 1,419 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 2:49 PM

  cappy123:

  omg are you people serious do you bring a 500ft tape when playing for real,if we have to resort to this there is something seriously wrong here

  and present day golfers DONT use gps devices for calculating shots?  get real.  my 2 cents.

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 3:20 PM

  zagraniczniak:

  That is all true, yet it is clearly not consistent from hole to hole, and in this sense each hole is "juiced" to play a certain way. Similar differences in elevation at Bethpage 5 and 18 clearly do not have the same effect as at Bethpage 15. These are the ins and outs of the game (in the sense of a computer game) that need to be figured out and dealt with to score well.

  My memory isn't perfect, but I believe BPB #15 (+28 ft) is significantly more elevated than #18 (+12 ft).

  BPB #5 has a similar elevation change (+28 ft,) but it does not have the same slope on the green.  When you hit onto BPB #5, the ball typically it rolls forward 3-4 yards.  On BPB #15, however, the ball can roll backwards a great deal... anywhere from 3-4 yards from initial impact is pretty common.  7-10 yards is possible, but that will make it gain too much momentum and scream past the hole.  This makes it seem pretty consistent, to me, because from 130 yards out on #5, I hit +8 yards, whereas on #15, I would hit +14 from 130 yards out.

  I'd say there are a few quirks in the game (the fact that I only hit +1 at BPB #17, despite the +10 ft elevation change being one of them,) and I do memorize how hard I should hit certain shots by simply memorizing +/- a certain amount of yardage, but I think the differences between BPB #5, #15, and #18 are mainly attributable to explainable phenomenon.

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 4:01 PM

  CharlemagneRH:

  On BPB #15, however, the ball can roll backwards a great deal... anywhere from 3-4 yards from initial impact is pretty common.

  Well, that's indeed one of the weirder aspects of Bethpage 15 - that even though the green is sloped severely back to front, balls tend to run screaming up the slope, unless you're coming in with a very close approach shot.

• CharlemagneRH 1,054 Posts

  Wed, Jan 12 2011 6:15 PM

  zagraniczniak:

  CharlemagneRH:

  On BPB #15, however, the ball can roll backwards a great deal... anywhere from 3-4 yards from initial impact is pretty common.

  Well, that's indeed one of the weirder aspects of Bethpage 15 - that even though the green is sloped severely back to front, balls tend to run screaming up the slope, unless you're coming in with a very close approach shot.

  Depends on the pin placement.

  I find it very easy to get the ball to roll back down the hill when the pin is at the front left, and I birdie the hole perhaps 40% of the time when the pin is there.

  The back-right pin position, though, is a doozy.  I pretty much always end up rolling the ball off the back of the green, and I don't think I've ever successfully stopped the ball within 10 ft of that one.  I probably birdie #15 only 5% of the time when the pin is at the back-right.

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Fri, Jan 14 2011 11:44 AM

  CharlemagneRH:

  Depends on the pin placement.

  Exactly. The back-right position on Bethpage 15 seems to play much closer to its stated distance (much as the back-right pin on 18 seems to play closer to its distance than the front placement - but more so). Granted, I rarely see the back-right position. Maybe it is just because you are playing the slickest greens, but it seems more plausible with the Tour Master greens to stop the ball somewhere the pin. There was a great shot by Tiger Woods to the back-right at 15 at the US Open at Bethpage that landed very close to the pin, then rolled all the way back down to the front fringe someplace.

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Fri, Jan 14 2011 11:54 AM

  CharlemagneRH:

  My memory isn't perfect, but I believe BPB #15 (+28 ft) is significantly more elevated than #18 (+12 ft).

  BPB #5 has a similar elevation change (+28 ft,) but it does not have the same slope on the green.  When you hit onto BPB #5, the ball typically it rolls forward 3-4 yards.  On BPB #15, however, the ball can roll backwards a great deal... anywhere from 3-4 yards from initial impact is pretty common.  7-10 yards is possible, but that will make it gain too much momentum and scream past the hole.  This makes it seem pretty consistent, to me, because from 130 yards out on #5, I hit +8 yards, whereas on #15, I would hit +14 from 130 yards out.

  I'd say there are a few quirks in the game (the fact that I only hit +1 at BPB #17, despite the +10 ft elevation change being one of them,) and I do memorize how hard I should hit certain shots by simply memorizing +/- a certain amount of yardage, but I think the differences between BPB #5, #15, and #18 are mainly attributable to explainable phenomenon.

  My latest check on this shows the differences in elevation on the approach shot.

  Bethpage 15 (lower pin placement):

  +35-36 feet at 200 yards

  +30 feet at 80 yards

  +28 feet at 70 yards

  Bethpage 17: +5 feet from Tour Master tees (182 yards)

  Bethpage 18:

  +26 feet at 100 yards

  +22 feet at 80 yards