Golf Talk With Greg Holman – #36
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The final major tournament on the PGA Tour will be contested next week at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, Kent, England and we’ll give you a preview next week. Today I wanted to talk about ego in golf.
There’s a difference in pride and ego. It’s good to be confident. And the best way to be confident is practice, but there comes a time when you have to let the ego go and face facts.
I played the back tees, commonly referred to as the tips, the weekend before last, It’s not as much fun hitting a wood from the fairway on every hole. As Jack Nicklaus would say, “Play it forward.” In other words, play the shorter tee for for a faster more enjoyable round. I am eligible to play the senior tees, but if I’m on my game I feel like I’m cheating. I’ll give an example.
My dad and I were playing a championship course at the Lake of the Ozarks last weekend. There were five sets of tees. The silver for single digit handicappers and long hitters, the blue tees for good players with above average distance, the green tees for the average player, the gold tees for for seniors, and the red tees for women and juniors. I elected to play the green tees. I was not on with my driver, blocking the ball right or hitting a quick hook left. When I did hit a good drive I was left with 150 yards to the green, a mid-iron for me and I was struggling to shoot bogie golf. On the 15th hole we couldn’t find the green tee so I just played the senior. The hole featured a ditch in the driving area from every tee. About 275 to clear from the back tee, 250 from the blue, 225 from the green and 175 from the senior. I pulled out a driver and hit my best drive of the day to within 30 yards of the green on a 235 yard par 4. I pitched up and made a ten foot putt for birdie. Is that right? I felt guilty, but now I wonder what I would’ve scored from the senior tee. I would’ve been hitting short irons into the green instead of mid irons or hybrids. It would’ve been more fun. The The other thing to consider is would that be fair to my dad, who is 24 years older and hits the ball 50 yards shorter than I do. Maybe there needs to be a super senior tee? Moral of the story? If you are over 60 (50 is only a senior on tour), or hit the ball less than 200 yards, play the senior tee.
Hit ’em straight and remember next week we’ll talk about the Open Championship!