hpurey:
YankeeJim: It's also a good way for TMs to get a look at what turning Legend brings.
Very true, I tried that method a few times before making Legend. However, it does not prepare you for the mile-long par 3's you get to play as a Legend ;-)
But fun as he!!.
When the Legend tier was added last year, I spent the day after the update playing all 4 courses and charting the differences in yardage between the TM & Legend tees.
From that point, until I made the jump to Legend myself, I always played v. legends according to that chart ( and in-game observations). A lot of holes are reasonably close, where I could just choke down the driver a little bit, in order to play the same approaches. Other holes, I would punch the driver or hit something smaller .. from 3w to as low as 5 iron ( on Kia #13). I got very.. VERY.. good at keeping my 2nd shots within a few yards of where the legends were forced to play.
This was a twofold benefit for me:
First, and most important to me, it kept my sense of fair play intact by not taking advantage of the up to 102 yard difference in tee boxes ( in just for fun matches and especially in MPC's).
Second- it gave me plenty of practice. When I made the jump to Legend, I had absolutely no "culture shock"... those 3 & 4 iron approaches were nothing new.
Correction.... I did play 1 match v. a legend where I teed off with driver where I normally did. I got stomped bad, bad, bad!!! (But when Icon is firing on all cylinders like he normally did/does, you had better be doing the same.)