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St. Andrews: Not so easy anymore

• palupear 50 Posts

  Mon, Dec 6 2010 9:02 PM

  Not sure if anyone else feels the same, but St. Andrews has gotten a lot more difficult over the past couple months.  My experience seems to be that I'm 4 to 6 under after 9 and then get killed on 10 thru 18.  This week's 18 hole unlimited with heavy winds and tourney greens is a b*st*rd on the second nine.  I think wgt toughened it up by changing pin placements and some other modifications.

• Bigfoot49uk 59 Posts

  Mon, Dec 6 2010 11:07 PM

  I think they're trying to make it more realistic and true to life. Previously there were scores of mid-50's coming in, which is just silly.

  Having played St Andrews many times in real life I can tell you that in heavy wind conditions it really is a case of making your score on the front 9 then hanging on as best you can on the back 9, just as you describe.

• blackbeard 288 Posts

  Tue, Dec 7 2010 5:35 AM

  I agree with your assessment of SA nowadays. I look at being (maybe) -1 after 4 holes, try for birdies on holes 5 to 12, then make even par on 13 through 18.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Tue, Dec 7 2010 7:23 AM

  palupear:

   My experience seems to be that I'm 4 to 6 under after 9 and then get killed on 10 thru 18

  This is uncanny how often it happens. For me it usually is a case of one 9 offsetting the other. Have a good front and the back jumps up and says "Take that!" Or crap your way to somewhere around par on the front and then have a birdie fest on the back. Go figure.

• SgtDoodles 3,112 Posts

  Tue, Dec 7 2010 10:00 AM

  My front 9s have quite a few birdies, followed by a back 9 of around par on a good day. Best back 9: 32. When you get it good, you get it great. #17 isn't as hard as you think if you just ding the meter! I always take on Road Hole Bunker, as the shot out is easy!

  Doodles

  P.S. Easy on anything but very fast or tournament.

   

• palupear 50 Posts

  Tue, Dec 7 2010 4:34 PM

  Thanks, everyone.  Good to know that others are experiencing similar conditions and results on occasion.  Funny, but I'm scoring better on Bethpage now than on St. Andrews!

• stencil 455 Posts

  Sun, Dec 12 2010 4:05 PM

  Yeah i'm usually -4 or -5 on the F9. And on the B9 I tend to make 6 or 7 pars and stay around E par on back. The back just has alot of par holes that are easy to hit the green and  2 putt but not get close for birdie.

• borntobesting 9,700 Posts

  Sun, Dec 12 2010 5:57 PM

  It really depends on the winds and green speeds. Our CC had many tourneys @ St.Andrews with many different conditions. I do well with most except at times when we have tournament greens speeds. A little over a week ago I had my best front 9 ever. A -7 29 but like so many others I struggled to a -1 35 on the backside and ended up -8 64 but still not too bad. I believe that not only is the backside a little harder but for me I tend to lose concentration on the backside and make mistakes that I don't make on the front side. That being said however i did have a 30-33 for a -9 63 about 2 or 3 weeks ago matching my best 18 hole score ever. 63 here and a 63 @ BPB.

• PeterHopper 1,315 Posts

  Tue, Dec 14 2010 1:47 PM

  Have done well on the course in ready go 18s last two days. A -10 and a -9. Back to -3 today though.