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Using Wedges On Greens

• alosso 21,070 Posts

  Wed, Oct 19 2016 8:44 PM

  YankeeJim:

  MrFunnyWobbl:

  but I have no distance

  Same here, old man golf does that.

  +1!

  As a 30 (HCP, not age), I wanted to be an 18 - rightly thought that having an extra stroke on each hole would be comfortable for a late bloomer aged 50+.

  A few years later (and ago), some streak brought me to 15, but after that my abs suffered from surgery, I had to pause and started on WGT. A year after, I re-started the real game but with less effort and no ambitions, so now I'm lucky to play around +22 with rare&surprising highlights of +8 to +18. Par is a rare guest now, doubles come far too often :(

  I don't play tournaments any more (the mandatory way to move the HCP here), so "on paper" I'm still a 15. My USGA HCP would be around 18 today, with the advantage of nine scores on my well-known and short home course.

  Funny thing is, WGT practice improved my real putting (which makes pitches on the greens even less probable). I gained a better view of the slopes...

• MainzMan 9,591 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 2:49 AM

  Do you have a course close to you Alosso?   I'm still horrified by how few courses there are over here compared to the UK.  Even in the relatively lowly populated area I lived in I had 5 or 6 courses within a half an hour drive, my home course being 5 minutes away, including the time taken to get the clubs in and out of the car.  Here I have 1 about 45 minutes away and a couple about an hours drive. 

  I played off 17 when I left the UK, in the 12 years I've been here I've only played 1 round so I'm probably beyond rusty and actually starting to fall apart.  Not that this stopped me snapping up a used set of Cally X-14 pro series irons when I saw them going for a decent price on ebay.  They make nice ornaments : )

  I keep telling myself I'll go out and play, hopefully I'll actually get round to it some time soon.  And contact my old club about a handicap certificate so I hopefully won't need to take a Platzreife course.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 5:13 AM

  alosso:

  Funny thing is, WGT practice improved my real putting

  Ironic you say that because it helped me, too, with wedge play.  I actually bought  56 and 60 degree CG wedges after learning them here and they made a huge difference for me, especially having to play 3rd shots into greens from all manner of lies, sand included.  :-)

• alosso 21,070 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 8:11 AM

  MainzMan:

  Do you have a course close to you alosso?

  FTFY :o)

  Luckily, I have three in 13 mins distance. My home course is further away though
  - "historic" reasons.

  10 years ago there used to be 35 clubs in 100 km / 1.5 hour driving distance. One closed and one is new, so no change AFAIK, but a few may be in financial trouble.

  You may know that history and development of golf courses is very different in continental Europe than in Britain. Golf came over the Channel about 1900 as a sport for the rich, "Country Club Style". There used to be <3,000 golfers in 1950, 70,000 golfers / 210 clubs in D in 1985, a very exclusive society who made sure that they stayed exclusive. Golfclub membership, necessary to play on their courses, cost a fortune.

  Then Bernhard Langer inflamed an enormous growth. Today we are around 640,000 golfers, all registered in 800+ clubs - less exclusive.

  For you, it may be good to produce a British membership + HCP to exclude you from the formalia for German golfers. Otherwise, you may try your skills on a short "Pay&Play" or Executive course without limitation.

  I'm quite sure that you need no Platzreife exam. A few scorecards might be enough to establish a new HCP.

• MrFunnyWobbl 894 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 8:54 AM

  Is the golf industry there in as dire shape as it is over here in Canada/North AM? Courses are entirely overbuilt, meaning to many courses and not enough golfers. Revenue is spread too thin and lots of courses are closing or being bought up my golf corporations consolidating the industry, like the one I worked for for three summers. 

  I would have loved to have pursued a career in the industry, but with the direction it is going, and the tiny wages the pro's I know are getting paid (granted these are public/semi-private courses) there is no real reason to seriously consider a career in this sport. 

  Had a few fun summers working in the industry, but can't make a career of it. 

• alosso 21,070 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 10:08 AM

  The golfing union once claimed to be the fastest growing sport in Germany. They have been in a steady rise in the past years, alas with signs of stagnation. Members (which represent perhaps 98% of the total golfers) rose by 13% per year until 1995 but growth went down to 4% in 2009. Today, there may be a black zero (rise!). I suppose though that each individual doesn't spend that much in golf than before - golf departments in the stores close...

  Golf courses are consolidating, too, some close, some are combined in holdings.
  2015 marks the first year of a decline (by one to 727).

  There is always a golf club involved, some even own their courses.

  Here, the development in 10 European countries is shown. Further analysis shows that the Netherlands (17.4%), Germany (11), Finland (4) and Denmark (4) had the biggest growth since 2009, and England, Scotland (-19% each) and Ireland (-25%) lost the most players/members (description is a tad loose there). Total no. between these 10 is now less than 2009.

  Last year, Germany and Sweden were the only countries with a black zero (0.2%), all others lost players/members, lead by Spain, England and Scotland (all around -4.8%).

• alosso 21,070 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 12:19 PM

  SadieSue77:

  Hi there Alosso

  Please: lower case "a"!

  BTW: This post (and the email notice) showed up late - are you on moderation?

  SadieSue77:

  The original post was dealing with using a wedge on a green in WGT!    Nothing was said about using the wedge continuously or as the only club on the green. 

  True, but why do you address me? I objected to a fierce objection at that point. "continuously" and "only club" was introduced later by others.

  And it was you, on page 5, to first propose to go and play the game, a good idea to get the heat out of the discussion. No memory of that? On page 6, similar subject of yours, "time for the actual game". I admit that I bent it a bit, but it still followed your supposed intention.

  BTW: 10 showed up, and we got soaked to the bones in no time and quit the game after hole 5. Jagatee (Austrian booze) helped us to become dry again ;)

   

  I just don't get how you wrongly accused participants of this discussion in your last post ("tens of thousands of bullying posts"), and now you fully ignore my reply to that. My conclusion is that I gotcha in some daft drivel which you'd rather forget.

  Given!

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 12:50 PM

  SadieSue77:

  Nothing was said about using the wedge continuously or as the only club on the green.

  Yes there was. That was the gist of my post on page 1 where I called it a gamer move.

  IWB showed 2 classic examples in his post on page 1 of where it is totally appropriate to use that shot right. I just took exception with players that only use a wedge to putt. That is what I consider making a mockery of the game.

• Lutjanid 697 Posts

  Thu, Oct 20 2016 2:02 PM

  YankeeJim:

  SadieSue77:

  Nothing was said about using the wedge continuously or as the only club on the green.

  Yes there was. That was the gist of my post on page 1 where I called it a gamer move.

  IWB showed 2 classic examples in his post on page 1 of where it is totally appropriate to use that shot right. I just took exception with players that only use a wedge to putt. That is what I consider making a mockery of the game.

  Not hard to make a mockery out of a game that is a mockery to start with.  Does it really matter if people use wedge all the way round to get their rocks off?

  I mean I'm not going to waste my time playing with them but I can't see how it hurts anyone. Least of all a soulless computer game. It's just for fun so let them have some. It is after all just a silly game. We play for fun, enjoyment and a break from reality. It really is a lovely time waster this game. And it is indeed about as far removed from reality as one can get.

  I say let people do as they please, It's no skin off my nose.  :-)