Golf course

I played it twice last week, if your more than circa 300mm in you have very little chance of finding balls.

Hacienda de Alamo 20 minutes up the road is a fantastic course, well worth a visit. Has ALL facilities!!! driving range, chipping green, putting green, mini par 3 course and the huge plus a great 19th hole!!!!!  I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.

 Olagolf have made a decision not to cut the 2nd cut of rough as it is a championship course not a pay and play and they say keep the ball straight and you wont have a problem!. I get hayfever so hate the long rough but i can see their view. Yes there is a tournamount coming up soon which has inclined them to keep the rough high. This also has alot to do with the amount of rain we have had the last 2 years. But dont worry once the rains stop the grass will soon die in the 30 degree heat.I suggest playing the course off the whites at least once. Then when you go back to the yellows you will suddenly feel the fairways much wider.

Reply to Popeye

Anyone who joins the golf society and pays the annual fee of 5 euros can get a society handicap certificate. I just need proof of UK handicap or play in one individual stableford comp with us. If you have no handicap you would need to put in 3 cards.

Hacienda del Alamo are happy to accept our society handicap certificates and charge us 35 euros any day........ the current walk in price is 59 euros.

By the way, I would not cut the long grass. It gives the course a championship look with the waist high grasses blowing in the wind. Anyone who is desperate for a good score try Corvera!

Play 3 off the tee or take a penalty if you find your ball. 2 more options use old balls or even better hit it straight!

Barry

The biggest problem is the extra time it adds on to the round while everyone tramps around looking for balls.

Maybe a local society rule that if any ball goes into the rough, it (or a more likely a replacement ball) can be dropped  into the 1st cut of rough for a penalty...like the water hazards.

Would quicken things up, although you wouldn't find as many 2nd hand balls during the round.

If you are playing on your own .... fine..... but think about the good golfers (not me) who have no shots start then see a bad golfer go  in the rough with no chance of scoring then drop out aand perhaps witt 2 shots score a point?

I wouldn't like it

Barry

It would be the same for everybody but you might be right...some people would see it as an advantage to others.

Personally I would see it as a way to avoid sitting on a tee box for 10-15 minutes while groups go looking for their lost balls and avoiding so much time looking for my and my playing partners shots that may have just run through the fairway.

 2 reasons why the long grass is such a pain

1) takes ages to look for a ball which is rarely found- this has caused rounds to take over 5 hours when 4  hours should be an absolute maximum and with the weather getting hotter this isnt fun.

2) nightmare for hay fever sufferers

One other idea is to just say the long grass is OB.  retake the shot 2 shot penalty  no time wasting and no more sneezing.

as soon as i hit a ball in the long grass i retake the shot as have rarely found it.

 the long grass can be a nitemare on anycourse in the world - my local club is made to cut it back to help speed of play...but we're just a 2-bit municipal not a modern championship resort, designed by one of the worlds top designers.....i agree with need to make sociaety rules but don't cut it, let the greenkeepers and course managers get on with the job they are charged to do - and make this one of the best courses in Spain, and EU!!!

This is a new addition to my bag for summer at CdA

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For Some Reason You Need to right click to open link ... Must Be the way I copied it

 good 1  - woop woop

Hi all ,   

The easiest way to solve this problem is to play a rule of stroke and distance , this means, if you play your tee shot and it goes into the rough and you can`t find it after a short period of time, you then drop a ball near to the place you thought the ball was lost. But you are then playing 4 not 3, the reason for this is, if you walked back to the tee and played another ball you would be playing 3 off the tee, the ball would probably travel to the same distance as the original lost ball, to which you would be then playing your 4th shot  anyway, this saves  a lot of time and even if your playing stableford your not out of scoring on the hole.  It also works the same if you were playing your 2nd shot and couldn`t find it, you would then be playing 5, and so on.  We play this all the time with our society and it works fine.  THERE IS NO WAY WE SHOULD CHANGE THE QUALITY OF OUR GOLF COURSE FOR THE QUALITY OF GOLFERS WHO PLAY IT.

Dave.

So down to some stats: 

Pro golfers typically hit only 8 out of 14 fairways, so that means they don't hit 6 out of 14. 

www.thegolfchannel.com/pga-tour/stats/

Ian

 only problem with that one dave is you are discounting the possibility of the 2nd ball going in the rough.my club in the uk has an excellent idea for sunday 4 balls to keep it going.

1)if  there is a possibility youre tee shot may be lost always play a provisional( saves a walk back)

2) only  the player who has lost his ball can look for it for 5 mins whilst his partners play on. then he plays ahis provisional if not found. he isnt allowed to walk back to the tee if its stableford or better ball . only in medal play can he walk back

what can happen at condado is player 1 loses his ball. 5 min look. player 2 loses his 2nd shot. 5 min wait. player 3 loses his 3rd shot. so the hole that should have taken 10 mins has taken 25 mins. this way we are back to 10 mins.

simples.

The R&A says on this subject:

"The rough for daily play should be of such a length so as to avoid numerous lost balls"

source:- origin-www.randa.org/en/Rules-and-Amateur-Status/Pace-of-Play.aspx

Ian

I think everyone agrees the rough is far too long for normal play, and without wanting to upset people, for the average person playing in the society.  I can't remember many times I've seen 4 balls in the fairway in my group (might be something to do with my driving!).

Think there are some good ideas but some issues:

1) Stroke and distance would be fair...but not if you had to drop in the rough.  If you are taking that amount of penalty to drop into the rough which basically can be another penalty would be a touch harsh.  You should get a drop into the nearest cut of 1st rough. Otherwise people would go back and play another.

2) Leaving people to look for their ball alone may help a little but I think sometimes it is another person in the group who has a better idea of where the ball ended.  If people played their ball and then went and helped look (where practical) I think this would be sufficient.  You do see many times a group looking for a ball within 30m of two of the playing group.  They should play and then look.  And of course keep to the 5 minutes. 

3) Definitely in agreement of people letting groups through if they are holding them up.  I would suggest that the Par 3's could be call-up holes.  Especially the 3rd.  Once on the green call up the group behind to hit their tee shots and then continue your play after they have done so.

One difficulty I have found with the rough and taking a penalty drop is that there is generally nowhere to drop while keeping the same line to the pin, aside from the deep rough.

It just seems a bit Rough on everybody all round!