Firstly Number 10 looks absolutely gorgeous.
Secondly Alt shot looks a real test of your mental resolve with your playing partner, great video
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I wanna talk about No. 10 at some point.
Doak and I don’t get along very well!
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This is definitely something I’d be interested in hearing about from someone as good as you are
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Intrigued to see what you think of Te Arai North then. Aspects of that course reminded me a lot of this one
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I love all of the concepts, how they look, how they work.
I’ve truly never played one well. Chess/checkers, I guess.
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Do you similarly not get along with Mr. and Mrs. Dye’s work or is there a way the Dye’s did things differently enough that it doesn’t affect you?
Doak courses are not for the regular golfers of the world.
You guys looked completely confused by the start lines, evidenced by the 1 fairway hit.
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Checking in on behalf of the Pac Dunes sucks crew.
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@sundaybag do we get to talk about the free embedded ball ruling?
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I’ve also never played well on Doak courses. I’ve always thought they were a ton of fun though. Lots of exciting shots and there are always extreme slopes. Feel like they are generally designed to be used more for match play than stroke play. I was always just blown away at the rating/slope of the courses and how easy they’re supposed to be on paper. I never get even close to my course handicap and I don’t really understand how anybody does who’s better than a bogie golfer.
Want me to add you to the “Doak haters WhatsApp” full of good stuff and irate humans.
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Doak courses are tough for the fire at every pin crowd. He likes to sprinkle in holes where, even from the middle of the fairway, you should be trying to get the ball to a place that is 60+ feet away from the pin.
Also playing a doak course with brand new (and therefore rock hard) greens is always going to be particularly challenging
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So have we gotten clarification about that embedded ball in the waste area? I thought there was an exception of being allowed to take relief from “sand”.
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Unfortunately it appears the boys took an illegal drop.
My read on this is, if the ball was embedded in sand in an area which should be fairway but the grass is not there for whatever reason, then free relief is allowed.
However, no free relief is allowed from a waste area for an embedded ball.
Going to need a formal, public apology from @sundaybag and @MerchCzar ASAP. Should probably also notify Mr Doak and the Pinehurst Poobahs the alt shot course record is freed up.
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@MerchCzar clearly did not have his driver working, making alt shot that much harder. And missing a 2 footer has to feel 4x worse in this format.
Onus on the player and everything, but I feel like this one is mostly on the caddie being so damn adamant that a free drop was allowed.
If I were a resort player and I had a caddie tell me two or three times it was kosher even asking, “are you sure” I don’t think I would have questioned it.
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I’m a little surprised no one has brought up the order they teed off in. Felt like it took driver out of Bens hands more than it should have, but maybe that’s just perception. Seems like you want him using the big stick more than Neil.
I believe it was mentioned in the video they were playing pure alt shot, so who hit tee shot was based on who holed out previous hole.
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I feel like the default mode for caddies at high end resorts is not “fidelity to the rules” but “let’s keep the players happy and get them around quickly.” Ball in a divot in the fairway? You didn’t pay to play out of lies like that! Ball behind a tree or on a root? You’re not here to hurt yourself. Etc.
Which is all fine. It’s just my experience that if you want to hit cups and play it down you need to make that clear to your caddie on the first tee.
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