Was anyone else shocked by how good @Joezwickl swing was? We watched him bunt it around the cradle but my gosh he has a pretty swing when he is allowed to use the right club.
1 Like
Yeah, I had some swing jealousy
Tried to get this point across in the video and in podcasts past, but it’s always been hard for me to explain why I love the challenge of No. 2 so much. I think it’s because it’s the most difficult playable course in the world, meaning it doesn’t beat your ass in the worst ways. I hate courses that use water, OB, or tall grass as their great and punishing defenses. Looking for balls sucks, playing away from water and OB on repeat sucks, and playing poorly on those courses makes you want to quit the game. The challenge at Pinehurst is right in front of you. There’s a risk and reward with every shot, down to a chip 30 feet away from the hole. Do I putt it up the slope, run it by, and take my bogey? Or open up the face of a wedge, try and nip it perfectly to get it up and down? Is bogey an acceptable score on this hole? Or am I too obsessed with what I think I should shoot that I am not appreciating the experience of the challenge?
That’s why I think I always walk off that course wanting more. I know I can do it, where as some penal courses just don’t feel that possible, and it’s not fun in the process. Your ball rolls off those greens, but you can find it and play it again. And it’s not skewed towards low handicappers, because high handicappers can putt up the slopes and play a variety of different shots. It’s the courses that require you to play. a specific shot that stop being fun, and that never happens on No. 2. I’ve shot 84 (with a deuce on the 18th!) and 85 in my last two rounds there. God I love it. I can’t wait to go back.
41 Likes
This high handicapper agrees with you 1,000%
8 Likes
Mackenzie, Alister. The Spirit of St. Andrews, 1933. p.42.
8 Likes
sickkk
This is why it’s pretty much at the top of my wishlist for courses to play in America. And I was narrowing down weekends for a trip with a friend until this madness hit and now … too many variable to know if it will happen this year.
It really does appear to be like my ideal of what a golf course should be–challenging, but playable for anyone. Can a short-knocking 75 yr old bunt it around? Can my wife or kids play the course? But will it still interest and challenge me, a relatively good player? The great courses do this. It’s the foundation of The Old Course, of Augusta, Royal Melbourne. Pine Valley looks unbelievable and there’s a place for that in golf, too, but for my preference it takes a back seat to something that’s playable by all.
Loved this episode and the way it walked through each hole in loving detail, even though it killed me given my personal feelings/sense of loss about probably not getting to visit there as I had hoped this year.
I wouldn’t call my father (76 last year when he played it) short-knocking for his age, but he doesn’t hit it as far as he used to. He really struggled- had a hard time finding the fairway and played out of the wire grass all day. It was frustrating for him. FWIW, he was maybe an 8 index when we played it. He wants another shot at it.
I was 5 over through 2 holes like an idiot, but shot mid-80’s. I forget my score but it was somewhere between 84 and 87. I feel like I really played the last 16 holes well.
It was my best loop around #2. All the others were like Randy’s, between 95-100.
1 Like
This is what 18 year old me struggled with when I first played #2. But a caddie that was in our group explained it to me and eventually it got through my teenage head and I had more fun. In a weird way, I think this thought process has helped my game as I’ve gotten older. Sometimes you have to just “take your medicine” and try to limit your losses instead of going for the hero shot. Most courses that isn’t always obvious, but at #2 you have no choice. And the sooner you accept that, the more fun you will have.
1 Like
I’ve played Pinehurst #2 for almost 25 years. My first time there was a 79 with a local member who guided me around the course----and shook his head when I made bad decisions that all seemed to work out. My favorite was being left of #9 green with the pin on the far left. No chance. High lob (still my favorite shot) that hit the pin and dropped into the cup. I have not even come close to that level of play there since—but I make the pilgrimage 2-3 times a year to try.
It is a five hour battle for me between playing “my” game and what the course wants to give you.
Great episode----you all did the experience justice.
2 Likes
My dad is about to 74 and nowhere near an 8 (never was). Yeah, he’d miss fairways and would have a somewhat hard time from the sand and wiregrass, but he probably wouldn’t lose a ball and we can’t say that if we play almost any of the high end resorts here in Arizona, or if we go play a resort course in Hawaii, or Florida, or … almost anywhere else.
Put another way, we did a trip to Pebble Beach a couple years before the '14 Open at Pinehurst. We played Spyglass on that trip as well. Spyglass is, maybe as much as any resort course, just a little taste of traditional US Open conditions. It’s narrow, the rough is thicker there than the other PB properties, the greens are glass and sloped hard, etc. Dad had a really tough day in the rough at Spyglass. When the '14 Open at Pinehurst rolled around I called him (it being Father’s Day and all) and we chatted about the golf and he mentioned that even though he didn’t love playing out of sand, it looked a whole lot more appealing, for his game, than trying to hack out of the rough like so many US Opens make you do, and like he remembered from Spyglass.
1 Like
You’re aware of what website you’re on, yes?
3 Likes
200 goddamn new posts and none of them are about the current episode. What are wo doing here guys?
3 Likes
let’s take this off line and talk dates.
2 Likes
Yeah, yeah but is Tobacco Road ELITE is the real question everyone wants to debate.
Also, I can’t get over how fast Huber and Joe were swinging while still staying so much more balanced than I do. Humbling actually.
what we do in every thread…
2 Likes
Listen, for sure.
1 Like
Couldn’t have said it any better.
3 Likes
One of my top 3 Big Randy moments. The man was on fire with his takes today.
4 Likes