Designing has helped my real golf game!

[bryce]

Hi everybody, I'm still around and still check the boards everyday to see what is going on. I've been working on a couple of courses, including a real course that I play that is close to my work. It's a Tom Jackson course called Granada Farms and they are really putting some work into it now to improve it. It's the best $25 course I've ever played and that's one reason why I want to recreate it for everyone. I've been playing it at least once a week for the last 2 months and taking pics and notes as I play. I've played it well over 100 times, but I want every little slope to be right. I usually hang around 80 when I play anywhere, but my last 4 rounds have been 74-71-72-75!

I can honestly say that PGA 2000 has helped my game!!!

Doron

[SteveHorn]

Doron! Knowing a good or great course is HUGH in being able to score well consistently. In real or cyber golf.

[bryce]

Steve, one of these days I'm going to play somewhere besides Granada, and it probably won't be as good. However, my short game has really come around the last month or 2.

[Indy Anna Jones]

I haven't played in 3 years or so, but I found that when my short game was good (!) I could play well anywhere. I never could drive so the important thing was always getting the ball to a good place so I could get onto the green on 3 (or 4) with a short approach and have a chance to putt for par. The key was knowing where to put the ball on the fairway and I've found that to be important in this game also, although obviously you can hit high shots here that you could never hit for real (flop a driver or 3 iron? I don't think so!)

Those are some good scores. I could never get below the low 80s and those were pretty rare.

[bryce]

Indy, I agree 100% about your comments, especially about the short game. I can be in the trees all day, but have a good day with the putter and still shoot 80 or so. I stay away from the flop shot in real life AND in PGA2000, however I do hit a 3 iron pretty well. I hate hybrids and hit long irons well, especially from the rough (which is where my tee shots usually end up). I finally did end my streak of great playing with an 85 the other day, simply because of putting. I'm not complaining about an 85 though!

Doron

[Indy Anna Jones]

My brother, who was nearly a scratch golfer (I told him to bathe more often!) in his 20s and 30s before he developed scholiosis (curvature of the spine) had a tremendous flop shot, and I got pretty good at it. We'd practice by getting behind a tall tree (50'-75'+) maybe 50 yards then get closer and closer. I could top a 50'er from 15 yds back and get it onto the target green maybe 7/10 times. I won a few bets on those! It made a huge difference in my scores because most of the courses I played were fairly flat but they had a lot of trees. I guess I should have emphasized that I knew where to put the ball... not that I often did it.

[bryce]

So my reign of dominance continues at Granada Farms......... I shot 74 Wednesday with 2 double bogeys, and Friday I was +2 after 4 holes, but turned it around and ended up at -1 (71)! I played with 3 other guys and they shot 84, 85, and 91. We played our usual quarters for skins, birdies, and closest to the pins on par 3's. I shut them out!!! I won 27 "dots", which ended up to be $20.25! I've won that much playing before, but never playing for quarters!

I pay so much attention to the detail of the course to recreate with the architect that I lose track of how good I have been playing.

Doron