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What golf super power would you rather have?

OGputtnfool said:
You raise a good point. Just because you get the GIR doesn't mean you'll be in good position on the greens. I can see this backfiring on someone who made a deal with the devil and they'd be on the green every time, but in the worst possible spots.

I'll stick with my original choice. None of the above.

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You make a great point and I’ve had hundreds of rounds where I’ve hit 15+ greens and shot over par. My last 3 rounds I’ve hit 16, 15, and 15 GIR and I shot 68(-5), 75(+2), 74(+2). The difference was my proximity to the hole was much closer with the round where I shot 68. Two of those birdie putts on Tuesday were inside of 3 feet. Hitting lots of GIR results in very few birdies if your average putt is 35 feet. If your name is not Jordan Speith, you don’t make very many 25 footers.
 
Originally, I thought that auto GIR would be the best if the three options, too. However, I'd love to take out some of the THPers opting for GIR and test them. I can almost guarantee, unless the course has very small, flat greens, I could get them to putt more than 36 times in 18 holes.

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tahoebum said:
You make a great point and I’ve had hundreds of rounds where I’ve hit 15+ greens and shot over par. My last 3 rounds I’ve hit 16, 15, and 15 GIR and I shot 68(-5), 75(+2), 74(+2). The difference was my proximity to the hole was much closer with the round where I shot 68. Two of those birdie putts on Tuesday were inside of 3 feet. Hitting lots of GIR results in very few birdies if your average putt is 35 feet. If your name is not Jordan Speith, you don’t make very many 25 footers.
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Exactly, but I'm still going with none of the above.

Honestly, if limited to the three choice and I had to ruin my game by choosing one, I'd go with auto U&D, 310y drive, then auto GIR... in that order.

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tahoebum said:
These hypothetical discussions are fun but I'll point out that averaging 12 of 18 GIR would put you in the top 50% of PGA Tour players. The thing that separates the mini tour players from those on the PGA Tour is up and downs and putting. Plenty of great ball strikers out there but very few who can putt or master the short game.
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Hypothetically...If you take two players of equal ability in all areas of play and then give one of them a benefit of being batter at any one part then that player will be the better player. Short game is only a separator when all else is equal. Same can be said for any area of play. All else being equal except for part "X" than there in lies the separator.

tahoebum said:
You make a great point and I’ve had hundreds of rounds where I’ve hit 15+ greens and shot over par. My last 3 rounds I’ve hit 16, 15, and 15 GIR and I shot 68(-5), 75(+2), 74(+2). The difference was my proximity to the hole was much closer with the round where I shot 68. Two of those birdie putts on Tuesday were inside of 3 feet. Hitting lots of GIR results in very few birdies if your average putt is 35 feet. If your name is not Jordan Speith, you don’t make very many 25 footers.
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And how many birdies does missing greens generate? Who is holing out chips/pitches all day? Greens leads to birdies much more (not even close) vs missing greens. And if one is blessed with this hypothetical greens super power whos to say he'd be putting from afar all the time. if one is that good they going to have plenty pin hunted birdie putt ops.
 
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Green in reg. My putting is fine, getting to the green is the challenge. If I could get there is reg I'd be a single digit.

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GIR and not even close. You would have to be a terrible putter to not be a single digit HC with that. I would be scratch or better if I could hit all GIR with my putting.


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Architex said:
GIR and not even close. You would have to be a terrible putter to not be a single digit HC with that. I would be scratch or better if I could hit all GIR with my putting.


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Only if your proximity was close. You could gir 18 GIR, but never be closer than 50' and maybe not fare so well.

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OGputtnfool said:
Only if your proximity was close. You could gir 18 GIR, but never be closer than 50' and maybe not fare so well.

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but if one was blesssed with greens super power he is going to be close often because he would simply be that good, if not then he wouldnt be hitting them and would be missing too many (and no longer will be his super power). Missing your mark by 18 yards (give/take 50') is likely going to mean to many missed greens in the first place.

This is what's wrong with hypotheticals. The super hero up/down is 100% success? but the super hero greens hitter is going to miss his mark that far too often? I mean isn't the super hero up/down player going to miss his greens often by too far to make all his up/downs? These hypotheticals are often too skewed.

We could fwiw simply change this to more of a reality scenario. Hitting greens is almost always (probably 99%) the objective in golf. I mean thats the goal as we stand on tee boxes. To hit the greens. That's how most birdies (and for us amateurs is where most our pars happen.
Any player hitting more greens is going to have the best chance at scoring for his rounds on average day to day. The importance of chipping/pitching only becomes such because no one hits greens all the time (especially us amateurs). Even the pros ave is like 65%. So there is a need (by default) to scramble and be good at that. But if anyone raises their greens percentage by any significant amount they are going to lower their average scores. They will score better more often day to day. That's just a fact unless they simply cannot putt well at all when lagging. And even then, being so much better at hitting greens has to mean being better at hitting your marks so there may not be all that much real long putting anyway because if there was , they likely not have increased their greens percentage in the first place.

Hitting greens is key in golf. There isn't even a real argument on that. Missing them leads to any number of risky lies and uncertainty from rough to bunkers, or whatever else etc..(you just never know).
 
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Auto up and down for me
 
Automatic GIR. My putting has been exceptionally well as of late so having a look at birdie every hole would lead to some low scores and the reason for my choice.


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OGputtnfool said:
Only if your proximity was close. You could gir 18 GIR, but never be closer than 50' and maybe not fare so well.

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But if GIR is a super power then one would think that super power would get the ball fairly close to the hole. Plus, if always on the green in regulation, practicing putting would be the only practice required; my assumption is my putting skills would improve.


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aggiesam1983 said:
Only if auto up and down means from 180 yards as well as around the green


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Auto up and down means just that. I'd you hit one OB on a 470y, par 4, then you're still gonna make par somehow. You'll either drive the green or hole out a long approach.

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Hypotheticals are fun but very unrealistic. As I said earlier the best you can hope for is about 12 GIR. As far as up and downs go, the average PGA Tour pro hits it to 9 feet from 20-30 yards away from the hole and also averages 48% of 9 foot putts made. None of us will ever be PGA Tour good so we will never approach their average of about 50% up and down from 20-30 yards. Makes me feel better knowing that the best golfers on the planet also struggle from 20-30 yards away, lol!

It also explain why average scoring on the PGA Tour is still about 70.4. Golf is hard.
 
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Now that I'm on a computer, I'll hash out a little more of my viewpoint (as if anyone cares about my viewpoint, but that's a whole other thread all together).

These "superpowers" as they've been labeled would make the game less fun, not more. I can't imagine the boredom of knowing that every time I stepped up on the tee, I was gonna hit it 310y on the "correct" side of the fairway. I mean, why even tee off? Just find a spot 310y out and drop it. I mean, you'd have no options. If you had a 370y, par 4, you'd be looking at a 60y 2nd shot... even if you don't have a 60y club in your bag. Hopefully, you don't play a course with a 280y, par 4. You're screwed.

The auto GIR that many are choosing is tempting, but as has been said already, just because you're guaranteed a GIR does not guaranteed a close first putt. That's just not how these "superpowers" work. I find it very hard to believe that even some of the best putters would be able to 1 putt more than 3 putt if their proximity was 50'+ most of the time.

The guaranteed U&D is akin to the 310y drive. It's just gonna be boring after a while. I can't imagine not needing to use my imagination or skill at all. I mean, I could start playing 7000y+ courses and shoot par because I'd be guaranteed an U&D on any green I missed. Heck, in that case, you'd be better off to just miss every green because if you hit the GIR, you'd have no guarantee you'd par the hole. Looking at a 659y, par 5? Just tee off with an 8i, hit a couple of wedges next, then after you miss the GIR, pull out a 3wd, knock it on the green, and sink the putt.

The reason that golf is fun is because it's hard. If golf was easy, I would have quit a long time ago.
 
OGputtnfool said:
Now that I'm on a computer, I'll hash out a little more of my viewpoint (as if anyone cares about my viewpoint, but that's a whole other thread all together).

These "superpowers" as they've been labeled would make the game less fun, not more. I can't imagine the boredom of knowing that every time I stepped up on the tee, I was gonna hit it 310y on the "correct" side of the fairway. I mean, why even tee off? Just find a spot 310y out and drop it. I mean, you'd have no options. If you had a 370y, par 4, you'd be looking at a 60y 2nd shot... even if you don't have a 60y club in your bag. Hopefully, you don't play a course with a 280y, par 4. You're screwed.

The auto GIR that many are choosing is tempting, but as has been said already, just because you're guaranteed a GIR does not guaranteed a close first putt. That's just not how these "superpowers" work. I find it very hard to believe that even some of the best putters would be able to 1 putt more than 3 putt if their proximity was 50'+ most of the time.

The guaranteed U&D is akin to the 310y drive. It's just gonna be boring after a while. I can't imagine not needing to use my imagination or skill at all. I mean, I could start playing 7000y+ courses and shoot par because I'd be guaranteed an U&D on any green I missed. Heck, in that case, you'd be better off to just miss every green because if you hit the GIR, you'd have no guarantee you'd par the hole. Looking at a 659y, par 5? Just tee off with an 8i, hit a couple of wedges next, then after you miss the GIR, pull out a 3wd, knock it on the green, and sink the putt.

The reason that golf is fun is because it's hard. If golf was easy, I would have quit a long time ago.
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That post was a fun read imo. Yes of course hypo super powers is very problematic because its not real and there are also assumptions made. It almost becomes a moot discussion because its not real.

But anyway....lol, I would ask you one question.
Why is it assumed the super hero hitter of greens (lets call him....."mean green") would always miss by 18 yards (50-ish feet) and plus? The average is about 32' from fw and about 44' from rough. But the leaders in those categories are 28' and 37' or about 10 yrds. That's average meaning many (probably half) are less. Not only are you assuming 50 (which is far longer than the average) but your also saying plus as though majority will be longer that that. So your assuming about almost 20 feet longer than the leaders in that category and also assuming that as a minimum. Remember "mean green" is a super hero greens hitter. He is going to be closer than even the leaders because well....hes just that good. If he wasn't he wouldn't be hitting all greens. But he is so he would have to be closer. No coincidence that the leaders of distance to hole on approaches also are atop the gir list. If they missed further from the hole they wouldn't hit as many greens. So this greens super hero is going to be more than close enough more than enough of the times.

That all said (if I made sense to you the way I worded things) means there would be plenty I putt birdies oprtunities In fact hitting greens is what produces birds and that is not being done from 50 plus all the time. Its done because very often they are much closer enough to have a birdie putt.
So super hero "mean green" being the 100% greens hitter (better than the best) is going to have many many putts far inside 50 feet. And many birdie putts.
 
rollin said:
That post was a fun read imo. Yes of course hypo super powers is very problematic because its not real and there are also assumptions made. It almost becomes a moot discussion because its not real.

But anyway....lol, I would ask you one question.
Why is it assumed the super hero hitter of greens (lets call him....."mean green") would always miss by 18 yards (50-ish feet) and plus? The average is about 32' from fw and about 44' from rough. But the leaders in those categories are 28' and 37' or about 10 yrds. That's average meaning many (probably half) are less. Not only are you assuming 50 (which is far longer than the average) but your also saying plus as though majority will be longer that that. So your assuming about almost 20 feet longer than the leaders in that category and also assuming that as a minimum. Remember "mean green" is a super hero greens hitter. He is going to be closer than even the leaders because well....hes just that good. If he wasn't he wouldn't be hitting all greens. But he is so he would have to be closer. No coincidence that the leaders of distance to hole on approaches also are atop the gir list. If they missed further from the hole they wouldn't hit as many greens. So this greens super hero is going to be more than close enough more than enough of the times.

That all said (if I made sense to you the way I worded things) means there would be plenty I putt birdies oprtunities In fact hitting greens is what produces birds and that is not being done from 50 plus all the time. Its done because very often they are much closer enough to have a birdie putt.
So super hero "mean green" being the 100% greens hitter (better than the best) is going to have many many putts far inside 50 feet. And many birdie putts.
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The 50'+ thing is because I don't see this as asking if you worked hard and gained the ability to hit 18 GIR per round. In that case, I'd agree that many of your first putts would be well within the 20-30 feet range. I see this as a "deal with the devil" kind of thing... and we all know those kinds of deals never work out the way we expect. I can imagine a player making a deal with the devil for 18 GIR per round. I can see that the devil would oblige, but the "fine print" would dictate that he'd never have a first putt under 50'.
 
OGputtnfool said:
The 50'+ thing is because I don't see this as asking if you worked hard and gained the ability to hit 18 GIR per round. In that case, I'd agree that many of your first putts would be well within the 20-30 feet range. I see this as a "deal with the devil" kind of thing... and we all know those kinds of deals never work out the way we expect. I can imagine a player making a deal with the devil for 18 GIR per round. I can see that the devil would oblige, but the "fine print" would dictate that he'd never have a first putt under 50'.
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haha, funny stuff.
 
aggiesam1983 said:
Nope, you can get up and down after hitting a drive OB, no par then


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Sure you can if you hit your 2nd shot with the 2nd ball in the hole.

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Give me the automatic up and down all day long and twice on Sundays.
That is where I think I would save the most strokes and the round if I was guaranteed to do this every time.

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Greens in regulation for sure.
I can handle putting fine on my own, and I'm decent off the tee. It's the shots in between that kill my score.
 
You see I know how this stuff works. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

1) 310 yd drive? You will duff your next shot to balance it out.
2) Automatic green in reg? Your putting will suck.
3) Automatic up and down on missed greens? You won't get nGIRs.

I will take the super power of being able to get out of a bunker in one attempt.
 
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