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The importance of course knowledge

It's pretty important. Even just a general layout will help me attack a course.

In Ohio last year for the Invitational I hit a lot if bad shots because I had never played the course and there were a lot of funny lay ups and tons of blind tee shots. Would have been nice to know instead of taking a penalty stroke or hit in in a bad lie.
 
It is huge. My home course has greens that are very hard to read. The guys that have played there for several years save so many strokes because the understand the subtle differences that can make or break a round.
 
Howzat said:
It is huge. My home course has greens that are very hard to read. The guys that have played there for several years save so many strokes because the understand the subtle differences that can make or break a round.
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That's a good point. Knowing the greens at my old club was worth a bunch of strokes. At the beginning of the season in 2012 I had a 40+ putt round :\ Got much better within a few months though.
 
Course knowledge is huge for me. Last year there were two courses I played for the first time and either shot high 90's or low 100's. Next time I broke 90 on both courses. I would say 8-10 of those shots were simply based on knowing the course.
 
Absolutely! Knowing the greens not only help putting but approach shots as well

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If the course is pretty straightforward I can shoot my crappy handicap, but if its a target oriented course with lots of undulation that will give you a crappy lie then knowledge is key for me. I'm terrible about not playing what I see and that gets me in trouble on new courses.

GregDan said:
It's pretty important. Even just a general layout will help me attack a course.

In Ohio last year for the Invitational I hit a lot if bad shots because I had never played the course and there were a lot of funny lay ups and tons of blind tee shots. Would have been nice to know instead of taking a penalty stroke or hit in in a bad lie.
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Ugg that course, is a must know or play very conservative as its definitely a target golf type of course
 
I think course knowledge is a double edge sword.
On one side it'll give you the comfort of knowing where to miss, on the other hand it'll give you to much comfort
causing you to get to laxed and get you into trouble.
 
I think it's a key to playing really well. However I don't think it is always true, my favorite course that I play a lot I've never broken 89, however my best two rounds have been 85/86 at courses I was playing for the first time.


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I actually play better not knowing where some of the trouble is on holes and just shoot for fairways and greens.

But there are those few courses I walk away from saying, "If I could play this again I would know what not to do on a few holes."
 
my instructor always says add up to 10 strokes for a course you've never played before. i think thats pretty accurate most of the time unless its an open or fairly easy course. if i've played a course once i can easily drop 5-10 strokes the next time around if i remember the layout correctly.
 
I like to play a course 2 times before I play in competition. get the feel for the greens and the layout
 
Course knowledge seems more important after a bad shot ... "oh if I had known _______ i would have _______ "

But seriously 2 things that are important is understanding the greens & knowing the carry's over water(kind of a Florida thing)
 
I say that it really depends on the course. Courses with blind shots/rises would definitely benefit from a first pass through, or local knowledge. The GPS doesn't always help explain that what might appear to be a low spot on a fairway is really a wet drainage area that is red-staked. I would say that it comes into play more on resort courses that intend to be dramatic, or courses built in foothills/mountains than your general flat muni type tracks.
 
Takes me at least 2 rounds at a course to get really comfortable with it. I can definitely play well without knowing the course, but in the same breath I can play well and score terribly from not knowing the course as well. I think course knowledge is huge and always goes right in line with course management. Hard to have good course management without knowing the course.
 
It always helps to know where to hit the ball.We have two par threes on the front that a lot of the time, the best play is to hit it onto the hill on the left of the green and let it bounce back down to the green and let it roll to the hole.

But knowing where to hit it and where to miss it never hurts.
 
Playing a new course can definitely add strokes for me, so knowledge is pretty important. Some courses can have a lot of little nuances that can help you a ton if you know them. The more I play it, the more comfortable I'll be. At least once or twice to get an idea of some things though.
 
THP travels have taken me to quite a few new courses, and there have been quite a few that I know I could have played better the second time around (and a few that I have gotten to prove that by playing a couple days in a row). As others have said, if it is a target course where there is trouble that is hard to see, I think a single practice round would be a big advantage. I know there were several holes at TPC Las Vegas for example where we knew the aiming point off the tee, or where we could miss tee or approach much better on day 2. On courses where the trouble is more visable, I don't think it's quite as crucial.

Certainly having seen slopes in the greens should almost always help though regardless of course.
 
coers said:
I think its important to my game. I usually check out the course on there website or even google map it to check out the water and sand traps. Don't want to be behind a hill or tree and hoping there isn't water over the hill. and usually after playing the course a couple times I am good with knowing where everything is that I should be worried about.
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How often does pre course scouting help you? Do write all this info down or store it in your mental Rolodex? Are you getting specific yardage?

I've just never found online scouting to work.
 
I am going to qualify my participation in this by referring to you're initial post. You say "Do you need to know the course in order to play well?". I don't play well, compared to good golfers, when I am playing well; so take that into consideration. Due to my skill level, there are some instances where knowing what is up ahead or around the corner helps, but for the most part, as long as I play for what I can see in front of me, I'm fine. Two things I do when playing a course for the first time are go to google and review the course from there. If you go to Google Earth, you can even get a feel for elevation changes, but it's still deceiving. My second option is the satellite view on GolfShots if I'm not sure what's up ahead. Those two usually keep me out of trouble.
 
I think it is important off the tee, but the bigger issue is on the greens. Some places they have that 1 area where the ball ALWAYS breaks towards, even if it appears to be uphill.

That said, sometimes on the tee not knowing where the danger is ends up being a benefit because then I am not thinking "don't hit it right, don't hit it right" and then I of course hit it right...
 
I think its pretty helpful looking at a map and seeing where all the water is at on the course. And no I usually have a good memory because I usually check it out before I go play that day. And not specific yardage, I am more of a object guy where if a tree is near or a sand trap to stay away from there. Also I got my phone with GPS on during the round so that helps me big time. Like I went to a course with my friend that I have never played before and check it on the map and seen it was covered in trees. If I wouldn't have done that I probably wouldn't have had enough balls that day.
Tadashi70 said:
How often does pre course scouting help you? Do write all this info down or store it in your mental Rolodex? Are you getting specific yardage?

I've just never found online scouting to work.
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I think it takes me playing a course twice before I am comfortable. Generally with the course map and GPS/Rangefinder, I can be comfortable the first time through. However it is the little nuances like the shape of the greens, designs of the course that you pick up during the round that are invaluable.
 
I usually play much better if I know the course I'm playing. That's the main reason if I'm playing a tournament at a course I'm not familiar with, I'll go play it at least once but preferably several times before. There's a few courses that I can just tee it up and play well on, but they are very few.
 
With my gps is makes playing a new course much more friendly. My game travels well but being able to look down and get a layout of the hole and distances really helps. It's less of a factor now when playing tee to green but when it comes to being on the green and putting. Knowledge of the greens can save you a few strokes a round.
 
Another thing that I think helps me is just visualization. I've hit almost every shot (roughly, not literally) that I will be faced with on the course I play most often, so there is a lot more confidence there. I can't tell you how many times I've hit the exact same shot off the tee on number 1. Ball flight is the same, shot shape, and where it ends up. I just see that shot happening every time I get to the tee and it's easier to pull off I guess. There's a big bunker and OB left, but I just don't think about them any more.

Stepping on the first tee at the Clive course I saw all the trees lining the left side and really just thought about how I wanted to avoid them. I know you're not supposed to do that, but that's easier said than done.
 
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