Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

One of the forum members, in response to my earlier "Hitting Over water" thread at Silent Monk, commented that this was a known issue and to allow 2 extra clubs under these circumstances. The last few days I've been alternating between the original 33 courses and some of the designer courses I have recently downloaded. It appears to me now, that the noted adjustment is not required for the original courses. However, when playing Canaveral Dunes yesterday I did find out the hard way that I needed to apply that same adjustment in instances where I was hitting over brush filled waste areas that crossed faiways and any large bunkers or sandy waste areas around the green. Has this been noted in the past also?
Cheers, Dave

Dave! I forget sometimes myself thar yardage distance shown for a club includes ROLL. Thats the main reason you need to go 1 or 2 clubs more to clear water, brush or whatever in the air.

This has been a subject for debate for the past decade+ the game has been around, but I think Steve has put his finger on it. I don't know how to build textures, but I do understand that the library creator is the person who sets the various qualities as speed, thickness of rough, etc. Between playing and designing I can recognize a number of textures by sight. If I don't know it, my first couple of shots are usually "testers" and I try to use enough club to get it onto the green even if (on water hazards) it means overshooting.

The bottom line is that there's no way a libe creator can affect the "quality of the air." It's no denser (or thinner) on a Florida or tropical course than on a high mountain course, although some times it sure seems that way. The quality of rough (short, normal, long) and speed of texture (wet ->VD) do, and of course windspeed and direction. Now the variability of wind strength is what often befuddles me as sometimes it seems like a 5 MPH wind will affect the ball as much or more than a 15 MPH wind, which sometimes seems to have no affect at all and always makes me wonder if trees block it or what. Weird game, but IMO that's what keeps it from ever becoming monotonous.

After extensive research on this subject and after many hours of quiet reflection, I have concluded that I don't have a frigging clue what makes it seem like the air is heavier over water.

It is clear that designers do not have the ability to set an "air texture" to heavy, medium, light, etc. So maybe the answer is the way we golfers approach the shot. subconsciounsly, we feel we have to hit the ball a little harder to compensate (we don't). This might lead to a slight overswing, which is known to cost you yardage.

As Indy says, this subject has been debated for as long as the game has been around, with no conclusion.

Dar

I think this reflects real golf for us who play.
We could stand all day and hit 8 irons to a green over land, put a bit of water in-front of us and we just have to dump the ball in there.
Or maybe there is some yet to be discovered law of physics that decrees that balata is unerringly attracted to H2O,
You can't argue with the laws of the universe!

In my teens when I was first learning this game ( thank you Dad! ) our local course at the time (Lake of the Woods, Mahomet, IL) has a par 4 8th of about 330 that's fronted by water. I'd use a 3W to tee with and would invariably slice it into the pond a couple of times before carrying it over to the other side and dropping. Dad watched me and got tired of hearing my whine about not being able to carry it. So one day after my usual performance he dropped a ball on the ground (a good one!) and said "get your 7-iron."

Dad was a single-digit handicap in those days and I knew he could carry it, and I was thinking he was going to show me how to do "one more time" -again when he shocked me by saying "just look at the other side and make a nice easy swing. Make the other shore." So I made a couple of practice swings and he said, "easy, easy." A couple of easy swings then he said "okay, just like that."

I cleared the water by a good 30 yards and something miraculous happened right before my eyes: The ocean-size lake became a pond! I mean it literally shrunk to insignificance. I teed up another ball, used my 3W and whacked it about 150 yards up the fairway (a very good shot for me then.)

Just this second played Bay Hill - Palmer Course, and shot 80.
Checked my scores and realised I have never broken 80 there. this from a man with 59 career tour wins and 4 majors!
Must be 'heavy air!'

Polslad wrote:I think this reflects real golf for us who play.
We could stand all day and hit 8 irons to a green over land, put a bit of water in-front of us and we just have to dump the ball in there.
Or maybe there is some yet to be discovered law of physics that decrees that balata is unerringly attracted to H2O,
You can't argue with the laws of the universe!

Exactly Pols,
I gotta go with Mulligans Laws on this one, which states:
"When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls."

There you have it.

Dar