Into the Green - How to Pick a Golf Course
The golf course is where it all happens. You have the clubs, the golf balls and all the other required equipment. You even spent time practicing your swing and perfecting your grip. Now it is time to put it all into play by heading to the golf course for a round of golf.
Like everything else in golf, golf courses come in many different styles and designs. Geographic location, design, and landscaping are variables that influence the game on a particular golf course. This is why every round of golf on a different golf course is unique. Golf courses and golf course design are factors of the game you cannot change. However, you can learn to select the right golf course for your specific golfing desires.
The Golf Course Blueprint
There is a basic golf course design that all golf courses share. Every golf course is comprised of a series of holes, each of which have a teeing area, fairway, hazards and roughs. At the end of every hole is a green that plays host to a pin and a cup. From this basic golf course design, however, anything can happen.
Golf course design is actually a subspecialty of landscaping. Highly trained individuals design golf courses. Golf course design experts and the golf courses they design can take on the aura of celebrity. For example, golf courses designed by world-renowned golf course design architect, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., are highly regarded as the crème de la crème of the golf courses.
Golf course design combines both esthetics and challenge. Golf courses are actually parks because they cover a significant outdoor area. As such, the landscape design captures the area’s natural landmarks. For example, a golf course located in the desert focuses on the desert while a coastal golf course will bring in aspects of the sea.
A good golf course design creates a challenging and unique game of golf. To do this, golf courses will have strategically placed hazards, such as sand traps, ponds and trees, along with such landscaping techniques as elevation alteration and other manipulations of the land.
Finding the Right Golf Course for You
Finding the right golf course comes down to an evaluation of your skill level set against the overall difficulty of the golf course. Although most golf courses have various levels of difficulty, there are ways to determine how difficult a golf course is as a whole.
For example, start by checking the golf course rating. If a golf course rating is below par, then the skill level of that golf course is easier. You can also judge the difficulty of a golf course by viewing the slope. Anything over a 113 will be increasingly more difficult. Other things to consider are the golf course total yardage and the general layout of the golf course.
It is very important to select a golf course that is a good fit for your playing style and level.
