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Started By
Message
Yardage vs Slope when traveling
Posted on 7/8/25 at 6:32 am
Posted on 7/8/25 at 6:32 am
Buddy and I had this discussion yesterday and am interested in you guy’s thoughts.
Let’s say you normally play a home course at 6200 yds with a 130 slope.
You are doing a golf trip but the courses have a slope rating of around 140+ at 6300 yds.
Do you play 6300 w/ 140+ slopes or do you drop to around 5850 and play a 125 slope rating?
As additional information, at 5850 the courses still have par 5s at 500yds, some par 4s at 400, but the par 3s are all shorter (<150 yds) and one or two short par 4s (290-310 range)
My advice was shorten the course and enjoy your trip. What say you?
Let’s say you normally play a home course at 6200 yds with a 130 slope.
You are doing a golf trip but the courses have a slope rating of around 140+ at 6300 yds.
Do you play 6300 w/ 140+ slopes or do you drop to around 5850 and play a 125 slope rating?
As additional information, at 5850 the courses still have par 5s at 500yds, some par 4s at 400, but the par 3s are all shorter (<150 yds) and one or two short par 4s (290-310 range)
My advice was shorten the course and enjoy your trip. What say you?
6
Posted on 7/8/25 at 6:39 am to Barrister
This will depend on a few factors:
1) Why are you there? Vacation or guys trip? I don’t mind playing a harder course with my buddies to test ourselves.
2) Course design. I don’t want to shorten the course so much so that I’m stuck taking less than driver for a lot of the day. I paid $600 for the damn thing. I want to hit it.
3) Par 3 length. I don’t want to hit 4i or hybrid into all of them. I don’t mind moving up.
4) Ask locals or message boards. Slopes and ratings aren’t always the only information available.
5) Green sizes and slope- It’s a bitch to hit long irons into tiny turtle back greens.
1) Why are you there? Vacation or guys trip? I don’t mind playing a harder course with my buddies to test ourselves.
2) Course design. I don’t want to shorten the course so much so that I’m stuck taking less than driver for a lot of the day. I paid $600 for the damn thing. I want to hit it.
3) Par 3 length. I don’t want to hit 4i or hybrid into all of them. I don’t mind moving up.
4) Ask locals or message boards. Slopes and ratings aren’t always the only information available.
5) Green sizes and slope- It’s a bitch to hit long irons into tiny turtle back greens.
This post was edited on 7/8/25 at 6:40 am
Posted on 7/8/25 at 9:00 am to Barrister
I am the only one in our golf group that even understands slope, rating, etc. I'm the guy that sets up the games and tells everyone what we are doing prior to the round. So, we usually just go by the yardage when we travel. This isn't going to help you with your question, but I imagine a lot of people on this board are the golf IQ guy of their group.
This post was edited on 7/8/25 at 9:01 am
Posted on 7/8/25 at 9:35 am to Barrister
We played Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Myrtle Beach earlier this year and the rating was 71.4/144 at 6317 from the back and one tee up was 69.3/140 from 5931. The course we play at home the most is 6200 69.2/110 and we decided to play the shorter of the two because of the rating was difficult. There were 5 par 3's 165,133, 99, 153 and 154. The rest of the holes were over 320, only 1 par 4 over 400, 3 par 5's with only 1 being under 500 so we could hit driver off of every hole, I did anyway, I average about 260 total off the tee. The length of the course isn't what made the course hard it was the green complexes and the fact that there were a lot of hazards left and right. Massive sand bunkers and waste areas and water on almost every hole, it was awesome. Even though the course was shorter, you still had to avoid the hazards and hit the shots, and we had a blast, shot 79. It was my favorite course and the shortest we played. I'd say unless everyone hits it over 300, I'm sure they all do, this is the Golf Board on Tigerdroppings, play the shorter tees and have fun.
Played TPC Myrtle Beach at 6150 70.9/143 and that thing kicked my butt shot 92, very tight fairways, a lot of water and sand right around the greens and every hole was treelined on both sides and I couldn't hit a fairway to save my life that day.
Played TPC Myrtle Beach at 6150 70.9/143 and that thing kicked my butt shot 92, very tight fairways, a lot of water and sand right around the greens and every hole was treelined on both sides and I couldn't hit a fairway to save my life that day.
Posted on 7/8/25 at 9:52 am to dek81572
quote:
Caledonia Golf and Fish Club
Course is so good
This post was edited on 7/8/25 at 9:52 am
Posted on 7/8/25 at 10:03 am to Dawgsontop34
quote:
quote:
Caledonia Golf and Fish Club
Course is so good
It was my favorite out of the 4 we played, the layout was so unique, I haven't played anything like it. We also played TPC, Kings North (Arnold Palmer) and Barefoot Dye.
Posted on 7/8/25 at 11:21 am to Barrister
I'm in my 60's so the first factor I look at is length of the Par 3's; if they are all long iron or hybrid distance from a set of tees I'll move up 1 tee. Also overall anything over 6400 yds will be tough.
Posted on 7/8/25 at 2:22 pm to Barrister
If I am choosing, I just do the 5i method based off the mean.
Multiply average 5-iron carry distance by 36 and play the tees closest to that.
165carry = 5,940
170 carry = 6120
175 carry = 6300
180 carry = 6,480
If I have others that want to play further back, I'll offer a combo based off of a mid HC and play the ups from everything over the mean HC and the backs from everything under.
If they insist on just playing a back set, I'll do so but ask that we play the next round closer up OR split the group into two tee-times letting those who want to play the back do so.
In general though, the 5i method appears to work pretty well
Multiply average 5-iron carry distance by 36 and play the tees closest to that.
165carry = 5,940
170 carry = 6120
175 carry = 6300
180 carry = 6,480
If I have others that want to play further back, I'll offer a combo based off of a mid HC and play the ups from everything over the mean HC and the backs from everything under.
If they insist on just playing a back set, I'll do so but ask that we play the next round closer up OR split the group into two tee-times letting those who want to play the back do so.
In general though, the 5i method appears to work pretty well
Posted on 7/8/25 at 3:32 pm to Barrister
quote:
shorten the course and enjoy your trip.
If you break par, back up for the replay.
Posted on 7/8/25 at 3:33 pm to LSUfan4444
quote:
In general though, the 5i method appears to work pretty well
Uh, I don’t carry a 5 iron.
Headcovers. Lots of headcovers.
Posted on 7/8/25 at 5:52 pm to CoachChappy
quote:
2) Course design. I don’t want to shorten the course so much so that I’m stuck taking less than driver for a lot of the day. I paid $600 for the damn thing. I want to hit it. 3) Par 3 length. I don’t want to hit 4i or hybrid into all of them. I don’t mind moving up.
This is what I look at when deciding. Some courses will accommodate this thinking by having a hybrid setup to ensure you can hit driver most of the time, and not be playing 180+ yard par threes all day… Ross Bridge comes to mind?
Posted on 7/8/25 at 8:14 pm to LSUfan4444
quote:
Multiply average 5-iron carry distance by 36 and play the tees closest to that. 165carry = 5,940 170 carry = 6120 175 carry = 6300 180 carry = 6,480
I’d be screwed with that method. My 5 goes 205 on average, but I’m a terrible golfer.
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