Last weekend I unintentionally agreed to a masochistic golf endeavor. Chad Feldheimer was feeling very good about his golf game and he wanted to conquer The Karsten Golf Course at Arizona State University, the home of the storied ASU golf program. Instead of working, he studied the course layout and mapped out his strategy for shooting par. We also talked the Gardener into playing. Karsten, from the professional tees, is a bear! On the scorecard, the course is 7,002 yards long but plays to a par-70 with only two par-5 holes! The number 1 handicap hole is a 493-yard par 4 and the number 2 handicap hole is a 498-yard par 4. There are three other par-4s over 450 yards. The course rating from the professional tees is 73.8 and the slope rating is 131.
The front 9 is a par-34 with no par-5 holes and is only 3,251 yards. Pete Dye moved a lot of dirt to design this course on a flat, ugly piece of land. If you miss the fairway on your drive, you can generally find your ball but it may have rolled over a small hillock and you oftentimes cannot see the flagstick so you are hitting into a blind green. Theoretically, it should not make any difference if you know the distance to the flagstick and the location of the flagstick, but psychologically not being able to see the flagstick throws you off-stride and affects your perception and your swing. Also, the lack of any par-5 holes takes some of the fun out of the game. The mid-handicapper can usually hit the green in 3 strokes on a par-5 and may even have a reasonable opportunity for birdie and at least have a good chance for a par. Seven par-4 holes become boring. I know this sounds like sour grapes and it is! I shot bogey golf on the front 9 for a 43.
The last time Chad Feldheimer and I played Karsten we had the good sense to play the back 9 from the champion tees, which are 3,395 yards. Not this time. The back 9 at Karsten is like a death march. It is a par-36, 3,751 yards, but at least there are two par-5 holes. There are 3 par-4 holes over 450 yards and a 248 yard par-3. It is brutal. I shot a 48 on the back 9 for a 91 total. Chad Feldheimer shot a 79 and the Gardener shot a 90. I played the seven par-4 and par-5 holes in 6 over par, which was not bad, but I tripled-bogeyed both par-3 holes to ruin my round.
I think it will be quite some time before I go back to Karsten again!
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2 comments:
I read the blog. I am disappointed you didn't mention my five consecutive holes at 1 under. Maybe its because I played the other 13 holes at 21 over.
The Gardener
Have you considered playing golf from the right tees, that's why they exist. You aren't good enough to be playing from championship tees. Try playing from short tees some time and you might find out it is fun to have a chance to score well, even if you don't feel "manly" about avoiding 500 yard par 4 holes.
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