I recently read a great article on From the Rough, called Knock Strokes Off Your Score Instantly! written by Pete Girotto. Basically, he is saying that pro’s have a huge advantage when they hit a wayward shot because there are crowds of people watching as well as marshals all over the course. It’s a great point, and Pete calls it the PAF (Pro Advantage Factor). He says we should all subtract 2 strokes from our scores to compensate for PAF, but I think it can be taken even further.
How about the consistently poor quality of sand traps on public courses? Even on my trip to Pinehurst #2 in June, I had a lie in a greenside bunker on the 18th hole that might as well have been concrete (and yes, I am that guy who bladed his ball and hit the clubhouse at Pinehurst). On my average weekend course the bunkers are always a crap shoot, with hard lies, standing water, and footprints from assholes who don’t rake when they’re finished. Can you imagine the storm that would be created if tour pros had to hit out of bunkers any less fluffier than fresh snow? I give this another 2 strokes off.
Let’s not forget other factors that can pop up out of nowhere. Aerated greens and tee boxes. Poorly mowed fairways that don’t give you as much roll as a good drive should get. Having to hit pitches out of crab grass and clover patches. Waiting for 5-10 minutes between shots, killing any rhythm you had established in your round. My personal pet peeve: slanted tee boxes that make it impossible to tee off with your feet on level with the ball! I could go on and on. These factors add up to another 3 strokes (and I’m being generous).
I’ve just come up with at least 7 strokes per round that should be subtracted due to PAF, without even putting much thought in to the issue! Who knew…I guess I am a scratch golfer after all.
Please comment with any factors I’ve left out in calculating the PAF!
I read the PAF piece as well .. and now you’ve come up with several more strokes because of the conditions the average golfer must play under. (You left off narrow fairways and small greens). I’ve already dropped 3 points of my handicap index!!
After reading the 2 blogs about PAF…I’m just further convinced about how PAMPERED the pros are! They have their clubs fined tuned to an unknown frequency..their bags are a gift (as well as the clubs)..the get free shoes, balls, hats, pants (Skirts & Shorts for the women), shirts, tees…and who knows what else. They play on perfect fairways, manicured greens, carpet like tees, and well raked and contoured bunkers. Yet they still complain!!! The true game of golf is the one we play .. the play a game with which I am not familiar…….
Good points! I would love for the Tour to make a stop at a Muni course. You know, where there are “roughways” (fairways and rough are part dirt, part green vegetation of some sort and there is no difference between the two) and the greens should be called browns…oh yeah, no gallery or marshall’s either.
That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time. We should petition the PGA to host a tournament at a real muni course (not a high-end muni like Bethpage). That kind of tournament would interest me more than the FedEx Cup!
They did go to a high end muni this weekend at Liberty National.
guys are morons….first of all golf is golf…no matter where it’s played you get good and bad breaks…the paf system is rediculous because it forgets to calculate the good breaks you get too (like hitting a tree and kicking back into play. And they play muni courses all over the place in their tour stops but the tour comes in 6 months in advance to fix it up all the way up to the tournament. And liberty national is not a muni. its $500,000 to join
Thanks for the comment. I’m not really bitching (or saying that I could compete on the PGA tour!). The typical public golf courses I play could be fixed up, but even then they still wouldn’t be tour caliber. If the tour came and fixed up the courses I play, then I’d probably shave 1 or 2 strokes off my score. And I can count on one hand the number of times I hit a tree in a year, and end up with a good break. It is a stupid topic…but fun to think about
In response to quit bitching, dude…it was a joke…but thanks for your opinion.
This reminds me of my dad. He is a scratch golfer and we will start a round and he is playing good and everything is fine, until that first errant tee shot and it sounds like this ” I don’t understand how these architects and super’s expect a man to hit a good drive when the f#&@ing g%&#@%n tee boxes are unlevel”. I am like dude we paid like $33.50 with a cart, what do you expect. Another good one that pisses him off is he will call a course and ask how the course conditions are and of course they are going to tell him the course is in excellent condition. We get to the course and the greens have been aerated, sprinklers are going off everywhere, the fairways haven’t been mowed all week. I just start laughing because I know the first bad shot he hits will be blamed on course conditions and the cussing will commence!
Totally agree. I read an article in the Washington Post where Steve Marino was asked to play a muni. He shot a 68. He basically said that because the conditions were so bad it would be very difficult for him to go really low, because good shots are not always rewarded. He also said that he would never shoot over par, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Whenever I play a tough, but well manicured golf course, I always score really well. I think the conditions have a lot to do with it.
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