Colonial

[dko]

Probably not on the top of many priority lists, but I love this course, and was wondering if the Links greens are a close proximity to the real ones. They are very difficult to me at M/F(C), and I was wondering if it is just because I suck at putting or if they are in reality somewhat less intimidating?

[Adelade]

That depends on which version of Colonial you played, the course made for Links has a long history of several versions. The course was originally made by Eric Dorsey with a real-life 2' contour map, which is great for making overall elevations rather accurate. However, greenslopes in terms of putting are extremely sensitive things which require much higher accuracy than that in order to become accurate. From what I remember reading, Dorsey had great access to visiting the course in person, and therefore instead based the original greenslopes mostly on his own real-life experience with them. For the 2007 update, we can read that he softened the greenslopes. I believe this was because people gave feedback of them being unsuitable for the more realistic challenging conditions. In 2020, Eric Dorsey and Dan DeShaney together made a new update, wherein the greens of three specific holes (2, 9 and 11) were remade according to what I believe was up-to-date 1-inch green charts. In other words, those three greens are very accurate if you play the 2020 version, it is more difficult to tell with the other 15 greens (which remain as they were in the 2007 version). Some of them are indeed very severely sloping in many places, and when looking at the pins #0-3 in the 2020 version (which were based on real-life tournament pin placements from 2018) I personally find it hard to believe the greens are that difficult in real life. At least the other pins (#4-17) in the 2020 version are placed away from the steepest slopes, but it can still be a good idea to handpick specific custom pins for this course. One thing worth noting is of course that some greens might have been changed in real-life since 2004.

Personally I agree that it is a course to love. The layout has grown on me more and more since the 2020 update, it is a wonderfully challenging course to play

[dko]

Thank you for the helpful response Adelade. I'm using the 2020 version, and it looks like I will have to get a new prescription for my green-reading glasses.

[MrT]

Overall Colonial is a tough course for me. I also play it in M/Fc and Windy or Gusty and Champ settings. I play the 2020 version that Adelade described. It is definitely not in my top 10 or top 20 courses in terms of enjoyment, but I still play it every now and then nevertheless. At M/Mc is definitely easier and tend to score around Even. But I have hardly played at M/Mc for the last 8-9 months.

Perhaps the greens have bit much slant, but that is not what makes putting at Colonials hard. Not for me at least. What has caused me trouble can be attributed to two things:

1) most pin placements are downhill, slanted or both with nothing flat around the hole, so that if the ball does not get in, it is almost guaranteed, at the M/Fc setting, to end up a bit far from the hole. I play mostly in difficult settings, but I have realized that Easy/Medium/Difficult are often just names and nothing else. So I even stopped to pay attention to the pin difficulty settings because to me it means almost nothing for practical purposes. Some holes are just hard because we play fast, if we played at M/M where balls stop like on molasses, there would be hardly any issue, except that now you need a driver to putt.

2) Balls do not go in if they are even a tad faster than they should be according to the designers and roll around and come out, or just hit the lip and bounce back. This is the only course or one of the very few where it happens to me. I am usually a pretty good putter in Links (and in real life) with games around 24/25 putts.

What is hard for me at Colonials is that in RTS I struggle to find ways to fade balls around trees. There seems to be plenty of trees coming in my way every time I play there.

I do not think I will ever love this course or that I will ever be very good on it. Cannot win them all!

[Adelade]

Balls do not go in if they are even a tad faster than they should be according to the designers

What do you mean by 'according to the designers'?

(I have not experienced what you mention by the way, for me hole cups behave the same way on Colonial 2020 as they do on any other course.)

[MrT]

Balls do not go in if they are even a tad faster than they should be according to the designers

What do you mean by 'according to the designers'?

(I have not experienced what you mention by the way, for me hole cups behave the same way on Colonial 2020 as they do on any other course.)

Not for me... Every time I play Colonial, balls tend to bounce back from the hole. It happens very seldom to me on nearly every course, and there I pretty much know it is going to happen because I can see the speed of my ball as being excessive. On Colonial it can happen even 3-4 times in a single game and I am not certainly hitting too hard. The same type of putts on other courses send the balls in. Or I have to hit much harder than on Colonials to get the same outcome. That is part of the reason Colonial is not on my top to do list.