Links Corner Forum

Gentlemen,
When I started building courses I always had comments regarding badly located pins. Luckily for me I had Pete(pmgolf) and Adelade to help me understand what I was doing wrong.

Based on the words of wisdom from them, I went through the pins on Aronimink, here are the results: I must add that I have not tested each one in play except for pin 0 on hole 13 where I had the ball return to my feet 6 times even though I hit the ball to within inches of the hole.

Good luck to all who tee-up.

Ian

Ian Wells wrote: ↑May 13th, 2026, 6:44 am Gentlemen,
When I started building courses I always had comments regarding badly located pins. Luckily for me I had Pete(pmgolf) and Adelade to help me understand what I was doing wrong.

Based on the words of wisdom from them, I went through the pins on Aronimink, here are the results:
unplayable .jpg

I must add that I have not tested each one in play except for pin 0 on hole 13 where I had the ball return to my feet 6 times even though I hit the ball to within inches of the hole.

Good luck to all who tee-up.

Ian

This is the unfortunate thing about Links is that, as a golfer, I have no control over this. We can ID it. We can not like it. I can complain about it. But I can not change it. I can deal with it, try and make the best of it or not play it at all. I'll choose to stay on the positive side of this and make the best of the situation. Maybe I need to be more creative but stay in the light. Don't succumb to darkness.
Don't forget, this is the designer that created our Open course this year
Birkdale Simplified by John Brooks
https://linkscorner.org/courses/course.php?crz=2306

Pre-Tournament_Notes

FYI - Such as The Masters, the PGA of America controls the pin sheets, when and where they are released. I will post the pin placements ASAP but they may not be tonight. If it gets too late, I'll do them first thing in the morning

While many of the more recent designs may be based on a DEM that gives accurate greens, not all courses are using these and many may not also use the tools that in the past have given fairly accurate greens. Some designers have also basically tricked up their courses to make them more challenging using the standard Links settings (pre 1.06).

When faced with such courses the use of Challenging settings, especially the faster/harder settings may not be possible or fair, in which case the only viable solution may be to dial back the settings used to make the greens playable in Links. Trying to match Stimp meter settings in Links may simply not be workable with such courses.

As far as I am aware there is no definitive list of which courses play well with challenging settings and which do not, and if they do what is the upper limit for courses that may not have been designed to work with these settings.

My 2 cents worth.

Des

Just got the pin sheet. Let me get you those numbers.See you in an hour 1730 PT

PGA Championship - 1st Rd - Pin Position

Thomas,

I'll choose to stay on the positive side of this and make the best of the situation.

I'll drink to that.(Even you can't make a silk purse from a pigs ears.)

Ian

Round 1 completed, a 73 here.

My personal opinion is that the line was crossed in the setup of this course. The green contours and slopes do not support the conditions.

I note that Linkster has said he will have a basic DEM version of the course available by the weekend. It will be interesting to see how this plays.

My apologies to the greenkeeper for using my wedge on two greens.

The round was not as bad as I envisaged, out in 36, home in 34 for a 70. (92% drives in fairway helped, with some scarey putts dropping .)

Ian