Check Pin Placements While You Play

I went to The Golf Club at Star Fort in Ninety Six, SC to visit my friend and club fitter/builder PGA Professional Billy Delk. Billy is my '€œnear home'€ upstate South Carolina club fitter (72 miles away). When I'€™m in the Beaufort/Hilton Head area, doing PPGS video taping and other things at our office/studio there and I need club fitting or repair, building or advice, I see my Lowcountry friend and club guy, Chip Usher of Usher Golf in Savannah. I wanted Billy to check out the shafts on some of my older, smaller headed drivers. I was pretty sure they were not correct for me any more.

I also had another reason to visit. Harold, a member at The Golf Club, is one of my long time students. He was one of the first to take a lesson from me when I first moved to Inman, SC in the mid 90s. When I go to Star Fort to see Billy, I always call Harold and if we both have time, we usually play 9 holes and get Billy to play if he is also free. Billy is a good player and has a connection with my son, DJ. Billy played on the Clemson golf team in the late 40s, back when Clemson was a military school.

After finishing the club checking and Harold and I were getting ready to go play, he asked me for a favor. He went to his car and pulled out a rolled up poster that was around four feet wide. When he unrolled it, it was a little longer than 6 feet 3 inches. I know that for certain as he had a life size picture poster of DJ that Belk uses in its department stores, advertising the company'€™s Belk Pro Tour line of clothes that DJ endorses. Somehow Harold got one, as I could plainly see, and he asked me if I could get DJ to autograph it. That poster will surely go down as the biggest autographed '€œphoto'€ DJ has ever signed.

Harold and I teed off on number 1, up and down. When we arrived and walked up on the second tee, Harold pointed to a green off to the right and said that was the 3rd green and the pin was back right. He mentioned that when it is back right you shouldn'€™t miss right as the green runs off sharply and you will end up off the green in deep rough. He then pointed farther right and pointed out the pin locations of 3 more holes on the front nine, all easily visible from the 2nd tee. With that I turned to the left and could see the greens and pin locations of 2 more holes on the back side. I finally said this was really good. From this tee we could check and see for future reference the pin locations on 1/3 of the course from this one spot.

Harold then dropped some wonderful words of wisdom. He said, '€œYou can'€™t believe how many golfers stand on this tee and never even look at and check the pin on #3, the closest green, never mind any of the others you can see from here. It is crazy to not take a look and see where the pin is on the green.'€ He is 100% plus correct. Knowing the pin placement can affect how you play the hole, like trying to stay down the right side for a better angle to a left flag location. Star Fort uses 3 different color flags to define front, middle and back locations, but that does not reveal where the flag may be more right or left or center on greens. You can'€™t see the surface. Seeing the pin lets you know exactly where it is and that is good/great information for playing '€œsmart'€ golf, especially if you are playing on a strange course. Even if you have GPS and laser range finders and pin placement sheets, seeing the actual pin on the green as you walk or ride by, makes all the info from those sources more relevant and clear and vivid in your mind when you get to that hole.

Harold'€™s words of wisdom were a great tip for playing smart golf. Follow his lead and check out the actual placement when you play your round.

The Surge!