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AFSD - how to determine the real length of a golf course
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Average Fairway Stroke Distance (AFSD)©
(The answer may surprise you.)
As you know, if you've read many of my reviews,
I don't like to use total distance as a measure
of a golf course's difficulty. First of all,
just because a course is long doesn't mean
it's a good play. With many courses, distance
is the only challenge. It can be the ultimate golf architect's
cop-out. But more than that, total distance
doesn't give you enough information. I would
rather use Average Fairway Stroke Distance
(AFSD), a formula I came up with that gives
you the real distance.
Here's how AFSD works: every course has a
par but in calculating every par on every
golf course, fully 36 strokes are reserved
for play on the green. In other words, you
are allowed two putts per green. All courses
calculate par the same way: two putts per
green. Obviously, on an 18 hole course, if
you deduct the allowed number of putts (36)
from the par you will be left with the number
of strokes allowed to get to the green, i.e.
from the tees and fairways. So on a par 3
you are expected to get on the green in 1
stroke. On a par 4 it's 2 strokes. And a
par 5 allows you 3 strokes to reach the green.
Okay, so far so good.
It seems to me that to more fairly judge
the length of a course, you should take into
consideration not only the distance from
tee to green but the number of strokes needed
to negotiate that distance (in other words,
par minus putts).
This will help clear it up. Let's take the
great Royal St. George golf course in Sandwich,
England, home of the 2003 Open Championship.
Before the changes made in preparation for
the Open Championship, it played to 6,560
with a par of 70. Given that 36 shots on
this and every course is for putting, which
leaves 34 shots that you are allowed to negotiate
the 6,560 yards from tee to green (par 70
- 36 putts = 34). Divide 34 into 6,560 and
you need to average 193 yards for every stroke
on the fairway. Now obviously there are par
3s that don't call for this distance but,
on average, your tee shots and fairway need
to average 193 yards. I call this figure
the Average Fairway Stroke Distance or AFSD.
Let's compare this AFSD to Craigielaw, a
newer course in East Lothian (near Edinburgh)
and one of my favorites. Par is 71 and the
distance off the medal tees is 6,601 yards.
Deducting 36 putts from par we are left with
35 strokes. Divide this into 6,601 yards
and the AFSD is 189.
What about the venerable Old Course at St.
Andrews? Measuring 6,566 yards from the medal
tees it plays to a par 72. If we divide 6,566
yards by 36 we get an AFSD of 182 yards.
Again, that means that you must average 182
yards distance on every fairway stroke. Note
that that's 11 yards per stroke less than
Royal St. George or about one club less per
shot.
And what about "The Monster"--Carnoustie?
At 6,692 yards off the tees normally played
and with a par of 72 this course has an AFSD
of 186 yards, only 4 yards per fairway shot
longer than Old Course at St. Andrews. THE
GLEN GOLF CLUB, another in East Lothian,
may seem short at only 6,243 yards yet it
has a par of 70 and so has an AFSD of 184.
What's so short about that? It's actually
2 yards longer than The Old Course at St.
Andrews and only 2 yards shorter than Carnoustie!
AFSD - a useful tool to determine the real distance of a course.
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