I'm sure most of you are familiar with this chart for calculating the Foliage Factor (FF) for a course
Foliage Range
Pinball 218 234
Tighter 235 251
Corridor 252 264
Woodsy 265 277
Average 278 292
Stands 293 307
Scattered 308 324
Isolated 325 354
None 355 385
Distance/FF + 30 = estimated SSA
Using the SSA of two sanctioned events held at this course (same layout both years) I came up with Foliage Factors of 245 and 257 using
Distance/(Actual SSA-30)=FF
Neither day was especially windy or had any rain, so it surprised me that the FF came out in the tighter/corridor range. I consider the course to be moderately to lightly wooded. Also, even though there is a variety of uphills and downhills, the net elevation of the layout comes out to be -15' over 18 holes, so there isn't just a bunch of uphill slogs that would affect the numbers.
A winter league event was held here this past weekend. I did an armchair calculation of the SSA from the rated players and came up with an SSA of around 57.3 for a 6400' layout. A 235-ish FF
Maybe the cold weather contributed 1-2 strokes, but even taking that into account it still comes out to be in the 250's. For this style of course I'm quite surprised.
There's OB on a few holes but only 1 or 2 OBs really come into play for most players. A few of the holes have tight gaps early or late but nothing that I consider unreasonable. Further investigation is needed :\
Back to the point... what's the FF at your course? And what are the contributing factors?
Foliage Range
Pinball 218 234
Tighter 235 251
Corridor 252 264
Woodsy 265 277
Average 278 292
Stands 293 307
Scattered 308 324
Isolated 325 354
None 355 385
Distance/FF + 30 = estimated SSA
Using the SSA of two sanctioned events held at this course (same layout both years) I came up with Foliage Factors of 245 and 257 using
Distance/(Actual SSA-30)=FF
Neither day was especially windy or had any rain, so it surprised me that the FF came out in the tighter/corridor range. I consider the course to be moderately to lightly wooded. Also, even though there is a variety of uphills and downhills, the net elevation of the layout comes out to be -15' over 18 holes, so there isn't just a bunch of uphill slogs that would affect the numbers.
A winter league event was held here this past weekend. I did an armchair calculation of the SSA from the rated players and came up with an SSA of around 57.3 for a 6400' layout. A 235-ish FF
Maybe the cold weather contributed 1-2 strokes, but even taking that into account it still comes out to be in the 250's. For this style of course I'm quite surprised.
There's OB on a few holes but only 1 or 2 OBs really come into play for most players. A few of the holes have tight gaps early or late but nothing that I consider unreasonable. Further investigation is needed :\
Back to the point... what's the FF at your course? And what are the contributing factors?