This discussion group is best enjoyed using Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
Recent Posts
Eight of us arrive on the Tuesday after the Crump Cup for three days to celebrate my 60th.
), be aware that in Germany a golfer needs to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency to obtain a license to play a golf course.Many happy rounds here in my youth whilst on holiday, before the architecture bug struck. I do recall some wonderful views in good weather and always enjoyed the "hike" element. The greens were tiny & a real defence, looks like that hasn't changed - good to see!
In your hometown of San Francisco, is there support for additional facilities like you describe?
Matt,
Not to hijack the thread, but I’m trying to understand why you appear to criticize the “practice-first-and-play-later” paradigm.
At Blackwolf Run I was once fixed up to play with a couple that had never played golf before. When I asked them why they decided to play Blackwolf Run, they answered by saying “they heard it was a good course”.
Playing with them was torture. Don’t know how I made it two holes, before politely telling them I was going on by myself, but I couldn’t help all the groups behind them.
I have written about this at length here: https://golfcoursewiki.substack.com/p/golf-for-non-golfers-getting-from
I criticize the practice-first-play-later paradigm exactly because we don't provide beginner facilities for playing golf... only for practicing golf. Most people want to learn by doing, in refusing to provide any beginner facilities we get a world where, as in your example, beginners trying to have fun are going to ruin everyone's day.
I fully recognize most people don't actually care about getting others into golf, but providing architecturally interesting putting and chipping courses would do a lot to help the game in the greater cultural space. So many people in America hate golf because it' so deeply difficult to understand the nuance. That's so difficult because we literally ask people to go to a range for months and months before showing them how fun it is to use the land to make a ball go where you want it to.
If we provide a series of facilities that get people addicted to golf, we have more people playing, and we have the opportunity to build more and better facilities for everyone.