It’s not great if you have to fondle your balls too often

First topic message reminder :

I have a theory that the length of time and frequency with which your ball spends in your hand is marker of how well designed the course you are playing is.

The first point is the length of time your ball is in your hand/pocket. This will be determined by the time it takes from the point you pick your ball out the hole to the point you tee it up on the next hole. You may touch the ball during a hole, but this time is short in comparison and will be covered by the frequency of which you touch the ball.

The main factor that will determine how long the ball is in your hand between holes is the distance between green and the next tee. I well routed course will not require long walks or even worse carts between holes as the architect will have been able to find a combination of holes such that inter hole walks are minimized. This in turn ensures a good flow and rhythm to any round played on the course and may also contribute to quicker rounds. A course is not just the best 18 holes on the site but rather the combination which maximises 18 holes as one entity.

The frequency of which you touch the ball is a marker of good architecture because you should almost always be able to play the ball as it lies. If long rough and large areas of other foliage are persistently too close to the playing corridors then the number of lost balls will increase. This not only stops players playing the ball as it lies, the most fundamental principle of the game, it contributes to slow play and reduced enjoyment for playing the game.

This is not just an initial design principle but also a philosophy in the continued maintenance of the course. Temptations such as letting rough encroach fairways so that balls are lost and fairway bunkers become bunkers in the rough must be avoided.

Other hazards such as water will also mean there is more chance that players have to place their hand on the ball should they have to take a drop. This does not mean water cannot be used but a safe option should be provided so that anyone not comfortable with the carry does not have to take it on.

The player is not really meant to touch the ball so it seems intuitive that this theory should be correct and that following it would result in more enjoyable and quicker rounds.

Mav, I think Mac is just jealous. I get to play it whenever I want for nothing, but can take it or leave it. Whereas he loves it more than he loves his imaginary girlfriend yet has to pay £150 to play it.

Sand, based on your experiences it's not a surprise that TOC has produced some really boring Open's whereas Carnoustie has produced some excellent ones. If any course deserves THe Open more often it's Carnoustie, and less frequently then it's St.Andrews.

Mav

Making comments like that about Augusta confirms your status as the boards resident Philistine.


Super

Even if my girlfriend was imaginary it would still seem to be one better than you can manage.



Does anyone else think this thread has degenerated into a late 90's yahoo chat room? The sad thing is it feels ok that it has, this is what the interest was really meant to be about. Well that and cats and porn.

Mac, if your girlfriend was real, why would you be here on a Friday night at 22:30?

McLaren: To start, a compliment. I think by far you are the most interesting guy on this forum.

I was thinking just the other day over a coffee and five minutes over the forum whilst at work what exactly you are like in real life.

You know the Scottish guy, the "visit Scotland' guy, the "BBC Coast Guy" Neil Oliver? Well you would look nothing like him; apart from I would suggest you have a similar voice and the same Gore-Tex skin, you know, you like your walking round coastal paths an' that, just think if I cut you in the middle you would be both 100% impermeable and needless to say breathable.

Now, you could take me to look at some must-see-before-they-are-gone-by-trump dune formations back to my homeland, round the places I know so well but it would go something like this; I would stand in a mound of ram cack and before I could wipe it off me Brashers with a wet one you would have a stick in the cack, verifying if it was indeed indigenous poop.

You probably like going to a restaurant with 100% local fare, and I would bet my last 3 quid you have Quorn mince in your fridge or at least something by Linda McCartney, the least talented of the Beatles in my humble opinion.

You are a controversial but well liked member of the forum, don't let anyone tell you differently

Dear oh dear Mac why am I not surprised that instead of being able to simply answer a comment about why a course like ANGChad a resdesign on many holes because the course has no natural defence your resrot to an insult... Point proven there I think....

I would ask one question why bother creating a thread for debate if you can accept the fact others have a different opinion to you

On the topic of why on here on a friday night! My mrs is very real however I'm sat here whilst she is at a baby shower so I have an excuse and a nice bottle of chianti

Tarka

I will not confirm the accuracy of the rest of your musings but I will say this, I bloody hate vegetarianism. Is someone brought corn or tofu within 100 yards of my house they would have to avoid flying chippers.


Super

Mac, if your girlfriend was real, why would you be here on a Friday night at 22:30?

I was thinking the very same.

Tarka, he's easy to spot. He's the one dry humping the 18th fairway with a copy of The Guardian in his back pocket

Mac, the difference is that I don't pretend to have a girlfriend, if by some miraculous happenstance you had one, she would either be out looking for someone else or shaking her head in the corner wondering why she wasn't out looking for someone else, hoping that she wasn't going to get dragged around some god forsaken dune system and lectured about the merits of course design as laid out by the real love of your life. Doak.

Super

It is either the beer or that last comment was genuinely very funny. I had a chuckle what ever the case.


mav

I would leave to hear other peoples opinions on course routing but all you have offered is an attack on TOC. A course which used to routed over 24 interestingly.

super_realist wrote:Tarka, he's easy to spot. He's the one dry humping the 18th fairway with a copy of The Guardian in his back pocket

Mac, the difference is that I don't pretend to have a girlfriend, if by some miraculous happenstance you had one, she would either be out looking for someone else or shaking her head in the corner wondering why she wasn't out looking for someone else, hoping that she wasn't going to get dragged around some god forsaken dune system and lectured about the merits of course design as laid out by the real love of your life. Doak.

Don't you be getting smart Sonny, I haven't started with you yet

Maverick wrote:Dear oh dear Mac why am I not surprised that instead of being able to simply answer a comment about why a course like ANGChad a resdesign on many holes because the course has no natural defence your resrot to an insult... Point proven there I think....

I would ask one question why bother creating a thread for debate if you can accept the fact others have a different opinion to you

On the topic of why on here on a friday night! My mrs is very real however I'm sat here whilst she is at a baby shower so I have an excuse and a nice bottle of chianti

Why omit the fava beans *slurp slurp*

Mac your not interested in any opinion but your own you have displayed that on this thread alone many times...

Tarka I'll pass on the fava beans and move straight onto the single malt oh wait just done that

Just back in after my evening adventures...
Sliced toasted bagel with utterly butterly washed down with a plastic tumbler of flat morrisons bitter lemon, ooh yes my son, you can keep your single malt

How you know a threads run its course! Utterly butterly and morrisons lemonade are mentioned that's how

First club - Blackheath? Nah.

Burgess and HCEG are older, Bruntsfield and St Andrews probably too.

I know Blackheath is an old club, but the course is only late 19th century, when they moved to Eltham.