What's bad (or good) about quirk?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

This morning I met, quite by accident, an old golfing acquaintance.  He was a good player in his day, of county standard and on the fringes of the English side.  He played much of his county golf on courses such as Prestbury, Sandiway and Delamere Forest (Colt, Ray/Colt and Fowler respectively).  During the course of our conversation he said that in his view playing on courses of that kind hindered the development of good young golfers and brought too much luck into the outcome of matches.  He said that when they trained abroad in Spain or Portugal on contemporary courses their play improved immeasurably.  However, the old buffers who ran county golf insisted on playing their matches on these 'quirky' courses to the detriment of the best young players.  He pointed out that in his day some neighbouring counties (notably Shropshire and Staffordshire) had no good contemporary courses and that they hated playing away matches against them.  He also pointed out that the Donalds and Dougherties got away from quirky courses young enough to develop into better players.  What do you think?

[George Pazin]

I'd say the recent experiences in the Ryder Cup imply quite the opposite.

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I love quirk, warts and all.

My own guess is that the cream rises regardless. I think the evidence your friend cites is largely anecdotal and thus probably coincidental. It just seems to me playing a course with some quirk is much more likely to develop mental toughness than playing the wonderfully fair, equitable courses that lack quirk.

Hope you and your loved ones are all safe, Mark.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Mark
I think there is a certain degree of merit to what you are saying.
I remember playing the amatuer circuit at home and you would play what some consider "quirky" courses during the course of the season.
However there were always the likes of Lytham, Berkshire, the host of the Brabazon that year, the Lagonda to put a nice well rounded approach the the tournament season.

Now compare that to the courses that most of the Us kids play and they do not on a regular basis get the same well rounded exposure...hence the Ryder Cup performances discussed.

I think exposure to the quirkey courses is great on a limited basis...heck to some of the young kids nowadays, Merion is considered quirky ...that's a scary thought..Merion quirky

[Paul_Turner]

Mark

I don't think it's quirk, more likely just short vs long.  Sandiway, Prestbury and Delamere must all be around 6500 yds?  Whereas the modern courses wold be 7000 yds +.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Clearly length is an issue, but when this guy was playing it was the 80s/early 90s when few courses were of the 7,000 yard variety.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Bill - you have it so lucky over there!  I'd think the sort of courses our tour players appear on as being well-nigh perfect compared to what I (occasionally these days) play.  

Interestingly, I played Wilmslow earlier in the week with my son who has just returned from three months in the States, during which he played some very well-maintained courses (Kinloch and Congressional, for instance).  I got him to point out the differences between them and Wilmslow (normaly one of the best conditioned courses in our area).  He was pointing to dozens of things that I would normally never notice - minor blemishes which don't enter into normal play.  But the real horror of it was that he beat me 9 and 7.  What a thrashing!

[tonyt]

he said that in his view playing on courses of that kind hindered the development of good young golfers and brought too much luck into the outcome of matches.  He said that when they trained abroad in Spain or Portugal on contemporary courses their play improved immeasurably.

Maybe improved their ability to stand still and hit balls, probably to a level better than they had.

But not improved their ability to actually play golf.

Like the player who is displeased when a "great drive" runs into trouble. He doesn't need to go somewhere where his "great drive" stays on the fairway. He needs to learn that his shot on the former wasn't good after all, and learn how to hit a good shot on it.

In essence, I see his views on the quirk as being no different to an argument in favour of heavy watering. Predictability, and seeing a landing spot rather than seeing a final spot and working out where to land it to get it there!