A golfer's education

[Tommy Williamsen]

I remember playing golf with a friend of mine several years ago who asked if I had played a particular course.  I hadn't.  He replied, "Your golf education is not complete until you have played it."

I have kept that thought in my head for a long time.  There are some courses that eveyone needs to play to be able to understand golf course architecture more completely.

Just for starters I'd list the following courses in GB&I:
Prestwick, The Old Course, North Berwick, Royal North Devon, Royal Dornoch, Royal County Down, Ballybunion, Sunningdale, and Walton Heath.

[John Kavanaugh]

Tommy,

I have never got this learning thing...What could I learn from playing such courses.  How would it make either me or my life better.

[Tommy Williamsen]

John, I'm not quite ceertain I understand your question. I don't think that playing those courses will make you a better person, but it can help make the player more knowledgable about differing design concepts.  I have friends who have only played a few courses and when I take them to a newer course and they come up with a hole that does not fit in their experience they don't understand it.  For instance the fifth hole at my home course (Four Streams) is a short par four.  It is aabout 320 yards.  The green slopes from front right corner to the back left corner.  About sixty yards in front of the green the land slopes toward  the green.  There is a bunker in front of the green but if you hit a drive long and to the right of the green the ball will run onto the green.  A lay up is  no bargain because a shot into the green tends to role and getting close to the pin is no easy matter.  Par is not so difficult but birdie is harder to make than one would think. To an "untrained" or "unexperienced" eye the hole looks easy.  Playing some of the great old courses helps develop an eye to see certain architecutal elements that you might normally miss.    
 

[Tommy Williamsen]

Sean, I agree about Pennard.  It is a couse unlike any other I have played and Painswick is a course I want to play.

[John Kavanaugh]

John, I'm not quite ceertain I understand your question. I don't think that playing those courses will make you a better person, but it can help make the player more knowledgable about differing design concepts.  I have friends who have only played a few courses and when I take them to a newer course and they come up with a hole that does not fit in their experience they don't understand it.  For instance the fifth hole at my home course (Four Streams) is a short par four.  It is aabout 320 yards.  The green slopes from front right corner to the back left corner.  About sixty yards in front of the green the land slopes toward  the green.  There is a bunker in front of the green but if you hit a drive long and to the right of the green the ball will run onto the green.  A lay up is  no bargain because a shot into the green tends to role and getting close to the pin is no easy matter.  Par is not so difficult but birdie is harder to make than one would think. To an "untrained" or "unexperienced" eye the hole looks easy.  Playing some of the great old courses helps develop an eye to see certain architecutal elements that you might normally miss.    
 

Tommy,

I'm not trying to be a jerk...but you can't be telling me it would make me a better player.  That I can not imagine being a result of seeing more great courses.

[Tommy Williamsen]

John, I din't think you were being a jerk.  I took your comments seriously.  I think for me watching how golf architecture has developed over the years and how newer architects use older design concepts is fun.  In some ways architects have made "second drafts" of older themes. And in many ways it helps me score better on courses that I have not played before.  I can look at a shot and figure out how to play it because I most likely have seen a similar shot before.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Shivas, You are exactly right.  That's why I keep playing courses whenever I can.   There are, I think, some courses that are basic to help us appreciate contemporary design. For instance, a friend of mine hated any shot where he could not see the ball land.  That is until he played some courses in England and Ireland.  All of a sudden he found the fun in them.

I continue to learn something new with almost every course I play.  Mike Strantz for me is one designer who really grew on me.  In some ways he is a throwback with contemporary ideas.  But it helped to play Courses in Ireland befor I played Royal New Kent and Pine Valley beforre I played True Blue and some inland English courses before I played Tobacco Road.