Walking is Dead!

[Glenn Spencer]

Doug,

If I could schedule that I'd gladly take it, just to prove a point. Some courses I have walked are:

RTJ trail at Oxmoor valley in Burmingham. walked both the Ridge course and Valley course in the same day.

Coyote Hills in Orange County CA. One of those courses layed out on the spare ridge property within a housing development.

Many hilly stretched out courses in the midwest and south, a few are;

TC of Iowa, Bos Landen, TPC Deere Run, Deacons Lodge, Mount Vintage Plantation (SC), Chestatee (GA), Eagles Nest? (MO), I could come up with more I am sure if I really thought about it.

Let's put it this way, I regularly take canoe trips into the BWCA and portage a heavy pack AND a canoe together anywhere from a few hundred yards to just over a mile in one shot. we may do that 10 or more times a day.

Trust me, I am not a specimen. I am a very average guy, and that's my point. I think people underestimate their physical capabilities and give way to prevailing thought that these courses just are not walkable. I'll never buy that.

I walk 36 holes in tournaments all the time, in 90 or 100-degree heat. So what? What does it prove? That I can do it? Of course I can do it, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy all the fact that the chaifing sp? or the blisters or the sheer numbness of my shoulder is something that I enjoy. Some people don't play golf at a gym, they work out at one.

[Paul Payne]

Sorry Glen,

I can't help it, Maybe I should see someone.

I just hate carts, hate cart paths, hate what they represent, hate the way they look as they toddle down the fairway, hate the rythm of play they create, hate the rules that surround where and when they can drive, and I am truly sorry about this, but from my high horse, I find it difficult to respect the riders in those carts.

 

[Paul Payne]

PaulT,

I've walked the General. This becomes another peeve however, at the General they will allow you to walk but you must pay the cart fee anyway. I don't grumble too loudly, just a higher green fee I suppose.

I actually played with two young guys who worked there who were riding. Had no trouble keeping up.

[ForkaB]

Glenn

I walk 18 all the time and 36 at least 4-5 times a year in tunamints.  I never get chafed, blistered or sore shouldered.  I never have anything but great conversations with my playing partners, and from time to time I even bring a beer or three and drink them on the course.  I turn 60 in a few weeks, and am nowhere near a demi-god--just a human being who agrees with Paul that carts are the spawn of the devil........

Rich

[Paul Payne]

BTW PaulT,

I failed to take your cue but that is also a frustration to me.

 I wish courses would be built to accomodate both walking and riding. I think most modern courses are either built within housing developments and the course is chopped up and relegated to the left over parcels, or courses are built on land that forces the layout to become stretched out.

The real thing that bugs me in this is that cart revenue is a huge incentive not to turn away from these practices. I think it is more and more rare that we see a modern course developed that ignores the revenue carts bring and accomdates a walker easily.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Glenn, Paul,
I don't think that walkers are better or worse. Who would think that?? But it is true that since the introduction of carts, in the US (not the UK, not Australia), there has been a movement to marginalise the walking golfer. It's hard not to feel like the underdog. There has been, over the last few years, a slight reversal in this trend, but as an illustration, if we were to try and play (God forbid we'd want to) the courses that the PGA tour visits, we'd find that a good half of them wouldn't allow walking. I think it is quite above board, and not in the least self righteous to point out that if the PGA Tour, and the USGA wants to tell us that Casey Martin can't ride, and that walking is an intrinsic part of the game, then they shouldn't hold their events at courses that don't allow Joe Nobody to walk. That is hypocritcal.

[Paul Payne]

Rich,

Right on brutha'

[Mike_Golden]

Galloway National is one....a pretty darn good course, but LONG ways between tees and greens

walking that course would take significantly longer than a better routed course

I walked Galloway National last year, don't remember it being difficult at all.  Of course, I walk 18 holes in Orlando in August also.

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

Starting January 1st, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be Walking Only until noon.  Long live walking!!!

[JohnV]

Starting January 1st, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be Walking Only until noon.  Long live walking!!!

Half way to greatness.  Now go for the afternoon as well.

The courses that bug me are the ones that require a cart and a forecadddie.  I've played/seen 3 or 4 of those.

[Glenn Spencer]

Glenn

I walk 18 all the time and 36 at least 4-5 times a year in tunamints.  I never get chafed, blistered or sore shouldered.  I never have anything but great conversations with my playing partners, and from time to time I even bring a beer or three and drink them on the course.  I turn 60 in a few weeks, and am nowhere near a demi-god--just a human being who agrees with Paul that carts are the spawn of the devil........

Rich

Very good, is there not a difference between where you are walking and where I am walking. I would think so.

[Doug Wright]

Starting January 1st, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be Walking Only until noon.  Long live walking!!!

Mike,

This is very good, and as I posted on the other thread Kiawah Ocean is easily (and better) walked but I wonder if you'll be able to sustain this for long given your turista clientele....

[Wayne_Kozun]

This is very good, and as I posted on the other thread Kiawah Ocean is easily (and better) walked but I wonder if you'll be able to sustain this for long given your turista clientele....

There are several other courses at Kiawah that, presumably, will still offer cartball.  Let them play those courses.

[Glenn Spencer]

This is very good, and as I posted on the other thread Kiawah Ocean is easily (and better) walked but I wonder if you'll be able to sustain this for long given your turista clientele....

There are several other courses at Kiawah that, presumably, will still offer cartball.  Let them play those courses.

No, I don't think this the solution. I think you should have to show a 5-handicap to play the Ocean Course. You walkers are unbelievable. I have never heard more nonsense from a group of self-righteous pricks before. You should hear yourselves!!!

[John Keenan]

I do not think I am self-righteous but I do like to walk.  

Of late I have had some back problems which caused me to go to a pull cart. Great addition and takes the strain off my back. Sad news is many coursed do not allow them the Olympic Club included. Others do not allow them due to the revenue cart rental bring in.

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

Starting January 1st, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be Walking Only until noon.  Long live walking!!!

Half way to greatness.  Now go for the afternoon as well.

Come out here in July or August in the afternoon then tell me how much fun you had walking...

[Glenn Spencer]

Starting January 1st, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will be Walking Only until noon.  Long live walking!!!

Half way to greatness.  Now go for the afternoon as well.

Come out here in July or August in the afternoon then tell me how much fun you had walking...

Mike,

I can only imagine, but apparently, it is not about fun, anymore, it is about whether you can do it or not. I guess, it is akin to some sort of badge of honor or something. I walked that course or whatever. I would rather have the option of playing more golf or having sex that night, but to each his own.

[Lloyd_Cole]

[quote author=Glenn Spencer I can only imagine, but apparently, it is not about fun, anymore, it is about whether you can do it or not. I guess, it is akin to some sort of badge of honor or something. I walked that course or whatever. I would rather have the option of playing more golf or having sex that night, but to each his own.

Glenn

I'm not about to get into any name calling with you, but you are getting the wrong end of the stick. My stick anyway. I dislike riding so much that if it is the only option I would, almost without exception, prefer not to play. There is no badge of honour involved. I grew up walking, playing and caddying. I enjoy it that way. I have tried riding and I don't like it.  Most of my friends ride, or walk, depending on the circumstances. I'm sure if they thought I was self righteous they wouldn't call me.

[Doug Ralston]

PaulP,

""I just hate carts, hate cart paths, hate what they represent, hate the way they look as they toddle down the fairway, """

Hmmm. Paul, if you are seeing cartpaths doing ANYTHING other than holding very very still, you have clearly walked too much in the hot Sun. As Glenn suggests, you  might wanna 'see someone'  

I have NO PROBLEM with anyone walking, NO PROBLEM with anyone riding. I do not feel so superior as to judge anyone else's choices, as long as they do not damage me.

As for only holding 'tunamints' on walkable courses, that is certainly the organizer's choice. But it is sad that we mountain people once again get 'put in our place'. First we didnt have courses at all. Then we had to dress like upscale pansies [lol] to play on courses. Now we are STILL unworthy to hold tourneys because our courses do not meet arbitrary 'criteria' put down by golf course snobs.

Well, we will get along, and someday, we will bring rude rebellion against our snobby oppressors!! Be warned!

Doug

[ForkaB]

Having played in two USGA Mid-Am Qualifiers when I was living in Ponte Vedra, I can attest to the fact that when god invented golf she did not intend it to be played in the middle of August in the only recently reclaimed swamps of Florida without some sort of artifical locomotion.

Nevertheless, none of us geezers died on either of those two days.

Glenn, et. al.

Enjoy your carts.  I don't feel at all sanctimonious--just sad that young presumably reasonably healthy people would want to waste a game of golf sitting on their asses rather than walking and enjoying the course and its architecture.  But, to each his or her own......

[Glenn Spencer]

Having played in two USGA Mid-Am Qualifiers when I was living in Ponte Vedra, I can attest to the fact that when god invented golf she did not intend it to be played in the middle of August in the only recently reclaimed swamps of Florida without some sort of artifical locomotion.

Nevertheless, none of us geezers died on either of those two days.

Glenn, et. al.

Enjoy your carts.  I don't feel at all sanctimonious--just sad that young presumably reasonably healthy people would want to waste a game of golf sitting on their asses rather than walking and enjoying the course and its architecture.  But, to each his or her own......

This is the attitude that I don't understand. Just sad and waste. I don't see how people like to 'waste'  their day and time and money, shooting 90, but I never say anything. Why is it that walkers have carte-blanche to say whatever the hell they want?

[Brent Hutto]

I don't see how people like to 'waste'  their day and time and money, shooting 90, but I never say anything.

Sure you do. You just did.

Why is it that walkers have carte-blanche to say whatever the hell they want?

Same reason as you do, Glenn.

[ForkaB]

Glenn

You are saying anything you want to, too.  It's a free country!

BTW, who said anything about shooting 90?  

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Is Kiawah goig to shuttle walkers between the 9th and 10th to speed play?  

Chambers Bay in Tacoma that should open next year still plans on being a walking only course.  While relativley flat, the Urban reclamation project is going to charge welL over one hundred $$ to play.  

Are golfers ready for this kind of approach?  It works at Bandon!

[Glenn Spencer]

Glenn

You are saying anything you want to, too.  It's a free country!

BTW, who said anything about shooting 90?  

LMAO-shooting 90, I never would make a comment like some of the ones that I have seen here. I don't understand it. Let them play other courses, sad, a waste. Sometimes I want to walk and sometimes I want to relax and have a few drinks and a few laughs. Why is it so frowned-upon? There are people that act like it is our fault, for taking a cart, that there are carts in this world. How many rules do walkers break because they can't correct them?