Pitch & Putt the future?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Excellent Article.
http://www.golfweek.com/destinations/features/287225921907419.php

Pitch & Putt the future?

Needs less space

Takes less time

Needs less equipment

Costs next to nothing

IS real golf on the historical ‘Short Game’ model.

Introduces people to the game.

How better to improve your short game and imagination?


I’ve played on the Kilcullen course referred to in the article. It’s no wonder the lady is a champion as she obviously has the ability to get her ball to stop half way down a ‘black run’ hill without crampons.  


Others I’d love to play
There are 9(?) holes laid out at Woodhall Spa with proper greens.
The course that McDowell started on, can be seen on the left as you drive out of Portrush on the way to Portstewart.
As you drive from Kilcullen onto the Curragh there’s a ‘Heathland’ pitch and putt – wind always blowing a hooley – looks great.

Why are these courses only popular in Ireland?

[Mark Pearce]

There's a 9-hole course at Elie where my wife learnt to play as a child.  Go there in the summer and it's swarming with children (including, some of the time, mine).  It's short (longest hole is 340 yds, there are 4 par 3s, plus a 200 yd "par 4") and relatively straightforward (a few bunkers, none too deep, no penal rough) and cheap to play (particularly for kids).  It is reasonably well maintained, if not quite to the standard of "the big course" next door.

Courses like these are a great way of introducing children (and adults) to the game and are even fun for more experienced golfers (my wife enjoyed playing with our 7 year old twins this year with just three clubs).

Isn't there something similar next to North Berwick?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Mark. In North Berwick there's an appalling public putting area and a course similar to the one you describe inland of the main track.  But in Ireland (and Hackney!) they really are "two club" courses with a max length of 70 yards.  I'd love to see that woman break 36 for 18 holes!

[John Kavanaugh]

Both Evansville and Terre Haute Indiana have such lighted courses.  I have played both while well lit myself.

[Brad Tufts]

Don't want to derail this thread....but is there a directory of these places in Ireland?  I'm headed there next summer and would love to get in a rd. or two (maybe at the Portmarnock one).

I seem to remember an 18-holer on the lawn at Turnberry, complete with minature greens, sod-stacked bunkers, and bushes to direct play.  I think Watson and Nicklaus and wives had a few bottles of wine out there in the dark the night following the duel in '77....

[Richard Muldoon]

Brad,
there is indeed a pitch & putt at Turnberry, the site of my only hole in one. One day I'll get one on a grown ups course.
There is a fantastic one in a village about 8 miles north of Lahinch (I think it is Doolin). It's not the one just before the village but through the village as you go north.
If you can't do 36 at Lahinch then try it out as it is great fun and I defy anyone to break par there.
The village is also superb for Irish music in the pubs.

[Bill_McBride]

My wife, son and I played the executive course at NAS Pensacola Sunday as I fought off jet lag.  Par 60, only six par fours, the rest par 3s.  It is a tough little cookie, with par 3s that average 175 yards and tiny greens.  The best part was that we walked in 2-1/2 hours.  I definitely believe there is room in golf's future for less than championship layouts, whether pitch and putt or executive length, and time to play is a major consideration.

[Tom Huckaby]

I refer you to:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/mhcc.html

Written over five years ago....

I am so ahead of the curve.

 

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tom I have long known you as a visionary...

Guys these are not executive courses, nothing longer than 77 yards.  Typical green 4 paces across and often circular.  A good gourse will have that on the side of a hill with the green being the flattest part of the hill.  ON the Curragh course all the greens seem to be strategically placed, on top of mounds, behind a large lump etc etc.  You don't need a swing to play these, you need guile.

Brad
This is from the article and has a list of clubs. http://www.ppui.ie/

[Mark Pearce]

Nothing longer than 77 yds?  Presumably the two clubs are a putter and a 60* wedge?

[Tom Huckaby]

Tony - understood re these pitch and putts -
I played one in Kennebunkport, Maine of all
places and that's how it was - tiny greens, 75
yards max, some holes as short as 25 yards.  Fantastic great fun....

I just wanted to pat myself on the back a little with the previous post.

 

[Steve Lang]

 

Pitch & Putt is history.. back in 1962-1966 in NW Toledo we had at Talmadge & Monroe Street intersection (before Franklin Park Mall and Churchill's.. took the place over:

A 9 hole Pitch & Putt course (also batting cages .. early cross training!)  and

Brown's Par Three Course , 18 holes of great fun, usually took 3-4 clubs (P, 9i, 7i & 3i or P, 9i & 5i) and

a Putt-Putt Course.. win a free game if you can at 18 or during play with your colored ball when its colored light is on!  

If you didn't develop a short game in those days, you just weren't having fun..

history repeats itself.. but at what cost for kids??  One could mow a lawn or two and get a pretty strong dose of golfing between these venues .. the competition was keen..

[Jack_Marr]

There's a pitch and putt golfing union in Ireland. You can find it at http://www.ppui.ie/.

[bbarkley]

There is a great pitch and Putt course in Portrush.  Adjacent to the Valley course. It is a great warm up to either of the two championship courses.  The course plays through some of the same dunes of the original course.  While I worked at Royal Portrush I would take a single club, each day and play each hole accordingly.  My favorite hole was a great 175 yd. down hill hole, with a narrow green tucked into the dunes.  Played directly into the prevailing wind.  

[Aaron Katz]

I actually played a pitch and putt north of Cambridge, Massachusetts called Stoneham Oaks yesterday with my wife, who is just learning to play.  It was actually quite fun.  The turn conditions on the tees was outstanding.  Nice deep root structure, fairly closely mowed, and the divots that I took were excellent.  The greens were a touch slow, but they were pretty steeply pitched in parts and often times set up on pretty mean little hills.  Several times I remarked that the hole would be considered a tough par 3 on any course.  I think I hit one lob wedge, two gap wedges, a pitching wedge, a nine iron, two eight irons, a seven iron, and a five iron.  Took about 1.25 hours for nine holes on a gorgeous day.  I didn't mind the somewhat slow play.

[Mark_Fine]

Short courses are great!  We are getting ready to build another one in Ohio based around the "Birdieball".  I talk about it in my interview here on GCA.  The beauty of this innovative limited flight ball is that you can design courses in a very limited area and still allow golfers to use every club in their bag.  Our course planned in Ohio, will be a nine hole golf course and utilize less than five acres of real estate (probably closer to three)!!  

[Dan Kelly]

When we were in Ireland in August, we happened upon some pitch-and-putts -- a creature of which my daughter Rose (locally famous for her creative hearing) had heard, but which she had never seen.

She confided that she had always heard "pitch-and-putt" as "pigeon putt"!

I laughed so hard, I think I forgot to ask her where she thought that name had come from.

This past weekend, we tuned into a really-oldies station that was playing a goofy old country-novelty song called "A-Feudin' and A-Fightin," sung by Dorothy Shay ("the Park Avenue Hillbillie"). One passage says "... daughter, shouldn't oughter." Rose said: "Did she just sing 'daughter, shittin' daughter?' "

P.S. The little course directly north of Lahinch looked like fun. I don't know if it was technically a pitch-and-putt, though.