Yesterday I had the great fortune of playing Pasatiempo with two great guys, and with the course playing at it's absolute perfect "maintenance meld" as I see it. By that I mean, the fairways were very firm allowing for lots of roll; the rough was medium height causing plenty of problems, but not mandating any hackouts; and the greens were very quick, but not so quick as to allow for absurdity/infinite putting. It was the best I have ever seen the course in terms of condition, and wow did it ratchet up the thinking, and skill, required to achieve decent scores! After some initial bad play induced-bitching by yours truly, I came to realize that this was what it was all about for this course... it required all that one could muster, but if one did play thoughtfully and execute well, success was there to be had. Wow was it fun.
But along the way, I was reminded of a thought by huge hitter and all-around great guy Jon Spaulding that when Pasa played this firm, it was TOO MUCH as he saw it. That is, he got a drive on 10 to 110 in (due to the firmness allowing for huge roll) and that to him made it TOO short... the thought being no one ever should have a wedge into that long, strong par four.
And I think he is correct to some extent - Mackenzie sure didn't mean for anyone to have wedge into 10. But that being said, I don't think he would have minded that a great drive by a normal human like me allowed for a 7iron approach. And then I think about all the fun shots that the firmness allows in and around the green... and the enjoyment and ego boost a guy like me gets when drives roll out as far as they did... And I'm thinking that Jon and those like him are just anomalies. Yes, when it's firm, many holes at Pasa will play too short for Jon. But they play so darn fun for the rest of us, in the end isn't it better to have it this firm?
I'm interested in any thoughts on this, both about Pasatiempo and any other course.
TH