Playing at golf

[Garland Bayley]

Andrew Greig in Preferred Lies about playing using a cart:

" … Above all, it cuts you off from physically experiencing the course. Because you’re no longer walking over it, feeling the contours and distances directly, it becomes inert scenery. It becomes virtual, just a stage for setting a series of problems. And I don’t come to a golf course for virtual, no matter how air-brushed perfect the grass, the greens, the butterflies, the flowers, white bunkers and blue water. There’s enough virtual in my world, golfing is an antidote to that, not an expression of it.
The Bermuda golf became reduced to the shots played and the results. All the stuff in between was just transport, guzzling and badinage. That round took four and three-quarters hours. The course was almost surreally pretty, heavy with scented air, so watered and green it appeared dyed. It was fun of a sort, a lark, a new experience.
It was not golfing.
In the final holes, climbing down yet again off the cart, swinging water in the heat then pulling a club from my bag and surveying a shot onto another perfect manicured green, I realized I was bored. This was just playing at golf.”

[Tom Huckaby]

Man Frank, where have you been all this time?  Nearly 4700 posts and I seem to have missed them all.

In any case, this is an interesting quote.  However, I fail to see the point of posting it in here.  I doubt anyone defends playing golf out of a cart as the BEST way to play the game.  Those of us who defend their use just tend to think of them as a necessary evil at times; and disagree with the assertion that playing the game walking is the ONLY way to play the game.

But talk about issues here that have been beaten to death!  This might be the MOST beaten of all.

In any case Frank, glad to have you aboard.  My bad for missing your first 4600+ posts.

 

[John Kavanaugh]

Huck,

You didn't miss much.  It's just Garland.

[Tom Huckaby]

Huck,

You didn't miss much.  It's just Garland.

Now that was a damn fine cut.

[Lou_Duran]

I must ask, is there a special class of GCA.com "membership" that allows a user to become anonymous?  Or does Tommy have his hands on the system's internal control matrix again?  Great pick, Mr. Commentary.

For the record, six out of the nine rounds I played pre and post the Dixie Cup were in carts.  I found each and everyone of them thoroughly enjoyable.  Among golf's many great attributes is that it can be enjoyed in so many different ways.  I generally prefer to walk, but as I get older and my body is not as sturdy as it used to be, I am thankful that there in an alternative.  Holding everything else equal, riding a cart while golfing is infinitely superior to not playing at all.  

[Garland Bayley]

However, I fail to see the point of posting it in here. 

It is posted here to coincide with Melvyn's Quirky thread.

I doubt anyone defends playing golf out of a cart as the BEST way to play the game.  Those of us who defend their use just tend to think of them as a necessary evil at times;

The vast majority of those playing at golf think of them as necessary. You are only speaking for yourself here.

and disagree with the assertion that playing the game walking is the ONLY way to play the game.

It is the only way to play the game as defined by the inventors of the game! Admittedly, you can "play at" the game from a cart.

[Tom Huckaby]

So you DO want to cover this subject again that has been horribly beaten down so much already?

OK, what the hell.

1. Knock yourselt out beating this dead horse - that was my point in questioning why you post this, particularly under a pseudonym.

2. I was speaking for those of us who defend the use of carts in this forum.  I feel comfortable in saying we defend them as a necessary evil.  Oh hell yes, the majority of users outside of this forum - in the real world, let's call it - love them and surely don't find them to be any sort of evil.  But thanks for stating the obvious.

3.  Yeah, those inventors of the game sure as hell were stupid not to forsee motorized carts as being possible.  How dare they not include all possible future inventions when deciding how they'd play the game.  Dumbshits.

But great.  Excellent point you make here - playing out of a cart is playing at golf.  Agreed.   That sure needed to be put under a pseudonym... how bold and revolutionary! 

[Jordan Wall]

First of all, any thread which needs to be posted under a psuedonym is surely childish.  If one cannot post something under their real name, then dont post.  The only exceptions to this are Shivas and John Kavanaugh.

Nonetheless, carts are amazing.  Consider this: without carts disabled people, and a lot of older people could not play the game.  Also, what happens when a member has 45 minutes of daylight left after a long day at work and wants to fly around for a quick nine - a cart is a great option. 

In any case, my favorite rounds ever have involved the use of a cart.  Some four years ago I played the last rounds of golf with my Dad the he would ever play.  Due to his disability, he could not play without a golf cart.  I will forever cherish those rounds, which would not have happened without a cart.  In fact, the last round I played with my Dad was with a fellow GCA'er, who also used a cart.  We enjoyed our day very much.

This past year, my high school team was defending a title which we had won the year before, for the first time in our school's history.  I started out horribly, with a 42 on the front.  I walked to the tenth tee in an admittedly bad mood, only to see my Dad and my Mom sitting in a cart, ready to watch me play.  My Dad had not seen me play since our last round together - the fact he was able to make it was special and amazing enough as it was.  I went out to shoot a -3 33 on the back.  That was the only tournament my Dad has ever been able to watch me play in.  I know I made him proud, and I was surely the happiest person alive that day.  He would not have been able to attend without a cart.

So sure, point out that golf was not invented with carts.  It was also not invented with titanium drivers, sharply grooved wedges (or wedges in general), modern putters, containment mounding, etc etc.  Those things are all prevalent today.  Of course, so are cars, televisions, airplanes, shopping malls, and lots of other things not around when golf was invented.  To acknowledge the use of golf carts as a fault of the game and a way to less enjoy a round - well, you are very wrong.  Open your eyes.

[Anthony Gray]

   No doubt a round of golf is more enjoyable without a cart....but some courses are built on land that simply requires a cart.

[Garland Bayley]

Well that was a bit of an experiment gone bad. I made up the psuedonym to draw attention to posts, not to hide behind it. I knew I would be recognized. I suppose I should have come out up front with an explanation of my plan. I had intended posting quotes to perhaps get some discussion going during the off season (Barney season?) when we have to put up with at least one of the annual threads about what has gone wrong with the discussion group. What I didn't count on was being immediately reported to the moderators. Thanks Barney!?!

I found the quote interesting. It made a new (to me) distinction between playing golf and playing at golf. It certainly was not an attempt to keep people like Jordan's dad from playing at golf. More it was an attempt to identify there is a difference that we can recognize so that we can understand posts like those contained in Melvyn's Quirky thread.

I can still use good ol' Frank in my future posts, I'll just have to do it in the subject line, e.g., Subject: Frank Commentary on Tralee GC.

[Jamey Bryan]

I, too, thought this a "dead horse" topic until I read Jordan's post.  I've been following Jordan's posting for the past couple of years, but this one shows a passion and maturity I'd not previously seen.

Jordan, keep doing whatever it is you're doing.....   you're well on the way to being a fine human being.  If you also allow yourself to express yourself as you did above, you'll also find you make a positive difference in other's lives.

I hope to meet you personally in the future.

Jamey

[Lloyd_Cole]

I guess it's hard to say unless you really HAVE to make the decision, and I haven't, but I've had some minor knee problems the last couple of years and a cart has even been suggested by the surgeon (idiotically -  as it seems exercise, specifically cycling, is the only thing which seems to help), and I've had to think about cart golf. For me, cart golf, or playing AT golf, whatever you want to call it, is different to what I grew up playing. I have no real problem with others playing it, but I have no interest. I may be an 18 holes a day maximum guy these days. I prefer that to 36 in a cart.  This is not some superiority complex. I live in America. I have tried. I don't like it. I am at certain times annexed from my friends because of my position. I do not relish my position.
A few comments after Jordan's post . If your course is actually walkable, the quick nine holes is always available to all but the infirm without a cart. And the golfer who prefers to walk will be happy with six, if that's all that the light allows. What we have in this country right now is a bunch of folk who don't think they could walk 18 holes because it's been so long since they tried. We also have a bunch of able bodied folk who ride, not because they have put any thought into it, but because it is the done thing. This isn't helping anyone - it's a waste of energy and an encouragement toward a sedentary lifestyle. It's a con trick and the big loser is the guy who finds out, when he's fifty, that he couldn't walk the course now if he wanted to. No big deal if that's OK with you, but that's how I'm seeing it.
And Jordan - your dad was there because of you, not because of carts.

[John Kavanaugh]

What I didn't count on was being immediately reported to the moderators. Thanks Barney!?!

Garland,

Think about it, do you really believe that I report people to the moderators and in turn they listen?  I had to take a God damned phone call on the golf course yesterday asking me if I was the tattletale...I made the birdie putt btw. 

[Jordan Wall]

LLoyd,

I dont doubt why my Dad was there.  The point is that he wouldn't have been able to do it without a cart.

Cheers,
Jordan