[Tom Huckaby]

But Michael -while there is no cure, what's key to me is how does one treat the illness?

Does one sit and suffer, or go out and make the best of things?

Some in here have stated they just quit playing any more in the US.  Surely you don't take it that far, right?

And apologies for calling you Shirley.

 

[Jim Nugent]

I'm eager to see how the world course rankings here on GCA turn out.  The one where GCA posters vote on their favorite courses.  IIRC we should see the results pretty soon. 

Will Britain get a big share of the top courses? 

I'm also curious how British golf magazines rank the world's top courses.  Same as U.S. mags?

[Michael Whitaker]

Sir Huck - The only treatment approved by the FDA for use in America is an abandonment of the USGA handicap system and a complete return to matchplay golf. Only by focusing entirely on the challenge of besting one's playing companion while also displaying total disregard for one's score can the disease be forced into remission. It also helps to engage the services of a hypnotist to remove the thoughts of ground game shot options from one's repertoire.

[Tom Huckaby]

Sir Huck - The only treatment approved by the FDA for use in America is an abandonment of the USGA handicap system and a complete return to matchplay golf. Only by focusing entirely on the challenge of besting one's playing companion while also displaying total disregard for one's score can the disease be forced into remission. It also helps to engage the services of a hypnotist to remove the thoughts of ground game shot options from one's repertoire.

LOL!
But of course that treatment is never going to happen.

So quite seriously, does one sit and sulk, or get out and play the game here and enjoy it for what it is?

I know what I do.. and I believe I know what you do also.

 

[Michael Whitaker]

TH - I play every chance I get... and, when I'm not playing I'm out somewhere hitting balls or putting.

You see, I have an incurable case of "Golf Addiction," which trumps "Scotland Flu."

[Michael Ryan]

Brent,

Great post.  I played three rounds in Scotland last July on the back end of a work trip.  For me, it isn't the letdown (coming home) as far as the courses, conditions, or architecture...it's the spirit of the game.  Played Western Gailes in a four ball that took about 3 hours and 40 minutes, Royal Troon in a two ball that took 3 hours flat, or Prestwick as a single off the tee first thing and finishing in 2 hours and 30 minutes (taking my time to listen to every story my caddy had for me).  Walking into a club afterwards and having members introduce themselves, ask what you thought of their club/course, feeling like the entire country has a respect for the game...things that you only find there.  Coming back to 5+ hour rounds on my public course in CT feels like a constant punch in the stomach.  I've yet to recover...

[Tom Huckaby]

TH - I play every chance I get... and, when I'm not playing I'm out somewhere hitting balls or putting.

You see, I have an incurable case of "Golf Addiction," which trumps "Scotland Flu."

NOW we're talking!

There quite literally is no cure for the former... or let's just say the cures (giving up the game or death) are not exactly palatable.



Michael Ryan:

One can find the spirit of the game so easily present in Scotland over here as well - one just has to look a bit harder, or try a bit harder.  I'd put some of my cronies up against those overseas any time.  Oh they are the minority for sure...  but they do exist.

[Kalen Braley]

As a related cousin to the Scotland Flu, I caught Bandon-itis after spending some time there.  However it surely didn't take 2 years to get over, only a couple of weeks...might want to go see the doc about that!! 

[Brent Hutto]

Sir Huck - The only treatment approved by the FDA for use in America is an abandonment of the USGA handicap system and a complete return to matchplay golf. Only by focusing entirely on the challenge of besting one's playing companion while also displaying total disregard for one's score can the disease be forced into remission. It also helps to engage the services of a hypnotist to remove the thoughts of ground game shot options from one's repertoire.

What he just said. Except I have my doubts about the hypnotist.

Thinking back to my first trip to England, I played in a one-day open at Walmer and Kingsdown just south of Deal. Not a particularly distinguished course. But the combination of the rock-hard turf, brisk wind and getting paired up with two members who loved the play the game just as I do (quickly and with lots of random conversation) made it more enjoyable than any but a dozen or so of my funnest rounds ever back home. It's not just the turf or the weather or the scenery, it's the golf culture that's addictive. And the beer.

When I travel to England or Scotland I give myself a Handicap System holiday. None of those rounds get typed into the computer when I return. Heck, none of them get a score written down. I make an exception for sanctioned medal competitions like my day at Walmer and Kingsdown, since we turned in a score card I did punch that 98 or whatever into the computer back home. But generally freedom from the damnable pencil-pushing USGA mentality is a huge plus on those trips for me.

[Brent Hutto]

Sir Huck - The only treatment approved by the FDA for use in America is an abandonment of the USGA handicap system and a complete return to matchplay golf. Only by focusing entirely on the challenge of besting one's playing companion while also displaying total disregard for one's score can the disease be forced into remission. It also helps to engage the services of a hypnotist to remove the thoughts of ground game shot options from one's repertoire.

What he just said. Except I have my doubts about the hypnotist.

Thinking back to my first trip to England, I played in a one-day open at Walmer and Kingsdown just south of Deal. Not a particularly distinguished course. But the combination of the rock-hard turf, brisk wind and getting paired up with two members who loved the play the game just as I do (quickly and with lots of random conversation) made it more enjoyable than any but a dozen or so of my funnest rounds ever back home. It's not just the turf or the weather or the scenery, it's the golf culture that's addictive. And the beer.

When I travel to England or Scotland I give myself a Handicap System holiday. None of those rounds get typed into the computer when I return. Heck, none of them get a score written down. I make an exception for sanctioned medal competitions like my day at Walmer and Kingsdown, since we turned in a score card I did punch that 98 or whatever into the computer back home. But generally freedom from the damnable pencil-pushing USGA mentality is a huge plus on those trips for me.

P.S. I believe the cost of the open-medal day was in the high single-digit pounds. Plus my two fellow competitors bought my tea and bacon sandwich at the halfway house. Speaking of which, if we had one-day medal competitions at my club I highly doubt we'd stop at the 11th hole for 25 minutes to eat greasy food and talk local politics before resuming the "tournament".

[Will Peterson]

I had the opportunity to live in the UK in 2007/2008.  I was amazed at what I found, it was my ideal version of golf, something I though still only existed at a few grand old clubs.  The great pace, the conditions changing with the seasons, the respect for tradition, the lack of carts, and everything else that has slowly died in the US.  Then I had my first links experience, 36 at Deal, and I haven't been the same since.  I don't think there is a cure.  Hopefully I will be able to return soon, and I don't know if I would ever leave.

[Mark Pearce]

PS Mark P how is the Newcastle Utd YouTube relegation video coming along?

The plight of the Magpies is no laughing matter.  I count on the revenue I receive from colleagues and friends from our annual wagers on the relative fortunes of NUFC and Tottenham Hotspur, an income I shall have to do without next season.  Moreover the atmosphere in the office resembles that in a morgue, with the exception of the rather ghoulish Mackems, now their team looks safe.

My 13 year old son, however, is delighted at the prospect of being able to walk to St James' Park to watch his beloved Watford.

[Anthony Gray]

Bandon is your cure...

  Could not have said it eny better. Even the food is better.

  Anthony

[Tom Huckaby]

Bandon is your cure...

  Could not have said it eny better. Even the food is better.

  Anthony

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I dunno.......

Now I love Bandon very much, truly I do.  I have sacrificed marital life and limb to go there, three times. And perhaps take this with an ocean of salt because as I say, I don't get the Scotland hangover nearly as much as others....

But going to Bandon tends to worsen whatever Scotland hangover effects I feel, not alleviate them.

That is.... the more I play Bandon the more I realize there is nothing like the real thing.  Oh it's a heck of a replication... but it is clearly not the real thing.

The play and the courses is close enough... but one look at that clubhouse and its clientele is enough to prove my point.  It's as much Scotland as is Pebble Beach.  Meaning, it ain't it.

[Carl Nichols]

My earlier post was focused just on courses, since that was how I interpreted Brent's post, and I still think our best courses (including the very private) have to match up well with GB&I, if you're comparing just courses.  But once you're talking about culture and the whole experience, I agree that GB&I can't be beat -- and that Bandon isn't really close. 

NB:  I had thought that the golf culture in Argentina, particularly in the less well known spots, would be closer to GB&I, but that hasn't really turned out to be true.

[Bill_McBride]

NB:  I had thought that the golf culture in Argentina, particularly in the less well known spots, would be closer to GB&I, but that hasn't really turned out to be true.

Yes, but the beef and tango in Buenos Aires are clearly superior! 

[Carl Johnson]

No cure.  I've been three times since 2002.  For 2004, see my trip described in "A Week in Ayrshire" at the bottom of page 44 of Golf in Scotland, Allan Ferguson, 3d ed. (2005).  Allan recommended a hotel and got us a driver for the week, a member of Royal Troon.  We scheduled the courses and got the tee times.  I've been to Bandon (the town) and looked over the courses, great courses I'm sure.  Yet I do not see how, for this Yank, that could compare with my week in Troon five years ago playing Bogside, Barassie, Glasgow Gailes, Western Gailes, Belleisle (a parkland course), Prestwick, Royal Troon's Old Course and Portland, topped off with Turnberry.  Walk or taxi from your hotel to a different little restaurant, from plain to fancy, every night.  Stroll along the beach.  Hang out at the hotel bar with an inebriated caddie from Royal Troon.  Visit the little golf shops.  Best of all, celebrating every moment with your golfing friends.  I expect to get to Bandon to play some day -- I don't expect the same experience.  Yet, while in Scotland I've visited with several Scottish golfers who lauded their golfing holiday in Myrtle Beach.  Go figure. 

[Jason McNamara]

Yet, while in Scotland I've visited with several Scottish golfers who lauded their golfing holiday in Myrtle Beach. 

They saw the sun.  It was their first time, so cut them some slack.

[Eric_Terhorst]

Brent,

Even though I've spent only one weekend in Scotland playing golf, while playing hookey from a business trip, I know whereof you speak.

But, 'tis better to have loved and lost...

[Brent Carlson]

Wow - all great replies to this one.

I'll be making a Bandon trip this year.  I'm sure it will be great, albeit without the same ambience of Scotland.  

Tom mentioned Rustic, and he is right.  That has been the most satisfying course since returning.  

Great stuff...

[Emil Weber]

I discover this every time I come back to Germany...

[Niall C]

Yet, while in Scotland I've visited with several Scottish golfers who lauded their golfing holiday in Myrtle Beach. 

They saw the sun.  It was their first time, so cut them some slack.

Not true ! There was that week back in 1987.

[Bill Shamleffer]

Yet, while in Scotland I've visited with several Scottish golfers who lauded their golfing holiday in Myrtle Beach. 

They saw the sun.  It was their first time, so cut them some slack.

Not true ! There was that week back in 1987.

I spent three weeks in Stonehaven, Scotland in March 1994 on a business assignment.  I was told they have a wonderful summer there . . . they just do not know what day it will occur.

[Dan Moore]

Brent sure its not just the effects of a longer than usual Chicago winter.  Imagine how Macdonald felt after three years in St Andrews only to return home to no golf at all.  At least our Dark Ages only last a few months. 

[Bill_McBride]

Yet, while in Scotland I've visited with several Scottish golfers who lauded their golfing holiday in Myrtle Beach. 

They saw the sun.  It was their first time, so cut them some slack.

Not true ! There was that week back in 1987.

In 2005 my wive and I were in the UK for two weeks, finished up at the Open in St Andrews.  This story puts the lie to all the disparagement of Scottish weather.  I brought one pair of shorts, mostly to wear around the apartment.  I turned out wearing them every day because there was a heat wave that July.  Good thing those shorts were black!

Has anyone ever tried to buy a nice pair of Bermuda length shorts in Scotland?  Hopefully not in either North Berwick or St Andrews, I struck out in both places!

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