I guess Lance Ten Broeck's 141 at this week’s Texas Open debunks the importance of having the perfect equipment.
For those not familiar with this story, Lance Ten Broeck is a former member of the PGA Tour and is from a family of excellent golfers from Chicago. For quite a few years now he has been Jasper Parnevik's caddie. However, it has also been a dream of his to play and caddie in the same event (he still holds some PGA Tour status due to his many prior years on the Tour).
Well this week he finally got his wish. On Thursday morning he caddied for Parnevik, and then due to a last minute withdrawal Lance had the opportunity to play in the afternoon.
The point of my first comment is that without any practice or preparation he shot 71 with a borrowed set of clubs (from Richard Johnson), and then on Friday shot a 70 with a different set of clubs from those he used on Friday. Think of all the guys he beat (including his boss) who practiced all week and were all using clubs supposedly perfectly matched and tuned to within a fraction of a degree so as to be able to maximize that player’s performance. Perhaps some of those players should stop worrying about the equipment and just learn to score better.
How does this have anything to do with golf course architecture? Perhaps golfers should stop wanting the course to be perfect and just make the most of what they have.