Can you study GCA from a cart?

[PCCraig]

If I had one round to study a course...the last thing I would want to do is ride around in a cart. You see far more while walking.

  Pat,

  Would you even play the course if you were studying the course? I have found that the best time to study the architecture is walking the course early in the morning with out playing. Agree?

  Anthony

No, a big part of really understanding a course comes from actually playing it. It's one thing to see strategy from a certain tee box (for example), its another thing to actually use certain strategies to gain more knowledge of a particular hole or course.

[Lyne Morrison]

You can 'see' the course when riding in a cart.

But walking is a completely different experience. Walking provides the environmental stimuli that feeds the mind.

If you want to study a course - feel  a course - you need to walk.

Walking engages the senses.

Cheers - Lyne

[Philippe Binette]

I have a hard time studying architecture when I play...

I have a hard time playing when I ride a cart...

If you add up the two... studying architecture when riding a cart makes for a miserable day

[Dan Herrmann]

Then is the best way to walk a course without playing followed by a walking round?  I'd go so far as to say that the best way to pay is to ignore score if you're really studying the architecture.

I've walked Pine Valley 3 times, but never played, but I think I know a lot more about the course than a person that's only played it once.  (Of course this doesn't include putting - you really need to get onto the green with a putter to see what the architect did)

[Tom Huckaby]

Can you?  sure.  Just get out from time to time to make sure you see all you need to see.

Is it optimal?  Surely not.  Unless very attentive one is liable to miss things, as explained.

TH

[Anthony Gray]

Can you?  sure.  Just get out from time to time to make sure you see all you need to see.

Is it optimal?  Surely not.  Unless very attentive one is liable to miss things, as explained.

TH

  I agree with Tom again. You can even study it from an airplane.

  Anthony

[Dan Herrmann]

how about   

[Melvyn Morrow]

Anthony

Just to prove your point aerial shots of TOC 1st & 18th Courtesy of The Links Trust



Just look at the contours and shapes of the fairways. A basic feel perhaps but not much more, so just an aid to GCA unlike surveying from a cart on a course that does not allow carts

Melvyn

[Anthony Gray]

  Melvyn,

  You are making me homesick.

  Anthony

[Michael Dugger]

PS Michael - Why are we who play the game in the traditional way always regarded as 'Purists', why can't we just be called ‘Golfers’? Think up another more appropriate name for those cart riding eerrrr...golfers.

Okay, I'll call them golfers

[Melvyn Morrow]

Michael

Extremely kind and generous of you

Melvyn

[Mike Hendren]

Taken to the extreme, it would appear that some here would argue that you must crawl on your belly like a reptile to adequately study golf course architecture. 

I contend that one can study golf course architecture from a cart even if he is not playing.  It didn't stop Tom Doak in the Confidential Guide.  That's good enough for me.

Often, golf course architecture is not the mystery we pretend it to be.

Flame away.

Bogey

[Garland Bayley]

Taken to the extreme, it would appear that some here would argue that you must crawl on your belly like a reptile to adequately study golf course architecture. 

I contend that one can study golf course architecture from a cart even if they are not playing.  It didn't stop Tom Doak in the Confidential Guide.  That's good enough for me.

Often, golf course architecture is not the mystery we pretend it to be.

Flame away.

Bogey

Bogey,

Are you claiming that Tom wrote up courses in the CG after having toured them by cart without playing?
Only Tom can answer, but I find that highly unlikely.

[Adrian_Stiff]

I think in the context of a round of golf, yes you could see as much with a cart but only if you are allowed on fairways, if you are forced to stay on paths I think it really ruins a round of golf.
As a study (not playing golf) yes you can probably do the job in half the time.
Is walking better, yes, but sometimes you just dont have the time.

[Garland Bayley]

“Golf is a walking game. The walk between shots is not an interlude, non-golf. If it were, most of a round of golf would be non-golf and a great waste of time. … a round of golf is a brisk walking, a thread with little knots of activity along its length. Its essence is moving across a terrain on foot, connecting to it the senses and mind alert, evaluating, deciding, accepting outcomes, weighing up new situations. All the time, through these streams of mental and emotional activity, there is this walking, this seeing, the sensations of the body meeting the world. Take away the walking and something essential is gone.”  Andrew Greig, Preferred Lies

I would submit that from a golf cart you are evaluating cart-ball, not golf.
Golf is a game in which the environment is integral. Removing much of that environment through the use of a cart renders the evaluation less valuable.

[Mike Hendren]

Bogey,

Are you claiming that Tom wrote up courses in the CG after having toured them by cart without playing?
Only Tom can answer, but I find that highly unlikely.

I'm fairly certain he admits as much in the book.   Nashville's Belle Meade CC is one that comes to mind.

Bogey

[Garland Bayley]

Bogey,

Are you claiming that Tom wrote up courses in the CG after having toured them by cart without playing?
Only Tom can answer, but I find that highly unlikely.

I'm fairly certain he admits as much in the book.   Nashville's Belle Meade CC is one that comes to mind.

Bogey

Interesting!
What rating did Belle Meade CC get?
What percent of the courses does he make such an admission for?
Did he admit to such an evaluation on any course rated above 3? 4?, etc.?

[Michael Dugger]

Michael

Extremely kind and generous of you

Melvyn

Well, Melvyn, how am I suppose to answer your question?

Golf is a game that is continuing to "evolve"  I suppose that's why I use the term "purist" to describe your perspective(s).

NGLA is NOTHING like ancient links courses.  Yet it's a great golf course.  There are a lot things that have changed about the game, some for better, some for worse.

And on and on......

Golf is a great big game and there is room enough in it for everyone. 

To call golfers who take buggies anything less than golfers seems like enviro/alterna/minimalist snobbery, IMHO

I mean do you play with featheries and hickory shafts? 

[Michael Blake]

Often, golf course architecture is not the mystery we pretend it to be.

Well said.

[Garland Bayley]

...
To call golfers who take buggies anything less than golfers seems like enviro/alterna/minimalist snobbery, IMHO
...

I have been playing lately with a 19 year old 2 handicapper at my club. He calls them lazy.
 

[Rob Rigg]

golfer = one who walks and plays the game as originally intended
cart golfer = one who rides and removes the walking element of the game, thus making it no longer golf

runner = one who runs around the track
car driver = one who drives a car around a track

biathlete = one who x-country skis and shoots at a target
rifle shooter = one who shoots a target

Golf involves more than just hitting the ball, it also involves walking. To say that cart golf and walking golf is the same game is ridiculous.

Also, just because you drive a cart on the fairway while playing (as has been stated multiple times already) does not mean that you have the same experience as walking. The physical, social, scoring and experience benefits are all different, as is the manner in which one interprets the architecture of a course.

[Dan Herrmann]

(I love walking, but if it's > 90F with 60% humidity, I'm takin' a cart!)

Let me ask a related question...  Is a golf course rating for a magazine fair if the rater played the course in a cart?

[Mike Hendren]

Golf involves more than just hitting the ball, it also involves walking. To say that cart golf and walking golf is the same game is ridiculous.

Then why doesn't the USGA draw a distinction for handicap purposes?

Mike
(Avid Walker)

[Garland Bayley]

Golf involves more than just hitting the ball, it also involves walking. To say that cart golf and walking golf is the same game is ridiculous.

Then why doesn't the USGA draw a distinction for handicap purposes?

Mike
(Avid Walker)

Because counting is mathematical and does not change depending on your method of conveyance.

[Mike Hendren]

(I love walking, but if it's > 90F with 60% humidity, I'm takin' a cart!)

Let me ask a related question...  Is a golf course rating for a magazine fair if the rater played the course in a cart?

No. 
It's also not fair if:
The rater is a dumb-a**
The rater only plays the course once
The rater did not stay in a Holiday Inn last night
The rater hasn't had sexual relations in the past 30 days
The rater is comped
The rater is asked to pay full freight
It rains and the day is dark and dreary
The rater is hungover
The rater is from the Deep South
The rater is no Matt Ward
The rater plays with the head pro
The rater plays with the owner
The rater plays the wrong set of tees for his game
The rater hacks
The rater goes low
The rater is a homer
The rater hasn't forgotten the War of Northern Aggression
The rater looses a sleeve or more of balls
It is windy
There is no wind
The staff sucks up
The staff treats the rater like Huckaby at Chicago Golf Club
The rater drops Bob Huntley's name
The rater gets a free lunch
The rater gets a free hooker
The rater gets roundtrip airfare
The rater signs autographs
The rater's street shoes aren't shined
The rater is asked to change out of his jeans
The rater is asked to change out of his wife-beater T

I'm tellin' ya:  "It ain't fair."

Bogey