How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

[Wyatt Halliday]

Richard's seed thread makes me wonder how many times it takes to play The Old Course before appreciation sets in? Would you recommend that someone making a trip abroad should eschew other nearby courses to spend more time learning its subtlety?

[Sean Eidson]

Really neat question, and I hope you don't mind me inviting an extension.

Many of the most highly rated courses are private, e.g. Augusta, Pine Valley, Cypress, with access challenges that will prevent most people from playing more than one or two times in a lifetime and then only with lots of gumption/luck.  And most of the highly rated publics, e.g. Pebble, TOC, even the Bandon courses are so expensive that money is a realistic hurdle to playing more than a few times in a lifetime for most.

While I think it's ludicrous to think one would ever pass up a chance to play at any of those courses, would you choose to play one trophy for the rest of your life if it was the only trophy you ever got to play?  What courses fall into the category of this is so good that you shouldn't play it only once for fear it will diminish the value of the fantasy?

[Adam Clayman]

Wyatt, If one understands and appreciates core principles, I don't think it should take any rounds to appreciate the freedom and randomness of TOC.

[cary lichtenstein]

3

[Matt_Cohn]

Wyatt, If one understands and appreciates core principles, I don't think it should take any rounds to appreciate the freedom and randomness of TOC.

That seems optimistic. How would one appreciate the strategy and requirements of the course when one has no idea what's going on?

[Bill_McBride]

One could be a nerd like me and have studied the Old Course for decades before actually seeing it.  I read a book about Bobby Jones 30 years ago and was intrigued by his love / hate relationship with the course.  I did some research, read a few books, and by the time I played it for the first time in 2003, I knew the names of most of the bunkers and more or less the favored lines of play.

I had a spirited match with my brother, which I lost on the 17th by sclaffing a shot into the Scholars Bunker, but had one of the great golfing days of my life.

Having had the chance to play there half a dozen times now, and see the 2005 Open in person, I feel very much at home there, but I really understood the course years before I had the chance to see it.

There is a whole lot of literature on the course now, so you could certainly be well schooled long in advance.  Wyatt, get thee to St Andrews!

[Richard Choi]

Bill, which book do you recommend on TOC?

[ed_getka]

I remember thinking about this when I played 36 holes at TOC on my maiden voyage over to Scotland a few years back. I went from exhilarated to depressed in the course of one day. Exhilarated because I had two rounds at TOC and depressed to realize I would never see the course enough times in my lifetime to unlock its subtlties. It is a rare course where it seems one would need 100 rounds to really begin to know it, but I think TOC meets that criteria.
  I think one can immediately appreciate how the course, on most holes, doesn't necessarily force you do anything or dictate where you have to go and that may be why some people are underwhelmed by TOC. It is only after multiple plays that I think one begins to appreciate how complex TOC is from 150 yards in. Factoring in wind and pin placements and the possible permutations begin to seem endless.

[Bill_McBride]

Bill, which book do you recommend on TOC?

Mackenzie, The Spirit of St Andrews

Darwin, B., The Golf Courses of the British Isles

Goodale, R., Experience the Old Course

Macpherson, S., St Andrews: The Evolution of the Old Course

Lyle, Sandy, Sandy Lyle Takes You Round the Championship Courses of Scotland

Muirhead, D and Anderson, T., How to Play the Old Course

Macdonald, C. B., Scotland's Gift: How America Discovered Golf

Phillips, K., Scottish Golf Links: A Photographer's Journey

Peper, G., Two Years in St Andrews

Enjoy!

[Kirk Gill]

Howdy Wyatt. Great topic.

What I think you'll find is that most of those who have played TOC many more times than my meagre single round will say that they still feel as if they have a lot to learn, find, and appreciate there. But at the same time it seems to me that you're taking your appreciation with you, and so you may find it after that single play. Not that you'll know all its secrets, or know all its charms, but you may love it from the get-go.

But that said, even if you feel that way from the very beginning, staying there long enough to take in a sense of the town as well as the having more than a single round on TOC, perhaps playing the other courses there will expand your appreciation of the Old, and help make it a trip worth remembering.

One man's opinion.

[Wayne_Kozun]

I am always surprised that so many people want to play a higher quantity of golf courses than quality.  I think it takes at least three rounds to begin to understand a course, or even to really have seen a lot of the course.  

That is why I think a good golf resort really only needs a couple of high quality courses.  But so many people want to play 10 different courses on a 5 day golf trip.

But of course, The Old Course would required many, many more rounds than that.  But those of us on here probably know the course really well to begin with - you have read about it, seen it in several Open Championships, maybe even played it in computer simulations.

[Mike Hendren]

While I would agree that The Old Course is subtle and nuanced, I think it is only such in the context of the player trying to absolutely minimize his score over a lifetime of playing there.    Absent that, I did not find the course as complex and mysterious as many architectural students opine.  I walked it on Sunday and played it twice later in the week.  It "had me at hello" and I was totally blown away in the couple of hours I wandered around it that fine Sunday afternoon fresh off a flight.  

I just don't understand how its brilliance can be missed.  I really don't.   While  perhaps not the greatest course I've played, I cannot fathom that it will ever be supplanted as my favorite.

Mike

[Bill_McBride]

While I would agree that The Old Course is subtle and nuanced, I think it is only such in the context of the player trying to absolutely minimize his score over a lifetime of playing there.    Absent that, I did not find the course as complex and mysterious as many architectural students opine.  I walked it on Sunday and played it twice later in the week.  It "had me at hello" and I was totally blown away in the couple of hours I wandered around it that fine Sunday afternoon fresh off a flight.  

I just don't understand how its brilliance can be missed.  I really don't.   While  perhaps not the greatest course I've played, I cannot fathom that it will ever be supplanted as my favorite.

Mike

We are kindred spirits!  I could not agree more.

[James Bennett]

I don't think you can buy a 'been there, done that' t-shirt at The Old Course - it is not that sort of place.

If you can, get to St Andrews on a Sunday and enjoy the walk around the course - it is open parkland.  No golf, just walking, kids playing, dogs running, and a few golfers analysing the greens and fairways from every angle without the mental anguish of actually hitting a ball.

When you have played it, perhaps buy the Goodale book and record your round for personal posterity.  Or, perhaps hang around for the next Sunday for a detailed walk/examination.

James B

[Adam Clayman]

James, Do people take a putter and a ball and roll putts on Sunday?

Seems like a  great way to learn them before paying to play them.