[Brad Fleischer]

So I just got home after working 19 hours and it was about 100 degrees today and I have not played a round in about a month. SO my mind was on golf and after catching up on a bunch of threads that I have missed lately it seems some of you have had some really neat journey's of late of which I will admit I am a tad jealous.

I know for most people on this board when you get the opportunity to play some of the great and highly regarded courses you get goose bumps and cant sleep the night before(I know I'm not the only one). What I want to know is what are the courses that let you get back to your roots . The courses that might be a Doak 0 but you would pay anything for whatever reason to play them one more time or over and over again.

I know for me when I have not played for a long time or I'm just playing purely like crap or I'm just down period I go to the course where I first teed it up .

When I was younger I used to sneak over the fence with a shag bag and my clubs and would practice until it got dark hoping I was far enough from the clubhouse that no one would come out and chase me off. As I got older I would even put the headlights of my car on through the fence so I could putt in the dark. I actually got to the point where I started getting pretty good(my how times have changed) 

I guess thats why when everything else is failing I always head back there and even if for just a few brief holes it somehow always clicks and everything is perfect again . It reminds me why I started playing this asinine game in the first place and brings back memories of the characters I have met along the way playing this crazy game.

I hate to admit it and I shouldn't but I still jump that fence once in a while and when I do it's my little piece of golf heaven even if it's only for a little while before reality kicks back in . It's where I first remember saying "this bunker is stupid and should be ten yards more to the right " or " seriously this green should have gone over there " . 

So what gets your juices flowing or your memories jarring ? What gets you back to the root's of your game ?

Brad

PS

For obvious reason that course will remain nameless as I'm not as fast as I used to be

[Ronald Montesano]

1.  Not knowing yardages and holding my breath while the ball's in the air;

2.  Taking the road less traveled with a long runner or a pitch and run;

3.  Hitting a punch shot out of the trees (I was always better at the punch-cut than the punch-draw.)

4.  Chipping with a five- or six-iron.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Courses such as TOC or Moray which are part of the town. Courses where footpaths or roads crossing the course put you into contact with those out walking the dog or riding a horse, such as Westward Ho! or Crowborough Beacon. Courses on which there are plenty of wild flora and fauna - the deer and birds of prey at Meadow Club, adders and orchids at Worthing. And any course that's primitive - Welshpool, Church Stretton, Halifax etc.

[Brent Hutto]

Any time I play alone, especially on a empty or near-empty course. Because that's mostly how I played during the first year or two after I took up the game in 1994. Interestingly, meeting someone at a golf course late in the day after work and squeezing in nine holes before dark also gives me that feeling. Because that's the other way I played that first year.

Actually those are probably my most evocative experiences. Walking along late in the day, shooting the breeze and hitting a few shot. Maybe finish the hole, maybe not. Mostly just stretching my legs and making the ball fly through the air after a dull day at work.

[Mac Plumart]

+1

[JC Jones]

Great stuff, Brad. 

For me it isn't so much about the course as the people.  Anytime I get to tee it up with my brother, who taught me the game, takes me back.  Also, any chance I get to play with my best golfing buddy from growing up.  We've played countless rounds together whether in high school, on the golf team, in college or law school.  What is great is that I haven't seen him in a year and yet when we get together next weekend for a golf weekend we can fall right back into rhythm on the first tee and the drinking, the trash talking and the telling of the same golfing stories we've been telling for 16 years will be the same as it always has.

[Ronald Montesano]

Mac...explain +1...enlighten me.

[Mac Plumart]

Ditto to Brent's response.  I love playing after work by myself or linking up with some random person for nine holes, walking, strethcing my legs, unwinding after a stressful day.

[Zack Molnar]

I think going back to those courses where you had significant accomplishments. Places such as your first par, birdie, eagle, hole in one, etc. Also places where you shot your best round ever, broke or 100, 90, 80, 70 for the first time really excite me, as you have all those great memories to bring me back. It could also be places where you finished well in a tournament, or member-guest with a buddy and took home your first golfing hardware. Those memories always stick with you and those courses always have a special place in my heart.

[Brian Freeman]

What a great topic.

For me, it's an evening twilight round (walking of course), either by myself, or with a close friend I've played with for many years, on a course I'm very familiar with, rolling out on the course with no one else around.

It's those rounds where you don't really care about your score, you're not trying to impress anyone, you're not worried about pushing the group in front or holding up the group behind, or caddies, or your handicap, or catching up socially, or any of the other trappings of the weekend warrior golf grind.

It's also, for me, when I learn what makes my game tick, build confidence in my game, and try new things I wouldn't ordinarily try.  Bad or potentially lost drive?  Hit another.  Really cool shot from a tricky area?  Hit 2 or 3 to see all the different ways you can pull off the shot.  Get my buddy to come over and hit a couple as well.  Spending 30 minutes on the hole you like the most and 3 on the hole you don't really care for.  Trying the crazy flop shot you don't try when you're concerned about your score.  Playing 2 balls, one the conservative way and one the aggressive way to see who's the "smarter golfer", even though they're both you.

That's what I enjoyed the most about golf when I was 10 in the back yard, and 17 on my high school course, and that's what gets me back to my roots.

[Phil_the_Author]

The drive under the overhanging trees after rounding the traffic circle on the road leading into Bethpage... The Yellow course above left the sign by whatever current governor is wanting to take credit and reminding all of the U.S. Opens played there until, as the road winds up and left before straightening out and there, at the end of a very long lane, sits the clubhouse.

How can one not be energized for the game just from that simple, yet elegant, drive in...

[Peter Pallotta]

No roots for me to go back to.  This thread got me to asking myself what roots I'm establishing.  I'm not sure.

Peter

[Tim Gavrich]

If I'm not playing well, hitting a seemingly-rare solid shot reminds me why I toil endlessly in pursuit of that little white ball.

Having a good match with my father, who taught me to play when I was 6.

As for a course I would like to play again, I'd have to say the old Canton Golf Course right down the road from me.  It wasn't much to speak of; just a 9-hole course run by a gentleman named Walter Lowell.  Now, there's a shopping center on the land that course occupied.  I only played the course once or twice (since we were members at a club in a different town), but I wish I had the opportunity to play it again.  It had that warm, blue-collar feel, which I have grown fond of.

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