MUIRFIELD
Once you get through the gate (yes, my host gave me slightly incomplete instructions and there I was, pushing, pulling, and pounding) is there a more invigorating panorama in golf than the entire course, the firth, the practice tee, the putting green, the bag drop, the coffee room, all pristine and perfect, all with the absence of a tee time? Could the cliche of "everything right there in front of you" ever be more welcoming?
Descriptions of this course as cold and clinical are wildly off base. In fact, as a walk in the park, I think this place is hard to beat. From the car park that is a veritable aviary, to the third green, to the fifth fairway, to the eighth green, to the fifteenth tee, this course has a profound serenity. The traditionally furious pace of play is the only thing that interferes with this, but as I was reminded, "this is a dining club with a golf course attached" and who wants to miss the first sitting?
As for the golf, first of all, is there a better course off the tee? Is there? All of the long holes offer the opportunity to hit your best drive near to, away from, over, or around a bunker or maybe five of them. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I can work the driver both ways, but for those who can this must be golf heaven. And isn't it more fun to admire your drive than have it disappear over a "piece of mess"? Regarding the other tee shots, yes, the par threes are a bit similar and extremely difficult, but they do point in three different directions, and like all of the approaches on the course, you can always punt and opt out of a do-or-die situation.
The greens generally lack dramatic internal contour, but seeing that there are a great many places where your ball can roll off the green and into a bunker, and seeing that there is plenty of slope, steep in places, insidious in others, so what? I loved the fact that Muirfield is rooting for you, that if you hit a good shot it will pat you on the back and say "nice job".
I have never seen Shinnecock but I would presume that it is perhaps the only other course that can combine a such a test of golf with such a walk in the park.
THE OLD COURSE
I will always be grateful to Rich Goodale for making sure that this was the first links course that I ever saw. And wouldn't you know it, he wrote a book on this course and we still got lost in the middle of the crossover; this will be my defining memory, and thus I would say the course is a bit more like a fraternity hazing than walk in the park. But, as I work up some thoughts on Walter Benjamin’s "dictatorial perpendicular" and the notion of horizontal golf for another time, I will say that if you keep your eyes on the ground, you never know what you might see here. I was simply unprepared for the sheer amount of stuff on this course.
As hinted at above, I was completely transfixed by the crossover. I have no idea how it got there, or how dangerous it is, but to have the course and the routing anchored by three enormous acres of fairway, touching four of the very best holes on the course, scrambled my brain and I had a hard time concentrating after that.
I am very glad to parrot the party line – for architectural excellence, the first, second, fifth, seventh, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, fourteenth, and eighteenth holes are simply unforgettable, and that’s not counting how very different these holes are and the various directions in which they point. That's half the course.
CONCLUSION
There are no architectural high notes at Muirfield, no symphony of golf. The first tee shot is engaging and compelling, as is the approach to eighteen, as is every single shot in between.
The Old Course is not beautiful, nor is it subtle. It’s coming at you with a firehose of gorse, invisible bunkers, mounds as tall as your chest, pedestrians, water hazards, stray golf shots, a trademarked catchphrase, and ultimately, a bewildering assortment of pin locations.
If you asked me where we should play tomorrow I would quickly say Muirfield, and if you asked me where we should play the rest of our days I would just as quickly say The Old Course.