From my point of view, most of these insights have not sullied the imaginations of the vast majority of golfers. Sure, they get the journey through the landscape on a subliminal level in some shape and form. However, their emotional reaction to maintenance, conditioning, and design is more a product of their experience of the game. How many times have you heard a golfer repeat some cliché about golf, golf courses, or golfers? Just as we learn and teach playing etiquette and traditional aspects of the game, most golfers are a product of their education and experience or lack thereof. If they think bunkers should have six inches of finely-raked, fluffy white sand, that’s what they expect, even if it results in fried egg lies. If they think fairways should be lush green, that’s what they expect, even though it takes twenty yards off their best drives.
I’ve spouted off about this before, so I’ll spare you another Melvyn-like rant. I’ve heard golfers, often very good golfers, say some of the dumbest things imaginable about the game. I’m highly cynical that we’ll see much change in the general golfing public and particularly not an appreciation of “natural” golf golf courses, features, and conditioning. I think these types of discussions always use examples of classic courses where golfers have been exposed to a long history of honoring the traditions of the game—places like GB&I. Here in America, and especially out here in the West where golf has only existed since the mid-twentieth century, golfers have been exposed to completely different traditions, experience, and, therefore, have entirely different expectations.
It wasn’t that long ago that this was an uninhabitable wilderness--a barren landscape that settlers crossed as quickly as they could to get the fertile valleys of Oregon or California. The landscape was transformed by irrigation and water is still our most precious commodity. Development has always been driven creating something “artificial” or “civilized.”