No Course Like NGLA In The Isles

[Ronald Montesano]

"...but with the match being in America there is no point bringing guys together to play a golf course that would bear no resemblance to the real thing,”

http://golfweek.com/news/2013/apr/22/walker-cup-squad-training-dropped-great-britain/

Is there no course in GBI that bears resemblance to NGLA? What value do you give to Nigel Edwards' explanation?

[jkinney]

Rubbish comment for which the GB & I Captain should be ashamed. IMO.

[Bill Brightly]

I think it was a careless line not meant to disparage NGLA or lump it in with typical US parkland courses.

[jeffwarne]

I think his quote had absolutely NOTHING to do with NGLA.

He wants the hottest and best players of the summer, so he's waiting to pick his team -smart move.
He thinks picking his team early has no value as they will mainly be 3000 + miles away from the host site so they wouldn't be able to get together to familiarize themselves with the site as a team.
Allowing an extra day of practice at the host site the week of the event is a smart thing.

Team building and cameraderie is nonsense anyway.
Pck the hot players, learn the course, play well.
It's 50-50 you either win or lose, and someone will win-doesn't mean anyting except they played better.

[Bill_McBride]

Nigel was an outstanding player on several Walker Cup teams, and a bit older than the majority of the players.   I don't think there's much anyone can learn about playing the National in the UK that those guys don't already know from playing firm and fast links courses.  

[Michael Whitaker]

I think it was a careless line not meant to disparage NGLA or lump it in with typical US parkland courses.

To which line are you referring? I found nothing about his comments offensive or objectionable. Made perfect sense to me.

[Ronald Montesano]

"I think his quote had absolutely NOTHING to do with NGLA."

Can you elaborate or even expound? Read literally, you make no sense.

[Jim Nugent]

Ronald, Nigel said with the match being in America there was no point in bringing the guys together.  Nothing about NGLA, except that it was in America. 

So I took it the same way as Jeff.  Nigel wants them to practice on the course they will play in the matches, or he doesn't feel it's worthwhile.  They can do that in GBI but not the the U.S. 

[Mark Chaplin]

What would be more interesting and a bigger statement about NGLA would be the USGA saying they were bringing a team to the Amateur at Deal and the St Andrews Links Trophy to better prepare for the conditions at Walker Cup time.

[Martin Toal]

Whatever the wisdom or otherwise of this, if GB&I win (unlikely), it will be hailed as genius, if they lose, a massive blinder. Either one will almost certainly grossly overstate the importance.

On Saturday evening at Medinah, JMO was being called a buffoon, but but Sunday evening he was a genius. Likewise too much importance attached to either verdict.

[Ronald Montesano]

Jim and Jeff...I read it differently than both of you. I read "bear no resemblance" as a declaration that no course in the isles resembles the shot values at NGLA. If you take it as comparing the whole of NGLA to GBI courses, that's one thing. There is no Charles BM course in GBI, nor is there another that mirrors the layout. The way I took it was, NGLA (despite appearances to the contrary) is neither a links nor a heathland course (of which GBI has plenty), the wind that blows is different from the wind we have here in GBI and the putting surfaces have breaks that are not found in the isles.

This type of interpretation would be as preposterous in its way as considering the first interpretation would be in its own.

I guess that Nigel Edwards has a different motivation and that his choice of words was quick and rash.

NGLA was built based on CBM's interpretation of great holes in GBI. To say that it bears "no resemblance" to courses in the isles is a mild frontal assault on the course's fabric. Note the use of the word "mild," lest anyone care too much.

[jeffwarne]

I read it as....

The "advantages" of picking a team early so they could play practice rounds together on a "similar" course would not be equal to the advantages he feels he would get if he waits to pick his team based on player form.

It would be no different if playing at ANGC, Medinah, Shinnecock, or Pebble Beach, or Bellerive.
By the "real thing" he means the actual course the event is being played on.
NGLA is not some shrine that the GB&I team worships at, anymore than the probably the younger US team members do.(hopefully after the event they'll have a stronger appreciation of it)
You can play all the blind shots you want with fast undulating greens, but if they're not the blind holes or undulating greens used in the event,so what?, so i think he's saying what's the point of "preparing" for the site elsewhere, when we can simply add a day at the actual site, or real thing

Ironically, if you wanted to pick apart his words to find something, the one thing they are most unlikely to find in the UK/Ireland, is the type of green speed/undulation they will find at NGLA, hardly a property of traditional links golf.
Perhaps they should prepare at ANGC.