[Tommy Williamsen]

So says Soren Kierkegaard. I had a match today at the club where I live. I've played it a thousand times since we built our vacation home there in 1985. For the first time I looked backwards from every shot I hit. I didn't just look, I studied the course looking backward. I'm not sure we can only understand looking backwards but we can understand better. It was informative. It was instructional. I saw things from a completely different perspective. The feature that stood out most was elevation change. It isn't much different than looking at a putt from all angles. You learn something from each spot.  I remember the first time I played Ballyhack. From the fairway the first green looked elevated, really elevated. From the green looking back to the fairway, it looked really, really elevated. It made we wonder what it would be like to walk the course backward and how much I might learn. Maybe we discover better landing areas, better "lines of charm." So maybe life and golf are played forward but understood backward better.

[Peter Pallotta]

What a terrific post, Tommy - and for me a brand new idea.
I've never done that on a course, and it had never even occurred to me to do it.
The Ballyhack example is excellent. No other perspective would've given you as clear & memorable a clue as to how much more club you need from the fairway. 
The 'narrative' going into a golf hole (off the tee) is one thing; the narrative looking back - usually for me in the form of 'ah man, how could I have been so stupid?!' - is almost always another.


Peter
PS - I took a course on Surrealism taught by a French existentialist. When I mentioned my fondness for Kierkegaard he could barely hide is contempt: "Bah - a *fake* existentialist! We make our own meaning, but then God makes sure it all works out in the end!"   

[Tommy Williamsen]

Peter, I think a lot of French existentialists felt that Christian existentialism was fake. Bit, then again, they like pushing Sisyphus' Boulder up that hill.

[Thomas Dai]

Tommy,
Viewing from behind a green (or the side) is a excellent way to appreciate a hole. Same looking back to a tee from the fairway.
Here's a photo based thread I raised on the subject a while ago with some splendid contributions from other posters - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,58979.0.html -
atb

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The classic is the 11th on TOC.

[Bob Montle]

This is a wonderful, thought provoking post.

As I played 18 holes yesterday, I looked back from the landing zones and from the green and had a completely new perspective on most of the holes.

From the tee it is easy to be distracted by trees, bunkers or even the view on the horizon, causing you to aim in a sub-optimal direction.

I am embarrassed by how poor my tactics have been for navigating the course.

IMHO, Dismal Red is very deceptive from the tees, in that it appears to be must more intimidating than it actually is. 
 I am eager to ride the course in reverse next month at the 5th Major taking detailed notes!

[Jeff Taylor]

It seems that looking back is the first command of the game of golf. Where is the best place from which to putt at the hole? To answer that you must know what part of the fairway gets you there. And so on back to the tee.

[Ira Fishman]

Legend and lore have it that Hogan prepared for tournaments by walking the course backwards. May or not be true, but as posts evidence, it is a very good idea.


As to life, my standard advice to younger people about careers is to try to imagine where they want to be in 5 or 10 years and then work backwards from that vision. It is not likely to happen on a straight line, but it gives a broader perspective on the question.

[Tom_Doak]

I used to walk courses backwards quite often, both to see the green contours first and to avoid following around a particular group of members.  I started doing it at tournaments when I was a kid so we could see all the different players and all of the holes at the same time.

[RJ_Daley]

Maybe if a fellow gets to have a course basically to himself on some rare occasion, he ought to start just off the 18th and try to hit to the ideal approach LZ, then try to hit driver or whatever onto where the teeing grounds are.  Do that by playing the entire course in reverse and try to hit he same club you would playing normally. 

[Thomas Dai]

There is a degree of temptation to start a thread on walking reversible courses backwards.
atb

[Tom_Doak]

Maybe if a fellow gets to have a course basically to himself on some rare occasion, he ought to start just off the 18th and try to hit to the ideal approach LZ, then try to hit driver or whatever onto where the teeing grounds are.  Do that by playing the entire course in reverse and try to hit he same club you would playing normally.

This is much easier to do with a pencil and a topo map

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I often take pictures looking back from behind greens. It only seems sensible. But, so often, people say 'But you never play it that way - so why take a picture of it'. All I can say is that it makes for a far more interesting book, course perspective or whatever.

[Tommy Williamsen]

It might be interesting to see the "cart girl's" perspective on a golf course. She drives backwards all day long.

[William_G]

any architect would know that some holes reveal more than others when looking backward from fairway or green to tee

it's like life again in the lexicon of golf as the analogy of life

[Sean_A]

I look back at holes all the time and sometimes take pix looking back...usually these pix just look blah because...well the hole is designed to be viewed the other way.  Sometimes that view can be telling....often about elevation change and the putting green.  Sometimes that view isn't very telling. 

Ciao

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()