[Mike Hendren]

Is it not easier to bash the publics than the privates?    Is that a dynamic on this site?


Bogey

[Jason Topp]

Is it easier to bash your host's house or a hotel room?

[John Kavanaugh]

True. Pasa. There is a private course in the area that is no better. Why do I keep my mouth shut? There is no benefit from warning people about which they are immune. It’s just noise.

[Garland Bayley]

Why is it even necessary to ask?

[Sean_A]

Two things.

People have thin skin these days.

Almost all of the time the context of negative comments is couched within the general idea that the course is good.

People have thin skin.

Ciao

[Ira Fishman]

We try to pick our courses carefully because we have limited time. Fortunately, the folks here help us choose wisely. We do not get to play private courses too often so I have no view on bashing public versus private. However, I agree with Sean that folks tend to be polite about well known courses/designers. We have played four courses in the past few years that I think are vastly overrated:


Castle Stuart
Kingsbarns
PH4
PH8


I am not in the golf business so I do not care what people think. But then again, that means that they do not care what I think.


But more thick skins would be a good thing.


Ira

[Anthony Gray]

 
 You don’t want to bash a course you are grateful to play. It’s bad etiquette maybe. If you are fortunate to play a private course you may be obligated to be kind in your evaluations.

[Jim_Coleman]

  It is more polite to insult a man’s wife than his golf course.

[Brock Lynch]

We try to pick our courses carefully because we have limited time. Fortunately, the folks here help us choose wisely. We do not get to play private courses too often so I have no view on bashing public versus private. However, I agree with Sean that folks tend to be polite about well known courses/designers. We have played four courses in the past few years that I think are vastly overrated:


Castle Stuart
Kingsbarns
PH4
PH8


I am not in the golf business so I do not care what people think. But then again, that means that they do not care what I think.


But more thick skins would be a good thing.


Ira

To disagree does not mean that one has thin skin.
I respectfully disagree with your take on PH4 and PH8.

[Ira Fishman]

Brock,


Agree completely. The path to learning is through candid discourse even if that entails disagreement.


I have posted elsewhere my critiques of PH4 and PH8. I would welcome your views.


Ira

[Joe_Tucholski]

If folks were paying in the $300 range for some of the private courses they get to visit (the cost at many high end publics that are often "bashed") I think there would be a greater number of critiques.  How many of the high end publics comp raters?

[Mike_Young]

People don't bash the average subdivision home in this country because they understand they were not built where they would matter in a "bashing" discussion  but we do compare them based on how they are maintained.  Public golf is the same....OH..BTW..courses such as TP or Bethpage Black are not "public" courses...

[Ronald Montesano]

Thin skin or jerky knees?

[mike_beene]

Every golf course I have ever played had someone who put there energy into it either as an employee or patron. Maybe they don’t have the same skill or land or budget, but I bet they are proud of their course. It may be we don’t know the pro or turf person or regulars at the public course while we don’t want to offend the member who invited us. Impossible to purely evaluate a place when you know the people. Conflict of interest, I think.

[Bill Gayne]

It's easier and more comfortable to criticize public golf because you go there with the mindset of being the consumer or customer. The provider of the good or service needs to meet my demands, the customer is "always right," and afterwards I'm free to say whatever I want. It's no different than bashing an airline.


At private clubs we are often still paying for the experience but as a guest we have a mindset of being subservient to the member. Members generally aren't looking for their guests to feel subservient but that's the way most guests feel.


Public course bashing is much more straight forward and have more generalizations. There's always the value equation in the criticism.


Whereas private course bashing will be more nuanced and balanced out "with all due respect" and "in all fairness."

[Will Spivey]

The first sentence on the home page of this website:


"Golfclubatlas.com exists to promote frank commentary on golf course architecture."

[Andrew Harvie]

I am not welcome at a couple private clubs in Canada because I'm one of the few voices to publically question its merit, but no public course would not take my $125.

[Carl Rogers]

I do not see the point of critiquing modestly priced "neighborhood" courses.
Non descrip high priced golf, for me, is the problem.  Golden Horseshoe Green and Greenbrier in Tidewater VA are 2 examples.

[Ira Fishman]

The first sentence on the home page of this website:


"Golfclubatlas.com exists to promote frank commentary on golf course architecture."

Yep. But oh well.

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