Golf as a cross country adventure.

[Thomas Dai]

Well, should it be?
Atb

[Craig Sweet]

I have always been an advocate for a course in the Palouse of Washington state that begins in Ritzville and finishes just outside the Tri-Cities.   18 holes, 83 miles long, ( each hole averaging about 4.3 miles) lodging/food along every fairway.  Perhaps involve the tribe and have several on course casinos....The course could be called The Trail of Tears.

[Daryl David]

I have always been an advocate for a course in the Palouse of Washington state that begins in Ritzville and finishes just outside the Tri-Cities.   18 holes, 83 miles long, ( each hole averaging about 4.3 miles) lodging/food along every fairway.  Perhaps involve the tribe and have several on course casinos....The course could be called The Trail of Tears.

Wow. I never thought about that. There would be some awesome holes. Would need a helicopter instead of a golf cart though.

[Tom_Doak]

There is something like this [not really like this] in southwestern Australia . . . a series of towns or rest stops with one golf hole each on the road from Adelaide to Perth.  Something to break up the drive.


No, I've never seen it.

[Kalen Braley]

I have always been an advocate for a course in the Palouse of Washington state that begins in Ritzville and finishes just outside the Tri-Cities.   18 holes, 83 miles long, ( each hole averaging about 4.3 miles) lodging/food along every fairway.  Perhaps involve the tribe and have several on course casinos....The course could be called The Trail of Tears.

Good luck getting approval from all the farmers out that way, even if it interesting land out there....

[Daryl David]

There is something like this [not really like this] in southwestern Australia . . . a series of towns or rest stops with one golf hole each on the road from Adelaide to Perth.  Something to break up the drive.


No, I've never seen it.

“Break up the drive” brings back memories for me. I used play golf with my dad and a 90 year old retired sugar beet farmer in Moses Lake, WA.  He used to drive his wife to Spokane occasionally for shopping (about 90 minute drive) and would stop in Ritzville to play nine holes. When I asked him why since it wasn’t much of a course he replied, “to break up the trip” Classic.

[Craig Sweet]

Daryl, there's a Perkins or something right across the road from the golf course. Always a good excuse for a slice of pie and a "break in the drive".

[Peter Sayegh]

I have always been an advocate for a course in the Palouse of Washington state that begins in Ritzville and finishes just outside the Tri-Cities.   18 holes, 83 miles long, ( each hole averaging about 4.3 miles) lodging/food along every fairway.  Perhaps involve the tribe and have several on course casinos....The course could be called The Trail of Tears.

Wow. I wish I still had that kinda imagination.
(Since you didn't specify), walking only, right?

[John Handley]

We play cross-country golf at the Cal Club late in the evenings when the course is wide open.  It's a ton of fun.  Just hard to actually be able to do this unless the pro shop makes a x-country tournament.  We do a X-country tourney at Spanish Oaks in Austin but I don't like it because the layout doesn't set up for it like Cal Club does, especially on the back 9.

[Craig Sweet]

Peter, I was thinking we could outfit some old International Harvesters to haul bags. (including your change of clothes and lounge wear?

[Charlie Goerges]

I do love golf as an adventure, I like the idea of certain courses where you travel from point A to point B. But the kind of cross-country golf where, as kids, we'd combine multiple holes into a single hole, was only really fun in pretty small doses. My friends and I had ample opportunity to play that type of golf on a regular basis, but we rarely did. It was just kind of a slog hitting driver and then three fairway woods in a row or whatever. In fact, that experience is partially why I have so much time for extra, shorter tee boxes now. I didn't find it especially fun going driver, 3-wood, 3-wood, 3-wood, 8-iron, so why would I expect an elderly woman to enjoy it.


So I don't think I'd like a single hole that is 4.5 miles long. I might like an 18-hole course that goes 4.5 miles in one direction as part of a cool sight-seeing trip or something of that nature, but it would be sort of a novelty.

[Thomas Dai]

Is it necessary for a golfing cross-country adventure to be over more than a relatively short distance?
Can it not be over the distance of conventional holes?
Cannot the rugged, awkward nature of the terrain itself be the essence of the adventure?

atb

[Charlie Goerges]

Is it necessary for a golfing cross-country adventure to be over more than a relatively short distance?
Can it not be over the distance of conventional holes?
Cannot the rugged, awkward nature of the terrain itself be the essence of the adventure?

atb

This is true and my favorite courses already tend to have the feeling of "cross-country" if they use the available terrain to its best purpose (and at normal hole lengths).

[David Kelly]

The concept of cross-country golf reminds me of a few pop culture artifacts.


Dan Jenkins' story, The Glory Game at Goat Hills
P.G. Wodehouse's story, The Long Hole
Dinosaur Jr.'s music video for "Feel the Pain" directed by Spike Jonze, where the band's front man J Mascis plays golf through Manhattan.

[Brian Finn]

Is it necessary for a golfing cross-country adventure to be over more than a relatively short distance?
Can it not be over the distance of conventional holes?
Cannot the rugged, awkward nature of the terrain itself be the essence of the adventure?

atb

One of my favorite golf experiences was playing 'cross-country' at Kingsley during the 2013 Midwest Mashie, guided by one of gca's finest hosts.  Having already walked 36 holes that day, we were all pretty tired, but after teasing some of the potential "holes" during the prior round on the standard routing, our host had us all hungry for more.  The one "hole" I distinctly remember is 230 yards from the 6th tee to the 7th green.  To use Michael Clayton's terminology, it may be the best "hole that isn't a hole" I have ever played.  I've done this at quite a few courses, but the "holes" at Kingsley were so great that they felt like they could be part of the real course.  Any course where such "holes" can be played is likely to be among my favorites.

[Matthew Lloyd]

Is it necessary for a golfing cross-country adventure to be over more than a relatively short distance?
Can it not be over the distance of conventional holes?
Cannot the rugged, awkward nature of the terrain itself be the essence of the adventure?

atb

One of my favorite golf experiences was playing 'cross-country' at Kingsley during the 2013 Midwest Mashie, guided by one of gca's finest hosts.  Having already walked 36 holes that day, we were all pretty tired, but after teasing some of the potential "holes" during the prior round on the standard routing, our host had us all hungry for more.  The one "hole" I distinctly remember is 230 yards from the 6th tee to the 7th green.  To use Michael Clayton's terminology, it may be the best "hole that isn't a hole" I have ever played.  I've done this at quite a few courses, but the "holes" at Kingsley were so great that they felt like they could be part of the real course.  Any course where such "holes" can be played is likely to be among my favorites.

That’s a really fun shot to try


Another one at Kingsley that plays like a real par 3 is the 4th tee to the 6th green - where the slope to the left of the green turns into a giant false front

[Wayne_Kozun]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/jamie-kennedy-plays-50-mile-18-hole-golf-course-scotland

I played a 50-mile, 18-hole golf course. But why?
By Jamie Kennedy


When I was growing up, my family spent a few weeks each summer in North Berwick. The drive was just 30 minutes from our house in Edinburgh and took us along the coast of East Lothian, which is now known as “Scotland’s Golf Coast.” I would sit in the back of the car, wedged behind the driver’s seat of my 6-foot-5 dad driving, constantly staring out of the window. We would pass nothing but golf courses for miles and minutes at a time. Holes after holes, bunkers after bunkers, sand dunes after sand dunes. My brother and I would (naively) wonder if it was possible to “play” your way along the East Lothian coast, walking the whole way without ever leaving a golf course.


Well, it took me about 25 years but, last week, I actually did it.

[Charlie Goerges]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/jamie-kennedy-plays-50-mile-18-hole-golf-course-scotland

I played a 50-mile, 18-hole golf course. But why?
By Jamie Kennedy


When I was growing up, my family spent a few weeks each summer in North Berwick. The drive was just 30 minutes from our house in Edinburgh and took us along the coast of East Lothian, which is now known as “Scotland’s Golf Coast.” I would sit in the back of the car, wedged behind the driver’s seat of my 6-foot-5 dad driving, constantly staring out of the window. We would pass nothing but golf courses for miles and minutes at a time. Holes after holes, bunkers after bunkers, sand dunes after sand dunes. My brother and I would (naively) wonder if it was possible to “play” your way along the East Lothian coast, walking the whole way without ever leaving a golf course.


Well, it took me about 25 years but, last week, I actually did it.

I read that story and that is closest to what I would be interested in doing. If it's to be point A to point B, I like the idea of normal-sized golf holes of reasonably high quality.