Was just going thru the old Bausch Archives intro thread and noticed this fantastic post by the late great Neil Regan. What a treasure.
One thing that appeals to me often in these old newspapers is the vibrant enthusiasm for the game of golf.
It was still a young game in America, and much more of an adventure than nowadays.
And being pre-internet, stories of courses and shots became legends and myths.
Nowadays when you hear of a great hole or shot, you check it out on the web. Right away, the charm is gone because there is no waiting, no embellishing, no heightened imaginings.
Joe posted a few months ago a link to articles called Golf Holes They Talk About.Great holes have always been a seminal to golf’s appeal. But nowadays it seems we have heard already of every great hole, and seen every architectural notion somewhere.
I think we live in a time when golf courses have never been better,yet it’s rare that they capture the thrill of the early days. Below is a link to one of Joe’s finds, an article about Oakmont and its #12, 621 yards, a “plague” to golfers in this “Hades” of golf. A few tales of Jones and Armour, Fownes and Herron, Melhorn and Cooper.
It was still an era when you might ask how a golfer traversed “that long harassing route”, and hear about each shot as an episode in an adventure where golfers “epidemically died in droves.”
Nowadays, of course, the answer would more likely be a dronish monotone “Driver, 3 wood, wedge. ”Fun golf, perhaps, but not the same. So, a few questions:
1. Are those thrilling days gone forever
2. How long would must a hole be to match this 621-yard test from 100 years ago?
3. Does anybody know the history of the hole, when it was first hit in 2 shots, how often does that happen now ?
http://www.myphillygolf.com/uploads/archives/GolfHolesTheyTalkAbout/pages/page_8.html