Pasture Golf

[Matt_Ward]

Great story in today's Wall Street Journal (front page of Weekend Journal) that goes into depth about "real" golf played on some interesting designs -- minus all the manicuring and fake imagery you might see at many "traditional" courses today.

There's even a Web address Pasturegolf.com that might cause a surge in golf -- albeit in a slightly different form. I'm waiting for "traditional" facilities to include a "survivor's course" where people can return to nature and play through any number of unique and clearly out of the norm obstacles.

What's interesting is how a growing group of "traditional" players are souring with the high escalation of fees and how removed they believe the game is from its roots. There's an interesting statistic highlighted in the article which mentions how annual rounds of golf played grew by 17% during the 90's but with the recent glut of courses, coupled with the down economy, caused a 3% drop in rounds played in 2002 and the forecast for '03 doesn't look much better.

I don't know if I'm up to the challenge of Pasture golf but for those looking to return to golf in its native form it might be worthwhile to give it a try.

P.S. When carts are used they actually bring the 4x4 with them. I always knew there was a real reason why to buy an SUV! By the way if they have a vintage Jersey course I'm hoping it features urban holes where you have to duck around traffic while playing!

[ForkaB]

Matt

I'm too lazy to go to the WSJ link, but your post reminds me of a round I played with friends at Fort William GC in the early 80's.  The course (in the shadow of Ben Nevis) wsa new and the greens were superb, but the fairways........

Well, those green cow pastures of Britain that look so lovely from the vantage point of one's car at a 1/2 mile or so away, when viewed up close and personal...........

....they are rutted and mucky and full of cow patties and wafting odours of cow piss.  The proper "maintenance meld" for a coed mud-wrestling tournament, but not for a game of golf.

We were on our way form Dornoch to Turnberry, and weren't planning to play, but my pals were desperate for a game after 4 hours in the car.  Of course, this happened to be the first round that we had agreed would be played by strict Marquess of Huntley rules--"play it as it lies, or die!"  It was murder.

But (SILVER LINING ALERT!!!!!) from that point on, I knew for sure why golf, at it's best, was and is only played on linksland, where even cow patties eventually merge seamlessly with the soil.......

[ward peyronnin]

Rich,

Skip wsj and go to the website- Pasturegolf.com- what a gas. I'm seriously wondering if this "movement" is worth GCA analysis. These all appear to be amateur efforts(no money involved to pay professsionals) but it could be a great entry strategy for beginners( like drinking Gallo in college)

[Bill_McBride]

Some of my fondest childhood golf memories are of playing on my little hometown cow pasture, Newnan (GA) CC.  Nine holes, bare patches, what a gas.  Now they've got 18 new holes and it's no where near as much fun.  But on the road from Apache Stronghold back into Scottsdale last January, we passed what had to be the ultimate pasture golf course.  It was maybe 20 miles due east.  Out in what looked like one enormous waste bunker there were 20 or more golfers, some with pull carts, no electric carts, and sand greens, sand tees, and a whole lot of sand "fairways."  It looked like they were having a great time.  And I'll be the "greens" fees were cheap as hell!  The next day I asked the staff at Talking Stick about the course -- they said those guys are out there all the time.

[Tom_Doak]

The photo on the front page of my website now is of my associates playing at Cape Kidnappers before construction started.  The sheep and cows had grazed the fairways down to the nibs, so we were getting 50+ yards of roll after our drives landed, as long as we didn't hit an animal.  (We hit three in fifteen holes.)

Cape Kidnappers is one hell of a pasture.

Maybe someone who sees this can figure out how to transfer the photo over to here; it's on the front page of www.renaissancegolf.com

When the boys did play golf in the Napier area, they mostly played at a nine-hole sheep pasture course about 20 miles south of Cape Kidnappers ... I can't remember the name of it, but they loved it.  In truth, 50% of the golf in New Zealand is pasture golf.

[Craig Disher]

[Steve Lang]

PastureGolf.Com's website is a hoot!... the power of the internet and a healthy sense of humor, family, and self esteem at display in the NW.. make best of what you have and enjoy the ritual!

Definitely Grateful Dead heads at their best, nice tie-dye!

I wish the internet had been as easy to use in the mid 60's, i would have created SchoolYardgolf.com

[Bruce_Dixon]

I must admit I have the dubious distinction of having a course I designed featured on the website.  Chisholm Trail, in Abilene, KS.  A course I worked on while in Graduate School at Kansas State.

It is a wonderful piece of land and exploring the myriad of routings was a great opportunity.  

Bruce

[Jim Sweeney]

Does Oakhurst Links qualify as pasture golf?

[Paul_Turner]

Bruce

That isn't dubious at all.  Your course is now in the company of the GCA famous-Painswick!

I haven't played much pasture golf, although I did often practice in a local field as a child-the mole hills were interesting bunker practice.  

The equivalent to pasture golf in Britain, is golf on the Common (like Painswick).  Even the great Bernard Darwin loved golf on Common land, he thought it had a wild spirit that parkland golf never could have.

More power to the Pasture golfers.