If TOC were grazed........

[Thomas Dai]

This thread kind of follows on from a thread I raised a few weeks ago about GB&I courses on grazed common land - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,64314.msg1533023.html#msg1533023

If TOC were grazed by sheep, cattle, horses etc, like the courses highlighted in the above mentioned thread are and as it would once have been and the condition reflected this, would the course still be held in such high esteem? What if it only had 3-4 greenstaff looking after it?

Would The Open still be held there at all let alone every 5 years or so? Would folk bother to travel thousands of miles to play it?

Or would it be seen as a golfing anachronism, not a serious test of golf, a relic from the past, a scruffy muni even?

atb

[Sean_A]

ATB

TOC is a bit of a scruffy muni...isn't it?

Many don't take it as a serious championship venue because the scores there are usually fairly low for a major. 

I don't know if less people would turn up to play around sheep, but I would turn up more often.

Ciao

[Niall C]

I wouldn't, not at those prices.


Niall

[jeffwarne]

One of the problems facing the temporarily oversupplied golf world due to the overbuilt. over promoted era, is that many, many courses homogonize themselves-especially as they attempt to be all things to all people to attract and retain as many players as possible--often forgetting that sometimes an acquired taste,often requiring a bit of education, is a better taste, and that information and history often produce the most ardent golf enthusiasts and therefore loyal and lifelong players.


TOC is not an exception, it just had a far superior starting point as a very natural, unique layout, with tradition and history on its side.
Little tweaks here and there, growing rough between fairways rendering some safer play zones unplayable(formerly playable at the expense of an angle), green speed increases (that created potentially undue havoc when very high winds blew) massive lengthening to keep "relevant" in the ruling bodies head in sand era, etc.


Many simply aren't interested in history and point to our everyday ever changing lives as evidence that golf needs to change as well-to "keep up"-or worse yet, to "identify" the best players.


If the course were grazed it would play far better as the new found rough would be more playable and more choices would abound, even if they yielded worse angles. Better yet, if they allowed the greens just to slow a bit for championship play, they could use interesting pins cut in slopes, rather than the benign flattish places most ruling bodies now seek, and often create, for championship pins.


The Open unfortunately would go away from TOC as the R&A have generally been just a few steps behind the race to the bottom led by the USGA and their tolerance/encouragement of overconditioning and unsustainability, ironically in an era where sustainability in other industries is at least a buzzword, if not a mandate.


The good news is that there are MANY courses that are built and maintained in the more primitive manner that I prefer, so if the tourists still think they can stay at Kohler's St. Andrews's properties and play the the Old Course under the conditions THEY prefer, we're all happy.