Difficult And Fun

[archie_struthers]

 


I don't know if I would consider Lakeside difficult    but it sure is fun and a special place to play.


Was lucky to play in a tournament there a few years back and really enjoyed it !

[Jeff Schley]

I think of PGA West Stadium. A stern test for amateurs, can be tight off the tee, mounding gives you uneven lies and hazards on just about every shot. Requires focus, but the variety of the course for it being a desert course is pretty strong, you have some short / long, etc. Maybe a bit too many hazards for many but I do like that challenge.

[David Ober]

I don't know if I would consider Lakeside difficult    but it sure is fun and a special place to play.


Was lucky to play in a tournament there a few years back and really enjoyed it !

It's extremely difficult a certain time of year for the Kelly Cup. That's the time I usually play it, though I have played many times when it's benign also.

[Mark_Fine]

Like most all of these topics we discuss and debate, it comes down to definitions.  How do you define fun?  At least no one defined fun as “easy”. 


My son and his girlfriend just competed in a “Tough Mudder” event with a few of their friends.  For those who don’t know, this is a roughy 10 mile obstacle course that you have to survive.  My son thought it was so much fun. His one friend thought it was hell.  Golf courses can be perceived just as differently. 


One thing I will say is that for any course to be considered fun, it has to have some level of challenge but the level of challenge is all relative.

[David Ober]

I think of PGA West Stadium. A stern test for amateurs, can be tight off the tee, mounding gives you uneven lies and hazards on just about every shot. Requires focus, but the variety of the course for it being a desert course is pretty strong, you have some short / long, etc. Maybe a bit too many hazards for many but I do like that challenge.

Exactly. Perfect example. From 6400 to 6800, that course is loads of fun to me.

[Ira Fishman]

So best as I can tell, most of you agree with Mike Clayton's article and many of the same people disagree with it.


Ira

[Peter Pallotta]

So best as I can tell, most of you agree with Mike Clayton's article and many of the same people disagree with it.
Ira

To borrow JJ Hunsecker's line from The Sweet Smell of Success: 'My right hand hasn't seen my left hand in 30 years'

[Mike_Clayton]

So best as I can tell, most of you agree with Mike Clayton's article and many of the same people disagree with it.


Ira

Ira,


Which makes it good, right?

[Gib_Papazian]

I've always defined "fun" as wholly dependent on whether a golf course is more whimsical adventure than antiseptic examination.


The intrinsic difficulty in shooting this or that score is largely irrelevant if you're having a blast. In other words, I do not mind getting beaten to a pulp if every hole presents an opportunity to get creative and solve the riddle.


Subjective golf trumps objective golf every time.


That is one of the reasons I find WF West such a charmless chore. I already know I suck these days - I do not need Tillie to shove an electric proctoscope up my rectum 18 times to emphasize the point - and it does not matter if I play from the same tees as Constance Havershire, it is still an exercise in aerial acrobatics.






   


   

[Peter Pallotta]

Subjective golf trumps objective golf every time

+1
Hallelujah!
Perfectly and pithily said.
That, it seems to me, is the heart of it all.
This website celebrates the birth -- I won't even say re-birth -- of subjective golf course architecture.

[JMEvensky]

Subjective golf trumps objective golf every time

+1
Hallelujah!
Perfectly and pithily said.
That, it seems to me, is the heart of it all.
This website celebrates the birth -- I won't even say re-birth -- of subjective golf course architecture.

+1.5 (have to take off half a point for the WF-W diss).


And I thought you'd go with the "but objectivity is subjective" quote.

[Bill Gayne]

I think most proper links course with some wind are easily difficult and fun. Lahinch immediately comes to mind as a great example of well balanced between difficult and fun.

[Kalen Braley]

Completely agree with Gib's quick quip!

P.S.  And this is why we run into so much absurdity in trying to objectively objectify subjective courses into measurable subject areas...and put them in a ratings list.