[Bob_Huntley]

I did not attend the Autumn Meeting this year, but a good friend has advise me that the sprinkler heads at TOC now have distances painted on them. I should imagine that ten members died of apoplexy.

[Mike_Cirba]

That piercing scream you just heard was Tommy Naccarato inserting hot needles into his eyeballs.    

[mike_beene]

Pinsheets,also.

[John_D._Bernhardt]

There is no course on earth that should not go south so to speak on this issue. Part of the glory of playing this grand course is putting it all together. I can see how they might crack to speed the americans up though. John

[Tommy_Naccarato]

This doesn't surprize me one bit. It was bound to happen.

If you have to have the yardage to play the Old Course, you don't belong on the Old Course. Simple as that.

I would imagine that Phil the Author will disagree with this also.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

SIZZLE-----ARRRRGHHHHHH!!!! SIZZLE-----ARRRRGH!!!!!!!

(The sound of those hot needles piercing my corneas)

[Doug Siebert]

I don't see this as a problem, even for traditionalists.  When I was there, I had a caddy who would tell me the yardage, or I could use a strokesaver had I not opted for a caddy.  But a lot of the time, knowing the distance is only a part of the battle, when the wind is up 150 yards can mean a large range of possible clubs, a lot of possible shots.  Anyone who is totally lost without the yardage might gain some false confidence playing from next to a marked sprinkler head, but it won't help him when he lands a high spinning shot halfway up the Valley of Sin.

Once the Old Course got sprinkler heads in the first place, the traditionalists had already lost.  "The avalanche has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."

[ChipOat]

Yardage from a fixed spot is public knowledge that is permitted under the rules (one may ask one's opponent in match play/playing partner in stroke play).

Erego - why not?  On a course like TOC, it's only the beginning, anyway - especially on a windy day.

What is so sacred about yardage judgement being a mandatory skill?  Especially when terrain doesn't allow for it?

Or what is so sacred that only a CADDY is permitted to know yardages?  Why not the player with no caddy (or a bad one)?

Public knowledge permissable under the rules should be equally disseminated to all players whether they're playing TOC, TNC, TJC, TEC, etc.

[Steve Lang]

While my heart goes out to those ten member's families who recently passed away due to the marking of sprinkler heads, another sacred transgression also recently occurred there in the R&A clubhouse... TV cameras from the Golf Channel !!! Arrrggggh Hurrrrrumph, shameful commercialism!

Sometimes one needs a good COR!  

[Robert Kimball]

Next up -- golf carts with GPS systems!!

"Let's see, it says here that I need to carry
it 167.5 yards to clear the. . . .AAHHHHH (sound of
wayward cart falling into Hell Bunker).  

[A_Clay_Man]

Speeding up Play? I think it does just the opposite. Since I have never palyed TOC I assume there are no 150 markers, so what the hell is the difference? I can envision a sprinkler head the size of War and peace... 150 to center 122 to the knoll on the right that will kick you left and so on and so on.

They really must be running out of places to spend all those extra pounds that they are now charging?

[Rick Shefchik]

Leave the pin sheet at the starter's shack and don't look at the sprinkler heads. While you're at it, if your caddie attempts to tell you how many yards you have left to the green, tell him to shut up.

[Dan Kelly]

Rick --

You don't belong on the Old Course.

Simple as that.

 

[Stephen Lang]

They have a nice little pocket book on TOC you can buy that tells all, gives you flight line sightings/targets on the far away hills and steeples and yardages to all those nasty hazards... We walked TOC on a sunday and came back prepared on Monday with great delight to walk and get minor assistance from the NY and NJ guy's caddies we played with,  since they couldn't execute what they were told ...  The caddies adopted me quickly.

Oh yes, keep it left and away from anything with a name, bounce it to the pin and you too can shoot a 77.

[Forrest Richardson]

Let us look to the sprinker heads themselves as the source of this problem.

[John_Cullum]

Leave the pin sheet at the starter's shack and don't look at the sprinkler heads. While you're at it, if your caddie attempts to tell you how many yards you have left to the green, tell him to shut up.

Hell, just go ahead and play blindfolded for the ultimate experience.

[Lou_Duran]

No need to worry about the speed of play at TOC.  The Trust fully understands profit maximization and its corp of marshalls is the best at getting people around in four hours or less.  During my only round there I spent so much time hunting for the two assigned playing partners' foul balls that it didn't leave any time for studying the golf course.  As I recall, the course guide had the distances to/from all the major points, so marking the sprinkler heads should not be that big of a deal to the "purists" (mainly, those who have developed a competitive advantage vis-a-vis the occasional visitor through experience).  I was also under the impression that yardages on windswept links were meaningless, so no one should really care if us left-brain dominant types are provided with a placebo.

[Brian Phillips]

I think it will speed up play.  Most visitors buy a strokesaver as a momento anyway.  Even with the yardage it doesn't really help on the Old course.

When I played the reverse this year they had pin position sheets, yardage book and distances in the book from all sorts of positions including sprinkler heads.

I don't see anything srong with it.

If Tommy had his way we would still be playing the reverse...

Brian

[A_Clay_Man]

Talk about driving into the Hell bunker...

I met a brit here, a month or so ago, and he told me the story about this Japanese tourist bus that unloaded at TOC. One of the golfers (ha) hit a ball so poorly on one that he ended up on the 18th green. Without removing the ball from where it lay the tourist took a mighty swat with his 3 wood, off of the putting surface. The story isn't about him it was about the elderly greenskeeper who was riding his rickity old mower and couldn't believe his eyes and was transfixed on this Japanese man playing away from the 18th green. In his trance the riding mower drove straight into a bunker as the golfer (ha) played his shot.

[Marty Bonnar]

Adam,
Clearly an apocryphal story, based on two crucial pieces of evidence!!!
1. The Old Course Greenkeepers use only brand-new Jacobson ride-ons, and:
2. As there isn't a bunker within 360 yds of the 18th Green, and as the nearest happens to be the Road Hole Bunker, he would've needed exceptional visual acuity to observe the situation AND the mower would STILL be buried in 'The Sands of Nakajima'!!!

FBD

[ForkaB]

Martin(fbd)

How about:

3.  Hitting the ball from the 1st tee to the 18th green is just about physically imposiible, since even if you manage the proper outside in heel shot, the natural slope of the 18th green (particularly the Valley of Sin) will feed your ball inexorably down towards the 18th fairway.

[A_Clay_Man]

FBD- I knew that, but the story relayed to me may be true if we change bunker to hazard. Also, It was probably many years ago, so who knows?

The gentleman seemed intrigued when I told him of this website, so maybe someday he can correct all the mistakes I made in telling of his story. I'd contact him but his handwritting was so small I can't read his email addy.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

yes, the two key peices of evidence do kill this story. However in the spirit of JFK and Seinfeld, lets revisit the story. It seems the tee shot on 1 was almost a whiff and the off the toe as the ball bounced off the green hole maker to the right of the tee and doinked somewhat backward toward 18 green bouncing off the steps to the R&A and rolling on 18 green. The clanging sound of the shot off the metal was muffled by the jets from Luechers who are believed to be involved in the war in Iraq which is no where near St. Andrews. One called him a Jap tourist to protect the elite friends of Palmer, Uber, Clint and the boys who are running Pebble down the tubes and want to say all is better now than when the japs ran it.(WRONG). If you say anything enough, people will believe it, right Rummy! In fact it was an American who hoped off a tour bus to make this most poor of swings on the first hole. Only an American would not be able to tell that was the 18th green for he never sees a natural green and thought it was closely mowed fairway. He is a member of a Rees Jones course and his friends play at an Art Hills club in Naples so this is to be understood. As for the Super. Americans in tour buses are soon to be the death of him. He misses the good old days when the little yellow people would take pictures of every sea shell in Hell's bunker. He sees this fool of a man playing off 18 green and he drives down the hill(mound) behind 17 green toward the Tickle Inn. He was getting the first drink of the day. In his fury and to keep his drink from spilling, he inadvertantly drives into the road hole bunker turning the vehical over but never spilling a drop as he cusses the exsistance of every nonstop flight from Newark to Glasgow with American golfers on them.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Sarge,

I'm with you.

If you don't want to use them, don't use them.

What's the difference if a caddy tells you you're 150 or you read it on a sprinkler head ?

What if you don't have the benefit of a caddy ?

What if you're exactly 150 and your caddy tells you you're 180 ?

This is not a private golf course like PV or FH.
It gets incredible play from tourists, first timers, people who have traveled thousands of miles.

As Sarge says, play blindfolded, or tee off after midnight.

Get over it, its not the end of the world, and it's not that important in the scheme of life.

[Paul_Daley]

Hopefully the Management Trust are veiwing this merely as an experiment, and have an eye to remove the dyno tape yardage, when and if the experiment fails. I sense it will fail, and mainly because of the "Walley's" who'll prance around trying to imitate what they see on television. I'm looking for this initiative to increase slow play, not reduce it.

To me, the Old Course experience has always been: go and play by sight and feel; or alternatively, go and play and take a caddie to soak up the atmosphere and tradition.

Goodness, I hope drink carts swooning by are not to follow.      

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