Having written a number of books which have included good, bad and indifferent courses, I quickly developed an eye for looking for the good and overlooking or ignoring the bad, and very rarely did I find a course about which there is nothing positive to be said. Unfortunately there are just such awful courses in this area - bottom of the market pay-and-play - and you just want to ask them quietly to go away and don't let potential golfers think that this is the real thing. Apart from that I get a lot of pleasure in actually seeking out the good points of a course, which is why I enjoy many of our lesser courses. However, I do not have a lot of money to spare for golf so I am talking about low green fees which perhaps makes me keener to find their good points. Painswick was perfect for me on those counts - except that I couldn't play it! It means, of course, that my eye is so trained that when occasionally I set foot on an architectural masterpiece I usually manage to spot most of the great and lesser features and I appreciate the honour of being there all the more.
I suppose it's the same with wine. As long as the wine is honestly made, true to its grape varities and terroir and fairly priced, I can get pleasure from a 2-euro bottle of rose washing down a simple salade nicoise. Perhaps at the weekend one of the new wave Bordeaux fringe reds (have you experienced some of the things currently coming out of Blaye, for instance?) at around £10, and for Christmas perhaps a Roumier Chambolle-Musigny at ca £25. The point about the Chambolle is that it isn't Le Musigny or Bonnes-Mares, but it is from a grower who lavishes as much care and attention to his straight village wine as he does on his Grands Crus. Similarly a lesser-known, comparatively humble Colt or Fowler course of perhaps under 6,000 yards will give me as much pleasure at £25-30 a round as almost anything above £50 apart from the undoubted greats.