Blind Holes – are these disappearing because of our reliance on Distance/Yardage Information?
I totally enjoy playing new or unfamiliar courses, as the unknown offers more of a challenge which in turn converts into fun factor. A blind hole is just as rewarding, particularly if the Green Keeper his highly creative in varying his choice of hole position.
Has the modern Architect been forced into minimising this feature on today’s course?
Has the modern need for distance/yardage information and pin location resulted in the demise of this type of great hole?
Golf is about the challenge of overcoming obstacles and hazards place in the way to the hole. The game is all about the uncertainties, not just land based but airborne, yet the modern courses have slowly given way to make the golfers life easy. We have the carts, then the cart tracks, to make the modern golfer feel at ease with himself, perhaps to disperse the thought that he is lazy, the introduction of the No Walking Course requiring the use of carts. No blind holes as electronic distance aids are of little help unless you see the flag.
In short, is there any challenge apart from reducing ones score, is there any fun in what seems to be the modern approach of wham bam thank you mam golf.
There appears no time for total enjoyment of the game itself, we seem to start the game as the early motor racing drivers running to their cars, merely running for the carts, fast down the tracks off the fairway to the ball, quick play with the toys or search for yardage info from the course, select the club gained from the outside source, hit the ball (to the exact distance specified – Oh yes how many are that good?), jump on the cart down the path again to repeat the same procedure until you are on the green – perhaps that is when you have time to understand the hole you have just played, no of course not, you are on your way back to the cart noting your score. Hole after hole this is the way modern golf is played, no time for the golfer to take in the course, the environment or actually understand the game being played. Machines to do the walking, machines or markers to do the measurement, all the golfer has to do is hit the ball, yet because of all that is going on around him, he misses the very thing and reason for playing the game in the first place – the fun of it, the enjoyment of the outdoors and the natural world around him.
The Blind Hole forces the golfer to take responsibility for his actions – it may not stop the cart, but his distance aids will be of little use as no pin in sight, distance markers of very little use unless you are aware of the location of the flag. In other words the golfer has to take control, he/she has to think of the shot, the surroundings and the hidden hazards hopefully cleverly positioned by the architect. The course suddenly becomes alive, the challenge awaits you and you remember why you
took up golf in the first place.
So I encourage all of you to play courses with a blind hole or two, to persuade the architects to reintroduce the practice. If nothing else, a good designed blind hole will force the golfer in you to reappear. For a few minutes in every game you play the game as it was originally played when it became popular. I do believe that if you give it a chance you will totally enjoy the experience of you alone against the hole.
I believe that the reliance on distance/yardage information is one of the reasons why blind holes are not as popular as they once were.