IMHO our Game of Golf is really in crisis, we have been in The Dark Ages for years yet very few people have seemed to notice or are just not bothered.
We have introduced aids to get us over the course using all the excuses under the sun. Drunks are allowed to roam our courses upsetting and offending golfers. If that is not bad enough mature adults with total disregard for others and surely what can only be described as contempt for golf race carts on our golf courses. To compound the problem intelligent and able golfers have allowed themselves to fall into the trap of using artificial distance aids thus finding it difficult to wean themselves off these toys. An over exaggeration perhaps, but then perhaps not.
What saddens me even more is that on this site there are those who condone this behaviour. Accepting that drink is to be tolerated on a course as well as other activities and then have the audacity to say “calling golf and cart golf 2 different games seems ridiculous”. What’s ridicules is how we have allowed the standards in golf to fall to these levels. I accept the idea of equality but to achieve it by going down to the lowest common denominator is IMO the wrong way to go.
To those of you who feel that the current standards are acceptable and that they are not hurting golf, well all I can say it that is your right in a free society. I therefore feel I would be wasting my breath if I tried to persuade you to the contrary. If there are any others on this site that feel that our game is being harmed, don’t hold back, speak your mind and raise the points with your friends & clubs/courses.
I maybe considered by many to be aggressive, insulting and generally anti anyone who does not agree with my opinions, but at least I am trying to point out the problems albeit as I see them. Will no others come forward, those who feel as passionately about golf as I do, will you not come forward and fight the good fight for all of us who still believe that there is something to fight for. Forget the flag waving. This is about golfers, wanting to play the game the way we were brought up with it. Or am I alone and only supporting my own interests & beliefs
Will there be any interest in history if we allow the drunks and the part timers to take over the game. In 10 years they may well be saying who is D Ross, Mackenzie, Tillinghast, Colt etc., etc., is this what you all want, if not then do something as clearly many don’t agree with my approach.
I will continue to voice my opinion, whether it appears to make sense or comes over as aggressive, because I believe that there is something there to fight for. Yet, my game in GB is not threatened as it is in other parts of the world, perhaps it has much to do with our club scene which still has a belief in upholding some sort of etiquette on the courses.
As for the architects on this forum, you also have a major part to play. Accepting commissions when you know that the concept is flawed before you start, hurts the game. Yes, you have to eat, and someone else will accept the job but that does not negate your own responsibility to yourself. If you want to steer us through these Dark Ages you must stand or fight from within. Agree or disagree with me, fine but you are the front. Or are you ultimately just making a living out of golf as the passion has been totally eroded due to the mundane courses developers require to sell their new houses? You are our first and last line of defence. What can you do to help revert the fortunes of our game of golf?
Melvyn