What is your GCA guilty pleasure?

[Matthew Rose]

Yardage books.

Hey, you don't have to use them for their intended purpose.

I collect them, because I like the pictures and diagrams, not necessarily because they help me play - most of the ones I got are course I've never played anyway.

[Andrew Mitchell]

Yardage books.

Hey, you don't have to use them for their intended purpose.

I collect them, because I like the pictures and diagrams, not necessarily because they help me play - most of the ones I got are course I've never played anyway.

Matt
I collect them also, as a souvenir of the courses I've played, but must admit to using them whilst playing

[Rich Goodale]

I'm a High Maintenance junkie.  Or as Buddy Holly said in "Learning the Game:"

"...........Fairways unbroken and putts that run true,
that's what is meant by The Game..............."

[Sam Morrow]

 I like hills. Growing up on the Gulf Coast I play lots of courses that are flat by the standards of most.

[rjsimper]

Ocean

[Tom Huckaby]

OK far be it from me to try to add depth to an otherwise light, fun topic....

But I still don't get why anyone should feel GUILT for many of the things mentiond on this thread.

Many things can turn one on about this game and its venues... why feel guilty about any other than those that might directly harm the game?

TH

[Garland Bayley]

  Water. I like a course that uses ... lakes, ponds, ocean and sea to its fullest.

So why is it that you go to Scotland every year?

[Anthony Gray]

  Water. I like a course that uses ... lakes, ponds, ocean and sea to its fullest.

So why is it that you go to Scotland every year?

  The weomen don't tempt me.

  Anthony

[Garland Bayley]

Playing golf.

Slag,

You beat me to it.

I learned in a cow pasture with sand greens. Anything with some grass beats that. I may have my criticisms of courses (like Shadow Hills with nary a hill anywhere) but I still love playing the game there or anywhere.

[Charlie Goerges]

But I still don't get why anyone should feel GUILT for many of the things mentiond on this thread.

Because "What is your GCA Unconventional (for a hard-core GCAer) Pleasure" was too long a title.

 

[Tom Huckaby]

But I still don't get why anyone should feel GUILT for many of the things mentiond on this thread.

Because "What is your GCA Unconventional (for a hard-core GCAer) Pleasure" was too long a title.

 

Well said.  That is really what this refers to, indeed.  If anyone feels real guilt for any of this, however... well.. time to take some time off from this forum.

 

[Bill Brightly]

Being able to hit a green in regulation from the wrong fairway!

Hitting a driver so badly that I missed all the rough, trees, water and bunkers the designer had in mind...picking the right iron to fly back over all the stuff I missed, then plopping it on the green like a pro!

[cary lichtenstein]

Cart gals with big mounds, kind of like blind shots

[Mike_Cirba]

The Merion threads...I think it was Kelly who called me out saying that they were like Heroin to some of us and I have to admit he was right.

Still, despite the bloodshed and loss, I do think the history is now finally understood to a much greater degree than prior, and follow-up research by fellows like Wayne Morrison and Joe Bausch have really helped to put the whole story of early Philadelphia GCA in context.

[Cory Lewis]

For me it would be bad mountain golf courses, you know the kind, the routing makes no sense, you have to hit 6 iron off the tee on a par 4, then hit 3 wood for your 2nd shot.  You hit balls 40 yards over the green because the yardage is wrong or you can't figure out the elevation change.  Even though I have never had a good round in this situation, it's the strange kind of suffering that is very fun!

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

I, like many others on this forum, prefer minimalist, natural architecture that looks like the mother nature created, with firm and fast conditions.

I know an island green is an abomination that goes against nature and I feel the shame mentioning this fact around here, but it is a guilty pleasure that I just cannot resist.

Why do you say that ?

Tillinghast employed Island greens, as did Macdonald, Raynor and Banks.

I've never heard any of their Island green holes categorized as "an abomination against nature"

Have you ever played NGLA ?

The sixth green is effectively an Island green, and one of the great par 3's in golf, what's so abominable about it ?

[Kyle Harris]

For me it would be bad mountain golf courses, you know the kind, the routing makes no sense, you have to hit 6 iron off the tee on a par 4, then hit 3 wood for your 2nd shot.  You hit balls 40 yards over the green because the yardage is wrong or you can't figure out the elevation change.  Even though I have never had a good round in this situation, it's the strange kind of suffering that is very fun!

I've got just the place for you. A little north of Schuylkill and a little south of Valley.

[Mike Wagner]

1.  Pete Dye
2.  Extreme elevation changes
3.  Range finders

[Ian_L]

OK far be it from me to try to add depth to an otherwise light, fun topic....

But I still don't get why anyone should feel GUILT for many of the things mentiond on this thread.

Many things can turn one on about this game and its venues... why feel guilty about any other than those that might directly harm the game?

TH

Now I feel guilty about having guilty pleasures... 

I love yardage guides, and there are some courses where they really are necessary for a first round (e.g. the Bandon courses, just to find the next tee).  They also provide great memories.

[RSLivingston_III]

Playing as a single, on a great course, when it is virtually empty.

[Gib_Papazian]

I am sure I'd be aghast if I saw this at NGLA or Cypress Point, but I've got to admit a certain partiality to a smokin' hot, 30-something beer cart girl in tennis shorts and low cut top. Yes, I do flirt shamelessly, yes I tip them pretty well and yes I am inclined to have one too many because I cannot resist a cold beer served by a sexy woman.

Sorry, but as I have gotten older and come around to the Tom Paul "Big Tent" theory, it is easier to simply give up the pretenses of a golfing purist once in a while and enjoy the CCFAD experience for its empty entertainment. All Fazio courses look alike, but they are always in great shape and visually alluring, so there is no harm in throwing my bag on a buggy (though I still walk) and clearing my bleeding brain of thought for an afternoon.

In the end, I think it becomes a form of mediation, like contemplating my navel. There was a time when I somehow felt dirty having compromised my lofty principles; when I was younger and more idealistic, I fancied myself above this sort of overpriced, strategically bereft, "Corporate Outing" pap-golf.

Now, I am just another middle-aged dork waddling down the fairway playing the "hold on for dear life block-shot" off the tee, trying not to lay the sod over my wedge shots. Once you even get the yips putting cross-handed, there is nothing left to live for beyond leering at the beer wench.

I am not sure if this is worth it, or even too gratuitous or chauvinistic a topic for this esteemed board, but how about a thread on the hottest cart girl and any amusing or interesting story to go with it?     

       

[Lou_Duran]

Listening and occasionally nodding while a GCA.comer waxes on with great eloquence regarding intricate playing strateges after topping his third or fourth shot to a short par 4.

Reading Mr. Papazian finally acknowledge that those of us with more eclectic tastes are not just simple, vulgar gca illiterates.

Playing golf by myself after a storm late in the afternoon at NGLA, getting lost, and finally finding the parking lot in near-darkness.

Winning a bet from Thomas of Huckaby at one of our favorite courses.

Playing a modern (post 1990) inexpensive Texas course for the first time.  I can't get over just how good and how many there are. 

[Tom Huckaby]

Listening and occasionally nodding while a GCA.comer waxes on with great eloquence regarding intricate playing strateges after topping his third or fourth shot to a short par 4.Winning a bet from Thomas of Huckaby at one of our favorite courses.

Playing a modern (post 1990) inexpensive Texas course for the first time.  I can't get over just how good and how many there are. 

LOVE THAT FIRST ONE... and re the second I quoted, no need for any guilt there.  To the victor go the spoils.   

[Richard Choi]

Gib, you can the prize for the best post on this thread, hands down...

[Anthony Gray]

How about being guilty about spending WAY too much time on GCA.com while at work!