[David Stamm]

Imagine for a moment that shortly after being smitten with this crazy game in a foreign land you return home and have no way (except for the occasional return to the place the game was introduced to you) of squelching your thirst for this new found obsession for 17 years. This was exactly what Charles Blair Macdonald faced after being bitten by the golf bug in St Andrews and returning to America. 17 years! The only way he could get some sort of satisfaction was by batting balls around empty polo fields and the like. Could you imagine getting your fix this way? Would you have given up and found a new passion? Could CBM have possibly gleaned any ideas from these make shift imaginary courses all the while imagining Redans, Alps and Sahara's dancing in his head form his priro visits and longing to get back again? To be able to keep the fire alive in his heart for the game is remarkable. Imagine not having ANY place to play in your home country? Thus the birth of The National. Neccessity is the mother of invention. Could or would you do the same knowing how you feel about the game?

[John Chilver-Stainer]

I was shocked to read this as I suffered a similar purgatory after emigrating to the swiss alps in Zermatt in Oberwallis where the nearest golf course was 2 hours away and with a young family I didn’t have much oppurtunity to just take a whole day off to play golf. My frustration was relieved by knocking balls on alpine pastures at 7000 feet above sea level, while taking the family for a picnic. The alpine pastures were just above the tree line but with enough grass, kept short by grazing sheep, to resemble very closely the scottish courses I had been brought up on. This was only possible in high summer so in spring and autumn I could be seen frequenting parks, football fields and off season camp sites.

I had my favourite alpine plateaus where I chose my shots to create the most interesting challenges - usually from a high cliff to some kind of landing area - or to an isolated patch of short grass on the other side of  a stream or between some rocks - after a while I developed my favourite combination of shots creating a a sort of routing.

My frustrations ended after 7 years when I designed and constructed the first course in Oberwallis at 6500 feet above sea level and eventually built 3 others there.

[Jim_Kennedy]

David,
CBM's problems then were minor compared to what Huckaby faces today in Ca., poor fella. 

[Jon Spaulding]

DS, hitting the sauce a bit early today?

CBM has nothing on Huckaby.

[Dave_Miller]

Imagine for a moment that shortly after being smitten with this crazy game in a foreign land you return home and have no way (except for the occasional return to the place the game was introduced to you) of squelching your thirst for this new found obsession for 17 years. This was exactly what Charles Blair Macdonald faced after being bitten by the golf bug in St Andrews and returning to America. 17 years! The only way he could get some sort of satisfaction was by batting balls around empty polo fields and the like. Could you imagine getting your fix this way? Would you have given up and found a new passion? Could CBM have possibly gleaned any ideas from these make shift imaginary courses all the while imagining Redans, Alps and Sahara's dancing in his head form his priro visits and longing to get back again? To be able to keep the fire alive in his heart for the game is remarkable. Imagine not having ANY place to play in your home country? Thus the birth of The National. Neccessity is the mother of invention. Could or would you do the same knowing how you feel about the game?

David:
Maybe Macdonald was a little bit crazy
Best
Dave

[John Mayhugh]

Fascinating question.   Could I spend such a long time away from the game and not replace it with something more accessible?  Really hard to say.  Probably some of us could get by with just posting on GCA.  CBM didn't have that option.  His courses had to have benefitted from so much thought on his side.  When he did start putting courses on the ground.......those were some results he had.

[David Sneddon]

I emigrated to Canada way back in the early 70's, with only one suitcase and hand luggage.  I taught ESL and Math to Native Canadians in NW Ontario for 4 years.

During that entire time I had no golf club to swing, feel or whet my thirst for a game that I was weaned on.  Rather, I had what perhaps  the15th century shepherds had - a bent stick,  a pebble, and a beach, the very basics of the game we all love.  I wasn't very good with the bent stick and pebble , however it did give me some insight on how a murderer might feel towards a victim in a crime of passion. 

Why this game of golf survived beyond the 16th century continies to amaze me, despite Callaway and Taylor Made 's  assurances that I can hit that damn pebble further and straigher if I only keep buying their prodiuct every 6 months.

[Bradley Anderson]

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_36/outXXXVI05/outXXXVI05o.pdf

This is a good article about those times in MacDonald's life, before he organized Chicago Golf Club. Written from the perspective of a MacDonald proselyte. One gets the sense that MacDonald had great patience during this period.

Incidently, I think I know the spot where this story begins. Today it is park on Lake Avenue in Lake Forest.

[Lou_Duran]

David Stamm,

Mine (Purgatory) was for only a little over two years, but it felt like 20.  Come to think of it, public golf in Orange County is actually closer to Hell.  Perhaps I will get some credit in the afterlife for penance already performed.

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