Playing golf for the first time with a Scot

[Randy Thompson]

Played yesterday with a gentleman from Scotland, what a pleasure. Despite being a mid twenties handicapp it was amazing how big a part golf is in his life. He told stories of his grandfather playing and his father, playing with his kids, playing with his wife, the course at six in the morning and all the wildlife, playing until midnight during the summer ect. The passion was incredible, similar to a Brazilian talking about football and it never stops. His course is public of course and he spoke of the high amount of courses within a ten mile radius ect..nice to see such enthusiasm and something that seemed to be implanted in the blood for generations and generations.

[Bill_McBride]

I don't think there's anywhere in the US where golf is as integrated into village life as it is in smaller Scottish towns.  It must be a wonderful and charming way to live!

[Melvyn Morrow]

The comments on this site always surprise me. I suppose I take it for granted that because we are Members of GCA.com that automatically portrays our commitment to The Royal & Ancient Game of Golf. Yet clearly when we look at more than half the subject matter that comes into question. Although, clearly it does depend upon how you regard the game.

Define what is important, if that boils down to winning and trying to hit the ball a long distance then I fear you have missed the real pleasure of the game, in fact one wonders if you have ever been taught about the game.

Next time on a course take your time, leave behind your toys and face the course with just your clubs and some balls. Accept that ahead is a challenge starting with the walking, of playing the game with your natural skill (whatever the level), navigate the course and its hazards, forget the score (handicap) and just enjoy your own abilities in the great outdoors.

You are your own Judge and jury, so you decide how you want to face yourself come the end of the game. 

Its not necessary in our blood but we do like to enjoy ourselves, so please finish the round before us and set up the drinks in the Bar, if nothing else you may get the pleasure of buying us a drink (question - will we return the gesture?) .

Melvyn

[Ross Tuddenham]

Hate to ruin the romantic image of village or even small town Scottish golf but it is not integral to towns beyond the economic benefit it provides or the pleasure it brings those who play it.  I grew up playing golf in a small Scottish town and in no way was the golf club part of the community.  Those who did not play had no attachment to the club nor could they care what happened there.

Of course if you speak to the golfers of the town you get enthusiasm but non golfing towns folk generally don't care or actively don't like golf.

[Randy Thompson]

You captured his attitude melvyn, he had like five iron and two clubs, took a few eights always smiling. Hit into the upper lip of a sand bunker..semi fried egg..horrible stance...splashed out, sand flying everywhere and topdressing his bald head and he was loving every minute of it. The only time the smile went away was when we were on the eighth hole and had a view of the first and they were starting the aerifying process to the greens.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Randy

Not aerating the Greens with their pet worms still, boy that can take the smile of any golfer, because we know the little blighters never return when called – swear I have heard in my youth sounds from them worms that said something like ‘no taxation without representation’  - some things never change, fancy wanting a say in how your Government is run, could start a nasty war with slogans like that – thank God we live in a mature world.

Melvyn

PS Ross comes from a place like Glasgow, where they talk a lot about the game but are too tight to pay the Green Fees, His round will always start on the 2nd Tee thus missing the starter and you will never find him at the front against the Bar, yes it’s the inherent Scottish problem, short arms and deep pocket syndrome.

PS Sorry Ross, but the truth must come out – my reward was just a single malt – I will retract it for a double.
 

[Ross Tuddenham]

No worries Melvyn. Malt is yours should we ever meet, and I should make it clear I do not come from Glasgow.  The main point is we should not get all misty eyed about golf in Scotland.  It is popular but in no way does it have a great influence in many of the towns with courses.  Most people I know are indifferent to the game, if not worse.

As you will know Melvyn you are just as likely to meet someone obssesed with yardage and a desire to ride a cart in Scotland as anywhere else.  There are even those in Scotland who yearn to play target golf over vast amounts of water to soft greens, more so than pitting themselves against the test of links golf.

[Kris Shreiner]

Ross,
BAAAAHHHHHH GOLFBUG!!!!!? Did you not sleep well last night? C'mon, no one was claiming EVERY soul in the village loves golf.
Tell me a town like Dornoch, where my wife's from. doesn't revolve around the golfing season. Scores of village folk are members, of every age and rank. There may be those that don't play or like golf, but I doubt they turn their nose up at the significant funds the club raises for medical equipment their community would otherwise not have or the extensive opportunities their youth have to visit overseas if they are part of the junior program. The economic impact is titanic and touches nearly every business in the entire community. Guess those people don't care about money either.

The college there has a notable golf and turf program there that draws plenty of candidates, both local and outwith. Countless folks walk the courses with their dogs, stroll over the ground on their way to the beach or picnic there on the odd day when the weather cooperates over the common ground that much of the championship course sits.

I've seen this in many other Scottish towns as well, such as North Berwick, Brora, Dunaverty and others. In my view, some clubs fall short not engaging in more activities, within their communities, that are not connected to golf, but benefit the town as a whole. The clubs that do this are well-respected, even by non-golfers. It is the somewhat indifferent, self-absorbed types that give golf a poor image. If you care about others and demonsrate that frequently, all but the most impossible will come to appreciate you. I don't know that the enough U.K., or U.S. clubs for that matter, understand how significant, strong contributions to supporting their communties really are to being considered a great club, especially by non-golfers.

Cheers,
Kris

[Bill_McBride]

Thank you, Kris! 

[Brent Hutto]

I have no trouble believing that there are communities in Scotland where golf is very central. Especially those where outside or foreign golf tourists visit and provide a substantial portion of the communities net inflow of money. Kind of like saying golf is central to Myrtle Beach...darned right it is. Not that every bubba in Horry County goes out for a round after work of an evening. But golf's a big deal because of its economic impact.

I do have trouble believing there are more than a very small proportion of Scottish villages overall which have as central a place for golf as the romantic view might have us believe. No doubt some do but surely many more do not treat golf as more meaningful than any other activity a portion of the residents engage in. By definition these places and courses are mostly anonymous to a bunch of non-Scottish folks who occasionally venture over there to play the great courses as golf tourists. How the heck would one of us know how popular golf is (or is not) among the residents of West Linton or Callander, just to pick two names off the map at random.

[Dave Falkner]

As you will know Melvyn you are just as likely to meet someone obssesed with yardage and a desire to ride a cart in Scotland as anywhere else.  There are even those in Scotland who yearn to play target golf over vast amounts of water to soft greens, more so than pitting themselves against the test of links golf.

I played with a few irish guys last week  I walked  they rode, I wanted to talk links, they went on and on about how they love Myrtle Beach!

[Dave McCollum]

Having just arrived in Dornoch, I’ll always remember sitting at the bar in the Eagle Hotel’s pub just drinking water and reading a book when a refill arrived transformed into a gin and tonic.  This courtesy of a fellow who simply noticed a strange face or a fellow with a pale left hand and a tanned right one.  I joined his post-round group, chatted about golf and their club, and, of course, returned the favor with a round.  During this trip, I was traveling alone and this sort of thing happened several times.  I spent 20 years traveling the globe as a location photographer, think I blend in pretty well wherever I go, don’t advertise myself as tourist, don’t really dress like a golfer, yet, before opening my mouth in some coastal village, some total stranger would come up to me on the street and ask me about my game.  Never happened before, even during several previous trips to Scotland (before I played), and I never figured it out.  Wasn’t Doyle’s model for Sherlock Holmes a Scottish Doc?  Or perhaps most strangers are golfers.  Don’t know, but these folks struck me as pretty passionate about their obsession.

[Kalen Braley]

I work with a Scottish guy here in the states, he doesn't know the 1st thing about golfing!!

[Lou_Duran]

Somehow the "it takes a village" image doesn't align with my idea of Scotish individualism (see MacKenzie's writings, and yes, I know he was born in England).  Maybe this and the other thread about the charm of English country courses reflects a bit of the "grass is greener on the other side of the pasture" syndrome.

I would be interested in learning about the golf participation rates in the UK.  My dinner companions for a week during a cruise were two retired ladies from Aberdeen, neither who played golf or had many friends "keen" on the game.  Both were competitive bowlers (lawn); one had been on the national team.  They did have some not-so-nice things to say about the golfing culture in Scotland, how it was not very friendly toward girls and women, and how it (golf) had a relatively minor role in the average Scot's life.

Incidentally, one was for the Trump project (she had a family member working in the North Sea oil industry and believed it was important to diversify the local economy in light of lower oil volumes/depletion).  The other liked things like they were, and saw no need to bring new development to the community.  Neither owned an automobile or knew how to drive, opting for walking, bicycles, and public transportation.

I wonder which, Randy's acquaintance or the two ladies, best represents the Scottish scene, or whether it more or less resembles our own.  BTW, the belief that UK golfers in vast numbers shun carts in favor of walking is mostly nonsense.  Even at the very traditional Royal Porthcawl, motorized riding carts could be seen.  Perhaps we aren't so much different.  

[Melvyn Morrow]

Sorry Ross, I was thinking of Niall.

Kalen

Then that makes two of you, you should get on well.

Melvyn

Lou

Carts can indeed be seen but in rather smaller numbers i.e. Moray has two, however anyone seen on them gets fired upon by the jets flying over

[Kalen Braley]

Kalen

Then that makes two of you, you should get on well.

Melvyn
r

Mel,

You should use your sense of humor more often around here, that was actually funny!  I got a nice laugh from that! 

[Randy Thompson]

ahhh yaaaaaa ahhhhhh! Obviously the whole freaking population of the towns don´t play but a percentage a lot bigger than we are use to down here, DO. Example, several years back I completed a second nine of a country club located in the second largest city of Chile with a population of a million people. That nine being completed, this club became the only course in the sounthern part of Chile with eighteen holes. Total members to date...around two hundred and fifty. I have not been to Scotland but it sounded like if you have a small town of five to ten thousand people you could very well have two courses to choose from. We can all love soccor but live in Argentina or Brazil or spend a good bit of time and you will learn what PASSION is for that sport and how that passion flows in the blood. I got that feeling with the Scot, I could feel his passion and of course I know hundreds of North Americans that have over whelming passion for golf but...there all under ten handicappers.

[Britt Rife]

I'm an American, and was playing my very first round of my Scotland trip, on a Sunday at Lundin Links (its name be praised).

The pace was slow.  There were some extremely Upper Class Englishmen in the group behind us and some non-descript fellows ahead.  We were often bunched up at the tee with the Englishmen, waiting on the group ahead and we had plenty of time for musings and repartee.  We found that they were members of The Addington and some other illustrious English clubs and shared our own appreciation of playing at a smartish pace.  I am sure that I spoke of fast play owing to my own insecurity--being an American, I am sure they thought that slow play was something I was used to and likely obliviously practiced.

Although I think we held up our end of the conversation, by the middle of the round the Old Boys had really had enough of the delays.  One of them went ahead of us to engage the non-descript group ahead and let fly the most heated, but most articulate, remonstration I've ever heard.  I swear that the fellow quoted lines from Virgil during his diatribe--it was learned and cruel.

My own group soon therafter drew near to the Non-Descripts.  The Non-Descripts indicated (and quite factually) that it was not they who were responsible for the delays, but rather the group ahead.  I called out to them (responding, perhaps to my own insecurities and America-shame) saying "Please don't tell me that those guys ahead of you are Americans."

"Nae, they're mates of ours!  Scots like oose!"

What a wonderful way to start a trip.  I never again felt that particular America-shame.

[Niall C]

Not quite sure what to make of this thread (Melvyn, please note I'm from Lanarkshire, not Glasgow, and I've just paid my annual subs for Moray GC so no more sneaking on at the 2nd  )

I suppose Scotland probably does have a higher percentage per capita of golfers, and that those golfers probably also represent a greater cross section of the general population given that golf can generally be had cheaper in Scotland than anywhere else (ie. Moray GC - 2 links courses, one of which is exceptional and the other is good, all for £430 pa).

Yes, more and more clubs are getting buggies but generally they are for certain members with a medical condition or for visiting parties where for some reason it is quite popular to get a buggy. Probably something to do with them being very occasional golfers and only playing when abroad. But nonetheless most clubs I suspect have at least one or two buggies which is a lot less than US oe European courses I would suspect.

I regret to say also that pace of play is slowing down in Scotland. Unfortunately it doesn't take much to slow down a course, just one player playing at his (slow) pace and nothing being done about it.

Randy - I'm glad you enjoyed your game with your first Scot, if you are ever over this way I'll be glad to host you where ever I might be at the time, and hopefully I'll live up to the standard set by my compatriot.

Niall

btw, we're also quite keen on our footy too !

[Brent Hutto]

btw, we're also quite keen on our footy too !

Yeah, I thought at first that was what the reference was to "their game" earlier.

[Randy Thompson]

btw, we're also quite keen on our footy too !

Yeah, I thought at first that was what the reference was to "their game" earlier.

So is Spain, Italy, Germany, England and so on but visit Brazil and you willl feel a different energy, just hard to explain, you have to live it!
Neil,
Thanks..hope to take you up on that some day and same goes for you if your travels take through South America!

[Marty Bonnar]

You know, as a Scot and a bit of a serious dick, I love these threads, but just what on earth have they to do with golf course design?
FBD.
PS Just ANOTHER pathetic attempt at an offffffffffffffff topic area plea. Yaaooow,
FBD.

[Randy Thompson]

You know, as a Scot and a bit of a serious dick, I love these threads, but just what on earth have they to do with golf course design?
FBD.
PS Just ANOTHER pathetic attempt at an offffffffffffffff topic area plea. Yaaooow,
FBD.

Marty,
The topic was clear from the title, if you don´t like it don´t open it, just like I do with 90% of the topics. Hope you feel better now. And some people wonder why we contribute less and less, thats easy because, no matter what the topic..somebody is always liooking to start shit.

[Mark Pearce]

They play football in Scotland?  Who knew?  Are there any good teams ?

[Ross Tuddenham]

They play football in Scotland?  Who knew?  Are there any good teams ?

No