Golf is not about hitting the ball as far as you can, it’s about control, learning, skill and deploying it against the land, nature and the designer.
If Golf was just about the long ball we would have no hazards, no bumps and dells, In fact, we would be playing upon a very long cricket pitch. However we do not, the land used as courses are and were selected for their hazards and sporty nature. That means TEST, golf is a TEST, it challenges the inner self to step up, to consider the potential paths and direction one can take on each different designed Hole. It requires the player to control his shots, to defeat/overcome the hazards on the way to the Hole.
In truth the long ball is a total failure in Design. Something the ODG knew way back in the late 19th Century even with the gutty ball, but subsequence generations of designers have filled in, discarded their obstacles or rejected their way of combating the long ball.
We build courses costing millions of $ or £, some are so well manicured, they look like parks instead of golf courses, why go to the expense of all this is we intend to keep the long aerial game which IMHO contributes about zero to the game, players or spectators enjoyment when compared to seeing a golfer standing firm and taken on the course with all its hazards.
Like many new fads, its introduction to the game again IMHO has been a disaster. Although to the ill-informed (when it comes to how to play the game, I said play, not fly over it be it by cart or long ball) they seem more keen to removing most of the understand one gets, as well as the responsibility of playing golf using ones legs and mind. Today it’s a game that require the majority not to think, just as well when you see some drinking beer (one straight away know that this course does not police its own Course Etiquette), to be unable to define distance so use gadgets, unable to walk through some cruel illness (laziness or other associated problems). I suppose all that is left to these trouble people is to try and hit the ball straight and as far as possible although that is not the aim behind Golf.
As for Putting on a Green, I suppose the mental state of these individuals make then believe that they can take as many shot to finally sink the ball on the Green as they got to it rather quickly courtesy of the long aerial shot.
A thought – Do you think the Scottish love to play the ground game on our Links course due to our love for value for money so want to see as well as utilise all the land that we have to pay for, be it via Green Fees or Club Membership, hence our preference for the ground game. Or could it be we understand the weather on our Links courses.
A Golf Course is a beautiful living thing, if reacts to the conditions and to fully appreciated the game and the course, you have to play it. Hence, the importance of Land Fit for Purpose to allow the course to flourish. So why do so many want to pass over it as quickly as possible, losing the time to fully view Nature and the design that has cost you or your club a fortune – lack of perhaps understand as to what the game actually entails and how it can reward the player far better that just a lower score.
We need to control technology so as to maintain our Great Courses thus letting future golfers and Designers the opportunity of experiences the joy of past generations. Well, that is unless you are just a bloody selfish sod. Remember it’s not all about you, it’s about the past and future, we too have a duty of care for the future unborn golfers or are we really that much embroiled in this throwaway society of our, that we just do not care, nothing being worth fighting for anymore.
Have a nice day
Melvyn
PS Watch out a Long Ball, duck. Its Ok it's, ‘One Flew over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, or is the above just an excerpt from the original scriptwriting discarded for fear of upsetting the inmates.
