Opulent Golf

[Colin Macqueen]

Dave,

I think this is what Mac was alluding to.

"...In the essay Mike posits that there are three categories of golfers: those that want to be challenged, those who are attracted by the course's environment/beauty and those who are interested in the fun factor. He goes on to speculate about how those groups perceive golf courses and the implications that their attitudes have in terms of course rankings, among other topics."

This link might help

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=41795.


Rest your weary head!

Cheers Colin

[Colin Macqueen]

Dave,
Maybe it stemmed from this!
http://www.mnuzzo.com/pdf/GAV5.pdf

There is no greatest golf course:
there are only greatest golf courses
Mike Nuzzo
Not long after golf began, so did the debate
between players as to what was the better
golf course in the village.Over the last centu-
ry this has evolved into a global argument as
to what are the greatest courses in the world.
Every golf and resort magazine, seemingly,
prints its own periodic definitive rankings.
The deliberations continue and no one
agrees completely with the lists or with each
other. Some courses have universal appeal,
but even they are rarely seen identically.
Everyone has a slightly different definition of
the ultimate golf course. This aspect is just
one of the many great pleasures of the game.
Why do so many players’ opinions differ?
Howard Moskowitz is a noted expert in the
field of psychophysics—the study of human
preferences and their detection ability. His
studies have made revolutionary discoveries
about colas, coffee, spaghetti sauce and pick-
les. According to Malcolm Gladwell:
Initially, Pepsi wanted him to identify
the perfect amount of sweetener for Diet
Pepsi. Moskowitz did the logical thing
by making up experimental batches with
every conceivable degree of sweetness
and gave them to hundreds of people,
and looked for the concentration that
people liked the most. But the data was
a mess—there wasn’t a pattern—
Moskowitz realized that they had been
asking the wrong question. There was no
such thing as the perfect Diet Pepsi; they
should have been looking for the perfect
Diet Pepsis.1
Moskowitz found several other food taste
categories that are also segmented. One
famous, extensive study was with spaghetti
sauce. He determined that everyone had a
slightly different definition of what a perfect
spaghetti sauce tasted like. He discovered
that most people’s preferences fell into one
of three broad groups: plain; spicy; extra-
chunky. This was an especially important
finding: there was no extra-chunky spaghetti
sauce in the market at that time!

See I'm working tirelessly on your behalf!

Cheers Colin

[Mike_Young]

My dividing point for opulence in golf course is those with flat screens over the urinals and those without. 

[Mac Plumart]

Colin...

Yep.  That is it.  There is no greatest course only greastest courses. (or something like that) By Mike Nuzzo.  And it is on his website, which you have linked.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Mac

You probably have played upon the greatest course, however because it is so great you have not realise it yet. By that I mean you need to have sampled its hidden delights some 20-50 times before you realise that your rounds are not boring and are looking forward to your return visit.

That for me, when relating it to golf, defines a great or greatest course. That deep hidden magic that comes from good design mixed with land fit for purpose.

[Kalen Braley]

Dave,

My bad, my memory took a wrong turn on me at some point in time.  I now recall at least a few bits and pieces of our previous conversation.  And yes anytime you're in the area, by all means shoot me an email.

While I don't have access to Black Rock or Gozzer either, there are certainly a few other courses in the area worth a look including The Idaho Club, Circling Raven, Indian Canyon, and Palouse Ridge.

I'll probably be in the Twin Falls area this summer sometime as well, perhaps we can meet up then.

Kalen

[Garland Bayley]

Dave,

My bad, my memory took a wrong turn on me at some point in time.  I now recall at least a few bits and pieces of our previous conversation.  And yes anytime you're in the area, by all means shoot me an email.

While I don't have access to Black Rock or Gozzer either, there are certainly a few other courses in the area worth a look including The Idaho Club, Circling Raven, Indian Canyon, and Palouse Ridge.

I'll probably be in the Twin Falls area this summer sometime as well, perhaps we can meet up then.

Kalen

Kalen,

It seems to me that on a certain golf trip of yours the Road from Salt Lake to Spokane went via Twin Falls, and Walla Walla. It seems to me that you have left out the best of the possible venues for playing with Dave.

[Dave McCollum]

Thanks, Colin.  I must be a trans-something-golfer because I enjoy all three activities.  If I had to choose what type of golfer I am, as Mike suggests at the end of his article, I’d say I fall into the fun/pretty category.  ONTH, I was asked the other day “what is the best course you’ve played?”  My answer was Royal County Down.  I’d say that falls more into the challenge/pretty camp than the pretty/fun camp.  Since it is such a great course, it probably appeals to all types of golfers to a greater degree than other great tracks.  Had the question been “what are the five best courses you’ve played?” or “what are your five favorite courses?” it would probably reveal more about my particular golfing type.

I think the key sentence in Mike’s piece is:  “Compounding the confusion is that most golfers want the experience to overlap all three endpoints—but they seek them to different degrees.”  For example, how would Mike classify these two types:  the vanity capper and the sandbagger?  Is this an example of a yin/yang of the same obsession or some distorted mirror image?
 
Mike’s piece does address what I was trying to get at when I started this thread much more effectively than my clumsy words.  I also think his types are useful in segmenting golfers into whatever combo camp they belong and in setting some very important priorities in how a course is designed and maintained.  Thanks again for the link.           

Kalen,
 If you do get through this area and want a distraction from windshield time, plan on stopping off for a little golf or at least a quick look around.  We’re just  5 minutes from the Interstate.  If you want to kill an entire day, there is a fairly interesting opportunity to play two courses in the same dramatic landscape.  Blue Lakes (private) and Canyon Springs (public) sit side-by-side in the Snake River Canyon, separated by the river.  They are very different flavors/textures of spaghetti sauce, while sharing a common environment.  As different in our modest little way as, say, Old Mac and Trails over at Bandon.  Both are short and quirky and fun to play.
 
I’ve never done it but I just thought of a fun experiment.  I like to play fast.  On the right weekday (almost any), play both.  I’d do it as a 36-hole speed golf match, since I know both so well.  I don’t walk 36 a day much anymore, so I’d take carts and try to do it in under 5 hours.  (Almost nobody walks BLCC because of the elevation changes and long uphill hikes.)  Any takers out there?

[Garland Bayley]

Here's a thought. Opulent golf courses such as the one Dave played are courses that are created for those effete men that are too "manly" to go to a garden to appreciate landscape architecture. Maybe they just need to man up and start visiting gardens so we don't have to suffer through their adulterations of golf courses.

Garland
Head flower show judge