The Old Course and Links golf

[Mac Plumart]

I recorded Golf Channel's episode of 'Golf's Greatest Rounds' when they showed Tiger Woods at The Old Course in 2000.  Sure seeing Tiger play so well was impressive, but The Old Course was the star.

I've only had the joy of playing The Old Course once and Scottish links golf over a two week period a few years ago (planning on returning next year), so I am no expert.  But watching Woods and Duval play golf on this brilliant course is inspiring.  The turf is so firm and the roll outs so long, it almost like nothing else I've seen and I cant wait to go back.

That is golf being played on ideal golfing land...and what a different game it is.   

[Mac Plumart]

Just watched Duval try to run his second shot up to the pin on 12.  It came agonizingly close to the pin, then rolled all the way back down that swale and on to the lower portion of the green.  So close, but yet not.

The announcer said, "If you designed a green like that today, they'd say you lost your head.".  What a shame, he's probably right for a portion of the golfing world.  But I do feel like this sentiment is changing a bit.  Thank God!

[Mark Bourgeois]

Mac,

I too TiVoed it and now have watched it twice. First and most importantly, that's no "announcer," that's Peter Alliss. (Actually, his constant references to money earned / lost was a little tiresome.)

How bout 10, and specifically that wayback pin placement, where driving the green generally meant you still faced a million-foot putt, a nifty way to defend par (if you must) without eating up real estate.

But my deepest impression, one I felt at the time that has grown even deeper with time, is how close to perfect golf we watched Tiger playing then. Between that Open and the 2000 US Open, that might be the closest you and I ever will see someone master the game during our lifetimes. Ernie Els' quotes in that regard were especially telling. He had given up, hadn't he?

Great stuff.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

It was reputed that during the 2000 and 2005 Opens the fairways stimped faster than the greens.

[Carson Pilcher]

It is by far one of the best courses ever laid upon our land.

As for the 12th, some days you can hit a drive over the green.  Other days, you are hitting driver then 4-iron.  316 yards from the tips, and par is protected nicely.

[Eric Smith]

The turf is so firm and the roll outs so long, it almost like nothing else I've seen and I cant wait to go back.

That is golf being played on ideal golfing land...and what a different game it is.   

Last summer I played a round at North Berwick and came away thinking I'd just played on the best turf imaginable. Just incredibly firm and fast. AND beautiful! Then a few days later I played the Old Course where it played equally firm and fast, but the turf looked to be an even tighter knit, making the course essentially one giant, FAST, putting green! The Old Course practically begs you to whip out the blade from the fairway, which I did on a # of occasions.

Here's my second at 18 - from 83 yards out - putting it onto the green, leaving it about 25 feet left of the hole.



Viva St. Andrews!

[Peter Pallotta]

Mac - my first (and still only) visit to/with a gca.com member is the one I had with Joe Hancock several years ago, at the course he then owned and operated in Grand Rapids. He ended up writing an article (I think it was forf golf course architecture magazine) about his method for getting wonderful, healthy, sustainable and golf-perfect turf there; it was a years-long process of weaning the grass off water and having the roots sink deeper and deeper and getting the grass hardier and hardier. The turf there could never replicate that of ToC, I assume -- a much different place/climate and not sand-based soil, and it was in a low-lying area -- but it was lovely to look at and play off of. And Joe managed to change that turf while still keeping the public golfers playing this modest public course happy throughout the years -- which is to say that it obviously is possible to get firm and sustainable conditions just about anywhere, if there is the will to do it.

Peter

[Colin Macqueen]

Mac, An iconic photo indeed.

The R&A club house in the distance and an intrepid golfer, on the 18th. hole, putting from 83 yards out; a worm-burner indeed but just the ticket.. Magic stuff! Fairways and greens, fairways and greens! I will doff my cap to ye when I gang for a walk and putt on The Himalayas in a couple of weeks.

Cheers Colin

[Mac Plumart]

it obviously is possible to get firm and sustainable conditions just about anywhere, if there is the will to do it.

Peter, you might be right.  But I'm unsure it could ever be the same. 

I've played fast and firm courses in the U.S., but the turf on The Old Course (and Scotland more generally) is just something totally different.  So much roll out...you literally have to read the fairways and plan for how the ball will react when it hits the turf.  And then the waiting to see where the ball will come to rest is so much fun.

The closest thing I've seen in the U.S. was at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Bandon Trails to be precise).  But maybe I am mis-remembering. 

This kind of interaction with ball and turf opens up an entirely 'nother level of architecture and design, I'd have to imagine.



Colin...snap a photo (or three) for us.

[Mac Plumart]

Oh yeah...when I played at Bandon Trails, I was inspired by Eric and hit this putt on 18 from about 80 yards away.

[Thomas Dai]

There's a reason why jiggers and chippers - some with lofted faces on both sides of the blade - came into being and this thread is it. A very common type of club in the days before sprinkler systems. Pretty difficult to score better around the greens than an opponent skilled with a jigger or a chipper on a firm and fast links (or even any other firm and fast course with short grass around the greens)

All the best

[David Harshbarger]

There's a reason why jiggers and chippers - some with lofted faces on both sides of the blade - came into being and this thread is it. A very common type of club in the days before sprinkler systems. Pretty difficult to score better around the greens than an opponent skilled with a jigger or a chipper on a firm and fast links (or even any other firm and fast course with short grass around the greens)

All the best

That's why after largely abandoning my hickories for modern clubs, my jigger is still in the bag.  If the "skilled" part were true then I'd really have something!  The jigger can be flighted to about 150 yards with a full stroke. Punched, it produces a low boring ball with a lot of runout. The one I have has the St. Andrews Bend, which is a nifty wriinkle. 

When playing less than fast and firm, the club less than satisfies. A low boring shot becomes little more than a low short shot :-(