Letter of Introduction

[David Davis]

the first rule on this board is to not listen to David Davis. He is Dutch (somewhat), full of lofty ideas and, frankly, has lost any grip on reality since he played Pine Valley and Cypress Point

Ulrich, there is nothing Dutch about me. Do you actually think the Dutch would claim me? The worst part is the American's won't either so I was kind of hoping the Germans would welcome me...

Judging by your response....no.

The only thing that has caused me to lose a grip on reality has been playing Dutch Polder courses...they are far worse than anything Germany has to offer and I mean far worse. All things being equal, that's still not a compliment to German golf. I must admit it's just something I don't understand at all. It must be a market ripe for the taking.

Why hasn't Doak or C&C or some other big names taken over the German market and starting creating something great there? The German's are really into big names and very serious about their sports. As for my reality, you guys have probably hung up your clubs for the year and Noordwijkse is arguably at it's best since the rough is down and the course is now very playable. Tomorrow and Sunday I'm playing, about 10 degrees, windforce 6 with gusts to 8 and rain. Love it!

These are conditions you can only get in Ireland/Scotland/England and Holland, oh and still bother to play golf.

[Ruediger Meyer]

Why hasn't Doak or C&C or some other big names taken over the German market and starting creating something great there? The German's are really into big names and very serious about their sports.

The sad reality is that I haven't met many golfers in germany that would recognize a great design or, quite frankly, care about good golf architecture. Plus there's not a lot good land available for great courses, and if there is, you'll never get a permit to build a golf course there. But luckily it only takes a four hour drive to get to the great Dutch courses...

[Ulrich Mayring]

David, stop rubbing it in, you know perfectly well that you are very privileged to be a member of a world-class course - that calls for some sympathy towards us poor Germans

But, to expand on Rüdiger's point, I think supply and demand go hand in hand. If there are few great courses to the point of where 90% of the golfing population won't ever play one, then how can you expect them to be especially discerning?

So building great courses and creating appreciation for great courses go hand in hand. I am trying to do my small part for the appreciation side by writing for the Top100GolfCourses.co.uk site and hopefully we will launch a much improved German Top 30 very soon. Rüdiger is doing his part by writing his blog, David is doing his part by ... hmm ... calling attention to the problem

Meanwhile, to refer to another thread, courses like Winston Links or the Boar's head at Hardenberg or the Swan bunker at Hanau are an important and necessary step on that path, because they are at least showing that the standard can be broken free of.

Budersand is a huge quality step for German golf, of course, but how many links courses can you build here? In that respect it is less important than Winston Links or, to name a less controversial course, Wendelinus. Because these are courses that can actually be built in Germany.

Ulrich