We played the flute and you didn't dance; we sang a dirge and you didn't mourn

[Peter Pallotta]

Or to put it another way: for a demanding and dissatisfied generation, do discussions and ratings about modern-day golf courses actually create issues and problems, often when none can reasonably be said to exist? Much like sports talk radio, does the medium itself (i.e. the various golf-related forums) engender and in essence promote a critical and negative attitude, such that the de-facto approach is not to note what's there but to complain instead about what isn't? Is that the inherent dialectic of today's golf aficionado participating in today's over-heated golfing media/social media -- that when an architect builds a green that holds approaches we focus instead on how approach shots don't bound over; and that when a fairway is narrow and curving to the left enough to suggest/call for a draw, we note instead that we can't hit a fade?  When we don't have anything to complain about, do we complain anyway?  If there were no discussion boards and experts, would anything actually be wrong with Troon, given the fact that it has served its members and its championships so well for over a century? Without our modern dialectic so firmly entrenched in the medium itself, would anyone constantly question and complain about the changes at Augusta, regardless of how efficacious they have in fact been?

Peter     

[Ronald Montesano]

I think that we go to comfortable places with familiar people to vent. We trust them and the venue, and that might be why there is so much negative energy.

[Marty Bonnar]

People whose names end in vowels think too much.

 

F.

[RJ_Daley]

.....and sometimes Y.   

[Peter Pallotta]

People whose names end in vowels think too much.
 
F.

We probably tend to do everything too much...

But this one, Marty, I'm hoping is not off-point or beard-strokingly annoying. I do see the tendency in myself (and all over talk radio) of an approach to subjects that leads us down unhelpful ways... 

[Jim_Kennedy]

As we say at the shop - if you're not being picked on it means no one likes you.

[Terry Lavin]

Just remember the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Whine."

[BCrosby]

.....and sometimes Y.   

+1 

[BCrosby]

Pietro -


I think all the questioning is a very good thing. Mostly because it signals something unique about golf architecture. There are not many sports where their playing venues have such a bearing on how the sport itself is played. What golf is, is to some extent a function of the golf course you play it on.


So golf architecture matters. The least interesting disagreements about gca are about aesthetics or belt-notching. The best kinds of disagreements are at bottom about how gca affects the game we want golf to be.


That's a pretty big deal. So arguing, sometimes passionately, about the qualities of this or that golf course (including, as you point out, what is not on a golf course) is a good thing. The best of those disagreement often turn out to be a kind of shadow debate. Just behind the curtain we are really arguing over what we think golf ought to ideally be.


Bob   

[JMEvensky]

Pietro -


I think all the questioning is a very good thing. Mostly because it signals something unique about golf architecture. There are not many sports where their playing venues have such a bearing on how the sport itself is played. What golf is, is to some extent a function of the golf course you play it on.


So golf architecture matters. The least interesting disagreements about gca are about aesthetics or belt-notching. The best kinds of disagreements are at bottom about how gca affects the game we want golf to be.


That's a pretty big deal. So arguing, sometimes passionately, about the qualities of this or that golf course (including, as you point out, what is not on a golf course) is a good thing. The best of those disagreement often turn out to be a kind of shadow debate. Just behind the curtain we are really arguing over what we think golf ought to ideally be.


Bob   

Nice-- a +1 wouldn't be nearly enough.

[Peter Pallotta]

Yes indeed, Jeff - old Mrs. Crosby sure didn't raise no turnip.

Very perceptive, Bob.

We're looking for something.

Now, the pop psychologists and marriage counsellors tell us that we shouldn't look for someone else to make us happy, that we need to find it in and for ourselves.

And the gurus point to a state of being where no externals or circumstances can influence our internal equanimity and essential peace and joy.

I wonder: if we were all enlightened, would we discuss and be focused on gca more, or less?  Would we enjoy a "2" as much as a "9".

Reminds me of what one of Benny Goodman's sidemen said about the band (and about the fans) when it first exploded onto the scene and was playing 8 shows a day at the Paramount.

He said: it wasn't really about the music for most of the fans, it was about the experience.

Benny would play a solo using 100% of his instrument (technically and musically brilliant) and there'd be applause.

Harry James would play a solo using 50% of his instrument and the place would go wild.

Gene Krupa would play a solo using 10% of his drums, just banging away, and he'd bring the house down!

And part of Benny's genius (and success) was that he understood this  -- that, as much as it was always about music and mastery for him, he knew that for others it was mostly about something else; and that's why, even though over the years he'd have many "better" drummers, he always said Gene was his favourite. 

Peter