Strategy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

[Peter Pallotta]

Mr Options was once deeply in love with Ms Hazards. But then she died, suddenly and of unknown causes.
Poor Mr Options has been on his own a long time now. It's very sad: he doesn't have anyone to say he's sorry to, and in fact he's fallen so deep into loneliness that he doesn't say much of anything at all.
After so many years of intimate relations with Ms Hazards, Mr Options feels like only half the man he used to be.
He even misses their arguments, and longs to be able to apologize, just one more time.
Most tragic of all, their love child, Strategy Today, the apple of their eyes, now wants nothing to do with him.
She's moved far away from home, and left no forwarding address -- and all Mr Options hears of her is the occasional rumor, like a whisper.
I hope that'll change one day, but I'm not holding out hope. I think Strategy Today blames Mr Options for Ms Hazards' death; and, unlike her old-fashioned dad, she has no interest in saying sorry.
Ah, life. It's all vanities, and a chasing after the wind....

[Ally Mcintosh]

In the old world, Mr.Options may have needed Ms.Hazards to create Strategy Today...


But in the new world, he can just pop along to the Natural Contour Fertility Clinic and arrange the birth of his second child, Strategy Tomorrow.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Is there no strategy, or is strategy just different from the whimsical notions of some here that things should stay static after 1929 or so?


And really, there were really some hazards twin sisters, sand, water, and rough.  Only Ms Sand has gone away, and in reality, millions still see visions of her, while only some top pros truly think she is gone.


More seriously, I will never forget designing Colbert Hills with Jim Colbert.  One the 12th, I had tried to set up the classic riske the fw bunker to get a better angle.  He said the best angle was to come from the green side bunker side of the fairway.  Why?  Similar to OB, where he teed up near the OB side to aim the furthest away, on approach shots, he wanted to aim to the far side of the green and bring the ball back to center with (in this case) a fade. 


Obviously, he wasn't worried about hitting a ground ball.  And, he had a completely different take on what is the "best angle" since coming from the left to get an open front green meant he had only 5 deg. to curve the ball, not 10, actually a smaller margin of error.


Similarly, pros still use green contours to get close.....but instead of landing 30 yards short on a Redan, they use edge slopes on the green to roll the ball down to the hole.


And seriously, did the GA guys really have it right even back then?  Would you rather risk a bunker with a driver or a greenside bunker with a mid iron?  Middle of the fairway works, always has, no?


Interesting topic, though.

[Peter Pallotta]

We tend to think of width as the key to/creator of options.
But besides the fact that width primarily creates 'east-west' options (and thus relegates  'north-south' options to the text books), it seems to go hand-in-hand with an unwillingness to build even a few near-zero-recovery hazards.
We have all kinds and degrees and variety of 'rewards' (usually an easier/less hazardous second shot) but fewer and fewer knee-knocking 'risks'.
It's as if all our bets were for $2 dollars (instead of $500 or $5000) and most of those bets on either sure things or on 50-to1 long shots, where it's more about the fun/lark than about a genuine or likely chance to win.
In either case, we're actually risking very little.
Where's the juice? Where's the drama? Where's the adrenaline?

[Steve Lang]

   I'm waiting for the fat lady...

[BHoover]

Did Mr. Options and Ms. Hazards also have a pet bird who could see in great detail from moderately high altitude?


 

[Michael Whitaker]

We tend to think of width as the key to/creator of options.
But besides the fact that width primarily creates 'east-west' options (and thus relegates  'north-south' options to the text books), it seems to go hand-in-hand with an unwillingness to build even a few near-zero-recovery hazards.
We have all kinds and degrees and variety of 'rewards' (usually an easier/less hazardous second shot) but fewer and fewer knee-knocking 'risks'.
It's as if all our bets were for $2 dollars (instead of $500 or $5000) and most of those bets on either sure things or on 50-to1 long shots, where it's more about the fun/lark than about a genuine or likely chance to win.
In either case, we're actually risking very little.
Where's the juice? Where's the drama? Where's the adrenaline?

Peter,


The original style of golf, Links Golf, offers width and numerous "near-zero-recovery" hazzards in their bunkers. If you take on a bunker on a links course and fail you will more often than not pay a one-shot penalty for doing so (or in the case of a match "loss of hole").  Is that what you meant?

[Joe Hancock]

It seems to me that building greens whacky enough to demand width and strategy almost always require an apology.

[Peter Pallotta]

Joe - are you suggesting that all this time Mr. Options has been two-timing with Ms. Green?  If so, that would make a good movie. Too bad Myrna Loy isn't around anymore -- she'd been perfect as the wacky socialite!


Mike - yes, that's about what I wanted to explore.


Steve - that's wise!

[Ken Moum]

The original style of golf, Links Golf, offers width and numerous "near-zero-recovery" hazzards in their bunkers. If you take on a bunker on a links course and fail you will more often than not pay a one-shot penalty for doing so (or in the case of a match "loss of hole").  Is that what you meant?

Actually, I suspect the chances of recovery with only a one shot penalty from a majority or links golf bunkers is less that zero for the average golfer.
But this question question might be the real reason I like wide links courses like Brora so much. I HATE losing golf balls but rarely have a problem at least getting out of deep bunkers.  So the "strategy" becomes avoiding the bunkers and forging ahead.
So the love child of Hazards and Options can even beckon the crappiest of golfers like me.
But when Ms. Strategy asks me to approach from one side of the fairway or other, but has completely disowned her uncle Width, I am hard-pressed to even finish three fourths of the holes in a round.
IIRC correctly Bobby Jones said, “The difference between a sand trap and water hazard is the difference between a car crash and an airplane crash. You have a chance of recovering from a car crash.”
I feel the same way about gorse. When the "strategy" is simply staying out of water, OB, gorse, etc. this is a pretty one-dimensional endeavor.
K

[Thomas Dai]

The original style of golf, Links Golf, offers width and numerous "near-zero-recovery" hazzards in their bunkers.

Interesting point.
I wonder to what extent 'original links golf' did have width?
Okay some linksie areas are flatter and more open in aspect than others - TOC and Westward Ho! being examples, but go to a sand dune area, throw a couple of balls down and start to play in pretty much any direction.
It's not easy........I've done it at Balmedie decades before Trump and Co got there, scrubby sand and scrubby thin grass, difficult to stand still let alone make decent and consistent contact with the ball, very limited width, not much decent turf to hit from to even hit to, go offline and you'll probably be climbing up or down shifting sand and unless playing with extreme caution a pretty good chance of a lost ball.
Makes me wonder what an Eddie Hackett type would have made of Balmedie, although that's probably highlighted in plenty of other threads! Suspect he and those of a century or more previously would have stuck to the flat areas only, ie as at the likes of the original course at Enniscrone (rather than the current version where play goes into the big dunes). Same at Ballyliffin Old and Glashedy.
Some links areas that now seem reasonably well manicured would once-upon-a-time have been pretty unpleasant to play, even more so with yee olde equipment and clothing.
Enough ramblings for now.
atb

[Tim Martin]

Did Mr. Options and Ms. Hazards also have a pet bird who could see in great detail from moderately high altitude?


 

I think the original poster has way too much free time on his hands.

[Michael Whitaker]

Dai,

Fair point about lack of width on many of the dune valley holes. They often play more like "mountain" courses than wide links. There is a huge difference, for example, in the effective width of Littlestone and Rye.

By the way... it seems Miss Adair ran into some of the same problems I have encountered on the links!

[Thomas Dai]

Nice photo Mike
The first half of this video has some nice links land photos taken in yee olde times -
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7-eqdj-Lbdw
Atb