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Philippe Binette

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One last round... alone
« on: November 07, 2006, 11:23:55 AM »
Following the subject of the course for the rest of your life...

If you had to play one last round, the last in your life, all by yourself... where would it be.

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Gib_Papazian

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2006, 01:55:10 PM »
I'm guessing the percentage of responses will be roughly divided as follows:

30% - NGLA
20% - Cypress Point
20% - TOC
10% - PV
5%  - County Down
5%  -  Augusta National
10% - Whatever mud hole they grew up playing with their dad.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 04:21:53 PM by Gib Papazian »
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Philippe Binette

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2006, 02:05:23 PM »
I'd go for Barnbougle Dunes... Worked on it, have to play it before it's over
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John Kirk

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2006, 02:05:54 PM »
Stanford Golf Course.  My father was a member there.  I was born in the Stanford hospital, and I was raised in Palo Alto.  And that's where I'd like to play my last round of golf, so far.  Furthermore, I'd like to have my ashes spread there.
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Gene Greco

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2006, 02:09:23 PM »
    Sand Hills


In fact, I usually suggest a walking, solo twilight 9 to many who visit. The spirituality one experiences during this time is like no other at any golf course I've played.

They usually come to dinner saying they were kind of spooked (in a good way) by their time spent alone out there.
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"...I don't believe it is impossible to build a modern course as good as Pine Valley.  To me, Sand Hills is just as good as Pine Valley..."    TOM DOAK  November 6th, 2010

Jimmy Muratt

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2006, 02:10:35 PM »
Sand Hills Golf Club.  

Playing the course by yourself in the late afternoon is an experience that is hard to describe.  The solitude and the setting really make you feel like you are in another world, just you and this amazing golf course.  
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Gib_Papazian

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2006, 02:39:45 PM »
Gene,

That is exactly the sensation I have gotten in the past at NGLA. It starts with the statue of Macdonald in the library and those regal paintings staring at you above the fireplace.

Then, you go out on the golf course and I swear to God there are ghosts everywhere.

There is not a moment when I do not feel that vaguely uncomfortable tingle up my spine that someone - or something - is watching.
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Tom Huckaby

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2006, 02:43:52 PM »
Quote from: Gene Greco on November 07, 2006, 02:09:23 PM
   Sand Hills


In fact, I usually suggest a walking, solo twilight 9 to many who visit. The spirituality one experiences during this time is like no other at any golf course I've played.

They usually come to dinner saying they were kind of spooked (in a good way) by their time spent alone out there.

What Gene describes is the "church nine".  And he describes it well.  I tried to do a thread on golf sprirituality once and it went off in tangents... but this is where I felt most connected to a being higher than myself.  And no, it was not Mucci watching from the porch.

 ;)

In any case, that wouldn't be a bad spot to end it all.  But more sentimental am I... add me to the 10% at the end of Gib's prediction....

Studio City Golf & Tennis 9 hole par 3.  That's where it would have to end, where it all began.  This is my rosebud.

TH

ps - I felt ghosts at NGLA also....
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 03:10:23 PM by Tom Huckaby »
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Dan_Callahan

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2006, 02:45:36 PM »
Fishers Island
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Mike_Cirba

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2006, 02:55:52 PM »
Quote from: Gib Papazian on November 07, 2006, 02:39:45 PM
Gene,

That is exactly the sensation I have gotten in the past at NGLA. It starts with the statue of Macdonald in the library and those regal paintings staring at you above the fireplace.

Then, you go out on the golf course and I swear to God there are ghosts everywhere.

There is not a moment when I do not feel that vaguely uncomfortable tingle up my spine that someone - or something - is watching.

Oh, there is absolutely no question that NGLA is haunted.  It's probably the only course I wouldn't venture to walk across at night.  

Even the freaking gates are spooky.   :o

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Gary Slatter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2006, 03:30:38 PM »
Glen Abbey in Toronto.  Play is so slow there you always end up with a raincheck so your game will go on and on and on...
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Gary Slatter
gary.slatter@raffles.com

Gib_Papazian

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2006, 03:36:55 PM »
At NGLA, time and space seem to warp. Just before my last visit, Neal and I were standing on the 9th green at Shinnecock; I looked into the distance and got chills throughout my body.

The other day, I was fooling around on the Google satellite search, showing my daughter NGLA. She asked what the "thing" was and clicked to get a close-up of the windmill. We just stared at it hypnotically as if it were some kind of artifact from another dimension.

It is strange that in my mind's eye, when I think of individual holes, the picture is invariably in a sepia tone, or even grainy B&W. Coming through the gates, I'm torn between a feeling of approaching the Emerald City and Bates Motel.

I'm not sure why the hair stands up on the back of my neck, but I feel compelled (when alone) in the library to touch the statue and talk to Macdonald.

Maybe I'm hypersensitive to the Chi' of all things, but it still makes me wonder whether the members feel that "presence" - or are they oblivious to what they have?
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 04:01:05 PM by Gib Papazian »
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Mike_Cirba

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2006, 03:54:14 PM »
Gib,

Last weekend I had Kyle Harris out there for a little tour around after playing Tallgrass earlier.  

It was getting towards twilight, yet the winds of the day were still gusting upwards of 50mph and the clouds were literally zooming past overhead, mirroring the hundreds of yards of whitecaps whipping across the water.  

Standing just outside the gate staring up the seeming mountainside of the 18th hole while the flagstick on 17 was bent almost in half, the clubhouse was completely dark and foreboding.

The biting noise of the wind, the pounding of the water on the rocks, the creaking of the gate, the rapid whipping of the flagstick all conspired to create aural sensory overload.

At that moment, if the ground we were standing on suddenly broke into pieces and we were swept away to sea in a flash, it wouldn't have seemed particularly surprising.  
 
We quickly jumped back in the car and headed over to the welcoming warmth and apparent safety of that other club up on the hill.  
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 04:11:42 PM by Mike Cirba »
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Gene Greco

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2006, 03:57:51 PM »
Quote from: Gib Papazian on November 07, 2006, 03:36:55 PM
It is strange that in my mind's eye, when I think of individual holes, the picture is invariably in a sepia tone, or even grainy B&W. Coming through the gates, I'm torn between a feeling of approaching the Emerald City and Bates Motel.

What an incomparable description.
Simply great stuff to read and NO ONE could have said it any better.
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"...I don't believe it is impossible to build a modern course as good as Pine Valley.  To me, Sand Hills is just as good as Pine Valley..."    TOM DOAK  November 6th, 2010

Ted Kramer

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2006, 04:07:58 PM »
Mine would have to be Lido.
I've had more good times/memories there than just about anywhere on this planet.

It is really a no brainer for me.

-Ted
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Mike Hendren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2006, 04:25:13 PM »
Quote from: Mike Cirba on November 07, 2006, 02:55:52 PM

Oh, there is absolutely no question that NGLA is haunted.  It's probably the only course I wouldn't venture to walk across at night.  

Even the freaking gates are spooky.   :o

Mike,

I agree:





Mike
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Two Corinthians walk into a bar ....

Gib_Papazian

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2006, 04:25:37 PM »
Ted,

I shall amend my choice and go along with your selection.

Lido it is . . . . except in 1928.

Bogey,

Where did you get those photos?
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 04:27:03 PM by Gib Papazian »
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Mike Hendren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #17 on: November 07, 2006, 04:28:26 PM »
Gyro,

I took them my ownself.

BTW,  gotta go with the mud hole aka Rolling Hills CC in Ripley, Tennessee.

Mike
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 04:30:30 PM by Bogey_Hendren »
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Two Corinthians walk into a bar ....

Gib_Papazian

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2006, 04:34:04 PM »
That must have been like the end of a movie, strolling off the tee and slowly disappearing in the cottony mist. . . . .
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SPDB

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #19 on: November 07, 2006, 04:42:06 PM »



'Nuff said
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Glenn Spencer

Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #20 on: November 07, 2006, 04:48:01 PM »
Merion
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Ash Towe

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #21 on: November 07, 2006, 05:27:50 PM »
For me it would be Shinnecock.  I have looked at the course from the road but never played it.
The description I read that it was the Muirfield of the USA intrigued me.  
It would be interesting to have my curiosity about the course resolved on my last round.
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John Kirk

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #22 on: November 07, 2006, 05:31:39 PM »
Other great choices for me would be:

Pacific Dunes
Ballyneal
Cypress Point, though it would be quite odd to play my one and only round there as my last round of golf.

My dad birdied the last hole he ever played, chipping in for a 4 on the first hole at Stanford to beat his good friend Bill Krepick and win the first flight of the Club Championship.  The old man led a strangely charmed life.  I'm working on it.
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Jim Franklin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #23 on: November 07, 2006, 05:36:51 PM »
Last round...alone...it just sounds too depressing to consider. If I had only one round left, I could not do it alone, it would have to be with my son and two daughters as a foursome. And I think it would be at Ballyneal or Kingsley so it would be very peaceful, but loads of fun. I think I would choose Ballyneal so we could walk, tee it up wherever we wanted, and enjoy the serenity of the course.

Sean - Great pic.
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Mr Hurricane

Steve Lapper

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:One last round... alone
« Reply #24 on: November 07, 2006, 07:50:13 PM »
Quote from: Gene Greco on November 07, 2006, 03:57:51 PM
Quote from: Gib Papazian on November 07, 2006, 03:36:55 PM
It is strange that in my mind's eye, when I think of individual holes, the picture is invariably in a sepia tone, or even grainy B&W. Coming through the gates, I'm torn between a feeling of approaching the Emerald City and Bates Motel.


What an incomparable description.
Simply great stuff to read and NO ONE could have said it any better.

Great Writing indeed!!

50% Sand Hills Golf Club
50% Royal Melbourne Composite
« Last Edit: November 07, 2006, 07:51:10 PM by Steve Lapper »
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The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."--John Kenneth Galbraith
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