.........isn't it?
This site is devoted to “talking” about golf. While sometimes this talk relates to actual experience, more often than not it relates to predilections, theories, readings and conjectures. This is natural as we all have far too little time to spend actually playing golf, and when we do play, most of us do not have the opportunity to do so on the elite courses that tend to be of most interest to this site. As a result, many of us seek solace in the written words of the old masters, or of the new masters, or of aficionados like ourselves who interpret the writings of the old and new masters, or aficionados who interpret the interpretations of other aficionados, etc. etc. ad infinitum…….
While I understand the need of some to “research” golf course architecture, I personally believe that any such research is inferior to actual experience, in terms of understanding the subtleties of any “great” golf course. This is assuming, of course, that the person with the experience is a highly competent and interested observer and golfer. I, for one, will listen more closely to the words of, say, Joel Stewart on Olympic than I will to all of the collected writers and wannabie writers on this site (excepting the mad Armenian, of course….
).
Thus, I find it laughable and sad that, on a another thread, some are suggesting to Pat Mucci that he, in effect, go back to the library before he comments more on the Tucker course that he has been playing and observing for over 50 years—all with a very high degree of competence and interest, I can presume. You could get 500 non-Mucci DG participants and give them 500 typewriters, 10 years, an unlimited travel budget and all the library cards they ever dreamed of and I would be surprised if they were to reach anything close to the understanding that he probably has of that course and of Tucker, much less a conclusion
. Even more laughable, people who have probably only played NGLA once or twice in their life seem to want to dictate to the members and owners of the club what they should do with their property, all the while ignoring that these same members and owners are the ones that had the vision to hire Karl Olsen in the first place and make significant changes to a course which was threatened with falling into the dustbin of history (or so I am told)! To me, this is like telling the current residents of “Falling Waters” (the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house that famously leaks) that they cannot fix the roof because it would be contrary to FLW’s design intent, or the perquisites of “history” or whatever…….
I played 4 rounds of golf last weekend over 3 courses that I know quite well and I learned more in those 2 days about those courses and architecture than I would have reading all of Dan King’s or Michael Thomas’s library. However, the fact that I lurk and sometimes participate on this site helped me significantly in this experiential learning. I see all of those courses in a different light and learn more when I play them than I did 3 years ago. This is good. But……..
…..reading and pontificating is only a very weak substitute for experience, at least as I see it.