Mike
What did we learn, to those new to golf the answer is very little as they just play the game. For those a little bit more interested in golf realised that courses were the result of much thought on both its location and hole per hole design. But what did we learn, the answer is very clear, look out over the last 25 years and you will see we learnt, Sweet F@#K All.
We continued the alienation of players from the game, we further developed and promoted the Tour Competitions, to such an extent that it lost the Spirit of what Golf is all about. Yet we knew something had gone wrong, new courses built after the war leading up to the 1980’s were not all what they should have been but then we were following a different direction for the game of making it easy and to attract more player. Nevertheless fundamental parts of the game seems to have been side lined, the idea of Golf being a challenge was frowned upon, any form of technology was accepted with minimal consideration to what it might do to the Game.
Yes Peter Dye, moved the game in part to try and get it back on the rails, but by then the new Age had dawned, life was to be easy, it was the time of convenience foods , we the disposable society had all the answers, golf courses we designed as sculptures as it they also functioned as courses, all well and good.
The post war years have been a total disaster for the game, instead of promoting the Game of Golf, we have gone out of our way to squeeze every drop of pleasure out of the game. Gone is the gentle exercise of walking, gone is the mental stimulation of calculating choice of club and distance from your own senses. Stress levels rise giving way to peaks of frustration and anger that sometimes resorts to violence thanks to the modern requirement to ooze testosterone showing how big one is by hitting a long ball. Perhaps can’t sink a putt but as long as you can hit a long ball.
Penal is a scary word in golf today, it means you have to raise your game, improve your skill levels and take what comes , but that not golf, golf is easy, it’s all about strategy, of riding when you should be walking, of thinking instead of using distance aids, but hey tell yourself it makes you a better golfer.
The question I am surprised that has not been asked is ‘what more have we to learn regards Golf’ we seem to know it all, we over complicate the issues, we throw in facts and figure that are in truth just total bullshit because we have forgotten what a Game of Golf is all about
Just what indeed did we learn in the last 25 year cycle of GCA. Simple, how to die early of stress related symptoms, perhaps because we are so unfit and do not seem to be able to concentrate on the important issues any more like the Game of Golf.
Because some may be more aware of GCA it does not mean that we have actually learnt anything.
Am I wrong, perhaps, but if I am right, Golf help us all because we are doing nothing to stop the rot.
Melvyn