"Post an Aerial Photo Of Your Course!"

[Ceej]

you guys play some nice cources i just stick to the muni's. who can complain with a 10$ round

I play for free at mine... it works out well too

[DaveLeeNC]

I play for free at mine... it works out well too

you guys play some nice cources i just stick to the muni's. who can complain with a 10$ round

Back around 2002 I posted the following on USENET (rec.sport.golf). It is related to the quoted comments.

dave Not sure why I am posting this, but what-the-hell. I'm now in my early 50's and was introduced to golf by my father back in the early/mid 1960's (starting with middle school years for the arithmetically challenged). I didn't like the game at first but (for the life of me I don't know what it was) something changed and I got totally hooked at around age 14-15. This was golf in IttyBittyTown, Mo. back in the 1960's. The two local courses were both 9 holers and when I started playing they had sand greens. No, you didn't misread this. They were sand greens. They were perfectly flat and perfectly circular and maybe 60 feet in diameter. To putt you had a string attached to the pin and you would measure your distance from the cup via this string. There was a "sand dragger" (basically a 2 inch steel pipe around 3-4 feet long with a long handle) that you used to drag a smooth path to the cup. Using the string to measure distance you would put your ball in the middle of the dragged path and putt to the cup. Yes, I banked several putts off the ridge created by the dragger. We called this golf back in IttyBittyTown, Mo. in the early/mid 60's. Both the local courses put in grass greens around 1965. Not knowing any better I viewed this as the pinnacle of golf. I was amazed at the carpet like smoothness of these greens. In retrospect these greens were mowed at most twice per week, the cups were moved a couple times/month (I'm not kidding - I would guess that sometimes the grass would overgrow the edge of the cup to the point that it was an inch smaller than 4.5 inches), a 6 inch break was a big deal, they probably stimped around 4, and watered fairways were as realistic an option as a vacation on the moon. This was golf in my formative years. And I have nothing but the fondest thoughts of those days. We played winter rules all year as (in very dry years) you might have to move your ball 2-3 feet to find anything even close to a decent lie. I'm talking square yards of bare dirt. And let's say that you hit a 5-iron 170 yards in the air and you are 170 yards from the pin. Hit your 5-iron and miss the green 5 yards left and you have a 60 yard pitch shot coming back. You quickly learned to hit your longer approach shots well short of the green. Sandtraps? What the hell is a sandtrap? OTOH, the rough might be bush-hogged a couple times/decade. Rough on these courses was waist to shoulder high (not kidding). But I played these two 9-holers as often as I could talk my ever-patient Mom into driving me to the course. And twice per week I played 18 holes with my Dad and his friends. This is the most fun that I have ever experienced in life and I doubt that this will change. Somehow I am left with the feeling that "this is really golf" despite the conditions that would be totally unacceptable by even the most lenient standards today. I played alot of golf through high school (1967 graduation, played less in college, and then got a job (and married). I then played once/week on courses far better than what I just described but basically pitiful by today's standards. E.G., the course we played most often had maybe 9 sandtraps total. I didn't even bother carrying a SW. Job/family pressures grew and I quit playing COMPLETELY in the late 70's. But I never quit loving the game of golf as I knew it. I now plan to retire next month. I live in Pinehurst, NC and am a member of the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. This isn't like an equity ownership deal in a normal CC, but I have regular access to Pinehurst courses No. 1-6 (yes, this includes No. 2) and all their facilities. As you can guess from what I have stated this is a significant step up from my golfing heritage. First let me state that I REALLY DO appreciate the golfing opportunities that I will soon have (I currently commute 150 miles per day and have little time for golf). I wouldn't change my situation even if given the opportunity. But I also wonder - will I ever appreciate golf here in 'Golf Heaven' as much as I appreciated golf back on the sand greens of Ozark Hills Golf Club and the Bonne Terre Golf Club back in IttyBittyTown, Mo.? I doubt it.

[Dent]

and i cant beleive I just read all of that. But nice story..