Random thoughts

Well, I haven't posted much lately...then again, I haven't posted much ever, but such is life. I actually made some good progress on the list I made for course plays. I played Spring Hill College, Mississippi National and Rock Creek. But I've been sidelined for the last 2 months with a nagging wrist injury that doesn't seem to be getting any better, but no worse either. That is not great for golf though. So hopefully after the first of the year I will be able to make it back onto the golf course.

Off the golf course, to go with a post I made around this time last year, we saw the end of Jimmie Johnson's run of 5 consecutive Sprint Cup Championships. For all the racing fans, like him or not, that was something special. Up there with all the great streaks in sports, as is Hendrick Motorsports up there with the great dynasties of sport with their 9 championships (10 if you count that Tony Stewart's car was a Hendrick machine) It was a good run and I suspect we will see more of them in the not too distant future.

Also of note is the American College Football national championship game. I have been saying for quite a while that a computer chosen game between two teams from the same conference, one of which is not even good enough to win their own division within that conference in this case, would wind up playing each other in the championship game one day. Hopefully this will expose the BCS for the failure it is and will continue to be if schools and conferences allow it.

In the same realm, I am rather pleased that the NC State Wolfpack made it to a bowl game this year. Hopefully we are able to win and finish off a decent season.

Back to the golf course pursuits...given my wrist I guess I have to put on hold for the foreseeable future my goal of playing in the US Open. At this point, I do not think my wrist will allow me to practice enough to get to that level, or anywhere close really. As such, I am going to make effort to shift my athletic goals to another sport/endeavor I have had some success doing: distance running. My goals are to run a sub-5 minute mile and to qualify for the Boston Marathon. At some point I would also like to qualify for the Ironman Triathlon World Championships, but I'll stick to the marathon first.

Academically I am starting a degree/certificate program through American Military University tomorrow to gain more knowledge in my chosen military career path. I have a few research projects I want to work on, picking only one at a time to be sure, but I will have to find some one with whom to work and set me on the right path, as it's been quite a while since I wrote a paper of substance.

Sorry for the boring read here, for those few who read it. I will get back to the course reviews and golf topics as soon as possible.

Golf Course Routing

Why are so many modern golf courses routed so poorly? At last week's US Amateur Championship, we heard the announcers talk about how Erin Hills was around 9,000 yards from first tee to 18th green. A quick look at last year's Amateur Public Links Championship course, the Champions course at Bryan Park in Greensboro, NC, a course I have played numerous times, says that it is nearly 10,500 yards from 1st tee to 18th green, and that doesn't even count the 300 yards from the car park, to the range and then to the first tee. The Short Course at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, AL where I play quite a bit nowadays is about 3,100 "course" yards, yet walking the course is nearly 5,000 yards. On top of that, something like 16 or 17 holes play uphill at some point, either to the tee or to the green, some play uphill on both. Tobacco Road, a fairly well regarded course, is about 8,850 yards from 1st to 18th; interestingly Pinehurst #2 plays only about 7,500 yards from 1st to 18th yet the course yardage is about 800 yards greater than Tobacco Road. Pacific Dunes, the shining beacon in the night for walking golfers, checks in at some 1,300+ yards longer on the ground than on the card; must be a fantastic routing (might be enough for me to downgrade my 10 ranking) I simply don't understand why courses are routed so poorly. Are operators so strapped for cash that they essentially force customers to pay the extra $15-$35 for a cart fee? That is the only reason I can think of. Owners and Operators simply have no use for a walking golfer because they don't bring in the additional revenue from cart rental. As far as I'm concerned this is a poor cash grab on the part of the owners; I guess Erin Hills and Pacific Dunes make up for being walking only by strongly "recommending" a caddie, which, by the way, will bring them even more revenue than a cart would.

Slow Play

Why do people play slow on the golf course? Do they having nothing better to do that day AND figure that no one else on the course has anything to do either? Do they hate being home? Do they not care about the fact that they are making everyone in the groups behind miserable having to wait on every shot? I simply do not understand it. I love playing golf, I'd play 54 holes a day, every day of the year if I had that much time and money to do so. But I do not enjoy being on the golf course for hours on end, waiting 5 minutes to play every shot. There are maybe a dozen courses in the world where this would be acceptable and none of those are accessible to me on a daily basis (and I suspect if they were, it would no longer be acceptable to take a long time to play a round there).

I think what it amounts to is a basic lack of respect and courtesy on the golf course. Too many golfers today have no respect for other people's time and desires. It's quite sad really. Some people like to blame golf on television for slow play. I do not. Golf on television is professionals doing their jobs. When I am doing my job, I take my time as well, make sure everything correct before moving forward and taking a certain action. I have nothing against professional golfers doing the same. No, slow play on a daily basis on courses in town has nothing to do with the professional game. It has everything to do with the culture of golf that is put forward  at far too many public facilities. This culture where people feel like just because they have paid down a few dollars, they have the RIGHT to take as long as they wish to play a golf course. No, your fee doesn't give you the right to do anything; this is not a private-equity club where your fee gets you ownership of the club. Your fee gets you the privilege to come play and only then for so long as you are not intruding on the enjoyment of others on the course.

Its a great problem within the game, something that the USGA, PGA, National Golf Course Owners Association and course operators have essentially refused to work to correct. People try to put out "pace ratings" for golf courses, but these work out as a joke too. A course where I worked in Pinehurst, NC was "pace rated" at 4 hours 20 minutes, yet it was routine to see groups play in less than 3 hours early in the day. If every group on the course were to keep up with this group, even on a full day, every group on the course should be able to get around in 4 hours or less. But the management of the course steadfastly refused to let the course marshal's enforce a pace of play faster than 4 hours and 20 minutes.

But in the end, slow play amounts to one thing: Disrespect. Disrespect from other golfers on the course. Disrespect from management allowing one group to ruin the day for the rest of the golfers on the course. And frankly, disrespect from the governing and managing bodies to not call on their member clubs to work towards and force a much faster pace of play on the course. It's quite a poor state of affairs, I must say.