What you believe and what you support are personal, to be shared at your discretion. Unless it involves golf, that is. Then, you should come forth with full disclosure concerning all your wants and preferences in loving this game.
Where there is passion for golf, there are appreciations for little things that get overlooked, simple joys that emanate, nuances that catch our attention, pleasures that keep us coming back, great friends and trusted compadres.
So, at a time when our support is asked for, let’s have confidence in offering up our beliefs.
Start with Punchbowl greens. They are unparalleled gems, to be cherished and admired for all their charm and character. Should you be privileged to have one at a club where you play – my hand is raised, proudly – you best count your blessings with each and every visit or else you are doing a disservice to the game.
This is not to say that a Redan or a Biarritz aren’t styles saturated in massive personality; they surely are. But it’s the Punchbowl that gets my vote as most flavorful.
Along these lines, consider yourself rewarded magically if you have had the opportunity to play arguably Scotland’s most fun course, North Berwick’s West Links. There you get the whole experience coming home – a Redan at 15, a Biarritz at 16, and a Punchbowl at 17 – and if you aren’t thinking you are in golf heaven, well . . . certainly we will move on to other areas where we will share a common ground.
Tee boxes, perhaps. First and foremost, they need to be perfectly flat, devoid of slopes and uneven lies, and it’s hard to imagine that any golfer would think otherwise. As for that sliver of golf that keeps me awake at night, it’s remarkable how much of a nuisance the golf tee can be.
Actually, let’s clarify. The golf tee itself is not the problem. It’s golfers who carelessly misuse and mistreat the golf tee who are at issue here.
Start with the makeup of the tee. It should be wooden and the sooner we do away with plastic tees the better. Plastic can cause havoc to mowers and all of us should be committed to being more considerate to our invaluable greenskeepers and maintenance workers.
(This isn’t to suggest you need to hug them, but you could occasionally toss them a wave and thank them for doing what they do.)
As for proper use of the golf tee, it is simple. You stick it in the ground, you strike your golf ball, then you remove the tee from the ground. We’re not talking molecular chemistry here. Should the tee break, discard of it, preferably in a trash bucket or into the woods. But keeping in mind that a tee box is a sanctuary – you know, a place of protection – never leave your tee splintered or stranded for another golfer to clean up.
Confident that these are issues with which few would disagree, let’s swing to a sweeping view of golf where pleasure is secured in any number of ways. It’s a massive landscape, for sure, and it’s unlikely that we’re all in synch with what floats our boat. So with mail-in ballots unavailable with this exercise, here are beliefs that have my full support:
* There is still something inspiring to be in a foursome that goes perfect from the tee box on a par 3 – four stripes, four balls on the green. It resonates in a most simplistic way, which speaks to the wonder of golf.
* What is greatly under-appreciated and deserves your respect is the golf David Duval played in the 1997-2001 stretch. In 112 PGA Tour tournaments he won 13 times, shot the coolest 59 that’s ever been recorded, and made a poignant speech after lifting the Claret Jug in 2001. That his meteor didn’t burn as long as some others takes nothing away from his immense quality – as a player and a man.
To take a caddie or not to take a caddie? Actually, that shouldn't be a question. Always seize the opportunity.
* You see a right-handed player who stands over his putt with his left hand low on the shaft and you call it cross-handed. But it’s left hand low in my book. Nothing cross-handed about it.
*No, no, forever no when it comes to taking a lift out of a divot hole. Play it as it lies. Try it, you just might pull it off.
* When you have exquisite greens, you can get a wonderful test on 5,800- to 6,100-yard golf courses.
* Caddies who love to play competitively, respect golf immensely, and can share great knowledge with another player’s bag strapped across their backs . . . well, they reflect so grandly on this wonderful game.
* Nothing kicks the boredom meter into high gear quite like a relentless string of elevated greens. Especially when an inordinate number of those greens are protected by big, wide, sweeping bunkers. Sigh. Granted, the “American” game is definitely through the air, but there’s such a lack of creativity and fun in that style. It tickles my fancy way more to be able to run shots up to greens, be it with a 7-iron from 135 yards or the trusty E-club from 20 to 30 yards. Golf balls trundling and bouncing along the turf, curling exquisitely up a false front, and navigating between bunkers? Man, that’s unfiltered joy, which is why a favorite comment of mine has forever been this: Were pure links on the landscape here as they readily are in Scotland and Ireland, there’d be golf played every day. Guaranteed.
* Playing with hickory clubs fascinates me. Those who do play hickory have my respect and the guess is they procure more fun from the game than non-hickory players.
* One swing to watch, one player to applaud, one career to admire? Gotta tell you, it’s a pretty easy choice. Bruce Lietzke. Talk about repetition, rhythm, timing. And that high, soft fade? Juicy sweet. Making it all the better, he was a prince of a man who had a wonderful career (13 wins) while doing it right – never obsessed about the majors, always put his family first.
* Think 80/20 when you’re on the golf course. Meaning, 80 percent of the rake in the bunker, 20 percent of it out. And use logic, folks; you always enter from the low side of the bunker, so that is where rakes should be placed.
* Should your score dictate whether your round was fun or not, my sympathy.
