It was May of 2001 and I was walking the fairways at Chardonnay”s Shakespeare Course in Napa. I was caddying for Mark Wotherspoon, Buckingham”s PGA professional, in United States Open sectional qualifying. The year before, I”d looped for Wotherspoon at Peach Tree in Marysville where he finished near the top of the leader board and ended up as first alternate. This time around, he went into the round at Chardonnay on a positive note based on past successes at that course in the Toyota Team qualifier.
While there”s a lot more to caddying beyond the standard mantra of “show up, keep up and shut up,” it”s still not as stressful as playing the game competitively. There is time to let your mind wander. About six holes into our round, a prevailing thought came into my head and stayed with me for the remainder of the day. Looking at a conglomeration of holes that included 475-yard dogleg left par-4s, 220-yard forced carries on watery par-3s, triple-tiered greens, and so on and so on, I came to a simple conclusion. The course was hard for the professionals, and the thought occurred to me was that it was way too tough for Joe Average golfer.
Later that day as Wotherspoon and I drove away from the private membership course, I told him that if I were a businessman who belonged to Chardonnay and invited my 20-handicap customers and suppliers to play my home course, I”d end up losing a lot of business. I could easily envision high scores, lots of lost balls and water balls, and deflated egos.
My model for this type of thinking is my younger brother. He lives in Michigan, is probably a 30-handicapper, and he”s an executive for the largest radio station conglomeration in America. He plays a couple of dozen times per year, and most of his golf is business-oriented. His competitive golf experience is playing in business leagues and charity tournaments where the format is four-man scramble. He can hide behind the successful exploits of his partners and every now and then he”ll help his team by hitting a decent drive or sinking a long putt.
I usually visit him for a few days each summer and he always takes me to a different course in his hometown of Grand Rapids. I get a taste of the various courses in western Michigan. This year we went to an old and established Donald Ross course celebrating its 100th year of existence. He hits his usual share of errant shots, but because it was a traditional course, it was simply a matter of finding his ball amongst the trees.
Other years we”ve gone to modern-era courses that advertise themselves as country clubs for the day. Often those courses are penal in nature, requiring forced carries to distant targets. With my single-digit handicap, I normally don”t worry too much about the course strategy required when playing a traditional course versus a modern-era test.
Yet to my brother, that errant tee shot into the trees of a traditional course is findable. On the newer target-oriented courses, that same shot finds the water or the backyard of the neighboring subdivision. I can easily recall the handful of times he has run out of golf balls. It”s tough to reach into your golf bag and loan out another Titleist Pro V1 to a 30-handicapper, even if it is your little brother. After all, Pro V1s are a better ball than a Top Flite, but that doesn”t mean the high-priced ball swims better than the off-the-rack generic model.
If you were to consider the golf courses in municipalities throughout Northern California, the comparisons are glaring. For instance, venerable Harding Park in San Francisco, site of next year”s Presidents Cup, is a traditional course that opened in 1927 (it was designed by Willie Watson, the architect of the Olympic club and Ukiah Municipal). It”s a tough course, but the toughness is from the trees, the doglegs and the bunkering around the greens.
Poppy Ridge in Livermore is the NCGA course that opened just over 10 years ago and was designed by Rees Jones, the younger son of Robert Trent Jones. The first hole is a forced carry over wasteland. The rough is a patchwork of ankle-high grasses and shrubbery. A number of the par-3s are watery. The greens are multi-tiered.
Now don”t get me wrong. I like to play at Poppy Ridge. I play it every summer with my son Nick, who now carries a 2-handicap. This past summer Nick and I shot a pretty impressive 3-over-par 75 on a very blustery day. Yet three years ago when Nick was a 24-handicapper and was capable of hitting his fair share of foul balls, we shot a 108. It”s just that Poppy Ridge plays too hard for the average golfer, as do a great many of our modern-era courses.
I know I am not alone in my opinion. Sandy Tatum is a former USGA president who along with Tom Watson is the co-designer of Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach. He is also the godfather of Harding Park and was instrumental in bringing the Presidents Cup to that course. Earlier this month, Tatum was asked by Golfclubatlas.com to name a modern-era course that would lend itself to a fun and enjoyable game of golf with one of his grandchildren.
His response? Tatum answered, “I can”t think of one.”
Tatum probably had the same issue with his grandkids that I have with my brother. You just don”t want to loan out those Pro V1s when your playing partner has already lost 12 golf balls. The golf courses of the modern era are true tests of golf, but because of the emphasis on forced carries, accuracy, punishing rough and water hazards, it makes it a difficult playing experience for the average golfer. The equipment may be a whole lot better than is used to be, but the courses of today are much more punitive than those from the past.
