Another way is to hang out with golfers who play with hickory-shafted clubs. The Downs pro is, or has been, one of the top players on the little circuit that tours the country. They used to play at Kingsley every June, near the Downs, a design of another Mackenzie disciple Mike DeVries. Now I think they play a little further north at Belvedere (sp?) near Charlevoix. They’re into the freedom of limits and the appeal of hickory golf is ell defined in terms of a reaction against the gross commercialization and modernization of the game.

Why golf? I’m not the best in the world at anything, but every now and then I can play a hole as well as the best player in the world. There is no other sport, indeed no other endeavor, about which that is true. Golf is the human condition: being satisfied with intimations of perfection in the face of our pursuit thereof. Since part of that pursuit involves self-mastery, there is nothing I have ever attempted that exposes and challenges such mastery as does golf.

I am told that High Point has closed down, a victim of the bad economy. I have not had a chance to play it, but lament the lost opportunity. On the other hand, I once played a Tom Doak design down in the Tampa area: Pine Barrens, at World Woods Golf. It’s part of a complex with Rolling Oaks, which I played on the afternoon of the same day. Pine Barrens is a BRUTAL course, but beautiful and well-designed. It’s nothing like a Dye course: it has a very natural feel embedded in Florida’s west coast, and works beautifully with its natural surroundings. It is one of my favorite courses I have played, but it is not for the faint of heart. Manifestly NOT a course for all skill levels. I should also recommend Arcadia Bluffs, but go before the end of the school year to take advantage of the spring rates. I don’t like the greens on that course – I find them ridiculous – but the vistas are astonishing. From tee to green, it’s a wonderful track.

As to how I got on to Crystal Downs: at graduation this year I was meeting with one of our graduates who was introducing me to his parents. His dad mentioned that he had a friend who was a member at Crystal Downs, and would like to thank me for “all I had done” for his son, and would I be interested in golfing a round at the course. Um … ok. There was talk of making it an annual affair. Again: um … ok. I also found out that the man who has been the head pro there for the last 33 years went to Hope.

Zrim: given your note, you ought to try Pilgrim’s Run, just north of Grand Rapids. One of the best tracks in the area, and each hole is named after something in Bunyan’s work. The 18th hole is a load of fun.

Somebody should make little Petey Dye maintain one of his courses for a few weeks. There really is nothing like a vintage 20′s course. My favorite was shaggy ole El Monte at the mouth of Ogden Canyon where we kiddies with our 7:30 am tee times would have to wait between howling morning wind gusts funneling out of the canyon to smack off the first tee and hopefully avoid sending a ball back through the window of the stone clubhouse 50 yards behind us. And then there was the time we snuck pa’s clubs out and forgot to retrieve the crawdaddys stashed in the zippered ball pocket.

Grace, only marriage is harder than golf. We flagellants love it. Plus there are only a few things in life prettier than a slight right-to-left ball flight off an elevated tee, and only few sounds more lovely than a golf ball finally hitting the bottom of the cup.

Polet, thanks for making my exile in IL more miserable today.

Grace, walking is the practice of pilgrims and golf is the practice of Presbyterians. We also admire alliteration.

pax et bonum-
GP

I did not golf when I was young, though Monroe County NY sported an incredibly high ratio of courses per resident, particularly for a northern town subject to cold late-Septembers and the random early May snow flurry. Living in Houston, golf seems to invade the pores on your body. You simply can’t fight it – like the humidity which I am also learning to accept…strangely enough. Half your friends in Houston have lived, are living, or will live in a planned community situated near a par 3. Most people have tried the game, like a strong shot, at least once, and there must be a couple of bags in every self-respecting garage…even if they are quite dusty.

Anyway, I digress. Here in the swamp, we have a course called Tour 18, which has copied 18 of the most well known holes from these great courses you discuss. Having now “played” the 17th hole at Sawgrass several times, and come just inches shy of a hole in one, I can say it is the hole that keeps me coming back to play the game several times a year. The memory of near perfection…I just can’t shake it. And those views…

A buddy and I were turned away at the entrance once (must have been the beat up Chevy Cavalier). But a few years later, on my honeymoon, I made it all the way to the unassuming clubhouse (must have been my bride) and had a look at some of those world-class Mackenzie holes. The superintendent then was a guy with a master’s in English who thought better of life and got himself a turf degree too.

One FPRer to another: how did you manage to get on the course? It’s on my list of things to do before I shuffle off the mortal coil.