The Golf Guru: things every golfer should know - The Digest: September - the history of the 18-hole golf course; golfing in windy conditions
Mike Kelly, Bend, Ore.
There’s a strip of land between the River Eden and St. Andrews Bay in Scotland where they’ve been playing golf since before Columbus set sail. That precious piece of turf, now the Old Course at St. Andrews, happens to be 211/42 miles long. Enough for nine holes going out, nine coming home. Hence, 18 holes.
You might wish that this little peninsula were a mile or so shorter–we would all be playing eight-hole courses. A round would take only a couple of hours, so we’d be able to sleep in occasionally, our lawns would look better and our spouses would love us more. We’d be better golfers (who can concentrate for five hours?), we’d be richer (building and maintaining courses–and membership dues and green fees–would be cheaper), we’d be more tolerant of noisy children. Perhaps we should be glad: St. Andrews used to have 22 holes.
But the Golf Guru is thankful that the game is played over 18 holes. If it had been invented today, golf would be shorter, quicker, more regimented–and a lot less fun. Golf’s great virtue is that it forces us to waste time. We are euphoric as we walk off the first tee because we are free from e-mail, world events and pruning. On the course we solve all our problems, big and small, by not thinking about them.
J. Smith, Dodge City, Kan.
Many years ago, the Golf Guru was driving in Spain and happened upon the scenic coastal town of Tarifa, overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s one of the windiest places in Europe; it also has the highest suicide rate in Spain. These two facts, surely, are not unrelated. The wind might be good for surfers (of which there are many in Tarifa), but for everyone else, it can be a constant torment.
Playing in the wind is always difficult. The wind heightens any spin on the ball, and accentuates a slice or a hook. And the natural tendency, of course, is to swing harder. This not only disrupts the chance of making solid contact, but it also imparts more backspin. The result is that the ball curves farther, often getting into even deeper trouble.
Learn to hit the ball lower. Play smarter. Don’t fight the wind: Take plenty of club, and swing easy. There are always periods in our lives when we find ourselves playing into the wind, or swimming against the tide, or running uphill, or any number of other metaphors for difficult times. The difficult times will pass. In the meantime, swing easy.
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