"To USGA critics, I have a message: Give the USGA a break."
Jim Achenbach gets in the holiday spirit of giving and bathes the USGA in praise for going to public venues with its championships as a sign that the organization is working for the good of the game.
I saw the USGA take definitive steps (along with the PGA of America) to promote the game and help assure its future growth. When the USGA was founded in 1895, its charter was all about making rules and conducting championships. Boosting and elevating the game weren’t even on the table. Now, thanks to Fay and Davis, the USGA has decided to lend its influence to the development of golf in general and public golf in particular.
In the arena of public golf, I traveled to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort for the U.S. Public Links Championship, an event that is thriving. In many ways, the future of golf is linked to courses that are open to the public. The two A words -- affordability and accessibility -- must be part of the formula to cultivate new players and new enthusiasm for the sport.
To USGA critics, I have a message: Give the USGA a break.
Unfortunately the public golf Achenbach cites as a definitive step in a positive direction is far, far removed from the public golf that matters to golfers.
If the USGA really cared about true public golf, there would be a rush to drop everything they are doing--even the eight years and counting ball study--to be coming to the defense of Sharp Park and the potentially disastrous precedent that could be set by closing this remarkable public course.
Just ask Achenbach's colleague, Bradley Klein who wrote yesterday:
Supporters of the golf course know that the Board of Supervisors’ measure would be tantamount to a death sentence, because the National Park Service has no interest in operating a daily-fee golf course. That leaves two options open: continued city management under revised terms; or allow San Mateo to step in and operate the golf course. There’s good reason to believe the county is interested in doing so. That would enable Sharp Park supporters to keep their golf course while pursuing funds for a proposed renovation that would upgrade the course and expand habitat for the species in question. But as the Board of Supervisors’ vote makes clear, the garter snake and frog aren’t the only things that need protection.
Out in the Bay Area and throughout the U.S., municipal golf also is an endangered species.
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 08:03 PM
Reader Comments (26)
A few questions for Mr. Achenbach: Did you travel to Bandon on your own dime? How is Bandon a model of either "affordability and accessibility"? Do you really think Bandon is a part of the "formula to cultivate new players and new enthusiasm" you write about?
I haven't been to Bandon, but I hope to go one day. I am not a new player, but I have great enthusiasm for the essence of the game that Mr. Keiser and Bandon strive to represent. But a good case was made here recently that a trip to Melbourne might cost even less than a trip to Bandon. From where I live in the East, it is not too difficult to plan a trip to Scotland that costs less than a trip to Bandon. And with a little planning the courses in the Sand Belt and in Scotland are just about as accessible to the "non-member" as Bandon. Fees are in the same ballpark. And they are also in the Top-10, -20, -50 in the world.
Those "new" players (who?) are not going to Bandon. But they might go to Sharp Park, or any of thousands of extant but endangered municipal and public courses across the country. And that is where attention should be paid.
You are spot on with what type of golf really matters to the public golfer. It is the muni down the road. I played 95 holes over 2.5 days at Bandon over Thanksgiving weekend. Spectacular as always, but you have to come home. My first holes played post Bandon were on a Billy Bell course that I have always enjoyed. It felt 2 days ago like playing an unplugged pinball machine. At the risk of overstatement, I have been in a crisis; my passion for the game being sorely tested. Bandon is where my ashes can be spread, but while sill among the living, I hope to regain the joy of playing the affordable and accessible courses 5-15 minutes from my driveway. That is where the Rustic Canyons, Wild Horses and Wine Valleys would serve as much better models than Bandon, but we all know the conversation will not involve new public course design ideas for a very long time. We are left with the bloated Nineties courses wondering why they are going broke.
I'd like to know when and where the last REAL public course Jim Auchenbach paid to play at.
Bandon green fees: May-Oct...$230 plus caddy if you stay at the resort...$275 plus caddy as a "guest"...and you must walk.
Not sure $300-$400 per round is gonna "cultivate" a whole lot of new players. Achenbach is in dreamland.
rb- A "quality" caddie experience at Bandon is one of the best plays in golf and worth every penny. You don't go there to save money or play cheap golf. It's not that kind of place and Jim A. is out to lunch on this one!
Being an ex caddy myself, I totally agree :o)
Like KLG, I think Mike Keiser's concept for Bandon respects the game, but unless you're well-off financially (personally or corporately), it's not affordable or accessible. Pebble Beach, Kohler and Kiawah are accessible to the public, but they're in no way afforadable.
Hooray for Brad Klein. If the USGA (or PGA for that matter) were truly serious about affordable and accessible golf, I can think of no better cause right now than ensuring that the Good Doctor's Sharp Park stays open. And why not a national program to save similar architecturally significant and threatened munis across the country?
Look I'm not saying Bandon is easily accessible for lots of parts of the country, but East Coasters thinking Scotland would be cheaper are kidding themselves. That said, I'm dying to play in Scotland. I'm just going to hit up Bandon Dunes first. I have a trip to Bandon this January: 5 rounds of golf, lodging, caddy fees, meals, and flight will come in around $2500. No f'ing way you can play 5 rounds of golf in Scotland for that.
In the month of January, Bandon green fees are only $75...there's a good reason for that...rain, rain and more rain...good luck with your crap shoot, West Coaster.
Just looked though, for a week in late March, planned on the spur of this moment during lunch, no help from the Scottish Tourist Board or a tour operator:
ATL-EDI: $871
Day Tickets at Nairn, Brora, Royal Dornoch, Golspie (~8 rounds, no caddies): $682 (current exchange rates)
Rental car for a week, large enough for 3 golfers and bags: ~$620, incl. insurance (~$250 per person, to be on the safe side)
B&B accommodations + other meals: $750
Incidentals: $250
Total: $2803, add $400 for "unknowns" and it gets up to $3203
You got me!
Make sure you bring a deck of cards.
Without a caddy, $150 gets you 36 a day, $100 gets you your room (shared), and you can eat and drink for $100, easily.
If you are stopping in Florence you hit the coast too early imo.
ISean I like to grab a Chicken Fried Steak at the little place in Reedsport when you first hit the coast.
I've spent 3-4 days at Bandon six times. Always in December or February. We have had 50% perfect weather, 20% decent weather, 20% wet weather and then there was 2-3 years ago when we were there for the Pineapple Express. Resort lost power. Then backup power. The first day we played Pacific in torrential rain and 50-75 mph winds. Supposedly one of two groups to finish. The next day the courses were closed (but the Puffin was open). The third day was socked in by fog. Still had a blast although it was expensive for 45 holes of golf and one monumental piss up.
Given that one trip was smack in the middle of, according to the locals, a 100 year storm I think taking your chances in the winter is well worth the savings. First week in December is usually great and the courses are in better shape than they are in February.
I have done about 8 winter trips and only one really bad day. The weather is usually spotty, but you won't get a whole round in the rain.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Xi0tYiD62nU/TukyTVuy7iI/AAAAAAAAArU/937Hjoc8ZFc/s288/18potbunker5.jpg
Makes you thinks he's never been there, and if he is headed there that he will have a rude awakening.
Seems to me, if you live in the Pacific, Bandon is easier/cheaper and if you live on the LEast Coast, then Scotland is easier/cheaper.
(Apologies in advance for any typos or misspelled names/places...)