Old Course Joins Twitter, Gets #savetheoldcourse Hashtag, UK Press Slowly Begins To Notice
I know it's a bigger story to those outside the United States. After all, this is the same town that approved putting up a chest of drawers (Longhurst) next to the Road hole. So expecting architectural sensitivity may be a lot to ask.
Still, it's nice to see the altering of the Old Course at St. Andrews getting attention from some press and in social media.
The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson writes that "It has to be said, some of the planned amendments sound positively radical," then declares, "Let’s go easy on the outrage, however, and have a little faith in the two bodies in question. After all, they have more to lose than anyone."
Got that?
The Scotsman's Martin Dempster acknowledges Tom Doak's petition to stop the work.
It's hard to tell what Philip Reid of the Irish Times thinks, but to anyone who knows the game and the R&A's public stance on scoring, this is an indictment:
...it would seem the RA, governors of the game and responsible for staging the British Open, aren’t immune from phobias of their own and the fear of low scoring – whisper it, the possibility of a 59 – is seen as the main reasoning behind plans to toughen up the Old Course in time for its next hosting of golf’s oldest Major championship.
Tom Dunne tweeted the scoring averages from the last Open Championship at St. Andrews where 73.0665 was the number for the week. As for key holes receiving new bunkers to "stiffen the defences" as the R&A's Peter Dawson put it, the second, fourth and sixth all average well over par. The Road played the toughest for the week at 4.6631 yet is already under attack just days after the announced changes.
Meanwhile, The Old Course is on Twitter now. Give her a follow.
There is a nice list of Tweets developing with the #savetheoldcourse hastag.
On change.org, Emile Bonfiglio has started a petition to halt the work.
Monday, November 26, 2012 at 11:48 PM
Reader Comments (19)
Who is to say nose rings, etc, would have made their way onto TOC had this form of protest been available. And yet this ''protest'' is meaningless without action.
It is a sad state of affairs if St Andreans degrade themselves to taking 'our' money for 'their' courses. The 'home of golf' should not lock its doors!
And no Steve, based on the Castle Course, the Old Course hotel and now this, it's pretty apparent that there is a self-destructive streak in that town.
I'm not happy that they feel they have to make the changes-but what is being suggested is hardly a major overhaul.I wouls leave 11 alone however.
I hope and pray that there will be no more alterations for years to come and if that is the case then they have my qualified approval
©2012 digsouth
A paradise of grass and sand
Where gale winds called the scoring
But when light tides rolled softly in
Easy seemed so alluring.
So from the minds of mindless charges
The wheels of change were baking
And pride for gloating
Made poor decisions
There for the mindless taking.
Mother Nature, She knows-we know
But still we know what’s better
When we can do with diesel tools
What time carved to the letter.
And so it rolls and so we roll
Because so few rule the call
But just remember when you do it again
All you had to fix was the ball.
permission for reprinting with credits shown
For 99.99% of golfer, the game is still very difficult and they make up the overwhelming majority of whether the game is "destoyed" or not. At the local muni that is all of 5500 yards...trust me, even though their course would be a joke to the modern professional, the game of golf is VERY healthy with those who play there.
Looks like you need to turn your misery on Martin Dempster! Is he an arrogant, idiot too now?
But surely people are allowed to have differing opinions?
My father always taught me that it was fine to disagree with people but there was no need to be disagreeable.I think thats a good principle.
Perhaps you missed Steve Scott's insult to Geoff in a post on the previous thread.
There is simply no right in what is going on right now. This isn't about opinion, its about stupidity. You can lump Ron Whitten in that group. (He should just retire)
Myself and others here were labeled arrogant and idiotic by one of your countrymen, Mr. Scott. But thanks for the insight.
But I do think he's entitled to his opinion-so long as he puts it reasonably!
The difficulty of the game and the fact that there is a level playing field (the same rules apply to all golfers, whether you are Rory McIlroy or a hacker on a 5500 yards muni) are fundamental to golf. So let's get rid of balls that are ridiculously long and straight, putters anchored to other parts of the body than the hands and clubs made out of materials meant for space industry.