There's an obscure sub-genre of golf called pasture golf, which takes on some of the tenets of the fabled Scottish shepherds who allegedly invented golf: take the land as you find it, add a hole, and get the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible. Fortunately for the Scottish shepherds, their fields were beautiful, rolling linksland. Unfortunately for most Midwestern pasture golfers, their fields are dry, dusty, flat-as-a-pancake hayfields. So, that's a bit of a loss.
There's a vacant lot I pass every day, twice a day, on my train to work. It's, oh, I don't know, 100 yards wide and maybe 300 yards long. There are pipes sticking up here and there, and it's very hilly, overgrown with native grasses and weeds. For years I've envisioned a course laid out on that property. Here's how it would work:
A green in every corner, with tee boxes on either side. From each tee box, you could play to the three other greens (blue lines). This, essentially, makes a 24-hole course over a very small area. The down side is that every hole criss-crosses every other hole, making play by more than one or two groups extremely dangerous.
But, the good side: no waits on the tees.
The ultimate, of course, would be to do this on a patch of linksy ground near a large body of water. Lake Michigan, while not an ocean, has proven itself worthy of passing for one with the much-vaunted Whistling Straits just up the road apiece.
And I've found a stretch of undeveloped (or, at least, at-one-time-developed-but-now-apparently-abandoned) land on the shores of Lake Michigan, just south of Chicago:
View Larger Map
I'd love to take that piece of land and turn it into a links-style course on the edge of the lake.
It is not big enough for a regulation course, I think (although 9 holes would probably fit quite well). And I wouldn't have $300 greens fees, either, to play there. It would be a private club, for members only, but the membership dues would only be enough to cover the expense of maintaining the course (most of which would be done by sheep, anyway). No, the exclusivity would be based upon the golfer's appreciation of links golf. You'd have to write an essay to join. And you'd have to convince the committee (the committee would be me) that you are a true links lover. No carts. No cart paths. No beer girls. No clubhouse and grille.
Just golf.
Leaving that for the moment in the pie-in-the-sky dreamland where it belongs, I do so happen to have a big vacant lot/flood overflow basin just down the hill from me, a two minute walk. Driving past it this morning, I see it's all dirt and knee-high weeds. I doubt there's a square foot of what you could describe as "fairway" turf on the entire property. But, on the plus side, it's THERE.
I'd guess at it's longest diagonal it's maybe 130, 140 yards. Which is long enough to practice a short game. I may just head down there this weekend with a bag of grass seed and a spade. I'll stick in a couple of holes, seed around a few spots, and wait.
Maybe my personal golf links is closer than I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment