Golf off the ground

Which would you rather hit?

As a caddie at Bandon Dunes we have the best playing privileges in the caddie business.  We have access to 4 (soon to be 5) of the most beautiful, critically acclaimed, and fun golf courses every built in North America.  We aren’t relegated to playing only on Mondays. We aren’t bared from Pacific Dunes because it is the most popular with the guests.  And although at times the privileges aren’t as good in practice as they are on paper (mostly a function of the place being so darn busy.  Which has obvious benefits for me.) I’m truly thankful for every golf shot I get to hit at Bandon Dunes golf resort.

Except in the winter.

From November 15th until March 1st caddies and employees of the resort are required to play off of a mat.  The logic being that it saves the golf courses from unnecessary ware and tare while the fescue grass is dormant.

Playing golf of off a mat pretty much takes all of the fun out of it.  Bending over and picking your ball up every time and putting it on the mat is a pain.  Not to mention the fact that the fundamental rule of golf is to play your ball as it lies.  The mats also dramatically change the playing characteristics of links golf.  Instead of bumping the ball around the courses as Old Tom intended us too the mat allows for and encourages the aerial attack that is more comfortable to the less bold.

While the argument that caddie/employee play has a significant impact on the golf courses in the winter held up 8 years ago, it doesn’t anymore.  Anybody who has been to Bandon Dunes in the winter knows that there are golfers all over the place.  What ever caddie/employee play there is on a given winter day is a very small percentage of total play for that day.  Our impact is minimal.  I’d even argue that we leave the golf course better then we find it.

A sad fact of working in the golf business is that we don’t get to play as much as we’d like. Hopefully most people in the golf business are in it because they love the game.  Unfortunately being around golf constantly doesn’t mean you get to play and sometimes it is the reason you don’t.  After looping 22 or 23 days in a row in the summertime it is hard for a lot of loopers to get motivated to go out and play golf at the resort on their day off.

Not true in the winter when looping is mostly relegated to the weekends for a couple of months.  Golf is a welcome diversion and there is usually two or three days worth of good weather a week even in the worst of winters to play (this winter it was everyday almost).  The mat is a  major deterrent and we don’t play as much as we’d like or half as much as we would if we could hit it off the ground all winter.

We played today.  Off the ground and it was amazing.  Even with a melt down with the putter on the 16th green that carried over to the 17th tee.