Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2022 - 40

BACKSPIN
Nine Is Enough
More golfers are discovering (over time) that a
golf round has never been just about 18 holes.
B
eing an older morning person, 8 p.m. is a time for locking
the front door and asking the teenager if she's in for
the night.
Thirty-some years ago, 8 p.m. on one Thursday every spring was
the time golf buddies arrived for the overnight drive from Canton,
Ohio, to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Twelve hours later, after buying breakfast and all the Bud Light
four to eight young bucks can carry, we'd be on the tee for the first
of 90 holes in 52 hours.
Thirty-six holes Friday. Thirty-six holes Saturday. Eighteen
holes Sunday morning. Pile in the car, hit Burger King and drive
straight home.
Doesn't that sound great?
Actually, no. Not anymore. Now, it sounds ...
Awful.
Apparently, I've become part of a recent trend in golf: Playing a
quick nine holes and loving it. Joe Oberle, our esteemed managing
editor, informed me of my trendiness while assembling his piece
in this edition on The Loop, a 9-hole course opening in Chaska,
and The Gravel Pit, a brilliant idea that's bringing 13-hole rounds to
Brainerd (see page 22).
Don't get me wrong. Golf is the greatest game ever. But slow,
time-guzzling golf is not.
According to ScottishGolfHistory.org, this grand game had
courses of all different numbers of holes in its earliest days. Then, in
1764, the Old Course at St. Andrews birthed the 18-hole round out
of 10 holes, eight of which were played twice. It would be another
100 years before the course was expanded to 18 holes, causing other
courses to do the same.
So, yeah, we've had about 258 years of being conditioned to think
golf must be played 18 holes at a time. Apparently, a number of us
are starting to reconsider.
" Time commitment, money commitment ... sometimes you
don't have four hours to commit or want to, " Greg Kaiser, marketer
and website developer for The Gravel Pit, told Oberle. " So [the 13hole
design] is a very different offering ... that's going to maintain
the same level of golf, just not in the 4 ½-hour, 18-hole time commitment.
That will be popular among players. "
Agreed.
There's still a place in this golf-loving, public course-playing heart
40
The Gravel Pit
for 18-hole rounds. But there's a softer spot growing for being first
off the tee, for zipping through half the course in 90 minutes on
foot, for escaping into nature and returning to reality before the
mind wanders, the emails begin to ping and all the other noises of
another day start to interfere.
The former 20-something in me is laughing at the 57-year-old
version who couldn't be paid to play 36 holes a day. But that's OK.
Like they say about a mother who forgets the pain of childbirth, that
20-something isn't remembering some of the agony that accompanied
the ecstasy of those Myrtle Beach getaways.
Lunch was a hot dog in the cart while sitting in line to start the
second 18. Strength, energy and sobriety would dissipate quickly at
that point. Once, while holding the flag and looking back at the hole
to recount his strokes, 20-something me had to admit, " Boys, I have
no memory of this hole. Give me a 10. "
Dinners were at an all-you-can-eat pizza place called, " The Filling
Station. " Nights were spent getting no water and too little sleep.
If 20-something me was being totally honest, he would admit
right now that he once prayed for a rainout while sleeping on the
floor of a cramped hotel room during an overnight thunderstorm.
But the sun came up and another 36 holes awaited.
A big part of that 20-something wanted to play nine and go to the
beach. It just took him 30 years to realize it.
Mark Craig is the NFL/Vikings columnist and a golf writer for
the Star Tribune.
* BY MARK CRAIG *
MINNESOTAGOLFER Spring 2022
mngolf.org
PHOTO: GREG KAISER, GULL LAKE PRODUCTIONS
http://www.ScottishGolfHistory.org http://www.mngolf.org

Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2022

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Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2022 - Contents
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