Auld Game Reader Comments

Dear Mr. Laing,

A mutual acquaintance recently loaned me a copy of your book America! What Have You Done To The Old Game?. I have played the game for 50 years and practice almost every day weather permitting. My apartment looks out onto the first fairway of my favorite course and the practice area is two blocks away. I go there each morning and I do not even remember the last time there was anyone there other than myself. If one day you could come to the area where I live I will take you to various places where when we step onto the first tee more times than not we will be the only people on the entire course. In this area where I live there were originally three courses. Today there are twenty six. Most of the time there is no "starting time" needed. I have read the book twice and I am going to read the 5th chapter once more and then return the book to him. You did a nice job of writing and the editing is well done. Among other things I have been a teacher and some people say "once a teacher always a teacher." I hope things are going well for you and yours. What fun it would be for you and I to go to some of my favorite places. Going to the practice area early in the morning borders on being a religious experience. Of course the the light has to be right.

Richard Mann

Really enjoyed the book and agree 100% Problem is also with the American Golf Clubs - here in USA slow play is a fact of life at private clubs - as long as a foursome plays in 4 hours it is OK - never mind that they have empty holes ahead and people waiting on every shot behind! Keeping up with the group ahead is discussed but the group behind does not matter! Hope the book brings about changes that will benefit all "gowfers".

Janette Stradwick

Dear Eric

Damn you hit hard. I found myself in the Chapter “Plain Bloody Bad Manners”. I paid to have my round of golf and if I’ve lost my ball and it takes an hour to find it, then that’s part of my enjoyment of being out there in the first place, plus I might find another while I look.

Read the Rules of Golf?, Hell no, I just go out to hit the ball and try to get it into the little hole on the green within 10 shots and “Etiquette” never entered my head. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been playing behind “those guys”, for too long and have never really taken the game that seriously.

So…I’ve now read beyond the first fifteen pages and I’m gaining a new “respect” for the game and “disrespect” for those like me that really should be enjoying the game “for the game”.

Love your not so “tongue in cheek” Scottish humour, and the graphics. And, the fact that you have put out a book than many of the slower players could have a problem reading.

Well written, well thought out and well said. This book should be required reading by ALL before setting foot on the golf course.

Congratulations, I have thoroughly enjoyed your book, but it’s about time that I re-read from the beginning.

Alexander R. Hamilton
Knoxville. Tennessee

Dear Eric,

I received your book as a gift from a mutual friend. I have not read every word but have enjoyed the great amount I have read. ( I promise to go back and read every word!!)

As a golfer ( 9 hdcp ) I believe you are “right on” with your observations. Three and one half hours is more than enough for 18 holes. TV is partly responsible as rank amateurs try to copy the “antics” of the pros – ie – always have the same pre-shot routine – a 22 handicapper has no idea what that means but he/she does it anyway. I once heard Lee Trevino say that to speed up the game a player, while putting, cannot go beyond his ball on the green. Makes sense to me.

I have rambled on enough – I want you to know I really enjoyed your book and plan to tell all my friends to buy it. God knows, they need it!!!

Walt Coughlin
Dallas TX

Dear Eric,

I enjoyed reading your book and think you make many valid points, but I disagree with a few of them. I am not a very good golfer, and probably will never become one since I find it too stressful to actually play a round of golf for fear of ticking off someone behind me. Perhaps a solution could be golf courses designated for the various calibers of players, much like ski runs which are set up to accommodate skiers at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels.

I also disagree with your assertion that it is wrong to design golf courses to accommodate real estate markets. I see nothing wrong with building golf courses surrounded by beautiful homes. Logically, if this is what it takes to get more golf courses constructed I'd think you'd be in favor of it since the more courses there are the less crowded they will be.

Regards,
SM - Albuquerque, NM

Having learned the game in Scotland – and then having played it in America – there’s no doubt in my mind that this book is well overdue. Eric Laing knows what he’s talking about and in his very readable style, gets straight to the point! He doesn’t mind if some are offended by his views; what matters to him is his passion for the game and the great desire to see the game restored to something like its original form. Well done to him. Well worth a read.

Martin Fair

Being a former President of the Bermuda Golf Association and participating in various rules seminars and World Golf Council deliberations, I much enjoyed and empathised with the author's amusing but accurate discussion of this growing cancer of the sport of golf, slow play. I am fortunate to belong to a club where, on a fairly normal day, I can golf in three and half hours or less. Indeed, most of our club members get irritated with anything slower than that. But my club is a dying breed unless Eric Laing's thought-provoking book does not reverse the trend. Three cheers for the author!

Dear Eric

I was very disappointed to read recently that when Scott Verplank was asked about Ben Crane's severe habit of slowing things down to the ridiculous, he put the blame on himself for letting Crane's behavior get to him. That was nothing more than putting a politically correct public face on a spineless stance. Verplank is essentially doing what so many others among the ranks of the Tour players and officials have been doing too often, namely not facing reality

If the tour wants to fine Sabbatini for doing what we all feel like doing every time we're in the same position rather than address the issue, then they will get what they deserve - growing disinterest from the rest of us. Despite whatever personality faults that Rory might have, his actions deserve respectful contemplation and then supportive action by the Tour

Gary Dalton

I finished your book last night and a thoroughly enjoyable read it is. How I wish that it was required reading of all golfers, a kind of initiation rite replete with a thorough examination from grumpy old men such as yourself, prior to be being permitted to step on any golf course. It would be wonderful if a copy became the standard issue to all golf rangers with the instruction that it be judiciously left in the locker of all tardy golfers. The 19^th hole would be another excellent place to provide copies with an encouraging note to members to distribute and shame as they see fit. Don’t be shy about tossing a copy over to the group of visitors who spoiled your round with the very antics you so delightfully describe – if they laugh, buy them a drink and make some new friends … if they go quiet, then remain calm and point surreptitiously towards your partner ... if they frown and start moving your way, then smartly head for the exit ... the point will have been made.

I have been fortunate to have played on some of the best golf courses in both the Old & the New Worlds and have always been conscious of the need to keep up a good pace. As an enthusiastic high handicapper, I’ve always been aware that it’s both frustrating & pointless to try and play out when you’re lying 2 over par for the hole which is still a distant 200 yards away and your ball is somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle known globally as ‘light rough’. Take your maximum and move on in the sure & certain knowledge that you’ll make it up on the next hole …. ever the optimist.

However, the best “Rule 1” etiquette lesson I ever learned was at the hands of individuals on one of the world’s less well known golf courses (I won’t name it for fear of retribution). I don’t even know if it’s still there but there was a ‘corporation’ course (the rough equivalent of the North American ‘municipal’) in my home town in Scotland where the patrons included “gowfers” from some of the less salubrious parts around. It was the kind of place where a season ticket cost less than a round at St Andrews, where pensioners and the unemployed grudged paying “half price except weekends and public holidays”, where golf apparel rules meant “no leather jackets”, where the Sunday All-Comers Competition was a torrid affair with bragging rights loudly broadcast during the après-game lubrication sessions, but where the local “characters” understood the rules of the game better than most. The 9 holes (you went around twice to complete your round) were laid out over an undulating rectangle of spare ground that was immaculately maintained by the local Council staff who were not averse to offering “helpful comments”, particularly when one sliced one’s shot anywhere in their direction. As a novice at this game I used to go along there with my 3^rd hand set of allsorts clubs and was always made very welcome. However, woe betide the golfer who held up the game. On this course, it was standard practice to give one warning shout (I’d provide a typical quote but I fear that your readers would first need a translation from “urban Scots dialect” before being offended). In any case, the warning almost always had the desired effect since it was well known locally that 4 balls whizzing through the air comprised the next “reminder”. It’s a strange thing but 18 holes there typically took 2 ½ - 3 hours and they didn’t require the expense of a ranger. It was no use complaining to the “auld man in the buckie” (ie starters hut) because he’d be likely to ban you as a troublemaker. Lesson learned.

Your book has served to remind me to be even more conscious of my own bad habits picked up over the years. I also feel an obligation to counsel some golfers of my own acquaintance who could benefit from your sage words (they know who they are!). Keep up the campaign.

I agree with you whole heartedly concerning the slow play and lack of manners on the golf course. I am a relatively new golfer (only playing seriously for 2 years) therefore, not sure I am eligible to comment. But nothing makes me more crazy than people (unfortunately mainly women) who discuss the shot and what club they will use, then make the shot, and then get together to discuss the result of that club choice. Meanwhile, the course is backing up. Twice in my time I have been asked by the ranger to speed up play - both times playing with the same woman who follows the above described pattern.

AND, the "ball hunters". This species (in my experience) is mainly men. Can they not afford the loss of a golf ball? I wish the 5 min. rule could be posted at every tee box. I prefer the penalty to the hunting of the ball. If you have to hunt in the undergrowth, "forget it."

I really would like to see your book be "required reading" at all golf schools and golf courses.

I wish you the best of luck with this book and continued good health and happiness.

I played the #1 course 4 times and #2 and #3 once. I also found out that from 8 to 9 only singles and twosomes are allowed out. As I had booked 8ish tee times, and as none of the twosomes wanted a stranger, I played by myself. The longest round took 2:30, except on day one. Typical good Scottish weather. 50 degrees, cloudy and wee wind. 30 to 40 miles per hour day one, and 5 to 10 the last day. In between, it was 10 to 20.

The first day was brutal. I went off at noon by myself, with a busload of tourists in front of me. It took 5 hours. The wind and cold was so bad, that I had to turn the cart into the wind each time I stopped to get some shelter from the wind. When I complained to the starter about the slow time, he said that they fired the ranger some 3 years ago, and have given up on trying to herd the tourists along. They now book the tourists on #1 from 10 to 12, and then close the first tee from 12 to 1. They apparently assume that the tourists are never coming back, and that they are only holding each other up.