Average Joe golfer needs to be motivated by the challenge of the course, not horrified by it

This is truly the golfing time of year. It is not by chance that the two biggest Open championships happen over the next six weeks – the US Open this weekend and the British Open five weeks later. On a more local level the Captain’s Prize season is in full swing.

There have been dramatic transformations to our own courses in the last month. Those barren-looking parks suffering from the extended winter have come alive, as if injected with an instant bloom steroid.

I went away for a week at the end of May leaving a sparse, end-of-winter landscape and came home to a country covered in rich foliage. It’s the time of year when there is no break for a greenkeeper, with life springing from seemingly the most infertile of places. In a matter of weeks the problem is one of controlling not encouraging.

The prolific effect of fertilizer and growth-promoting agents spread liberally can almost look unreal on a golf course; the brilliant green grass can look like it has been painted with a rich gloss.

Where sprinkler systems have been working overtime on tees and greens, they look verdant and healthy even in the parching last week of the beautiful hot weather. The peripheral areas where the sprinklers over-reached are now jungles in which you could lose your golf bag along with your ball.

There are of course a number of facets in presenting a golf course to us the golfers, who have to try to enjoy but more often battle to endure the rigours of over-enthusiastic course superintendents.

Fundamental quality
The fundamental quality of a good golf course is that it should be playable for all types of golfers from the scratch handicapper to the head-scratching 24 marker, who often find summer golf an overwhelming challenge. I would argue that is solely because of the insane set-up of over-grown courses.

There is a unique look to a links course in the summer that fills seaside golf enthusiasts with joy. The swaying fescue grasses framing the more parched bone-hard fairways waiting to receive errant drives or more subtly those hit with the wrong shape on the wrong wind.

The degree of skill required to control your golf ball on a true links course in summer is exponential; it can be a reality check for many of us as we thought we could perform with a handicap that was manageable off forward tees onto soft fairways and greens with no intimidating rough.

There can be no doubt that all of us are influenced by professional golf. It is the ultimate dream for golfers as to how the game should be; perfect courses, perfect swings, perfect scores.

The search for perfection is what drives most golfers. It is such an elusive and misleading lure that it is what surely turns most golfers away from a game, so it has to be carefully managed.

So when clubs host a big event, whether at professional or top amateur level, setting the course up as tough and ultimately as perfectly as they think possible is what motivates organisers and greenkeepers.

The reality is that golf clubs should focus on what their loyal members’ needs are, and not some transient golfing troubadours’ needs to challenge their exceptional skills once a year.

Despite the visual beauty of flowing fescue between tee and fairway there is usually only one type of player that it intimidates and disheartens, and that is the one who struggles to get it off the tee in the first place. It rarely affects the better golfer. Therefore in the interest of enjoyment for the higher handicapper, there should be minimal rough from tee to fairway – it should be mainly lateral.

Proud members
Where a golf course thrives in summer is around the greens. It is usually when proud members brag about the quality of their putting surfaces. They are usually rock hard and unless you hit your chip shots perfectly they will not even attempt to spin and tend to go waltzing across the green. Creativity is what is needed around what can be better described as terraces or patios, given the firmness of links summer greens.

So for those in charge of setting up their golf courses in this the true golfing season hopefully they can think of the average golfer who needs to be motivated by the challenge of the course and not horrified by it.

When the course is at its toughest, due to nature, it is vital to moves tees according to the wind direction, set pins in sensible positions and encourage members to seek perfection in their bunker raking.

We are in the peak golfing season. It’s the time to encourage us amateur enthusiasts to embrace the challenge of a course in its prime. Not make us seriously consider a brisk walk as an alternative.