Don’t worry. Summer is coming. This photo’s from the Hickory Creek Golf Course in Canton, Michigan.

With all of the advances in clubheads, shafts and balls, the average golfer isn’t getting any better. In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that handicaps are actually going up.

The Scotsman has an interesting—if rather depressing—take on the subject.: that golf courses are being made more difficult to cater to the top one percent. Longer holes, tighter fairways and faster greens are negating the advantages of better club technology.

Super Coach Hank Haney said:

“The biggest factor, however, is that golf courses today are generally so much more difficult than they used to be. What makes a course difficult - and you tend to see this whenever a big event is being played and the greenkeeper has prepared the place specially - is fast greens. Not only are fast greens more difficult to putt on and chip to, you have to hit your drives into the right spots if you are to have any chance of getting your approach shots close to the hole. When the ball runs after it lands, the game is always harder.”

In the article, author John Huggan also points out what the GolfBlogger has been saying for some time: making the courses longer just plays into the hands of the big hitters like Tiger and Mickelson. It’s true that on super long courses, the uber-drivers will be hitting into greens with a seven iron istead of a wedge. But the rest of the field will be hitting into those fast greens with a four iron or wood. (On some small scale, I know exactly what that feels like. I’m typicallyusing a club or two more than my playing partners for the approach.).

Unfortunately, Huggan also shoots down GolfBlogger’s pet theory about how to Tiger proof a course—to make the rough longer. The big hitters, Huggan contends, don’t really care about being in the rough (unless you make it US Open long, which I suppose the players wouldn’t tolerate.)

But there is a glimmer of hope—and something to think about at the end of the article, in another quote from Haney:

“We need to have more courses set up like Hoylake was for last year’s Open. There were different ways to play that course - you had choices. You could hit it long, and risk getting into trouble. Or you could hit short of the trouble. Or you could hit it medium length, and have a great week accuracy-wise. Hoylake rewarded everything, and penalised only long and crooked. The typical course on the PGA Tour doesn’t do that. ”

So here’s something to contemplate: a complete rethinking of how courses are designed—or perhaps a return to the way courses used to be designed. Imagine a course where every style of play would be rewarded, so long as you executed your shots and putted well. Where on every shot, a player had several options, each with its own risk and reward. (Like Augusta before the current regime fell into the Tiger proofing trap).  It could be done, but I’m guessing that most of today’s celebrity course “designers” wouldn’t be up to the task.

Just as the historic Rackham Course is about to fall prey to the greedy claws of the developers, so too are other excellent courses from around the country.

Regular reader Marty Lyle points out that the Bear Trace at Chickasaw course—a 2001 Golf Digest Top 10 Course—is in danger of being closed. Lyle writes:

“The closest course to Jackson and Memphis (5th and 1st most populous cities), the Bear Trace Chickasaw, is in danger of being closed.  The course is less than 10 years old, and was placed in a rural county as it was the home county of a powerful state senator.  This course must be one of the most beautiful courses not on an ocean.  Memphis itself may soon close an inner city wooded public course, the Davy Crockett.

I have played Chickasaw about ten times in 2005 and 2006, and it is a great course. “

Your friendly neighborhood Golf Blogger has got this half-baked idea about the need for a national clearinghouse / index of public courses that are in danger. I’ll have to think on it some more.

Cascades Golf Course
Jackson, Michigan

Overall Grade: A-
Value: A+ ($16 - $40, depending on time and day)
Course Conditions: B+
Course Design: B+
Walkability: A
Practice Facility: B+ (there is a range, though its not on the course—its nearby)
Food: B
Teacher’s Comments: A terrific municipal course.

Built in 1927, the Cascades Golf Course in Jackson, Michigan is a part of the city’s wonderful Sparks County Park. The park system also includes a nine hole short course, the Ella Sharp golf course, tennis courts, picnic areas, lagoons, paddleboats, batting cages, an ice cream parlour and the fabulous Cascades—a beautiful giant illuminated waterfall. The waterfall is 64 feet high, and 500 feet in length, with six fountains, sixteen falls, 1,230 electric lights and a system that pumps 2,000 gallons a minute. It’s amazing and worth playing the Cascades at twilight so you can see the falls in all their glory.

The course itself was rated as a four star track by Golf Digest in 2004. It offers challenging length at 6,651 from the blues. A course rating/slope from the blues of 73/136 tells you that it can be a beast.(I shot a 90 and thought myself lucky)

The Cascades offers two of the best opening holes that I’ve seen on a golf course. The first is a 573 yard par 5 (from the blues) that plays downhill to the green. Trees spot the left and right sides, so a wayward shot often won’t offer a direct shot at the green (photo on right, second from top)

The second is a uphill par 5 measuring 530 from the blues. A tee shot of 250 plus is required to carry the first ridge line.

After playing these two, you will be thoroughly warmed up and in the mood for some challenging golf.

The course’s signature hole is number 17, a 388 yard par 4. A canal crosses the fairway 250 yards out.You have a tactical choice here. Try to carry the canal for a better shot at teh green or lay up. I chose to lay up because the green slopes severely from back to front.I then hit a wood into the green, flew the hole, but watched it roll back to give me a short putt.

One of the more interesting holes on the course is the par 3 eleventh. It has the novel concept of a dual green. Men hit the ball 201 yards to the green on the right; women 121 to the green on the left. The right green requires a carry over a pond; theleft is a straight shot down a fairway. The two greens are separated by a stand of pines. (photo on left, third from top)

There aren’t any really easy holes on the course. The short holes challenge with narrowing fairways, well placed bunkers or doglegs.

Conditions at the course were very good on the day I played. There were a few bare spots and some soft spots—particularly down near the ponds—but for a municipal course, it was outstanding.

The clubhouse is simple and offers convenience store food. There is no pro shop to speak of.

In addition to the main Course, the Cascades also offers a “Cascades Short Course”—a nine hole track that has a variety of par 3 and par 4s. It apparently was originally owned by Jackson area PGA player Mike Hill (now on the Champions).

The Cascades Short Course, which lies adjacent to the main course, is exceedingly tight, requiring irons off most of the tees—even the par 4s. Conditions here were not so good ... grass was missing in a lot of areas, and the trees needed some trimming to keep low branches away from the fairways. But the price was right ($8). The short course is a par 33 and measures 2,100 yards.

In all, I think that the Cascades offers one of the better golf experiences in southeastern Michigan.

You can see more photos and a course walk-through here.

In golf’s distant past, “courses” were laid out across pasture land, with hole routing following sheep paths. Grazing sheep clip the grass very close to the ground, sculptingnatural fairways and greens. And sheep nesting down out of the wind on the links lands formed natural sand traps.

When Sam Snead first travelled to St. Andrews by train for the Open Championship, he looked out a window and noticed what looked to him like an old golf course that had been allowed to turn fallow. When he asked what the name of the abandoned course was, he was informed that it was St. Andrews.

Of course, US-style, highly manicured, irrigated, and fertilized courses come at a steep price. And that price has kept many a would-be golfer from the game.

Enter “Pasture Golf.” A recent article by Tim Booth of the Associated Press takes a look at a growing movement where golfers forgo the niceties and play golf as it was originally conceived.

In fact, there’s an entire web site dedicated to pasture golf courses, where players can walk a round at a buck a hole or less.