Mats...are they worth the bother?

[Trueblue]

Loving winter golf for last few years - grown up now so can deal with cold and wet! But I played the Old Course for the first time a few weeks ago and got presented with mats..home of golf and my second shot of artificial turf...not gd (found water!) Do understand it at St Andrews to be fair but still after hefty green fee its v disappointing.

My jock mate told me loads of Scottish courses use them these days - yet English ones v rarely do. Know the weather is harsher but c'mon are they really necessary?

Am off to play St Georges (name dropping here!) and know they don't have them. Then again England is better than Scotland, so fair enough!

 

[furyk_or_unique]

Suffered the old mats scenario at the Old Course myself 15 years ago and it was a smidgen disappointing after shelling out big time. Found the perfect solution though - kept just missing the fairways by a very small margin, which in the winter time meant perfect lies and no need for the pesky mat.

Make them a generous offer next time - tell them you won't bother with the mat, but are happy to pay the same green fee even though they're saving on the cost of one mat - everyone's a winner!

 

[BigStu]

That does sound very disappointing. I presume there was some kind of reduction on the normal price?

I do however think that the dreaded mats (certainly up hear in chilly Scotland) are required to keep the course in better shape for the summer. Maybe the few degrees difference in average temperature means that the grass just doesn't quite get warm enough to grow. So over a 3 or 4 month winter that's a lot of divots that have not recovered.

I would certainly rather use a mat for a few months than spend the first few months of the Spring/Summer complaining about the bad luck I have had to land in a 4 month old divot!

 

[MacMachattie]

BigStu's right. The use of mats in Scotland over the winter insures that our courses are the best in the UK through the summer months. Don't you agree Trueblue?

 

[Trueblue]

I have to say i think Scottish courses aree a little over-rated – I mean you get just as good links tracks in England (see RWNGC) but beter parkland and better weather - all accompanied by better food and there's no difficulty in understanding what the barman is trying to tell you!

 

[MacMachattie]

OK Trueblue. Some golfing facts:

- Golf originated in Scotland
- Home of Golf: St Andrews Scotland
- 7 of the 13 Open venues are in Scotland
- Number of Scottish Courses in the top 10 of GM's top 120: 5, England: 2
- Scotland has won 40 Opens, England has 28
- Last Open Champion from UK: Scottish
- Most popular local accent for call centres in the UK: Scottish. Apparently Scots annunciate most clearly and sound the most trustworthy.

 

[BigStu]

Excellent points MacMachattie!
Does anyone else have any views on the North/South divide?

 

[golfdonkey]

Some people think golf was invented in Holland. And apparently some believe it was brought to us by aliens - presumably around the same time as they were putting up the pyramids.