Geoff Ogilvy's Perfect Course...

He does not name an existing perfect course but I'm pretty sure North Berwick would be qualify based on the criteria if not for the weather.

A couple of highlights from his piece written with Brendan James and posted at Golf Australia's site, starting with this, which ought to irk the folks at some of the world's elite courses who think they've kept their courses up with the times.

For me then, the perfect course is probably a combination of all the best features of, say, the top courses on the rankings. Ideally, I’d amalgamate the common attributes of Pine Valley, Oakmont, the Old Course, Shinnecock Hills, Royal Melbourne, The National Golf Links, Augusta National and Cypress Point.

With one or two exceptions, these courses are not generally that difficult until the weather turns nasty or the pins are placed
in really tough spots. That makes them – again generally – playable for golfers of all standards.

There’s width to the fairways, and without any real difficulty found around the greens. Everybody can have fun.

Fun … that’s important. What the top professionals find difficult, the average amateur finds relatively easy. In other words, the further the average guy gets from the hole, the harder golf gets. For the pros, the game gets harder the closer we get to the hole, generally anyway.

As for the atmosphere...

My perfect course will also be part of a welcoming and friendly environment. There will be no cart girls, but there will be a Sunningdale-type halfway house where sausage sandwiches will be available. There will be a small range where you can hit a few 5-irons before you wander to the 1st tee, carrying your own bag. At the end of the round, you will be able to get your own car from the carpark and you will be able to walk around with your dog on a leash if you so wish. I don’t know why we don’t do that in Australia.

In other words, on my perfect course there will be no wasted manpower, no wasted energy and no wasted money.

Speaking of which, my perfect course will be playable with a half-set of clubs. Don’t get me wrong though, I want to be able to go out with my 14 clubs and have a great time. But I also want to be able to play in three hours with four clubs and have just as much fun. My perfect course will cater to whatever version of golf you want to play.

I'd concur, except for the leash. Let the hounds roam!

Ogilvy: "'More' didn't really work for me."

Another fun read from Geoff Ogilvy in this week's Golf World, talking about his career resurgence following a few years of struggle. As with many others before him, all the searching only made things worse.

Ryan Herrington with the highlights of Ogilvy's piece, which can be read in its entirety here.

At first my reaction was to practice harder and longer, experiment more with TrackMan, video and other equipment, and increase my work in the gym. It made me feel I was doing it the "correct" way, but it's actually easy to just work hard. Somebody next to you is hitting 500 balls, so you hit 550, and it seems you've gained ground. It's the time-honored sports approach that many simplistically ascribe to Ben Hogan, but I have no doubt even his voluminous practice was more about quality than quantity.

Bottom line, that kind of "more" didn't really work for me. For months, I found myself dragging my clubs to the airport Friday night instead of Monday morning. I finally realized I had fallen prey to a common tour disease: getting analytical, doing a lot of repetition, taking a scientific approach that tempts with possible answers.

State Of The Game Podcast 28: Judy Rankin

Judy Rankin is a 26-time winner on the LPGA Tour, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame as a player, and if there was ever a golf broadcasting wing, she'd be inducted again for her eloquence, class and succinct appraisals that set the standard for on-course reporting.

Judy kindly spent more than hour with the State of the Game podcast to talk about her career, the LPGA Tour, golf broadcasting and of course, the state of the game.

You can listen via MP3 here. Or to past shows the same where via this page. And the iTunes option for all past shows, or this week's episode to listen/subscribe.

Update on 2013-10-01 18:05 by Geoff

**And while we're in podcast mode, here's my chat with Josh LaBell and Adam Fonseca on the Dimplehead golfer podcast about the Presidents Cup.

State Of The Game Podcast 25: Geoff Ogilvy & Muirfield

Last time we had Matthew Goggin fresh off a solid showing at Merion in the U.S. Open, this time we managed to get Geoff Ogilvy to chat from Scotland during his pre-Open Championship leisure golf. Topics covered include Muirfield, the state of Geoff's game and of course, the state of the game.

We kept him too long but the discussion was great until the cell phone Gods said enough! Hope you enjoy either via iTunes or hitting play on the the player below...

Geoff Ogilvy On Adam: "He's so balanced he's never sweated the small stuff."

Jaime Diaz talked to Geoff Ogilvy about his friend's Masters win.

You may recall it was Scott who returned from the airport to Winged Foot when Ogilvy won the 2006 U.S. Open.

That road led to a monumental Sunday in Augusta, and if Ogilvy's projections are right, more majors. But probably none will be as meaningful as last Sunday's.

"This is a big day for Greg [Norman], especially," said Ogilvy. "It's very appropriate that of all the Australians, it was Adam who did it, because he is the closest of all of us to Greg. 

Right now, I know Greg is 100 percent joyous."

Ogilvy On R&A Motives For Changing Old Course: Embarrassing, Disgusting, Sneaky

Thanks to Darius Oliver for alerting us to Paul Prendergast's lengthy interview with Geoff Ogilvy touching on a number of hot button issues but I couldn't help but focus on his remarks about the R&A's changes to the Old Course at St. Andrews.

He joins fellow Aussie Peter Thomson in denouncing not only the idea of changing the course to produce higher scores, but also the secretive and deceptive process by which the changes were conceived and executed.

It’s disappointing in that the whole point of it is to make us shoot a slightly higher score every five years [at The Open], and it’s embarrassing – disgusting – that they’re doing it for that reason. I mean .. it’s hard to have the words to describe the arrogance of doing something like that, it’s incredible.

And...

The reason the sport is what it is, is because of St Andrews. It didn’t evolve to the point where it’s at because of people doing what they’re doing right now. It evolved, it didn’t get designed. It came because of nature, all the balls finishing in one place so there were lots of divots and that spot became a bunker. It’s the first place that anyone should ever study when they think about golf course architecture.

This was nice too...there goes Geoff's Royal and Ancient Golf Club membership chances. Join the women of the world.

I think the thing that really affected most people that got emotional about it was the way they went about it. Making a sneaky little announcement the same weekend everyone was talking about the long putter ban. The bulldozers were out the next day. Surely the Old Course deserves a round table of the smartest people in golf with the best intentions and to discuss it for two years before you do anything?

And this is such a key point about the 11th green, and speaks to the absurdity of trying to force uniform green speeds on a course, especially the Old.

They've done plenty of bunker work for maintenance reasons over time but changing contours that have evolved and adding to the 11th green to provide extra pin placements are pretty fundamental changes ...

It’s been fine for 400 years, in the form it’s in it’s been fine for a hundred years. It’s fine!

I mean, if they get crazy wind and you can’t put a pin up the back left on 11 then, oh well. Or, you just have that green running two feet slower than the others. We're the best golfers in the world, surely we can work out that the green is slower. We’re not that precious.