The 2010 PGA season delightfully pays homage to old-school golf in the next three weeks, with stops at Torrey Pines, Riviera, and Pebble Beach. All are located on tracts that were destined to be golf courses. Who can’t be moved by some of the vistas at Torrey Pines.  And you would have to be composting 6 feet under not to marvel at the raw muscular power of nature that defines the Pebble Beach layout.  

Decades ago, in between university and life, I took a break for a cross country trip. A still-fresh memory in my aging brain is standing on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach at sunset. For those few moments, this golfer felt the connection with his compatriots stretching back centuries.

Aside from their physical beauty, these courses exemplify what draws us to golf, and are examples of what is at the heart of what may be a growing malaise with the sport among we hackers.

In a word, creativity. When we recreate on a golf course, I think that many of us want an experience that challenges the mind as well as the finely (or not) grooved swing. Thinking a way around a course is invigorating. Blasting a stratospheric drive (for me about 275 on a really good day; okay, a really, really good day) to a tabletop flat surface that sets up a routine shot is cookie cutter dull. Dull to do, dull to watch.

But dull is the status quo. Courtesy of the long ballers, dull rules. Instead of challenging a golfer with thoughtfully set out holes, the trend is to stretch out a course to obscene lengths or resort to gimmickry like the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass.

We’re losing the ancient connection to golf. Read “A Walk Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee” by Tom Coyne to experience the roots of golf and how, I think, the sport should remain. Digby Pines, Highlands Links, St. Georges in Toronto (site of this years’ Canadian Open and one of the finest tobogganing locales of my childhood), Muirfield Village, Augusta, Bandon Dunes … now that’s golf.

Now that the marquee player is absent from the PGA mens’ tour, the rumbling of declining attendance have begun. How solid can a sport be when the one-month absence of one man precipitates such angst? I think that the malaise runs deeper than a sex rehab clinic in Mississippi. Stats indicate a declining participation by we muni folks in the last 5 years. And why not? We will never bomb the ball and testosterone-overload a course. What we want is the challenge of deciding on a strategy and, every so often, actually pulling it off. Making a good decision is sweet.

Watch creativity at play over the next three tournaments. Appreciate the adaptability of those who prevail. Why can’t it be like that every week?