A few months ago I had the pleasure of playing the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Everything about the experience was pure and my overall impression was sublime, like the view from Strantz' signature 15th tee (my opinion) where the fairway seems to extend and blend into the sky. It's a blind tee shot leading to an approach to a perpetual pool of a green that reaches out to the hazy ocean. If I remember correctly, there is a commemorative plaque between that green and the next tee where Mike Strantz speaks of dancing cypress trees and the value of this shared experience.

It was a special day and the first time I had the realization of "gourmet" and "organic" golf. It was  a natural feeling, not exclusive or expensive. I felt extracted from my immediate life-situation, relatively alone by the ocean, surrounded by dancing cypress trees, and pure. At that moment, I had no immediate needs or desires. This experience was an answer to my previous blog post on the concept of organic growth and  Gourmet Golf.  It was more than just a way to occupy five hours of my life. Experiences like this are the solution to the manufactured and artificial golf experiences that try to consume us.

According to Jay Flemma at the "A Walk in The Park" blog, we are the audience to a movement towards pure golf experiences....it's a "movement away from over-marketing and price gouging, worthless, meaningless superlatives and self-aggrandizing billionaire developers. Playing these courses at the turn of the millennium, when they were young and raw and undiscovered was a singular experience. It was an experience which unified, galvanized and energized everyone who was there as a witness. It meant something. No explanation, no flowery prose, no physical memento can match the feeling of knowing that you were there at that time in that place and joined by others just as unified, galvanized and energized by the course as you were. It was as though our energy and love of the game had struck sparks and roared in flame time and again."

I agree with Jay. We are in a new golden age, a revival, of course design, where pioneers are claiming land and making statements that will last lifetimes. We are the audience by default and it is up to each golfer to be an active participant. Don't let the opportunity pass you. I admit all of this is slightly idealized, but I think that it can be realized through the momentum of a community of golfers with varying opinions. It may not be immediately accesible, but, in some ways, thats the point. The struggle makes the experience more potent.