Long since "Update"

A lot of golf is under the bridge as a lot of Orthopedic Kismet since posting last. My most recent shameful admission is that it took me until 2024 late Autumn to finally get to Old Town Club. It was quite the marginal day to play golf with my hands eventially saying NO around the 16th hle for two of the last three. It did allow a very good look, few photos and lots of great conversation with knowledgeable Golf Architecture hacks. I really don't know what we are - students, lovers of the playing field, those into it for unity, certainly not keeping score in many ways. My money guy and I were once having a conversation and the concept of "What's the money for?" took center stage.It has been a guiding tenet for me for years. Why do we play courses, wha courses do we play and why? Money is for some keeping score" - having a million net worth - $5M, $10M, $50 M is not enough becasue that guy over there has $100M. Some of the "Too much is not enough" school. Playing courses - how do we select what to do next? Where do we play? It has reached the point where playing every new course isn't relly necessary, I have never had the desire to put all the pegs in a GOLF Magazine's Top 100 pegboard, but I do have a collection of courses I think are great and why. In general they are grouped and the list might very well be described as fluid. Occasionally I need a refresher but my 3-D memory is really quite good. So I've tried but am unable to sequentially list 100 courses I have played and my list will never go head to head with any panel as I will not have played teh entire list to reorder. Top 100 lists are composed of a fairly solid, immutable 20-50 courses and then the rest are filled in from a pool of 200-2000 depending on the criteria. This has long been apparent to me - too many courses are included on lists for History, sheer difficulty, extra-golf experiences and all of this currently is as bad as it has ever been. Having once had the skills to play many courses with a tee shot and wedge or short iron, reach nearly all the fives in two shots not dissimilar to the professional game today. That is boring as hell, it too me has laid a foundation wherein I have decided that Bifurcation of golf will be a good thing. In the name of testing the "greatest players" to find the American obsession of "The Best" some of the best designed older (Pre-WWII) courses require Frankensteinization to test these players. Thus we wind up with courses such as Torrey Pines South, Whistling Straits and then those "Famous from Television" such as Muirfield Village that are to me grossly over-rated courses becasue of what happens there becasue it can allow a sort of test for these players. Given current design fads and playing difficult courses - green speeds have also gotten out of hand either creating such minimal subtlety requiring daily 13+ greens speed or elimination for the need of interesting contours as the ball might never stop. Said speed on fairways is a better place for it - at the elite competition level controlling long shots on the ground has lost its relevance. I'm currently in the process of playingthrough my new home state - South Carolina. Cheers