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Tobold's Blog
Monday, January 23, 2012
On the difficulty of grouping in SWTOR

My main character in Star Wars: The Old Republic is a trooper / commando, with a healing spec. That is deliberate, so I can get into groups, because small group instances are my favorite content in any MMORPG. Only in SWTOR I barely ever manage to get a group going, which I consider a serious flaw of the game.

I tried getting a group all weekend long, and managed a measly 3 flashpoints, only 1 of which was level-appropriate for my trooper. Another I was 12 levels too high for, and just did it because I still had the quest and nothing else was available. And one flashpoint I did with an alt, duo with a guild-mate. What I wanted to do was the two flashpoints of the jedi prisoner series, but I only managed 1 of them.

There are usually 10 to 20 people of my guild online, but as they stretch over the whole level range, there are never 4 of the same level bracket available. So I tried the SWTOR LFG functionality, where you can flag yourself as looking for group and put up a comment for which flashpoint you are looking. I soloed for hours with that LFG flag up, and never got a single invite. Searching for people with the LFG flag myself revealed a grand total of 3 players using that tool, and of course not of my level.

So in the end I spent several hours standing around stupidly at the Republic Fleet and spamming a LFG in general chat every 5 minutes. Finally Sunday at prime time we got 4 people together for the Taral V flashpoint. No tank, but two healers and two dps, and up to 4 levels over the level of the flashpoint quest, which turned out to be sufficient.

Now I'm on a relatively full server, but I'm playing Republic side. As Empire is a lot more popular, it is probably somewhat easier to find a group there. But people playing on less populated servers, or outside prime time, are probably not going to see any flashpoints after the first one until they hit the level cap.

I reject the common notion that all strangers in an MMORPG are idiots to be avoided. All my online friends at some point in time were strangers to me. Grouping with strangers is how you make friends online. And a good MMORPG which hopes to offer any social cohesion must enable people to easily group with strangers. SWTOR fails very much in this, and lives completely of the social structures that its players formed in previous games, mostly WoW. If there were no WoW guilds in SWTOR, I don't know how any group activity would take place in this game.

If a game like EVE Online can live with all its players on one server, then I don't see how having cross-server dungeons with a dungeon finder tool is any worse. Minor modifications to a dungeon finder tool, with an optional preference for people from the same server, could help. But ultimately a group with strangers you are never going to see again is still better than no group at all. For grouping, SWTOR is a failure, and I'm considering to respec my commando to DPS. And if Bioware isn't adding a better LFG tool soon, I might not resubscribe after my current 60-day time card runs out. Why the heck would I want to play a massively single-player online role-playing game?
It looks like SWTOR wont last for a long time. Everyone grabbed a copy (hype effect + SW theme) but ... at the end of the day it's not THAT great, isn't it?

At least that's what I read between the lines, when reading fan-made blogs.
Lots of people chiming in on this topic these days. I wrote a whole post on it myself just a few days ago. I won't recount the whole thing here, but suffice to say I absolutely agree that SW:TOR's grouping mechanisms are wholly inadequate. I am coming to the opinion that some form of LFD is simply mandatory for any themepark MMO now. Whether you like the tool or not, agree with it or not, this style of game must have it.
*sigh* thanks for that, you've basically just kept me from buying with this blog post. Just gonna wait and hope they add better dungeon functions.
Well. This way you communicate and make close relationships on your server. Don't you feel richer and part of the community. Nothing brings people closer together than the shared frustration.

I canceled my sub because in my 30-s I found out that I haven't done Any heroic 4 and flashpoint past BT and Dromund Kaas. And this is a content that I want to experience.

Bioware claim they are in the long term. If they really are they should have known that after the initial rush the leveling grouping will be impossible. So a grouping tool is a must.

Unless you are perfectly positioned into the leveling curve - no grouping for you now.

Guid wars was so ahead of its time with everything.
But ultimately a group with strangers you are never going to see again is still better than no group at all.

If you're an achiever who considers "seeing all the content exactly when I want it" more important than "having a good time with people that are pleasant to be around with". To be fair, that probably does include a lot of MMO players, but we don't know exactly how many. I'm getting tired of seeing this argument being thrown around as an indisputable truism. :|
It's not (yet) better at 50 for me. We have 220+ online in the fleet during busy hours but even as healer I was not able to find or form a group for the new flashpoint Kaon Under Siege, for the whole weekend. We even started a custom lfg channel on the server a while ago but it still needs more people to join.

Chat spam even with a server wide channel is just such a flawed and outdated workaround for non existing well designed LFG systems in a game. It must be even more of a barrier for players new to MMOs than to seasoned ones like you and me. In general I really enjoy PuGing a lot, and community is for me all players of a game, not just a server, or a guild.

Stephen Reid posted a few days ago that they have a system in the design phase. How this appears to be an afterthought in a theme-park MMO released in 2011 by this developer is heart breaking.
It's quite striking how different my experience is, and that's largely from playing in a friendly casual guild where we do occasionally run flashpoints. I'm by no means playing a lot, but I think I've seen all the normal ones now (bar beating the last boss in Directive 7 which was bugged for us).

And I'm having a lot of fun with the group content. It is honestly worth finding a guild where you can run the stuff, because (aside from the bugs), it is genuinely fun.
I also found the grouping very tedious although I've done a fair bit (I leave my character in Imperial Fleet while I update my Eve farms and sell orders on the second pc).

My sub actually expired yesterday and I've been hemming and hawing whether to continue. In the end I phoned a friend who's 50 and he convinced me to give it more time.

If not for my RL friend I'd definitely leave it for 6 months or however long it takes them to install a lfd and get it tuned properly.

I'm astonished Bioware claim this was a deliberate design decision. The case for "server community" is surely incredibly weak. Maybe they just wanted to funnel players into the solo quests early on.
I believe you have answered your own question previously, at least partly. Because of the story based questing. It's both a blessing and a curse. I'm mainly playing SWTOR as a single player MMO, doing the quests solo and only do group content rarely. And I don't see that changing much in the future.

I've got my first character at L50 now and the only activity I like there is PvP, which has the usual flaws that follows a gear based MMO so I'll tire of that soon. No other activity at L50 will hold my attention for long, and don't get me started on the raiding second job.

I think that there are many people playing the game like me, single player MMO. And that will also have it's effect on the longevity of the game.

Personally I think that the current design of MMOs with different leveling and end game activity (raids mainly) has had it's peak and will now decline. Developers should try to find different designs and try to think out of the box a bit.
I have to agree with Tobold here.

I joined a guild with friends from WoW, and I've leveled up to 50 alongside my wife. In all that time the only flashpoint we managed was the Black Talon 2-man.

I've since managed to get a group for Kaon Under Siege, and it's bloody good content. But organising groups to go anywhere is a futile effort in pulling teeth. You're just sat spamming General for hours on end to try and assemble something.

I'm left with a choice - ditch my guild to join some kind of mega-guild that runs flashpoints regularly, ditch my guild and work on a character elsewhere, or wait for the population to catch up.

There's an old Google engineer quote - if a feature is barely used then it might as well not exist. That's the feeling a lot of people are getting from flashpoints at the moment.
that's because people been taught to be impatient..some they say that they went 30 level and realized they didn't experience any flash point..well thats their choice! I personally had lot of Flashpoints experience...

People are impatient and they prefer to run dungeons with anonymous jerks rather than build server reputation and friend lists..It is a new game and of course it is difficult at the start but day by day will be better and better as you meet more people and group with more people..

Its funny because people complaint that swtor was more "single player" game while in truth they want a single player game..they want to log do their job(dailies, dungeons grind) without the need to talk to anyone...they want to press a button and teleport into a dungeon with strangers just to do the "job". If you ask the most of them if instead an LFD tool they add 4 NPC with them so to be able to run the dungeons alone they would choose the second...

Its hard to go back to old days and build your relationships inside the server when you learned in streamlined content..the question is how you enjoy the streamlined content..Do you ever wonder why people complain to Blizzard that they add content slow?because this is what it matters now, every patch is just 10 items, that it is your job to acquire and this is because you do all these with strangers..
I think it's a case of some people not knowing what's good for them, or why. Yes, being able to instantly queue into a dungeon is good. No doubt about it. But this function draws a lot of other consequences that detract from the social aspect of the game. If we make everything instant and connections unnecessary .. well I'm not sure where that leaves an MMO. We might as well just get rid of the world altogether and have the game as a lobby where you queue up pvp/dungeons/whatever. Having an LFD where you queue up with a bunch of faceless nobodies instantly forgetting them is detrimental to the game, and I'll let someone from another website explain it more eloquently:

(originally posted by Lithose on FOH forums)
I know it's been said many times before...but MMO's lose to most single player games in just about every department, from story, to graphics, to even world interaction--MMO's are just inferior to a single player game in terms of the "game" aspect. The one place they shine, the ONLY place they shine, is by forcing social connections through daily ritual activities (Read Durkhiem for what I mean by ritual).

Those social connections are pretty powerful draws--Heck just look at Twitter, and Facebook for a clue about how powerful those social connections are (And how profitable exploiting them is..Blizzard understands, hence the Real ID stuff--too bad they fudged it.)...Those social bonds are what will keep people playing and spending money for a very, very long time---Just think about how many times you have heard this line..."I'd quit if it wasn't for my guild mates." If you've played these games for more than a few years, you've heard that..Hell you have probably SAID that.

It's not the game that makes you come back, the game is inferior to other similar products. What makes you come back is that shared sense of community. I'm really curious why you think it's a good thing to detract from the formation of that community and instead shine a huge, massive light on everything wrong with MMO's--Like the terrible grind of dungeon after dungeon--each of which you have done a dozen times--for loot that will quickly be abandoned in the next content update. Because that's really what your automated system does, makes it more efficient to get to, and get sick of, the part of the game that can be directly compared to any single player game and fall short (IE the actual game play)--All while bypassing the one thing that is supposed to cover up that inferiority (IE having fun with another human being, and maybe making a friend.)

That being said, I agree there needs to be a LFG system but there is no reason for the cross server shit. It is just a bad move in a game that relies so heavily on forcing the customers to make social connections.
I agree that SW:TOR requires a LFD. But please understand why:

Leveling in SW:TOR is very fast and players have been conditioned to not use the grouping tools the game actually offers. This is not fault of the players but it is still noteworthy.

Also, players expect to do the grouping content now. They are not willing to wait a few days - and it wouldn't make sense, anyway, because at this time they already are lvl50.

So, yes, a game like SW:TOR requires automatic grouping.

This kind of thing happens if you copy/paste WoW, without understanding why something works or how the individual parts play together.
Another problem for grouping is your spec. I lvled to 50 as a healer. But this weekend I did some FP as a healer, some as a DD. It cost a bunch of credits, beside the whiping with noobtanks...
Why not copy the good things from WoW ? I think 7 years of MMO evolution should be used to improve a new game....
Having bought the game with the full knowledge that there was no LFD surely you could see this coming a mile off? What else did you expect? A LFD in any new MMO is a basic requirement.
This game is too easy to play as solo. There needs to be greater challenges required by players to progress.

Player versus environment is too easy.
I disagree that TOR needs an auto-grouping feature, or that any game honestly needs one. I've played MMOs for many years at this point, starting with FFXI and moving from there.

TOR's biggest issue, and most MMOs biggest issue at this point is what WoW has done to the genre. Before WoW, nobody had an issue finding a group, because it was required for advancement. In a genre that is multiplayer by nature, in addition to being built on persistence and community, WoW radically changed player expectations for the worse.

While accessibility isn't necessarily a bad thing, when the pendulum swings too far, I feel like you wind up with everything out of balance, where no one really gives a damn about anyone else, even in WoW. During Vanilla, your rep on a server honestly mattered. If you were a tool, word would get around that you were. Things like ninja looting were a big deal. Now, in LFR? Ninja looting is commonplace. Needing on items with the intent to let them rot happens frequently. The same goes for LFD as well, to be perfectly honest. How many of you have tanked or healed an instance to lose the healer or tank specific item to someone else? While I freely admit that this occurred long before LFD, I can't help but think that it was far less frequent.

So, that said, I applaud Bioware for forcing players to do things the way they did before LFD. Building community is NOT a bad thing. Players will simply need to adapt to the new old way of doing things, and I sincerely hope that TOR will be a better place from it, a little bit freer from the asshats that currently plague WoW, because they ostracize themselves from their server community.
The total population of Eve Online is not that much greater than a single server in WoW, or, I assume, SWTOR.

Besides, having all the population on one server is different from having just one or two specific kinds of interactions with another server.

Hmm... gives me an idea for a new concept in PvP: war between different servers! Not sure how it would work... maybe you could attack another realm and loot items and gold! MMO Devs, put your thinking caps on ;-)
SWTOR suffers from the same flaw as practically every other MMO. They offer little incentive to group when leveling. Oh sure, swtor offers some reward in the form of social points, but it’s not enough for your average player.
There are group quests and flashpoints that are entertaining and provide xp, but not enough to actually make them worth the time doing. Worse, in the case of flashpoints, you are going to see them all again at level 50. No terribly pressing reason to do them early, even to see the content. Solo play leads to level 50 with the least amount of effort and time spent. Who can blame people for not actively seeking a group?
So now, just like WoW, you’ll find people at level 50 who have formed no social connections and who have no practice playing in a group. They must run a few flashpoints to build their skill set, and during this period they are not an asset to the group. This leads to more established players avoiding unknown players, making it harder for them to find a group. A vicious cycle, indeed.
What is needed is a substantial reward for players who group all the way to 50. And I mean substantial in terms of time spent. Make grouping the fastest path to 50, and you will not need an automatic dungeon finder tool. Players will have met others while leveling and formed those connections and skills needed for play at the end game.
This is one of my few real issues with the game (most others are minor). The severe lack of any reasonable grouping tool is downright criminal of Bioware, especially in a game that gets more difficult over time, such that grouping is a really good idea even when you're not doing instances.

The lfg "flag" is an ok idea I guess, but Bioware does a terrible job of telling people about it, so most people don't even know it exists. If people don't know about it, they don't use it, and if nobody uses it, it's useless, such that even when people do find out about it they don't use it.

The game needs something. I won't claim to know what the "best" option would be, but anything is better than what's in there now.

I'm fortunate to have a group of friends I run with, so I should get to see all the instance content as I level, but I'm wanting to play more than they are so it'd be nice to have a group finder for my alts.
They should implement some sort of LFD, besides the gameplay issues there's also the immersion/setting issue. We can holocall, quick travel, travel faster than light; but we can't use shuttles and holocalls to setup groups and travel quickly to the flashpoint?

I kinda see the skeleton of system in the game, you can take shuttles to fleet at certain locations on the planet.

There are some, seemingly obvious, bad design decisions. Having to go to Fleet, where you can't do much at all to find a group? Having to travel on foot to the spaceport to get to your ship? Over and over again? But you can quicktravel with a shuttle, just not to your ship?

In regards to the expectations for grouping, that ship has sailed. Back in the EQ, there wasn't the option to pick another mmo with a LFD functionality (at least I don't remember one). But now there's WoW and probably many others.

The next MMO innovation I believe will be tools and design that greatly encourage grouping and forming social structures. It's the people you play with that forms the foundation for a long-term commitment to an mmo.
I agree with you. For better or worse, WoW has spoiled us with the LFG tool. It made leveling in WoW much more fun. SW:TOR needs a similar tool. So far, I like the game OK (though I'm sick to death of running everywhere on these huge, empty maps), but it kind of feels like a single-player game. Yes - a well-designed, flawless storytelling, single-player game (this is Bioware, after all), but not an MMO.

I have to laugh at the person saying Bioware is doing us a service by "forcing us" to do things they way they were done before LFD tools. I don't think any company was ever successful by "forcing" players to do things the hard/unpleasant/tedious way. Sounds like a recipe for failure.
I think people need to consider how BW approached guilds prior to launch. People don't want to group with you because they imported with friends from day 1. I personally did this to avoid pugs at all costs.

For anybody that has been following this game since inception and hates pugs, it's a dream. I never have problems grouping within my guild.

BW seems to be catering to guilds more so than the unguilded, people like me being guilded from day one (moreso than other mmos) might be part of the reason you can't find a group.
@ "All my online friends at some point in time were strangers to me."

You didn't need lfg tools...others do. It's hurting the game.
I haven't had trouble finding groups for FP and Heroics on my US West server, but I agree a grouping tool would be really welcome.
We've not had too many problems in our guild (200+ people). Everyone has been grouping up for Flashpoints both normal mode and hard mode. I've had so many hardmode runs I am already on my 4th piece of Columi gear. I also completed hard mode Kaon Under Siege as soon as it was released. Kaon Under Siege is actually an awesome Flashpoint and well worth seeking a group to do.

I do agree that SWTOR does need better grouping options. But this shouldn't be too much of a problem if you are in a strong guild. Unfortunately too many guilds were formed without any structure or order and hence seem to be aimless groups of people looking for things to do.

My only advice at this early stage is if your guild isn't helping you achieve your goals in the game then leave and find a better structured guild. Preferably one that existed before SWTOR.
I dont understand why those that can get groups up and running on their own in SWTOR have such an issue against probably the majority of the players that want a LFG tool. For me I rather go back to WoW again and use LFG/LFR than start standing around in fleet for hours looking for group. Actually I did just that, cancelled SWTOR subscribtion and went back to WOW :)
"I dont understand why those that can get groups up and running on their own in SWTOR have such an issue against probably the majority of the players that want a LFG tool. "

Because if there's no LFG tool, some of those players will learn how to socialise.

I was on Ilum last night and I already noticed general chat was full of open invites to PvP ops and heroic groups. People are in fact actually becoming more inclined to arrange groups the old fashioned way. They will do that for flashpoints too, if Bioware just sticks to their guns.
Currently SWTOR punishes players who aren't in mega guilds. I rolled on my current server because I had friends/guildmates from WoW and Rift that were supposed to be playing there. In the end only 5 people rolled on the server. Now I'm stuck in a guild of 10-15 people, of which 4 of us hit 50 and we're almost never on at the same time.

I'm left with three options: screw friends I've had for 3 years and find a larger guild, stick with my friends and rarely experience group content, or reroll on a different server with yet another group of friends.

I don't lack the ability to find groups, nor do I lack the ability to make friends or find guilds, but as it stands spamming general looking for a group for several hours isn't productive.
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Jon Bon Jovi hurt

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jon custom Jon Bon Jovi hurt

Bon Jovi performs in Jersey and Jon feels pain.  Click ‘more’ for details.

During a two and a half hour concert at the New Meadowlands Stadium, Jon Bon Jovi feels old as he pulls a calf muscle.

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Home Alone America

Home Alone America: What it means to grow up without parents at home

Does it matter that most kids today are home alone for a time–and don’t have parents home to supervise?

My blogging friend Terry wrote a series of posts a while back on why she came to see the world through a different, more family-centric, light. I thought this quote was particularly apt. Terry writes,

In recent years, however, I began to notice some of the same issues cropping up among these white, middle class, suburban kids that I saw in the neighborhood I grew up in. Teen pregnancy, drop-outs, drug use, etc. And in just about every case, I began to notice a  common thread: recently divorced parents or parents who were never at home leaving their adolescent kids at home all afternoon to get into all kinds of trouble. Some of these kids are the products of well-meaning, church-going, Christian parents.

Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent SubstitutesTerry’s right. A few years ago I read the book Home Alone America by Mary Eberstadt, who looked at what happened to kids once both parents started working in large numbers, so that there just weren’t adults around to supervise, lend an ear, and in general know what was going on in their kids’ lives. It’s the crisis of latchkey kids.

One of the points that Eberstadt makes is that life is not just harder for the kids whose parents work; it has an effect on the culture as a whole.

Let’s just look at one little area, like childhood obesity. One of the reasons they believe this is increasing is because parents aren’t around to say, “no eating until dinnertime!”, or to bother to come up with alternate activities for kids to do when they’re bored, so they let kids turn to the potato chip cupboard.

But it’s not only that. It’s also that what was once commonplace in people’s homes–eating a homemade dinner together as a family–has been displaced by eating takeout or prepared food, with everyone fending for themselves or eating at different times. I remember in the 1970s when TV dinners first came out. Every few weeks my mother would buy them as treats, and she and I would sit on the couch with TV tables and watch the Carol Burnett show.

But today we have so much more than just the TV dinners. With so many people working, consumers wanted easy frozen meals. And now a large part of the grocery store is these frozen meals. And since they’re convenient, everyone is buying them, whether  you work or not. And so it has changed everyone’s diet, for the worse. Homecooked meals are no longer the norm.

Other problems that Eberstadt notices?

When more and more parents are gone, kids start to hibernate instead of playing outside because there aren’t people to supervise, and this impacts even those parents who are home, because the norm is now to cocoon rather than to play outside.

Hence, kids get less exercise. It also means kids don’t play with each other unless you have specific play dates.

And since more and more kids are growing up with less supervision from parents, more and more kids are also developing behaviour problems, which means that a new norm is developing at school for what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.

Teachers put up with stuff today they never would have put up with forty years ago because they have to pick their battles.

And this means that standards worsen.

She also notes that the importance of parents in kids’ lives does not evaporate when kids hit school. The idea, “well, I’ll stay home until the kids hit kindergarten, and then I’ll work” is still difficult for kids.

Kids need the most supervision, after all, in those years that they can get into the most trouble, which tend to be the teen years.

And yet that seems to be when we give them the least supervision.

Our society basically rests on the idea that each family will be a two-income earning family. And yet much of this is due to expectations. When my husband grew up in his one-income family, they had an old black and white television, they drank powdered milk, and they only had one car. They lived in an extremely small house for a family of six. They didn’t have huge wardrobes or even a lot of toys; they mostly went outside. And that was normal.

Today we expect that we will eat expensive foods, have awesome furniture, have the full cable hookup or satellite hookup with a large screen TV, and have two cars. I’m not saying that every dual income earning family expects that; only that this is considered the norm, and to have less somehow means that you haven’t arrived or you’re not providing.

I think we need to change our expectations.

We have more stuff, but worse relationships. We have bigger houses (they’ve doubled in size in the last forty years, on average), and yet higher divorce rates. I know some women need to work, especially in this economy. But I would encourage everybody to be very creative when you do so, to see if you can find a job that doesn’t require you being out of the house from 8-6. Or find a way to work 3/4 time and have your husband work 3/4 time.

I know that this isn’t politically correct to say, and I know I will get lambasted for it, but I really don’t think you should have kids if you’re also assuming that both parents will be working full-time and no one will be home to care for the kids for ten to twelve hours a day. Before you even start having children, talk about how you are going to pay for things. Learn to live with one income, and save the second income before the kids are born. Stick to a budget.

We have lost so much in our “home alone” culture, and we need to bring back the importance of family. I hope that people realize that most of the problems in our society can be directly traced to a breakdown of family, and decide to start emphasizing keeping the family close before we look to consumer things. Relationships matter far more than stuff, anyway.

Other posts you may find interesting:

How to Make Money as a SAHM
Living Below Your Means Increases Your Means
On Day Care, Attachment, and God’s Will

  1. >As a single mom of teens, I can tell you it is still possible to connect with the kids and supervise and eat a home cooked meal. It is just in a different way than a two parent family in my growing up years did it. And yes, we have a "home cooked sit down together meal" for dinner almost every night. The prep is part of the connecting with my kids and also preparing them with life skills.
    It is not easy but it is worth it. My teens notice what happens in our home as opposed to many of the two parents working homes of their friends and they appreciate the sacrifices. And, how interesting that they want their friends to come and have meals with us so they can interact with our family and then the friends leave calling me "mom".

  2. >I don't think it's working parents that are the problem, I think it's failure to connect. We make time for things we find important. There are plenty of single parents and double-working parents who connect with their children on a regular basis and know exactly what is going on.

  3. Anonymous says:

    >You hit home withthis one I found an interesting article about how childhood obesity could be related to parents work load. http://www.healthychomp.com/could-your-job-be-making-your-child-fat

    wow makes me think twice

  4. Terry @ Breathing Grace says:

    >Thanks for the link love Sheila, and I agree with this post.

    I think Iva has a point, but her comment misses the larger picture. "Quality time" is a concept our culture dreamed up to make up for the fact that far too many parents don't put in the quantity of time they should.

    I'm not sure how it is possible for parent who are largely absent to know "exactly what is going on." In today's technological environment, it's hard for parents who are present and available to be sure that we know "exactly what is going on" all of the time.

    Despite our attempts to assuage the guilt of well-meaning parents, some of whom MUST work, the reality is that quantity matters, especially when it comes to time with our kids.

  5. Heather says:

    >I agree with you, Sheila. My husband and I decided, before children, that I would be a SAHM. It certainly hasn't been easy; but it has been worth it. In fact, my husband has had to work a full-time job and a part-time job almost the whole time (also partly because he's in an under-paid/under-valued career & has been furloughed for a couple of years due to this economy, but I digress…). Like you said, we make sacrifices. We have second-hand furniture. We don't have a big house. We don't have huge wardrobes. We don't vacation, eat out a lot, or go to many movies. What we do have is homemade dinners, family game night, family movie night, bookshelves full of library-sale books, and FUN. We have fun together. I know that some women have to work; I understand. I know some women are terrific at making things work when they find themselves as single parents – I know because I did it myself. But I also know that there are ways to be creative about it. Thank you for your courage to post this.

  6. Anonymous says:

    >I have to agree with Sharon and Iva, it's not really a working parent thing.

    I admittedly work part-time and do some work from home, but many working moms do make choices like mine. We make sure that we are with our kids as much as possible. Maybe it's not the norm for working parents, but I know
    I'm not the only one.

    And I would tend to agree with you that if both husband and wife expect to work long hours even with kids that they should think over things…but there is a lot in between daycare for 60 hours a week and a SAHM.

    Nurse Bee

  7. >Very true, Nurse Bee, which is why, of course, I clarified by saying that it's the two-parents with both working full-time that is the problem.

    And I don't mean that if both work full-time that you CAN'T or WON'T prioritize family. Many absolutely do. But I think that is the minority, and like Terry said, there really is an issue with quantity vs. quality time. We just have to be WITH our kids, and so many kids are growing up with fairly little input. And that's not healthy!

    But no, obviously parents can be very effective if one works part-time or if they have flexible hours. But it's difficult. And it does have widespread effects on our culture because everyone feels so tremendously rushed and burdened in a way that they did not before.

  8. Herding Grasshoppers says:

    I'm so glad you mentioned the issue of supervision during the teen years. On the one hand, I welcome the greater maturity present as my kids get older – and the ability to leave them home, occasionally, to have lunch out with just my husband 😀

    But the temptations certainly increase at that age, and the potential cost is much higher. I'm very grateful to be able to be home with them, in spite of the financial sacrifice involved, to help them through these difficult years.

    And I don't mean the teen years are terrible!

  9. >I am home. I have sacrificed the benefits and income that a career my college education would have afforded my family. I am home because it is the right way to raise children.
    You can make the best of other situations and raise happy kids. I was raised by a working mom and I had a good childhood but it is an uphill, exhausting battle for the family.
    I loved the post but you lost me with the comments. Stand up for what you believe is right and stick to it.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Of course it's hard. Being a good parent is always hard. I wouldn't say our life is rushed…as I mentioned I am able to do some work from home with a somewhat flexible schedule, so that helps.

    I don't see staying at home vs working as a matter of right and wrong, it's an individual decision of what is best for each family.

    Nurse Bee

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21 Jump Street: "America, What A Town"
December 1, 2009 – 1:51 PM | 10 Comments
<I>21 Jump Street</I>: "America, What A Town"

"Shut Up, Penhall" Count: 5
Accompanied by a David Coverdale-oid wailing, "YOU stole my WOOOORRRRLD," a guy takes about four days to steal a Mercury Sable under cover of night.Well, sort of.He's directly under a streetlight.Heaven …


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Thursday, 4 March 2010

Natural Science

The moon was full and breaking momentarily from between occluding rain clouds, these cameo appearances were always going to be enough to provide the denizens of the street a convenient pseudo-teleology to explain the uncommon outbreak of aggravation. That it was to be an evening out of the ordinary was already apparent to me, as, some blocks before, I had been caught up in a minor bit of bother, a youth in a floppy hooded sweatshirt having thrust out toward my ancient frail person one arm over which the sweatshirt sleeve drooped enclosing what appeared to be an object, saying in a low and serious tone, I've got a snub nosed .38, are you ready to die? And now as I approached the gaping mouth which is the entry to the downtown underground transit station I could see that the familiar assembled gypsy enclave of gewgaw vendors, drifters, street preachers, vagrants, panhandlers and buskers was abuzz with agitation, everyone seeming tense and edgy excepting only the gangbangers, with their team-coded baseball caps, who as usual stood off in watchful slouching poses, feigning an olympian unconcern. The social node appeared caught up in a hubbub that centered upon a grizzled legless man on crutches who had established himself at the station entry to beg. What was remarkable in this was his elected modus of plying the mendicant trade: when anyone came near him, he cursed vehemently and spat unceremoniously into their faces. From what could be gathered in a late arrival upon the scene, this ungentle method was not surprisingly proving wholly unsuccessful, as pedestrians entering and exiting the subterranean transit station were wisely steering round the man; yet undaunted by the manifest failure of his aggressive solicitations, the man seemed spurred with each fresh failure into a wider orbit of threatening approach, so that, when given a wide berth by passersby, he pursued each frightened hurrying victim a few further stalking paces, wheeling forward with unwonted speed upon his metal crutches to accost, firing vile curses accompanied by great gobs of saliva into the night as he went. And not to be limited in his infernal fury by the thus diminishing stock of pedestrian targets, he had now begun to expand his range to include a set of street vendors at their table of gewgaws as well as a nearby busker whose regular post was marked out at the station entry by a small amp and a guitar case laid open and dotted with coins and bills contributed by passersby he had been serenading. But the singer had now ceased his song to wipe away the spattered phlegm from his clothing, and had begun to issue angry warnings to the legless spitter, who in turn seemed triumphant, taking an obscure and incalculable delight in this acknowledgment of his persistent efforts to offend, and thus redoubled his cursing and gobbing, spewing a rocket launch of mucoid missiles all across the table of gewgaws and the sellers thereof. This final attack so enraged the busker, a large and powerful young man, that in the unmistakable street signal of real trouble on the way, his hands were raising into the air, the air that was now charged with an acute presence of adrenalin and impending violence. Two bewhiskered veteran campaigners, standing to one side and carefully avoiding the frothy spray of bronchial ejectamenta, could be heard discussing the situation. Dude going to start a riot, said one. Word, said the other. Dude going to get hisself killed, said the first. The second veteran now paused, and appeared to reflect a moment, gazing up into the endarkened heaven above the station mouth, where the clouds were again briefly parting to allow the emergence of the large, milky, mist-cloaked face of the Queen of the Night. Gotta be the full moon, he said, with the quiet certainty of a researcher who has captured through the acquisition of unimpeachable empirical evidence the solution to a particularly nagging problem in the realm of the natural sciences.

And Now (1.9.09): photo by Tom Raworth

Dear Tom,

Ah, what drama! Moon over the mouth of urban world -- "buskers" and "gangbangers . . . feigning olympian unconcern" and "grizzled legless man" w/ "bronchial ejectamenta" (!) This should be give a place of honor in the sidewalk at the Shattuck end of Addison's poetry walk. Not so much going on out here (the 'wild west' seems to have moved east), but moon still up so the world keeps turning. . . .

cloudless sky above shadowed green plane
of ridge, whiteness of moon above branch
in foreground, sound of waves in channel

given what happens to sense,
element actually seen

since first, manner of work,
becoming today called

silver of sunlight reflected in channel,
white cloud in pale blue sky on horizon

TC said...

Many thanks.

This drama was two nights ago.

But you know it's always the offstage action that only the groundlings will ever fully understand.

"Whatever, dude."

Back to:

element actually seen

becoming today

~otto~ said...

The natural sciences, oh yes. The answer, yes. And this really stood out to me: "an olympian unconcern." Sparked my wires.

TC said...

Ah, the answer, yes...

"Just for the record," here is the full moon featured in the post. (Don't ask about the sniffling.)

Next time I may think I may think twice before moonwalking.

Dear Tom,

The now-waning moon broke "momentarily from between" clouds of approaching rain this morning before it disappeared (for good, at least today?), then sky turned faint pink, then pink-orange, now just grey . . . . And as we read in Heidegger last night,"bearing witness, as long as we do not understand it originarily as bringing about (the look), is already founded on the having seen of the seer."

first pink light in sky above blackness
of ridge, motion of shadowed green leaf
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

concealed, at the same time
as the “presentation”

stepped in, its singularity
nonetheless, happened

white cloud in pale blue sky on horizon,
shadowed canyon of ridge across from it

Anonymous said...

Aggressive moon. It caused all kinds of problems on the Atlantic Seaboard, too. Huge and bothersome, bright orange. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

leigh tuplin said...

A wonderful read. To me too 'feigning an olympian unconcern' stood out.

Curtis Faville said...

Sounds like an attack of Addison's Disease, a condition common to the coffee-houses of early 18th Century London.

Better watch your ears, dude, er them Antonioni clown's'll seize your meat and squeeze out your shrinking mortality for a BART fare.

Woooooooooo...the wailing banshees of the night!

TC said...

Dr. Faville,

One fears this may be a deadly accurate diagnosis!

Richard McNally said...

Say Tom, didn't know you had a blog, sent an email note to you via the Corpse and asked them to forward it, you ever get it?, I mentioned the Negative Comfort Zone you mentioned in one of your poems.

TC said...

Sorry Rick, never got it. You might try asking them again to forward; Andrei knows where to find me, should he ever wish to bother. (Not cool with higher powers to publish private address on this blog.)

Enjoyed your self-description, esp. first three sentences, ditto here (but hope you haven't paid as I have for these conditions and views).


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Monday, June 30, 2008

Merion - Drama, Comedy and Tragedy

It's not often that I re-post a course write-up. I got a chance to play Merion again earlier this year with my digital camera in tow and have posted some great new pictures with this new posting.

Shockingly, many of my readers inform me that they like my pictures more than my prose. Humbug.

Most major cities have their well-healed suburbs - in New York Greenwich and Darien. In Chicago, the communities along the North Shore of Lake Michigan. In Philadelphia, the affluent leafy suburbs are known as The Main Line. Named after the train line west of the city, the Main Line is old-world, understated, affluent and traditional. Merion is located in the heart of Philadelphia's Main Line and plays the part well. The land that the course and clubhouse are on trace their title back to William Penn.

Memory is not one of my strengths. One minute after meeting someone, I don't remember their name. Many times I have had to look at the bag tag of the member I'm playing with every three holes to remember his name and not make a complete fool of myself. And, I have gotten very good at not saying names. "Nice shot" instead of "Nice Shot, Dave", in case his name is in fact Bob.

There is, however, a part of my memory that works very well when it sees something memorable. I have found that the mark of a truly great course is how well you remember it both immediately after a round and six months later. Using this measure, Merion is a truly great course. After playing it once I could describe every hole in detail. The shape, terrain, bunkers, doglegs, green contours, etc. At Pebble Beach you sort of feel compelled to like the course because it is so pretty and everybody raves about. But, if you're being honest with yourself, aside from the eighteenth hole, can you visually remember all of the holes at Pebble? I'll bet you can't. Merion is seared into my memory. So far this has happened to me on only three courses in the world: Merion, The National Golf Links of America and Cruden Bay.

The 18th green as seen from the second floor locker room

What makes Merion so memorable? It is the ultimate strategic golf course. It is not a terribly long course. At Merion, you have to hit the fairways or it will be a long day. Second, you have to be on the correct side of every fairway in order to have a decent shot at the green. And finally, you have to be on the correct part of the green or you're in three putt territory. On every green. Also, the shot variety is really good as are the changes in direction, doglegs and uphill/downhill shots. No monotony here. As if the golf course itself is not good enough (and it is) you also have the grandeur and majesty of the white pillared clubhouse and the Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan history.

Bobby Jones with his grand slam trophies at Merion

If there was ever a course that new equipment risks destroying, it is Merion. It is too bad that the U.S.G.A and R. & A. have let the situation get out of hand and length is now the primary driver of competitive golf. It would be a shame if this course is lost from major competition forever.

I consider Merion to be the spiritual home of golf in the U.S. due to its greatness, its history, its association with Bobby Jones and the architecture of the course and the clubhouse. Merion's east course was designed in 1912 by Hugh Wilson, a Princeton graduate and captain of their golf team. The club traces its roots back to 1896 as you will see on the club's logo and evolved from the Merion Cricket Club.

This is the first course Bobby played a major on (the 1916 Amateur), the first course he won a major on (the 1924 Amateur) and the last course he played competitive golf on (the 1930 Amateur), completing the fourth leg of the Grand Slam at Merion in September 1930. Also, the classic photograph which is the golfing equivalent of the ironic shot of the sailor on V.J. Day kissing a woman in Times Square, was taken at Merion.

Ben Hogan on Merion's 18th hole at the 1950 U.S. Open

Taken by Life Magazine photographer, Hy Peskin, it shows Ben Hogan hitting a one iron on the eighteenth hole in the 1950 U.S. Open. It is an iconic picture of this great player at one of the most historic of courses in a perfect finish position. Hogan almost stopped playing during this final round because he was in such a state of fatigue recovering from a near fatal car accident the year before. Hogan hit the one iron onto the green and made a par to qualify for a three man playoff the next day which he would go on to win. It is one of the most heroic finishes of all time.

The short par three 13th hole as seen from the tee, shows off the Merion bunkers

Merion has many unique characteristics: the red wicker baskets as flags, the bunkers with clumps of grass in the middle (known as the white faces of Merion) and the scene around the first tee. You tee off right next to the outside patio with its green-and-white striped awning, with members and guests about five feet away from the tee box. It is one of the best opening holes in golf. The view in all directions is impressive; the clubhouse building with its white-washed stone and porch, the green awnings, the mature trees, the wicker baskets.  The wicker baskets are red on the front nine and orange on the back nine.

Merion also still has what has unfortunately become a rare entity in American golf: Experienced caddies, and lots of them. The clubhouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places is the golfing equivalent of St. Peter's. Also, like the Vatican, Merion upholds the traditional and the conservative in the game and in many ways is truer to the traditions than golf's governing bodies because they don't have to compromise with the equipment manufacturers. In addition to no pin flags, there are no yardage markers, no range finders allowed and no golf carts.

In the clubhouse and on the course at Merion you naturally speak in hushed tones and in a respectful manner. It sounds absurd but it is close to a religious experience.

Looking back from the first tee at Merion

Merion is also what I call a deceptively long short course. How about two par threes that can play more than 250 yards each? The third and seventeenth are long par threes with exceedingly difficult greens. Yes, the course has some short par threes and some short par fours but there are also some quite long holes mixed in. Part of the genius of architect Hugh Wilson was the mis-direction he used from the teeing grounds. The first hole is a good example as the tee point toward the left rough. The eleventh tee is pointed toward the right rough and the finishing hole directs the golfer toward the trees to the left of the fairway. Very subtle, but important. Most of Merion's greens are also set at an offset angle from the fairway, making the distance tough to judge and ensuring that missing the green is always in play.

The first tee as seen from the 18th green

No question it is one of the best opening holes in golf, along with Prestwick and The Old Course at St. Andrews. The tee box is located right next to the dark green awning next to the big tree. Since you are standing five feet from the membership having breakfast or lunch, it is a high pressure tee shot. How do you keep a short course relevant? Merion is a classic example of how. The fifth hole is a good example, a long par four with a stream all the way down the left side. This hole was designed along a side hill so the entire hole, fairway and especially the green slope from right to left. All but two perfectly struck balls will end up far left of your intended target.

The par five 4th green plays over a little brook and like many at Merion slopes back to front

The fourth hole (above) is a downhill par five that requires a precision shot, normally from a downhill lie, to a well bunkered green over a creek. Merion also features a half-dozen or so blind shots including this tee shot. The world-class eleventh also features a tee shot where you don't see your ball land either, as does the challenging sixteenth hole which begins the plan through the quarry.

The green on the short but tricky par four 7th hole

The green on the 11th hole, one of golf's most historic. Jones finished the grand slam on this green

When you play the eleventh hole, where Jones finished his match in the 1930 Amateur to win the Grand Slam, you have chills up and down your spine. I have, on the half dozen times I've been fortunate enough to play. Like most holes at Merion, there is just no margin for error on approach shots to the green. Dan Jenkins describes the shot into the eleventh green with absolute clarity as, "There is hardly any shot that will do except the perfect one." The hole is under 380 yards in length, so likely you will only be hitting a wedge, however, the combination of the small green, the water on three sides and the historic setting make it a nerve-wracking shot.

13th green - short par 3 near the clubhouse

16th "Quarry" hole approach to green. Better check your knickers.

The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth play through an old quarry and are demanding finishing holes. After hitting a tee shot on sixteen to a snaking fairway that is not visible you face one of the most difficult shots on the course. There is a forced carry over the teeth of the old quarry to a diabolical green. The green is multi-tiered and slopes back to front. Being long when the pin is below you will mean an almost certain three putt. Seventeen is a long downhill, challenging par three. If there was such a thing as a par 3.5, this hole would be it. A par feels like a birdie. The drive on eighteen is back over the quarry. If you are lucky you will hit to where the famous plaque is where Hogan hit his famous one iron shot. Merion unquestionably has one of the best finishes of golf anywhere.

The sun setting on the 18th green

Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde described Merion as a three-act play: The Drama of the first six demanding holes; the Comedy of the next seven short, precision holes; and the Tragedy of the last five punishing holes. As the players in the 2013 U.S. Open found out, Merion still has teeth even as a 'short' course. The combination of canted fairways, subtle breaking and very fast greens, forced layups on many holes and an unheralded number of long holes mixed in continue to make it relevant. it was no surprise to me that the par four fifth hole which slopes from right-to-left the entire way, played so difficult. Only one player played it under par over four rounds. Also, no surprise that the finishing hole proved difficult. No player birdied it on Saturday or Sunday.

Merion is one of my personal top five places to play golf. If you get invited to play Merion, by all means make the pilgrimage.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Oakland Hills Country Club

The Oakland Hills Country Club, South Course (ranked #25 in the world), was originally designed by Donald Ross in 1918. Walter Hagen was the first head pro at Oakland Hills. The South Course has played host to the U.S. Open six times: 1924, 1937, 1951, 1961, 1985 and 1996. It also hosted the 2004 Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship in 1972, 1979 and again this year.

Oakland Hills represents my 75th course played out of the top 100, only 25 to go!

The Oakland Hills Clubhouse, which was modeled after Mount Vernon

Oakland Hills is located in the affluent Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. The club has two courses - the South Course which hosts the championships and also a North Course across West Maple Road. Oakland Hills is similar to several other championship venues that play host to major championships: two courses, a big clubhouse and a lot of property for tents, concession stands, etc. I found it similar in this regard to Oak Hill, Winged Foot, Medinah and Baltusrol. The memorabilia in the clubhouse attest to its esteemed place in the golf world, especially the walk down the long white corridor between the grill room and the pro shop, lined with pictures and signed competitor displays.

Near the first tee of the South Course are plaques of all the players who have won championships at Oakland Hills. The most famous, of course, was Ben Hogan's victory in the 1951 U.S. Open when he famously said, "I am glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees." He also said that it was "the greatest test of golf I have ever played and the toughest course." Oakland Hills was an early example of a real estate development linked to the building of golf course. When originally conceived in the early nineteen-teens lots were laid out for sale encircling the golf course.

Robert Trent Jones made significant changes to the course prior to the '51 Open and is credited with making the course a lot more strenuous. The sixth hole, seen below, is representative of what makes it a difficult course: its well placed bunkering, along with its length and tough greens. This hole also has a two-tiered green. As you would expect at a championship course of this calibre, the greens are very fast and have many challenging pin placements.

The 6th hole

I wasn't wowed by the front nine. It is a demanding set of holes of championship quality, but nothing that jumps out at you. The best hole on the front is the difficult par four fifth hole, the #1 handicap. It plays 490 yards from the championship tees to an elevated, elongated green with bunkers very close to the green surface. In my view, the course really begins on the tenth tee.

The tenth hole as seen from the tee

According to the club history, when Ross started routing the course, he started it with #10 and #11, two world-class holes. The tenth hole is a 462 yard par four where the entire fairway falls off to the right. The tee shot requires precision and all but the perfect shot will feed down the hill to the right side of the fairway, leaving a blind or semi-blind shot to the elevated green. What makes it such a tricky tee shot is that visually off the tee you have to hit it at the tree you see on the left side of the fairway. The tee box and visuals trick you into hitting it to the right side. It is very well done.

The 11th hole from the tee

The 11th hole plays parallel to the 10th in the opposite direction. The trick on the 11th hole is to favor the left side off the tee. On this hole the fairway also slopes severely left to right off the tee, where a shot that is not struck well will leave you a blind shot to a difficult green.

The 11th hole with its twisting hills

If you hit it to the correct spot over the hill, the fairway then slopes severely right to left. The effective landing area you hit into is quite narrow. In our group, all four of the golfers hit into the rough on the left. You need to take the perfect angle to hit the shot correctly. I have never seen this type of hole before: a sharp hill that is used to create two very distinct landing areas that slope off in opposite directions so abruptly.

The 11th green

There is no respite once you get to this two-tiered green. The green is highly elevated from the fairway and slopes back to front. A less-than-ideal shot will roll back perhaps fifty or sixty yards to the bottom of the fairway.

Ross used the natural contours of the land here to create two fantastic back-to-back holes that announce to the golfer that the back nine is going to beat you up if you don't bring your 'A' game.

The par three 13th

You can see the beautiful bunkering at Oakland Hills as seen on the 191 yard par three 13th hole. This plays downhill and is the shortest hole on the course, which tells you a lot about what kind of golf you will play at Oakland hills. There are par fours of 446 yards (the 4th), 490 yards (the 5th), 462 yards (the 10th) and 455 yards (the 11th). They believe in long holes at Oakland Hills. The par threes play at 198 yards (the 3rd), 257 yards (the 9th), 191 yards (the 13th) and 238 yards (the 17th). To add insult to injury, the 17th plays longer than its 238 yards since the green sits well above the tee.

The 15th hole

The back nine offers no letup at Oakland Hills. The 15th hole, a dogleg left, for example, has two huge bunkers in the middle of the fairway. You can choose to hit it left of the bunkers into a 10 yard-wide fairway or right of the bunkers into a 15 yard-wide fairway. It's no wonder that many choose to play it short and leave a significant second shot to the small elevated inverted-saucer shaped green.

The 16th hole

Sixteen is the signature hole at Oakland Hills with a second shot that plays over water.

The 16th hole

Similar to Valderrama's 17th hole, the 16th at Oakland Hills features a shaved area near the green that feeds shots hit short into the water.

Shaved area near the 16th green

The finishing hole at Oakland Hills is a 498 yard par five that the pros play as a par four. I wouldn't describe it so much as a dogleg right as I would a semi-circle. It is an interesting shaped hole that uses the hilly terrain well.

Oakland Hills doesn't feel like a Ross design in the same way Pinehurst #2 or Seminole does, probably attributable to Jones' changes. The course has a more wide open feel to it than some of the other PGA courses I have played such as Oak Hill or Winged Foot, which I like, since I'm not a fan of tight tree-lined fairways.

As Robert Trent Jones wrote after his redesign of the course and the 1951 Open, "the field was thrown into utter confusion. Golfers of reputation staggered home with rounds high in the 70's and occasionally in the 80's." After playing the course, it is not hard to see why. Hogan aptly called it "A Monster." Although a man of few words he comment to Jones' wife after the 1951 Open that, "if your husband had to play the courses he designed for a living, I'm afraid you'd be in a breadline." Touche!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Golf Freek

I am always on the lookout for new ways to gain access to a course I have not yet played. I also like to keep up on the activities of my fellow golf enthusiasts.

It was in this vein that I recently read a copy of Golf Freek by Stephen Eubanks. I was enticed by the sub-title of the book, One Mans Quest To Play As Many Rounds of Golf as Possible, For Free. The last two words in particular caught my attention. For Free. I set about reading it looking for some new tricks and some short cuts.

Bottom line, there are none. Eubanks is a golf writer and is really connected in the world of golf. A former golf professional, he is a member of eighteen golf clubs and has written twelve other golf books, including Augusta: Home of the Masters Tournament. Eubanks was also a friend of Mark McCormick, the former chairman of IMG, agent for Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, etc.

As a golf writer he gets compted, or as he explains in the book, takes "FAM" trips. "FAM" standing for familiarization trip. Or as he accurately describes them: "expensive bribe, free junkets, all expenses paid trips". This is why you will never see a negative article in a golf publication about a new course or a resort being reviewed. It would be extremely rude to insult your host after they paid for your trip and golf. Why bite the hand that feeds you?

Your trusted blogger here has never taken a "FAM" trip in his life, something I state with both pride and irritation, as it keeps my opinion pure. But who wouldn't love a free golf junket all expenses paid.

Eubanks was comped for a fabulous trip he took to Ireland to get P.R. for Doonbeg. He raves about the course and you have to wonder about his motivations. I have talked with a half dozen very well traveled golfers and they universally thought Doonbeg was over-rated and tricked up.

Overall, I liked the book. Eubanks goes to some interesting locations including China and Switzerland. The book really shines at the end when he starts to get personal about himself and pays tribute to our brave men and women in the armed forces. He visits Guantanamo Bay to play the nine hole course there and it is quite interesting. His story of the Wounded Warriors at Camp Lejeune helps keep golf and life in perspective and is well done.

Eubanks also recounts his rounds with Alice Cooper and Arnold Palmer, both of which are amusing.

The area where I strongly disagree with Eubanks is with his assessment that "the best links golf in Scotland is in Ireland and the best in England is, well, not very good". Although I would agree that Birkdale is not worthy of many of the worlds great links, Royal Liverpool and Royal St. George's are two of the unquestionable finest links courses in the world and arguably, when your throw in Sunningdale, Walton Heath, Woodhall Spa and Ganton England has better golf than both Ireland and Scotland in total. Perhaps a "FAM" trip to England would enlighten him?

Friday, June 06, 2008

Access to Top 100 Courses on eBay

Playing the top golf courses in the world just got easier. I noticed on eBay this morning an auction for a threesome to play a round a Baltimore Country Club. The seller is also auctioning off rounds at Riviera Country Club and The Olympic Club.

Click to view the auction

The seller's username is keepitontheshortgrass and his eBay store is Unique Golf Experiences. "Welcome to my eBay Store. Throughout the year you will see hard to find golf experiences. From top 100 course access to various travel packages. If there is something you do not see let me know and I will keep a look out. If it is important to you than it is important to me. Nothing is impossible."

I'm not endorsing it and I'm not affiliated with it. We'll see if this ends up being for real. I'm not sure how the seller is doing it since high end private clubs often frown on rounds being sold or auctioned off, unless it is for charity.

As Eliot Spitzer figured out, paying for something that you can get free is often fraught with hidden danger.