AFTERWORD
The Dream Links Legend
My desire in producing this information is to bring Microgolf to you, dear Reader and Golfer. I have the pleasure of introducing golf to beginners, helping them realize the fun of the game. I have also offered passionate golfers a challenge and improvement of their short game prowess. A few golfers even appear intimidated by the difficulty of my Dream Links Microgolf course. Dream Links, the course, is for me the reality of a daydream and a rebuttal to the nay-sayers.
Microgolf is golf. Just think, in the space of a fat month you too will be playing on your own Microgolf course.
Tee time!
The phrase, "tee time," reminds me of the experience I had building my Dream Links Microgolf course. My front nine was done. Yet, a sense of incompleteness convinced me to consider changes. The number of possible tee placements virtually sprang up all over the remainder of the yard. It occurred to me, a large two cup green would take advantage of so many tees for a complete eighteen. Alas, the yard space would not accommodate increasing the green size and still have that number of tees. There — on a higher elevation — there before my eyes — there appeared the back nine green. The tee placements, sand trap, drop tee box, all of it viewed with an inner sight, a knowing, of an existence from another time. I had already been here, seen it and played it. I was in touch with the origins of the game at perhaps the original course, for that's only what I can call it. I could see the North Sea, feel the wind and moisture on my face. The smell of wet wool and the grass after passing through the sheep. The flock's favorite grass blades shorn to the limit of their existence and the pasture's balance left idle by comparison, the leeward side of the heavy grazing bare sand from their huddle to escape the harshest blows. The herders are content with the rams, ewes, and lambs' safety and feeding. The men pause in their conversation of wool money, veterinary and a pint at the end of this glorious day, idly swing their staffs at a ball of cloth discarded nearby. One of them strikes the cloth and in a momentous flash!, the ball sails into the air, lands on the over-grazing and stops in a depression.
"I'll wager a pint ye'll nay do that to the same satisfaction."
"I'll better ye anytime to my satisfaction."
"The match is on ye son of a so and so."
So it may have been, as it is for me, and can be for you. To be at the base level of the original.
Distance defined, not distorted. Approaches experienced and repeated, not mapped and contrived. In the space of yards, the thrill and comfort of knowing we are the same as once we were, the spirit, camaraderie, challenge, and satisfaction sought elsewhere found on our own.
The hours and acres condensed into a Microgolf course. I want you to feel the same tingle on your neck that I feel on mine when you say to your fellow herder', "Tee time."
Golf and Microgolf
I have known people who had putting greens.
I say "had" because just putting is rather boring, and the greens return to "from whence they came."
Harvey Penick knew that putting practice should be chipping onto the green, then putt out.
No gimmes.
He also stated, for a warmup limited by time, that you are better off doing the same chipping and putting routine.
I found, by cutting a green and designating tee boxes, the same exhilarating thrill of first tee jitters and pride of making a good clean shot onto the green.
Fifty feet or five hundred yards make no difference: the challenge is the same, the reward just as satisfying when the ball finds the bottom of the cup. This game is golf — except in a micro course layout. Variations of the game bear little resemblance to golf and all its pleasures.
Microgolf has all of those pleasures in a fraction of the time. I have played eighteen holes in twenty minutes, a foursome in one hour. I even host an annual thirty-six-hole tournament in one afternoon. Friends have built their own courses and started tournaments. We are now making our own Microgolf tour.
The most misunderstood portion of the golf course is the making of the green. Several people told me: "You can't make your own green, it's too expensive to do and you'll spend too much time on maintenance."
My thoughts were; Cut the grass short, buy the cups, and start playing.
Although it sounds slightly naive, if you have healthy grass growing now that is about all there is to it.
There are some things you'll need to know and some things you'll need to buy.
So with this knowledge you too can have a Microgolf course.
Overview