Let’s get one thing straight before we hit the tee box: The U Golf Course is not a little slice of golfing heaven stitched out of the same cloth as Augusta, Ga., Pebble Beach or even the Old Mill Golf Course in Holladay, Utah.
It’s not trying to be.
But for what the U Golf Course lacks in pristine conditions and immaculate layout, it makes up for in an opportunity to learn. After all, it is situated on a university campus.
The atmosphere at the U Golf Course is so casual that even Hillary Clinton would be comfortable letting a little gas pass. And for everyone who vividly remembers picking up a golf club for the first time, a casual atmosphere is the perfect climate for learning how to play the game.
After playing the golf course for the first time this year, I contest, as vehemently as ever, that if I ever teach someone how to golf, the bulk of the lessons will take place at the U.
The U’s course, which is an executive nine for all intents and purposes, is mundane at best in terms of hazards. This means you don’t have to spend 10 minutes picking through the $1.25 bucket for a few used Titleists to play a round.
Unlike most golf courses, even other executive courses such as Fore Lakes, you don’t have to break the bank to get on the course, either. It’s five bucks for students on the weekends, and just four Monday through Thursday. For non-students the price is just $7.
For a seasoned golfer, the par-4 middle three holes are relatively tame and don’t even require a driver in order to make par. For a beginner, they are just the right length to create a challenge, yet still reward good shots. And the greens at the U Golf Course are ideal.
There is obviously a lot of east-to-west break due to the course basically being laid out on a mountain bench, but greens roll pure and true.
An experienced golfer might quickly find the course dull if he or she lacks imagination.
The U golf course is a perfect way to sharpen up one’s iron play, especially if one takes the challenge of leaving a driver and a few randomly selected irons in the car trunk.
The greens are not overly big either, meaning one’s short game will get a lot of polishing.
But the biggest reason to play the U golf course is so everyone will know what the future generation of golfers will be missing when the course is gone.
For years, the U’s upper campus, including the Medical School and its boarding hospitals, have threatened to steal the land out from underneath head pro James Kilgore and his staff.
I was once told in a business class that more than half the business deals in corporate America happen on a golf course, not in a boardroom.
This doesn’t mean all students majoring in business need to run out and purchase a set of Callaway irons and a Taylor-Made driver, but it does mean that golf might be a little more than a game that requires goofy pants and a fat ass, as Happy Gilmore put it.
The U could be giving up one of its most appealing landmarks, one of its biggest green spaces and certainly its greatest breeding grounds for local hacks.
Sometimes it seems like you can’t put a price tag on stuff like that.