Why golfers are like search engines

There's a Google or Yahoo quality to most of us. Certain key words or phrases reach our eyes or ears and we simply have to spider our way to the golf course being talked about to see it for ourselves.

"looks like it's been here forever"

"options off the tee"

"this 5,000 yard monster"

Go on: tell me none of these phrases pique your curiosity...

I heard another one this week. Mowing my lawn on Monday's Bank Holiday, I was half-listening on my MP3 player to Brandon Tucker talk about a course on South Carolina's Waccamaw Golf Trail, when he mentioned not being able to tell whether it had been designed in the 1920s or the 1990s.

Key phrase. My search engine duly optimised, I decided the lawn could wait.

The course turned out to be Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, the architect is Mike Strantz and the break from cutting the grass was totally justified.

This is one of those courses where you can see what the architect is trying to do within seconds of clicking on the hole link. I'm an unashamed fan of Strantz golf courses - I'm not one of the ummers and aaahers where Tobacco Road is concerned - and Caledonia just raises his stock further in my book.

Anyway, mowing the lawn not being one of my favourite activities, one thing led to another and before I know it, I'm reading this about Caledonia:

"Caledonia was the product of a more restrained Strantz than we see in some of his creations. There are just a few forced carries and the mounding, while present, is generally more subdued than even what can be found just down the road at True Blue. In fact, in 2000, Strantz said that they moved the least amount of soil at Caledonia of any of his (then five) courses...

Still Caledonia has that "Strantz" feel - bold, challenging, but all the while artistic. There's a gentle sculpting of the natural terrain, with an occasional flair added to accentuate the setting. The final hole is one to remember. With the marsh off to your right, it's a fairway wood or hybrid to a landing area, and then a short to mid iron over water to a sloping green with water on two sides. It doesn't look difficult on paper, but it plays over its head (especially when the pin is back)."

Note the comment one reader has added about another Strantz design, at the end of the The Sand Trap piece: "Tot Hill Farm is plain crazy".

Plain crazy. Oh dear, more key words. I was off...

The Tot Hill Farm website is here and more great browsing it made, too. If this is plain crazy then bring me a straitjacket and a sand wedge.

I've come to the conclusion that Strantz (on whom Jay Flemma has a whole page of promising-looking links) is the George Gershwin of architects. If we lost him far too soon then at least we lost him at the top of his game. To paraphrase the line from Remembrance Day, age does not weary him, nor the years condemn.

Now this was how to spend a Bank Holiday.