"Or do we just like losing golf balls and shooting high scores?"

There should be a rule at the New York Times: don't let anyone besides Larry Dorman write about golf.

Exhibit A? Check out Bill Pennington's links golf lede. It sounds more like it came from a story assignment email:

What is it about links-style courses that has made them so popular with American golfers and golf designers? Is it because they remind us of golf’s Scottish seaside roots? Is it the blind shots? The pot bunkers?

Or do we just like losing golf balls and shooting high scores?

Golfers in the United States are drawn to the many links-style courses that have sprouted nationwide. We pay from $75 to $400 a round for the right to get battered across 18 distinctive holes.

Who would have thought that tall fescue, which you can grow in your backyard without trying, would have such cachet?

Pennington's piece was embellished by the video of him sporting one of Bill Murray's AT&T Pro-Am outfits. It's not Matty G Ambush video bad, but it's close.