Golf Course Architecture

It’s been another stretch of very little blogging. I have found two sets of circumstances that lead me to blog less than normal.

First, of course, is when I’m extremely busy. It’s difficult to make and justify the time to blog during very busy periods.

And second, during vacation periods, no matter how long or short. I didn’t do a lot of work late last week. And my parents visited over the weekend. During periods like that, I try to simply do whatever I want, whenever I want. This helps me to relax and rejuvenate.

I recently read an interesting article in Golf Canada (published by the RCGA). Titled “Lessons from the Past,” it focused on the evolution of golf course design. It’s an area that has always intrigued me, and so I read the article with much anticipation.

Of course, in the very early days of golf, there was no such thing as golf course design. As the article states, “the game’s initial courses were often ’18 stakes on a sunny afternoon,’ … within an interesting piece of property.”

Apparently one of the first to actually alter the land was Willie Park Jr., “a British designer whose work in Canada includes Calgary Golf & Country Club and Laval-Sur-Le Lac Golf Club.” Approximately a century ago Mr. Park made subtle alterations to properties/courses, but certainly never sculpted mass swaths of land.

Alister Mackenzie stands out for his contribution of “13 Golf Commandments,” essentially a list of concepts that all great courses should share. The list included such things as the importance of hills and valleys, beautiful surroundings as well as testing both proficient and beginner golfers, and motivating golfers to improve.

Longer holes traversed “less impressive land” and par-3’s were placed very strategically, to take advantage of beautiful locations.

Towards the end of Stanley Thompson’s contributions, and at the beginning of Robert Trent Jones’ career, the advent of massive earth moving equipment brought new possibilities to golf course design and construction. No longer was the architect relegated to merely tweaking the natural landscape. Wholesale change was in vogue, and possible.

This trend ushered in the concept of the famous golf course architect. Since it was no more the architect, and less the land, that created the end product, the architect’s name became very prominent. PGA players, such as Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw, began to make a name for themselves in golf course architecture.

The article ends describing the most recent movement back to the basics, a minimalist and naturalist approach. This takes architecture full circle, back to designs that wind and weave through untouched properties, with the designer and design yielding to the land, rather than vice versa.

In reading about the journey that golf course design has taken, I was reminded of a sculptor. Some describe sculpting as molding a solid block into a beautiful representation of some form. Others describe it as an effort to free the form that lies trapped within the original solid block.

I look forward to learning more about golf course design. One brief article has only whetted my appetite.