Suppose....

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Suppose you had several hundred hectares of uninhabited  linksland at your disposal and you had the wherewithall to develop some of that land as a golf course, who would you approach first in the knowledge that they would build you a classic?  

I happened to visit just such a place in Europe earlier in the year.  The land is not at my disposal; I don't have the resources or entrepreneurial skill to exploit it; I have no idea whether the authorities would sanction such a development; and I will post some photos when I know that my new host site is accessible to GCA viewers - my recent Hartlepool thread suggests that it is not.  

[Paul_Turner]

Pete Dye.  It would be the most interesting.

[Tom_Doak]

Paul,

I, too, would be most interested to see Pete Dye build a course on a links site.

However, I would be very surprised if you could say with conviction that he is the first person you would approach "in the knowledge that he would build you a classic."  I couldn't.

[Jfaspen]

I'm sure I'm making a fundamental mistake here..

But wouldn't the Ocean Course be considered this type of design by Mr. Dye..  Or it is too removed from the sea?

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

No I'm not stating that with conviction.  I just wonder what he would do with a great links site.

Other than Prestwick which links had the most influence on him?

[Philippe Binette]

I'll probably say the last guy to come out of the pub on a wednesday night (actually thursday morning)...
He probably have no idea of what he is doing... and it might be just fine for a classic.

Seriously, it's a real tough call. But it's probably true that Pete Dye could built some great and unconventionnal holes that could make the course different and unique.

Another option, I'll do it, I really don't know if I'll be able to built an absolute classic, but it's definitely going to be a lot of fun trying to. (re-read first sentence...)


 

[Bill Gayne]

I suppose if the Ocean Course and Whistling Straits was studied it would lead to clues as to what a Pete Dye course on British Isles linksland would feature.

[Jim Thompson]

Without a doubt my first call would be to Kevin Aldridge.  Something to think about.

Cheeers!

JT

[Ted Kramer]

I haven't seen any of his work, but that wouldn't stop me from calling Kelly Blake Moran.
I like the way he presents himself on this board and I get the sense that he would produce something very honest.

-Ted

[Phil_the_Author]

You used the phrase "develop that land." I take that to mean oversee the entire project and not just the design process.

In that case I might choose Mark Parsinen. Look what he did at Kingsbarns and what he is doing up north as well. From the photos I've seen from that site, it could be another classic as well.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

'Develop that land.'  Philip, you raise an issue.  The land I saw was so fecund that perhaps a really confident architect would do nothing other than find the natural greensites, mow them hard, find the natural fairways, mow them less severely, and find the natural teeing grounds and run a scythe over them.  Not a spade, horse-plough or bulldozer in sight....

[Phil_the_Author]

Mark, you wrote, "The land I saw was so fecund that perhaps a really confident architect would do nothing other than find the natural greensites, mow them hard, find the natural fairways, mow them less severely, and find the natural teeing grounds and run a scythe over them.  Not a spade, horse-plough or bulldozer in sight...."

That is part of the reason why I mentioned Parsinen. There were at least three different routings of courses to put on the land where Kingsbarns was built. Each of them could be done reasonably inexpensively and the finished product would have looked an end result of what you describe.

Yet when one sees the rolling hillside down to the sea, dunes that look as if they had been there since time began, and every hole feeling as if it had been taken from the water, maybe we've gotten to the point now where a grand engineering feet might be able to occasionally compete with mother nature in creating a field of play for a man-made game?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Mark,  I think I would call Pat Ruddy.  He is as passionate about links golf as anyone I have ever met.  He has done some outstanding work.  I also might call Coore and Crenshaw. I'd like to see what they could do with a Sand Hills by the ocean.

[Philippe Binette]

Pat Ruddy try to built a links-replica course at Ile de Montreal and I didn't feel it's a great success.

Of course Ile de Montreal doesn't have the soil and grasses to play like a links, compare to the site proposed in the topic, but I felt Pat Ruddy's design is partly responsible for the course not playing like a links.

The holes are too long (no par 4 shorter than 410 yards into the prevailing wind) so there is not a lot of finesse involved. The greens are narrow,deep and elevated, really not receptive to any type of ground game (the wind is always present on that course). The par-3 are not about links golf, more about yardage.

When I toured the course (went there 3 times) and was asked what were my comments about the course, I said: hole-by-hole there's no problems on that course, the thing is, there are 18 of those.

So I'd prefer to let Dye or Coore and Crenshaw have a go. As for an outsider, Tony Cashmore seems to be doing some cool stuff is Australia (judgement by pictures), he might do something good with that site

[Tommy Williamsen]

Philippe, Pat did not have a good experience in Motreal.  I am not sure why, but as of the last time I spoke with him he has decided not to design any more courses.  

I think the problem sometimes with golf is not as much the designer but the owner(s).  It also works the other way as well, that an owner either trusts the designer and has a hands off policy or in collaoration does a creditable job.