The debate about how technology is impacting golf course architecture, threatening existing courses, or making classic architecture obsolete continues to be a long and many-sided one. Whatever the differences of opinion, however, I think everyone's "heart" here is basically in the same place: we would all like to see "protected" the great, old, historic courses. Whether we admit it or not, most of us think of those old courses as great works of "art" as well as of architecture, and if nothing else we appreciate the "history" attached to them.
So, will there ever come a day when a great old course can apply for "protection" under the auspices of an "historical act/historical society", as most cities today allow old or historic buildings to do? As is the case with buildings, would experts then be able to "dictate" what changes can and cannot be made to a golf course, so as to keep its "historical character" in tact? Would such a development be a good thing? Would the members at the great old clubs want to dictate such rules (or, much worse, be dictated to)? Or is it that, implicitly, no one really sees classic courses in the same way as they do "public art/architecture" and so don't demand its "protection"? If that's the case, must we accept that the great old courses will continue to change and evolve at the "whim" or "demands" of fashion, taste and technology?
Peter