Architecture in the not so near future

[Kalen Braley]

I don't know if this question has been hashed yet in this forum, but after looking at the various ages/stages of golf course architecture periods, it made me think of the landscape of CGA in the future.  Not necessarily in the next 5 to 10 years, but 40, 50, even 75 years from now!

Golf architecture isn't immune to fads/trends like most other types of creative professions.  So where do you see golf course architecture in the long term from now?  And remember its not where where most CGA'ers would "like" or "hope" to see it then, but where do you think it will likely be?

Any designs come to mind that seem progressive and edgy, yet still playable, fun with classic design elements.  Pete Dye comes to mind as someone who came along and did some really different things.  Like his architecture or not, I think it was a pretty big milestone in CGA evolution.

What will be next?

[Cassandra Burns]

Wackiness will ensue as developers seek out the weirdest places to locate their courses.  We'll see truly stupendous drops off of snow-capped mountains, wicked narrow ten-yard wide fairways through the few remaining massive old-growth trees, and a course built entirely on the sea.  Someone will make an uphill hole with more vertical height to ascend than lateral distance to cover.  At some point (more like 300 or 1000 years from now) someone will put a course on Mars, and it will be looong, but only nine holes - though most will play the loop twice.  Before then, someone will build an entirely indoor course, probably in an old factory complex.

I think more average and beginning golfers will embrace the Muldooney revisions, making for quicker play and further shedding the conservative country club mentality that a lot of people associate with golf.  USGA rules will only be used by single-digit handicappers, or the aspiring bogey golfer.  Kids will learn to play starting with tennis balls, as that sport goes completely belly-up.

Someone will shoot 54 in tournament play!

Cassie

[Eric Franzen]

I wonder if the 12 hole course will return? Some surveys says that people are playing less or quitting the game due to lack of time. Some developers here in Sweden have at least losely evaluted the possibility of just having 12 holes for a start.    

[Cassandra Burns]

Ooh, 12 holes!  When I was younger, a bunch of us would go out to a short course at night and play night golf.  Sadly, no one was at the clubhouse to take our money, but then we were municipal members anyways so that point is moot.  Anyways, the layout of the course played best as 14 holes.  We'd play 10-16 for the front seven, 12-18 for the back seven, and it was just such a fine and wonderful hoot!  

The more I think about how I came into the game, the more I think that golf is best played for fun and well-matched competition, not for overall score.  It's a pity we don't have a handicap system that works with match play.  I'm sure someone could come up with something - afterall, there are chess rankings and they aren't based on any kind of "scoring average."

I'd love to see threesomes become the norm.  They're so much quicker than foursomes.

Cassie

[Mark Pearce]

I'd love to see threesomes become the norm.  They're so much quicker than foursomes.

Cassie

And much less messy.  

On the golf course I think threeballs are definitely preferable to four-balls.  Foursomes are quicker thanm three-balls but some people have a problem with the alternate shot format.

[tlavin]

Forget threesomes or 12 hole golf, the most interesting issue to me is more one of economics, as we will clearly see more and more golf courses close down and many private clubs fail and turn to public tracks or subdivisions.  There is still plenty of money in the resort development business around the world, but the demographics will not support the volume of golf courses that we currently have in America.

[Kalen Braley]

A fairly new club in Idaho caught my eye when I first saw pictures of it.  http://www.blackrockidaho.com/golfcourse.html

Its a Jim Engh course and saw that he recently did an interview for CGA.com.  It seems to have a bit of a progressive look to it and a unique stlye that I hadn't seen before.  Once again, like it or not, its something different.

Terry:
Thats a good comment about the current number of courses in America.  That would be interesting to see any numerical data on the number that are closing. Also, any thoughts on how close America is to its saturation point of golf courses?

[tlavin]

Terry:
Thats a good comment about the current number of courses in America.  That would be interesting to see any numerical data on the number that are closing. Also, any thoughts on how close America is to its saturation point of golf courses?

I think that we're already at saturation point in many parts of the country.  That doesn't mean that the architecture business is going to dry up, but it does mean that we may hit a point where the number of courses closing could equal the number of those being built.  Discretionary dollars of the middle and upper middle classes are being spent in many areas that take money away from golf.  When you factor in the extraordinary time that it takes to play golf, I think that we're heading into a down cycle.

[Tony_Muldoon]

I think more average and beginning golfers will embrace the Muldooney revisions,

Cassie

Thanks Cassandra
OK so how come no one else ever thought to alert me to some long lost Scottish cousin Dr Pettus ( ) Muldooney?


http://www.amazon.com/Muldooney-Revisions-Original-Ancient-Revealed/dp/1419632175/sr=8-1/qid=1168039316/ref=sr_1_1/102-3475302-5464902?ie=UTF8&s=books