[ForkaB]

Irony is bunk
Come to think of it, match play
Is ironic too

[Anthony Butler]

Irony is bunk
Come to think of it, match play
Is ironic too

For some reason the Europeans play their Ryder Cup events at mostly unispiring venues. And the Americans play their Presidents' Cups at RTJ (see above). That says more about the respective organizations' (European, US Tours) motivations than anything else.

To answer Tom Doak's question, the first concern of the USGA is that you present a golf course that identifies the best player in the world that week. Whether that leads to the most pleasing architectural option is somewhat coincidental. The Euro and PGA Tours' main concern is how much revenue you are directing their way.

The venues for the home games in the Ryder Cup and the away games in the Presidents Cup show some taste and imagination. After Canada in 2007, it will be interesting to see where the Presidents' Cup goes in 2011. Any leads/tips?

I'd be surprised if Japan doesn't throw their hat in the ring at some point...

[john_stiles]

...... all these "championship remodelings" occur EXCLUSIVELY because of the winning score total.

It would be more appropriate to say that many 'championship' remodelings occur when a course is hopeful of hosting a championship of any sort, including THE professional match play event.

Well,  many (most) of the US venues were ‘improved' just for match play.

As briefly mentioned earlier, consider East Lake CC.

"  In preparation for the matches,  East Lake went through a face lifting for three years, during which most of the course was rebuilt and many of the holes changed to provide the quality of championship layout the tournament merited for this event.

All the greens were enlarged to ‘championship size' and sodded with bent grass. Most bunkers were enlarged and 30 more added to tighten up the course.   "

So, East Lake was ‘improved' quite a bit,  just for the matches of the 1963  Ryder Cup.

The East Lake matches also marked the arrival of three days of play rather than two days.  There were 8 foursome matches on Friday, 8 better ball matches on Saturday, and 8 singles matches on Sunday.


Anthony,

The UK Ryder Cup courses were definitively a more interesting lot until they started on the parkland course 'Belfry' in 1985 and have now gone full tilt on parkland 'resort' through 2014.

Perhaps they were inspired by US taking the matches to Thunderbird and Eldorado.

[BCrosby]

John -

My guess is that most changes to Ryder Cup venues are made to improve the course. Full stop.

Most changes made by US Open Doctors are made to assure a narrow range of winning scores. Whether those changes improve or degrade the architecture is incidental and totally subordinate to that goal.

As noted, there is very little overlap between the skill set required of a US Open Doctor and the skill set required of a good architect.  

Bob  

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