What the hell does "inspire/inspiring" mean?

[JR Potts]

I keep reading the loose use of the word "inspire(ing)" on this site.  I've feigned responses to the questions, "what inspires you about that hole" mostly because I don't know what the hell that means.

Merriam-Webster defines it: 1 a : to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration b : to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on <was particularly inspired by the Romanticists> c : to spur on : IMPEL, MOTIVATE <threats don't necessarily inspire people to work> d : AFFECT <seeing the old room again inspired him with nostalgia>

After reading this, it still doesn't help me.  Does the architecture really inspire some of you?  Or is it really the topography and the land the course is built on?  

I must say, I've been awed by some courses, but never inspired.  I have been inspired by my play and the play of others, a great shot here or there, the companionship of the game, but never the architecture.  What am I missing?  Or is the word being misused?  

HELP!  This is an SOS!

[Guy Phelan]

Ryan-

I have been inspired and then moved to believe that a certain hole or an entire golf course is set correctly in perpetuity...it needs no alteration...it is perfect...I am not sure why you have lead this thread other than you want to understand what "inspire/inspiring" means...but when I started reading the original thread, it certainly had to do with golf courses that were not inspiring to the person who played and then wrote and some of them were not inspiring to me.

Guy

[Bill Gayne]

Ryan,

A course design can call for a heroic shot based on your skill level. The proper execution of this shot is inspiring to you the player. It was the architect/architecture that created the shot.

Bill

[Jordan Wall]

Ryan,

A course design can call for a heroic shot based on your skill level. The proper execution of this shot is inspiring to you the player. It was the architect/architecture that created the shot.

Bill

Does that mean inspiration is based on how well you play?
If you play well and make the shots, you are inspired, and if not, you are not..?

I am simply asking because I am as confused as Ryan, I think.

[Bill Gayne]

Jordan,

In my case the answer is yes. For others on this website they maybe inspired by pictures to go out and play better or others (the GCAs that participate) may be inspired by seeing something great to go out and build something great.

Bill

[Eric_Terhorst]

Ryan,

I used the word in response to the pictures of the Barnbougle Experience that Rob Babcock posted the other day.  I'm usually "inspired" to  action--as in, I'm inspired to try to figure out how I'm going to get to Tasmania...

If I hadn't seen those pictures, those $ I have set aside for my son's tuition might not look so vulnerable

[Mark_Fine]

Ryan,
If, for example, one can stand on the first tee of a Shinnecock Hills or a Cypress Point or a Prestwick, or ... and not in any way feel "inspired" by what you are about to play then you should take up tennis  

[Adam_F_Collins]

I get inspired when I see short grass.

[Jeff Doerr]

Ryan,

Beauty inspires. Natural beauty inspires. Human creative efforts (beautiful art) inspire. For me, when the two are combined it is amazing to behold. Then you add the beauty of sport.

That combination often gives me joy and inspires.

[Tom Huckaby]

Ryan - you are right to be confused.

People here are trying to say that the "architecture" inspires them and if them mean that to disinclude setting, views, natural beauty - as so many do - then pardon my french but they are full of shit.  Architecture defined like this can only "inspire" one who does it for a living, or perhaps one who aspires to.  That is, Tom Doak can go to NGLA and become inspired to reproduce the Alps hole at Old MacDonald, or improve upon it, or take its principles in a different direction.  That's being inspired by architecture.  Tom Huckaby can look at the same hole and think the architecture is cool, but cannot be inspired by it because what can he do with it?

It's not that big of a deal really.... it's all in the definitions.

But I would say golf courses and the feats achieved on them inspire golfers... golf course architecture inspires golf course architects.

TH

[rjsimper]

Inspiration is the feeling that simultaneously validates whatever it is you are doing and makes you want to do it more and do it better henceforth.

[Tommy Williamsen]

TH, I understand your point about architecture inspiring architects.  Nonetheless, When I play #9 at my home club it inspires me to hit good shots.  It is a brilliantly designed par four.  


It "inspires" me to want to hit a good drive down the right side of the fairway and then loft a second shot some 190 yards up the hil to a well bunkered green.  If thaat is not in the cards, then hit a low runner up the left side and try to get up and down.  I par the hole more times than I should.  

[Jordan Wall]

Ryan - you are right to be confused.

People here are trying to say that the "architecture" inspires them and if them mean that to disinclude setting, views, natural beauty - as so many do - then pardon my french but they are full of shit.  

TH

I couldnt agree more.
Never have I known a person who went to Pebble Beach and said the views didnt make the round better!
For me, in Hawaii, and I guarantee 100% the amazing views made the rounds a lot funner for me.

Also, besides the fact that views are nice, usually they can help add variety to a hole.  Since it can be hard to get a great view on an uphill hole, I am going to out there and state the obvious by stating that better views are going to come from elevated tees.  Or, in case of the ocean, and hole where you can see the ocean has a great view.  Now, if a tee is elevated, and you can see the ocean from a tee box, chances are the element of wind will be thrown into your shot.  This not only makes you think more about the shot you are going to hit, but it makes the shot funner while often providing options for your shot.  Thus, views not only add vibes to a golf course for being pretty (my friends would laugh at me for saying that but its true), but usually the element of wind comes into to view on the elevated tee or from the ocean, increasing the enjoyability of the golf hole.

Based on what people are saying inspire means, I dont see how great views do not inspire.
If anybody thinks therwise, I am sure Huck and I can add to why this is true
 

Jordan

[Tom Huckaby]

Tommy:

Understood.  Just also understand I didn't mean to say well-designed golf holes in terms of giving strategic choices and allowing for fun shots to be played cannot inspire a golfer to do greater things; obviously they can, as your example shows (and there are likely countless others).  I definitely went too far in my post - apologies, but this is a hot-button topic for me.  

My point was more that saying views/setting/etc. CANNOT inspire or are somehow not to be included in the conversation is indeed a fallacy if not downright illogical.

Jordan:  yes, I can expound on this and certainly have too many times already in here.  

[Gene Greco]

Ryan - you are right to be confused.

People here are trying to say that the "architecture" inspires them and if them mean that to disinclude setting, views, natural beauty - as so many do - then pardon my french but they are full of shit.  

Indeed!

Emphasized with profanity no less.

[Kirk Gill]

Did not the best courses in Great Britain inspire Charles Blair Macdonald to build NGLA, who then provided "significant" inspiration to Hugh Wilson and The Committee at Merion?

My children tend to inspire me.

[Dan Herrmann]

Ryan,
If, for example, one can stand on the first tee of a Shinnecock Hills or a Cypress Point or a Prestwick, or ... and not in any way feel "inspired" by what you are about to play then you should take up tennis  

AMEN!

It should put a lump in your throat.

And a course doesn't need to be great to be inspring.  It could be a fine muni that was brought to life by voulenteers (Wintonbury), a course that makes you gawk in awe (Pine Valley), a course that is just so damn good and beautiful that its memories bring tears of joy (Pacific Dunes), or that round on a cow pasture with your dad.

[Kyle Harris]

Ryan,
If, for example, one can stand on the first tee of a Shinnecock Hills or a Cypress Point or a Prestwick, or ... and not in any way feel "inspired" by what you are about to play then you should take up tennis  

AMEN!

It should put a lump in your throat.

And a course doesn't need to be great to be inspring.  It could be a fine muni that was brought to life by voulenteers (Wintonbury), a course that makes you gawk in awe (Pine Valley), a course that is just so damn good and beautiful that its memories bring tears of joy (Pacific Dunes), or that round on a cow pasture with your dad.

Jeez, way to use a self-referential definition to define inspiring.

Inspiration, for me, comes from discovering some architectural wrinkle in a golf course that helps me score, or that I realize hindered me from scoring. Finding those things - no matter how small - get my creativity flowing and using/abstracting the concept elsewhere.

[JR Potts]

So when a golfer or GCA'er declares that a course doesn't inspire him, is that more of an indictment on his playing partners, his play that day or the god given topography than the architecture?  And in the converse, when one is inspired, is it beacause of his play, his playing partners and the god given topography rather then the location and shape of bunkers and green complexes?

In sum, I think the word has been butchered by many in an effort to sound esoteric....and I don't get it.

[Tim Pitner]

I think "inspiring" simply means "fun to play."  For example, many tournament courses are acknowledged as great because they're challenging (e.g., Carnoustie, Oakmont) but some people find them not that much fun to play--in other words, uninspiring.  Other courses may not be that challenging, especially to very good players, but are great fun to play (e.g., North Berwick, Dornoch)--they're termed inspiring.  I don't think it's much more complicated than that.