[Tommy Williamsen]

Most of us on this site revere the architects of the "Golden Age."  Architects of the twenties did have some rudimentary buldozing equipment at their disposal but didn't always use it.

I don't have enough knowledge to answer intelligently but given the state of earth moving equipment today, would the 'oldies,' such as Ross, have changed some of their design philosophy?

[John_Cullum]

I think Ross would be giving Fazio a run for his money. Golf Course Architecture was a business for Ross, not a devotion; and I believe he would keep his ear to the ground for the current trends.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I think Ross would be giving Fazio a run for his money. Golf Course Architecture was a business for Ross, not a devotion; and I believe he would keep his ear to the ground for the current trends.

John, I would like to think that Ross et al would not have changed their design philosophy and use of the land, but I agree that many of them would move land like crazy.  It is hard not to get into the "shape the land to fit the golf course" rather than "fit the course into the shape of the land."

I do have agree with Sean that Doak, C & C and some others have not succumbed to the temptations

[paul cowley]

Tommy ....I think that Ross and all the ODG's would undoubtedly utilize all that's available to todays designers....why wouldn't they?

Because of/and as result their successes, CC and Doak pick their sites carefully to best showcase their design philosophies....and these sites are good enough that they don't always require a lot of earth work [and if on occasion they do, these three are talented enough to make it look as if they didn't] .

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy ....I think that Ross and all the ODG's would undoubtedly utilize all that's available to todays designers....why wouldn't they?

 

I agree that the ODGs would use modern equipment.  How would the use of them change their designs.  Would they eliminate blind shots?  Would the bunkering be shaped differently.  Would they have more bunkers because they would be easier to build?  Would they have created more ponds and used water more?  

[paul cowley]

Tommy W says; "I agree that the ODGs would use modern equipment.  How would the use of them change their designs.  Would they eliminate blind shots?  Would the bunkering be shaped differently.  Would they have more bunkers because they would be easier to build?  Would they have created more ponds and used water more?"

Of course they would.

A Designer creates with the tools available to him at the time he exists......while responding to the needs of his time as well.

I don't think the ODG's would do anything radically more or less different when compared to whats being built today.  
 
 

[BCrosby]

No doubt that the ODG's would use the technologies at hand.

But I wonder how they would use it. Unlike Fazio and others, they were born, bred and trained on links courses. Those courses were their models.

I have to think they would would stay true to those traditions in their own way (Cole Porter copyright protected).

Bob

[Jeff_Brauer]

In "Golf Has Never Failed Me" Ross gushes about the possibilities of the new fangled bulldozers. I say yes, his courses would be different today.  Besides using technology to move whatever dirt he needed to move faster, he would be influenced, as we all are, by the desire NOT to build the same old course over and over again (assuming he is alive to the age of 200 or so!)

He would have had to respond to the same things we have to respond to - bigger greens on busier courses, bigger tees, more tees for diverse play, and of course, environmental laws.  We can debate just how he might have responded, and that would be fun, but he would have responded - or he would have been out of business!

Its hard to think that way in an age where the trend is to go back to his (and other GCA's of the GA) style, but he did change his somewhat pedestrian bunker style at Seminole - following rather than leading in style.  If he stayed in the exact same mold, I think he would lost business to the newer trends and bolder styles of Thompson and RTJ - just as modern gca's that stay in the "moundy-moundy" style of the 90's are losing business to the Golden Age stylists today.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I realise that it's a generation later, but didn't Stanley Thompson have train loads of earth shipped in to construct Banff and Jasper?  If you've got it use it.  Presumably he didn't have those resources at Highland Links?

[John_Cullum]

I think Ross would be giving Fazio a run for his money. Golf Course Architecture was a business for Ross, not a devotion; and I believe he would keep his ear to the ground for the current trends.

John, I would like to think that Ross et al would not have changed their design philosophy and use of the land, but I agree that many of them would move land like crazy.  It is hard not to get into the "shape the land to fit the golf course" rather than "fit the course into the shape of the land."

I do have agree with Sean that Doak, C & C and some others have not succumbed to the temptations

The point I want to make is that I believe Donald Ross, probably more than any other Golden Ager, would have gone with the market demand.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I guess what we are say in dffect is, " Ross et al might still have a distinctive style but it may be different than their old style and closer to the work being done tody."

[Mike Hendren]

It would be fascinating to see what Ross' "farmers" would have done with earth-moving equipment.  Those courses where he simply drew the routing and made a few notes could have turned out to be some of the quirkiest courses ever built.   Much more of his well-located work might have been plowed under as a result.  

Mike

Hmmmm.  Was Ross the king of hit-n-run architecture?

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