First Exposure to Great Architecture

[Phil Benedict]

The silly-season event at Mid-Ocean has created a bit of nostalgia because that course was my exposure to great golf course architecture.  I grew up in Connecticut playing public courses of unknown or dubious architectural origin.  I did play Hotchkiss quite a bit; thought it was interesting; but didn't know Seth Raynor from Seth Thomas (after whom my home town is named).  In the early '80's I lived in London but never went to Scotland or Ireland.  What an idiot considering how cheap and accessible it was in those days!  Youth really is wasted on the young.  I did play Walton Heath which I liked but I had no idea who designed it.

Around 1984 my future wife and I visited Bermuda for the first time.  I researched the golf and determined that Mid-Ocean was the best the island had to offer.  In all likelihood CBM was the first Golden Age architect I ever heard of - I imagine the only architect I could name at the time was RTJ Senior.

In any case I played Mid-Ocean and was blown away.  Aside from the beauty of the place, Mid-Ocean was the first course where I could tell that there was an intelligence at work in the design of a golf course, that lots of thinking went into it.  I had no idea about template holes, which I only learned about after I stumbled on to GolfClubAtlas, but I knew the golf course was superior to any I had played before.  The CBM/Raynor style remains my favorite, although I recognize its limitation (ie, repetitive themes).

Does anyone else have a GCA born again experience like this?

[cary lichtenstein]

My first great exposure to golf came when my dad took me to Pebble Beach and Spyglass.

I was awestruct by #'s 7, 8, and 16 at Pebble and 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 at Spyglass + a few others there like 16, but the ice plant and sand dunes opened my eyes.

Later, my first trip to Scotland and Ireland, Royal Dornock among so many others really inspired my love affair with the more natural courses.

[John Mayhugh]

My eye-opening experience was at Yale around 1990.  I was just out of college and visiting a friend of mine at school up there.  He suggested we play it and I was completely blown away by the experience.  Up to that point, my GCA benchmark was some mediocre RTJ country club in the area.  I thought it was a great course due to conditioning.  Was I ever mistaken about what great meant.

Like Peter, the CBM/Raynor style remains a favorite to this day.

[Jeff_Brauer]

First course I played was Medinah No. 3.  Second was a nine hole muni add on course called Rob Roy.  Have to say, I knew the difference, even at age 12.

[Brad Tufts]

I actually started reading some of the well-known books first...

And realized I had played junior interclubs at Salem CC, Myopia, and Essex CC...all great and unique places.

[Ron Farris]

Age 10 while playing golf in our neighbors pasture - Sand Hills of Nebraska.

Biggest hazard was the neighbors prize Bull.  He scared us!

[Adam Clayman]

Brad's example is similar to how I'd interpret the question. I was exposed to stuff that was not appreciated until I started to read about the subject. What was amazing was how memories of holes I hadn't played in a very long time  came rushing to the front of the brain.
I'd also say playing Lawsonia and the original Black Wolf Run, and then the new River course, were keys in application, to understanding what I was reading. Again in hindsight.

[John_Conley]

First time I knew I was seeing great architecture is when some friends and I were playing in an event at Cloquet Country Club.  I had to stop to refuel and take a leak on the way out of town and pulled into the world's only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station.

Can't believe they built just one.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php?tip_AttractionNo==2486

[Roger Tufts]

I actually started reading some of the well-known books first...

And realized I had played junior interclubs at Salem CC, Myopia, and Essex CC...all great and unique places.

Coming from the same background as Brad, our home club's Junior Inter-Club matches at Salem CC, Myopia HC, Essex CC, Kernwood CC, Ipswitch CC, Turner Hill, Georgetown Club... specifically the first three for obvious reasons.

Beyond that... I'd have to say the first "big" tour-style course I played would be Kapalua Plantation... some architecture worthwhile there, especially with the greens.

Then went to Ireland... Ballybunion and Carne specifically being big influences, then this past summer, Portmarnock, County Down and Portrush far and away advanced my Architectural knowledge.

I think the difference between me and Brad was that I always recognized GCA in these old-style courses, I just never got so much into it as him until recently. I am just now starting to read the same books he was reading then.

[Jon Spaulding]

Pasatiempo, 1994; after 1/2 a hole, I renounced Ted Robinson as God and realized there was more to golf courses than what I had seen closer to home.

[Tom Huckaby]

Pasatiempo, 1994; after 1/2 a hole, I renounced Ted Robinson as God and realized there was more to golf courses than what I had seen closer to home.

Jon:  all it took was the tee shot on 1?  Hell that's the worst part of the course... or for sure was in 1994 anyway... forest right, range left... what caused the epiphany?

Now make that "after two holes" and I'm with you.  #2 is brilliant.

 

[Norbert P]

(Who is that man?)

Bandon Dunes did it for me in 1999. I'd only been golfing a couple of years.  A late bloomer now wilting.

[David Stamm]

Mine was Rancho Santa Fe pre Dave Fleming. I realized real quick that Torrey Pines was NOT the best in town.


After playing Pebble Beach, I realized how great great can be, but I'm with Jon. After Pasa, things really started to look different to me and I found myself reflecting on my first time there for weeks afterwards.

[JeffTodd]

I took up the game in my mid teens, playing along the Jersey shore and S. Jersey. During one of those early rounds someone told me that the best course in the world was in Clementon. I wasn't sure what to make of such an outrageous claim at the time, but I decided to look into it. Verifying that claim, and trying to find out what made that course, and the other classics, so good is what first exposed me to great architecture, even though much of it was in the pages of books.

[Eric Franzen]

Was fortunate to play at The Old Course and Kingsbarns just a year or so after I picked up the game. I didn't really understand (probably still don't) what I was experiencing there, but the courses and the way that the game was played there inspired me to find out more, and try to learn a bit about the different components of the great courses.

Cheers,

Eric

[Jon Spaulding]

Pasatiempo, 1994; after 1/2 a hole, I renounced Ted Robinson as God and realized there was more to golf courses than what I had seen closer to home.

Jon:  all it took was the tee shot on 1?  Hell that's the worst part of the course... or for sure was in 1994 anyway... forest right, range left... what caused the epiphany?

Now make that "after two holes" and I'm with you.  #2 is brilliant.

 

In 1994, I'd say once one had a look at the approach on #1 and looked back up #9 at the greensite, that's all it would take to renounce Robinson. Remember this is the master of houses left/houses right.

2007 Jon might renounce him after entering the gate and seeing portions of #2......or visiting this site and getting an injection of "bizarro world" anti-Mac propoganda.

[Bill Gayne]

I took up the game in 1988 while living in Atlanta. What has stayed in my mind was attending the Masters in the late 80s and early 90s. Playing the Sea Island Seaside course. Most of the early golf I played was at North Fulton (Chastain Park). It's a course with a really good routing and some slow rounds with iffy conditioning. I played the Ocean Course in the early 90s and new that it was at a level that I had not seen previously.

[Kalen Braley]

For me it would have to be Stevinson Ranch.  While I didn't know for sure what was going on, I knew it was very different to the usual courses I would play.

At the time, I thought the long extended collars were a bit goofy, and I'm still forming an opinion on them.  It seems RC has the same thing going on.  I guess I'll have to get a 2nd opinion there.

Holes that really stuck out in my mind at Stevinson were the redan on the front and the Alps on the back.  I couldn't figure out why someone would build a mid to long length par 3 and have it sloping away from you.  And the Alps hole I just wondered what the hell was going on in general and why someone would put a big hill in front of the green.  Since then I've come to appreciate the quirky things in golf and would love to get back again and give the course another go.