A unique approach to architecture?

[JSPayne]

I was recently informed about a unique idea in a different industry of architecture, which gave rise to wondering if such a method could apply to golf course architecture.

The story I heard about concerned a university that was being built and how to best create walking routes throughout the property for the students. As anyone spending a good deal of time on a campus will know, often paths are worn off in areas not designed for walking simply because they provide the most efficient or shortest route. So the leading architect/engineer proposed to open the school with no walking paths, only grass. Then after a year or two, worn out areas would be "naturally" established by the students leading to where more permanent concrete sidewalks would then be constructed. Not only did this reach the goal of providing the most meaningful placements of the paths, but also assured for the most part that all other areas could be landscaped and maintained with minimal disruption from the students' daily travels.

Could this same idea be applied to golf architecture? Would it work, or even be meaningful, for example, if somewhat of a "blank slate" golf course was constructed, with greens only(maybe not even specific tees, but more large expansive teeing areas), and careful attention and tracking given to all play within the first year to later determine the placement of fairway lines, bunker placement and tee placement?

Granted this may be difficult to do in a forest setting due to the tree clearing that would have to be done, but in a place like Sand Hills, where open expanses naturally exist, I almost think it would interesting to see golfers themselves "create" the holes as they try to envision the best route to the hole instead of striving so hard to follow a somewhat predetermined route.

[TEPaul]

JSPayne:

Certainly people like Max Behr and others thought of this kind of thing applied to golf course architecture.

Behr called it "Lines of Instinct" and "Line(s) of Charm."

[Tony_Muldoon]

I think the technical term for this is Desire Lines.

http://www.mdi-landescapes.com/pages/2004/2004.htm

This is surely the process by which the early links games became formalised and turned into courses?  In a strange way it's still in practice.  If a course opens and a certain hole is not liked by the majority over time a new hole will (often) be designed to replace it.

However mostly Desire Lines show us the most convenient, popular and easy path from A to B, and in another way that’s the opposite of what Golf is about.

[Craig Disher]

An apocryphal story about James Braid said that he told clubs that the reason there were no bunkers on his original layout is that he preferred to wait a couple of years to see where the divots appeared. That's where he'd put the bunkers.

[Mark Bourgeois]

I, too, think it's an excellent idea.  This is how I think of Donald Ross and his evolution of the greens and bunkering at Pinehurst #2.

But if I recall when I asked about the concept, someone like Tom Doak said it's too expensive and today's designers have the benefit of massive experience, so they already know where the bunkers etc are supposed to go.

Mark

[Jeff_Brauer]

I recall that Tom Doak says he often routes courses (or thinks they are routed) as if one was just walking the site.

As far as paths, the most typical paralell is using the construction routes for cart paths.  Sometimes the workers do your thinking for you.

When they don't, its pretty easy to figure out the route from green to next tee - its the shortest, straightest line, unless there is topo and then its the flattest line.

Look carefully next time you walk on a green - if there is a knob on the bank as little as 3" high, golfers will walk around it.  And, if there is a space at least 5' wide between a green and a pond, and the next tee is near the pond, cart drivers will risk life and limb to take the short cut.

[JSPayne]

Tony,

Thanks for the link. Perfect description of how I was viewing these man-made "lines". It seems to just make perfect sense to me. And seems that most of humanity finds them pleasing to the eye and mind as well (just look at all the pictures people enjoy with footprints in the sand, through the morning dew, through the snow, meandering foot-beaten paths through the woods, etc.).

I understand Doak (if he is the one that said it) believing that many of today's architects have the knowledge and experience that more often than not allows them and them alone to pick out these lines in advance of any play, but it still seems to me that the LEAST contrived course, the absolute minimalist design, would be one very similar to TOC and other historical courses that provide more wide expanses of land, less constriction within fairway and rough lines, and bunkering that tends to exist randomly within and around as opposed to always guarding green sites, dogleg corners and other desirable routes. Though I've never played TOC, it thrills me to think of the many hidden bunkers I might one day see....ones that will probably only be the most thrilling the first time, as your seemingly perfect drive disappears into a hazard you could have never known about, but will remember next time to avoid.

In thinking about this, I also think about frisbee golf, and why more of regular golf doesn't follow the same model. The next "green" is always visible and easily findable immediately from the previous "green" so as to minimize the walking between holes and not confuse the golfer as to the routing. The hole more or less has no boundaries and if hazards exist within the hole, they may be circumnavigated by a variety of routes, not confined to just one side or the other. There may always seem to be a most direct or "easy" route, however the golfer's knowledge of his/her individual skills will allow them to play the route most beneficial to their game.

A slight off shoot to this idea, does anyone know of (or even better have pictures of) a course in which most if not every green's fringe flows off and ties directly into the next hole's teeing ground? I know these exist in many places at the first and tenth tees near clubhouses, but are there more examples continuing out on the course?

[Jon Wiggett]

I worked at a course where we didn't put in paths until it became apparent where the golfer walked. Once the paths were in many players decided to walk on the grass verges rather than the paths. Would you know it