Will American Golfers Ever Accept This?

[TEPaul]

"As someone who plays at a course that features deep heather like this (Hindhead GC), both on bunker faces and on various mounds, I strongly agree with the sentiment of Mark and Rob's comments.

It may look pretty, particularly when the heather is flowering, but if it gets too deep then it does little or nothing to enhance the enjoyment or interest of actually playing the course."


Daniel Robson:

It does little to enhance the enjoyment or interest of playing the course??

Do you really think that's what architects want to do for golfers---eg enhance golfers' enjoyment or interest in playing a golf course??

OH SURE, I know a lot of golf architects have said that's their ultimate goal but we who are really in the know realize perfectly well every single one of them was lying through his teeth. Secretly, and some not so secretly, they all want to torture golfers and psychologically beat the ever-living stuffing outta golfers, no matter how strenuously they try to deny it. It is a provable fact that every single golf course architect who ever lived suffered through some kind of problematic or psychologically scaring childhood and this is their way of getting back at the world without going to jail.

Actually, the truth is it's deeper than that. If a golfer gets in purple junk like that on a Tom Doak golf course, for instance, they shouldn't even bother to blame it on Doak---they should probably blame it on his great-grandmother, as she might be the one ultimately responsible for that thick beautiful purple heather or gorse that gobbles up your golf ball!

[Mark Bourgeois]

It's also worthwhile to consider this as a governance issue first.  I doubt any golfer would quit his club over such bunkers or any design feature of similar import. (Perhaps a truly massive tree-clearing effort would do the trick, as well perhaps as major transmogrifications to greens.)

Maybe the better question is, would any green committee ever accept this?

It helps to have committeemen who are appointed to very long terms, or structures where dictators can reign -- or appoint someone to see the changes all the way through.  Or perhaps where captains are primus inter pares not simply for reasons of scheduling matches, but broader issues of club and course management.

Mark

[Joel_Stewart]

I noticed yesterday at Pebble Beach they have some stuff in a few of the bunkers.  This is taken of the 16th from quite a few feet away but I also noticed it on a few other holes.

[Norbert P]

 Joel, interesting. Hopefully this is a portent of things to come for Pebble Beach. Finally letting the old course age and grow a beard.

[Jeff Spittel]

What areas of the U.S. would be condusive to growing heather? I would guess New England and the Pacific Northwest might be suitable?

[Norbert P]

 Jeff, you are correct in the areas that could grow healthy heather in America. The plants also like acidic, well-draining soil. So usually they are on knolls or hillsides. There are three genus choices, erica, daboecia, and calluna (heather) with several cultivars.

[Jeff Spittel]

Thanks, Slag. I think if it could be made to look reasonably natural, a heathland style course on hilly, forested terrain in the U.S. would be really cool.

[Norbert P]

 I find it interesting that there isn't a heathland course in America. 

 Tom Doak's Heathland Course at The Legends doesn't have it anywhere that I can see.  I could be wrong - never been there.  I don't see that as a detriment, but it's name is Heathland.   From the Renaissance site, it says they have over 50,000 rounds a year - perhaps too many for nasty, unextricable ball lies. 

    http://www.doakgolf.com/courses.asp?c=legends 

[Mark_Rowlinson]

If you want to see heather in profusion don't miss Hankley Common.

I like heathland golf and therefore I like to see heather, but it must look natural. I was at Falkenstein in November and there's lots of heather there. The trouble was that on the par-5 17th where you must either lay up short of a vast expanse of the stuff with your second shot or risk all and attempt to clear it, the heather was planted in neat rows as if in a commercial nursery. For my taste it looked awfully artificial. It didn't spoil the playing options of the hole, but didn't look 100%.

I have another quibble about heather. If it's there I want it to be robust. At a number of courses I have played there are notices everywhere about not taking golf bags into the heather, or walking in on the shortest line, and (of course of no relevance to a habitual bag carrier) no carts, trolleys or buggies to be taken into it. I can understand this where they are trying to re-establish heather, but surely if it is to be robust enough to stand many a whack from a club from a golfer of my sort, then why should we have to avoid walking through it?  This is very often the case when the heather is used to make a forced carry from the tee. you all have to walk down a path some way to the side.

I agree with those who say that the ball is usually able to be found - many more balls are lost in meadow grass and many more in that thick stuff accompanying links fairways. As for gorse, use it sparingly. It can be a beautiful golfing companion, but there are occasions when your ball is not lost - you can see it - but it is more than two club-lengths in and you can't even retrieve it to drop it out under penalty. There was gorse behind the short 15th at Conwy for many years. If you overshot with your tee shot and wishes to drop out not nearer the hole you had to go on about 150 yards to a clearing beside the 14th fairway and drop it there (keeping the gorse between you and the hole), playing most uncertainly and blind over banks and banks of impenetrable gorse.  Fortunately it has been thinned out.

[Jeff Spittel]

I find that curious too. Given that links style golf has been so widely imitated in the U.S., it would stand to reason that someone would have attempted an homage to one of the great U.K. heathland courses in the states.

[JMorgan]

I find it interesting that there isn't a heathland course in America. 

 Tom Doak'a Heathland Course at The Legends doesn't have it anywhere that I can see.  I could be wrong - never been there.  I don't see that as a detriment, but it's name is Heathland.   From the Renaissance site, it says they have over 50,000 rounds a year - perhaps too many for nasty, unextricable ball lies. 

    http://www.doakgolf.com/courses.asp?c=legends 

I don't think it does too well above a humid Zone 8, Slag.

I've tried heather and heath in transitional Zone 5/6 NY state and haven't the luck with heather.  For some reason, the heath is hardier, probably something to do with a hardier constitution at the right time of year, as most species flower in the winter.

[Adam Russell]

Yes!!! I'm all for it... now where do I plant my kudzu???

[Ian Andrew]

I don't know if anyone else has pointed it out yet but growing heather in most of North America is very complicated. It's a rather fussy plant when it comes to soil and the only way I got it to grow at my mother's was ammending the soil.

[Norbert P]

If you want to see heather in profusion don't miss Hankley Common.

Mark, I checked out their website pictures. The par 3's use the "Hell's Half Acre" philosophy heavily in heather.  Must be something when it's in bloom but the seas of it must be a nightmare for the foozlers. 

Adam, point taken, but I don't think heather has ever become invasive to my knowledge. Kudzu is krazy stuff. Grows a foot a day. Here in the Pacific Northwest our bane is Himalayan Blackberry, and ribbon grass, oh and bindweed, English Ivy, etc. . . etc . . . and can't forget Black Locust trees.

Ian, if we plant it we will import mass loads of Canadian sphagnum peat moss for amending the soil to acidic conditions. Can't hurt the economy.