Jon
For some narcisstic reason I thought you could be referring to another John - as usual I agree with you. Plus 1.00m and minus 1.00m can give a difference of 2.0m which for most normal golfers standing in the hollow means a blind shot. Enough to make the golf course interesting.
If at least the 50% of the playing areas had topograpical movement - that’s about ca. 50% of 25 Ha Playing Areas on a 50 Ha Par 72 Course.
50% of 25 Hectares is 12.5 Ha
Half of the 12.5 Ha is 6.25 Ha at -1.00m excavation gives 62’500 m3
Put this 62’600m3 on another 6.25 Ha at an average of 1.00m (+0.5 to +1.5m) and you have topo movement on a half of your golf course playing areas at -1.00m average (up to -1.50m) to +1.00m (up to 1.50m).
Summarising with 65’000m3 you can create enough interesting topo changes to create an interesting game of golf on half the golf course playing areas.
With thoughtful topographic sculpturing a great minimalist golf course can happen.