Minimalist, Flat Topo, and Great? Can it be done?

[Jon Wiggett]

John- I think with 3 feet its impossible, 3 metres is not really much. St Andrews  probably has 5 metres of contour change.

Adrian,

I would say it is. A great GCA is capable of taking land and seeing something that is potentially there. I have never looked so closely at the elevation change on the road hole green but that can't be much more than 3ft. and certainly isn't more than 6ft.

Seeing what is there and not what you think is the difference between Jon and John

You still cant do the impossible John, even if you are a great architect.

Adrian,

that you can't see it is because you don't look at what is there just what you think is there and that makes you blind,

regards

JON (just another hint JON)

[John Chilver-Stainer]

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.