The Sounds of Silence

[John Kavanaugh]

What role should audiocastic issues play in architecture?  Is the sound of the ocean an issue to be considered, the roar of a highway or train,  maintenance facilities, patios or any adjacent sound producing entity.  How would you weigh visuals against audio issues. I'm finding myself in the camp that they are equal considerations that must be addressed.

[Sean_A]

JakaB

For some odd reason, very odd especially as my hearing is terrible, I hate outside noise.  I chose my house location some 30 minutes away from a motorway, not down a prevailing wind of the A46 and off the Main St so I could avoid road noise.  You could say it means a lot to me.  And yes, I do downgrade, I am sure in some bizarre inexplicable way, places like Walton Heath for road noise.  I also feel the same about proximity to airports, Prestwick being a famous example.  Though to be honest, I couldn't say which is more important, the visuals or the audiols (que?).  I spose it depends on how bad it is.

Ciao

[Rick Shefchik]

John,

My home course is on a compact piece of land, making it easy to walk (despite the hills) but a tough place to concentrate if you have rabbit ears. The first green abuts the seventh tee; beyond that, the second tee is just across the hedge from the driving range on the left; immediately to the right is the 18th tee, and just beyond that is the 11th green, the 12th tee, and then the maintenance building.

The third green, fourth tee and 15th green are separated by a couple of pine trees. The fourth green and 15th tee are side-by-side. The 12th green, 13th men's and women's tees and 16th tee are very close.

On a quiet day, none of this matters. On a busy day, or during a tournament, you really need to concentrate, and sometimes simply wait for adjacent groups to tee off and drive away in their carts before you putt out.

Were I designing a new course, I'd try to find a balance between a compact walking route and some audio buffers between the greens and tees.

[Tim Bert]

Intersting thread. I wouldn't consider them equals, but I do think sounds can play a more important role than it appears on the surface. Approaching the ocean for the first time is one I love. I like the occasional passing train as well (one per round is plenty.)  Neighbors chatting and sound of construction are  not high on my list. Maybe because I'm pre-disposed not to like neighborhood courses anyway, though it could be that this is just one more contributing factor I never explicitly considered.

[archie_struthers]

 


Intersting how both foilage and dirt are effective filters of unwanted NOISE POLLUTION ....Although a little noise is often unavoidable to maintain light and air and VISTAS ...mitigating same in design is a noble pursuit

Imagine Augusta without the walls.....or Seminole for that matter

It is a good topic and important consideration in design!

[Joe Hancock]

John,

this very thing struck me when out at the sandhills area courses. There was little wind, and almost no noise. It was quite surreal. It reminded me of being in Vietnam last December, where one is struck by what noises you hear in the countryside; farm animals, the occasional farm truck, and children playing....that was about it. As a communist country, the airplane noise that we take for granted here in the US was nonexistant.

Now that I'm not doing the superintendent thing any more, I find myself missing many aspects, including the sounds. The distant greens mower, the sound of impact sprinklers(the ones with the flappers), the clank of the cup changer....I enjoy those sounds while golfing too, but that's probably a product of my many years of that wonderful environment.

Joe

[Tom_Doak]

One of the coolest features of Cape Kidnappers is the lack of noise pollution.  There's only wind and farm animals.  The sheep make some very funny noises in your backswing on occasion.

[Jim_Kennedy]

JK,
Visual is less important to me than audio, when I take a busman's holiday I like it to be quiet.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Play links golf and (with only a little luck) this is the delightful accompaniment.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFdra5lfa44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hQOoAT65-g



but then there must be courses in America which can boast the same?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgbl_yHbKK0&feature=related

[Dan Herrmann]

John - very good question.

One of the most exciting things I've experienced in golf was at Pacific Dunes.  The first tee is up by the clubhouse, and you have 18 green, the shuttle busses, guys milling around, etc...  It's really not unlike many other courses from an audio perspective.

But BOY - when you first hear the roar of the ocean...  WOW!  If that doesn't get your juices flowing, nothing will.

Conversely, walking up 16, away from the ocean is different.  The roars become quieter as you head home.  It's a little sad.
Similar thing down at 13 green / 16 tee at ANGC.  Those darn cardnials are VERY loud - their song echos through the pines and down into the valley.  It adds a lot to the experience.

From a more everyday experience, we have I-76, the PA Turnpike to the right of our 5th hole.  There are some berms, but it's noisy. Honestly, I don't even notice it anymore.  Likewise, our 17th tee (about 1.5 to 2 miles to the north) is about 1/4 mile from a shooing club.  They shoot skeet with shotguns and they too are loud.  Again, I don't notice it anymore, but guests do.  I think it's pretty cool - it adds to the countryside feel of the place. 

But there are some spots where you're in very quiet surrounds.

It's a really nice ebb and flow.

[Bradley Anderson]

One of things that I like about allowing some areas of the rough to grow wild is it absorbs some of the extraneous sounds that John is refering to here. Trees do too.

[Ronald Montesano]

Don't make too big a deal out of audiocastic contributions or we'll have audiochasms and audiocataclysms...entrepreneurs will start piping in sounds and scents and soom we'll be in Westworld or Futureworld.

[Adam Clayman]

Pradera pumps rock and roll onto the driving range.

Sounds and the lack thereof are amazing aspects. For me they are normative and informative as to locale.
 The silence at Ballyneal and Sand Hills is like nowhere else. Same is true of Pinon Hills when recess is in session at the middle school next door.
The plains trains and automobiles on my recent trip to Chicago put a smile on my face, too.

It would appear that if one is truly focused sound is not a factor.

The guy who plays games with his pocket change during a persons back swing is a cheater.

[Dan Herrmann]

As a sensory corollary - Pine Valley is the best SMELLING course on the planet.

[Scott Sander]

Within 10 miles in Indianapolis, there are two Pete Dye courses that could serve as archetypes for this discussion. I wonder how much if at all the differences affect the clientele.

One is The Fort - a rolling and wooded course that runs away from traffic and bustle through a decommissioned military base.  Save a clustering of open holes near the clubhouse, the audio complement to most shots is the sharp, crackling echo of the shot you just hit - with the sound waves playing off the trees and ravine faces.  Pretty typical stuff for property like that, as opposed to...

...The Brickyard - which winds to and through Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The land is flatter and features fewer, but very mature, trees.  The overriding feature is the track - which sits west of 14 holes and surrounds 4 of them.   Several days a year you'll hear roars (or whines, depending on the racing vehicle) while you play.  Even on days with no track activity, there is still (to my ears) a unique auditory "weight" to the place.  Voices and swings echo off asphalt, massive brick outhouses, aluminum grandstands, and even the pieces of track surface and walls Dye used for bulkheads.

My takeaway:  The Fort's "noise" complements and enhances a day spent "away from it all".  I love to play there alone or with friends who are unafraid of silence.

The Brickyard's "noise" complements and enhances a day spent in conviviality and fellowship.  It is a TERRIFIC course for outings.  That said, I really loathe playing the place alone - the sound makes me feel as if I'm wasting the world's time.

[Bruce Leland]

I've never been too fond of golf near an airport.  The Morris Williams tourney sticks out in my mind as a constant assault of aircraft coming and going.  Luke AFB had similar traffic but was only a diversion when the Canadian precision team was practicing.  Hard not to watch their version of the Blue Angels in flight.

[henrye]

JakaB

For some odd reason, very odd especially as my hearing is terrible, I hate outside noise.  I chose my house location some 30 minutes away from a motorway, not down a prevailing wind of the A46 and off the Main St so I could avoid road noise.  You could say it means a lot to me.  And yes, I do downgrade, I am sure in some bizarre inexplicable way, places like Walton Heath for road noise.  I also feel the same about proximity to airports, Prestwick being a famous example.  Though to be honest, I couldn't say which is more important, the visuals or the audiols (que?).  I spose it depends on how bad it is.

Ciao

I agree about the noise at Walton Heath, although I still think the course & club are one of the greats.  Interestingly, I actually liked the morning commuter trains rushing by at Swinley.

[Scott Sander]

It seems like there's more left in this topic.

From the posts above it's clear sound is part of the experience.  The question is what is/can be/should be done with it?  If sound is a natural (or unnatural!) resource - is anyone mining it?  Is the ultimate goal just to make a course as quiet as possible - or can sound be used creatively?

Should designs honor the existing sounds of a site much like we hope they honor the natural terrain?   In other words - if ya got skylarks, GREAT - but if you -have- to build near the freeway, airport, or shooting range, should you mask or embrace those?

How about using sound to affect the play?
Is it possible to shape a course in a manner that amplifies babbling brooks into roaring rapids - to tighten the throat a bit at an otherwise benign hazard?

Can you use agronomy or earth to present surprises of sound?  I can imagine a hypothetical urban site that's downwind from a bustling radiator plant - would one be able to shield the player from its cacophony for a couple of holes, then dramatically introduce the inevitable with a wide vista to the sight and sound on the "Factory Hole".
Similarly, can a course in a bustling spot use lowered greens and mounding to offer an occasional and -perhaps unsettling- moment of near silence in an otherwise loud spot?



Random thoughts from a guy who's never pushed a drafting pencil or a bulldozer level... 

[Mike_Cirba]

The quietest course I've ever played is True North in MI...especially the low part by the 2nd green/3rd hole.

Almost disturbingly so....

[wsmorrison]

Is silence always a good thing? 

For those of you that have teed off on the 1st at Merion during lunch, wouldn't you rather have the conversation and the noises of lunch on a terrace continue?  Taking your stance and suddenly hearing nothing but the birds chirping or an airplane overhead can be most unnerving.  Hearing the silence means you know you have twenty or thirty pairs of eyes staring at you.    All you can do is thank that you're not left-handed (sorry Mike, Geoff, etc).

[Jason Topp]

Sounds are a big part of the experience.

The tens of thousands of birds below the cliffs on 12 at Old Head provide one of the most memorable sound settings I have experienced.

One reason I believe Stoneridge in Stillwater MN is not rated as highly as I think the layout merits is the sound from a freeway next door.  They made big berms to block the noise but it definitely wears on the player struggling.

One of the problems with housing courses is that there is almost always construction noise.

At least when watching on TV, I like the bells at Pinehurst.

I miss the crunch of spikes.

The loon in Northen Minnesota is a fantastic experience.

[Rick Shefchik]

Sound in and off itself is not a big deal -- it's unexpected noise.

A few weeks ago we had our couples club championship, with a "Back to the 50s" theme. The club manager parked a '57 Chevy convertible next to the first tee, and played '50s rock 'n' roll from the sound system at the clubhouse. I had no trouble with that; in fact, I definitely enjoyed lining up a tough 12-footer on the ninth green while listening to "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" I drained the putt, and found myself wondering if I'd putt better if there was music playing all over the course.

Similarly, I don't exactly like the freeway noise at StoneRidge, but at least it's consistent, and I can't say it affects my game. Some guy yelling to his buddy from an adjacent green as I'm starting my downswing is harder to ignore.

[Bart Bradley]

John:

On the Eighth hole at Grandfather, the Linville River runs down the left side of the hole and when not in drought conditions, you get that "babbling brook" sound as the water flows over the boulders and rocks.  You really can't see the river unless you go over to the bank and look in, but the sound is amazing and makes the experience all the better. 

This weekend I was out West and the wind was so strong (40-50mph) that you really couldn't hear anything else...even your playing partners unless they faced you and raised their voice...That kind of wind actually detracts from the social aspects of the game.

Bart

[Jim Tang]

I loop at Black Sheep Golf Club, 40 miles outside of Chicago.  The entire property is surrounded by farmland, the nearest road is a mile away.  One of the most popular comments I hear is...."Wow, is it quiet out here." 

I think most of us don't realize just how much noise the typical golf course has.  Most of us live in an urban area and have just gotten used to the noise; it is part of our lives.  When you get to a remote site like Pacific Dunes, and all you hear is the ocean and maybe a sea gull or two, I think you realize just how great it is to play in an uncluttered, minimum noise environment.

[Michael Whitaker]

I use to be part owner in a recording studio which specialized in media/advertising audio. If you ever wonder how much impact audio has on the total experience of an environment just roll the sound off during any movie, sporting event, or other visually active telecast: you will feel lost.

I believe audio contributes MORE than 50% to the appreciation of golf.

When golfers lose their hearing most quickly lose interest in the game... the sounds associated with striking a ball and playing the game are that important to enjoying the experience.

Whereas... there are numerous blind golfers who thoroughly enjoy the total experience of playing golf, with many even competing in tournaments.

No Audio = No Golf