Are dramatic architectural features doomed

[Sean_A]

Sean,

Don't you think that dramatic features appear on the golfer's radar screen sooner ?   And, as larger blips ?

Not necessarily.  There may be a bigger fear among owners, players and therefore archies of a lack of wow factor.  Folks will disparage and want to jazz up most holes which seemingly offer little challenge.  Perhaps TOC is the greatest example of this rather lack of basic understanding amongst most golfers that a cat can be skinned in many ways.  Of course, TOC has the cult following so its safe, but many courses, holes or features don't have champions and thus so much has been lost. 

I know most on this board don't associate wow factor with being positive, but in truth the best features are often the wow factor features - its just difficult to sort them out amongst the dopey wow factor features.  And of course, some features may take longer for players to realize they should be saying wow.  Front to back sloping greens are great example of this. 

Ciao

[Jon Wiggett]

As mentioned in my earlier post the 'Links Trust' are carrying out some work on the castle course. According to their Links News this work includes softening or removing some spill-offs, (mounds) in some landing areas. Mounds to the left of the 4th fairway are to be modified while the mound in front of right of the green will be removed. Mound centre of the 5th fairway has been removed and similar work has been carried out on the mound in the middle of the 6th fairway.

The middle 3 mounds on the 9th will be removed as will the mound front right of the 10th green. On the 15th the mounds in front of the bunker will be altered to improve to improve sight lines and a spill off in the landing zone on the 18th will be removed and a second softened. Drainage work will continue on several fairways and some sections of pathways are to be tarred to prevent dust.

Sean,

one of the problems we here on GCA have in understanding the normal golfer is that we assume that strategy and the decisions you must make therefor are the ultimate challenge for the golfer. The average person however prefers a straight forward problem to solve that is clearly presented and does not require any sort of thinking on the part of the person.

[Rob Rigg]

Do dramatic architectural features have a better chance of surviving on a private course?

Seems like many changes have been made to Golden Age courses in the US to remove "quirk" but some initiatives have been made to bring at least some of it back.

If Joe Sixpack cannot be patient to see how a feature evolves over time or even embrace it for what it is can Worthington C. Silverspoon?

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

Patrick:

With regard to mounds in front of greens, I believe that little knob in front of the fourth green at St. Andrews has been there for a very long time.

Tom Doak,

And that would cause you to deem that all mounds in front of greens are sacrosanct ?