Formulaic Design.......

[Jeff_Brauer]

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090722-earth-ridges.html

Uh Oh.....Nature is evenly spaced, not random! I just happened to see this on the net this morning.  Scientists are using formulas to determine exactly why swales and ridges tend to be evenly spaced.....I did not know that!

Well, this upsets the whole notion of randomness in golf course design! I think we ought to start putting catch basins every 80'!  Actually, I know why that is the case in many courses - each section of pipe is 20' and its slightly easier to put them in at even spacing rather than saw cut the pipe!

[Kalen Braley]

Perhaps I'm just too much of a technical nerd who likes words to mean thier actual definition, but that picture to me doesn't put the image of "evenly spaced" in my mind.



While its true the spacing doesn't look vastly different, some of those gullies and ridgelines have a ton of variance when compared to thier immediate neighbor.  The ones in the lower left hand corner are the best example of this I think. And at ground level they would look even more diffent, which is where after all the game of golf is played.

Sorry to rain on the post Jeff...but no, Catch basins are not to be placed every 80 feet!! 

[Dale Jackson]

Now I am going to show the truth in a little information being dangerous.

There are endless examples in nature of mathematical patterns, although not necessarily "even".  The pattern leaves emerge from branches and branches from trunks for example.  There is a ratio determined by calculus and signified by the letter "e".  Another example would be the blues scale in music, the reason many people are drawn to music using that scale is that is it based on a very organic frequency pattern.

Enough said, I am sure there are others who can comment more knowledgeably, except to say I have often wondered if this pattern could be used in golf architecture.

[Bradley Anderson]

Jeff,

Funny you bring this up. I was out at Illinois Beach State Park today taking photos of wind shaped dunes and natural sand ridges. I'll have them up on the site in the next day or two. They were anything but uniform.

[David Druzisky]

Are you implying that the best Architects are actually just the best mathematicians?   Apparently I need to go back and start with an engineering degree or better yet quantum mathematics if really want to get any better at this.

I call dibs on this angle for a new golf design book?

[Jeff_Brauer]

David,

You can have it.  It won't take much math to figure out sales, will it?

[David Druzisky]

Hey, anything fresh at this point.

[Adam Clayman]

Now I am going to show the truth in a little information being dangerous.

There are endless examples in nature of mathematical patterns, although not necessarily "even".  The pattern leaves emerge from branches and branches from trunks for example.  There is a ratio determined by calculus and signified by the letter "e".  Another example would be the blues scale in music, the reason many people are drawn to music using that scale is that is it based on a very organic frequency pattern.

Enough said, I am sure there are others who can comment more knowledgeably, except to say I have often wondered if this pattern could be used in golf architecture.

 Mandelbrot sets?

[Jason McNamara]

Now I am going to show the truth in a little information being dangerous.

There are endless examples in nature of mathematical patterns, although not necessarily "even".  The pattern leaves emerge from branches and branches from trunks for example.  There is a ratio determined by calculus and signified by the letter "e".  Another example would be the blues scale in music, the reason many people are drawn to music using that scale is that is it based on a very organic frequency pattern.

Enough said, I am sure there are others who can comment more knowledgeably, except to say I have often wondered if this pattern could be used in golf architecture.

Dale, are you referring to phi, the so-called golden ratio?

[Dale Jackson]

Jason, that's it!

[Jason McNamara]

Well that's a bit different from e, Dale!


Jeff, given the scale differences in play, I think the average margin of error on your average landform feature is going to provide all the variety you need.

...unless you're building yet another residential course in Florida, in which case yeah, it's going to be boring.   

[Norbert P]

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090722-earth-ridges.html

. . .  Nature is evenly spaced, not random! . . .  

 When they say "evenly spaced", I don't agree.  The mind struggles to make order out of chaos; often simplifying the complex into the simple, to calm our feelings of ignorance.   Like when the windshield wipers always seem to go to the rhythm of the music on the radio. We put order to things.

Now, there are constants, i.e. gravity, but the miriad of other forces, i.e. wind, rain, solar winds, magnetism, chemical interactions, pressure etc., all swirling and intermingling create, seemingly, some rhythmic order, but that's only because we have to describe it so.  

 Centuries ago Mt. Olympus gave us all the order we needed to feel we understood. Beliefs change.  If we get locked into some mathematical correctness, like golf courses can sometimes emphasize to its own detriment, then I think golf course construction becomes just that, and not a pursuit of art or humanity or reverance for the planet.

The Earth and its processes does not make golf courses.  It merely builds and demolishes features due to tireless and timeless forces.  




P.S.  I don't agree with their critter burrowing theory on soil creep either. They didn't mention anything about liquifaction or chemical dissolution of solids.