I am always amused at the muted criticism and politeness contained in threads about butchered UK courses.
It is no wonder that so little architecture work of note has been perfromed in the UK in the last 30 years when mediocrity and awefullness is not called out for what it is.
David - as it's not online as far as I can see, I attach below my piece from Golf World last year, after the first round of changes....
Adam
Why Wentworth has got it wrong
by Adam Lawrence
Wentworth’s West course is Britain’s Augusta. The Burma Road may not have the exclusivity of the legendary Georgia venue, as anyone prepared to stump up the £285 green fee can play the course, nor has it hosted a Major championship for the last eighty years. But to UK golfers no course is so familiar. For the last quarter century, it has appeared on our screens twice each year, in spring for the PGA Championship, and in autumn for the World Matchplay.
Thus Wentworth’s influence is immense. It may not be the best course in Britain, but away from the links, it is surely the most prestigious.
Which is why the changes to the West are so disastrous. It is understandable that clubs whose fame and prestige is built on big tournaments should want to maintain the challenge of their courses – and remember the West got its ‘Burma Road’ nickname because of its fearsome length and difficulty – but the tremendous advances of club and ball technology really have made professional golf a different game in the last ten years. Amateurs have not benefitted from technology anywhere near so much, which is why average handicaps are roughly the same now as they have always been. How many of Wentworth’s members, Ross Fisher apart, are going to be able to hit the new eighteenth green in two? How many will find themselves taking several attempts to escape from the newly deepened bunkers around the second hole? And where is the fun in that?
Like it or not, the example set by these most high profile of courses does have an impact on golf in general. When Wentworth adds length, bunkers, water and trees, it validates other clubs doing the same to their courses. Tougher courses with more hazards take longer to play and cost more to maintain. At a time when golf is struggling to retain existing players and attract new ones, why on earth would we want to make the game more difficult, more time-consuming and more expensive?
Harry Colt, Wentworth’s original architect, may just be the greatest and most influential designer of golf courses in the game’s history. It is a shame to see his work being ripped up in this way, and gruesome to hear those who are doing it claim the changes are in the spirit of his original design. They are not. The golden age architects such as Colt, Herbert Fowler and Tom Simpson who turned the Surrey and Berkshire heathlands into the world’s first great inland golf region, built courses that were challenging to the top players of their day while still providing a fun day out for the less talented. They used natural features of the land, and they made their courses blend into the landscape, rather than artificially imposing golf on the environment. With golf under pressure to be a better steward of the land and to use less water and chemicals, this is a legacy that should be embraced, not spurned. Who now would know the West was a heathland course? Still, there is one solution for those who dislike these alterations. When you visit Wentworth, play the East course.
Adam Lawrence is editor of Golf Course Architecture (
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net)
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