Come on, given big enough of a property, I can go and find 18 great tee sites and 18 great green sites. If I could do it, there is very little chance it really requires any special skill.
Cheers,
Dan King
If some hole does not possess striking individuality through some gift of nature, it must be given as much as possible artificially, and the artifice must be introduced in so subtle a manner as to make it seem natural.
--A.W. Tillinghast
(Or you can just pour concrete over it.)
Dan,
If you got a big enough property to find 18 good tee and green sites, how long would the walks be between holes?
I agree with you that, given a big enough property, THAT aspect (and it is only ONE aspect) of routing shouldn't be too hard, and that you could do it. I could, too, given a big enough property. Like Nebraska, let's say.
But that brings up several problems. GCA's don't get unlimited property to find those 18 tee and greens sites, and the land they ARE getting as we move into the 21st century is more and more marginal as walkable golf courses.
I want them to keep building golf courses on that marginal land, and I'm willing to ride a cart to play 'em. Some of those courses will be a blast to play, and my life will be enriched by playing golf, even on the ones that aren't "great". I'll walk when I can, and ride when I have to, and love playing our great game either way. Hell, I'm 57 and I still dream about playing golf, and still get butterflies thinking about the Sat. a.m. points game at my club for $20! I play in the rain, I play in the heat, I play in the cold, and I once played the last 16 holes of a round with blood flowing constantly after a ball hit me in the head and took off the top part of my right ear! I finished the round, and THEN went to the ER because I couldn't bear to stop. (BTW, that round was played in a cart, which was fortunate because I was too dizzy to walk far after I got hit.)
I realize that others here do not share those views, and you are entitled to those opinions.
And with that, I'm done on this thread, I think.