Is there such a thing as features which are too bold?

[Bart Bradley]

Today's theory:

Bold features make for fun shots.

Supporting logic:

Raynor courses are fun to play.  The features on Raynor courses are bold.  Therefore,  bold features are fun to play.

Discuss.

Bart

[Tom_Doak]

Bart:

The corollary to that is that bold features are more expensive to maintain.  So there's got to be a balance.

[Ed Oden]

Bart, I agree on Raynor.  Its interesting that his boldest features are so clearly man-made.  Yet they still work.  Is that a credit strictly to brashness or his ability to imbed those features with solid design principles?  I am inclined to say its the latter.  It seems to me he was incredibly adept at making his boldest features among the most strategic elements of a course.  I doubt boldness merely for the sake of being bold would work anywhere near as well.

Ed

[Matthew Hunt]

Raynor's bunker's are not that easy on the eye, but prhaps they were never intended to be.

[Eric Smith]

I wouldn't be upset to see bold used like this when I reached the tee.

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike Young would both be thrilled and surprised to see himself mentioned on this thread, but after going through the first few posts I immediately thought of his 17th hole at Long Shadow. (I don't have a photo) A wonderful long par-3 with a 10,000+ sq. ft. punchbowl green guarded in front by a bunker that looks like it was created by a meteor strike... It is a fantastic hole and "bold" as a description of its features simply doesn't seem enough...

[Carl Rogers]

Contrast the Royal St. George's pic with the typical Trump waterfall for a moment (but only a moment!).

Doesn't the supporting cast of of forms create a plausible rationale for the big gesture? 

[John Mayhugh]

I agree that boldness just for the sake of doing it doesn't work.  But combined with good design, I think it increases the thrill of playing the course.  Bold hazards, for example, work well because it's pretty tough to ignore them.

Philip,
Certainly a memorable hole.

[Phil_the_Author]

John,

Thanks for posting the photo!

[Wade Whitehead]

Mike Strantz understood Bart's premise as well as any modern designer.

WW