Architecture and The Rules of Golf - origins

[Wayne_Kozun]

Wonderful thread - it helps to understand the rules better when you realize that they have a Calvinist philosophy where we are all cursed to eternal damnation.

[BCrosby]

Wayne -


Well said.


Bob

[BCrosby]

Bob
 
Good stuff. It’s kind of ironic in that quite a few of the traditionalists within the R&A were English themselves.
 
Wasn’t the issue that there was some (presumably mostly outside the R&A) who were advocating the setting up of golf unions as in the English Union and the Scottish Union etc, in much the same way that football and rugby had done, with the rules determined by the Unions ? I recall reading some of that debate in the contemporary mags but can’t recall who was on what side.
 
Niall

There was lots of talk about golf unions. The trouble was that a number of clubs protested when they weren't allowed representatives. At the end of the day, and out of frustration with the chaos, in 1897 the R&A simply decreed that they and they alone would take on drafting and adjudicating the rules. The person arguing most vehemently for that coup de main was a 25 year old John Low.

Low was appointed to the first committee and served on it for almost 30 years, 8 of them as chairman. He brought his, as Wayne astutely notes above, Calvinist world view.

Bob 

[Neil Regan]

... since the "fairway" is STILL NOT in the Rules.

"Fairway", the word and concept, does have a foothold in the rules.
It is mentioned in the rule below, and in a couple of other places in the same way.


25-2. Embedded Ball
   ....Note 2:  “Closely-mown area” means any area of the  course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less

[Ed Brzezowski]

And so it follows that the rules never really affect architecture.....at least, I can rarely recall even a discussion of the rules in the 40 years of designing and redesigning courses.  Occasionally, some pro would lament whether to mark a water hazard as lateral or not, but I never really cared.

Jeff:


The one Rule that's had an effect on my designs is the drop rule regarding a water hazard.  I don't like having greens right up on the water, as Mr. Dye often does, because if you play a ball off the green [or from the fairway, running through the green] into the water, dropping on the green as a remedy just gives me the creeps.


In general though, I try to keep opportunities for penalty strokes away from golfers on my courses as much as I can.  I'd rather give them places to pile up a big score without a penalty.

They did on Monday at Stonewall, some not so nice things were said about you Tom.

[Tom_Doak]

In general though, I try to keep opportunities for penalty strokes away from golfers on my courses as much as I can.  I'd rather give them places to pile up a big score without a penalty.

They did on Monday at Stonewall, some not so nice things were said about you Tom.

That's too bad.  I don't get why people take it personally, or make it personal.


FWIW, I heard from someone at the club who seemed very happy with the results:  if I recall correctly, it took an even-par score over 36 holes to get one of the 4-5 qualifying spots for the U.S. Am.

[Paul Jones]

THE FIRST SET OF RULES OF GOLF
Articles & Laws in Playing at Golf.

1. You must Tee your Ball within a Club's length of the Hole.
2. Your Tee must be upon the Ground.
3. You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the Tee.
4. You are not to remove Stones, Bones or any Break Club, for the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green and that only / within a Club's length of your Ball.
5. If your Ball comes among watter, or any wattery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball & bringing it behind the hazard and Teeing it, you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.
6. If your Balls be found any where touching one another, You are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.
7. At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and not to play upon your Adversary's Ball, not lying in your way to the Hole.
8. If you should lose your Ball, by it's being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the Spot, where you struck last, & drop another Ball, And allow your adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.
9. No man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed, to mark his way to the Hole with his Club, or anything else.
10. If a Ball be stopp'd by any Person, Horse, Dog or anything else, The Ball so stop'd must be play'd where it lyes.
11. If you draw your Club in Order to Strike, & proceed so far in the Stroke as to be e Accounted a Stroke.
12. He whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.
13. Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the preservation of the Links, nor the Scholar's Holes, or the Soldier's Lines, Shall be accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out teed /and play'd with any Iron Club.

John Rattray, Capt