Most Important Golf Courses

[Carl Rogers]

Is this most Important or most Self-Important ?   

I guess it depends on how you define important.  Important to the history of golf?  Important to the history of golf architecture?  Important to golf today?

Important in that it created a shift in attitude or options or thinking...
Harbortown?

[Norbert P]

. . . Was the town or area sort of depressed by chance when that kind of massive golf related emigration occured? . . .

  Of course they were depressed, they're Scottish!

Tom, I'd have to re-research that but I have to go due to the holiday cheer thing.  I will make an uneducated assumption, though.   With the opportunities of the expansion of golf elsewhere it created some sort of "Gold Rush" within the various occupations that golf gives, e.g. greenkeepers, teaching, clubmaking/sales, club dynamics, barley still construction, and, of course, golf course design, etc.  I can imagine they had a ceiling of how far one could be promoted within the confines of Angus; and once a "gold fever" became the main topic over a few pints, a mass exodus seems to have swept through the ranks.

[TEPaul]

"Of course they were depressed, they're Scottish!"


Hold on here, Slag. Do you mean emotionally depressed or economically depressed? We're talking about the Scots here, you know, not the Jews. Frankly, I have never been able to figure out how the Scots could ever be economically depressed since apparently they invented just about everything that ever was invented so I can't imagine why they wouldn't be about the richest race in history. But maybe even though they invented just about everyone noone ever told them about good lawyers and accountants.

[Adam Clayman]

While I know little about it, Lido seems to offer us a glimpse of a reality that may have affected future architecture. Because, you could engineer and build a great course, and because of timing or just poor fortune, end up with nothing.

[Cory Brown]

Adam,

I was wondering if anyone was going to mention Lido.  I was thinking about it for the reasons you stated.  It must certainly be the most well know NLE course.  Another impossible to answer question would be, what would Lido's place in history be if it hadn't closed?  Obviously no one can answer that one, but it is interesting to think about what type of club it would be, and what sorts of changes would have been made to it.

[TEPaul]

Macdonald mentioned himself that while at first refusing to do a golf course for The Lido principles, they convinced him to do it when they told him he could have a completely blank canvas with which to simply "make" anything he wanted to make including some holes he said he wanted to do but had not found the right type of land or opportunity.

The Lido was a club and a private one but it was also planned by the same principles that it would be attached to a really first class hotel. The latter appears to be the beginning of its slow demise.

[Colin Macqueen]

Slag,

I concur!   I'm a Carnoustie boy!!!   We used to live in the very last house on The Esplanade. A white, double-storied home with wee bay windows. It stands there to this day. I tell everybody who will listen to me how my Mum, in that bay window, had me on her knee watching Ben Hogan putt out on the 18th as he won The Open in '53.

Yes Carnoustie's greatest export after carrots I suspect.

Cheers Colin

[Norbert P]

Yes Carnoustie's greatest export after carrots I suspect.

Cheers Colin

? ? ?

Colin, interesting that you mention the carrot. (?)
In a pub in Cullen I spoke with a local resident who proclaimed that "a Scotsman virtually invented the apple."  . . . "Really?"  . . .  
"Yes, John Macintosh, or Johnny Appleseed*".    Hmmm, embellishment? revisionism? What the Hell. As long as y'all keep making and exporting your truly greatest invention, Scotch whisky, I'm a stalwart supporter to the idea of Scottish supremecy in the invention category.

  Then there's the tale of the two Scots who invented copper wire while tugging on the disputed ownership of a penny.

(* Johnny Appleseed's real name was John Chapman)

  A brief (yet extensive) history of the carrot . . .    http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html


Other honorable mentionables for Important Golf Courses . . .

   Ratho Links, Tasmania
   Old Musselburgh Links
   Sand Hills, Nebraska
   Lahinch, Ireland

[Tony_Chapman]

I figured that Sand Hills would get mentioned in this thread and it probably should. However, when we speak of importance, I often would love to ask Dick Youngscap if it would have ever been thought of had Pete Dye not knocked one out of the park at Firethorn in Lincoln. I'd almost consider Firethorn more important than SH, not that it's better.

I often wonder the same thing about Bandon Dunes. I've never played there, but most would say Pacific is "better" (whatever that means). But, would Pacific even exist if David McLay-Kidd didn't build something worthwhile in the first effort there?

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Cory Brown -

There have been past discussions on this site about which are some of the most significant courses in the history of GCA, such as which courses marked a new trend or era in golf course design.

DT

Here's a link to the Groundbreaking Courses topic Mac started a while ago,

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,42260.0.html

[Tom MacWood]

When looking at the most important golf courses it might be best to do it by era. I would agree TOC has been among the most important golf courses for probably the longest period but I'm not sure it is among the most important today. Modern golfers have rendered some of its strategic interest obsolete.

[Tom MacWood]

Without putting a hell of a lot of thought into it:

1890s: TOC, Musselburgh, Prestwick, Hoylake, Sandwich, Myopia, Rye
1900s: TOC, Hoylake, Sunningdale, Walton Heath, Woking, Princes, NGLA, Garden City, Myopia
1910s: TOC, Hoylake, Sandwich, NGLA, PVGC, Lido
1920s: TOC, Hoylake, Muirfield, NGLA, PVGC, PBGL, CPC, Royal Melbourne, Hirono,
1930s:
1940s:

I know I'm missing some important ones, courses on the continent and Canada are missing. I also think I don't have enough courses in some eras. Some eras are richer with more important courses than some others. Its a start.

[Mac Plumart]

Tom M...

I like what you are doing there.

Would Bethpage be one of the most important in the 30's?  Prairie Dunes?