Why don't they make dramatic features like this anymore ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

You see these dramatic features on the "Golden Age" courses, but, they seem to have disappeared in modern (post 1960) golf course architecture.

WHY ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

[JESII]

For that one in particular...because it does too much to the bad golfer and not enough to the good golfer.

[Jason Topp]

This looks like one of the artificial steeplechase features that golden age architects sought to eliminate. 

[Wade Whitehead]

Because now they'd be called "manufactured."

WW

[Dan Grossman]

Pat -

Aren't those features considered to be "Cops"?  Until recently, I had always struggled with why those features would be built on early golf courses.  However, when I was flipping through a club history on Royal Lytham and St. Annes, they had an early routing of the club from 1889 that shed some light on this.  For this course, they had leased some land from various farmers in the area (who ultimately took the land back and the course relocated to its current site in 1897).  There were a number of lines on the routing map, indicating the various farmers' parcels.  Under the routing was the following note:

"The lines show boundaries of the farmers' fields.  These were the 'Cops' (turf dykes) standing 6 feet high.  Stiles were built over them and as time went on openings were cut through them."

I think these features were designed to keep sheep on each farmers' land.  In Lytham's case, the turf dykes were played over, rather than being removed, especially since the club didn't have a long-term lease on the land.  I suspect this could have been the case in other places, as well.

[Jaeger Kovich]

WHY ?

Because you would have too many threads on whether Seaview Bay is a 4 or a 5!

[Matthew Rose]

Difficult to maintain properly?

[Troy Alderson]

Because golfers would want them cut to fairway height, which would require hand labor, specifically a fly-mo or string trimmer.  GCA should be about long term sustainability and low cost maintenance to keep the business going.

[Adam Clayman]

Nobody suspects "The Fairness Doctrine"

[Patrick_Mucci]

Because golfers would want them cut to fairway height, which would require hand labor, specifically a fly-mo or string trimmer.  GCA should be about long term sustainability and low cost maintenance to keep the business going.

Troy, if architects designed what golfers wanted, GCA would be dumbed down the lowest possible levels.

That feature is just fine being maintained as rough, and, it's not expensive to do.

[JC Jones]

Because the golden age guys were operating in the dark.

[Bradley Anderson]

Patrick,

We reached a point where you could mow every square inch of a golf course from the seat of a triplex or a tractor, and these features just looked shaggy and out of place. So they were removed.

They still have these features at Walton Heath.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Patrick,

I agree and when I design such things I try to get them steep enough to where they won't try to mow them, and plant them in fescue, buffalo, etc.  I have had more than one project where I came back the first year and they had softened them down in the name of mowing.

Personally, I like them and they set up the fw mowing cut, plus are a better hazard out in front of the green than sand bunkers......Of course, some would think the originals were placed to double as war embankments back in the days of the potato famines.  I did a few of those on old civil war sites near Atlanta, and tried my damnedest to sell that story.

[RSLivingston_III]

These are gutty era features, not golden age (which I have always understood to be the teens and twenties, with some overlap into the auts and thirties). They were used to create challenges for the accomplished player. The lesser player could always play around them.
The reason they don't do it today? The structures would need to be considerably larger and would ultimately be 'unfair'.

I am curious where the bunker is. it appears they are walking between these berms to get to a tee.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Patrick,

I agree and when I design such things I try to get them steep enough to where they won't try to mow them, and plant them in fescue, buffalo, etc.  I have had more than one project where I came back the first year and they had softened them down in the name of mowing.

Personally, I like them and they set up the fw mowing cut, plus are a better hazard out in front of the green than sand bunkers......Of course, some would think the originals were placed to double as war embankments back in the days of the potato famines.  I did a few of those on old civil war sites near Atlanta, and tried my damnedest to sell that story.

Jeff,

Do you find that you can create very visual features that can intimidate the golfer, that really don't come into play that much.

These would seem ideal for that purpose, possibly depriving the golfer of an unobstructed view of his target.

[Pete Lavallee]

A very serious question: how did they mow those berms back in 1902? Did they use a sythe, or had fly mowing been invented by then?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Patrick,

I'm not that deep. I saw them at places like Wentworth, Indianwood in Michigan, Myopia, and Walton Heath and liked their look, probably because they are so "non standard" now.

I usually leave them just below eye level. They work as mowing cues and top shot hazards quite nicely.  The reduce sand bunker cost and serve the same purposes. 

When removed or mowed, its because someone else thinks golfers should either be able to roll up on the green with any kind of shot, or that they are too difficult to mow.

[Ed Oden]

#15 at Country Club of Charleston...







I believe this berm was part of Raynor's original design, had been lost over the years, and was recently restored by Brian Silva.

[Jeff_Brauer]

And that is just how they should look!  Perhaps with a little thinner turf in deference to speed of play, etc.

If we can, we space the sprinklers out a little in that area, because fescues in particular get a bit too gnarly when given too much irrigation. 

Those babies could be sold as civil war relic landforms, given the location.

[Sean_A]

Jeff

Can you post some pix of your cops?

Ciao