IMO Discussion: A Renaissance Movement in Golf Architecture

[Niall C]

How or why was the reaction after WWI any different than WWII? 

The question was asked a number of times why post WWII was different from WWI.

I spent last night talking with my father about London post war. Dad said that prior to the Second World War England still held an enormous amount of assets throughout the world. For example they still owned the railroad system in South American and many assets accumulated throughout the British Empire. He described England as still being a very wealthy country after the first war and prior to the second war.

My father talked about how England had to sell every single asset it had to fight the war. He talked about the fact that England was already out of money by the time the Battle of Britain came around and still needed an enormous amount of resources to fight the war. They sold of every asset they had and then began to borrow at a very steady stream from the US. By the end of the war they had accumulated an enormous debt to the US.

Dad mentioned that England was essentially bankrupt at the end of the war. Rationing took place right up to 1952 because they had trouble getting food and coal. He talked about the coal strike in 1947 and the cold snap in 1946 (Thames ever froze over) as the worst two events he can remember. He said what destroyed the country was all the industry was smashed by the bombing and by the end of the war all the capacity had gone elsewhere. Shipbuilding was in Sweden, the steel mills were in the US. They quite literally lost everything.

The kicker for England was they now had this massive debt to repay and that held the country back for nearly two decades as they floundered under the debt and unions. The US had assumed much of England’s production and was also getting payments that helped spruce the economy. The Americans had the boom in the 1950’s.

Ian,

Hopefully I won't seem churlish if I point out to you that it was Britain and not England who "owned" the British Empire and subsequently took on the debt with America, which by the way was only finally paid off either last year or the year before.

I'm no historian either so can't really comment on the post war years in the UK but I suspect that many other countries took a while to get back on their feet as well. The US would have been better placed than most as I imagine their investment in the war was probably a lot less in percentage terms of GDP compared to others. I could be wrong in that and somehow it also seems wrong to think of something as horrible as war in financial terms but there you go.

Niall

[Ian Andrew]

Niall,

Fixed with appologies.

[Niall C]

Niall,

Fixed with appologies.

None needed. I'm now going to visit my mother to quiz her about what happened after the war. Lucky her !

Niall

[Ian Andrew]

Everyone understands that more is better, and then wants it.  So if you want people to value strategy, measure it.  Then people will demand more of it.

David,

It's not that simple.

For example a breather hole has an enormous positive impact when well placed in a routing.
Yet individually, it may be called the weak hole because people can't understand the bigger picture.

I don't know how to explain this but I'll try...
Strategy does not have to involve a defined test.
I find most people need "something" to define the strategy in order to declare it strategic.
Some of my favourite holes involve strategic play in advance of the real test and most call that an undefined shot.

[David Harshbarger]

Ian,

You make a good point.  One way to handle the breather question is to include a hole quality called "breather" that bumps up the value of a hole with, as I like to think of it, lower density of features.

I'll always agree that a qualitative analysis of a golf course cannot be replaced.  I'll also agree that it is madness to try to fully deconstruct what makes golf and a course great.

What am I suggesting to the folks here is that with tools and technology that are readily available, you could use the power of quantitative comparisons to further the paradigm shift, and move along a counter narrative.

And, of course it might be fun.

Dave