A recent study on the 1916 Ponce de Leon/St. Augustine Links determined that the Golf Course was not historically significant. Although the site has been in use for golf for 87 years - it has undergone renovations which have changed the sequence of holes, golf features, etc. although the property site remains intact. These renovations have, according to the study, changed the golf course from its original character - therefore excluding it from consideration as a candidate for historic preservation.
According to this criteria, haven't most "historically significant" golf courses been altered beyond initial recognition? I would think that ANGC, Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, Merion, SFGC and many others fall into this category. In each of these cases original features have been changed, hole sequence revised, holes lost to progress (streets/highways), or "modernized" - although the character of the original place remains...
Made me wonder - as a matter of opinion... What makes a course historic? Is it the character of the features, landforms, bunkers? Is it the property or site? It is the routing and physical configuration of the holes? Is it the cultural significance to the region? Or simply the age of the course..?