The Social Side of GCA

[Tom Ferrell]

Golf is often cast as the ultimate individual challenge (which indeed it is).  But at its heart, I believe, golf is a social game.  Clearly, the golf club is a social organization, but let's talk social interaction within the context of golf course design.  Here are a few features off the top of my head - that express the inherent social nature of golf...

1.  The "patio" 1st tee/18th green.  See Merion, Riviera, TOC, Troon and others.  You have the opportunity to chat with other members, players about to go off, folks eating lunch, etc.  Plays into the golfer's nerves tightly knits the clubhouse/golf shop to the golf course.   

2.  The "early return" routing concept demonstrated by George Thomas, who tried to bring the third hole near the clubhouse so games could be joined in progress.  Pine Valley returns at the fourth hole.  Again, increases interaction between on-course players and those who have yet to start or who are milling about the clubhouse after finishing.  Lots of opportunities for watching, razzing, exchanging current round information, etc.

3.  Shared tee complexes.  Perhaps the most rare of all the "social" elements of GCA.  I grew up on a course that had two of them.  Cherry Hills has a nice one at #7/#13, although it could be made better, IMO.  The great island shared tee at Maidstone is another.  I loved the opportunity to watch other players, share quick jokes or news or frustration.  Interior designers create common areas in order to allow for "human friction," the happenstance interaction between people.  Lots of great stories as a result.

4.  Shared green/fairway/bunker complexes.  See above, although to a lesser extent, since these features cause players to intersect during the play of a hole.

5.  Figure 8 routings and crossovers.  I LOVE crossovers, where halfway houses/comfort stations/etc. serve players on multiple holes.

6.  Open view corridors.  TOC Old Macdonald didn't require too much effort to open the view corridors, but the ability to see so many games being played is one of the joys of a round at those places.  I can't imagine what NGLA was like with trees bordering many of the holes.  It's great to share a moment - even from far away - with friends on the course.

The idea of "never seeing another group on the course," somehow transmogrified into a marketing plus.  Not for this golfer!

How else to do architects create "human friction" while also adding interest and challenge to the round?     

[Ally Mcintosh]

Good post.

I hadn't actually thought about the early return to the clubhouse in that context before. It also works for matchplay ties that go in to extra time. I lost a match last month in failing light on the 22nd hole and had over a mile to walk back to the clubhouse.

I'm a big fan of patio tees and patio greens although the latter are less easy to find these days for safety reasons. Woking 14th is my favourite of all.

Shared tee complexes I like in principle but they can have a small effect on speed of play. Shared greens I like less unless I'm in St.Andrews.

I don't mind crossovers as long as they are absolutely clear and not confusing. I certainly don't subscribe to the being alone on the course view. I love seeing a few golfers dotted around the landscape and like giving glimpses of other holes from different locations.

Ally

[JMEvensky]

I've never understood why every club doesn't have some kind of patio/grill room overlooking either the 1st tee or 18th green.

Purely small sample size anecdotal,but each club I've ever been at where players on the 18th green could interact with members spectating from the clubhouse,seems to have a great golf culture.

[Tom Ferrell]

This is exactly my point.  Great golf cultures do not come about through hundreds of people individually enjoying the game of golf  They come about through people SHARING the game of golf.  At the old goat track where I grew up - Okefenokee CC in Waycross, GA (not the nice Joe Lee course we built and moved into in 1978, but the OLD one), the golf culture was off-the-charts good.  The course even played around the pool, so dads could wave at kids and wives.  The shared tee complexes were the scene of many an impromptu wager.  Word of exploits and scandals traveled across the course at lightning speed.  We were all in it together.  All the time.

Part of that was due, of course, to a small and awkward piece of land for the course, but there's something in the notion - for me at least - that it's our shared experience of the game that brings out its best.

[David Cronheim]

You're comment on the figure 8 routing is a good one. For one, I very much like courses where there is a "halfway" house that is passed more than once in a round. Onwentsia and Shoreacres near Chicago are prime examples. 9 and 18 both return to the clubhouse, but the "halfway house" is in the middle of the course and you pass it twice. From a club revenue perspective, it really must help sales to have players pass it twice.

[Tim Gavrich]

Tom--

Amen a thousand times. I think the social aspect of golf is SO overlooked, time and again.

I've never quite understood why so many golfers love courses where "it feels like your group is the only one on the course." Kind of an insular perspective, if you ask me.

I caddied all last summer at Hartford Golf Club, where the whole vibe is pretty much spot-on. When you're playing the original 18, you pass by the snack bar between 2 green and 3 tee, between 6 green and 7 tee and between 13 green and 14 tee. Perfect.  When you Tee off the 1st, you're squarely in view of players on the putting green and folks eating lunch on the patio. The practice area, clubhouse, putting green and first tee are all in nice proximity to one another. Getting called up from the caddie yard at around 8:30 on a Saturday morning, I'd walk into a chumly, bustling scene--pros, caddies and golfers. With almost no exceptions, the round would take no more than 4 hours and 5 minutes for a foursome. I'd return and there'd still be a great sense of energy throughout the place.

Is arriving at a (your) course and having the whole joint to yourself really better? I had just that experience when I played Robert Trent Jones GC a year-plus ago and it was really, really cool, of course. But I think I'd rather walk into a more busy scene supported by a well-oiled system.

That said, he idea of super-exclusive clubs like your Cherokee Plantations, your Carnegie Abbeys and your Morefars really intrigues me. But for an everyday (or every-weekend) atmosphere, give me some life.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom,

The combination of "socializing" and "competition" is what helps make golf such a great game.

Not to mention commiserating

[Tom Ferrell]

Tom,

The combination of "socializing" and "competition" is what helps make golf such a great game.

Not to mention commiserating

With a bit of communing and commentary thrown in!

[Mac Plumart]

Tom...kudos...great topic.

I love the way clubs like The Golf Club do their routing where you can see the other groups...chat at a few spots...but you aren't interfered with as you play.

I love the way many of the Destination Clubs have spots to hang out and interact with other members.  Firepit at Dismal.  Ben's Porch at Sand Hills.  The bar area at Ballyneal.  Back Porch at Kingsley.

And also when clubs have a spot where a group of "hecklers" can be tease players finishing on 18.  Jack's Shack at Dismal.  The "Stadium Seating" at Kingsley.  The finish at The Old Course is like this...as it the finish at Kiawah Ocean.

[Garland Bayley]

No wonder golf takes so long. All you guys want to do is chit chat. What a bunch of old ladies! Save the chit chat for the 19th hole.

[Chris_Hufnagel]

I think this is a very cool topic...

I actually really like how Kingsley tugs at both sides of this...the intimacy of the front nine and the intersections between holes make it very unique and I love watching other groups make their way across the course.  The opposite is then presented on the back with great spaces tucked into the corners of the property - #12 and #14 green most specifically - at times it feels like you are the only people on the property.

I think the rock wall next to #14 green in late September is one of my favorite places in golf...

[Mark Smolens]

My first visit to Medinah #3 came through a purchase of a threesome at an auction. The member, who rarely plays (our visit was in June and this was his first time out for the season), wanted to ride so we did. I brought my buddy John whose game is not nearly as good as his ability to consume beer. John loved the fact that we came across the halfway house multiple times during our round (he got two beers the first time, but chilled and only got one on the next couple of visits).

[Patrick_Mucci]

No wonder golf takes so long. All you guys want to do is chit chat. What a bunch of old ladies! Save the chit chat for the 19th hole.

Garland,

Banter is so much better served during the heat of competition, not in a stupor when reminiscing

[Garland Bayley]

No wonder golf takes so long. All you guys want to do is chit chat. What a bunch of old ladies! Save the chit chat for the 19th hole.

Garland,

Banter is so much better served during the heat of competition, not in a stupor when reminiscing

Patrick,

You don't have different definitions of chit chat and banter?

[Patrick_Mucci]

No wonder golf takes so long. All you guys want to do is chit chat. What a bunch of old ladies! Save the chit chat for the 19th hole.

Garland,

Banter is so much better served during the heat of competition, not in a stupor when reminiscing

Patrick,

You don't have different definitions of chit chat and banter?

Yes, I do.

"Chit Chat" is general conversation, small talk.

Banter is personalized jabs and repartee, verbal jousting.

Telling someone who has a four foot putt to win the hole from you, that it may be the most important putt of their life, or telling someone, just a few paces off the green to try to get it on the green are examples of banter.

Tough to do that in the 19th hole after the match is over.

[Garland Bayley]

No wonder golf takes so long. All you guys want to do is chit chat. What a bunch of old ladies! Save the chit chat for the 19th hole.

Garland,

Banter is so much better served during the heat of competition, not in a stupor when reminiscing

Patrick,

You don't have different definitions of chit chat and banter?

Yes, I do.

"Chit Chat" is general conversation, small talk.

Banter is personalized jabs and repartee, verbal jousting.

Telling someone who has a four foot putt to win the hole from you, that it may be the most important putt of their life, or telling someone, just a few paces off the green to try to get it on the green are examples of banter.

Tough to do that in the 19th hole after the match is over.

So you admit your post makes no sense since I called for chit chat at the 19th hole. Also notice these guys want routings to cross so they can chit chat with other groups when they meet at the crossings.

It doesn't take extra time to tell someone that looks like a slippery downhill putt (banter). It takes time when he leaves it well short, runs the next one well by trying to avoid the first mistake, misses the comebacker, and holes out in four putts.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Palmetto has an area that is a convention of tees, greens, and benches. A greensward nearly big enough to hold a steeplechase. Great topic!

Tom, I will add another point in support of your argument that the need to socialize is fundamental to the golfing species: socializing is very difficult in a links under usual conditions, no matter shared anything. The wind can make socializing just within your group a struggle. I think this "antisocial" aspect of the wind goes unremarked and yet is one of the genuine tests presented by links golf.

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,

In the past I have oft-times been amused by the "chit-chat" that goes on whilst the great unwashed masses, often non-golfers, hang around the corner of The Links road and the back of the 18th. green at The Old Course.

People engage one another very quickly and are completely at ease ….they've never clapped eyes on the other voyeurs and likely will never clap eyes on them again. They will forecast outcomes, critique the the subsequent play and applaud, or commiserate with, the golfer as  he struggles out of The Valley of Sin. And the golfer happily partakes in this communion!

Admittedly the golf course architecture of TOC does not extend quite to this paved corner but the social asides certainly do!

Cheers Colin

[Patrick_Mucci]

Garland,

I read your post differently, as if you weren't in favor of any communication amongst golfers.

I agree that chatting with other groups, other then brief exchanges, is not something to be encouraged