[Grant Saunders]

Allow me to indulge a little thinking out loud for a bit.

I had a conversation earlier this year with a taxi driver who had no knowledge of the game of golf at all. He had never played the game, had no understanding of the basic goals or requirements and had virtually never had any exposure to the game.

He asked me to explain the game to him and I gave him a rundown of the basics such as using a specifically designed set of clubs to get a ball in a hole in the distance (which is in essence the purpose of the game) in the least number of shots possible. I went on to describe golf courses as grass areas prepared especially for playing the game on with different lengths of grass and obstacles such as water and bunkers.

He found this most interesting and assured me he would one day investigate further and hopefully visit a driving range to try it for himself.

This leads me to ask the question: What would a golf course look like if you asked someone with no knowledge of the courses its currently played on to design one?

If you gave someone the brief to create an area in which to hit a small white ball into a 4 inch diameter cup anything up to 600 metres away, what would they come up with?

Would they choose to play upon grass? What type of challenges would they utilise? How many approximate shots would it take to get the ball into the hole?

For me, I like to imagine what it would be like to hit a ball around in an urban landscape such as a city centre. There is nothing quite like concrete for bouncing a ball off and twists and turns down streets and around corners would be fun to navigate. Obviously the area would be devoid of pedestrians and cars at the time.

To get to the serious point of this, are preconceived ideas and expectations limiting the creative process and preventing truly new and exciting ways of doing things? If you ask someone to design a hole/course and that person has only ever experienced the game with defined sets of tees, a fairway some bunkers and a green, aren’t they likely to produce something that fits that same formula as that is their sole reference? Tell someone who has never played the game to go place a hole in the ground in a position that will challenge and entertain you as you try to get the ball in the hole and I feel the result would be extremely different.

[Scott Sander]

That'd be fascinating!

There is at least one 'problem' with the proposition - and that's the virgin architect's lack of understanding about the possibilities and perils of balls well- or poorly- struck.

In the flawless analogy   that immediately came to mind:  my family has a toy version of a frisbee golf target.  When we play, the kids (3 and 8 ) get to 'set the pins'.
  The 3-year-old cannot throw more than, say, 5 feet - and always crooked.  She invariably cuts the hole 15 feet away and in the flattest, most wide-open spot possible.
  The 8-year-old can throw quite a bit better, and he happens to be an avid player of 'real' golf.  He always finds the most awkward, unusual, and often distant location on which to place the basket (a dry creek bed, behind a basketball goal support, inside the bed of my pickup, etc.).

I chalk it up to understanding the physics + a degree of proficiency + desire for challenge = a "better" course.

That said, it's interesting to me that the 8-year-old, who knows all about the game and my infatuation with the way courses are built -never- tries to 'build' a hole.  He never moves anything, though he absolutely could - our field of play has everything from a baseball toss-back to some logs, chairs, and a wheelbarrow.  He never touches any of it; he just finds an existing feature and sticks the basket next to, behind, or underneath it.

Not sure what that last means, but I suspect it's useful in this, again, rock-solid, unassailable cab-drivers-to-toddlers analogy.
 

[jeffwarne]

Yes but can they sell houses

[Grant Saunders]

In the flawless analogy   that immediately came to mind:  my family has a toy version of a frisbee golf target.  When we play, the kids (3 and 8 ) get to 'set the pins'.
  The 3-year-old cannot throw more than, say, 5 feet - and always crooked.  She invariably cuts the hole 15 feet away and in the flattest, most wide-open spot possible.
  The 8-year-old can throw quite a bit better, and he happens to be an avid player of 'real' golf.  He always finds the most awkward, unusual, and often distant location on which to place the basket (a dry creek bed, behind a basketball goal support, inside the bed of my pickup, etc.).

 

Scott

Its funny you use frisbee golf as a comparison as it is also something I was thinking about when trying to get this idea on to paper. I used to live in Queenstown which has an excellent frisbee golf course with a mix of proper chain link targets, wooden poles in the ground or tree trunks with lines painted on them. A number of holes at the tee designate you must pass either between 2 certain trees or that you must go around an obstacle in a particular direction. It is heaps of fun and enjoyed by all from serious players to complete novices.

The closest example I can think of with the current game of golf is when you play skins with one club. Choose a random spot to begin and a target (not necessarily a green), set the guidelines such as your ball must hit the rubbish bin over there, and off you go. Its interesting to try this with people who arent accustomed to playing anything but the generally accepted version of golf. These people often struggle to be very creative and usually resort to picking something that closely resembles a standard golf hole. Their exposure and preconceptions have formed ideals in their mind that are very hard to step away from.

On a larger scale, it is fun to reduce a course to 9 holes by playing it first tee to second green, third tee to fourth green etc. You can end up with some enormous length holes and some instances of short distances with all manner of trees and obstacles in the way.

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