Understanding how good golf course design principles spread is a rewarding though never ending pursuit. As you learn more about how it emanated from the United Kingdom and became disseminated around the world, what you might have initially thought was a 100 piece puzzle morphs into a 500 piece puzzle that turns into a 1000 pieces, etc. This amplification is many faceted and includes history, social migration and technology.
Certainly, it is easy to understand why golf took root on the eastern seaboard of North America. This was the epicenter of commerce, politics and wealth in the new world and a magnet for immigrants including an army of Scottish golf pros who helped the transition of golf across the pond. As the game developed the flow of people was both ways, the British invasion (Ross, Colt, Alison, Fowler, Park, Findlay, etc.) a coterie of diligent Americans seeking greater knowledge (Macdonald, Tillinghast, Wilson, Crump, Fownes, etc.). However, the Southwest of the United States is yet another 2,000 miles from golf’s birthplace – and no golfer cared about that region in the days prior to irrigation. So, how did the best traditions of the game come to the desert?
Fortuitously, the answer lies with a man born in Westchester County who came of age at the dawn of the Golden Age of Architecture. Red Lawrence was that man and he was tutored by William Flynn during the creation of some of Toomey & Flynn’s finest designs. After spending the first 75 years (!) of his life on the east coast, and becoming a founder of the ASGCA in 1947, Lawrence settled in Arizona in 1958. He built his cornerstone design several years later at Desert Forest.
With a background fortified by the Golden Age design philosophies, this pioneer transferred the best virtues of traditional golf to a remote, seemingly inhospitable part of the country. Walking prevails at Desert Forest as does the understanding that golf at its essence is a ground game sport. Lawrence discovered, carefully preserved and then utilized the undulations of the desert floor for his composition. Holes bend and dogleg around the desert floor exploiting its natural features to create interest and strategy. There isn’t a single artificial fairway bunker and you’ll appreciate why that would be superfluous when you experience the rolls among the ninth, sixteenth and eighteenth fairways.
My favorite attributes of Flynn’s work are everywhere at Desert Forest. The course is well-routed, something that few architects have a talent for. The low profile tees, paucity of dirt moved tee to green, and the push-up greens with broad slopes that make sense with their surrounds smack of Flynn’s influence. Furthermore, the course was built economically without contrivance to hinder one’s enjoyment of the surrounds and rests peacefully upon the (irrigated) landscape. Plus, it plays like a Flynn course in that it doesn’t reveal all its secrets at once. At Desert Forest the driver isn’t automatic because of the beguiling manner in which Lawrence draped the fairways over the land and bent the playing corridors. I love that! Too many modern courses allow the golfer to pound driver after driver. For me that’s a design flaw as it enables the golfer to get in a rhythm. Pete Dye harps about taking the golfer out of his comfort zone and requiring the player to think because then he’s dead. Desert Forest is such a thinking man’s course.
Given that every living human drives it past me these days
, I get killed on a “bombs-away course” and much prefer the likes of Desert Forest where you feel as though you are engaged in a chess match with the architect. In this respect, Desert Forest reminds me of Merion (Flynn’s 1930 opus as opposed to 2013 US Open Merion). Most tees require debate about which club to hit à la Merion and how to execute the challenge. Imprudent or rash tactics can lead to your undoing on any single hole but the thinking man can tack his way gracefully around the course. I have a 13 degree Tour Edge and a 15 degree deep face George Izett that I rotate in and out of my bag. They are PERFECT for Desert Forest as I can miss them straight. Apply such clubs properly and you gain the warm satisfaction of managing your game prudently. The lousy gorilla golfer gets away with any and everything at many courses
these days but not at Desert Forest. The integration of high desert florae into a sophisticated design guarantees that the merits of placement outweigh brute strength.
Do you want to risk a draw around the corner to the left or be content with a 3 wood straight ahead at the 5th? The choice is yours but choose wisely. The canted right to left green is a factor to consider. The term ‘old fashioned’ holds only positive connotations for me. You don’t associate old fashioned in connection with the Southwest (save a saloon or two
) but Desert Forest has an unmistakable venerable charm. Based on photographs I’ve seen and threads within this Discussion Group, there might be ~15 courses in Arizona with grander views, deeper canyons, longer cart paths, greater drama from elevation changes, etc. yet I doubt that a single one has better golf. The Desert Forest members embrace golf as a walking sport and have maintained my favorite approach to golf, which is to say ‘less is more.’ Plenty of clubs in Arizona with their 50,000 square foot clubhouses opt for an opulent ‘more is more’ approach. How pathetic to see that brand
now being exported from America versus the classic forms that were imported to America from the United Kingdom during Lawrence’s formative years.
Fortunately for all, Red Lawrence understood what good golf was about. Growing old at Desert Forest would be a pleasure as a veteran could still make a fine showing against his limber grandkids. My plan was always to retire here in Southern Pines but now I am not so sure. Both the course and the club’s ethos are right up my alley.
Cheers,