Do Cultivated Gardens have a place on Classic Golf Courses?

[PCCraig]

Fairly simple question, do you think "cultivated" gardens have a place on classic golf courses? Can you think of any great golf courses that have gardens (with flowers or other ornamental plantings) on their golfing properties? How about in play?

[David_Tepper]

AGNC?

[Niall C]

Pat

I don't think gardens have a place on any golf course, or at least I find it hard to imagine a situation where they improve the course, either aesthetically or functionally.

Niall

[Jason Topp]

I decided to pass on the flower fight based on some sage advice that if members focus on flowers they are not focusing on screwing up the course.  

Jackie Burke has a good discussion on the issue in his book "It is only a game" in which he describes why they have extensive flowers on the course at Champions.

Try to keep them out of play.    

[J_ Crisham]

Pat,  I look forward to getting back to Sentry World to see the renovation. My hope is the flowers have been removed on the par 3.

[JMEvensky]

I decided to pass on the flower fight based on some sage advice that if members focus on flowers they are not focusing on screwing up the course.  

    

There might not be a better bang for buck than a few nicely tended flower beds.They are perfect distractions for the members who might otherwise decide to opine on the playing part of the golf course.

[Terry Lavin]

No, I don't think they have any place on a classic course, but this is probably not the hill to fight and die on...

[Dan Kelly]

What's the harm, if they are not in play?

They're certainly more pleasing to the senses than much of what you'll see (and accept without question) at any golf course on any day.

[Brent Hutto]

So caravan parks and beach huts are good, flowerbeds are bad?

[Patrick_Mucci]

hat's the harm, if they are not in play?

Cost to maintain and diverting the maintenance focus to non-golf areas

They're certainly more pleasing to the senses than much of what you'll see (and accept without question) at any golf course on any day.

I prefer plain old grass to feminized golf courses with flower beds at every tee, green and cart turn around

[Matthew Rose]

Pat,  I look forward to getting back to Sentry World to see the renovation. My hope is the flowers have been removed on the par 3.

I doubt they would do that. That's the one hole they always take photographs of.

[AJ_Foote]

This is just off the tenth tee at Machrihanish.

Flowers in whisky barrels.

Pointless but strangely pleasing.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Marc Haring]

This is just off the tenth tee at Machrihanish.

Flowers in whisky barrels.

Pointless but strangely pleasing.

Cheers,

Andrew

That picture say's it all. Who died??

[AJ_Foote]

Marc,

Didn't see a dedication, but it was a lovely little scene.

[A.G._Crockett]

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all   
    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

[Tom_Doak]

hat's the harm, if they are not in play?

Cost to maintain and diverting the maintenance focus to non-golf areas

They're certainly more pleasing to the senses than much of what you'll see (and accept without question) at any golf course on any day.

I prefer plain old grass to feminized golf courses with flower beds at every tee, green and cart turn around

I'm not sure which is the bigger issue for some guys, the first answer or the second.  

Patrick:  is Augusta National too "feminized" for you?

The cost of maintaining large areas of gardens IS a drawback.  We don't know what Augusta spends on the surrounding landscape, but it's a good bet they spend more than many courses spend on their golf courses.  Still, to dismiss the possibility would be a mistake.

My problem with 95% of the flower beds I've seen on golf courses is that they are small and distracting -- just another case of visual clutter, the same as with a lot of nursery trees that are planted, or course furniture.

[Niall C]

So caravan parks and beach huts are good, flowerbeds are bad?

Brent

I've yet to see a caravan park or beach hut on a golf course.

Niall

[Brent Hutto]

Brent

I've yet to see a caravan park or beach hut on a golf course.

Niall

No, but I've certainly seen them FROM the course while playing.  And for that matter I've seen a cow peeing on someone's golf ball on a course most folks around here consider commendably charming.

It's a big world. Beauty is where you find it and ugliness can be interpreted as "charm", depending on your frame of mind. I can handle the sight of a few caravans or the odd sheep patty. And I can certain withstand the execrable feminine nature of a bed or azaleas or a pot of flowers next to bench I can sit on while some joker plumb-bobs his third putt up at the green.

[archie_struthers]

 


I used to be staunchly against flowers but have mellowed for some reason. I'm for using color and grasses/ flowers to mask , improve some areas that you can't turf or don't want to irrigate. Lots of natives can flourish with just a little water .

Flowers and grasses are quite nice if not overdone!

[Niall C]

Brent

I've yet to see a caravan park or beach hut on a golf course.

Niall

No, but I've certainly seen them FROM the course while playing.  And for that matter I've seen a cow peeing on someone's golf ball on a course most folks around here consider commendably charming.

It's a big world. Beauty is where you find it and ugliness can be interpreted as "charm", depending on your frame of mind. I can handle the sight of a few caravans or the odd sheep patty. And I can certain withstand the execrable feminine nature of a bed or azaleas or a pot of flowers next to bench I can sit on while some joker plumb-bobs his third putt up at the green.

Brent

You can see a lot of things from the course but what do they matter, that was my point. What matters is what's on the course. Personally not too fond of benches, flower pots or for that matter cows. I recently played a course where my foursomes partner missed the green by 15 yards. Not only did I have to hit over a flower bed to get to the green but also an ornamental tree, ball washer and bench.

As you say each to their own and personally I would just as soon see it stripped back to the bare golf course.

Niall

[Brent Hutto]

I hear ya. For my part I appreciate tastefully done and/or interesting features beyond the "bare course". But I'm cool with bare boned as well (assuming the course itself is of interest!).

[Ed Brzezowski]

I guess no one looking at this thread has ever played Baywood Greens. It's like someone put a golf course in the middle of the Burpee seed factory.

I was told, before playing, his flower budget was one mil, I chuckled and thought it was an overstatement.  It was not.  The course has flowers everywhere, check out their website. Flowers on the tees, around some green surrounds and lining every bridge.

I really found the beauty a bit discracting, but I did freshen up the yard when I got home.

[Tim Gavrich]

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, particularly in the spring, is quite a sight. I think Strantz originally and the maintenance crew currently do a nice job of positioning pretty much all of the ornamental vegetation out of play. The place smells terrific in April, too.

[Patrick_Mucci]

hat's the harm, if they are not in play?

Cost to maintain and diverting the maintenance focus to non-golf areas

They're certainly more pleasing to the senses than much of what you'll see (and accept without question) at any golf course on any day.

I prefer plain old grass to feminized golf courses with flower beds at every tee, green and cart turn around

I'm not sure which is the bigger issue for some guys, the first answer or the second.  

Patrick:  is Augusta National too "feminized" for you?

Tom, if you were just another poster, I'd call you a moron, but, you above all, know better, so I understand your query.

You know that The Masters is "Show Time" an annual production with almost an unlimited budget, orchestrated, produced and focused primarily on/for the TV viewer, at a specifically selected time of year, when the flowers/bushes/shrubs/trees are in full bloom.

You also know that ANGC looks nothing like it does during the Masters telecast, in October, November, December, January, February and early March.

The cost of maintaining large areas of gardens IS a drawback.

In labor and dollars  

We don't know what Augusta spends on the surrounding landscape, but it's a good bet they spend more than many courses spend on their golf courses.  

What ever ANGC spends, they can afford it with an almost unlimited budget.

Still, to dismiss the possibility would be a mistake.

What possibility ?

My problem with 95% of the flower beds I've seen on golf courses is that they are small and distracting -- just another case of visual clutter, the same as with a lot of nursery trees that are planted, or course furniture.

I'm glad that we agree, (I always knew we did ) now you just have to get over your aversion and politically correct reluctance to call the process the "feminization" of golf courses.

Let's never forget that a golf course is a field of play, with the object being for the golfer to get his ball from Point "A" to Point "B" in as few strokes as possible, and that it's your mission to make that task an interesting and enjoyable challenge, without littering the golf course with "feminine" touches.  

[Brent Hutto]

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, particularly in the spring, is quite a sight. I think Strantz originally and the maintenance crew currently do a nice job of positioning pretty much all of the ornamental vegetation out of play. The place smells terrific in April, too.

You girly man.