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Tim Lewis

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Adventurous Golf
« on: January 13, 2015, 07:39:58 PM »
From Wethered and Simpson's The Architectural Side of Golf:

"North Berwick, the oldest, bears the distinction that only age and careful development can ensure. And possibly the fact that courses were frequently played backwards-a custom that had much to commend it and might be revived with entertaining results-was responsible for a certain unexpectedness in the lie of the holes which the necessary concentration over a small area of ground may have helped to accentuate."

In reading this quote, I began to ponder exactly what qualities draw me to a golf course, and golf in general. To me, golf’s ultimate redeeming quality, and the sign of a truly wonderful and inspirational course, is a deep connection with nature and the encapsulated environment. The closer this connection to the landscape is, the better and more enticing the golfing experience. In many ways, golf allows one to experience nature in a unique way, as he is forced to encounter and overcome the natural features of the environment all the way down to the subtlest of ground movement. In my opinion, a deep connection to the natural landscape cannot be overemphasized, and is absolutely necessary for a golf course to reach its fullest potential.

When I was a young kid, and had just taken up the sport of golf, I used to spend much of my free time with a wiffle practice ball and a club, hitting various shots around my back yard and house. Eventually, I began to make holes, hitting my way from tree to tree, keeping track of my strokes. I would play my way all the way around the block, making up the holes as I went (eventually standardizing a routing). These are some of my fondest childhood memories, and only a few golf courses since have made me feel a similar way (one being North Berwick). In retrospect, I believe that in these early neighborhood golfing days I was tapping in to the “adventurous roots of the game.”

If I were ever to design and build a golf course, this would be my goal, to embrace the adventurous roots of the game. The question though, is how? How would one go about trying to instill the spirit of adventure that I had felt by spontaneously picking up a golf club and playing through the streets and fields of my neighborhood? How to replicate what the pioneers of golf had felt as they began exploring and playing the game in ancient dunes land?  In many ways, I think the answer to this question lies in what Wethered and Simpson alluded to in the above quote, specifically “the distinction that only age and careful development can ensure,” and “unexpectedness in the lie of the holes.” As I see it, if we want to experience the full potential of golf and golf course architecture, we need to rid of the homogenous watered down version of golf that is most prevalent today. We need to return to when golf was an adventure, played from one point to the next; experiencing whatever challenges the landscape throws at you. Personally, I envision highly fluid golf courses and routings that highlight the peculiarities of a landscape. Even so, I don’t know if it is possible to mimic the careful development and evolution of some of the earlier courses, which I believe harbor this adventurous quality (i.e. TOC and North Berwick). So then, the question I would like to discuss is whether or not it is possible to return golf to its adventurous roots, and if so how?   


 


jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2015, 08:46:26 PM »
One of my members used to own Temenos in Anguila
He reveled in playing cross country golf.
Got a little awkward when the course was full of patrons, but we always had a good time ;D ;D
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Russ Arbuthnot

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2015, 09:05:31 PM »
I had this same feeling playing Columbus Park in Chicago when I first started playing (as an adult). 9 holes. Completely flat. $9. But it was still an adventure.

BCowan

Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2015, 09:40:54 PM »
Tim,

   Great thread, your detailed childhood descriptions were really good.  On this side of the pond i'd have to go with the back 9 at Sweetens Cove.  You will play a biarritz that was never originally planned or was it :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2015, 08:49:40 AM »
Tim,

I agree with your sentiments.

I feel like over the last decade plus, we have been returning to those roots. Courses like the ones at Bandon Dunes, golf in Mullen, Cabot, and Kingsley leading the charge.

Would you agree or are you thinking something different?
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Mark Bourgeois

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2015, 08:59:41 AM »
The answer to the question lies in the quote itself!

1. Good land for golf: sandy with good contour, perhaps one or two significant landforms such as a dune ridge (does not have to be, should not be, too tall)
2. A relatively compact property
3. Constraints placed upon how much earth the designer is allowed to move -- "found" objects to be incorporated not moved. Also, designer forced to allow for reverse routing -- but not given extra land to accomplish this.
4. No / minimal use of machinery
5. Reversible routing with no stated / agreed upon "forwards" or "reverse" for first 20 years of course's existence!

You likely will get either a charming, subtle, endlessly fascinating course...or a cramped shooting gallery plagued by slow play. Possibly both.

Good luck!
Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.

Ally Mcintosh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2015, 09:22:40 AM »
Back in October 2010, I started a thread about inventing a new form of "tree" golf. It was one of my favourite contributions to this site and would have fit perfectly in to this post highlighting the essence of adventure and playing what is in front of you....

Seems it hasn't survived the cull... Wish I'd saved it now...

Charlie Ray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2015, 09:33:45 AM »
Tim, you make some interesting points that I agree with especially this one: 

In my opinion, a deep connection to the natural landscape cannot be overemphasized, and is absolutely necessary for a golf course to reach its fullest potential.

However, I find it difficult to conceptualize adding adventure into the game at the majority of courses and clubs because the modern version of this game is so contrived.  18 holes.  99% of which are between 110 yards and 620 yards.  The most adventurous thing I have done on a course (that involves hitting a ball with a club)  is creating and playing hybrids of holes.  (tee off on #1 and play to #5 green)  but this is rarely possible at the majority of courses.  Thus how can players or designers add genuine adventure to the 9:00am Saturday Foursome Nassau game?     

Mark Bourgeois

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2015, 09:55:41 AM »
Back in October 2010, I started a thread about inventing a new form of "tree" golf. It was one of my favourite contributions to this site and would have fit perfectly in to this post highlighting the essence of adventure and playing what is in front of you....

Seems it hasn't survived the cull... Wish I'd saved it now...

?

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47989.0;wap2
Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.

Mark Fedeli

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2015, 10:23:30 AM »
Tim, the kind of golf you describe is the kind of game I find myself explaining to people that I play after they inevitably assume that, as a golfer, I must be lazily riding around in a cart, drinking beer, oppressing the poor and destroying the environment.

How wonderful would it be if the equipment manufacturers, and the magazines, and the Golf Channel, and the courses themselves, marketed the game as you describe it? Perhaps then the greater public would view golf as a rugged and worthy battle between man and nature, the purest of all challenges, and not simply a vapid and selfish quest for distance played in housing developments by walking billboards in white pants.
South Jersey to Brooklyn. @marrrkfedeli

Ally Mcintosh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2015, 10:34:20 AM »
Back in October 2010, I started a thread about inventing a new form of "tree" golf. It was one of my favourite contributions to this site and would have fit perfectly in to this post highlighting the essence of adventure and playing what is in front of you....

Seems it hasn't survived the cull... Wish I'd saved it now...

?

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47989.0;wap2

Mark, I can always count on you.

Thanks for aiding my failing memory...

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2015, 11:06:41 AM »
At the risk of jumping from the sublime to the ridiculous, does anyone not like mini-golf? Crazy (no pun intended) as the notion may sound at first contemplation, there are striking similarities between the origins of golf and bouncing a ball off of a right angle. Beyond the windmills, what actually attracts people to mini-golf? I’ll suggest that ultimately people like to experience a sense of some sort of mini adventure and in any form of golf we live that adventure out through the interaction between ball and terrain. So, is the allure of plotting your way around a firm and fast links actually any different to plotting your way around the Ladies Putting Course at St. Andrews or plotting your way around the angles, slopes and hazards of a mini-golf course? I would suggest that the games which people are endlessly drawn to, and that could be kids at the fairground or you on an ancient links, are ultimately one in the same.

And come to think of it, whilst it's often much derided, footgolf is currently gaining in popularity. Now, we (I) can scoff at it for ever more but, other than the obvious fact that it involves the world's most popular sport, it also involves 'the running game.' Think about it for a minute. You can't stop the ball the way you can stop a Pro V1 on a receptive green with a short iron, meaning all those slopes and angles are in play on the lushest of courses. And for much of the demographic playing footgolf, that is a new experience since their only prior experience of golf is likely to be anything but firm and fast. When viewed from their perspective, I can easily see how they would feel more stimulated by the adventure of footgolf.  
« Last Edit: January 14, 2015, 05:53:27 PM by Paul Gray »
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Tony_Muldoon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2015, 03:47:00 PM »
Back in October 2010, I started a thread about inventing a new form of "tree" golf. It was one of my favourite contributions to this site and would have fit perfectly in to this post highlighting the essence of adventure and playing what is in front of you....

Seems it hasn't survived the cull... Wish I'd saved it now...

?

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47989.0;wap2


The thread was longer...it's my contributions that are being lost!
Let's make GCA grate again!

Garland Bayley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2015, 06:47:52 PM »
Back in October 2010, I started a thread about inventing a new form of "tree" golf. It was one of my favourite contributions to this site and would have fit perfectly in to this post highlighting the essence of adventure and playing what is in front of you....

Seems it hasn't survived the cull... Wish I'd saved it now...

?

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=47989.0;wap2

Mark, I can always count on you.

Thanks for aiding my failing memory...

It seems if you mark threads for notification of posts, then when they delete the threat you get notification of that too.

I have seen one such notification.
"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Tim Lewis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2015, 09:58:46 PM »
Tim,

I agree with your sentiments.

I feel like over the last decade plus, we have been returning to those roots. Courses like the ones at Bandon Dunes, golf in Mullen, Cabot, and Kingsley leading the charge.

Would you agree or are you thinking something different?

I would agree to some extent, but still think that the idea should be taken farther. Of the courses you mention, I have only been to Bandon, and even those seem a bit too homogenized for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, Bandon is probably the best golf this country has to offer, but I feel that there are only a couple of places left in the world of golf that even hint at the potential that this type of golf has to offer, not to mention realize it. Although I have no real evidence to back this up, from what I have seen and read, it seems that a lot of the really early golf courses were drastically different from each other, because of the fact that there weren't really any principles or ideas of "what a golf course should be." In this way, I think the courses were probably more likely to highlight the peculiarities and character of the natural site as there probably weren't any architects walking around looking for "natural green sites" or features that reminded them of other courses. I know architects like Tom Doak and Bill Coore spend a lot of time looking for features that reminded them of other famous courses and holes, but I don't necessarily agree with this because it seems to just contribute to the standardization of the game and its courses. So in conclusion Mr. Plumart, I don't fully agree just because of the fact that I don't think there are any courses that really live up to what I am suggesting. (Obviously though there are still many I have yet to play)       

Don Mahaffey

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2015, 10:09:21 PM »

If I were ever to design and build a golf course, this would be my goal, to embrace the adventurous roots of the game. The question though, is how?

For sure it is not hard to see how not to attain your goal. Just go to one modern golf project and sit in on one meeting and you'll quickly see why most of the adventure is "managed" right out of golf. You'll have nice grass, the greens will have the right slope, the bunkers will be in the right places, and the yardage and par will be "right". But i don't think anyone would use "adventurous" for 90% of the golf built nowadays. And when one does get built, you'll hear a lot of experts complain if it doesn't tow the line...like finishing exactly where it starts.
Being adventurous starts with having the courage to follow your convictions.

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2015, 02:55:04 PM »
Tim,

I'm feeling you know.

Are you talking things like Cader Hole, Sitwell Park green, original Biaritttz hole?

Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2015, 02:56:11 PM »
Btw...

That type of stuff is the kind of stuff I love and wish we had more of it. Unique, mind blowing holes and hazards.
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Paul Gray

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2015, 07:54:14 PM »

..... but I feel that there are only a couple of places left in the world of golf that even hit at the potential that this type of golf has to offrer.....

Tim,

Any number of such courses still exist in Britain.
In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. - Tim Gavrich

Tim Lewis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2015, 12:36:45 AM »

..... but I feel that there are only a couple of places left in the world of golf that even hit at the potential that this type of golf has to offrer.....

Tim,

Any number of such courses still exist in Britain.

I don't buy it. Call me a romantic but I believe this type of golf has much more potential than even places like North Berwick, TOC, Prestwick, and Westward Ho have to offer.(I haven't played Prestwick or Westward Ho yet) I just feel that these courses, which are often quoted as some of the most resistant to change over the years, have either been watered down to the point were they have become somewhat homogenized, or were built late enough that they lacked the full potential of this adventurous quality from the beginning. 

Ally Mcintosh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #20 on: January 20, 2015, 02:13:18 AM »
Tim, what you need is a book called Britain's 100 extraordinary golf holes. There's a lot of crazy / fun stuff around the UK, just mainly on courses that don't make up the tourist trail... In other words, the ones that haven't succumbed to the advice of every armchair expert who walks through the door.

Marc Haring

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2015, 04:24:43 AM »
Tim, what you need is a book called Britain's 100 extraordinary golf holes. There's a lot of crazy / fun stuff around the UK, just mainly on courses that don't make up the tourist trail... In other words, the ones that haven't succumbed to the advice of every armchair expert who walks through the door.

I remember that book Ally.

Painswick got more than one mention, Bath GC over a large quarry. I think the 75 yard hole at Illfracombe was there. My old club Bigbury was included, their 16th was a blind 90 degree left dogleg around a wall with a marker post for those stupid enough to go for the green. Turned out to be very simple Cape hole without the water. I'll have to try and think of some others but while I do, here's one that needs no introduction.

« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 04:29:51 AM by Marc Haring »

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #22 on: January 20, 2015, 10:48:10 AM »
I would like to discuss is whether or not it is possible to return golf to its adventurous roots, and if so how?  

Tim...

I think the answer is simple, but not easy.  Embrace Match Play and forget Stroke play.  These amazingly adventurous holes/courses can "ruin" a card and pencil golfers scorecard and they complain, dislike it, and yearn for a low score.  To heck with you "score"...match play!!!

9 at Kingsley is a hole that is great for match play....but can ruin a scorecard, if you are playing stroke play.
Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

Garland Bayley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2015, 11:55:11 AM »
It seems to me that the less land available for a course, the more adventurous golf you get. When land is limited, you are forced to take portions that you might not otherwise use, and incorporate them into the course.
"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Sven Nilsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Adventurous Golf
« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2015, 04:52:07 PM »
Tim:

Get yourself down to Tasmania and play Barnougle and Lost Farm.

They've got Adventurous Golf in spades.

Sven
"As much as we have learned about the history of golf architecture in the last ten plus years, I'm convinced we have only scratched the surface."  A GCA Poster

"There's the golf hole; play it any way you please." Donald Ross

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