For as long as I can remember, in my experiences in architecture, landscape architecture and golf course architecture, I have been utterly fascinated and beguiled by the way shapes and materials come together.
I can't help feeling that it's at the 'Edges' where the true talents of great designers become most apparent.
Take for example this masterpiece of controlled 'merging'.
Here we have ourselves a marvellous combination of a change in materials, a change in levels, a boundary which has to be managed and maintained, an element subject to wind and weather, an edge which defines the rules of golf, etc, etc... So many functions for a mere line!
And yet, look how artful and joyously free such a thing can be. These are the things that most delight me about design. Somebody, somewhere had appreciated that what they're trying to achieve might only be somewhere to play a game, but luckily they also had the gumption and creativity to make a small detail a thing of utter beauty.
One thing though - and here comes the egalitarian Scotsman I can't help being! We need to expose more golfers/people in general to this kind of wondrousness. It's a bit pointless keeping this stuff to only a lucky few.
Cheers,
F.