Should courses be built for the people who have seen everything?

[John Kavanaugh]

After a lifetime on this site I'm not feeling it. The best example is a friend who I recently conflatulated on buying a house in an Art Hills development. Art knew exactly what this guy wanted before he did. Now that's a 10.

[John Kavanaugh]

And this explains why we love classic courses. They were built before the people who had seen everything were ever invented.

[Mike_Young]

I had already seen this....

[jeffwarne]

Well, at least I learned a new word

[cary lichtenstein]

If you think you have seen everything, there is a giant world of art to be appreciated beyond the daily discussions here.
As a world traveler, artist and lover of golf architecture, I thought I'd share with our group the work of the most famous Russian architect who recently passed away. Her work is spectacular

https://www.google.com/search?q=zaha+hadid+architecture





In addition, there are natural unusual land formations for all to enjoy


https://www.google.com/search?q=unusual+land+formations

[John Kavanaugh]

Cary,


Not to get all behind the policies of China or anything I kinda agree with the ban on weird architecture built for the love of critics.


http://shanghaiist.com/2016/02/22/china_officially_bans_weird_archite.php

[MCirba]

John,

I think you have a point here.   In the earliest days of architecture courses were built primarily for play, not for show.   They were classic examples of form following function.   You  need to get back home and that stone wall or rail station is in the way?   Well, play over or around it!   

No one much cared as well I'd imagine what a bunker looked like but that it served the purpose.   Greens were placed where they would drain and so some of them became "skyline" greens probably quite by accident, not intent.

Most, except for top players and pros who played competitions, probably only played their own course in town and had little idea of what was out there to be "seen" by way of comparison.

There was certainly some bliss in that ignorance, I'd imagine.   And certainly less self-consciousness in what was less an art form and more an engineering task.

[Peter Pallotta]

Some good thoughts/speculations there; I especially like the notion of Golden Age courses being built before there were golfers who'd seen everything.  But as much as I'm intrigued by the idea, I don't think it's true: the great golden age courses (recognized as great then and now) were built for those that HAD seen everything, though that numbered only about 100 people back then.

The other trouble with the premise is that the alternative is worse. I am fond of and grateful for my home course, but I have to admit it is the very opposite of a course that you "could play every day and not grow tired of". It is so lacking in quirk and it is so uniformly wide and the recoveries hole after hole are so similar and the greens so lacking in significant contours that, no matter if there is wind or rain or sun or different pin positions it plays EXACTLY the same every single day.

And I am speaking as someone who has seen virtually NOTHING. 

But thanks, JK -- the last few weeks have seen a dearth of interesting threads, and the last few days have been dire. I appreciate you trying to liven things up.

Peter   

[jeffwarne]

John,

I think you have a point here.   In the earliest days of architecture courses were built primarily for play, not for show.   They were classic examples of form following function.   You  need to get back home and that stone wall or rail station is in the way?   Well, play over or around it!   

No one much cared as well I'd imagine what a bunker looked like but that it served the purpose. 

yep
and in so doing attracted a class of ADD players who chose the game and their course for aesthetics and perceived status (who probably now play Pickleball in the morning and go wine tasting in the afternoon)

[Tony_Muldoon]

If you think you have seen everything, there is a giant world of art to be appreciated beyond the daily discussions here.
As a world traveler, artist and lover of golf architecture, I thought I'd share with our group the work of the most famous Russian architect who recently passed away. Her work is spectacular

https://www.google.com/search?q=zaha+hadid+architecture

Russian?

A sad loss. Visionary and unique.

What's more the Olympic Pool is a magnificent building and easily the best functioning indoor pool I've ever used.

[John Kavanaugh]

And I am speaking as someone who has seen virtually NOTHING. 

Peter,


I think those of us who have seen everything would tell you that home eventually becomes one of the most interesting places you have ever played.

[John Kavanaugh]

If you think you have seen everything, there is a giant world of art to be appreciated beyond the daily discussions here.
As a world traveler, artist and lover of golf architecture, I thought I'd share with our group the work of the most famous Russian architect who recently passed away. Her work is spectacular

https://www.google.com/search?q=zaha+hadid+architecture

Russian?

A sad loss. Visionary and unique.

What's more the Olympic Pool is a magnificent building and easily the best functioning indoor pool I've ever used.

Really, a giant vagina roof? Architecture a 12 yr old boy would giggle at…it's not even original.

[BCowan]

John,

I think you have a point here.   In the earliest days of architecture courses were built primarily for play, not for show.   They were classic examples of form following function.   You  need to get back home and that stone wall or rail station is in the way?   Well, play over or around it!   

No one much cared as well I'd imagine what a bunker looked like but that it served the purpose. 

yep
and in so doing attracted a class of ADD players who chose the game and their course for aesthetics and perceived status (who probably now play Pickleball in the morning and go wine tasting in the afternoon)

Jeff,

   People who play pickleball drink bud light and are down to earth folks.  Complete opposite of CCFAD.  The last few days have been wonderful on GCA

[John Kavanaugh]

Since we love lists: http://www.archi-ninja.com/over-rated-architects-more-recognition-survey/

[Bill_McBride]

After a lifetime on this site I'm not feeling it. The best example is a friend who I recently conflatulated on buying a house in an Art Hills development. Art knew exactly what this guy wanted before he did. Now that's a 10.

John, please define "conflatulated."     Using Latin etymology it seems to mean "farted against," but I suppose that's not what you meant.   

[John Kavanaugh]

Bill, it's a half fart/half compliment. If used in a sentence: I recently conflatulated my friend on his purchase of a large SUV.

[Tony_Muldoon]

If you think you have seen everything, there is a giant world of art to be appreciated beyond the daily discussions here.
As a world traveler, artist and lover of golf architecture, I thought I'd share with our group the work of the most famous Russian architect who recently passed away. Her work is spectacular

https://www.google.com/search?q=zaha+hadid+architecture

Russian?

A sad loss. Visionary and unique.

What's more the Olympic Pool is a magnificent building and easily the best functioning indoor pool I've ever used.

Really, a giant vagina roof? Architecture a 12 yr old boy would giggle at…it's not even original.

Great. Once I offered to pick up your Green Fee to make some point. Withdrawn. My best offer now is to pay for your swim, current cost £5.50.  Anyway Catholics shouldn't make references like that, they're only supposed to be familiar with one (i.e too much information)! 

It's inspiration is the Manta Ray. Regrettably due to budgets they halved its size and buried the practice pool underground.  Wonderful building.

[MCirba]

My reply wasn't referring to golf courses built during the "Golden Age" in the US, perceived to be from approximately 1912 until the Depression;  as Peter mentioned by then there was certainly a small group of well-travelled cognoscenti who had "seen everything" and wrote vigorously and competed intensely to produce the latest masterpiece of architectural splendor.   

My reply was more in discussion of the earliest courses in GB&I and how the game was played up to about the end of last century.   At that time I romantically suggest that the architecture was more about serving the purpose of playing the game as an adventurous corollary to the rigors of real life, and less about something to be (over) analyzed and admired.

[Rich Goodale]

If courses were built only for the people who have seen everything, no more courses would have ever been built and we'd all be lining up for a game on the polders of The Netherlands.

[Brian Finn]

What the hell is pickleball?

[Jason Thurman]

What the hell is pickleball?

You're about 50 years too young to know. So am I or I would answer.

[Kalen Braley]

I suspect pickleball is playing drunk, aka shitfaced, aka hammered, aka, etc....and no doubt I've seen my fair share of these guys on the course.

[BHoover]

I suspect that Top Golf may want to get in on this wave of pickleball enthusiasm.

Is there a BuddyUp! aspect to pickleball? Perhaps I might suggest a GCA golf/pickleball BuddyUp! event this year?

[Josh Tarble]

you're talking to 3-time Marshall High School pickleball champion. 

It's a winter sport around here, commonly known as paddleball. Essentially a cross between tennis and racquetball played on a mini-court.  I believe pickleball is played with a wiffleball and plastic paddles while paddle ball is played with a lacrosse-type ball and wooden paddles.

[Kalen Braley]

While I'm certainly nowhere near to having seen everything, especially compared to many on here.

I can say I'm well experienced in trying/sampling/imbibing in many of the best beers in the world.  I still recall the first time I had a top notch beer.  Its was a Doulbe Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing company....it was nothing short of transformational and borderline magical.  That day started a quest where I've tried approx. half of the best beers in the world, and I've never looked back.

All the usual suspects like bud, miller, Corona, etc...I never partake and even turn them down when offered for free.