[Jeff_Brauer]

Back home and trying to post something interesting.....I guess we shall see.

I have always heard the old phrase that you remember something about every hole on a good course, that each hole has some unique "twist" or feature, and you strive for that as an architect. 

Would it be interesting for us to take a look at our home or favorite (or favorite famous) courses on a hole by hole basis to see what makes each hole memorable to us?

It is said that golfers remember shots, and those designers trained as LA's recall features, and as I reviewed my current renovation (just wrapping up) at Superior National, it is features I recall (cue Joan Mitchell, I guess.....)  but here goes, as only a starter example:

1- Green drops off on right side.  Horseshoe grass bunker on left side
2- Roaring River in front of green
3- New Back Tee Across River, Crossing holes with 2 (always wanted to do that, River and route to other side actually allowed it)
4- Angled Carry FW bunkers, best on course IMHO
5- Up and Over FW (due to Don Herfort Routing, but quite nice) and Green Bunkering
6- With tree clearing, new elevated tee gives view of Lake Superior
7- Converted Par 5 to short 4, Driveable green, horseshoe green around pond, view of Lake Superior
8-Downhill par 3 (finishes conversion of old awkward par 5)
9- Deep valley fw (replaces old uphill blind tee shot) 4-5 foot deck in green
10-New wider fw, bunkering at green (nice hole, but probably best remembered by those who played the old hole, narrow and tough)
11-Angled carry bunkers on long approach shot
12- Cape Hole, water right
13- New green with "Pearl Necklace" bunkering on longer par 5, Single Tree in Fairways offers short cut "field goal" tee shot option (however, you still can't reach green.....)
14-Roaring River, driveable green, new tee complex, new green with narrow "catwalk" approach
15- Roaring River, skinny Augusta 12 like green
16-Clearing behind green allows another view of Lake Superior)
17 - Drop Shot Par 3, Wide Tee and Green, when tees are right, pin is left, vice versa.
18-Carry grass bunker, Redan Green.

Not sure those are enough to make each memorable, and of course, we were lucky in that the existing course had every hole with a view of the lake, the roaring Poplar Creek, or the mountains to sort of give each hole something to look at and experience.

Anyway, in design it is an interesting exercise I usually go through, in this case, brought on by shaping the last green (14 with the cat walk) and not wanting the last one we shape to be average, even with the roaring river right next to it. 

And, on plane home, started doodling the green and hole designs for my next project with the same thought in mind.  Admittedly, at this later (hopefully not the end!) stage of my career, a lot of it is applying sort of a "greatest hits" ideas to the land forms that fit the idea best, which may be a whole other discussion topic.....

Not sure this kind of thought will pass the "interesting" test, but thought I would throw this hat in the ring to see if anyone bites......

[Tommy Williamsen]

I'll bite. I'll do Misgrove Mill
1. The green. Hit it on the wrong side of the pin and it will either run off the green or leave you with a tricky and fast downhill putt.
2. Drop shot of 140 yards. The ball is in the air for a long time. Tiny green surround by  a creek and sand.
3. For long hitters the green is reachable in two but have to loft it high over a sandy waste area.
4. Shot of 180 yards or so into the green over meandering creek.
5. Tee shot sets up shot into green on 90 degree dogleg.
6. The most severe sloping green on the course with four distinct levels.
7. The Enoree River is to the right of this 200 yard par three.
8. The tee shot must be hit between a pond and the river.
9. The green sits some fifteen feet above the fairway for the third shot on this par five.
10. The drive is essential on this dogleg left par four. Hit it to the right and you have a blind shot to the downhill green.
11. The hole is short but the wedge into a very raised, small, and sloping green is tricky.
12. This par three has a very sloping green of three distinct areas.
13. Again it is the green the green is L shaped with bunkers left and right.
14. The second shot into the long narrow green is tricky.
15. The tee shot is crucial on this dogleg left four four.
16. This par five is readable but the river is left and the green is smallish and in the fron narrow.
17. The tee shot on this 185 yard par three is uphill to a pretty large but sloping green of two levels.
18. The green is protected by swamp on the left and waste are front and right.

[Tom_Doak]

Does anyone know the true story of how "Memorability" got to be one of the criteria for judging golf courses -- and indirectly for influencing the path of modern design?


It all stems from a book I published by GOLF DIGEST back when I was a kid.  "Great Golf Courses of the World" was written by William H. Davis, their founder and publisher; and somewhere in the text, one or two paragraphs gave his idea of what things were important to a great golf course.  "Memorability" - the idea that each hole on a course should be distinct and memorable - was one of the things he mentioned.


Fast forward to the late 1980's, when GOLF Magazine's rankings started to draw attention, and GOLF DIGEST suddenly had to put numbers to their 100 Greatest List - which up to then, they had always just edited in a smoke-filled room at the U.S. Open every odd year.  [That's why their list used to come out in the fall.]  Trying to validate their rankings as more "objective" than the GOLF Magazine list, which just asked panelists to rate the courses against one another, GOLF DIGEST wanted to come up with a list of criteria to vote on ... and they fell back on that 15-year-old paragraph in Bill Davis' book, since he had come up with the idea of their ranking courses to begin with.


To be clear, I would generally agree with the idea that great courses are full of memorable golf holes.  However, most of the great early courses are memorable because of the greens construction or the bunkers or the beauty or the strategy of those holes -- things which are already covered by GOLF DIGEST's other criteria. 


What making memorability a separate category has done is to convince architects to incorporate features which have nothing to do with the quality of the course so that people will remember them.  [In the two above descriptions, see horseshoe grass bunker, catwalk approach, sandy waste area, four distinct levels, and green is L shaped for examples.]  This was compounded by Ron Whitten's notes to GOLF DIGEST panelists with thumbnail descriptions of each course up for review -- because he highlighted such features in his write-ups, and signaled to panelists those were the kinds of things they should be looking for.


Of course, I don't blame Mr. Whitten entirely.  Somehow, architects and developers built 3,200 courses between 1990 and 2005, each based on the idea it should contend for a top-100 ranking.

[Mark Saltzman]

Jeff, I think The Wilderness at Fortune Bay is a golf course that has something memorable on every hole (meant as a compliment as I really enjoyed my round there).


I'm sure Tom is right about the origin of memorability in course rankings, but notwithstanding its place in rankings, I can't count the number of times people talk about how many holes on a given course they can remember (and more often than not, those holes are the hardest / have the most hazards).  To some an abundance of features and a difficult course won't make it great, but for some it will... kind of makes sense to me to have those things on a rating as long as its spelled out that the rating has these included.


OK, the Winderness at Fortune Bay:


1) Centreline bunkers in lay-up area / wild green contours / huge run-off right
2) Long, angled green / rocks in approach area (iirc)
3) severe two-tiered green
4) blind tee to an upper split fairway / kick plate by green
5) biarritz green
6) Angled carry tee shot / tilted fairway
7) steep drop shot par 3
C shaped par-5 around water
9) All-carry approach over water (no room to miss short)
10) Semi-blind tee shot to speed slot
11) OK, not so memorable.  I can't recall it
12) Peninsula green on par 3
13) potentially drivable par-4 / angled tee shot over water
14) Steep drop off right entire way / very deep bunkers
15) U shaped green
16) Split fairway in lay-up area
17) not so memorable.  angled green
18) Angled green hard against water

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mark,

Thanks.  Funny, but I consider the 17th to be pretty unmemorable, too.  Sitting on solid rock, not a lot we could do.  Maybe it's memorable as the least memorable hole on the course?  BTW, I would put 11 in both for its big FW bunker and the fact that its the longest and one of the toughest par 4 holes, but only a portion of golfers remember holes that are tough as opposed to beautiful or unusual (which I think more golfers look at)

I wasn't 100% sure where that idea came from, but don't doubt TD that it came from Golf Digest in the 1960's, about when the both of us got interested in architecture and were reading everything we could.  While designing that way may have it's drawbacks - what doesn't? - overall I think it better than an architect who tries to implement a memorable overall style to a course as a starting point, no?

Tillie sort of split the difference between my response and Tom's.  He did call the greens the face of the hole, making each one different much like it makes various humans more distinguishable.  But he also said something about working on the designs to give each hole enough character to "stand up in polite company" suggesting he worked more on holes that didn't have great natural features to make them nearly equal, but different to others on the course.

[Mike_Young]

Of course, I don't blame Mr. Whitten entirely.  Somehow, architects and developers built 3,200 courses between 1990 and 2005, each based on the idea it should contend for a top-100 ranking.

And during that time I don't recall a memorable hole with housing. IMHO...

[MCirba]

Am I an outlier because I liked the Quarry course at Giants Ridge quite a bit more than Wilderness at Fortune Bay? 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Am I an outlier because I liked the Quarry course at Giants Ridge quite a bit more than Wilderness at Fortune Bay?

Mike,

Not really, although if you believe the relative rankings, it makes you more of a Golf Digest panelist than a Golf Week one.

It seems serious golfers like the Quarry more, the retail golfers like the more forgiving Wilderness, based on all the highly unofficial data I have seen.  But most play both, plus the Legend, when going that far.  No one knows if the slightly higher play at Fortune Bay is a result of other activity, a la, the casino, is the main driver, but it must have some effect.

[Mike_Young]

Am I an outlier because I liked the Quarry course at Giants Ridge quite a bit more than Wilderness at Fortune Bay?

none of this is why you are an outlier...

[Steve Lang]

Mike,


I liked the Quarry better, as it offered some more interesting teeing grounds! 

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