[Mike Hendren]

I fear I give far too much weight to the extent to which a golf course stirs my soul.  I envy those who can apply analytical skill to the analysis of golf architecture.  Question:  Would a soul stirring scale yield a significantly different top whatever list?

Bogey

[Ian Mackenzie]

YES!


Scales, by their very nature, try to be objective and usually have a base measure.


Soul-stirring experiential "scales" would be highly SUBjective and introduce many other external factors: weather, location, mood, playing partners, score?, etc.


But I like it!


As an example - for ME - I see/feel nothing soul-stirring about Pebble Beach other than the view of the ocean. Paying $500 to play in a 5:30 round behind a bunch of golf carts stirs some things - just not my soul.


However, playing in an evening walking round at unranked, unheralded Sea Ranch Golf Links (3 hours up the coast) worked for me.


This will be a "YMMV thread" for sure.

[Ed Homsey]

Playing a walking round, with my wife, on the ocean nine of Pacific Grove Muni at 7 a.m. on a bright, sunny, Easter morning with nothing stirring but a deer or two, ranks near the top of my "soul-stirring" golf experiences.

[Thomas Dai]

This wouldn't be far from the top of my soul stirring scale - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63585.msg1529366.html#msg1529366
Wonderful.
atb

[Jason Topp]

I agree that stirring the soul is at the heart of a great golf course.  I view this discussion group as an attempt to try and understand why some courses do so and why others do not.

[mike_malone]

I am grateful to be stirred almost every day.  As the seasons change and the light angle moves new perspectives come into play.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Similar topic years ago. I recall writing that "most courses wouldn't have soul if Aretha Franklin was singing next to the first tee."

[Mark Pritchett]

and yet they do if it is your home course, or where you learned to play the game, etc.

[John Connolly]

I wonder what else could possibly matter.

[BCowan]

Mr Bogey,


   Is Genius Loci included in ur assessment?

[Peter Pallotta]

Bogey - I've played 1 great course and several very good ones and many decent courses, and I've asked your same question here (in different ways) more than a few times; but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I'll keep searching and hoping: even though maybe it's just a fool's hope, and the search will be in vain. I'm guessing that if I ever experience it, it will be on a course where, if I close one eye (metaphorically speaking) I won't see the hand of man anywhere; and where the weather changes rapidly, with swift clouds and a stiff wind one moment, and the blue skies and soft cool breeze of an eternal spring the next; and where except for the sound of birds or the rustling of the brush, a profound silence prevails. That's what I imagine anyway. Needless to say, I'm not going to be in a golf cart or chugging a beer when I'm there - and God willing I won't even be lighting up a cigarette. And, my guess is that the course would have to be a public one. I don't think my soul would be capable of stirring if hidden within my heart were a desire for specialness and exclusivity.
I suppose I should really try to get to Bandon Trails or Pacific Dunes...

[Ira Fishman]

Peter, that is a helluva a definition to which I fully subscribe.  I too have not played that many truly great courses, but one that meets your definition is my round at Lahinch, including the weather and the sounds.  Plus we came down 18 as the sun was starting to set on a late summer day, the perfect end to an Irish golf trip.  There surely are better courses, but that round will be tough to beat in terms of Soul Searching.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I wonder what else could possibly matter.

You beating me for the first time....straight up....for $5....?

[Sean_A]

I fear I give far too much weight to the extent to which a golf course stirs my soul.  I envy those who can apply analytical skill to the analysis of golf architecture.  Question:  Would a soul stirring scale yield a significantly different top whatever list?

Bogey

I am not exactly sure a soul stirring scale would work for me because that has as much to do with surroundings, how I feel, the weather, the moment etc as it does the golf course.  Simply put, one day a course can stir it and the next day it could very well bore me.  The last time I really felt something on a course was at Reigate Heath and it happened at least once prior this year.  I am playing Kington next month so I am doing alright in this department.

Ciao

[Niall C]

Bogey

I suspect with a lot of these lists and individual ratings that the raters simply fall back on a bit of architecture knowledge, sometimes dodgy criteria like hole direction etc, to basically justify their ranking of courses that stirred their soul as you call it.

Or to put it another way, you could start a list of the top 100 courses that don't justify there rankings in terms of architecture but do because they have lots of eye candy etc. Over here we call it the Brigadoon factor 

Niall

[Adam Lawrence]

Soul stirring, gut reaction, 'favourite' -- these are all terms that we use to say the courses we like best on an emotional level, rather than any intellectual one.


Nothing at all wrong with that. Some not of the Golf Digest school would argue it is the only sensible way to assess a work of art anyway.


I fall between the two schools. When asked my favourite course, I generally answer Machrihanish; if asked the best I've seen, Royal County Down. Probably have more attachment to the favourite list than the best one though.

[Steve Salmen]

Anywhere near the vicinity of the first tee and eighteenth green at St. Andrews.
The walk to the third tee at Royal Dornoch.
The following 45 minutes upon putting out on the 14th green at Cypress Point.
The 1st tee at Machrihanish.
The inward 9 at North Berwick.
Old Musselburgh.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Also thinking back to that old thread, I believe my soul has been stirred like a Martini when the special location (i.e., Scotland, most any ocean front course) and the weather match.  I feel exhilarated under a cold steel gray sky, with a brisk wind, or early in the morning, etc.


And, I truly can't think of a course on an average site that has stirred the soul....so to me, its a great site combined with great design and proper weather.  For an example of a great site that didn't stir me, think Torrey Pines.  An average (or not befitting of the site) design can ruin the best site.

[BCrosby]

Anywhere near the vicinity of the first tee and eighteenth green at St. Andrews.
The walk to the third tee at Royal Dornoch.
The following 45 minutes upon putting out on the 14th green at Cypress Point.
The 1st tee at Machrihanish.
The inward 9 at North Berwick.
Old Musselburgh.

Good list. I would add standing on the tee at the 12th at ANGC.


Bob

[Ben Malach]

If we take it back to the question, how does scale influence the impact of golf architecture?


I think that control of scale is the hallmark of great architecture. If we look to the courses and places that lift our soul and are powerful in encouraging us to play the game. We can see a running theme of scale fitting the landscape and the surroundings to create a unified tied together experience. This means variations in scale and use of features to create impact. Sometimes this can be as simple as adding a little pocket that catches the evening light or as grand a bunker complex that has all the flashes and pizzazz. It all depends on the scale of the land and the features present. But it takes an architect or sharper that can listen to the land to bring it out. That is the hard part because as everyone knows time is money and it takes time to find then highlight these features. But in doing that I think it creates a sense of love that enables everyone even a non golfer to enjoy the wonderful landscapes that we can create when we take the time to show our heart in the work.

[John Connolly]

I wonder what else could possibly matter.

You beating me for the first time....straight up....for $5....?

First and only. It did make me fall to my knees, as I recall ... fondly ....

[Tony_Muldoon]

This wouldn't be far from the top of my soul stirring scale - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63585.msg1529366.html#msg1529366
Wonderful.
atb

Me too. I find my self thinking about it often.
 
Maybe it was the surprise that I liked it so much having little expectations?
Or maybe its the purest place I've played golf on.?
Hit, go find, hit again. Hit well, score well.

[Thomas Dai]

This wouldn't be far from the top of my soul stirring scale - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63585.msg1529366.html#msg1529366
Wonderful.
atb

Me too. I find my self thinking about it often.
Maybe it was the surprise that I liked it so much having little expectations?
Or maybe its the purest place I've played golf on.?
Hit, go find, hit again. Hit well, score well.

A really rather 'special' place. Difficult to define 'special' but I doubt those of us who have visited Mulranny will ever forget it.
atb

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