Is it time to create a new classification of courses?

[Matthew Essig]

This came up in the Erin Hills classification thread, but I want to extend it to some other courses.

Links
Parkland
Sandbelt (Australian, American like the Nebraska Sand Hills, Ballyneal, now the Wisconsin Sand Hills, etc.)
Heathland
Desert
Lowland
Mountain
Links-Like or Faux Links (courses on the Monterey Peninsula, Chambers Bay, etc)


But what about courses like an Erin Hills, Wine Valley, and Trinity Forest? Should they be considered Links-like courses and create a new sub-set of "inland faux links"? Or should there be a new classification? A Heartland course?

[BCowan]

Prairie

[Kalen Braley]

Matthew,


Wine Valley is technically in a high desert area, I think it could go in the classification. But the course does look and play very linksy in many ways!! 

[Carl Johnson]

Erin Hills = glaciated

[Matthew Essig]

Prairie

I like the sound of that!

[Tom_Doak]

Why do you need such categories?  I would think its best to have a course that defies such categorization.

[Jaeger Kovich]

The marketing guys don't like that!


Just gonna keep trying to build the new new thing.

[BCowan]

Why do you need such categories?  I would think its best to have a course that defies such categorization.

That is as hipster as having no tee markers. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Thinking more of categories like "Next Big Thing", "So Last Year", "Passé" and the always popular, "Best of its kind I have seen anywhere."

[Mike_Young]

Come on....how about there is a tee area and a 4.25 inch cup somewhere out there to finish the hole.  Go play and quit complicating all of this stuff....that's what the USGA is for....

[Peter Pallotta]

I used to think good work was all that mattered, and that it alone would carry the day. Now I know that it isn't, and that it won't. #Sad. #FaceTheFacts. #ButIDon'tWantTo.

[Kalen Braley]

People. Classify. Everything.  This is what we do.


Can't imagine golf courses will be any different!

[BCowan]

I used to think good work was all that mattered, and that it alone would carry the day. Now I know that it isn't, and that it won't. #Sad. #FaceTheFacts. #ButIDon'tWantTo.

Peter,


It's like beer, ur porters, ambers, sours, lagers, stouts, wheats, browns, fruity, scottish, english, irish, and IPouches

[Jeff_Brauer]

Actually, wouldn't the push for this come from the golf magazines, so they could have a "Best New" in another dozen categories?  Follow the money.

[Garland Bayley]

So what are your definitions?

Probably your definitions should reference things like soil type, grass type or climatic region, ancillary vegetation, etc.

[BCowan]

So what are your definitions?

Probably your definitions should reference things like soil type, grass type or climatic region, ancillary vegetation, etc.

That is overkill. 

We have 2 in favor of Prairie, A type of course near a large enough group of people with a full parking lot and bar!  It can have no more then 10 trees on the course.  It doesn't discriminate soil and grass type. 

[Cliff Hamm]

Why do you need such categories?  I would think its best to have a course that defies such categorization.

Tom..tell me if I'm wrong. I'm sure you will.


I recall a few years ago you referred to such courses as farm something or other. thought it was a good description. Courses that r links like from farm land, where there are no trees.

[Daryl David]

Don't forget "Goat Track"

[Peter Pallotta]

On the other hand, Louis Armstrong - the Father of Jazz - didn't like the term 'jazz', or musical labels of any kind. He said: "There are only two types of music - good and bad".
Tee hee - I wonder how the magazines and marketers and members and architects would like *that* classification system?

[mike_beene]

Snaked fescue or non-snaked fescue. That's the classification that means something.

[Garland Bayley]

So what are your definitions?

Probably your definitions should reference things like soil type, grass type or climatic region, ancillary vegetation, etc.

That is overkill. 

We have 2 in favor of Prairie, A type of course near a large enough group of people with a full parking lot and bar!  It can have no more then 10 trees on the course.  It doesn't discriminate soil and grass type.

And the minimalist prairie course would be the most boring course in the world. Doak -1

[Tom_Doak]

I would caution you on using the word Prairie.  It has a much different connotation to environmentalists - a certain mixture of native grasses that is way too thick to be adjacent to golf holes.  Talking about prairie, especially in the planning phase, is asking for a bunch of lost balls.

[Mark Pavy]

Prairie

I was a bit astonished when I saw "links" associated with Erin Hills. "Prairie" was the first term that jumped into my mind as well.

[BCowan]

I would caution you on using the word Prairie.  It has a much different connotation to environmentalists - a certain mixture of native grasses that is way too thick to be adjacent to golf holes.  Talking about prairie, especially in the planning phase, is asking for a bunch of lost balls.

Tom,


Non irrigated and maint at a reasonable height. No lost balls allowed on prairie.  I'll amend that at a later time.  There are lowsey prairie, just like lowsey parklands, ect.  Striping top layer is encouraged before planting and maintainting thinner. Also hosting majors can ruin prairies

[Mark Pritchett]

Soup courses