If we had a bird's eye view

[Peter Pallotta]

A very powerful bird, that could fly forever high above continents and across oceans, and for some reason liked to look at golf courses from up there:

If he flew over the United States, with all its varied topography and climates, and with all the different (at least from our point of view) golf courses, old and new, what might he conclude about the people who built them and the golfers who play them and the culture that fostered and sustains them?

And if that bird then flew across the Atlantic and took a close look at the courses in GB&I, and then those in France and Germany and Italy and Norway etc, would he draw similar or much differing conclusions?

And then China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, and South America?

In short, after his flight, stopping here at gca.com, would the bird tell us (he talks, in broken English) anything we might not know about golf course architecture? Might he provide an insight/perspective we don't already have? And if so, could it mean/change anything?

For you well travelled golfers especially, please imagine that you are that bird - and tell us what you see.

Peter

[Duncan Cheslett]

Isn't that what Google Earth is for? 

[Matt MacIver]

For starters I think he'd choose to roost in the US.  He'd like the fact that it's courses are too treed, too narrow, too long and too green. 

[Steve Lang]

   Peter,


Very nice thought setup, but I fear the coming drone discussions...


He'd probably say he's pretty tired and wished gca.com had all the AOTD files archived properly...

[BHoover]

The bird would be busy looking for rodents and fish to eat. He wouldn't care about golfers.

[Peter Pallotta]

He's a very unusual bird, Brian - almost more human than avian, and also he's fascinated by golf/golf courses. Highly intelligent, I'm almost certain that he would provide us some useful insights and valuable perspective on gca - the big picture, as it were. But judging by reactions so far, I hardly think he'd feel welcomed here or appreciated, so he may not stop at all. He senses, perhaps, that we're too much enamoured by our own nose-to-the-ground views and opinions (the small picture, as it were) to care about his.

[Joe Hancock]

Peter,


He'd see us humans, so close to the golf courses that we prefer that we can't possibly see anything else that might change our perception or perspective. He might wonder why we can't see the bigger picture, given our self- ordained superiority of intellect.


Then, he would land in one of the few remaining trees on a golf course, and wonder why he has so few places to perch.

[Peter Pallotta]

He's a perceptive bird, Joe.
For example, he noticed how many people have homes on golf courses in the US. He theorizes that in the US golf must be more than merely a game; it must also be a lifestyle. (As a bird he found that quite confusing, since birds don't have a lifestyle, they only have a life.)
He found curious as well the fact that, though GB&I was once a global colonial power, it does not seem to have greatly influenced gca in other parts of the world, nor to have broadly exported its unique brand of golf. (He wondered out loud what power the Americans, on the other hand, hold over a far away country like China -- the courses there clearly having their roots in the American style. He asked me if the US, unbeknownst to him, was a colonial power today.)
He found it interesting, all around the world, that golf courses seemed to be either right in the middle of a very large city or right in the middle of absolutely nowhere. He openly marvelled at the adaptability of the human species, ie that we could be comfortable in two such distinct habitats.
(Speaking of which -- we did, him and me, share the shock of realizing how many courses there were in places where there was no water and no grass! Like I did once, he'd made the short flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and recapped what he saw this way: "Desert, desert, desert - golf course. Desert, desert, desert - golf course")
There were many other things the bird told me, but I had no context for them -- never having travelled very far -- and so I couldn't understand. Maybe some others here might.
Peter

[Matt_Cohn]

I think the bird would wonder why golf courses in the forests of China, the deserts of Arizona, the wetlands of Florida, and the mountains of Japan look so incredibly similar from above.


I think he would conclude that most golf course builders are pretty unimaginative. I don't think the bird would count a bunker in the middle of the fairway instead of the outside of the fairway as imaginative. I think the bird would figure that designers didn't think very hard about whether they could do something really different, or that they wanted to but for business reasons couldn't.

[John Connolly]

He'd conclude that the US is wealthy because their courses are so perfectly maintained and that money is scant in GB&I because after the courses were built, they were never touched again.

[Peter Pallotta]

See how perceptive the Bird is?
Bunkers in the middle of fairways *aren't* in fact much different than bunkers off to the side; and courses in widely different parts of the world *do* look remarkably similar; and the US,
in absolute terms, *does* have a much larger middle/upper middle class with the kind of disposable income that can support - and that demands - pristine conditions.
If he could find a tree someplace out on a golf course. I bet the Bird would sit and watch and ponder golfers all day.

[mike_beene]

I think the bird would dislike places like Ballyneal that have active hunting programs.

[Peter Pallotta]

I think the bird would dislike places like Ballyneal that have active hunting programs.

Oh.
That might explain why he hasn't shown up for our next meeting.
This is not good. This is not good at all....

[Tim Leahy]

Flying in to Palm Springs it seemed like for 20 miles every bit of ground that wasnt covered by homes and swimmimg pools was a golf course.

[BHoover]

How high can this bird fly? Can he achieve low-earth orbit? If so, how would his observations change from, say, 10,000 feet?


Come to think of it, when will NASA put a golf course architect in space? Just think of playing a course designed from orbit. How might design concepts be influenced by a zero-gravity environment?


Eventually, we might even have courses on the Moon or even Mars. Would templates work in those settings? Or would entirely new design features be needed? Dare to dream.

[John Kavanaugh]

Icarus was the son of an architect.

[Steve Lang]

Flying in to Palm Springs it seemed like for 20 miles every bit of ground that wasnt covered by homes and swimmimg pools was a golf course.

and plenty of windmills... not good for birds

[Peter Pallotta]

JK, Steve - so with Icarus and windmills both, the lesson is: don't fly that high, you won't like what you see and will likely crash back down to earth...

[Steve Lang]

Peter,


I think about 150 ft would be good perspective to stay afoul of things, inviting attention yet just out of reach for safe flight, and to promote synoptic value, but those windmills... problematic for larger cruisers who might not pay attention to routing details.

[John Kavanaugh]

With Pete Dye playing the role of Daedalus which of his students/children have flown too close to the sun?

[Peter Pallotta]

Bless you both. You may have just turned this thread into something interesting. Granted, it's likely very few will pick up on it -- but I do think the perspective a potentially useful one. There *is* such a thing as flying too close to the sun, but when *everyone* is doing it (or trying to) it can go unnoticed....at least
until the whole thing crashes and burns

Peter

[John Kavanaugh]

The sun burns bright in Rio.

[BHoover]

Peter,


I think about 150 ft would be good perspective to stay afoul of things, inviting attention yet just out of reach for safe flight, and to promote synoptic value, but those windmills... problematic for larger cruisers who might not pay attention to routing details.

So we're limiting the bird's perspective to 150 ft? Disappointing, if true.

[Joe Hancock]

Sandhill cranes, while migrating, often fly at altitudes of up to 8000 feet above sea level. They don't see much detail from there, but they get where they want to go much quicker, and with less effort. For our purposes here, kissing enough hind end acheives the same result.

[mike_beene]

There is a man named Desmond who needed more sunscreen.