When and Which Course Piqued Interest in Architecture

[jeffwarne]

J - if I'm thinking about what you were thinking about, remember: probably no one who might've ever chased you off for sneaking onto a very exclusive course by jumping a wire fence and then hitting a quick shot to the 12th green is likely still around there 40 years later!
 

PM sent
it wasn't a quick shot-it was more of a summer membership...

[Sean_A]

I was lucky twice over as a kid.  I grew up on a good Donald Ross (Grosse Ile) course with exceptional greens and I had a father who talked about the architecture AND the architect.  Still, as a kid I didn't fully comprehend what it is I was looking at.  I don't think the penny properly dropped until a good 15 years later when I played my first links...Royal Troon circa 1991.  That was a serious eye opener which was enhanced by playing Hoylake, Birkdale, Lytham and TOC in short order.  I still recall hitting over many greens because of firm conditions and short flagsticks (remember those?).

I haven't really altered my ideas much of what makes for excellent golf, it was more a matter of finding these charactersics on non-links and better appreciating the the architectural/agronomy side of things rather than purely the playing strategies. So then enters Kington circa 1998...this sent me exploring more gravity golf which is really links golf to the extreme.  I have been hanging around this theme now for 20 years and really being quite picky about which grass I play on depending on time of year.  Because of this I tend to enjoy returning to courses I know and like in a larger ratio to seeing new courses.   I play probably 25% of the golf I used mainly due to injuries, but also because there are only a few courses in my immediate area which motivate me to play.  I guess the less I play the less I feel the need to play.

Ciao     

[Jamie Pyper]

I was 8 years old in 1966 on a family reunion holiday in Newcastle, Northern Ireland. I recall walking with my older brother along the path from the Slieve Donard Hotel to the first tee at RCD to watch our Dad tee off. I've never forgotten the magical feel of that hedgerow path, through the metal arch with Royal Country Down inscribed overhead, into a different world. It was like I'd discovered the entrance to the Secret Garden. We watch Dad tee off and disappear down the rumple of the first fairway and that landscape scene transformed me forever.  [size=78%] [/size]



The other memory from that same trip was the next day being crammed into a tiny Parlour with most other hotel guests and one little B&W TV watching England win their only (to date) World Cup Championship.

[Jaeger Kovich]

For me - It was the 7th hole at Shinnecock Hills. A family friend gave me tickets to the Wednesday practice round of the 2004 Open. I was in highschool, and had started playing golf about a year or two before that, w one year on the golf team that jr spring. I barely knew anything about the course, and spent all morning walking the golf course, mostly backwards. After a while, I decided to stop on #7 and sit down for a bit. Over the next hour I watched group, after group, after group, try to hit the green and couldn't. Then a group w Vijah, Darren Clark, Adam Scott, and 1 other top ranked player I can't remember came up to the 7th tee. They all dropped multiple balls, but nobody could hold the green. When I got home that night, I tried to explain something weird was going on with the 7th hole... Next thing ya know...


Pretty cool way to experience the power of architecture. I didn't take that Shinnecock US OPEN hat off till 2006 when I got one from Winged Foot!

[JC Urbina]

Back in the middle 80's while working for the Dye family, the first course I had a chance to see in Scotland was Prestwick, then the  National Golf Links of America shortly thereafter.


A neophytes entry into the world of golf architecture and all of its possibilities.

[Doug Wright]

Two separate events 10 years apart piqued my interest in golf course architecture. First, I made a trip to Scotland in 1990 that included several courses including North Berwick, Muirfield and Prestwick plus a walk around the Old Course and a round at the Old Musselburgh Links. I was fascinated by the history, variety, quirk and sheer solidity of the golf, so different from what I had experienced before. Fast forward 10 years, and I heard about this newish course in western Nebraska called Sand Hills. A search on early vintage Google led me to the GolfClubAtlas course profile on Sand Hills (truly an "aha" moment), and thence to discussions about Pacific Dunes. My first trip to Bandon in the early 2000s cemented my interest in golf course architecture.   

[Wade Whitehead]

A search on early vintage Google led me to the GolfClubAtlas course profile on Sand Hills (truly an "aha" moment), and thence to discussions about Pacific Dunes.

Over the years, at least 25 GCAers have told me that their first contact with the site was the result of looking for photos or information on Sand Hills.  Mine was.

WW

[JBovay]

When I was 8 years old, I was lucky enough to attend the final match of the U.S. Amateur at TPC Sawgrass with my father. We followed the match for 36 holes. Afterwards, I spent hours with the large-format program/yardage book, figuring out my optimal strategy for playing the course (at that age) and how I would play the course if I could hit the ball farther.

[Chris Mavros]

For me, it was Jeffersonville GC in Norristown, PA.  I had been playing for a few years at a lot of different courses, but always enjoyed my rounds at J-Ville a lot more than the other places I played.  I looked into who designed the course and found out it was Donald Ross, so I started reading more about him and sought out his other courses.  The shapes of the holes, placement of the bunkers, greens; realizing it all had a purpose of strategy and aesthetics, I started looking at golf in a whole new, and refreshing, perspective. 


As the years went by and I dove head first into learning and experiencing all I could on GCA, becoming more enraptured each day, J-Ville underwent a good amount of improvements, including much better conditioning, that eventually earned it top 10 status in PA with Golfweek.  Regardless of the ranking, it is still a no frills muni that you can walk for less than $20 during the week and remains one of my favorite Ross courses.  I enjoy going back each season and playing it as my own GCA experiences evolve and grow to see how it changes for me. 

[Stephen Britton]

Royal Melbourne Golf Club. I played pennant golf there when I was in high school then landed a greens keeping apprenticeship there when I was 17 years old in 1995, I ended up working there for 8 years before relocating to the States.