Is the canon open for template holes?

[Jordan Beasley]

I love the concept of template holes, specifically how it creates a shorthand language for people to discuss and compare the strategy of different holes, across different courses.


Practically speaking, however, it strikes me that the template-hole dictionary is awfully thin.  Most golfers, myself included, have little to no experience with or access to the Raynor/Macdonald courses at the core of the template hole canon.


Should we be creating and/or naming new templates?   


As an example - there is one type of hole I feel I have seen on multiple different courses (by different architects), but I don't have a catchy name like "cape" or "biarritz" to knit these holes together.


This hole as I have seen it is typically a long par-4 or reachable par-5. The hole gently doglegs right to left up and over a hill, with a similar fairway camber of high-right/low-left.  The distant green is blind from the tee and often open in the front to a running approach, and/or bunkered in a way to favor a faded approach shot.


Thus the thrilling challenge on the tee is to hit a powerful draw with enough distance to clear the crest of the hill, then imagine your ball taking a pleasing tumble down the hill to the middle or left side of the fairway.  The equally challenging second shot is usually above your feet and played with a long iron or fairway wood, to a green that often favors a fade.


Examples:


Dormie Club #8
Sand Hollow #6
Aetna Springs #6
Pasatiempo #10 (though a drawing approach is better here)
St. George's Hill #10 (inverse; cambers left to right)


Have others seen examples of this type of hole, and can we christen it with a name?

[John Challenger]

It could be Raynor's prize dogleg. The original, the 6th hole at The Lido, does turn to the right instead of the left and there is more bunkering on the right front of the green if you want to play down the line and go for it in two. There aren't trees covering the dogleg to make the second shot impossible.

[Mike Bodo]

Why are template holes always discussed in the long-ago past tense? I'd love to see a new wave of "template holes" created by some of today's contemporary architects so we aren't always referring to them longingly to the Raynor/MacDonald era.

[Tom_Doak]

Why are template holes always discussed in the long-ago past tense? I'd love to see a new wave of "template holes" created by some of today's contemporary architects so we aren't always referring to them longingly to the Raynor/MacDonald era.

I have a client who's been asking me to do this, and identify which holes I would want to repeat.  It's not on my priority list right now, and I'm a little concerned about being presumptuous enough to think that I have any holes that should be templated.  But it's possible we will do it 3-5 years from now.

[Mike Bodo]

I have a client who's been asking me to do this, and identify which holes I would want to repeat.  It's not on my priority list right now, and I'm a little concerned about being presumptuous enough to think that I have any holes that should be templated.  But it's possible we will do it 3-5 years from now.

Is it really so much template holes at the heart of the matter or template green complexes? I proffer the latter is more the juxtiposition of the coversation and with your excellent body of work there are definitely greens worth replicating. There's nothing wrong with having a trademark or signature green design that's worth duplicating where approporiate. Just remember, the highest form of flattery is imitation. If after your gone historians come up with a name for a particular style of green you've done time and again that others copy and put their spin on, you'll be revered same as Raynor, MacDonald, Ross, Mackenzie and others from that era. There's nothing wrong with wanting that type of legacy regardless what others think or say. I only wish more architects today strove to produce something so cool, unique and widely accepted as ground-breaking that they'd auto-repeat it where it was fitting to do so.


Even though Pete Dye didn't necesarily invent the "Island Green" he became the most famous for it and was routinely copied by others time and again.

[Jim Sherma]

I believe that the question we should be asking is the same one that McDonald asked - what are the ideal golf holes you would want to use for an ideal course. He used strategic concepts that were revealed by holes that he saw overseas and built those concepts into the sites available. What would those ideal holes comprise for the modern game? What range of shots/skills should a course be testing in the modern game?


My first thought:


Mid-length par three with angled shallow green similar to 12th at Augusta - punish short right and long left misses with the best play simply hitting to the middle of the green where your right to left margin is greatest - tests distance control and the ability to abstain from temptation

[Tom_Doak]

There's nothing wrong with having a trademark or signature green design that's worth duplicating where approporiate. Just remember, the highest form of flattery is imitation. If after your gone historians come up with a name for a particular style of green you've done time and again that others copy and put their spin on, you'll be revered same as Raynor, MacDonald, Ross, Mackenzie and others from that era. There's nothing wrong with wanting that type of legacy regardless what others think or say. I only wish more architects today strove to produce something so cool, unique and widely accepted as ground-breaking that they'd auto-repeat it where it was fitting to do so.

Mike:


I'm not sure I agree with you at all there. 


My legacy is trying to find inspiration in the ground I have to work with, with a huge bank of possibilities from other courses somewhere in the back of my mind.  The best of them [like the 4th at Barnbougle] were not inspired by any particular hole but by the crazy land we were given.  I did a template of the 4th at Barnbougle for the 18th hole at Sedge Valley, but I suspect that on my deathbed I will wish I hadn't.


For sure, guys like Jim Engh and Mike Strantz [and even Bill Coore] have had one or more go-to template holes they used in many or most of their courses.  I have tried to avoid that.  It's not like I haven't ever repeated myself, but there isn't any template that you will find on ten of my [so far] forty courses.


To be more complete, the challenge from this client is to build "the holes you've always wanted to build but never found the right place for," and that's a little more attractive, as it would allow me to realize holes I had planned out for projects that never got built.  I think the client thinks that I am spending my nights doodling ideal holes to build someday, but I have not really done that much in thirty years.  I am all about looking for what's already out there.

[Mike Bodo]

Tom,


That's fine. To each their own. I just tire of the reverent about template holes and greens as though there is no new ground to break and that the best of the best were created a century ago. It basically puts a lid on what's possible in the future and that regardless of what any architect comes up with, it will never equal or surpass what the golden age greats accomplished.

[Ira Fishman]

I believe that the question we should be asking is the same one that McDonald asked - what are the ideal golf holes you would want to use for an ideal course. He used strategic concepts that were revealed by holes that he saw overseas and built those concepts into the sites available. What would those ideal holes comprise for the modern game? What range of shots/skills should a course be testing in the modern game?


My first thought:


Mid-length par three with angled shallow green similar to 12th at Augusta - punish short right and long left misses with the best play simply hitting to the middle of the green where your right to left margin is greatest - tests distance control and the ability to abstain from temptation

This strikes me as the right question. Are there holes of such strategic merit that they warrant replication? My answer is yes with the caveat that the holes should not be overly dependent on the particular land form that produced them. I have not played a lot of modern courses, but suggest the following as worthy of replication and note that they could be included in courses independent of the land form of the original:


Bandon Dunes 5
SS Red 7
SS Blue 8 and 17


Ira