How was it decided to build golf courses in the dunes?

[Tommy Williamsen]

I think most of us love golf in big dune-scapes like there are at lahinch. It is exhilarating and thrilling to watch balls fly over dunes or bound along the ground between them. It would seem to me that building courses in big dunes would have been difficult 125 years ago, given the earth moving machinery that was in use. It would seem that building courses like the Castle Course at Lahinch would make more sense. How did it happen that folks decided to build in the dunes and not on flatter land?

[Thomas Dai]

Enniscrone was on the flatter dune land until money and machines made going into the big dunes possible. Same with Portstewart. I’m sure there are many other examples and playing in a slightly different/flatter area in the early days at Lahinch wouldn’t surprise me.
Ease of construction and moving around generally are usually pretty important considerations unless lots of £$£$ is available. Walking through shifting open samsy areas isn’t easy now and in footwear and clothing of , like hobnail boots and for ladies long dresses, it would have been even harder. And suitable grass to provide a reasonable playing surface doesn’t necessarily grow naturally within big dunes.

I reckon the early day folks at Cruden Bay would have looked at the big dunes on the beach side of the current 5th-6th-7th holes and thought about playing in that area but, having walked in that area myself, I know how severe the terrain is and how difficult it is to walk there let alone consider playing golf there.


And then there’s golf equipment. If you’ve played with an early long-nosed wood or an early iron and a circa that period ball, well elevation isn’t easy. Another reason for playing mainly on the flatter land.

Atb

[Jim Nugent]

Tommy, a guess: the dunes land was cheaper and more available. 

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy, a guess: the dunes land was cheaper and more available.

I thought of that and that it is not conducive for farming.

[Thomas Dai]

Tommy,
This Lahinch photo seems to show old time golf being played on the flatter land out by Dough Castle and the Inagh River bridge, land that is now part of the Castle Course.
atb

[Duncan Cheslett]

It seems to me that the earliest courses were laid out on flattish linksland, often in the lee of the dunes bordering the sea itself.


Early courses which were built on more extreme terrain, such as Silloth and Tenby, were most likely routed there because there was a lack of suitable linksland further inland. It was build in the dunes or not at all.


Where there was ample flat linksland the dunes were largely ignored. Harlech is a good example.

[Peter Pallotta]

Sounds plausible to an untutored ear, ie that necessity was the mother of invention.
From what I read about the design of many modern courses: the great ones had nary a necessity to contend with -- but then again, neither did more than a few that proved no better/more interesting than average.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Lahinch started with 13 holes on the other side of the road. It was Charles Gibson (in 1907) that took the course in to the big dunes.


Ballybunion tried to buy 9 holes on arable land before Fred Smith convinced them otherwise in 1926.


Yet other Victorian courses (Sandwich and Prestwick to name but two) embraced the fun of hitting over the big hills.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Where there was ample flat linksland the dunes were largely ignored. Harlech is a good example.

I wondered about Harlech when I played it. Thought the same thing about Portstewart when the opened the new nine. I guess the same thing could be said of Ballyliffen Glashedy. The Old Course was laid out on smaller dunes. Saunton East was built on smaller dunes than its shorter and younger brother. Down the road, however, St. Enodoc was built on some giant dunescape.

[Tommy Williamsen]

So, did golf in the dunes just evolve in each place? I just wonder if at some moment it folks from all over GB&I decided to build in the dunes.

[Sean_A]

Yet other Victorian courses (Sandwich and Prestwick to name but two) embraced the fun of hitting over the big hills.

Burnham too was all about bashing over dunes rather than the much more conventional Colt approach of playing between dunes. 

I am not sure there were steadfast rules about courses where courses were built.  Its probably more a matter if a local club could be formed and if so, often times the location options were limited. I suspect often times the land was chosen prior to the formation of a club.  As in the original members already knew the potential landlord was amenable to leasing the land for golf.

Ciao

[David_Tepper]

The grounds on which golf is played are called links being the barren, sandy soil from which the sea has retired in recent geological times. In their natural state links are covered with long, rank, bent grass and gorse…links are too barren for cultivation; but sheep rabbits, geese and professionals pick up a precarious livelihood on them. WALTER SIMPSON

[Ally Mcintosh]

Yes, in general I think the trend went a little like this:


1. Pre-1875 = Low dunes, primarily because most of the golf was on the East coast of Scotland where there are no big dunes but also because this land tended to be closer to towns and easier to graze. Of course, we have exceptions such as Prestwick.


2. 1875 - early 1900’s = Bigger dunes as everyone embraced the fun of the blind up ‘n’ over and there was still zero earth moving so it was necessary with certain bits of land.


3. 1920’s - 1970’s = Lower dunes or less quirk / blind shots brought on by the Colts of this world, the modernists who actually moved a little earth and deliberately routed courses with “classic” holes but not outrageous ones.


4. 1970’s to now = Bigger Dunes, really because Ireland was the only place building in the second half of the twentieth century and the west coast is almost exclusively big stuff. Then in later years, the need for photo opportunities and instant “wow” gratification.


All above made up on the spot and open to lots of exceptions to the extent that I might be completely wrong.

[Adam Lawrence]

Ally -- you said there were countless exceptions to your rules; one interesting one is Montrose, where Colt took the course _into_ the big dunes just before WW1, but the holes were never entirely happily received, and were basically abandoned during the 1920s.