Mark Parsinen - Course Design Goals

[Niall C]

The late Mark Parsinen has been mentioned in a few threads recently including of course the thread on Kingsbarns. As many have noted he was very generous with his time and also very engaging. Kingsbarns had not long opened when myself and a group of fellow wannabe golf course architects visited and spent half a day with Mark, walking the course and chatting about all things golf architecture later over soup and a sandwich. Before going he gave each of us a typed document titled "Perspectives on Course Design" which he had written and was dated "Summer 1999".


I'm not sure whether I'm breaking any copyright laws by reproducing his thoughts here but I tend to think he'd be very happy to have his thoughts and ideas shared on this forum for discussion. His thoughts are presented in bullet point format and I'll start with his thoughts on "COURSE DESIGN GOALS".


Niall


COURSE DESIGN GOALS
·         The course should elicit anticipation and hopefulness in players of all skill levels; let it test one’s perceptual ability, judgement, decision-making, shotmaking, and emotional poise; let it not be difficult for the sake of being difficult; rather let it be interesting and engaging.
·         Provide wide latitude for choice (wide fairways and play areas) but never let this lead to indifference (to line of play or length of shot); let asymmetry rule.
·         Limit choice in some instances; but let the stern tests be ones to embrace not fear.
·         As far as possible, keep the issues simple yet profound enough to engage and occupy the mind; let the issues be visual and dominating.
·         Punctuate with blind issues; let mystery have a place.
·         On the whole, let the player see the result of good play; let him see his shot carry a hazard, his drive take a favourable contour, or his approach nestle close to a pin.
·         Bring the sea into the active shotmaking frame as much as possible; let it be a real shotmaking issue or visually unsettling when illusory.
·         As far as possible, focus visual awareness on the course itself or on vistas of the sea and its surge against the rocky foreshore; minimize distant inland aspects; let the sea dominate visually.
·         Use the topography to its fullest; let the play twist and turn, flowing over, around through, into and atop the array of landforms.
·         Provide dynamic holes, ones likely to yield a broad versus narrow distribution of scores; let short par fours, long par fours, and short par fives be a major aspect of the course.
·         Let there be variety and seduction to the rhythm and flow of holes; let there be respites.
·         Let the course and its implicit test show a true champion’s full set of skills.

[David_Tepper]

Niall -

 Thanks for sharing his writing with us. Hard to argue with any of those points.

DT

[Niall C]

David
 
This was written for KB or at least while he was building KB. It's interesting to think how his thoughts might have changed over time and what ideas might have changed by the time he got to Castle Stuart. For instance, the second point "provide wide latitude for choice (wide fairways and play areas) but never let this lead to indifference (to line of play or length of shot); let asymmetry rule"
 
One of the niggles I have with CS is that on some of the par 4's/par 5's is that for the drive and perhaps second shot, it doesn't really make much difference where you are on the fairway other than as far up as possible.
 
Niall

[Michael Whitaker]

Niall - when I first played CS we had an extended conversation with the general manager. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember his name. But, he made it very clear that the course was designed for the average golfer to, hopefully, have their best score of the year. He said they wanted their customers to come off the course feeling thrilled from the scenery and glowing from their success. He said that was why the fairways were so wide and the greens had mild undulations.
I think they succeeded with their objective.

[Anthony Gray]

 He was all about fun and playable.


 I played Castle Stuart a few days after it opened. Mark was acquaintEd with the people,I was with. He was like a child talking about the course. He went in depth about the 11th hole. The placement of the high left bunker and the area to the right that allowed for the miss.


 I love both courses.

[Michael Whitaker]

Welcome back, AG. 👍👍

[Anthony Gray]

Welcome back, AG. 👍👍

 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Ronald Montesano]

I'm really interested in why certain native speakers of English believe that "myself" is an acceptable subject pronoun.

I'm not being salty, although I understand the potential to interpret it as such.

Asking for a colonist.

[Anthony Gray]

I'm really interested in why certain native speakers of English believe that "myself" is an acceptable subject pronoun.

I'm not being salty, although I understand the potential to interpret it as such.

Asking for a colonist.

 “Subject Pronoun” just blew my mind. Have no idea what that means. It’s not a word I’ve ever used myself.

[Duncan Cheslett]

I'm really interested in why certain native speakers of English believe that "myself" is an acceptable subject pronoun.

I'm not being salty, although I understand the potential to interpret it as such.

Asking for a colonist.

 “Subject Pronoun” just blew my mind. Have no idea what that means. It’s not a word I’ve ever used myself.

I’m with you Anthony.


I looked it up and I’m still none the wiser! 🤣


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_pronoun

[Sean_A]

I'm really interested in why certain native speakers of English believe that "myself" is an acceptable subject pronoun.

I'm not being salty, although I understand the potential to interpret it as such.

Asking for a colonist.

Didn't you make some sort resolution about this stuff?

Ciao

[Niall C]

Ron


As the miscreant in question I thought about responding with a witty reply but then I thought why take the thread further off topic ? So instead let me just ask if you have any thoughts or comments on Mark Parsinen's Course Design Goals ?


Niall

[Niall C]

Niall - when I first played CS we had an extended conversation with the general manager. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember his name. But, he made it very clear that the course was designed for the average golfer to, hopefully, have their best score of the year. He said they wanted their customers to come off the course feeling thrilled from the scenery and glowing from their success. He said that was why the fairways were so wide and the greens had mild undulations.
I think they succeeded with their objective.

Mike


It was Stuart McColm who is still there as far as I know. Stuart also worked on the construction of KB (IIRC). However let me ask you this question, do you remember your score at CS or even how you played ? I certainly don't and can't recall if I even kept a score the half dozen times I played the course. Yes, lovely scenery and there were a few shots that got the adrenalin flowing but also quite a few blah shots hitting into a wide open fairway with no real discernible preferred line. One of Mark's goals for the player was "let him see his shot carry a hazard, his drive take a favourable contour". I'm not sure he fulfilled that goal or at least accomplished it adequately enough at CS. KB might be a different story.

Niall

[Niall C]

Use the topography to its fullest; let the play twist and turn, flowing over, around through, into and atop the array of landforms.


I also thought the above was an interesting statement. Given that they moved a huge amount of earth to create the landforms in the first place, presumably with the routing in mind, how successful did they achieve this at Kingbarns and at Castle Stuart ?


Niall

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

I'm really interested in why certain native speakers of English believe that "myself" is an acceptable subject pronoun.

I'm not being salty, although I understand the potential to interpret it as such.

Asking for a colonist.

 “Subject Pronoun” just blew my mind. Have no idea what that means. It’s not a word I’ve ever used myself.

Anthony, whether you were aware of it or not, you did use "myself" correctly in the above sentence.

It's nice to have you back on the DG, irrespective of the grammar and spelling mistakes. 

[Tom_Doak]

Use the topography to its fullest; let the play twist and turn, flowing over, around through, into and atop the array of landforms.

I also thought the above was an interesting statement. Given that they moved a huge amount of earth to create the landforms in the first place, presumably with the routing in mind, how successful did they achieve this at Kingbarns and at Castle Stuart ?

I think in both cases you have to interpret this as using the created topography to its fullest . . . meaning, doing shaping work that focuses on influencing the roll-out of drives and approach shots, instead of just building flat fairways with lots of hazards.  I think they did that pretty well on both courses, although it goes over many people's heads as long as they've stayed in the fairway.

[Peter Pallotta]

edit.