Do you feel that a course has been over-designed or trying too hard to impress?

[Tom_Doak]

Im genuinely interested and don’t mean this contentiously, what do we think Tom Simpson would think of Lido, Lawsonia, Garden City, or Tamarack?

Unfortunately we can't ask him.  I'm guessing he would have appreciated Garden City much more than the others.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Hi Tim,

Have just done an Initial Concept Routing Masterplan on one project. Its a nine hole course and there are 3 x 3 hole loops inspired by Flempton Golf Club however have added spice to it that there is a reverse routing for each loop.

This has created 8 different variations - 9 holes wise - is this over designing?? I would probably say yes in some ways however can be a good marketing ploy to attract younger golfers so that they are playing a different course each day or so.

Cheers
Ben

Hey Ben
Seemed a good math problem..... I counted 48 variations/sequences/routings.
Good luck
Mike

[Bruce Katona]

Slapper:

I visited the 1st iteration on Union League back when it was Sand Barrens and look forward to seeing if I can a peak at the new rendition.


Moving 1.6 million cy of material is a major earthwork project, but like we used to say " The good news is it's all sand - NO BLASTING required!"

[Wayne_Kozun]

I have just returned from St Lucia and played a few rounds at Cabot St Lucia.  That is a course that has a large number of gorgeous holes, but I am not sure if it tries to hard to impress, or if that is just that natural outcome of building a course in such a location.

[archie_struthers]

 


When   Stone Harbor GC in southern NJ re-opened after a total redo by Desmond Muirhead it was way over engineered  in my opinion at the time.  Thought that Desmonds' use of symbolism and Norse Mythology in the design were more than a little bit crazy. Many thought his architecture was inspired by Timothy Leary


However all that being said I was intrigued by the angles and stark features that were so far from the norm that it constantly challenged me to think hard.  Unfortunately I think that it put so much influence on the tee shot that really good drivers of the golf ball had a huge edge on the rest of us, even beyond the norm. If you could hit it 280 plus the advantage just jumped exponentially.
I'm not saying that there wasn't interesting , just a little too far over the top for me!

There is no denying he built something that he wanted and damn the detractors