Sound on the Golf Course

[Sean_A]

I like the sound of crunching seashells while walking on links paths. Shame so many of these paths are no longer. I also like the sound of freight train going by a course.

Ciao

[Ian Mackenzie]

My first round at Mammoth Dunes was interesting "auditory experience".


On the tee box of #4 or 5 and again on #14, it was so dead quiet...and I mean NO sounds but maybe a distant bird, that it was almost loud, if that makes sense.


No car noise, no white noise of a compressor, no water, no wind noise,.
It was magical.


We all commented on it.
Caddies broke our silent pensive refection with some off-colored remark about our sensitivities...

[Charlie Goerges]

My first round at Mammoth Dunes was interesting "auditory experience".


On the tee box of #4 or 5 and again on #14, it was so dead quiet...and I mean NO sounds but maybe a distant bird, that it was almost loud, if that makes sense.


No car noise, no white noise of a compressor, no water, no wind noise,.
It was magical.


We all commented on it.
Caddies broke our silent pensive refection with some off-colored remark about our sensitivities...

I'm curious what your surroundings were like in those very quiet places. Were there trees or were there dunes/hills surrounding you? Were you in a punch bowl or up high?

[Ian Mackenzie]

My first round at Mammoth Dunes was interesting "auditory experience".


On the tee box of #4 or 5 and again on #14, it was so dead quiet...and I mean NO sounds but maybe a distant bird, that it was almost loud, if that makes sense.


No car noise, no white noise of a compressor, no water, no wind noise,.
It was magical.


We all commented on it.
Caddies broke our silent pensive refection with some off-colored remark about our sensitivities...

I'm curious what your surroundings were like in those very quiet places. Were there trees or were there dunes/hills surrounding you? Were you in a punch bowl or up high?

Sorry for the lack of detail, Charlie.


It was at Sand Valley in north central Wisconsin.
Tee boxes elevated and surroundings were TREES and SAND and, yes, dunes in Wisconsin!


It was as if the silence had its own frequency.

[Charlie Goerges]

Sorry for the lack of detail, Charlie.


It was at Sand Valley in north central Wisconsin.
Tee boxes elevated and surroundings were TREES and SAND and, yes, dunes in Wisconsin!


It was as if the silence had its own frequency.

It was enough detail to make me want to know more!


But it gets at part of my question which is, what physical design choices can the architect make to have an influence on the sound. Which is why I asked about the surroundings. I wonder if they had any effect on the prevalence (or lack thereof) of the sound?

[Carl Johnson]

Sounds on the Carolina Golf Club course, which our former GM referred to as the Carolina Symphony.  Train tracks adjacent to the 7th fairway.  Heavy freight train traffic.  A grade crossing just beyond at Donald Ross Rd., which means three horn blasts (but long term  the plans are to close off the road and move the crossing further away, which should help a little).  Trees between the tracks and the fairway don't help deaden the sound.  Junk yard (Southern Metals Co.) sounds from crushing cars, across the road from the 6th and 14th greens and 7th tee (not every day, however).  Nearby fire station.  Police helicopters have a route over head between their two bases.  You get used to it.

[Michael Moore]

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence." - George Eliot
 
I am extremely fortunate to play at a course where the only noises are the waves, the birds, and the train whistle.
 
But you can hear these noises anywhere. My favorite golf course noise is the echo of a flushed iron off a tree-lined fairway.

[Kevin Pallier]

I've been wondering lately if sound is an underrated part of the golf experience. I'm curious how architectural/design decisions affect the sound (like how a greensite surrounded by a semicircle of dunes or trees sounds different than a totally exposed green etc.)


Additionally, what kind of sounds do you like or dislike on the course and what can be done to enhance or attenuate them as the case may be?

Nothing IMO beats the sound of waves crashing into rocks / lapping into shore near a golf course.


That said one of the best sounds I've heard was the crack from the drive in the tee area on the P5 5th at CPC.


The sounds of the ocean around 15-18 at the same course are pretty cool too.


One of the more interesting sounds I've heard on a lesser known course is that of drives in front of caves / rocky outcrops at Nowra GC (NSW - Australia). Obviously exacerbates the contact with the ball - and obviously the expletives that often follow. 



As Adam L said earlier some of the highway noise around Walton Heath are off putting.

[Jeff Tang]

Two come to mind, the first of which is timely this week:


Putting at Pinehurst on the Thistle Dhu and hearing the ball rip across the Bermuda is a cool experience / sound.


Playing some of the prairie golf courses where it is so quiet you can hear your drives land.

[Greg Hohman]

Playing some of the prairie golf courses where it is so quiet you can hear your drives land.

+1. Charlie, I can't explain why Jeff's tableau has your "psychological effect" on me.

For those who play the course/s where they were raised, the sounds of childhood might assert themselves.

[Jon Claydon]

One of my favorite courses in the Chicago area -- Beverly Country Club -- has some of the most intrusive noise from the surrounding roads and parks, including very loud music from time to time.