It’s more about the $$$ than we think

[Ben Sims]

The point of this thread is not to complain, it is just to remind everyone that the courses we all play today are and were very much impacted by what was spent (how much or how little) to build and maintain them.  Might keep that in mind when judging what’s there

I apologize Mark, but this last paragraph is where I thought you were headed.


Of the dozen or so golf courses I’ve identified as the ones I love the most, construction cost probably has least to do with why. I’d guess it’s extremely disparate. As a lover of golf courses, I try to make a judgement on what’s in the ground and nothing more. Does that make me unthoughtful and a conspicuous consumer of golf architecture? Maybe. I’m okay with that. Lovers of cars frequently don’t consider the limitations of engineers either. Or lovers of food. Or lovers of art. Or (insert other things we love and *judge*).

[Mark_Fine]

Ben,
Nothing wrong with not being concerned about costs and just judging what is there. I did that for the longest time as well.  As I said in my one post, that changed for me as I started to realize all the challenges facing the architect one of the many being $$$ (at least for some). 

[Thomas Dai]

This thread highlights what a complex game golf has become.
It’s essentially a simple ball, stick, hole game. It’s all the malarkey surrounding it that makes it complex and expensive.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had at Ballyliffin where an older member described the place as “The Old Course was made by one man with a hand mower, the Glashedy was made by lots of men with lots of big machines”.
Cut the grass and play?
Just saying.
Atb
 

[Mark_Fine]

Thomas,
Good quote from the member at Ballyliffin.  Maybe a bit of an exaggeration about only a hand mower but the point is well made.


This could be the topic for a whole new thread but which architect/s helped trigger the spending of massive amount of $$$ that now often go into golf course design/construction?


Obviously finding courses vs building them was an evolutionary process in golf course architecture but some architects clearly built their courses vs tried to find them with a hand mower.  Many $$$ were involved in their designs and most of us love what they built.  Heck today we spend massive amounts of $$$ to restore these classic designs or even completely reconstruct them