The Banksy of Golf Course Architecture

[Blake Conant]

I like the story of how one of the holes on Old Barnwells Kids Course was designed by an 8 year old.
Can you tell us a bit more about how this came to be?
Atb

When we were thinking about what to build at the Kids Course, Brian Schneider had the idea to create a “Little Lido Contest” open to members kids. One entry would be chosen and we said we’d include that design into our routing for the Kids Course. The prompt was to think outside the box, use unusual hazards, and focus on fun, not difficulty.


The winning design (of about 15 entries) featured a ramp hitting over a penguin bunker to a green 175 yards away. We didn’t build the hole exactly to plan, but the ramp was the feature that really grabbed us and something we hadn’t seen on a golf course before. And we did build two penguin bunkers beneath the ramp to play over (props to Gray Carlton who shaped those and made them recognizable and playable)


I’m purposefully leaving the designers name off this website (although i think he’s been recognized in the public newsletter and on the member channels), but i suppose we should’ve asked if he wanted to stay anonymous (or create a pseudonym!)

[Thomas Dai]

Thank you Blake.
This is wonderful.

Terrific and nice one by Brian for the contest idea and to others for following it through to fruition.
I recall as a wee nipper my mates and I laying out ‘a routing’ and building some ‘holes’ in a cattle and horses grazed field at the rear of my folks garden. Combination of golf course, soccer pitch, cricket pitch and rugby pitch depending on the time of year and the ground conditions. Great fun. Great memories too.
Atb

[Brett Hochstein]

To answer the original post, the Banksy of golf might manifest itself as a rogue golf architect or golf group “installing” small, pop-up forms of golf in urban areas, vacant lots, abandoned lots, etc. Creating a space for golf that’s not encumbered by yardage, acreage, par, using golf clubs, etc. Make it sort of a Ship of Theseus for golf. How many of the traditional elements of golf can you remove while still making it recognizable as golf? Maybe a developer wipes it out after a day, maybe it exists in a vacant lot for years or transforms after it’s initially built.

I saw a thing a couple of years ago about "street golf" where people were playing in urban areas using a different ball that wouldn't break windows . . . but you could still hit people and injure them, which is probably why it was going on in Europe instead of America.  Too many lawyers here!

Erik Anders Lang did one of his golf episodes on something similar to this in Portland. It was organized at a pub and that was their “clubhouse”. They'd play with tennis balls and clubs i believe they had a routing (or each person had their own routing) that started and returned at the pub and went through the streets. Holes where you could ricochet off cars and play under bridges and around corners and off signs. Think they played under the I-5.


It struck me that that’s not too far off from how original links were likely founded.

His episode on "Slum Golf" in India is even more of this, and I immediately thought about it while reading your first post (which you nailed, IMO). I've always thought something like this would be really fun, and my brother and I used to do something similar in our basement growing up.  I too think it embodies that original spirit of adventure and discovering holes over the links. Instead of hollows and sand scrapes though, it's brick walls and manholes.

[Thomas Dai]

A golf ball that doesn’t injure folks or damage property etc would provide opportunities for this kind of unorthodox golf and on an inexpensive basis.
There are some like the Almostfolf ball available - [size=78%]https://almostgolf.com/[/size] - which could provide for some more imaginative, adventurous even outlandish golf.
Other types may be available too.
Atb