Golf Architecture is not a Labour of Perfec

[Jeremy_Glenn.]

Ian Andrew's “Hall of Shame” post of the cedar hedge was an interesting one, in large part due to the reactions it produced.

While none would argue that the cedar hedge was odd looking and unusual, there seemed to be variances of opinion on the worth of that feature.  Some saw it as a negative, others as a positive.

I, for one, see it as a positive.  And I’ll try to explain why.

There is too great a strive for perfection in the world.  Not just in golf, but in all artforms.  I like to compare it to Rock & Roll vs. Pop.  Today, Pop music is basically a pre-fab industry, with young, beautiful singers performing the latest generic song with digitally enhanced sound and everything choreographed flawlessly.

Rock & Roll, on the other hand – particularly in decades past – had an inherent imperfection to it.  The singers weren’t necessary good looking, the songs had character, the sound wasn’t as artificial and “programmed”, and those guys couldn’t even spell koreografy.

It’s basically akin to the difference between a line drawn by hand and one drawn by computer.  The former is not perfect.  It waves about a bit, it’s thinner here and thicker there.  Yet it’s a much warmer, softer line than the cool precision of a mechanical line.

It’s also the occasional cracking of the singer’s voice.  It’s the brief feedback on the amplifier.  It’s the minute pause on the piano as the artist moves his hand.  It’s the funny shape of a home-made cookie.   It’s the rugged texture of a carpenter’s chair.  It’s the little scar on a actor’s face.  

And so it is as well the entrance-road cutting across the first hole.  It’s the non-returning nines.  It’s the par 71.  It’s the blind tee shot on the 5th hole.  It’s the ditch running down the 8th fairway.  It’s the overhanging branches on the 11th tee.  It’s the ridiculously small 12th green.  It’s the chainlink fence lining the right side of 14.   It’s the silly looking fairway bunker over on 16.  It’s the large tree smack in front of the 17th green.

It’s the cedar hedge in Ian's post.

All these features, these wrinkles, must not be ironed out of the design. In our endless strive to create the perfect setting, we are killing the very elements that form the true character of the golf course, it memorability and it’s charm.

Long live the quirck!

[A_Clay_Man]

Jeremy- I would totally agree with your concept. Afterall how many courses can you remember that are the cookie cutter crap that has pass for GCA over the last 40 years? I know I can't remember much unless there was something of note or different about them.

Is this the real slant and going forward positives about this website, an end to the mundane crap.

[Jeff Mingay]

Jeremy,

I like your post here. Great analogy. But still, I can't agree that the cedar hedge fits with your other examples!

[redanman]

Great post, I am still not so sure about the hedge as part of the one side of the analogy.

Certainly it injects some humor into the equation.  In and of itself it is an enjoyable single laughable quirk, but not worthy of reproduction.

Perfection is an desirable and unattainable goal and I am still searching for the flaws in the young Catherine Deneuve and Grace Kelly.

As for a golf course..........sometimes age enhances, othertimes detracts.  In the case of the hedge, it is the latter.  When they were little bitty hedges, what were they thinking?  Perhaps a club president was losing too many balls in the stream!  Perhaps the hedge replaced a topped shot bunker as the president became more talented.  

What's in them there Cuban cigars you must be smoking up there Jeremy, eh?    

[Mike_Cirba]

Jeremy;

Excellent post and I really like your creative thinking.  

The hedge, however, hmmmmm....

I'm the same guy who just became enamored last week in seeing a new course that utilized an existing 3-foot high stone wall to protect a green (sits 15 yards in front of it) on a reachable par five.  

However, as much as I LOVE quirk, the wall seems to be a hazard that one can purposefully avoid by laying up, etc.

With the hedge, someone might never make it off that tee!!  It looks like something I have in those recurring "golf nightmares", where I'm trying to play and something (i.e. backswing restricted by a wall, fairway about 1 yard wide, trying to play indoors) is preventing me.

Quirk is great....I'll even settle for fluky and idiosyncratic.  However, I think the hedge falls into the category of horrid.  

[Dan Kelly]

Let's leave the hedge out of it, and ...

... intending no offense to any of the rest of you, who've entertained and informed me with *** insights (many of them JUST AS GOOD) on uncountable occasions over the past year ...

... I don't think I've seen a BETTER post than this (despite -- or perhaps because of -- its own tiny flaws):

"It’s basically akin to the difference between a line drawn by hand and one drawn by computer.  The former is not perfect.  It waves about a bit, it’s thinner here and thicker there.  Yet it’s a much warmer, softer line than the cool precision of a mechanical line.

"It’s also the occasional cracking of the singer’s voice.  It’s the brief feedback on the amplifier.  It’s the minute pause on the piano as the artist moves his hand.  It’s the funny shape of a home-made cookie.   It’s the rugged texture of a carpenter’s chair.  It’s the little scar on a actor’s face.  

"And so it is as well the entrance-road cutting across the first hole.  It’s the non-returning nines.  It’s the par 71.  It’s the blind tee shot on the 5th hole.  It’s the ditch running down the 8th fairway.  It’s the overhanging branches on the 11th tee.  It’s the ridiculously small 12th green.  It’s the chainlink fence lining the right side of 14.   It’s the silly looking fairway bunker over on 16.  It’s the large tree smack in front of the 17th green.

[Hedge left out of it.]

"All these features, these wrinkles, must not be ironed out of the design. In our endless strive to create the perfect setting, we are killing the very elements that form the true character of the golf course, it memorability and it’s charm."

Thank you, Jeremy.

[RJ_Daley]

Jeremy, kudos for your fine writing.  Perhaps you should get a poetic sideline going to the GCA you practice.  I also like how you exhol the virtues of the occurence of quirk that can be found on the land and incorporated into a design of a golf course.  But the difference to me, is that it is a natural quirk that belongs to the land.  Not a planted hedge or a pre-existing yet constructed stone wall 15 yards off the front of a reachable par 5.  yeezus chrimini cripes...
that sucks!

[Eric Pevoto]

Dick,

I'd argue that the wall is part of the history of the property and so lends to the sense of place or what Jeremy calls charm.  I'm not saying it has to hold any major historical significance.  It's part of the lore; by using it in the layout, it has continued the story.  

Of course, I've never played the hole so I'm not sure I should comment.  

I too think Jeremy's post is one of the best I've seen.  The desire for perfection and a "glossy" finish are all part of the franchise mentality of which I've grown weary.  

Last night, I reread Gil Hanse's "Designing in the Field" from Masters of the Links.  In it, he's got a great quote from Bill Kittleman to the effect that "there's not much home cooking these days, it's all microwave."  

Home cooking and folklore; sounds like a great 19th hole!

[Dan Kelly]

The desire for perfection and a "glossy" finish are all part of the franchise mentality of which I've grown weary.  

The franchise mentality: Exactly!

[Andy Hodson]

Mike C
You have those kind of dreams too? I thought I was the only one. One variation I have is having to hit through a three foot wide doorway or space in the trees or some other such nonsense.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone in my unconcious weirdness.

[Mike_Cirba]

Andy;

EXACTLY!!  

What the dream usually means to me is that my subconscious is needing to get out and play, but something (i.e. time, commitments, etc.) is preventing that!  

[Dan Kelly]

One variation I have is having to hit through a three foot wide doorway or space in the trees or some other such nonsense.

Those are DREAMS?

Not the way I play! I LIVE for trying to hit 3-foot-wide holes in the trees! And for failing to pull it off, of course.

[ForkaB]

Mr. Glenn's post is superb and reminiscent of previous discussions of the importance of imperfection in art.  The analogy to pop music is particularly solid.  The franchising metaphor is also thoughtful.

As Mr. Cirba well knows, I have had those golfing dreams too.

[Bob_Huntley]

Mike C.

My dream is I am trying to put a tee into a pine table in the Grill room at the club and then drive a ball through an open window. The down swing is never finished. Dr. Katz..... help!

[Mike_Cirba]

Bob;

Oh yes, I've also had that dream of trying to put the tee into an inpenetrable surface, with the resulting frustration.  (oh wait...am I thinking of the Pennsylvania winter? )

I also know the one of trying to get the ball from "inside" to "out", and I think we can probably imagine what that one represents to the psyche, even without the good Doctor Katz.  

It's amazing that I never actually get to hit any of the shots in those dreams, Bob.  Sounds as though you're similarly afflicted.

Thinking about it, perhaps Katz does Group Therapy??

[Jeremy Glenn,]

It’s important for me to mention that I believe that a “good” quirk cannot be manufactured.  It just happens.

The cedar hedge, while man-made, just “happened”.  Nobody planned for it to grow into the monster it became, and no-one went about planting that hedge with the express purpose of creating a quirk 20 years down the road.

That’s why I really don’t mind the hedge at all.  It’s a funny accident that adds charm to the hole.  I wouldn’t design one myself, not only for the reasons mentioned above but also because it does border on silly.  Yet if one compares the picture with the hedge to the one without it, the hedge-free hole, while more standard and traditional, looks quite dull in comparison.  At the very least, it’s far less memorable.   (That’s no slight against Ian!  He didn’t design either option!)

But it REALLY is a matter of opinion.  I can certainly understand those who say tear it down.  I promise I won’t chain myself to that hedge!  

[A_Clay_Man]

I am curious as to why people seem to think that that hedge is in play? Sure, if I hit a low shot that isn't in the three foot gap, I'm probably SOL. But don't I deserve some penalty for either missing the shot or choosing the wrong club?

What I'd like to know is who of you dislike it because you feel a GCA imperative is to be able to see the whole hole?

[Rick Shefchik]

I don't know how much of the hole is visible over the tops of the cedars, but I do think it is a GCA imperative to be able to see more of it than you can through a three-foot peephole.

[henrye]

The hedge has character.  There is no doubt that it's in play for a great many golfers.  Could one remove half (one side of) the hedge to maintain some of the hole's nostalgia while reducing its absurdity?