Equipment, eras and architects

[Thomas Dai]

Metal headed drivers and fairway clubs generally came to prominence from the 1980’s and graphite shafts came along with them. Then over a period of time head size increased to 460cc and shafts got longer and lighter. And of course the ProV1 and it’s brothers and sisites came along from the year 2000.
This is a now a period of circa 30+ yrs.
Unless you were active in the game prior to this period you most likely will not have experienced with any level of frequency a steel shafted driver or fairway club let alone one with a wooden head. Similarly you probably will not have experienced a soft, easily cutable balata ball. And there’s a good chance you won’t have experienced clubs that aren’t cavity backs either.
Does not having experienced such equipment impede an architect understanding of the game and if so do you reckon it matters (or not)?
Atb

[Greg Smith]

Wellll....  Seth Raynor was barely a golfer, if at all; yet he clearly understood the game and how to design for it.

[Ian Andrew]

Does not having experienced such equipment impede an architect understanding of the game

I did grow up with all of what you described.
I still have my wooden drivers and my 1980's left-handed Titleist forged blades in my wooden golf locker in the basement


You know what ... it doesn't matter whether you did or didn't.
It's roughly the same game with some changes to distance.


I think playing in the wind and the weather in the UK can teach far more about design than playing with old technology could.

[Peter Pallotta]

Off Ian's post:
A bad first draft idea - ie design every course *as if* it were on a very windy site.
The wider playing corridors and larger greens and quixotic distances/hole lengths and more randomly-placed hazards aid the average golfer to better enjoy the game while not disadvantaging (or boring) the better player.
The one thing necessary are deep, round, sod-faced and penal bunkers.