Making good great

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I can think of a couple of good courses, Harlech and Pyle and Kenfig, that could probably be made great if only they were allowed to take in some adjacent land, in these cases sand dunes and heavily protected.  However I can think of a fun course, Bull Bay, mildly eccentric in parts, which I'm sure could be made great by the acquisition of neighbouring land, at present occupied by cows and sheep.  That land is of the same humpy bumpy gorse-clad kind as the rest of the course.  A little land acquisition would mean that the lowland holes (clearly not original) could be taken out of play. However, I very much doubt that it's an affluent club.

A great many courses are bounded by houses and could not, therefore, be improved by land acquisition.  But are there courses which, as you play them, you think, 'If only they could get hold of THAT patch of land this could be turned into a great course'?

[Tommy Williamsen]

mark, I agree that the dunes that are unsued of Harlech would greatly help the course.  The forn 9 is difficult but the flat land makes it a little boring.  I have not understood its high ranking.  

It seems to me that P&K already has some holes in the dunesland on the back 9. When I played there a few years ago a thought I saw some playable holes there.  Is that correct?

Two other course that could get a great shot in the arm are Saunton West and Arklow in Irleland.Saujnto west has some wonderful dunesland that are unused.  Arklow has the same situation, but the dines are not as interesting.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tom, I fear the problem will be the same at each of them, namely that the dunes are protected environment and cannot be exploited for golf any more.  There's a potentially great course to be made on a spit of duneland on the south-east corner of Anglesey, on the opposite side of the Menai Straits from Caernarfon, but I think there would public outcry if planning application were made.  Somehow they got a contemporary 3rd 9 at Kennemer, but it's pretty eccentric.  However, I think Frank Pont is doing work there to improve it.

[David_Tepper]

Mark -

This topic has been touched on before.

Golspie, north of Dornoch, has some very nice linksland directly adjacent to the 7th hole.  I would love to see the club build two holes there to replace two of the less interesting inland holes (#14 & #15). I am afraid that will not happen, as some of the linksland has been appropriated for a caravan park over the past couple of years.

I doubt changing 2 holes at Golspie will move it from good to great, but it would certainly move it from good to very good.

DT    

[ForkaB]

I once started a thread on how a truly great colf course could be buiilt on top of Brora.  There is a huge amount of superb linksland available inside the boundaries of the course, and as good and enjoyable as it is, there are few holes on the course that could not be improved, in a Muccipure GCA sense.

The Luddites on the board didn't want to even discuss my modest hyopthetical

[Willie_Dow]

David and Rich:  I sure agree with both your observations about Golspie and Brora.  Certainly the acquisition of the caravan park would be better than fighting an environmental factor.

Mark:  How does one start up an evaluation of environmental factors which may or may not be obstacles ? Is there a course of study available to determine what is or is not acceptable ?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Willie, Interesting question.  I haven't a clue.  Sorry.