[Paul_Turner]

Mark(s) Rowlinson and Pearce are fans of Northumberland GC.

It certainly looks intriguing from above.

[TEPaul]

What in the hell are all those lines?

Is Northumberland a golf course or a collander or just a little of both?

[Paul_Turner]

Tom,  agricultural furrows.  Like at the Scarborough course you played.

[TEPaul]

Actually, make that more like a cheese grater.

[TEPaul]

"Tom,  agricultural furrows.  Like at the Scarborough course you played."

REALLY???

Are you sure about that? Well, forget that question---what else could it be?

Isn't it fascinating what that looks like from the air?

I thought that feature of Scarborough and some of the fairways of another course I played in Leeds were just fascinating to both look at and to play.

If some golf course architect had graded away those kinds of preceding features it would have been a real tragedy----architectural tragedy, in my mind. And it wasn't just the playability of the rolls it was the look of them on the ground and how the ridges were brown and the swales were green.

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

I haven't played the course (Colt/Braid) and I'd like to know how the ridges were integrated into the greens.  

Did the architects use the furrows for false fronts, internal ridges...?

[Paul_Turner]

The other quirk is (obviously) the horse racing track and how the course is routed within and outside it.

Is the track OB?

[TEPaul]

Paul:

There were none of those agricultural furrows in the greens of Scarborough East or the other course I played in Leeds that had some in some of the fairways. You can see in the aerial of Northumberland that there appear to be none in those greens either. That might be something of an overkill as one may feel they are playing golf on a total washboard.  

[TEPaul]

Paul:

This is just another example of how connected some of the original inland golf (and architecture) and the world of the horse really was.

For instance, for someone like a Tom MacWood to overlook or deny how completely interconnected many of the early GB INLAND courses were with things like racing and steeplechasing (and now farming in this example) is to deny or overlook historical fact, in my opinion.

In my opinion, the influence of the world of the horse had a whole lot more to do with early INLAND GB architecture than any A&C movement ever did at any time.

I don't mean to revisit old wounds and old contentions but facts are just facts, in my mind and they need to be aired----always.

[Jon Wiggett]

Tom,

at the course where I did my apprenticeship (Howley Hall, nr. Leeds) there were several ridge and furrow fairways and one green the ninth, that was also ridge and furrow although somewhat less severe than the fairways. Lupset Municiple at Wakefield also has a whole series of holes with fairways and greens with this feature.

Maybe the USGA could use this as a new way to save par. Instead of church pew bunkers they could have church pew fairways

[RJ_Daley]

Aren't those called "Rigruns" or similar word.  I think Rihc knows...

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Paul, I've e-mailed you some photos.  The racecourse is not out of bounds and the racecourse railings, hurdles and fences are Immovable Obstructions (Rule 24-2).  There is out of bounds beyond the fences or lines of white stakes to the right of the 1st, 2nd, 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th holes, (Rule 27-1).  Mark.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

As you can see, there is some excellent use made of diagonal bunkering.  The 1st and 18th are largely missing from this view, top left of image, and on the bottom right you are also missing a little of 13th, 14th and 15th.  

Another Colt course with very pronounced furrows in the fairways is Brancepeth Castle.  Unfortunately I don't think it is in hi-res on Google Earth.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I imagine the effects created here are a function of the time of day at which the image was captured.  I had a look at a few other courses I know to be heavily furrowed and none of them shows up on Google Earth.  I found a bit at Lickey Hills (Hawtree, public): 52°22'50.82"N 2° 0'30.47"W

[Brian_Ewen]

Is that really all rig and furrow ?

Forfar GC not far from me , has some fairways like this , which I used to think were unique .

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Try also the early holes of King's Norton:  stick in the post code:  B48 7ED

[Mark_Rowlinson]

There's a similar effect if you look at the 1st hole of Chicago Golf Club on Google Earth - or is that a mowing pattern at 90-degrees to the direction of the fairway?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Dick you were right we have discussed this before but as usual I can't find the link.  In England it's called ridge and furrow and in Scotland Runrig (and furrow?) and was a farmer’s technique going back to mediaeval times.  There’s and article on it in Wikepedia but me thinks your memory is faulty as to which ‘Scottish' member told us about the band.

TEP If you want to explore the equestrian connection with Golf I think you need to take it further back to the most suitable land.  I’m too knackered to remember them all, but I’ve often observed how some of the best noon links courses in GB&I are situated on old Royal Hunting grounds. E.g. Thorndon Park. Or on areas where racing always took place e.g. Hoylake, Walton Heath.  My contention is that the royals referred huntin’ (particularly in winter) on free draining land and naturally no one would want to race their horses through a swamp.  So the land that was suitable for those activities was also perfect for Golf.   The type of hurdle or obstacle came later but once you are using the same land it’s no coincidence that there are strong links between the two.

This brings me back to the picture. I’m very familiar with these ridges as I play a lot of golf on the heavy clay of Essex. It’s my understanding that the crops were grown on the top of the ridges and the channels helped drainage.  However if Northumberland racetrack has sandy soil as per my hypothesis above then once again my speculation is total B******8? Mark can you recall anything about the soil there?

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