What is under the Emperor's New Clothes...

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom Paul's thread on what one might learn by spending a week on a project site got me thinking (a quite dangerous thing I'll admit) about what we so rarely talk about on this golf course architecture website, that is, the architecture and engineering that go into building the design of the architect.

Having worked in the construction industry for a number of years I worked on many projects where an "Interior Designer" did the finishes. The problem was that in a number of cases the "Designer" had no real idea of engineering necessities involved in moving load-bearing walls, roof construction for drainage, hidden spaces into which proper plumbing vent pipes and a/c ducts could be placed, etc...

That is really how many of us on here are when it comes to understanding the necessary underpinnings of golf course construction that enable great designs to happen and mature into long-lasting works of art. Today a new golf course is not landscape architecture in an ultimate form; it is really a combination of trades working together that allows for that landscape architect's vision to be achieved.

So, I thought that we, the golf course architecture "Interior Designers" might call upon the those who actually work on the underpinnings of golf course construction sites, the undergarments as it were without which the Emperor's New Clothes would look like.. nothing, to enlighten us on some of these details and how, if done wrong, they can effect, long-term care and maintenance of a golf course.

So guys, where do we begin?

[Chip Gaskins]

it would be fun to see what the results would be if a bunch of architects got the same site (i.e. routing) with nothing but the center lines cut and the main line irrigation down, just to see how different the final product would look like.  rough tee locations, but no actual tees, no bunkers at all, basic green sites but nothing else.  basically just the skeleton of the course. 

[TEPaul]

Chip:

What you said there I've called the "designing up" phase. I have also said many times I think if you gave 20 different architects the chance to do that designing up phase of a set routing ultimately they would come up with perhaps 20 fairly different looking golf courses.

I think that example you gave is just another reason this art form of golf course architecture really is so unique and certainly unique to any other sport.