Today's courses in a hundred years

[Matthew Runde]

I'm pretty new to GCA,com (more about me below), but I've been reading and enjoying it.  An idea I've been considering, lately, is  how today's courses (built in the past 10 or 15 years) will be perceived a hundred years from now.  Will people revere them the way we do courses built during the Golden Age?  Will they consider most of today's designs to be strategically interesting?  Will they find our construction techniques primitive?  What about the aesthetics of today's designs?  Will the courses be considered beautiful, ugly, boring, or something else?  What do you think?

-----

About me:

Matthew Runde
St. Petersburg, Florida
28 years old
Marketer/Web Designer/User Interface Designer
BA in Visual Arts, from Eckerd College

I like anything creative, and once I learned a little about golf course architecture, I became fascinated by it.  I've read Doak's Anatomy of a Golf Course, and I keep going back to it as I discover more of the world's famous holes.  Currently, I'm reading Shackelford's Grounds for Golf and enjoing Thomas' designs.  I like the way in which Thomas used massive bunkers to create options and make players think.

I want to gain some practical experience in course architecture, and I'm interested in working with an architectural firm as a marketer/Web designer/intern.  I contacted the ASGCA about possible opportunities, and they promised to put a notice in their April newsletter.  So far, I haven't heard from anybody (not surprising, considering the economy).  I'll get some experience, one way or another.

Golf is big in my family.  My father - despite being a Harvard grad - gained the approval of his future father-in-law only by beating him in a round of golf.  So, I may owe my existence to the game!

[Mike Nuzzo]

everyone will think how crazy it must have been to walk so much and be astonished how we got around without one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLccl_NWDQE&eurl

[Tim Bert]

everyone will think how crazy it must have been to walk so much and be astonished how we got around without one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLccl_NWDQE&eurl

I hope they come up with a noiser and bulkier version before they market it to the public.

[Bill_McBride]

everyone will think how crazy it must have been to walk so much and be astonished how we got around without one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLccl_NWDQE&eurl

Mike, could that be configured so that you could hover at ground level, play your shot and then fly off after it?  Think of all the energy you'd save with no hopping into and out of the cart!

[Mike Nuzzo]

Sorry Matthew.

Water may be an issue in that they will marvel how much fresh water we wasted on golf courses either because they irrigate below ground or they use salt water and paspalum.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Matthew,

I will look for your name in the newsletter.....I know that the ASGCA webmaster position is filled right now and in very capable hands.

As to your original question, I think nearly all golf courses get better with age. Problems get fixed, turf matures, trees grow, edges soften.  Golden Age courses look better now than they did when first open, despite the fact that we pick at some of the last 3% of the details like how the bunkers are shaped now vs. the old days (or our image of the old days, which might not be correct)

A good modern example is the reaction to Bellrieve and Hazeltine when they hosted majors as new courses vs a few years ago when the matured.  Both got signifigantly better reviews from players when they had matured a bit, even if neither is a top 25 course in anyone's book.

[RJ_Daley]

I think it is highly possible that golf will shrink drastically, and go back to a very narrow passtime of a few weathy elite.  As far as golf has come in a 100 years to widespread popular play, it can retreat under the wrong social and economic global pressures.  All those courses being built in places like China, could disappear in such a country with one sweep of the ruling elite's pen and decree.  Or, the land and resources even in our country become so valuable and needed for crop production or commercial/industrial and housing expansion that no economic sense could be made of operating a mere golf course for prices of rounds that any normal person could afford.  As it is now, the costs to build and maintain many public access courses around the country require green fees that are becoming out of the realm of regular folk, or to the extent that golf isn't a passtime often practiced, but a rare treat that average folk only afford infrequently.  I think that if golf can't keep a base of regular play among averagely situated people, it will only retreat to the enclaves of well situated, and the need for courses to be played by masses will diminsh and yeild to other land demands that are more economically productive and fall into a few needed to service a smaller group who actually play the game.  100 years can bring some unimaginable changes, as we have constantly seen. 

[Carl Rogers]

Mr. Daley,

You are right.  Half empty or half full .... I think that many have already realized the problems & issues and they will re-invent and adapt.   The game will is eternal.