Golf Architecture Topics, with a catch?

[Mark_Fine]

Last spring, I made a post about our golf architecture articles in Golf Tips Magazine.  Tom Ferrell and I have been having a blast and the magazine’s editors love them.  They have been giving us three pages along with photos and diagrams.  

We realize no one here reads Golf Tips but that is exactly why we are targeting that magazine.  You can't always be preaching to the choir    This is our attempt to help educate the regular golfer about golf architecture.  At the same time the “catch” is to suggest that by learning about this stuff, it can help improve their golf game.  That is why they are buying the magazine in the first place.   With a circulation of something like 1.75MM, these readers can have an influence on the courses we all play.  

We’d love to get some more ideas from everyone on this site.  And again remember who the audience is.  Our articles to date include:

- Beware The Short Par-4,
- Wide Open: A New Angle on Width,
- Tree Times: Architects and Arborists
- Bunker Down, and
- Blind Shots and Bad Bounces: It's Just Not Fair

Those of you who have read any of the articles, we’d love to get your feedback (here or offline).  And thanks for offering some more ideas to add to our own.  

Mark

[George Pazin]

Mark -

I've enjoyed the articlese I've read thus far, which I think were the first 3 on your list. Thank you very much for choosing a Merion hole for your short par 4 - it would have been more obvious to choose something like Riviera's 10th, but I'm happy to learn more about Merion.

I'll have to think about it some more, but off the top of my head, I'd like to see an article challenging some of the conventional wisdom of golf - i.e. adding length to combat length, narrowing the fairways & growing the rough to promote accuracy, flattening greens so you can increase the speed, because stimping 14 is tougher than 10 regardless of contours, etc. This might even be too much for one article, it might have to be a series.

I played Inniscrone (in Philly) and Lehigh on back to back days. I shot low 90s at Inniscrone and low 100s at Lehigh, yet I lost a couple tee shots and incurred some penalties at Inniscrone, while I didn't lose a ball at Lehigh. Most people still don't understand what "defending par at the greens" truly means.

I think an article about why subtle courses will always be underrated might provide some insight as to the foundations of gca. There were recently some posts on here about how the interplay of tee shots, approach shots and green contours all relate, which is in direct contrast to the current en vogue notion  of independent shot values and course rankings. You can use Hidden Creek as the poster child for this phenomenon.

I also think it might be worth doing an article on your First Tee practice facility.

[Mark_Fine]

George,
Glad you enjoyed the articles.  Thanks for the feedback.  I even heard from Mike Malone about the one on trees.  He posted it in the lockroom at Rolling Green    Hope it helps the cause.

You have some good ideas.  Please keep them coming.  And yes we will eventually write something about our project in Bethlehem.  The outside "Birdieball" course is finished.  Just some grassing to do in the spring.  The building is also nearly complete.  It is very exciting and could lead to numerous spinoffs.  

Mark  

[TEPaul]

"This is our attempt to help educate the regular golfer about golf architecture.  At the same time the “catch” is to suggest that by learning about this stuff, it can help improve their golf game.  That is why they are buying the magazine in the first place."

Mark:

Good for you! I'm glad to see the average golfer is being offered some educational tips and pointers about golf architecture. In my opinion that's what some of the large publication golf magazines should be doing as well with these lists they concentrate on. They should be giving the average golfer architectural pointers on the architecture of those courses and what it is about them that makes them architecturally notable.

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
I give the credit for this to the editors of Golf Tips.  They took a chance dedicating the space that they do for us to golf architecture.  It only took Tom and I about four hours during a round of golf at LACC to twist their arms  Guess I learned that long ago - there is no better place to do business than on the golf course.  

So what do you suggest would be a good "educational" golf architecture topic?  I listed some of the ones we've done.  Did you read any of them?  If not, grab a copy of the latest issue (Barnes & Noble or Borders carries it) and have a look.  It will give you an idea of the kind of message we try to get across.  
Mark  

[JNC Lyon]

Any way to get these articles online?  Would love to have something new to read about GCA, especially short par-fours.

[Mark_Fine]

JNC,
Unfortunately, they are not online, at least not yet.  The short par four article was from the June issue.  If you could get a back copy, I think you would find it interesting. It can be ordered online on the Golf Tips website.
Mark

[peter_p]

Mark,
A crow doesn't play golf. If you think that the way the crow flies is the best way to play a hole, or a shot, you may be missing a lot.
Look at all the contours to see if they will help funnel the ball toward the hole.

[RJ_Daley]

How about something like: "I hit the ball right where I was supposed to, didn't I"?  Or, "it looked obvious from the tee, what happened".  

Of course, these topics are getting at the line of charm ideas.  Also, the camoflauge concepts, or "It didn't look like that from back there on the tee".

[Jason Topp]

"What the color of the grass tells you about the way you should attack a course" - contrast of firm and fast v. soft with tips regarding attacking each.

Why did my putt break uphill?  - discussion of greens set against a big sideslope and how to tell where the high and low point is on a course with a pronounced sideslope

[Mark_Fine]

Interesting ideas.  Thanks.  Let me ask a question in a slightly different way - If you had one chance to write something about golf architecture that would also help improve a golfer's game (you have to keep them interested), what would you write about?

[Forrest Richardson]

Ball Washers — How to Pick a Good One, Even In Bad Weather

Is Your Divot Repair Technically a Renovation or Restoration?

The Pros & Cons of Reading a Matt Ward Review Before Playing a New Course

Living With Doak Scale — What Your Family Doctor Can Prescribe

Canadian Golf — Do Strokes Really Count Just 3/4?

The Concise List of Golfers Who Are Not On Course Rating Panels

A Cross-reference Guide to Sexual Metaphors Used to Describe Course Features

Carts Paths & Their Usefulness for Extra Distance

An Illustrated Guide to the Writing of Matt Ward (Vol. 332; Indexed by Courses In U.S. Counties Beginning with M, N and O)

Blood Tests & the ASGCA — Reading Between the Lines of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You

Topdressing & Cross Dressing — The Major Differences

Effective Ways To Use a 500cc Driver Head To Intimidate Green Committee Members

Forward Tees — A Threatening Message from Alice Dye

Brad Klein Discusses the Use of Giant Tortoises as Hazards

GPS — How To Install a Miniature Chip In Your Groin With an Ordinary Ball Mark Repair Tool, Masking Tape & Vodka

Target Golf — A List of Stores Near You & Their Operating Hours

And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson...Jesus loves you more than you will know...Wo wo wo...God bless you, please Mrs. Robinson...Heaven holds a place for those who pray...Hey hey hey...hey hey hey

Discovering a Bill Coore Water Hazard — How Scientists Located It Using Infrared Technology From Outer Space

Balast for the Hard to Control Golf Bag, Part III — Uses for Golf Architecture Books

Using the Golf Club Atlas Search Engine — How Therapy Helped One Man Cope

Tommy Naccarato Defends Birdbaths & Settling As the Greatest Work of Max Behr & Willie Watson

How to Play Golf In Florida (Replaces the previous title, "How to Tell the Difference Between Florida City Parks & Golf Courses")

Rugged Edge Bunkers — How Shag Carpet Influenced a Major Design Trend

[Mark_Fine]

Forrest,
All those topics have already been well documented.  Can't you come up with something more creative  
Mark

[John_Cullum]

I think the most beneficial thing you could write would inspire golfers to look at trees differently. Perhaps that has already been adressed in your third article, but it really needs to get more ink. Most golfers don't think outside the box and consider how their courses might play better through tree removal.

[Mark_Fine]

John,
I agree with you about trees.  Maybe you can get of copy of the Aug/Sept issue and read our article titled - Tree Times: "Architects and Arborists".  That's the one mayday malone posted in the locker room at Rolling Green.  Maybe he is hoping people won't think he is so crazy after all    
Sorry I can't email it to you.
Mark