Ideas that came and went

[Peter Pallotta]

What are some of the design ideas, techniques, and features that I won't see on almost any course anymore because - while they were once utilized and might've even been very popular/in vogue - they fell out of favour and were renovated out of existence?

Boy, that's a long sentence. How about: what features/ideas once had their day but are now gone and never coming back?

Thanks
Peter  

[Adam Clayman]

Peter, The first thought was that of Top shot bunkers (Kop bunkers(?)). These were centerline bunkers placed closer to the teeing ground than most features woule be placed. My opinion is they were used before irrigation, so anyone who did top a shot, didn't end up long and down the middle.
 If I recall correctly, the depression's cost-cutting mode sealed their fate, along with the addition of irrigation systems.

[Matt_Cohn]

Chocolate drop mounds. Everything now has to look, uh, "natural".

[Tom Roewer]

Not that it was ever rampant or popular, but i remember a course (Raymond Memorial GC) across the river from Scioto in Columbus designed by RTJ that had 2 sets of tees on all par 3's set apart from each other.  The idea was for every other group to use alternating tees and the preceding group was to wave the tee shots on.  Obviously it was an attempt by the designer to aid in pace of play at a muni.  Does anyone know of another course that applied this?

[Mike_Young]

floating green

[Evan_Smith]

I seem to remember seeing square and rectangular bunkers in some old photos as well as square greens.  I guess anything, other than tee boxes, being square isn't used anymore.

I would also argue that major cross bunkers aren't used so much.  Sure there are lots of carry bunkers, but in old photos there seemed to be numerous long cross bunkers that cut across the fairway perpendicular to the angle of play.  I guess maybe these were also used to stop people from topping the ball on rock hard fairways and getting away with it.

[Jeff Doerr]

Cross bunkers are an odd one.

In my area, when Pumpkin Witch Hollow was opened it had a cross bunker about 100 out on the long downhill par 5 7th. It was removed when the USGA started looking at the course.

Rustic has a nice one on the first par 5 one the back and the Soule Park.

The cross bunker may have come and gone, and now it is coming back again?

IMHO - the diagonal cross bunker is a great feature.

[Kalen Braley]

How about the cops that were on display at hoylake...

[Mark Bourgeois]

The hard part about this question is "...and gone."  It seems like you can come up with examples of lots of things you thought were gone only to see a "come back" example.

So I would say sand greens, only those haven't completely gone, have they?

[Tom_Doak]

When I was starting in the business in the 1980's, all the articles about design said that golf courses would have to be designed more as "target" courses.  This has held true for desert courses, but otherwise, the style has gone out of favor because of the difficulty level and because golfers like their courses green, through the green.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Wow, I love this topic!

The big question in the gca and gca.com universe is why did any particular idea fall out of favor.  We presume that many golden age ideas went away because people were generally, how shall I say, stupid?  Of course, I argue that it was money, or practical experience that led to removal of some now fondly remembered features.

As mentioned, given our penchant for nostalgia, I doubt any feature will never come back - some gca will bring it out of mothballs.

To answer the question, with some already mentioned,

top shot bunkers,
carry bunkers (straight across/forced, and even for the most part angled/optional)
green bunkers 20 yards or so short of the green
"Wall to Wall" Fairway Perimeter Mounding
Wild Free Form Tees
RTJ style Ultra Large Greens and pinched landing areas(except for change of pace)
Reverse Slope Greens (but making a comeback)
Maxwell/Harris style "Clamshell" Bunkers

I am sure there are more, but those spring to mind.

[paul cowley]

Runway tees.

Single row irrigation.

pronounced 'Greens within Greens'.

Lacey edged Golden Age bunker styling........ooops!

[Clyde Johnston]

Well, here's one I wish would go away...

planting memorial trees around the golf course!

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks, gents.

As Mark B and others pointed out, the "never coming back" part of the question was probably not very helpful.

What I was trying to do in asking about features that have fallen out of favour was to see if I could theorize about what's proven to be 'essential' to the golfing experience (and thus to golf couse design) and what is/was 'ephemeral' or faddish.

I read an article from the early 1920s talking about how, fortunately, golf design in America had moved away from its 'early days' when bunkers seemed to be placed exactly where a poor player tended to hit the ball. I guess that technique/philosophy was gone for good quite early on, maybe because what is 'true' about golf is that most golfers are poor golfers, so you'd better not aggravate them TOO much if you want to have a viable and growing game.

From your answers, I'm wondering what more I might learn about the 'essentials' now that I know that top shot and cross bunkers, runway tees, target golf, fairway perimeter mounding etc etc may have already had their day in the sun.

Is there something there, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
 
Peter  

[Jeff_Brauer]

The essentials?

I recall a fawning fan asking Pete Dye to describe "his masterpiece - Harbor Town for him.

"Well," says Pete, "Its got some tees, greens and bunkers. Oh yeah, and fairways!"

[TEPaul]

Jeff Brauer said:

"The essentials?
I recall a fawning fan asking Pete Dye to describe "his masterpiece - Harbor Town for him.
"Well," says Pete, "Its got some tees, greens and bunkers. Oh yeah, and fairways!""

Peter:

In a real way, although that was probably a remark cast as a joke by Pete Dye, it is true---eg those few things probably are the only things that are essential to all golf and architecture anywhere at any time, and always have been.

Even Max Behr called them the "necessary elements of golf" that make any golf course appear something less than real nature. Nature never made golf greens, tees and fairways (or did she? ).

But we know Nature made a form of bunkering on some sites, but certainly not on all sites most of which have no sand anywhere near them.

So, like Behr, I would question just how essential sand bunkering is on all courses, despite the perception by so many today that they should be----eg essential to golf.

Of those apparently four necessary elements of golf and naturalism Behr only said that since they aren't really a product of Nature their lines and forms should be made (by the architect) in such a way that they sort of look like Nature formed them.

But one element of truly natural golf in many cases in the past is the element of blindness.

Once upon a time blindness was actually considered to be somewhat prized in golf and architecture and then perhaps around the Golden Age and certainly into the Modern Era of golf it was questioned, it became unpopular and was largely done away with.

The adage "everything should be right in front of you" (total visibility) became something of a requirement and expectation in golf and architecture. Blindness became unpopular and was considered to be a weakness in architecture.

But other than those 3-4 "necessary elements" mentioned above about golf anything and everything may make a comeback at one time or another, particularly in this recent age when so many of us are looking back again through golf and architecture's entire history to see what once was and perhaps could be again----and thankfully that even includes various forms of blindness now.

[Brad Klein]

-colored bunker sand

-290-yard par-4s

-Scottish-style mounding (bad p.r. fad anyway)

-three or four mounds around every green (bad landscape architecture cliche from 1970s)

[BCrosby]

Alpinization.

Bob

[TEPaul]

"Alpinization."

Bob:

Apparently you don't know Paul Cowley very well. He doesn't call them "alpinization", he calls them "debris mounds" and such. The thing is you will never know if they pre-existed a course or not. There's a ton of pre-existing stuff out there on some sites along the Atlantic seaboard left by farmers and Union and Confederate soldiers and such. Or is there?

Do you know that ancient Rule of Golf about "bones" and "break clubs" and such? PaulC's architecture has potentially given that ancient Rule new life and meaning.

[D_Malley]

a couple of things that seem to have "came and went" and i wish would come back.

course routings where holes criss cross other holes.

having tee areas on the same hole which provide entirely different angles. (like #9 @ merion or #6 at Phila cricket)