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Ran Morrissett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Fano Golf Links is posted
« on: September 20, 2010, 08:16:25 PM »
Dunlop. Nonboe. Lassen.

These are the people that have shaped Fano into the varied, raw and fun 5,600 yard course that it is today, which raises several questions:

1) Who needs an architect when the natural features of a site are this good?
2) How can you NOT get a golf course architect when a site is this good?!  8)
3) How nice is it to play a course that feels thoroughly fresh and original and doesn't remind you of any other course (no offense to all you architects that have built ~30 plus courses)? The same feeling of freshness resonated at Falsterbo as well.
4) Ala Ashdown Forest, it sure makes for a fine change of pace not to have stylishly ragged bunkers as a focal point. Far better just to talk/focus on the natural landscape.
5) I wouldn't be a pudge muffin if 1) I hadn't drank oceans of beer in Scandinavia (Fano beer is the best!) and 2) I could get out all the time and walk 18 holes in two hours like we did here. Give me 5,600 yards all day long if it gets you up and out into the great outdoors.

With the possible exception of the zany Narin & Portnoo, I have never quite seen a course cram so much character into a relatively short distance. Have you? What courses seemingly defy logic in making you like them so much? Perhaps Stonehaven as described by Finnegan (I haven't seen it)?

This bunkerless links is sure one for me. As the photographs indicate, we caught it on a great afternoon with about five other golfers scattered about the course. At something around 80 acres, I appreciate that a crowded day might temper one's enthusiasm (you can't blast into the fourth fairway to gain access to a front right hole at the third) but my hunch is that September is always a fabulous month to avoid crowds on a small island off the west coast of Denmark.

Of the eight courses that Joe and I played, Fano was the only one that we disagreed with on its relative merits to the other courses that we saw. Joe will tell you that because it was short, I loved it and I am a blind romantic. Blah blah blah. Playing the role of a strict school teacher, Joe contends, "When I see the unnatural routing, the lack of any width, the complete absence of bunkering (penal, strategic, directional or otherwise), the regrettably flat, little round greens (a few of which are positioned on disadvantaged land), and the ill-placed, unconstructed tees which in many cases aren't even sited, I think that any good holes are as much a product of chance as intelligent design. I see it as a great piece of land upon which rudimentary golf was laid out crudely."

So much for golf in the bracing fresh air! :'(  I say ignore Joe's grumblings but please understand I am not suggesting that Fano is some George Thomas piece of architectural brilliance but rather it is exhilarating fun of the sort that is hard to find at too many courses. Certainly, mulling over the merits of a 5,600 yard course where you play from artificial mats as teeing areas is an interesting exercise as it puts in perspective what is important to you from the game of golf.

Still, the way the holes interact with nature - from blind drives over tall dunes like at the 14th to blind approach shots like at the 15th to heather covered mounds in front of greens like at the 3rd and 13th - the golfer is always given something appealing to accomplish. Yes, like Royal Ashdown, a few strategically placed bunkers would only add to the variety/challenge but they aren't there, so that's that.

Here is a 1931 photograph from Christoph Meister whose research was invaluable for this profile:



Few sites offer more natural features with which to contend - it gets my vote as a must play in Scandinavia. Even Joe the Curmudgeon (long hitter, 3 handicap, former Golf Digest panelist, you know the type  ;)) says he very much looks forward to a return visit to Fano - and doesn't the desire for a return game really tell you all that matters about a course?

Cheers,
« Last Edit: September 20, 2010, 08:20:17 PM by Ran Morrissett »

Ryan Farrow

Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2010, 09:55:13 PM »
WoW!

This is some great stuff... Only have time to look through the pictures.... can't wait to read about it.

Yannick Pilon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2010, 10:00:46 PM »
Thanks Ran for letting us discover this little gem!

This course looks like tons of fun.  If only more golfers from North America would go out and play theses types of courses, I am sure golf would be much more healthier these days!

Great stuff.

YP

www.yannickpilongolf.com - Golf Course Architecture, Quebec, Canada

Phil McDade

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2010, 07:30:47 AM »
Ran:

Go play Stonehaven. ;D

Ben Stephens

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2010, 08:02:46 AM »
Ran,

Fano looks great! But not sure if its the greatest 5,600 yard course - maybe the most natural one. Please you must go to Cavendish - the course that retains most of Mackenzie's original - it is incredible fun to play and massively exceeded my expectations which Sean Arble and James Boon probably would agree to and we all would be happy to take you around it.

Cheers
Ben

Joe Andriole

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2010, 05:41:44 PM »
I am across the pond on a non-golf family vacation but did sneak a peek at GCA and the Fano profile and feel compelled to respond.
  Ran asked my opinion of his profile before posting and I congratulated him on wonderful photography and prose which I felt made the course seem greater than my recollection. With my permission he excerpted some of my impressions. However, I take great exception to him characterizing my opinion as "grumbling"  After all it was I who dragged Ran to Fano and I may have enjoyed it more than he (He did endure a match play thrashing that included an eagle concession at the 18th).  Fano is truly a magical island and the topography of the golf course is close to a 10. On the Monday afternoon we played, the course was empty, the sun was shining, temps hovered around 60 and  the breeze freshened.  It was glorious especially since we were well fortified with Fano's finest - a local brew that is at least as compelling as the links.

My criticism was about the golf architecture or more properly the lack of good architecture on this fine canvas.  It was great fun and an interesting exploration but I doubt that many of us would like a steady diet of narrow fairways and small flat greens that stimp around 4. I give great credit to those that found the course; I am disappointed that this superb land hasn't been augmented. 

I have thought a lot about what to compare Fano to and the best I can come up with is Wick.  While I believe that Wick is a superior course it shares many of the similar great natural assets and architecural  shortcomings of Fano.

I hope to return to Fano one day and better explore/experience the island.  In a better world the Fano Golfklub would become a world class hickory course and there would be a new great links in the adjacent dunesland. Of such stuff dreams are made.

Sean_Tully

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2010, 06:22:37 PM »
From the first photos that I had seen of this course I was intrigued! Such a place seems unsuitable for golf and lost balls must have been a common theme. The photos of the course in Ran's write up are just as eye catching, but with  more suitable playing conditions. Would love to see more of this course!


The scale in the photos is a little off, but we get a general idea of what a golfer was up against!







Tully

Ulrich Mayring

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2010, 07:18:08 PM »
Fanø is a much better course than Wick!

It has much better land, true links surfaces all the way and it plays through the dunes. Wick is routed on flat, almost agricultural land and the great dunes beside the course are doing nothing for the golfer except obscuring the view of the sea. Wick's holes are mostly unimaginative, Fanø has some interesting hole designs. What both courses have in common are old-world charm in heaps. Wick scores on the tees (who doesn't against Fanø's mats) and on remoteness (Fanø can get clogged with holiday golfers in the summer), plus it has at least a few revetted bunkers. However, Wick has only two or three good green complexes, which doesn't elevate it beyond Fanø in that department either. In all, it is really a lot less interesting to play.

Ran's photography of Fanø is flattering, I really have no idea how he got those pictures with heather and green fairways. I don't think the comparison to Royal County Down and Royal Ashdown Forest is fair, though.

I will say that of the courses I have played Fanø is the hardest to rate. There is a large spectrum within which it may fall and I believe Ran has put it at the very top of the possible spectrum, whereas I would see it at perhaps the 70% mark. To make it a bit more explicit, I am rating Fanø on the level of St. Andrews Eden, Royal North Devon, Scotscraig, Granville and Littlestone. This means it is a very good course, but not in the class of Brora, Le Touquet, Crail Balcomie, Royal Worlington or Leven.

Ulrich
« Last Edit: September 21, 2010, 07:23:25 PM by Ulrich Mayring »
Golf Course Exposé (300+ courses reviewed), Golf CV (how I keep track of 'em)

Ran Morrissett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2010, 07:48:45 PM »
Sean,

That is AMAZING stuff and I am trying to figure it out - the famous Dell hole matches perfectly as the sixth (today's fifth) but I am lost with some of the other hole lengths/locations. Though photogenic  :o, the property is never like your bottom photo - Fano's scale is better suited for golf.

Amazing how some central hazards make a course more interesting - hitting over a natural feature like a dune from time to time is sure more entertaining/rewarding than finding fairways that are 'properly' bunkered (i.e. a bunker off to the right at 260y and one off to the left at 280y - yawn). At least the architects at Fano stick stuff directly in front of you.

Yannick,

You are exactly right - in fact, if you want to find the next Mike Keiser, find the man who built a nine hole course first as it gives you a sense that person 'gets' golf.

Ulrich,

I agree that Fano is BRUTAL to categorize or rate which in a lot of ways is to its credit as being a special/unique course. Interesting that you mention Westward Ho!, another natural links if ever there was one! I vote that in the world top 35 so we may have to agree to disagree relative to the merits of Fowler's masterpiece. In fact, wonder what Fowler would have done at Fano? No doubt such a talent could have helped it but it's interesting to also think of all the architects that would have lessened it by plowing through the dunes, making holes more conventional, etc.

Cheers,
« Last Edit: September 21, 2010, 08:25:10 PM by Ran Morrissett »

Ulrich Mayring

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2010, 04:30:10 AM »
Hi Ran,

don't forget that RND has some inappropriate holes at the beginning, at the end and I'm not too keen on #13 either. No such thing at Fanø, it is a homogenous composition. Yes, the holes are short and lesser challenges, if you will, than some of the great holes at RND, but it works much better as a course in contrast to the collection of holes that Westward Ho! is. That is why, considering all circumstances, that I put those two courses in the same category (there or thereabouts).

But I find it interesting that you can think of only 34 courses world-wide that are better than Westward Ho! :)

Anyhow, Littlestone and especially Granville are also natural links in the same vein, especially the latter could be seen as a synthesis of RND and Fanø.

Ulrich
Golf Course Exposé (300+ courses reviewed), Golf CV (how I keep track of 'em)

Yancey_Beamer

Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2010, 08:19:32 AM »
Ran,
Stonehaven is encountered on the road as you return from Dornoch and Cruden Bay.This course has multiple Pebble Beach eighth hole type shots over the ocean and great cliffside routing.The green fee is quite thrifty.Yardage never occurs to the golfer. Fun does.Finegan and I have discussed this course several times.

Phil McDade

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2010, 10:36:00 AM »
Ran,
Stonehaven is encountered on the road as you return from Dornoch and Cruden Bay.This course has multiple Pebble Beach eighth hole type shots over the ocean and great cliffside routing.The green fee is quite thrifty.Yardage never occurs to the golfer. Fun does.Finegan and I have discussed this course several times.

Yancey:

I played Stonehaven, largely because of Finegan's write-up, and loved every minute of it. I know of few courses as polarizing as Stonehaven -- folks either love it or disdain it as clown's mouth golf. But the cliff-top setting is wonderful, the par 3s all terrific, the terrain unusual, and even the commuter train whizzing by on occasion smack in the middle of the course gives it an odd edge -- a truly unique golfing experience. And a wonderful old clubhouse to boot.


Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2010, 10:58:10 AM »
Ran, Fano does indeed look like fun and is a reminder that courses do not need excessive length to be fun.  As for Fowler.  I think he would have enjoyed the challenge of the site.  He designed Bull Bay in North west Wales on the Isle of Anglesey.  The terrain is nothing like Fano but has its own peculiarities.  He has designed as many courses on difficult sites than any I can think of.

I second the need for a look at Cavendish. I can't rremember the yardage but think it doescome in under 6000 yards.
Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #13 on: September 26, 2010, 05:37:21 PM »
Ran,

I must have missed it somewhere in your write up and this thread, but what is the reason the course is only 5600 yards ... Is there no more room?  And why did they forego bunkers entirely?  Regulations?  Certainly not in 1901??

James Duncan

Re: Fano Golf Links is posted
« Reply #14 on: September 27, 2010, 11:37:56 AM »
Thanks, Ran.

Brings back fond memories. Denmark has some of the best golf country you'll see anywhere, although its heaths (which are splendid) are arguably more viable candidates for new golf courses than its coastal terrains.

Glad you liked the beer. Skål!

JD


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