Geomorphology and other critical concepts

[ward peyronnin]

Geomorphology is the study of landforms, their processes, form and sediments at the surface of the Earth (and sometimes on other planets). Study includes looking at landscapes to work out how the earth surface processes, such as air, water and ice, can mould the landscape.
Back in the day I pivoted from pre-medical studies to geology most immediately because rocks did not bleed and then because the forces of geology were demonstrated whenever one hit open country and were literally all around one.
I believe the tangental study of geomorphology developed in me an innate appreciation for how golf connects us to the visible results of the mostly invisible forces of nature and therefore a satisfaction when I sensed a design credibly included those elements.
So for this inquiry I suppose I wish to ask how critical to practicing the art of golf design is an understanding of geomorphology? After all a foundation of the Renaissance art transformation was human dissection.
Also what other critical concepts would a conceptual knowledge of vastly enhance the practice or appreciation of good course design? Not as substitute for but as a validation of experience in the field.

[Tom_Doak]

Ward:


Robert Price, the geologist who wrote a book about Scotland’s golf courses, remarked how so many courses in the 80s and 90s were shaped in ways that didn’t fit with the sites they were built on.  That made me start to think about the topic.


In sand dunes we have tried to shape features that line up with the prevailing winds - steep on the side facing the wind, and more convex on the downwind side.  At The Rawls Course, we tried to mimic water erosion in our shaping, instead.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ward:


Robert Price, the geologist who wrote a book about Scotland’s golf courses, remarked how so many courses in the 80s and 90s were shaped in ways that didn’t fit with the sites they were built on.  That made me start to think about the topic.


In sand dunes we have tried to shape features that line up with the prevailing winds - steep on the side facing the wind, and more convex on the downwind side.  At The Rawls Course, we tried to mimic water erosion in our shaping, instead.

Yes, the Robert Price book is a good one and I do think it very important to understand the underlying geomorphology of a site in order to fully appreciate how to lay a golf course on it.


About 10 years ago, one of my best friends (a well known geologist) pitched the idea to me to write a book talking about golf courses and landforms. Unfortunately I had to tell him about the Robert Price book. Otherwise I would have been all over it.

[Anthony Gholz]

Ward:


What a great topic.  Answer from a non gca is yes. 


In my study of Alison's Port Huron Golf Club I asked for the help of the local college's geology and geography departments.  Although I was raised in Port Huron and the lake and its beaches were part of my daily life I didn't realize the affect of what is called by geologists "The Lake Huron Cove."  It is a scalloped section of the west bank of Lake Huron running roughly from the Blue Water Bridge, where the lake runs into the St. Clair River, to Lakeport up the coast where today the Lakeport State Park is centered on the north end of the cove where it meets sup with the Lake.


This cove and its sand forms the western edge of Port Huron GC and, not coincidentally, marks the western edge of modern day Lake Huron 5,000 years ago.  It was this sand based lake bottom ridge area that the founders (including a Scot of course) of the club saw when they moved the club from the south side of downtown Port Huron to the tourist area of the "Beaches," where the sand is part of daily life.  This western edge of the course is approximately thirty feet higher than today's lake elevation.  It was so formed because the water erosion of the river channel under the Blue Water bridge has changed the river bed by that same thirty feet.


When Alison came in the Fall of 1920 to lay out an 18-hole course over Bendelow's 1912 9-hole course, he either consciously or instinctively shifted the playing grid of the holes from the back and forth north/south and east/west layout of Bendelow's, which fought the sand ridges, to the SE to NW hole layout of today.  He shifted the playing so the holes played along side and from on and off the ridges.  The effect of the difference was seen immediately by the founders who had sworn daily over the constant blind shots over the high points of the ridges from tees on one side and greens on the other.  IE an occasional blind shot isn't a problem, but 6 of 9 holes was.


The college geologist who provided my education regarding the Lake Huron Cove was adamant that I call the exposed sand areas "Lake Bottom San Ridges" not "sand dunes," which he related to perpetually exposed sand, mostly salt water based.  Although as Tom knows Michigan has some of the highest and finest fresh water sand dunes in the world.  I defer that argument to the geologists.


Today as we rediscover Alison's original tees covered in trees and brush we can see where the greens and tees followed the sand ridges for locations and the fairways followed along the troughs between the ridges.  My club history spends a chapter on what the water, the wind, and, millennia ago, what the glaciers did to form the playing fields of today's course.


The final piece of good luck for the PH course was that it was never plowed.  It had been cleared of pine and oak to build ships in the Black River thru the late 1800s, and later a few cattle may have grazed, but the land was never plowed giving the fairways the humps and bumps that drive players crazy today. 


Anthony

[Tom_Doak]

Anthony:


That’s a great recap and certainly more than I know about geology, and probably more than Alison did, too.  In the end we only need to know how to utilize what we’re given.

[Forrest Richardson]

Desmond Muirhead used to discuss "Geomorphism" — the accentuating of landforms to make them more prominent. He would draw from the landforms on a site and build up high points, and do the opposite with low points. Among his pet peeves were perched lakes — ponds and water bodies elevated and contained by a dam of any sort. He felt instinctually that humans "know something is wrong" when we see such built water features.

[Garland Bayley]

"perched lakes", yep, those are truly weird, and unsettling.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Crap, had a long post which I somehow lost.  But, yes, perched lakes are awkward.  When necessary, I never face the back of the dam at the golfer.  It will be less visible behind a green, or maybe even with a tee on top playing over the lake.  Who looks backwards from the tee? LOL.


As to the OP, yes, design should study geomorphology.  In LA school, they taught us to start any design with a site analysis.  Many LA and GCA practitioners, if they do one at all, make one up to suit their design after the fact.  But, a good analysis, including soil and water quality analysis, can prevent costly mistakes and/or design disasters.


Decades ago, a contractor used sonar to map subsurface rock on a bid near Las Vegas.  On the surface, it looked like it would be rocky and/or solid rock everywhere, and many bidders just assumed the worst possible scenario.  The winning bidder found out that many areas were actually moveable soil, and bid accordingly.  Honestly, it would have been best had the gca's had access to that info before design, but most owners won't commission those kinds of tests.  Then, the design could have correctly located lakes and such, minimizing rock problems.


Subsurface springs and water table, subsurface rock, soil stability or lack thereof, topsoil depth, angle of repose (i.e., steepest banks you can build) and quality, and any toxic waste areas are all issues that should be well known before design.  Wind direction helps as well.

[ward peyronnin]

We would all probably admit that almost any design will change some of what is found at a site. And those changes work so much better if credible to the site. I remember fondly the "discovery" i made that the 6th green at Lost Dunes is dominated by a transverse ridge that continues to run app 100 yds back through the fairway connecting to a small cross bunker; kinda gives me a warm and fuzzy even now.  Kettle lakes look out of place below the whatever parallel and perched lakes can be abominations like the 13th at Austin CC or 16? at French Lick Dye; hideous
Another discipline useful to a credible design would be civil engineering background I should think and specifically hydrology. Drainage is so important and understanding water flow has to promote designing swales and ditches that fit and work more like natural features developed over time. Of course if inlets and discharge structures are required these can be added more consistently with land form and out of the way of play. I cannot forget the 8 inlets incorporated into dead end transverse swales marring the center of a pronounced upsloped fairway landing area at the second hole Creek Club; mind boggling and tres annoying. Maybe a working facility using engineering benefits other areas as well
 

[Tom_Doak]

Desmond Muirhead used to discuss "Geomorphism" — the accentuating of landforms to make them more prominent. He would draw from the landforms on a site and build up high points, and do the opposite with low points. Among his pet peeves were perched lakes — ponds and water bodies elevated and contained by a dam of any sort. He felt instinctually that humans "know something is wrong" when we see such built water features.

OMG, I agree with Desmond Muirhead about something!


Of course, he did not arrive at the same solution I did, which is not to build any ponds. 

[Steve Lang]

   Don't forget any named geological outcroppings...  their strike and dip can set the basis for the lay of the land along with the glaciers in many places...


Beware of most Civil engineers, most have a keen love to build dams & foundations, fewer just sewers, culverts and other conveyances for design storms...


Geological survey and soil conservation service departments (local county, state, and federal) have great resources including profiles from well boring logs, though sometimes the local well drillers are most knowledgable of the geomorphology and geohydrology...

[Peter Pallotta]

Interesting concept and thread, thanks. I didn't know the term, but in the context of gca it seems to come down to "No - Nature would not do that".  And that reminds me of what Behr was trying to get at 100 years ago, e.g.

Golf architecture is not an art of representation but an art of interpretation. An interpretive art allows for freedom only via the law of its medium -- a law outside ourselves. The medium of the golf architect is the surface of the earth, over which the forces/laws of Nature are master. We cannot lay down our own law upon that surface irrespective of the geological law that, in the first place, was responsible for its formation.

[Tom_Doak]

I am actually starting to work on something right now that is a totally different landscape and geomorphology from anything I've worked on, and really any other golf course I have seen.  I think that's a good thing, but it will take a little while before I'm certain of it.