routing

[kwl]

interesting topic, but not a "stand-alone"...

so often, i hear people say/read ________ is a great routing. well, at the minimalist end of the spectrum (moving very little land) on a "complex" piece of land, the routing IS the golf course. not to be separated from the views, strategic options, green complexes, etc.

on a barren piece of land (shadow creek), modern earth moving equipment really minimizes the importance of routing (provided that the course begins and ends in a proper location).

so, be careful to use this term appropriately (based on era, the land involved, etc) with full knowledge that it is very difficult to separate something so integral from the whole. otherwise, one sounds like a misinformed, arriviste with an expensive glass of wine in hand. ah, the nose...swirl...mmm

 

[Forrest Richardson]

The routing — whether a natural site or a manufactured site — is the bones and anatomy of a golf course. All else is flesh and makeup, which will change with the wind, the time and the ages.

[kwl]

or put another way. the routing is the genotype.

add "environment" and you have the phenotypic expression.

one cannot easily separate these elements...the more the "environment" is a part of the phenotype, the less influential the genotype. or in landscaping terms, the more earth moved the less important the routing (you can manufacture the course...like the shadow creek example).

[Steve Lang]

 

Phenotype is defined as the appearance of a trait. Genotype is defined as the combination of alleles or genes the affect a particular trait. Generally, the genotype determines the phenotype.

Heterogeneity simply means diversity. In the context of genetic analysis, phenotypic heterogeneity simply means that there are diverse forms of a particular trait.

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KWL,

I don't think you can support the notion that more earth moved, less important the routing.  The routing going out, around, and coming in has way too much importance to be so easily dismissed.

[kwl]

well, steve i can name that tune in 3 notes

phenotype=genotype+environment.

when you say "support the notion", i think i can. imagine a scenario where the "land was meant to be a golf course". all the "architect" needed to do was place the cups and pins and distribute the tee markers. clearly, the "architect" needed to envision what was offered by God/nature, but the course was there. the routing IS the golf course. land and "architect" eliminated the role of "environment" (as we use the term in the genetic paradigm). or phenotype=genotype because no "environment"

at the other end of the spectrum, one is given a 300 acre square in the desert that has few plants, changes in elevation, etc. you can do anything you want given the $, technology, and adherence to environmental/zoning constraints. the routing is created...hillock here, swale there...pay attention to winds and sun, but otherwise the "environment" made the course. phenotype="environment" since no genotype exists.

QED

[kwl]

PS

i have the arrays running right now to document my proof.

[Steve Lang]

 
KWL,
All I'm saying is that I think theres something, like "an essence" within a routing, how it challenges mind and body, how it ebbs and flows in the course of a round of golf, that makes a course more than its topography or cubic yards moved.

So do you believe that the architects of TOC were just sheep carving bunkers out of flat land for protection from the wind?  

[kwl]

with respect to the sheep at TOC: no, the sheep weren't smart enought to route the place nor were they altruistic enough to expend the energy for our hedonistic pleasures. the sheep were an "environmental" influence and we do not know who "discovered/designed" TOC.

if the sheep actually created the old course as you query, i would have them cloned to manufacture courses around the globe. additonally, i would sell same to assist mr. fazio and mr. wynn on their new project on mars (if THE DONALD doesn't beat them to it)

  .

[Steve Lang]

 

certainly the sheep took into account the prevailing winds, the setting sun, sheet flow drainage etc. like any good archi..

baahhhhh

[Forrest Richardson]

KWL,

With all due respect, we do know who routed TOC. It was the traders and early residents of St. Andrews who gathered upon the land to strike balls with curved clubs. The first descriptions of the course are of a linear path out and back, which was in essence a beginning near the edge of town and a "dead end" when the land ran out. This was by design, not by chance. It was a convenient path — out..........and back. The sheep and wind and vegetation played a role in defining the hazards and challenge, but these elements were not so influential as the town and the sea — and man's cleverness to know what would make sense in terms of a "round".

[kwl]

forrest

the REALLY interesting point is that the flasks were the same volume as were the "swigs"...hence the "round". or not.

[Forrest Richardson]

That is a decent theory. I doubt it is grounded in truth. The Scots were an interesting bunch -- and still are. I suspect this was the result of swigs themselves.

St. Andrews was simply a town which had no reason to grow toward the sea. Result? The course endured. Had there been no land for the town to grow away from the sea, we would likely have no Old Course to cherish.

The distance out and back was a matter of stamina and practical foresight. "It was about right in terms of length"...that's all.

[Ramon T. Hernandez]

www.golfgroupltd.com

routing
The path of golf holes from the first tee of the first hole to the last green of the last hole of a given golf course; also used to describe the alignment of cart paths

Seems like kwl is onto something here. Any thoughts from KBM, Andrew, Brauer, Doak, the Emperor (where the hell is he anyway?), Ross, Mac, Tillie? etc

[Steve Lang]

 

RTH
Pretty sterile definition of routing there.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate KWL's original analogy.  But in its eloquent simplicity, it looses something inherent in the act of architechture, the art of building something with form and function for golf.  

I'm sure there opinions of the minions re: horrible golf courses built on spectacular land, where the art of gca wasn't captured.

[Forrest Richardson]

It may be sterile, but a decent definition is one with restraint and simplicity. I'll work to make it better and more engaging. Sorry.

[TEPaul]

I'd just as soon stick with the old analogy that the course routing is "the bones of the course", whether or not the site, preconstruction, is interesting or bland, found or made.

Max Behr did talk generally about the loss of nature's part in the balance of golf and architecture due to the increasing "game mind" of man but the analogy here sounds like a new and improved "game mind" of man. With the mention of "genotype", "phenotype", "arrays" and such it sounds like the "micro-biology mind" of man in golf architecture. I'd just as soon as say any routing is the bones of the course---some people have good bones, some don't---same with a golf course routing!

[paul cowley]

...sometimes a greater skill is required to create a 'great' routing from featureless land than from a good piece of dirt where one can just connect the dots.......[this is assuming a modicum of skill on the designers part of course].