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Brad Klein

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Is a golf course a garden?
« on: March 11, 2007, 11:47:56 AM »


Here's the print of an 18th century French garden that hangs in our house. Everyone assumes it's a golf course. My wife and I have been talking about this sort of stuff for so long that we're now writing a semi-scholarly paper on the topic, to be given this week at a conference on the history of garden landscape at the Univ. of Glasgow.

There is so much of Capability Brown, Humphry Repton and Max Behr that bears on golf course design. Horace Hutchinson and Tom Simpson knew all about these debates; perhaps only to a lesser degree did Bernard Darwin and Alistair MacKenzie. Our sense, however, is that the term "Arts & Crafts" as it pertains to Golden Age design might be slightly miscast, and that the Golden Age probably owes more to the debates in garden landscape and landscape architecture about "picturesque" as opposed to "the sublime" than to the Arts and Crafts ethos. By contrast, most of what is mistakenly called "minimalism" today is actually closer to the hands-on Arts and Crafts sensibility and aesthetic. The same could said for most pure restoration.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 01:51:05 PM by Brad Klein »

Forrest Richardson

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2007, 12:00:47 PM »
Brad — I have a delightful Dover book on gardens. Although it sits on a high shelf, I do get it down once in a while to look at the interesting "routings".

Dr. Ed Sadalla, writing for me in Routing the Golf Course, made this interesting observaton:

Mystery is a recurrent element of preferred landscapes. Mystery involves the idea of entering a scene to gain information. Information is suggested but hidden from view. Mystery is the promise that proceeding along the route will reveal new or additional information.
For example, paths that proceed straight for a while and then turn and disappear from view tend to be preferred over paths that can be clearly seen. The change of direction adds visual interest. Mystery is involved whenever a component of a scene is partially hidden. An example of a scene that is often highly rated in research studies is a brightly lit field partially obscured by nearby foliage. In a description of the design principles of the Japanese garden, Sima Eliovson discusses the element of mystery:

"The obscured view is used to enhance distance as well as to create mystery. The garden viewed through a partially obscuring leafy branch or group of slim tree trunks will not only seem to be farther away, but will become more alluring. The partially concealed view attracts the interest more than that which can be seen at a glance. The visitor is prompted to look more carefully through a half-screen of trunks or branches in order to discover what is beyond. The fact that it is vaguely seen makes it more elusive, distant, and intriguing."

Similar principles are often incorporated into great golf holes. The common dogleg design of golf holes is a prototypical manipulation of mystery, as are holes where parts of the landing area are obscured by trees, water, or hazards.


« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 12:01:25 PM by Forrest Richardson »
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
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Jeff Doerr

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2007, 12:02:25 PM »
Brad,

I've always thought of Shadow Creek as a type of estate garden when it was first built.

Eastmoreland in Portland wraps around the Crytal Springs Rhododendren Garden and has a number of specimen trees throughout the course.
"And so," (concluded the Oldest Member), "you see that golf can be of
the greatest practical assistance to a man in Life's struggle.”

Jeff Doerr

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2007, 12:22:48 PM »
Brad — I have a delightful Dover book on gardens. Although it sits on a high shelf, I do get it down once in a while to look at the interesting "routings".

Dr. Ed Sadalla, writing for me in Routing the Golf Course, made this interesting observaton:

Mystery is a recurrent element of preferred landscapes. Mystery involves the idea of entering a scene to gain information. Information is suggested but hidden from view. Mystery is the promise that proceeding along the route will reveal new or additional information.
For example, paths that proceed straight for a while and then turn and disappear from view tend to be preferred over paths that can be clearly seen. The change of direction adds visual interest. Mystery is involved whenever a component of a scene is partially hidden. An example of a scene that is often highly rated in research studies is a brightly lit field partially obscured by nearby foliage. In a description of the design principles of the Japanese garden, Sima Eliovson discusses the element of mystery:

"The obscured view is used to enhance distance as well as to create mystery. The garden viewed through a partially obscuring leafy branch or group of slim tree trunks will not only seem to be farther away, but will become more alluring. The partially concealed view attracts the interest more than that which can be seen at a glance. The visitor is prompted to look more carefully through a half-screen of trunks or branches in order to discover what is beyond. The fact that it is vaguely seen makes it more elusive, distant, and intriguing."

Similar principles are often incorporated into great golf holes. The common dogleg design of golf holes is a prototypical manipulation of mystery, as are holes where parts of the landing area are obscured by trees, water, or hazards.




This prompted me to think more about the routing depicted in the print and course routings. In GCA how much attention is usually paid to sight lines or mysterious glimpses into upcoming holes? For a fictitious example, a blind approach to a green is only blind if you have not seen it. If you look through a gap in the dunes as you walk from #3 green to #4 tee there is a beautiful preview to #14 green. That green is visible from only the slim upper left portion of the #14 fairway. As you play #14, if you do go right off the tee remember where the flag is that day by recalling the postition relative to the cluster of scrub pines that are visible on the hill behind the green...
"And so," (concluded the Oldest Member), "you see that golf can be of
the greatest practical assistance to a man in Life's struggle.”

Kyle Harris

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2007, 12:29:51 PM »
No. It's a playing field. The plant (grass) is secondary to the playing surface.

Forrest Richardson

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2007, 12:36:32 PM »
Kyle...

A "garden" is for the garden-goer, those viewing the garden from afar, and lastly, the gardener. I might submit that the golf course is for the player, those viewing the course from afar, and the greenkeeper.
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
    www.golfgroupltd.com
    www.golframes.com

Jeff_Brauer

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2007, 12:38:03 PM »
Brad,

Don't people who suggest that landscape architecture is related to golf architecture (and vice versa) usually get the living snot beat out of them here?  Good luck, brave man.  Might as well drop an N bomb at a rap concert.

That said, I am aware of the la component of creating long sight lines while at the same time keep certain areas from view to add interest.

I have often kept cart path connectors between holes intentionally narrow to increase the awareness of bursting out into open space at the next tee.

I have designed lakes that dissapear around a corner of tree to make one wonder where it goes and where it starts, etc.

Granted, after all the "basics" it often gets relegated to second tier design criteria status, but I am aware of it and generally conscious of looking for opportunities to add mystery.

Of course, the biggest mystery on my golf courses is why I add so many @#$%&&*(## catch basins......... :)
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

W.H. Cosgrove

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2007, 12:48:54 PM »
While it is a playing field, I remember a presentation by David Kidd concerning the routing at Bandon Dunes.  While most in the audience were focused on why one hole or another was the length or shape that he had created, his description was from the perspective of a child.  

As children we would explore a landscape, first finding the highest point to orient ourselves, and then finding our way to the most interesting part of the view.  In Bandon's case of course it is the bluff overlooking the beach and the ocean beyond (#4) then finding interesting hidden spots in the landscape (#7) before returning home at the end of the day.  

I also think of a walk along the McKenzie river in Eugene where the solar system is spread along the walk in relative size and distance.  The effect is to lead one from beginning to end with interesting stops along the way.  

Isn't that what the playing board or field of a golf course do?  There has been critiscm of some architects on this forum.  Particularly Tom Fazio, who tends to paint pictures on the landscape.  Could it be that the criticism is not of the holes themselves but the lack of the drama in being led through the landscape?  

I am not an architect, but I have spent a lot of time hiking and canoeing in the wilderness.  While I enjoy the scenery, it is the sense of discovery and the comeraderie of my travel mates that make the trip memorable.  And that is the true of my travels through a garden or along the routing of a golf course.  

Good examples of gardens and golf courses have many things in common even though their respective purposes are different.

TEPaul

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2007, 12:49:19 PM »
Bravo Brad:

Interesting that the print above is French as apparently the origination of the more naturalized "landscape garden" (to later be termed "landscape architecture") emanated pretty much from England and GB from the early 18th century on into the 19th.

The onset of "Romanticism" in landscape planning (perhaps emanating from the painting art of the likes of Lorraine et al) probably saw its first expression in 1725 at Chiswick House by William Kent (client Lord Burlington).

As it later evolved with the landscaping work of Lancelot "Capability" Brown and later Humphrey Repton et al was generally done on a massive scale and that, I think, is necessary for us to know as it later came to be represented in golf course architecture.

But what was the genesis and motivation of this English landscape architecture (landscape gardening back then) that can generally be termed "Romanticism"?

Professor H.W. Janson (author of "The History of Art", the most popular and enduring art history book ever produced) explained it particularly well, in my opinion;

"But this interest in the long-neglected "Gothick" past was symptomatic of a general revulsion against the established social order and established religion---against established values of any sort---that sprang from a craving for emotional experience. Almost any experience would do, real or imaginary, provided it was sufficiently intense. The declared aim of the Romantics, however, was to tear down the artifices barring the way to a "return to Nature"---nature the unbounded, wild and ever changing, nature the sublime and picturesque."  (this certainly does smack of some of the sentiments expressed in the later golf architecture articles of Max Behr, doesn't it? ;) ).

Again, we need to remember that this type of massive English landscape gardening or landscape architecture took place originally in the 18th century perhaps at least a century or more before man-made golf course architecture itself began.

Although it was unquestionably a return to naturalism in landscape architecture it was not originally as intensely "naturalized" as the later 19th century expressions that ultimately evolved into such things as Gertrude Jekyll's "English Garden" or "English Cottage Garden" that was generally of smaller scale and very representative of the general "Arts and Crafts" movements of the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th.

So we can see that golf course architecture, certainly in a routing sense at first, was coincidentally and conveniently dropped right into some of those much earlier "English" Landscape architectural designs of the likes of a Capability Brown that were often on a massive scale (perhaps designed over hundreds of acres).

It should also be mentioned that one particularly pertinent label was given to Capability Brown's LA style and that was "Serpentine"----the very type of line and outline that would come to be so often utilized in golf course architecture (both routing and specific architecture feature shape) beginning after the turn of the 20th century.

Interestingly, the common link between the type and style of the early LA designs of a Capability Brown with golf course architecture, particularly INLAND, would come to be known as "parkland" (those early massive English estates where Brown executed his LA were known as "Parks").

TEPaul

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2007, 12:58:14 PM »
By the way, this is the ideal milieu and subject for Tom MacWood to make his return to GOLFCLUBATLAS.com.

This is his area of interest. While I do not agree with much of his conclusion on the importance or influence of "Arts and Crafts" expressions on golf course architecture of the Golden Age, nevertheless, this is ultimately one of his real areas of interest---eg art and various art forms and golf course architecture and its evolution as an art form.

I guess he could be reading this so I encourage him to reregister or if TommyN is looking at this he should call him up and encourage him to reregister and participate on this particular thread.

Brad Klein

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2007, 01:17:30 PM »
TEP,

I most certainly am grateful to Tom MacWood for his long GCA essay on A&C and wrote him to that effect the other day -- and also credit him in the paper. As for Cosgrove's example, I think it interesting that I was with him at the two Oregon occasions he refers to -- Kidd's talk at Bandon (which stunned everyone in attendance, this in Oct. 1999, for its attention to the overall shape and space of that layout); and the walk along that riverfront in Eugene. We talked about  a lot of this stuff then.

In other words, these ideas have been circulating, and it's good to have them come together in a forum like this. Jeff's point about LA in modern golf design -- I'd simply point out that while many classic strategems are widely used, I'm not sure the classical debates and aesthetic sensibilities that informed these issues are as widespread as they were among most earlier influential designers. I note, for example, a standard college textbook on LA (by John Simons, 1961) on my desk here that has no reference to Repton, Brown, garden design history or aesthetics at all -- it's all technique, spatial relations, engineering.

I'd write more but I have to finish this paper today.

TEPaul

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2007, 01:20:30 PM »
"That said, I am aware of the la component of creating long sight lines while at the same time keep certain areas from view to add interest."

Jeffrey Brauer:

Although you may get the living snot beaten out of you on here for it, I think it would be appropriate (even on here) to refer to landscape architecture with capital letters, as in LA, rather than as la as you did above. That is unless you really do think of landscape architecture and its art principles as applied to GCA as "lala land".  ;)


Adam Clayman

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #12 on: March 11, 2007, 01:30:55 PM »
A GC is more than a garden in that it can provide the sensory massages one's brain might require with visual appeal. While also providing significant insights into oneself, and others, with it's functionality as a medium for sport.
"It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing your whole life." - Mickey Mantle

Tommy Williamsen

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2007, 01:37:46 PM »
I havae never thought of a golf course as a garden but I have thought of it as a park.  I love hitting a golf ball for the sake of hitting a golf ball.  That does not preclude me from enjoying the beauty of each course.  Musgrove Mill is strictly without frills or flower beds.  Yet in its starkness it is beautiful.  In the evening turkeys, deer, wood ducks etc come out and I will sit on the deck high above the course and just drink in the beauty of the ponds and marsh.  My club here in DC is at the opposite end of the spectrum.  We hired a horiculturalist who plants flowering bushes, plants etc.  I used to hate them but over the years they have made the walk more enjoyable.  

Golf still takes precedence, but how nice is it to play among the flowers and plants of a 200 acre garden or park.
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

Tiger_Bernhardt

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #14 on: March 11, 2007, 01:40:59 PM »
Thank you Brad for this topic. I hope it continues to draw good insight and thought. It has already prompted thought and reading today for me.

Gary Slatter

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2007, 01:46:22 PM »
IMHO I would say no, a golf course is not a garden. However far too many municipal politicians eye golf courses as potential parks (which are more like gardens).  Gardens attract too many bees and wasps.  Golf courses provide far more people all the benefits of a garden, at lower expense per person.
Gary Slatter
gary.slatter@raffles.com

Mike_Cirba

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #16 on: March 11, 2007, 01:49:46 PM »
By the way, this is the ideal milieu and subject for Tom MacWood to make his return to GOLFCLUBATLAS.com.

This is his area of interest. While I do not agree with much of his conclusion on the importance or influence of "Arts and Crafts" expressions on golf course architecture of the Golden Age, nevertheless, this is ultimately one of his real areas of interest---eg art and various art forms and golf course architecture and its evolution as an art form.

I guess he could be reading this so I encourage him to reregister or if TommyN is looking at this he should call him up and encourage him to reregister and participate on this particular thread.

Tom,

That was my first thought here as well.

I certainly hope Tom MacWood returns, as he's been a great contributor.

Peter Pallotta

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #17 on: March 11, 2007, 02:16:22 PM »
A GC is more than a garden in that it can provide the sensory massages one's brain might require with visual appeal. While also providing significant insights into oneself, and others, with it's functionality as a medium for sport.

I think that's just about perfect, Adam: the essence of golf as an "experience;" and thus the golf course, at its highest/deepest level (from my pov), asking for and facilitating the fullest possible participation of the golfer himself, as a person, in that sporting experience.

Peter  
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 03:47:05 PM by Peter Pallotta »

BCrosby

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2007, 02:44:18 PM »
I too hope Tom MacWood will rejoin the group. He is missed.

I think too much can be made of the golf course as a garden.

Seems to me that it is both a necessary and sufficient condition to being a great golf course that it provide for interesting and challenging golf. Whether the course is also pretty is incidental to that. Exhibit A-1 is TOC.

There is certainly nothing wrong with a beautiful course. I love 'em. But making a venue pretty shouldn't be the principal goal of a gca. To the extent there is a choice, I'll swap out around on a knock down gorgeous course for a round on a merely interesting course every time.

I would have thought that that idea is so obvious that it goes without saying. But I may be in the minority. Some very prominent modern architects make exactly that mistake and seem to be doing quite well, thank you very much.

Bob  
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 02:46:00 PM by BCrosby »

Mike Salinetti

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2007, 03:07:44 PM »
Dear Mr. Klein,

That is a very interesting picture. I think it could be a golf course with some strategic tree removal. I think you could design the holes around the body of water and the already established cart paths.

From my point of view as a golf course superintendent I believe a golf course is a garden. Our goal on a daily basis to is to provide perfect playing conditions for the golfer, as well as beautiful playing conditions. Like a perfectly manicured flower garden, our gardens are ones of different types of turfgrasses, as well as ornamental grasses at various heights which we try to maintan as perfectly as possible.

A golfers opinion may be that they are not gardens. They see the beauty of a golf course in the view they see. (i.e mountains, lakes, trees, rivers, etc.) Superintendents use all these resources as part of their gardens along with the perfection of finely manicured turfgrass.

Mike Salinetti
Golf Course Superintendent (Head Gardener)
CC of the Poconos
Mike Salinetti
Golf Course Superintendent
Berkshire Hills Country Club
Pittsfield, MA

Tim Liddy

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2007, 03:39:48 PM »
BK,

A few undeveloped thoughts (it is Sunday afternoon)

The fundamental tenets of art in painting, landscape architecture and golf course architecture are the same. Color, texture, contrast, focus, framing, etc. make for great golf holes, great paintings and great landscapes. Scale is the chief difference.

When landscape architecture is tied to the structure of architecture I think it is a very different art form based more on formal defined spaces for mans activities – the juxtaposition of man and nature or man’s dominance over nature. It is another great art form but different, like comparing Raynor to Mackenzie.  

Also, on a social perspective, the arts and crafts movement does not really support the democratic ideal. These magnificent gardens were built and maintained by kings and queens. This relation to golf is also interesting.

The allegory of the garden (and its relationship to golf) is something you should also investigate.

TEPaul

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2007, 03:43:48 PM »
I don't know how others feel but as I think about and discuss the subject of this thread I'm going to be thinking about a "garden" in its larger sense---eg something of a "park" or even a definition of "landscape" rather than what we generally think of as a garden which is probably a smaller scale arrangement with ornamental flowers, lawns, trees and probably in the vicinity of a house.

Also, I think back in the time of a Capability Brown (18th century) the term landscape architecture was not used. Even if on the massive scale that Brown sometimes worked I believe it was still referred to as "landscape gardening".

So using the definition of garden that I am, I guess I would be much more inclined to say, yes, a golf course is a garden than I would be if I was thinking of the term garden on the smaller scale as most probably think of it.  
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 03:48:24 PM by TEPaul »

jeffwarne

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2007, 03:50:39 PM »
Those "really" old dead guys sure didn't make much of an eff ort to hide their cart paths ;)
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

TEPaul

Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #23 on: March 11, 2007, 04:00:30 PM »
Brad, I've been looking pretty closely at that French print you have in your house and I tell you what, that is one weird routing but that's probably pretty typical for the French. I can't even tell how many holes there are in that routing. Also the green to next tee commute is positively bizarre, and looks decidedly inconvenient if not just down-right confusing.

That is a pretty cool looking water hole though.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 04:03:05 PM by TEPaul »

Ron Farris

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Re:Is a golf course a garden?
« Reply #24 on: March 11, 2007, 04:00:47 PM »
"A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. " --- from Wikipedia.  
By this definition one can easily say that a golf course is a garden.

I spent quite some time in Japan and golf courses are quite often comparied to gardens.  One of the elements of most Japanese gardens is the use of Shakkei or using the far-ground as part of the garden.  The back-sight often deals with horizon and lines created by mountains.  The texture of the background was often simulated in the designs of the gardens.  For example if bamboo was in the far-ground then a fine texture might be used.  The concept of harmony and naturalness of golf courses are often utilizing the elements of Shakkei.  It is intersting that part of learning about gardens involves the same process I beleive many people have taken when learning about golf courses:

1.  View the works of the past masters
2. Learn from nature
3. Apprenticeship

A more important part of learning about Japanese gardens involves more esoteric learning through verbal experiences.  This often comes from spending time with Masters who verbally express their inner thoughts, theories, and sometimes techniques.  Often the Secrets of the Masters is revealed in these verbal communications.  

Tom Doak, more than anyone I know, has taken this approach to learning the trade of golf course design, whether he knows it or not.  He has studied the masters, but more importantly he has spent time with the likes of Pete Dye and has recieved Oral transmissions from people who have helped him become a master in his own right.  

Another aspect is the hands-on doing the experimental learning.  This involves applying all types of experiences, materials, and approaches.  An interesting theme usually runs throughout the garden.  

One of the great things about the garden design and the golf course design is the use of movement with the use of shapes, lines and change in textures.  I learned about lines and movement while working with Dye.  I remember the first time I heard Pete, at Long Cove, say the lines look really good on this hole.  I was just a college kid who was studying turfgrass.  It took a while before I "Got it" with the line concept.  

Back to the golf and garden question.  
Is a golf course a garden?  I think so, but that depends on the verbal translation.  Gorufujo wa Koen desu.

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