Dr. Ed Sadalla, an environmental psychologist, was kind enough to contribute to "Routing the Golf Course". Here are a few exceprts as requested:
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What does it mean to say that routing the course has psychological implications? It does not mean that psychological factors can uniquely specify or determine how a golf course should be routed. It does, however, suggest that when routing the course, you are simultaneously designing a set of experiences for the golfer. Among other things, you can influence the golfer’s emotions, aesthetic responses, the tempo or pace of the round, and the degree to which the golfer is required to think or solve problems while playing. These factors will, in turn, influence the golfer’s ability to swing the club and strike the ball.
...t tests temperament and character and offers unlimited opportunities for elation, embarrassment, and failure. A round of golf has the capacity to produce the following feelings in a golfer: appreciation of nature, anger, anxiety, confusion, control, elation, embarrassment, experience of beauty,
fear, frustration, power, precision, relaxation, and satisfaction. Clearly, some of these emotions are positive and desirable, while others the golfer strives to avoid.
The choices made among routing alternatives will influence which emotions are experienced as well as the frequency and intensity of those experiences. The golfer’s emotional responses will, in turn, influence his or her physical ability. One of the fascinating aspects of the game is that strong emotions, especially negative emotions, can overwhelm the golfer’s ability to play effectively.
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Humans evolved on the savannas of Africa, and modern humans have inherited an apparently universal attraction to savannalike environments (expanses of grass dotted with trees). For 95 percent of human history, food was acquired by hunting and gathering. Daily life consisted of hunting for food, and success ensured both survival and status within the group. When not searching for food, hunter-gatherers spent time refining their tools and practicing the skills that underlie successful subsistence. The games of ancestral humans, like the games of contemporary hunter-gatherers, probably involved demonstrations of skills that were central to hunting. These skills remain the most common elements in modern sports.
Golf is a stick-and-ball game. The objective is to strike a ball so that it travels from point A to point B. The game is one of a set of games in which a person demonstrates skill at accurately delivering a ball to either a stationary or a moving target. Most commonly, games require the player to aim the ball with the hand or foot. Golf requires the use of a variety of tools. All projectile-target games make use of the ability of humans to accurately throw a missile. Evolution designed humans to be able to throw various types of objects. Throwing is a uniquely human skill — other primates cannot throw with any accuracy whatsoever — and is central to our ability to hunt and kill prey. As evolution favored humans with the perceptual and cognitive skills that enable successful hunting, it also produced the ability to play golf. In a sense, a round of golf may be regarded as the metaphorical equivalent of the hunt.
Both hunting and golf involve heightened awareness of terrain and the ability to imagine the outcome of a series of actions. Both fully engage the imagination and the senses. Both require a kind of relaxed concentration for optimal performance. Note how well the words of Rick Bass, a modern hunter, apply also to the experience of golf:
"One sets out after one’s quarry with senses fully engaged, wildly alert: entranced, nearly hypnotized...Each year during such pursuits, I am struck more and more by the conceit that people in a hunter-gatherer culture might have richer imaginations than those who dwell more fully in an agricultural or even post-agricultural environment. What else is the hunt but a stirring of the imagination, with the quarry, or goal, or treasure lying just around the corner or over the next rise?"
The origins of the game provide clues about how to route a golf course. Because hunting was a universal activity of ancestral humans and because humans have always competed at the skills involved in hunting, the modern golfer has inherited a set of universal perceptual, cognitive, and emotional reactions. By regarding a round of golf as a type of hunting game, it is possible to understand a golfer’s aesthetic reactions, emotions, experience of space, perception of hazards, and performance on the course.
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Consider the two path systems (Figure 10-6) that were employed in a study of spatial memory. After walking each path, participants were asked to estimate its length. Although both paths were identical in length, participants estimated path B as 25 percent longer than path A. Path effects occur when no obvious landmarks are visible throughout the course. Humans commonly maintain their sense of direction and distance in relation to external landmarks. When trees or other visual obstacles surround and enclose a path, a corridor effect is created. In such instances, internal landmarks such as water, bunkers, and other hazards influence the ability to judge distance. Generally, adding landmarks along a path promotes perceptual accuracy. Landmarks serve as intermediate reference points, allowing a golfer to better judge the distance and elevation of a target. Homogeneous expanses of fairway make distance and elevation estimation more difficult.
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(Above excerpted from "Routing the Golf Course"/©2002 John Wiley & Sons/ISBN 0471434809)