[Michael Whitaker]

In another thread I sort of surprised myself by writing:

For an American course to be considered to have "great" architecture it seems to me that many still require it to match itself against the original UK courses, or those that copy the features found on the UK courses (like NGLA). How many great design concepts are original to this country?

This idea is making my head hurt!

Are there any GREAT design concepts that were first introduced in the US?

If so, what and by whom? And, have they been replicated elsewhere like the UK features were replicated here?

Is the successful inclusion of these features what differentiates the great courses from the also ran?

[Bill Gayne]

I don't know if they are original but the island green and drop shot par threes were popularized in the US.

[Andy Doyle]

Concrete cart paths?

AD

[Garland Bayley]

The Tillinghast "REEF" hole.

[Garland Bayley]

The double dogleg with immense hazard as rendered at Bethpage Black by Tillinghast.

Researching www.tillinghast.net might be a good place to discover more.

[Garland Bayley]

I'm surprised none of the resident architects have posted here.

Forrest,

Are the jailhouse stairs a US originated concept?

[Doug Siebert]

Concrete cart paths?

AD

What about the $7 million clubhouse and the $1 million maintenance building?

[Jordan Wall]

Houses.

[Garland Bayley]

Come on you guys! You're depressing me! cart paths, club houses, maintenance buildings, and houses. That's American innovation? America is know for innovation. Are you telling me that in golf all we can do is copy the Scots, Irish, and Brits?

Jordan,

You now have a new homework assignment! Go peruse http://www.tillinghast.net and find an American contribution to golf course architecture.

[Jordan Wall]

Come on you guys! You're depressing me! cart paths, club houses, maintenance buildings, and houses. That's American innovation? America is know for innovation. Are you telling me that in golf all we can do is copy the Scots, Irish, and Brits?

Jordan,

You now have a new homework assignment! Go peruse http://www.tillinghast.net and find an American contribution to golf course architecture.

Tree Lined Courses.

Baltusrol, for example.

[Peter Pallotta]

Michael
I think this is a great question. I look forward to the answers of those who know more than I do. I will say this:

I think I appreciate very much the wonderful features associated with the great/original UK courses; but at the same time I wonder if we don't sometimes inordinately value a feature simply because it came first.

The Old Course was built on sea-side links land. That's a wonderful setting for golf, and it brings with it a whole set of interesting attributes, e.g. firm and undulating fairways, random bunkering, big greens etc. But the Scots didn't build The Old Course there because it was the only "proper" place to play golf; they built it there because the land was not much good for anything else (like growing food, for example).  Not surprisingly, a certain approach to the game of golf then developed in line with that original choice, but it's not the only viable approach to the game or to golf course architecure.

Scotsman Sir Walter Scott was one of the first and greatest writers of historical novels, and a born storyteller as they say. He wrote "Ivanhoe" in 1819. Almost 200 years later, we're not still saying that "Ivanhoe" is the only "right" kind of novel, are we? I mean, Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom" are great novels, and they have very little in common with "Ivanhoe". And why should they? It's a different time and place.

The Scots had and have a lot of links-golf. We have a lot of landfills sites in North America; maybe we should be praising the development of/opportunities for "landfill-golf".

Some late night ramblings.
Peter  

[James Bennett]

Church pews (Oakmont, Pine Valley 2nd hole)

James B

[Garland Bayley]

James,

The topic is "great design concepts".  

Jordan,

That is an acceptable answer. Now what grade do you give yourself for that homework assignment.

[Phil_the_Author]

Rough as the defining boundaries to the fairway.

Fringes as the defining edge to green surfaces.

How a fairway met a green was extremely important to Tillinghast. He was very proud of how he handled this in his designs, writing, “Surely I feel that I have never attempted a more important contribution to golf course construction than this: the immaculate preparation of approaches to greens. In recent years I have devoted almost the same attention to contouring these as to the putting greens themselves… On holes of the long second shot type, it is not sufficient to prepare only the fairway carefully and permit it to end abruptly as it meets the green. True, good greenkeepers always devote extra care to the upkeep of these approaches, and very properly, too, but this is not enough. I insist that they should be contoured intelligently, with the true shot to the green in mind, and prepared and maintained as semi-green.

“It does not follow that this construction must be confined to the outstanding courses of rare distinction. A few hours with scoops during the construction days of any course, even the most humble, will serve to fit the approach to the green, give the green a framing which will make it inspiring to see – particularly from a distance – and generally raise the standard of any course from the so-so type at no great additional cost. But above all, the contouring of the approach adds new zest in playing the shots, particularly in the case of the calculating golfer.”

[Brad Klein]

Waterfalls

Beach bunkers

Trees in the middle of fairways

Aircraft carrier tees

Yardage markers

[Tony_Muldoon]

Rough as the defining boundaries to the fairway.

Philip, Darwin referred to this being introduced at Woking circa 1890.

Michael, perhaps if you took the word great out of the thread title, people might get beyond the somewhat sarcastic nature of the replies.

In the ‘big world theory of golf’ the following must be recognised as important additions to the cannon. I’m guessing these are American innovations that have added variety in golf courses and as such should be celebrated. It is perhaps one of the weaknesses of a ‘market system’ that many here believe they are overused at the moment.  Each has it’s place.

Waste areas
Large scale man made water features
Container mounding
Desert golf
Golf on extreme sites which is only made possible with a cart
Also where was the first irrigation systems installed -anything earlier than NGLA? This has certainly impacted on design.

[TEPaul]

Tony Muldoon's and Eckstein's lists are really good.

If one reads some fairly early Albert Tillinghast it appears the American architects beginning around the early teens began to develop what Tillinghast referred to as "Modern" golf architecture and others referred to as "scientific" golf architecture. It was an attempt to specifically design for the way various ability levels played the game. The intent was ultimately probably to better increase the popularity of golf in America where it was quite new. I don't know whether it could be considered great but it was pretty uniquely American.

Frankly, I'd call those years (about 1912 to 1918) the "middle years" of the great Golden Age era. Stylistic changes were very apparent from the early creations of some very well known architects like Donald Ross but his style and that of many others would change again and becomre much more sophisticated into the early 1920s up until the beginning of the Great Depression.

Tillinghast mentioned that the American architects got about a three year head start on European architects in this beginning in 1914 when Europe was at war and America wasn't and wouldn't be for about three years.

[JSlonis]

How about some of the great engineering and construction of a very good course on an awful piece of property...like...

Pete Dye's work at the TPC Stadium Course.  Although it's a manufactured course and far from the natural, minimalist designs that so many on this site like, there is no denying that it was quite an achievement to create such a golf course out of what was basically swampland.

[Brent Hutto]

Jamie,

While your example of TPC Sawgrass is so much more than this, we might say that American designers invented and perfected the technique of digging "water hazard" ponds and ditches to drain the adjacent land which then becomes fairways and greens.

I'd be interested to know if any UK courses were built in that manner way back before the invention of Florida golf as we know it now.

A second question is whether TPC Sawgrass was or perhaps still is the greatest course created by that methodology.

[Chris Moore]

Bunkers in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.  

[Andy Hughes]

Cape Hole?

[redanman]

Cart girls with implants?  Hearty thanks to the ASPS

[Jordan Wall]

James,

The topic is "great design concepts".  

Jordan,

That is an acceptable answer. Now what grade do you give yourself for that homework assignment.

A 'C' grade.

How about this one.  

Also like Baltusrol, tree lined courses with 500 yard par five's, and water hazards.  Throw in the back to back par-five finisher's and you have got pretty much a US course.  You can also throw in the fact that the course is over 7300 yard's long, which it is my belief that such a concept originated in the US.  Mr. Tillinghast built an all American course at Baltusrol, I'd say.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I love the funny answers, and thought of a few myself, but to give the subject a serious answer, I think there are quite a few, even if they were trying hard simply to adapt the best ideas from Scotland.

Leave it to America to have developed the irrigation, turf and drainage technology to put courses in many different spots.  This is no small task, and merely advancing/adapting/perfecting(?) the art in this way would be a signifigant contribution.

As to individual hole concepts, how about:

The heroic or Cape hole (at least with water) was an American invention of CBM.

The oblique or angled fw?  Yes, they existed in Scotland, but I am not sure they were actually designed as such, whereas the Golden Age guys at least perfected the idea.

Scientific Bunkering, i.e. putting them at average tee shot distances from the tee.....

How about RTJ, with Signature Holes, Expansion of Multiple Tee Concepts and Large rolling greens?

Actually, even looking back at all of these, they probably fit in the refinement mode as much as new ideas.  But the fact that American courses look so much different from Scottish ones must mean they are somewhat original, no?  

While it does seem they are adaptations of ideas, we can't forget that Scottish gca evolved as well, from the quirkiness of Prestwick and TOC in the 1700's to a very refined Muirfield in 1892, which I think influenced golf design when it started in America about the same time.

[BCrosby]

I kept waiting for the answer and Brent nailed it.

Water hazards. It's like the Purloined Letter. It's so obvious that us Americans overlook it. Nothing distinguishes American golf courses more clearly as American golf courses than the use of water whenever and however possible.

There wasn't much unique to American courses until the RTJ generation took over post WWII. Distinctive American course began then. There was no precedent to their liberal (wanton?) use of water features.

Those courses, in turn, influenced modern UK courses. They now use water almost as liberally.

What happened with water post WWII is one of several reasons why we call that period the Dark Ages. In many respects it is still with us. Pete Dye, for example, is not immune to the disease.

Bob

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