One of the themes within the course profiles is that a course can be judged based on the quality of its holes.
After all, it doesn’t much matter how well you played, or the weather, or if the course was empty or crowded – all those are variables that likely change from round to round.
The inherent merit of the holes is the constant. Sure, there is some ebb and flow based on conditions (wet vs, dry, etc.) but in general, GCA.com contends that if one focuses on the quality of the holes, the quality of the course will be revealed as well. (The rub is that most courses don’t stand up to such scrutiny, so why don’t we talk about the clubhouse instead
).
The format of Rich’s book is such that the golfer is continually compelled to look at the merits of each hole - and this is GOOD.
In this particular case, OptimizeGolf captures the rippling ground contours and the short grass playing attributes of The Old Course as well as any book possibly can. Thus, it’s an especially ideal gift to your favorite architect, whoever it may be, as no one is even close to building green complexes as endlessly fascinating to study/play as those on The Old Course. Architects seem a bit too complacent these days with their puffed up greens that slope monotonously from back to front. YAWN.
As long as Rich will keep publishing his books on the great UK courses and allow us to try to understand the elements that make these courses stand the test of time, we’ll keep doing Feature Interviews with him. Next up will be one with him on Carnoustie and that Feature Interview will be posted the week that Carnoustie hosts the Open next year (though the book will be out well before).
Cheers,
P.S. Up next in two weeks: A Feature Interview with architect Jim Engh.