What golf courses influenced your views on golf courses and GCA ?

[David Ober]

Since I'm new to the whole GCA thing, I'd have to say the three Bandon courses -- and I've never even played any of them. They opened my eyes to what great golf course architecture is all about. Without having seen photos of them several years back, I would still be under the impression that Palm Springs golf (in all its perfectly manicured faux splendor) sets the standard for first-rate golf course architecture.

Oh how naive I was....

[PCCraig]

Growing up in Rockford Illinois, I was influenced first by Rockford Country Club, a very old Tweedie course. I played a lot at Macktown, and I'm not even sure who the architect was, but it had square corners and abrupt fall offs on all the fill pads.

I then worked at Old Elm Club as assistant golf course superintendent. Changing holes cups every day on those greens was amazing. From Old Elm I was able to get out and play the great Chicago golf courses:Shoreacres Golf Club, and Chicago Golf Club blew me away. There was something about Raynor that just floored me.

Skokie was a big influence. Onwentsia. Medinah I never understood. Take away the huge trees and it's just a very long and hard golf course. That was how I always felt. 

Nice assessment of some Chicago area clubs. I will say though that I really like Onwentsia.

Have you seen Glen View Club?

[PCCraig]

No course has ever changed the way I look at other golf courses quite like TCC-brookline. I thought I knew my way around golf courses and even the first few times out there I didn't see much at first. However as the time past and I had walked it upwards of 200 times I fell in love with GCA.

The small greens, hills, natural bunkering, and rock outcroppings blew my mind compared to the courses I grew up playing in Chicago.

[Peter Pallotta]

Patrick -

long before I'd ever thought about gca, even before I ever picked up a golf club in earnest, there was Augusta on television, especially the 12th and the Par 5s on the back nine; the former because the trouble it gave players for so short a hole got me to wondering why (well, the commentators explained why, actually), and the latter because it was clear that something on those golf holes was forcing the golfers to think and make a choice and execute, in that order. When years later I started playing even a bit seriously, and later when I started reading about gca, Augusta was the context through which everything was filtered.

Peter

[Philippe Binette]

The front nine of the Madeleine course at my home club... greens design by somebody who didn't know what he was doing, wind, width and firm ground

[Ian Andrew]

The Old Course

It’s the way you play it – you can take on as much or as little risk as you want. You can fly it, run it, or even putt from the fairways if you so desire. The opportunity to try different angles, different routes or even a whole new approach each time out makes it the most compelling play that I have ever enjoyed. The feeling I had playing there and the few other courses that embrace the same playing freedom – are the courses that most shaped my design philosophy.

It was the first time that I realized that what you see doesn't really matter, even though much of architectural review concentrates on the aesthetics of the game.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Who amongst us wasn't influenced by watching Augusta on TV during the Masters ?

[Kirk Gill]

I'd played a good amount of golf before I really started to think about GCA, and it was The World Atlas of Golf that did that. I read about those courses, and saw those paintings of the courses, and I dreamed. More than any other course I dreamt of Royal Dornoch. I still have a 10th grade assignment in a box somewhere that lists "greenskeeper at Royal Dornoch" as my career choice for the future. And I really didn't even know what a greenskeeper did. I just knew I wanted to be on that course. How I got that from the painting and the written description I really don't know.

[RJ_Daley]

Playing with an uncle who taught me golf (he tried...  ) we went to Lawsonia every years, sometimes a couple times a year starting when I was about 12. 

I didn't get really interested in GCA until about mid 80s.  Then I was influenced by the usual suspects, RTJsr, then read C&W and got deeper into it, joined the GCSAA as an affiliate and started to take their seminars and such.  But, the influence that came with that approach only led me to consider the sort of archies that were associated with events at GCSAA, and I didn't really see or play any seminal traditional GCA courses at that point, particularly not out of my home area.

But, I became aware of the Sand Hills, first by Whittens mention of it in the Cornish and Whitten book, then when they announced SHGC was being built, I took a little trip out there in about '95 and was hit by the thunderbolt.  That is when I started really thinking more about a less contrived and natural field of play, minimalism, links style courses rather than the steady diet of parkland courses I was used to. 

When I first drove in the lot at Wild Horse in 98, I knew what it was - 'that one thing' (like Curly Joe said in the movie).   

Now, I've had some opportunities to play around the country, and see a few diverse courses and archies.  I can still take everything I love about golf back to Laswonia, and my Sand Hills revelation.

[David_Elvins]

There are three courses that stand head and shoulders above erveryting else in influencing my opinions on what is ideal in golf course design. 

Royal Melbourne
Augusta National
St Andrews

I have never played any of them

[Scott Warren]

I got tired of reading my reply to this thread everytime I clicked to see the new posts, so I had to remove it. I can only imagine I was drinking when I posted it, because it was particularly wanky.

Short answer: Deal. It showed me why following the natural flow of the land is so important, but playing NSW GC for the first time aged 14 was the first time I was on a course that "felt different". Within the next year or so I got to play The Lakes, Terrey Hills, Royal Canberra and Concord - while far from being world class, each of them taught me so much, though I didn't consciously realise it at the time.

So I guess NSW got me thinking, and Deal was the point where a lot of what I had picked up along the way started to make sense to me.

[Andrew Mitchell]

The Old Course was the first links course I played, when I first realised that golf at the seaside was very different to the moorland/parkland golf I had been brought up on.  It was my first trip to North Berwick however when I "got" links golf.

[Patrick_Mucci]

How much of an influence was Dye's work at TPC ?

[Lyne Morrison]

Who amongst us wasn't influenced by watching Augusta on TV during the Masters ?

Patrick and Peter - your comments got me thinking.

I have lovely memories of going off to my local golf club to 'film evenings' as a young junior. The big reels clicked and wobbled and inevitably had to be changed over at inopportune times but I was completely captivated by Augusta and the Masters environment - the crack of a driver, the pros striding forth and the palpable anticipation of the gallery. The varying texture of the different coloured greens contrasted by the sand, the pines and azaleas and the sense of occasion - this was just wonderful. Augusta may not be the ideal architectural model for 2009 but it is an icon and it has its place.

I have never thought about it before but I'm guessing we had those evenings because there were no live international golf broadcasts on the tv here in the 70's but in later years I would wake in the middle of the night to relive the magic of that course.

I also used to watch the 'Pro-Celebrity Golf' show out of England - I recall Peter Allis teaming up with the likes of Sean Connery and Peter Ousterhouse (spelling apologies) while playing through the various links courses. That was my introduction to The Old Course, Gleneagles, Carnoustie etc; fairway 'rumples', the 'wee burn', the dell, pot bunkers, wind, heather and the like.

With regards the topic my love of golf courses came from Royal Canberra from the moment I first walked on to the course at age 7 - but it was at Kingston Heath that I was truly moved by superb strategic bunkering and at Royal Melbourne that I felt scale, movement and undeniable 'presence'.

Good memories.

Cheers - Lyne

[Cristian]

A trip to Ireland playing links golf. The first course we played was Royal Portrush in really F&F conditions; that was the click for me. RPR in my mind is still the best course I have ever played. I also found out that some of the lesser known links courses with more modest length provide the same amount of fun; RPR-Valley, Ballyliffin Old, Dooks, Lundin, Glasgow Gailes etc

[Roger Wolfe]

For me, early on it was Pinehurst # 2 and my home course, a 1927 Tucker design.

Later, NGLA, Seminole, Winged Foot and others.

But, the roots of my interest are deepest with # 2 and my home course.

I'll get into HOW I was infuenced later.

All I knew about Donald Ross when I came to the Carolinas in 2004 was PH #2.  I had been there twice and thought the greens were cool.  Only since then, as I have traveled around the Carolinas and played many, many Ross courses have I learned to appreciate his work (and realize #2's greens are not that representative of Ross).  Camden, Mimosa Hills, MidPines, Pine Needles are just wonderful.  Southern Pines is great.  Roaring Gap is heaven.  Working with Kris Spence at my home course, Carolina Golf Club, has only deepened my admiration along with Bradley Klein and Michael Fay.

I love the great designs but I still believe its not necessarily where you play but who you play with and how well you play that makes you love or hate a golf course.  I played Whistling Straits several times but had bad rounds and was miserable.  I miss playing old Medal of Honor golf course in Quantico, VA with two scratch Marine Corps colonels every Tuesday at 6AM for 3 years straight.  I loved the old Founders course at Penn National where we took 4 annual trips and good old Sligo Creek and Glenndale on the beltway in Maryland for "sneak out of work" Friday rounds back in the day.  My first club, Augustine, where I met my wife and cut my teeth in the golf business is special as is my 2nd, Swan Point in Southern Maryland.  I played a lot at Aquia Harbour in Virginia with good friends but I still hate that purgatory as I do the Ocean course after four rounds with 40 mph winds.  I am so nervous and worried about doing something in appropriate at Charlotte CC and Quail that I never seem to enjoy myself as much as the others, although both are magical clubs.

This site is fun because there seems to be a lot of guys who just love golf.  Just like me.

[Norbert P]

Bandon Dunes in its opening month.
  Carne GC in Belmullet Ireland.
  North Berwick
  Sheep Ranch
  Featherie Banks  Never Existed Officially
  Arbory Brae         NLE
  Wildhorse
  Sand Hills
  Talking Stick North
  Barnbougle
  and of course, my real education at Wine Valley.

[jim_lewis]

Carnoustie.   I had been to the Masters many times before I made it to Carnousitie in 1984. That's when I learned that great courses don't have to be "beautiful". It reminded me of my high school physics teacher. She wasn't beautiful and she was tough as nails. She was also the best teacher I ever had and is a friend to this day.

Jim Lewis

[John Shimp]

Playing Palmetto in the early 80's in the Souther Cross high school tournament.  Really had to think your way around and pick your spots to be agressive.  Good shots just offline or long could be disastorous due to the raised up and relatively small greens that are well guarded with bunkers and runoffs.  Had to know which side of the green to miss, etc.  Growing up in SC most courses were very easy on the approach shot and in recovering around the green was simple and one dimensional usually.  Palmetto was totally different despite it being shorter than many other courses.

[JC Jones]

The first time I ever played a golf course and noticed the architecture (i.e. I realized there was something different about the course than the courses I'd always played) was High Pointe at the age of 15.  I immediately bought the Anatomy of a Golf Course and an RTJ book.  As the years went on playing high school golf I focused more on my game than whatever course I was playing.  I was always a bomb and gouge player so I never thought to pay attention to the golf course or the strategy.

The next "epiphany" came exactly 10 years after the first one when I set foot on the first tee at Pacific Dunes in November of 2004.  That changed everything.  Unfortunately the next few years were lost to finishing law school and starting my career in DC.  I didn't play much golf but when I did I couldn't help but feel uninspired by the courses I was playing.  Then, in the spring of 2007, after returning back to Michigan the previous fall, I played High Pointe again and realized, again, what I was missing.  Since I can no longer play the way I used to, I must think more to get around the course.  Strategy and options are now in my focus.  I joined this site that summer and the rest is history.

I also had the opportunity to play Kingsley Club and Crystal Downs in the fall of 2007 and well, that certainly will change ones perspective!!!

[Dan Herrmann]

Easy for me - Pacific Dunes about a three months after it opened.  It was a euphonious event.

[Brad Tufts]

My home course of Tedesco...(Wogan/Stiles), and playing interclubs at Essex, Myopia, Salem CC, and Ipswich (RTJ).

A 3-week trip to Scotland as an 18-year old in 1999 to all of the favorites put me in deep smit with golf history and architecture.

[Anthony Gray]

  I think from day one I noticed it. As a third grader playing the public nine holer I noticed how I like the elevated tee boxes on the hilly course. I thought it was awesome to have a tee on top of a ridge to watch the ball descend down to the fairway.

  Anthony

[Don Hyslop]

 I had the good fortune of growing up next to Riverside Golf and Country Club in East Riverside, New Brunswick. It is a Donald Ross course and was the site of the Canadian Open in 1939. Although I only caddied at the course( although we used to sneek out early just before sunrise on occasion to play a few holes) it gave me an appreciation of an excellent course. I actually learned to play at Stanley Thompson's 9 hole Fundy National Park Course. This is another excellent layout. From that point on as I wandered around other courses I always would think why did they put a trap in this location, why wasn't the green here etc. These two courses gave me my views on golf course architecture.

[ChipOat]

In approximate chronological order starting many, MANY years ago: Merion (East and, later, parts of the West), Pine Valley, Harbour Town, Garden City, Maidstone, Augusta (pre-Bent Grass and pre-Tiger proofing), Cypress/SFGC, The Golf Club, Muirfield Village, Dornoch, TOC (both plus and minus) and Friar's Head + the Back 9 at Easthampton.  I didn't really know quite why I liked Fishers Island, Shinnecock, Seminole and most of Pebble ( except 8-10, 14 & 18 - I got those right away) in terms of golf architecture until some years later (including my first couple of years on GCA).  And I REALLY didn't appreciate the brilliance of National until I found GCA.  Until then, I just thought it was a glorious golf PLACE with gorgeous views and several wonderful holes (i.e. 8 & 18) that I could play a million times and always have fun.