News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


Doug Wright

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #25 on: April 17, 2009, 12:47:35 PM »
If it's fun, it's OK.

I'm with you Forrest. I don't care if it's at a 300 year old course in Scotland or a 6 month old course in Canon City, Colorado.
Twitter: @Deneuchre

Kirk Gill

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #26 on: April 17, 2009, 02:00:24 PM »
Tom -  I enjoyed that story you told about Ran M. and Lost Dunes. It just shows that we all are capable of thinking in such ways - and Jim Kennedy, I like how you said it has to be "believable."

For myself, I simply dislike the word quirk (rhymes with "Kirk."), even though I've used it some myself. It seems like that word is a diminishment of something, a "setting aside as peculiar." Maybe it's just an easy way to say that something is out of the ordinary, but there's a connotation there of silliness. I don't know if I designed golf courses that I'd like them to be described as "quirky," even if on some level the shoe fit.

Doug, looking forward to getting my quirk on in Canon City here in a month or so !
"After all, we're not communists."
                             -Don Barzini

Norbert P

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #27 on: April 17, 2009, 02:15:42 PM »
If it's fun, it's OK.

I'm with you Forrest. I don't care if it's at a 300 year old course in Scotland or a 6 month old course in Canon City, Colorado.

Or The Mad Russian GC
"Golf is only meant to be a small part of one’s life, centering around health, relaxation and having fun with friends/family." R"C"M

Eric_Terhorst

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #28 on: April 17, 2009, 02:33:50 PM »
Eric, I don't think there's anything wrong with #10 at Bandon Dunes at all.  The hole just asks you to hit your tee ball about 30 yards left of where you instinctively want to hit it, straight at the flagstick.  From well left it's an easy short iron second.  From right in front it's a daunting pitch that's tough to get close.   

To me that's not quirk, that's strategic golf design.

Bill,  I know I'm likely in the minority around here with my opinion of BD#10, but  I think that with the fairway bunkers, the hillock, and the little swale behind the hillock, the hole is "over-featured."  The hillock that blinds the second shot to those who go right off the tee is the quirky part to me--you don't see that feature very often, do you?  The hole would look better on the part of the golf course it occupies, and play better, with a more subtle feature to give you trouble from the right side.  As it is it looks contrived to me.  

Is hitting it left off the tee a request, as you put it, or is it dictated by the lack of reward for taking on the straight path?  Seems to me there's really only one way to properly play the hole.  The only reasons you end up right after your first time are you've made a mistake or you're a glutton for punishment.

By contrast BD#11 is a terrific strategic hole.  Go straight at the flag and take your chances with the bunkers left (tastefully done and much more natural-looking), or play it safe to the right and deal with a longer iron shot, deep greenside bunkering and a green that's really hard to hold from that angle.  Some players want no part of those fairway bunkers left, and have a true option--play it safe down the right, and try to get up and down if you miss the green.  

Jay Cox

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #29 on: April 17, 2009, 02:44:03 PM »
Tom, I love the story of Ran at Lost Dunes.   But I'm not sure that I agree with your thesis that quirk is okay on easy or short holes but not on hard or long ones.  What about the 12th at Stanford - certainly a long, hard hole - with the trees in the middle of the fairway?  The often blind rollercoaster ride on the 18th at Yale?  I think both are acceptable quirk, and I think many others here (including you?) would agree.  On the flip side, what about Desmond Muirhead's island green / island bunkers hole, which if I recall correctly was neither particularly long nor all that hard?

I realize that a few examples don't really prove anything, but more generally as a descriptive matter I think there's a weak correlation at best between difficulty of the hole and perceived acceptability of the quirk.

Jay -

Meaning* 

Historical, strategic, or aesthetic.

Peter

(* As in "I say, what is the meaning of this?")

Peter, I'm afraid I still don't follow.  Is what historical, strategic, or aesthetic?

If it's fun, it's OK.

Forrest, you're right, of course.  But isn't there some pattern to which quirky holes are fun and which aren't?

Doug Wright

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #30 on: April 17, 2009, 02:52:45 PM »
If it's fun, it's OK.

I'm with you Forrest. I don't care if it's at a 300 year old course in Scotland or a 6 month old course in Canon City, Colorado.

Or The Mad Russian GC

Right Slag. A lot of [unintentional] manmade quirk there...  ;) ::)
Twitter: @Deneuchre

Jack_Marr

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes quirk acceptable?
« Reply #31 on: April 18, 2009, 02:51:51 AM »
We are prejudiced in favor of that which has stood the test of time...unnatural quirk in Ireland is not universally loved.

We think that if the damn wall hasn't been taken down in the last 100 years it must be good, whereas this wall on a new course just may be taken down and we want to be in early with a criticism so we can be proven correct...

Sorry!

Three friends of mine played RCD the other day. It was lovely, they said, but too many blind shots and they all preferred Enniscrone.


Also, iIrish people don't dislike the American-style courses that are generally lambasted here.
John Marr(inan)

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back