From Wethered and Simpson's The Architectural Side of Golf:
"North Berwick, the oldest, bears the distinction that only age and careful development can ensure. And possibly the fact that courses were frequently played backwards-a custom that had much to commend it and might be revived with entertaining results-was responsible for a certain unexpectedness in the lie of the holes which the necessary concentration over a small area of ground may have helped to accentuate."
In reading this quote, I began to ponder exactly what qualities draw me to a golf course, and golf in general. To me, golf’s ultimate redeeming quality, and the sign of a truly wonderful and inspirational course, is a deep connection with nature and the encapsulated environment. The closer this connection to the landscape is, the better and more enticing the golfing experience. In many ways, golf allows one to experience nature in a unique way, as he is forced to encounter and overcome the natural features of the environment all the way down to the subtlest of ground movement. In my opinion, a deep connection to the natural landscape cannot be overemphasized, and is absolutely necessary for a golf course to reach its fullest potential.
When I was a young kid, and had just taken up the sport of golf, I used to spend much of my free time with a wiffle practice ball and a club, hitting various shots around my back yard and house. Eventually, I began to make holes, hitting my way from tree to tree, keeping track of my strokes. I would play my way all the way around the block, making up the holes as I went (eventually standardizing a routing). These are some of my fondest childhood memories, and only a few golf courses since have made me feel a similar way (one being North Berwick). In retrospect, I believe that in these early neighborhood golfing days I was tapping in to the “adventurous roots of the game.”
If I were ever to design and build a golf course, this would be my goal, to embrace the adventurous roots of the game. The question though, is how? How would one go about trying to instill the spirit of adventure that I had felt by spontaneously picking up a golf club and playing through the streets and fields of my neighborhood? How to replicate what the pioneers of golf had felt as they began exploring and playing the game in ancient dunes land? In many ways, I think the answer to this question lies in what Wethered and Simpson alluded to in the above quote, specifically “the distinction that only age and careful development can ensure,” and “unexpectedness in the lie of the holes.” As I see it, if we want to experience the full potential of golf and golf course architecture, we need to rid of the homogenous watered down version of golf that is most prevalent today. We need to return to when golf was an adventure, played from one point to the next; experiencing whatever challenges the landscape throws at you. Personally, I envision highly fluid golf courses and routings that highlight the peculiarities of a landscape. Even so, I don’t know if it is possible to mimic the careful development and evolution of some of the earlier courses, which I believe harbor this adventurous quality (i.e. TOC and North Berwick). So then, the question I would like to discuss is whether or not it is possible to return golf to its adventurous roots, and if so how?