A One-Question Survey on How We Got Interested in Golf Architecture

[jeffwarne]

I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but I'm surprised to see how many have said they were doodling golf holes when they were 11 or 12, before they had seen even one outstanding course.

When one hasn't seen "even one outstanding course" he's usually not aware of that fact-until he actually sees one.
Ironically, as a kid I was falling in love with golf by seeing and playing great courses, but certainly wasn't being told they were great.


ANGC aside, my favorite courses growing up were under appreciated and avoided by many if not most . Palmetto(no irrigation), Aiken GC(dilapidated), Ross's Forest Hills(Army course) were all in "Goat Hill" condition according to the locals and actually the 2-3 newer Ellis Maples Real Estate courses were all the rage.


I never doodled , but I was definitely building holes in the dirt!
I remember one green I built with annual rye grass-I ended up scraping it bare and returning it to packed dirt-lightning.
used astroturf welcome mats(anchored with tees) for teeing areas

[Ash Towe]

Started playing golf in my early twenties after being injured out of rugby. Then read the World Atlas of Golf and that started my interest.


Did not realise how good a golf course could be till I played Muirfield.

[Mitch Hantman]

Age 15, Bethpage Black
Then I saw a photo of Cypress Point #16 and it "clicked".

[Clyde Johnson]

13 - St Andrews New.


I was never far away from hints of interesting or funky golf in the years before that, mind.

[Mike Sweeney]

I don't remember that there was "a process" to play Merion East, but they were pretty generous. We were sort of scared of Bill Kittleman, but he was secretly a nice guy. Obviously The East had a lasting impression.

Just remembered that I played Doral Blue before Merion East. As a young golfer on a first trip to Florida, that was an amazing place with the huge ponds and bunkers.


Sure we make fun of "Florida Golf" here on GCA, but Doral Blue was amazing at that moment in life, and it was on the Golf Digest Top 100 list, so that was probably the start of the insanity

[Ira Fishman]

This thread proves why Memoirs are unreliable and/or the fact I have consumed too much Bourbon over the past 40 years.  I had completely forgotten about drawing golf holes during class and even in business meetings as I got older.  Heck, I even built felt models in my teens and went to the office of some golf architecture society in Chicago when I was in high school in hopes of finding out how to become one.  It is a good thing that it was a sterile membership/marketing office because my lack of talent would have proven a problem.


In any event, I stand by my first post that I did not become truly interested in gca until later in life despite youthful evidence to the contrary.  I am quite positive every course I "drew" was from the pure penal school.


Ira

[Tom_Doak]

When one hasn't seen "even one outstanding course" he's usually not aware of that fact-until he actually sees one.
Ironically, as a kid I was falling in love with golf by seeing and playing great courses, but certainly wasn't being told they were great.

I'll agree with the former statement, but not your last clause.  My experience from years of showing people around different places is that most people recognize when they are on a special course, even if they don't know much about golf at all.

[Peter Pallotta]

With Ira talking about memory: do I remember or only seem to remember that, even as a youngster (I watched golf on tv years and years before I ever played), I could see and maybe even understand the difference between a Winged Foot and an Augusta?

I don't think the broadcasters focused on architecture any more then than they do now, but when they were using persimmon and blades, the architecture seemed to jump out more.

The 12th and 13th at Augusta, watching year after year, were a great foundation. On the 13th, what happened (on the 2nd and 3rd shot) if they didn't trust or couldn't hit a draw; on the 12th, it seemed like Jack was always in that back bunker after playing it 'safe'...and then had that really hard downhill bunker shot with the pond looming long.

P   

[JESII]

My experience from years of showing people around different places is that most people recognize when they are on a special course, even if they don't know much about golf at all.

I guess that's the search than, in your profession. The secret sauce.

[JESII]

I hate to say it, but I think consistency, or rather, sameness is the key. Still not sure that's the perfect word...


When all of the bunkers look like they were built by the same guy, and mowing lines have evolved to a point that it's clear a steady hand (and mind) has overseen maintenance I get the impression someone cares deeply about the course and it deserves to be presented as such.

[Lou_Duran]

When one hasn't seen "even one outstanding course" he's usually not aware of that fact-until he actually sees one.
Ironically, as a kid I was falling in love with golf by seeing and playing great courses, but certainly wasn't being told they were great.

I'll agree with the former statement, but not your last clause.  My experience from years of showing people around different places is that most people recognize when they are on a special course, even if they don't know much about golf at all.

Could that be because many great courses have beautiful surrounds, topography, and nicely contrasting features which naturally attract most people, even non-golfers?  Does Holston Hills receive a commensurate reaction based on its architecture as, say, Seminole? 

[Tom_Doak]

  My experience from years of showing people around different places is that most people recognize when they are on a special course, even if they don't know much about golf at all.

Could that be because many great courses have beautiful surrounds, topography, and nicely contrasting features which naturally attract most people, even non-golfers?  Does Holston Hills receive a commensurate reaction based on its architecture as, say, Seminole?

Sure; anyone would understand that Cypress Point was great.  I never tried it at Holston Hills.  But I do think it's more than just raw beauty . . . most great courses have good detail work and good composition, and non-golfers can appreciate those things, too.

[Eric_Terhorst]

At age 22 I got to play the Olympic Club as an unaccompanied guest, for a pittance.  Two of us played the Lake Course and the Ocean Course that day.  It was before the club lost the ocean-fronting holes on the Ocean Course, including the 6th (?), a par 4 that asked you to bite off as much as you could chew of the Pacific Ocean.  I recall hitting a good tee shot that left me with a short iron to the green, but that may be enhanced memory!


My first thought about golf course design probably occurred years later when I read that the club had lost those irreplaceable holes...

[Jim_Coleman]

    I think it was when I read Dan Jenkins Sports Illustrated article in the '60's about the best 18 holes in America.  I think it was the grandfather of golf course rankings.  I was in my teens.  From then on, I became interested in what made a golf course great, at least to me.

[Mike Hendren]

I had been playing the game 18 years when I stepped to the tee at The Honors Course, my first Top-100.  Likely another 10 years before I played my second - TPC Sawgrass.  Still have the poster-boards with course layouts I created in junior high to "play" with the Sports Illustrated Golf Game, including a Pine Valley homage - a course I've never seen. 

I can't help but notice the young ages when most of you teed it up somewhere great and my conclusion that this is a pretty well heeled group.  While the defunct Hillbilly Tour provided a few guffaws historically, Barney and I will always be kindred spirits, having grown up in small town fly-over America and dusted off the local grown-ups while in high school.  I have always admired his passion for playing the game and wish I hadn't lost mine.

Bogey

[corey miller]

I always (post college) had a slight interest in the architecture but never took time to become "educated"


Joined a club (mid thirties) and saw the Confidential Guide in the locker room which changed a lot.  Soon after played Fenway and went on line for more information (why I had never heard of it) and discovered this site. 

[Ian Mackenzie]

Age 20.
Morfontaine.


Was going to school in France and had an internship in Paris for the summer. I was basically the office "gopher".
Two guys in the office asked me to play with them on a Saturday.

Wow. Had never heard of it at the time.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

At what age did you first play a top-100 level golf course?

Maybe I'm an outlier here… but I don't know the first time I played a top-100 level course. I am almost certain I hadn't within the first three years I played golf.

I was introduced to golf as a 14-year-old, in the summer. I played varsity soccer that fall, but got a 7-iron and read everything I could all winter. I got a set of clubs and a junior membership that winter using my combined birthday and Christmas money. They were some persimmon/muscleback Jack Nicklaus MacGregor Tourney VIPs. The 6-iron was missing because a cousin of mine had played two rounds with the clubs and lost that club.

I was sketching holes on the covers of my books in school within a year. I get obsessed with things (particularly when I was a kid and I had the time) and I'd read everything I could get my hands on. I later played Oakmont as a senior in high school… but I played varsity golf my last three falls in high school and was always interested in the architecture and design and strategy of the holes.

[Tom_Doak]

Joined a club (mid thirties) and saw the Confidential Guide in the locker room which changed a lot.

It's a testament to the members of your club that nobody stole the book.  I've given away a few of them over the years to clubs only to have them go walkabout.

[Thomas Dai]

I recall reading in a magazine probably when I was circa 13-14 yrs old about Tour-Pro's and the yardage etc books they prepared. So I prepared one myself for the club/course I was a junior member of. Drew each hole in a notebook with the main features included and went out on the course by myself and paced out yardages to/from various spots. Interesting exercise at the time.
Not necessary these days though what with youngsters having access to pre-prepared course guide books, rangefinders and satmap overheads on 'phones etc. Kind of a shame although I do understand that some UK amateur authorities are insisting that their better players still prepare such details to help them develop their course management skills.
atb

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I could add that my doodling also took the form of some rudimentary "create your own course" type things on some VERY early Mac golf games. I forget the one, but it had Augusta National. There was no elevation, so I remember even knowing then how differently Augusta National would actually play than how I "played" it on the computer, but still… It may have been an early version of Links. I don't know.

I don't think you have to have seen a top 100 course just to appreciate architecture. I think the course I played my second through fourth years playing golf - Lake View CC in North East, PA - had several reasonably solid holes.

[Michael Whitaker]

Around 30 when I played Yeamans Hall.

[Mike_Clayton]

Kingston Heath 1971 when I was 14. It was probably top 100 then but it's a better course now. Royal Melbourne when I was 16.

[Adrian_Stiff]

13 and Painswick

[Dan Gallaway]

I thought the answer would be six years ago at the age of 40 while playing Cabo del Sol - Ocean.  I remember chuckling to myself thinking that if there were 96 courses in the world better than this one, I've got to get out of the NW more often.  I think my zest for interesting architecture was solidified yesterday though while I played my local overpriced-so it must be good course.  Position A on every fairway is right at the 150 marker and every pin location is just a drab as the rest.