[Tim Gallant]

I’m recently returned from St Patricks, and it was a joy to see a course that has just opened. I’ll save my thoughts on the course specifically for the other thread, but I was thinking about when new courses first open, most say that the course needs time to ‘bed-in’ before they truly reach their full potential. While I’d agree that giving the grasses in the playing areas and non-playing surfaces time to fully mature and become more defined is important, I thought that there is also something to be said about playing a course that is still in its raw infancy.

For example, playing a course that has just opened, the paths might still be quite rugged & undefined, the lies might be less than perfect, there will be no distance discs in the fairways or on the tee boxes, and the greens might be slower than normal. But all this adds up to a more adventurous, unpredictable and authentic experience that might not be possible to get otherwise. Is it not this ‘unrestricted’ nature of golf that many of us pine for?

As my mother says ‘Don’t wish your life away’! Do we over-emphasis the importance of ‘bedding-in’? And should we be singing the praises of some of the unique qualities of a course when it is first opened, rather than looking at all the perceived ‘flaws’?

[Jason Thurman]

I think so.


First, to the final question: it's not unique to new courses at all. Too many people seem to think Architectural Knowledge is all about finding things to gripe about, rather than noticing and articulating the things that make a course unique.


To other points made: One of the more unforgettable rounds of my life was seeing Sweetens Cove during grow-in, back when its name was going to be Battle Creek or Sequatchie or something. And sure, partly it was memorable because it was miserably cold that morning and we had a killer lineup of GCA legends on hand. That was the day I met Eric Smith, for instance.


But also, because it was a course still taking shape and rough around the edges that hadn't really been publicized much, save for a teaser pic or two of the bunker on 5 in a few mags. It felt like we were discovering something, but also felt like we needed to use our imagination a bit to know what it would be eventually once bunkers were filled in and turf matured.


I mean, I know some people roll their eyes at what's become the Sweetens Cove ethos. But I got to meet it when it was half golf course and half construction site, when no one would have believed its future would involve Peyton and Roddick and a whiskey label. If an oracle had appeared on 9 when we finished and said "In the future, this place will be so successful that it sparks controversy throughout the North American golf world" I think there'd have been some tears of joy.

[Tom_Doak]

Tim:


One of the secrets of preview play is that you can't quite tell how certain features will ultimately play, but most people are inclined to give such questions the benefit of the doubt, because they feel lucky to see the course before everyone else does.  Your post and Jason's both indicate that you did just that.


For me, it's trickier if the greens are so slow that you can't get a sense of what they'll be like.  For example, there were a couple of greens at Cabot Cliffs where I couldn't tell how good [or lucky] a shot would have to be to wind up where you wanted it to, and it would be hard for me to rate the course as highly as others do before I go back and see how those turned out.


But I agree that the sense of adventure is more keen on a brand new course -- and with Jason that it could also be so on a course that's "new to us" -- and that's why you won't see pictures of every hole at St. Patrick's for a little while yet.

[Michael Moore]

I like good lies and modern green speeds!

[Thomas Dai]

I recall walking with some assistance from Ally the then called Kilmore-9 at Carne only a few weeks before it had a ‘soft’ opening. No tee markers nor pins out.
It was a fascinating experience looking at contours and features etc from different angles and trying to imagine how shots when played would react, how and where balls would bounce and roll, how the wind would influence things etc. And having no tee markers and especially pins out helped this imaginative process.
What was subsequently very interesting and enjoyable was going back a couple of years later for the splendid Carne Buda and playing the same holes a few times and recalling what it had been like during the previous visit.
Atb

[ward peyronnin]

I played the new Liddy Pfau course at IU last year. I say new because nothing was really left of the existing course.
I enjoyed the whole thing and I especially appreciated that the native areas  were still wispy much like the nogo areas in Scotland.
I am sure they will grow this in to thick tall stuff but it was certainly more fun recovering for a half shot penalty or maybe gallant recovery than dropping another ball. I wish they would keep it.

[Peter Flory]

I played Erin Hills quite a bit right after it was built and I have good memories from that.  There were rocks in the fairways and all of the original quirks that were later ironed out.  It is neat knowing a course from its infancy. 

[Kalen Braley]

I only have one experience with this, won't mention the course's name, but it would seem they hadn't thought thru all the drainage scenarios...

[Kyle Harris]

I only have one experience with this, won't mention the course's name, but it would seem they hadn't thought thru all the drainage scenarios...

Nobody does because mother nature rarely does, too.

[Kalen Braley]

I only have one experience with this, won't mention the course's name, but it would seem they hadn't thought thru all the drainage scenarios...

Nobody does because mother nature rarely does, too.

Fair enough, but I would have thought the worse example I saw could have been predicted.

Fairway and cart path elevated above a section of rough to create a small half pipe that had nowhere to drain to as a bunker with a lip on it blocked it on the downhill side.

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