Sound on the Golf Course

[Charlie Goerges]

Note: This is not a thread about music on the course, let's not go there.

I've been wondering lately if sound is an underrated part of the golf experience. I'm curious how architectural/design decisions affect the sound (like how a greensite surrounded by a semicircle of dunes or trees sounds different than a totally exposed green etc.)


Additionally, what kind of sounds do you like or dislike on the course and what can be done to enhance or attenuate them as the case may be?

[Tom_Doak]

We have just spent a lot of time talking to acoustic engineers in FL about keeping sound from the nearby road OFF of our golf course there.  I was surprised to learn that trees are no barrier, and then only thing that helps is a solid structure [wall or berm] that deflects the noise upward.  And it's got to be as high as the exhaust stack on a semi !


That was all for our client's benefit.  Years ago, I built a course with a busy Interstate highway going right through the middle of it at Lost Dunes, and in my years of playing there I have never been much bothered by the constant traffic . . . it kind of recedes into white noise for me.  But I'm sure that first-time guests hate it.


I've never thought much about the sound of club meeting ball and trying to enhance it in any way.  But I do love the hollow thud you get from a really firm green even just dropping the putter on it.

[Tim Martin]

I’ve played courses in close proximity to Kennedy and LaGuardia airports and it’s pretty unnerving for at least the first handful of holes having both departures and arrivals coming rapid fire. When it comes to air traffic I don’t think there is any remedy for the jet noise and only after repeated plays would someone have the wherewithal to be able to block even some of it out.

[Stewart Abramson]

, what kind of sounds do you like or dislike on the course and what can be done to enhance or attenuate them as the case may be?

I usually crack up when I hear players cursing creatively after a bad shot. I once played with a legal scholar who was speaking on a panel with me at a conference the following  day. He was very mild mannered and in 20 years  I had never heard him raise his voice or utter a bad word . He played very poorly and the  stream of bad words and negative talk that came out of his mouth, aimed at himself, was pretty funny. I wish I had been able to record it and play it for the audience the next day.

[Matt Schoolfield]

We have just spent a lot of time talking to acoustic engineers in FL about keeping sound from the nearby road OFF of our golf course there.  I was surprised to learn that trees are no barrier, and then only thing that helps is a solid structure [wall or berm] that deflects the noise upward.  And it's got to be as high as the exhaust stack on a semi !

I went to college at Boston University, and only kind of "quad" is a big grassy area called the BU Beach (that can see/hear in this video), which exactly has a designed berm that deflects the noise from a major thoroughfare. The result, is indeed, a wave-like sound that is entirely tolerable, and is arguably pleasant.

After I was invited to Lake Merced, I eventually had a discussion with some members exactly about the BU Beach in regards to the 18th hole there, which shares a similar contiguity to traffic noise.

I think the real takeaway from that the Boston University example has to offer, is exactly that by associating the noise in your mind with something else, you can really get better results while doing less. The cost to get rid of the noise would probably be prohibitive, and there is the occasional truck that ruins the effect, but that small berm combine with priming people to think of a beach, can make that green space a nice place to spend an afternoon.

[Adam Lawrence]

The one place external noise has really distressed me is Walton Heath. The ninth tee of the Old course is literally twenty yards from the M25 London orbital motorway, and when you get to the bottom of the course it is inevitably extremely loud. It's not that it is louder than a course next to an airport, say -- I remember Corica Park, in California, which is right next to the Oakland airport as being fearfully loud -- but it's just that the experience at Walton is otherwise so pure, the noise seems especially intrusive.

[Thomas Dai]

It’s not sound. It’s lack of sound!
One of the joys of golf used to be the peace and quiet, the tranquility and serenity experienced while on the course. The feeling of being ‘away from it all’. The lack of hurly, burly, hustle and bustle, movement and noise.
This seems to have largely gone, especially since Covid times.
Busier World now with more off-course noise. Busier courses too. Loud voices heard across fairways. Gobby folks on patios (usually wearing their hats with the brim turned to the back! ). Buggies. Players moving and chatting while other players nearby are playing their shots (a big “no, no” once upon a time).
As Queen Victoria is supposed to have said “We are not amused”.
Oh for the past joys of limited play, no tee times, largely empty car parks, hushed voices in the clubhouse.
Atb

PS - and don’t get me started on the sound of bloody fountains!

[Tommy Williamsen]

I like it quiet. I played the Plantation Course at Sea Island in April and hated all the private jets landing at the nearby airport. I have discovered that visual noise is disturbing. I have grown to dislike buildings on golf courses. Most of the clubs I have belonged to are away from houses and noise.

[Charlie Goerges]

It’s not sound. It’s lack of sound!

I like it quiet.

I generally understand, but with all due respect gentlemen, there is never absolute silence or quiet on the course (or just about anywhere in normal life).

I too prefer quieter sounds, but if it's quite quiet, then you hear your footsteps, the rustle of breeze through long grass or leaves plus any other sounds you make. I find those sounds very interesting as well. Tom mentioned the thud of the putter on a firm green, that's a good one. I've also heard people talk about birdsong, trains, church bells in the distance and many more. I find them all fascinating.

I also find the texture (for lack of a better word) of the sound to be very important. Like how close the air can feel when you're surrounded by trees (maybe after a bad drive into the woods) or how your sound just disappears into the breeze on a windy day.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Charlie, I think you listen better than I do.

[Rob Marshall]

One play at a course would be different but on your home course IMO eventually you stop hearing the noise. Across the street from our third hole is a Skeet shooting club. When I play Thursday afternoons I never hear it but they are shooting everyday.


I grew up on a street that was close to a fire house. You could hear the siren for miles, it was that loud. After a while I couldn't tell you at the end of the day if it went off or not. Our mind can turn those sounds off.

[Charlie Goerges]

Charlie, I think you listen better than I do.

I doubt that, but I've learned that sometimes I need to close my eyes to focus on what I'm hearing. But you've certainly heard it, a great example is being in a large, high-ceilinged church versus a cosy, little anteroom.

[Patrick Collins]

Really like this subject - on my end, while not architecture related, sound has evoked distinct memories of courses.


Walking through the woods on the back nine of Kingsbarns (from 11-12 and from 14-15) it sounded as if there were a thousand crows cawing and had a strange mid-evil feeling.


Fourth tee box at Myopia Hunt with ~100 hounds barking as you try to turn one over.


While neither noise I would seek out for a four hour round, they added to the overall experience for me in both scenarios. They were little details of an enjoyable day that enhanced the memory.

[Charlie Goerges]

Probably the psychological makes a difference, kudos to those mentioning the habituation aspect of the sound...easy for a muni or members club to bank on, less so for a high-end resort I'd imagine.


I am curious about other psychological effects like those mentioned by Adam and Matt.

[Charlie Goerges]

I was surprised to learn that trees are no barrier, and then only thing that helps is a solid structure [wall or berm] that deflects the noise upward.  And it's got to be as high as the exhaust stack on a semi !

I'm surprised by that as well. Certainly a full, solid barrier is better, but I'm surprised that trees provide nothing. I wonder if it's more a case that trees won't provide enough to be noticeable in the smaller numbers likely to be planted on a golf course?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Charlie, I think you listen better than I do.

I doubt that, but I've learned that sometimes I need to close my eyes to focus on what I'm hearing. But you've certainly heard it, a great example is being in a large, high-ceilinged church versus a cosy, little anteroom.

Charlie, you might think this is strange, but I remember sitting in a cathedral in Bratislava. I was all alone. I swear I could hear the tears and laughter of centuries of parishioners.

[Thomas Dai]

It’s not sound. It’s lack of sound!

I like it quiet.

I generally understand, but with all due respect gentlemen, there is never absolute silence or quiet on the course (or just about anywhere in normal life).
I too prefer quieter sounds, but if it's quite quiet, then you hear your footsteps, the rustle of breeze through long grass or leaves plus any other sounds you make. I find those sounds very interesting as well. Tom mentioned the thud of the putter on a firm green, that's a good one. I've also heard people talk about birdsong, trains, church bells in the distance and many more. I find them all fascinating.
I also find the texture (for lack of a better word) of the sound to be very important. Like how close the air can feel when you're surrounded by trees (maybe after a bad drive into the woods) or how your sound just disappears into the breeze on a windy day.

Speak up. Can’t hear you. Bloody noisy around here these days!
Atb

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I live near Luke AFB near Goodyear, AZ near my club which has 3 courses. Needless to say that F35 fighter jets take off for training locally and into Yuma for more training. Established in 1941, the Barry M. Goldwater Range is located in southwest Arizona, and consists of over 1.7 million acres spreading across Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties. BMGR is divided into the eastern portion managed by the Luke Air Force Base and the western portion managed by the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Usually the jets start some days early around 730am and return around 3pm.
Nothing we can do about this.
 

[Joe Zucker]

I recently spent a few days at Sand Valley and our group thought noise really carried across the courses there (for whatever reason).  For most of my group, hearing other golfers was a negative.  I'll admit, I was surprised to hear this. Sure, I don't want to hear a grown man have a tantrum from another fairway, but I don't mind hearing the sound of golf.


I was the minority here and my group of guys insisted on music, as they felt the course was too quiet at times.  Different strokes fro different folks, as the say.

[Peter Sayegh]

The only sound that grates me is a car horn from a passing juvenile jackass.
Playing The Walker Course during a Clemson home game was always cool.
The sound I most look forward to is the clip-clop cadence of the trotters beside holes 2-4 at Pinehurst #1.

[Jim Sherma]

I'm probably the outlier but I like courses that are in town and have some hustle and bustle. Preferable is when you touch up against the property edge and come in and out of the outside world and the escape of the inner parts of the property.


Really the only sounds that really grate on me is the gasoline powered leaf blowers and other equipment. I get that the guys need to do their work, but please try to minimize the intrusion on any one group. And don't get me started on remote work at the house and all of the psycho lawn guys in the neighborhood. There's a reason they wear ear protection.

[Paul Rudovsky]

There are not many, but a few courses I have played are so removed and isolated, all I could hear was the sound of blood rushing thru my capillaries, arteries and veins near my ears!  That to me is the definition of silence and the most fascinating sound (or lack thereof) I have ever "heard" on a course.


Courses where I have recently experienced this include:


White Oak Conservation-Dye Course (FL)-2023
Reserve at Moonlight Basin (MT)-2023
Dunas Comportas-Portugal-2023
Lofoten Links-Norway-2023
Santapazienza-Brazil-2023
Landmand-NE-2022
Giant Ridge Resort-Quarry-MN-2022
Stock Farm-MT-2022
Silvies Ranch Resort-both courses-OR-2021
Sand Hills-NE-every time there


There are others as well, that i cannot recall right now.  And at some courses there is no silence because of the loud noises created by the disrespectful waters of nearby oceans!! 

[Craig Sweet]

I prefer sounds that are naturally occurring ....sounds that were there before the course was built....wind, birds, streams, insects....

[Tim Martin]

Playing The Walker Course during a Clemson home game was always cool.

Same goes for a Saturday afternoon round at Yale when the Elis had a home game.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Love the background crashes of surf breaking.



And the Larks ascending...

The cry of the Oystercatcher...

Oh I do love to be beside the sea side