Military fortifications and golf architecture

[Thomas Dai]

I’m pretty sure all posting herein will know about MacKenzie and trenches and holes called Redans and Spion Kops but are there any other golf course architects who made a deliberate point of studying military fortifications and then absorbed the ideas they learnt into their course design and construction?
Atb




Later edit - see also GCA thread - https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,1658.0.html

[Ben Stephens]

I’m pretty sure all posting herein will know about MacKenzie and trenches and holes called Redans and Spion Kops but are there any other golf course architects who made a deliberate point of studying military fortifications and then absorbed the ideas they learnt into their course design and construction?
Atb

Dai,


Talking about military bases


I have played RAF North Luffenham/North Luffenham Golf Club (NLE) nine holes which had the former runways as part of the course which also had lampposts which I hit in one round and local rule said I can replay shot without penalty 


The old RAF Cottesmore 9 hole course had military style fortifications as part of its nine hole course which is also NLE. Never had the opportunity to play it - you can see the course on older google aerials


Mackenzie was influenced by camoflage which he used in bunkers. Not sure if there are other military applications used for golf course design other than camoflage.


Another type of fortification style is ha ha - a low level wall separating two sections of land.


Cheers
Ben

[Tom_Doak]

There is one course in France [near Verdun?] where fortification-style earthworks were created as the primary feature of play, but I believe that is more just the theme of a particular course than having to do with the designer's style.


Also, I have heard of a few courses built on the sites of old battlefields, where small fortifications are incorporated into the course.  The only example I have seen, though, was at Cape Fear in North Carolina, and the trenches and ridges in question are in the trees in between two holes.

[Adam Lawrence]

There is one course in France [near Verdun?] where fortification-style earthworks were created as the primary feature of play, but I believe that is more just the theme of a particular course than having to do with the designer's style.


Also, I have heard of a few courses built on the sites of old battlefields, where small fortifications are incorporated into the course.  The only example I have seen, though, was at Cape Fear in North Carolina, and the trenches and ridges in question are in the trees in between two holes.

It's Robert Berthet's Golf de Dunkerque (in Dunkerque obviously). The town is home to some of Sebastian de Vauban's most significant fortifications, and the course is Vauban-themed. Robert says that, because we use military attack and defence terminology in golf, it is a relevant metaphor. The course is located on a former dump, so obviously had to be entirely shaped.


https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/golf-de-dunkerque

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks Adam for the link.
The course Adam has linked is a course that was partly in my mind when raising the subject, although it’s the studying and learning and thought processes of an architect behind using such ideas, although more subtlety and covertly used than that at Dunkerque, that I’m hoping to get at .... envisaging via a military view the design of the defensive aspects of an obstacle, designing attacking approaches to an obstacle and all the intricacies including defensive camouflage that go with it.
Atb

[ward peyronnin]

I have played the Savannah GC which somewhat shakily touts itself as the oldest golf club in US.
It has many fun D Ross holes placed within and around Civil War revetments,ridges, and staging grounds for artillery protecting the Savannah River access

[Neil White]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJbKaxZ_0s4

[Garland Bayley]

I've always wondered if Konigstein  Castle would serve as a kind of par 3 template. Well guarded (bunkered) approach, with severe result for left right and long. 10 at Astoria has the severe left, right, long, but no defense for the straight on approach. Also, 10 at Astoria is a miniature version of what I envision.

Perhaps there are holes that fit the concept that I am not aware of.

[Adam Lawrence]

I've always wondered if Konigstein  Castle would serve as a kind of par 3 template. Well guarded (bunkered) approach, with severe result for left right and long. 10 at Astoria has the severe left, right, long, but no defense for the straight on approach. Also, 10 at Astoria is a miniature version of what I envision.

Perhaps there are holes that fit the concept that I am not aware of.

I must stop confusing my German castles. I initially thought you meant Neuschwanstein!!

[Thomas Dai]

Scaled down Neuschwanstein could be a volcano green site, Palmanova an island green and Crac de Chevaliers a peninsula green.
But these are the more obvious examples. It's more hidden, less obvious examples I'd prefer to focus on.

Aspects like frontal defences, weak points, optional entry points, angles, water retention, drainage etc.
There are maybe some lessens to be learnt from fortifications as well ..... how gun powder and trajectory, the aerial golf game of the time, made many a fortification undefendable. Bit like how some greens designed during the era of the ground game play in the current era of high trajectory shots with spinny balls and irrigation.
Another comparison could be with beautification. How fortifications morphed into gorgeous buildings. Bit like golf courses with flower beds and fountains.
atb

[Jamie Pyper]

Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club which advertises itself as the oldest club in North America (1875) was built on the grounds of Fort Mississauga, constructed decades before for the war of 1812-14. The original raised star shaped earthworks encompass a large rectangular brick tower, as well as another stand alone circular tower are still standing and form part of the present day course.


Hartlen Point Golf Club, at the mouth of Halifax Harbour, is situated on a Canadian Armed Forces base has has a few holes play between, over and beside concrete gun bunkers. 

[Tom_Doak]

More than any of the battlefields, the most interesting course I've seen that uses man-made earthworks [not for golf] is Moundbuilders C.C. in Ohio, which utilizes a bunch of megalithic-style mounds as features of several holes near the clubhouse.

[Mike Sweeney]

Thomas Dai,


Thanks for posting and a related Civil War article from Ron Whitten 2011 - https://www.golfdigest.com/story/civil-war-links-whitten


On #17 at Red Tail GC on the old Devers Army base (Massachusetts), there is a mention to the "ammunition bunkers" on that hole, but from one play years ago, I don't remember it as being a stand out feature:
https://www.redtailgolf.net/tee-times/course-information/hole-by-hole-tour

[Jay Mickle]

Kyle Franz mentioned finding vestiges of Civil War defensive abutments at The Country Club  of Charleston when working on it.

[Tom_Doak]

Kyle Franz mentioned finding vestiges of Civil War defensive abutments at The Country Club  of Charleston when working on it.

It's worth mentioning here that you would likely be denied permission to work very close to any feature that has historical archaeological significance, in most U.S. states.  From an archaeologist's perspective the only way to do work but preserve the feature is to add fill over the top of it and make sure you don't disturb it -- thus, in effect, making the feature invisible to golfers.

[Rob Marshall]

I was playing Patriots Point in Charleston a few years ago. We get to the last few holes along the Charleston Harbor and I (native of Upstate NY) ask my brother in law (SC native) What's the building out there on that island? He responds "Fort Sumter, remember the war of Northern aggression?"

[Steve Lang]

    What about the course along Hadrian's Wall, would that count?


per Wiki


Haltwhistle [/color]Golf Club[/color] in Greenhead, Northumberland is the only [/color]golf course[/color] that is located on both the [/color]Hadrian's Wall[/color] footpath and the Pennine Way. With stunning views over the Tyne Valley and the town of Brampton.

[Tim Martin]

There are remnants of Fort Caswell in North Carolina which was used in both the Civil War and WW1 on the perimeter of George Cobb’s Oak Island Golf Club.

[Garland Bayley]

How about military supply. The DuPont chemical corporation manufactured explosives for the military in Dupont, WA. The property was eventually bought by Weyerhauser, who chose to build a golf course there as a reclamation project. They named the course the DuPont Dynamite Works. The tee markers were dynamite stick replicas. More significantly, there is a dynamite bunker left the 9th fairway that Jordan Wall managed to hit a drive into. Now that's what I call a real HAZARD! Also, there is a bunker buried in the middle of the 14th fairway making the golfer choosing to go around the left or right.

More significantly, it was used in a US Amateur.

Don't recognize the name as a US Am course? That is because the WA Golf Assn. bought it, and renamed it The Home Course.

[Thomas Dai]

Although a digression to the premiss of my opening post on this thread, spot the 13th green in this aerial photo of Cleeve Hill/Cloud. The late Bronze age/early Iron age hill fort that the green is set into is apparently approx 3,000 yrs old. And the green itself is epically evil/wonderful.

And the similarly old Iron Age bulwarks on the 12th at Minchinhampton Old, which on this hole are played over on a slight diagonal. The green is located on the line of the white marker pole at centre in the photo. Not sure of the names of the two wee beasties but their pretty tame and usually more interested in eating grass and generally chilling out.


And then there's the heights of Painswick .......

A couple of others worth mentioning from a somewhat more recent era than those highlighted above would include Royal Malta and maybe Balnagask in Aberdeen.
Fun!
atb

[Jamie Pyper]

Thomas's history digression make me think of another, not quite as old as the bronze age, but a long time ago regardless.


"The War Hollow" located in the middle of the present day Valley Course at Royal Portrush, was the scene of an epic battle (one hole is still named "Battle") between raiding Vikings and local tribes when in August of 1103, Viking leader Magnus Ofaffson, King of Norway, better known as "Barelegs", succumbed from multiple axe blows to his head.

You could say it was the first time ever an Irishman split one down the middle at Portrush !

[/size] An Norwegian King that is.... not a Dunlop 65!

[Steve Wilson]

Two things.  I played Brampton in 2019.  I was coming off a bug, obviously something other than Covid, and didn't think I could walk the course.  They gave me a buggy on a Sunday afternoon for free.  Hospitality indeed.   


And I think Flynn built 36 holes on or near the site of the Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown.  I Think I saw this is one of Wexler's books.  The courses went under during the Great Depression.  Surely there are some people more knowledgeable than I who can chime in on this.     

[Pete_Pittock]

     Port Royal in Bermuda has a battery emplacement. I believe Royal West Norfolk has some coastal defence positions, and its clubhouse is next to a beach egress gap which the Axis could have exploited in WWII if they ever invaded.
     My supposition about early architecture was that the area of the green mimicked a fort as the "enemy" or golfer must conquer it,
and architects designed green defenses ala the military engineers.
     One of the more egregious examples of that is the 15th at Hesketh, where defenders could have wiped out a battalion.
 

[Tim Gavrich]

     Port Royal in Bermuda has a battery emplacement. I believe Royal West Norfolk has some coastal defence positions, and its clubhouse is next to a beach egress gap which the Axis could have exploited in WWII if they ever invaded.
     My supposition about early architecture was that the area of the green mimicked a fort as the "enemy" or golfer must conquer it,
and architects designed green defenses ala the military engineers.
     One of the more egregious examples of that is the 15th at Hesketh, where defenders could have wiped out a battalion.

The clearest example of this that I've seen in the courses I've played is the Alps 12th at Yale. Imagining an army defending the green from enemies rushing up the fairway with the hill in front of the deep fronting bunker, it seems like it would be a Thermopylae-type situation.

[Thomas Dai]

Imagining an army defending the green from enemies rushing up the fairway with the hill in front of the deep fronting bunker, it seems like it would be a Thermopylae-type situation.

Nicely described Tim. I have envisaged something similar at times indeed I can picture an army slowly struggling up to near the top of the hill fort at Painswick and looking at what's still to come and saying to itself something like "bugger this, no chance, let's go home!"
As an aside, I'm sure I've read something either written by MacKenzie or written about his work that in the period after WW1 it was relatively easy to get labourers and foremen to understand the concept of camouflage as many, many of them will have served in the Army during WW1 and thus likely to be extremely familiar with trenches, gun emplacements, angles (of fire) and how to best to hide/camouflage/protect and drain them.
Maybe over-thinking, but doesn't MacK's famous prize winning hole have a way for the lessor player, the lessor army, to play into the green (fortress) from the less protected rear?
atb