Natural Golf Courses

[Bucki1968]

Over the years I have played many golf courses in many states (and other countries) as well as reading some books about golf course design. One thing I have always wanted to do (but probably won't ever do) is design a golf course. I don't think it's a great revelation to anyone but the one thing I have noticed is that the golf courses that I tend to like/admire seem to be the ones that have the feel (or look) that they were naturally already there on the property but just needed someone to "see" the holes. I live in Florida and most of the course around here that I play look "artificial" to me. I mean that they had to be built and earth moved to fit on the piece of property that was available. I would assume that it is harder in Florida, because of the relativity flat geography, to build a natural course (although the courses at Streamsong appear to be natural to me). Even the club where I belong appears to be pretty much built and not very natural. Having grown up in the Midwest (Ohio/Michigan) I guess I have come to appreciate the golf courses in those areas because of the variety of the geography in those areas that add character to the golf courses without being forced by the land used. I would have to say if I ever designed a golf course, the piece of property that is going to be used would be the number one priority in my mind (Again...no huge revelation). Maybe that's why I have always been a fan of older golf courses as opposed to the newer ones although it looks like a number of golf course designers are returning to the natural look and feel of those classic courses. 

[Club Rat]

Many times I have often observed how the course architect utilizes the "lay of the land"
Courses differ in every region with terrain and natural beauty from various types of growth.
Trees, palms, cactus, steams, creeks, small rivers, ponds and lakes and boulders and many 
other natural wonders are at the design of the eye of the architect.

While often many who play a particular course on a regular basis, may discuss modifications to enhance a course.
At our course some modifications have benefitted routine maintenance, playability for golfers and to enhance appearance.

But, I do not feel many look "artificial" or designed just for sake of building a course.
Not every course needs to be a top tiered course. Even the simple courses which are flat, with less trees are needed.
There are many seniors, beginners, junior golfers who can utilize facilities which are less expensive to play.

 

[Lihu]

Seems like this course is becoming a wildlife refuge...

https://www.skytop.com/poconos-golf-course-become-wildlife-refuge/

I can’t really imagine a naturally occurring course? There’s so much clean cut grass. I’d imagine no matter where you put it it will look unlike its surroundings?

[Bucki1968]

18 minutes ago, Club Rat said:

Many times I have often observed how the course architect utilizes the "lay of the land"
Courses differ in every region with terrain and natural beauty from various types of growth.
Trees, palms, cactus, steams, creeks, small rivers, ponds and lakes and boulders and many 
other natural wonders are at the design of the eye of the architect.

While often many who play a particular course on a regular basis, may discuss modifications to enhance a course.
At our course some modifications have benefitted routine maintenance, playability for golfers and to enhance appearance.

But, I do not feel many look "artificial" or designed just for sake of building a course.
Not every course needs to be a top tiered course. Even the simple courses which are flat, with less trees are needed.
There are many seniors, beginners, junior golfers who can utilize facilities which are less expensive to play.

 

I guess what I'm talking about are the man-made lakes and elevated greens. Like I said earlier, Florida is pretty flat so any elevated greens just look fake to me. I understand why they are elevated but you can tell that they were build and not simply put where the geography was originally. I have no problem with flat courses, as a matter of fact I have played some really good flat courses. I'm just talking about the number of courses in my area (and Florida in general) that are man-made from the greens to the water hazards etc.

[Lihu]

Ah, I understand what you’re saying now.

Yes, I really like links courses!

[Patch]

There's a few golf courses I frequent that the designer(s) left most of the natural lay of the land untouched. 

The only things continuous were the cart path, irrigation, and electrical stuff.. 

They would build, separate,  smaller tee boxes on each hole to accommodate the various handicaps. 

After the tee boxes, they built large landing areas in between forced carries over the natural landscapes.

The last landing area on a hole was it's green. 

Essentially all the landing areas were islands, without the water. 

I always thought this was a smart, less expensive way to build a golf course. I never could see why a golf course needed to have full fairways from tee to green on every hole

 

[Bucki1968]

There is a very exclusive course in the Tampa area that I have played on occasion and it must have about 10 bunkers on almost every hole. I have always wondered how much of the maintenance budget and time is spent  keeping those bunkers raked and looking good. It's another course that always gets rave reviews but still just looks tricked up and artificial to me.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 12/14/2018 at 11:40 AM, Lihu said:

Ah, I understand what you’re saying now.

Yes, I really like links courses!

I've always kind of liked Golf Magazine ranking of the top 100 courses in the world, with the Old Course at St. Andrews usually coming in first. They list the architect as "nature". Think about it. Linksland was sheep pasture! Sheep clip the grass down low thus providing a fairway. They dig out hollows in order to get out of the wind, thus providing bunkers. Then shepherds started whacking rocks around with sticks to pass the time. Golf is the most natural sport there is! 

On 12/14/2018 at 1:36 PM, Bucki1968 said:

There is a very exclusive course in the Tampa area that I have played on occasion and it must have about 10 bunkers on almost every hole. I have always wondered how much of the maintenance budget and time is spent  keeping those bunkers raked and looking good. It's another course that always gets rave reviews but still just looks tricked up and artificial to me.

You're right. Sand bunkers are expensive to build and maintain properly! You'll notice that when a course gets in financial difficulty, the bunkers are usually the first thing to go. 

[HJJ003]

Yeah I like a “natural” golf course design, otherwise known as the “minimalist” approach to course architecture. I don’t dislike golf courses that involve more creative sculpting as long as the sculpting and design of the course itself is worth the changes they made to the land. In general, however, I like the design to flow out of what the land gives you....though with some pieces of land that isn’t much. 

[WonIron]

Know where you are coming from with these Florida courses. Very common to "Cut 'n Fill" to develop elevation change, water hazards/irrigation reservoirs, elevated green and tee sites.

It can look very contrived, but earthmoving is an expensive and tricky thing to do without looking pretty obvious.

With enough money and a skilled architect, some amazing things have been done. Pete Dye was a master of this with TPC Sawgrass where The Players is hosted. Did you know there was only 7' of elevation change in that entire original site?

Sawgrass may not look completely natural, but how do you like his work at Whistling Straits?

[3jacker]

In Central FL, there are a few "non-FL" layouts that I enjoy quite a bit.  Sugarloaf Mountain (now defunct), World Woods, Victoria Hills, etc.  Most everything I see down around the attractions is the same - interchangeable with plenty of water and mounding.  And forget courses like Doral, I find those very boring (not that they aren't hard as hell).

North FL has some good topography for it, but not alot of courses.

I guess the benefit of learning the game here is that when I travel to CA, or NJ, or heck, just about anywhere I'm blown away by the dimensional variation (and scenery).

[Bucki1968]

I have only played one of the Streamsong courses (Red) and I thought that looked more natural, but not completely "natural". 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 2/27/2019 at 5:20 PM, WonIron said:

Know where you are coming from with these Florida courses. Very common to "Cut 'n Fill" to develop elevation change, water hazards/irrigation reservoirs, elevated green and tee sites.

It can look very contrived, but earthmoving is an expensive and tricky thing to do without looking pretty obvious.

With enough money and a skilled architect, some amazing things have been done. Pete Dye was a master of this with TPC Sawgrass where The Players is hosted. Did you know there was only 7' of elevation change in that entire original site?

Sawgrass may not look completely natural, but how do you like his work at Whistling Straits?

There's a course in my area that Pete Dye actually designed twice. He did the original "Avalon Lakes" with minimal earth moving. The course was as flat as a table top! Then a multi billionaire bought the course, the resort, and everything else and re-hired Dye to work the course over. It looked like Dye moved about a million yards of dirt! And it doesn't seem forced. It all works. The course could host a PGA event in a heartbeat! Which was the owner's fervent hope. There were some LPGA tourneys there back in the Nancy Lopez days, and she won it at least once. The lady pros loved the track. 

But I understand what you are saying about "natural" golf courses. When our golf league schedule a "traveling" field day at some course out in corn country, I figured we were in for a boring time. I couldn't have been more mistaken! There were a couple of holes where you could plant corn, but the rest was off limits. This was the one parcel of ground in the entire township that could not be farmed, and so it became a golf course! It was cut by numerous creeks, and there were elevation changes galore! Add a lot of hardwood trees, and you have yourself a golf course! 

[FLOG4]

Numerous of the sought after designers/architects of today are minimalists. Tom Doak being possibly the lead. Coore/Crenshaw mostly. Gil Hanse. David McCay Kidd. It is a lot about what the owner wants though. The biggest blessing to the world of GOLF has been Mike Keiser. He has just created magic with everything he touches...and barely touches. Bandon Dunes, Cabot in Nova Scotia. Sand Valley in WI. And yes it is about a great piece of real estate. Hence why he built in middle of nowhere....

Having lived in FL for 8 of the last 9 years and playing much golf. Yea most is not natural. But it really can't be. The water table is only a few feet down. Irrigation ponds must be utilized extensively so heck use em to influence play too. I visited Streamsong a few times. Not since Black opened though. That property was manipulated by a quarry for a long time and then abandoned. So the naturalness of the contours were created decades ago. I do agree though that I love natural vs contrived. I am a big links fan. I travel often to go play links golf. And yes classics are more natural as shovels and picks don't move earth like bulldozers.