The Evolution Of Golf Course Design
Oakmont Golf Club after cutting 4000 trees. Note the options of play opened.
It was 1961 when I carried my first loop at Wayzata Country Club, a course only five years old. Designed by Robert Bruce Harris, it had features distinctively different from the older courses in our area. With the explosion in the number of new courses in my lifetime, several trends in design have become popular over the years. Just like clothing, from pleats to flat fronts, so golf course design has evolved.
Prior to the depression, several great architects built courses that have stood the test of time, as evidenced by their continued listing on the "100 Top Courses in America." Among these are Donald Ross, AW Tillinghast, and Seth Reynor, all who designed wonderful courses in Minnesota. While there are always exceptions, those courses tended to have narrow fairways, bunkers built into natural slopes, with elevated greens.
With the depression, WWII and the country getting back to work after the war there was a distinct lull in privately funded golf course construction in the '30s, '40s and early '50s. The founders of the Wayzata Country Club selected Robert Bruce Harris, a leading architect of the day, to design and build their new course in 1955.
Unlike early classic architects, Harris' designs had large bunkers which were set away from greens that were huge and tended to be relatively round. His theory was that tractors dragging gang mowers would be able to drive between the sand bunkers and the greens, therefore saving on maintenance costs. While considered the top designer at the time, his time was very short.
Golf and golf course construction exploded when Arnold Palmer and Dwight Eisenhower captured the attention of the public in the late '50s and '60s. There to take advantage of it was Robert Trent Jones. The first of the modern high profile architects, Jones built big courses with bunkers parallel to fairways in formulaic positions. Green design also tended to be repetitive with a similar depth and shape.
Jones' ideas, however, have had a lasting impact on golf course design. "I still see Jones' influence in design today," said Brian Silva, a highly respected golf course designer recently commissioned by Augusta Country Club and Augusta National. Jones built fairway bunkers at 250 yards from the tee, parallel to the fairway no matter what the topography. Thus his lasting influence is not always for the best.
The classic designers built cross bunkers into slopes where the land called for them, without regard for the distance from the tee or green. Green designs 50 years earlier were more creative including redan, punchbowl, severely sloped, as well as large and small. When built the classic courses generally had few trees.
As the '60s flowed into the '70s, architects responded to owner's demands to build courses that were more and more difficult. New courses were longer and longer, with a price to be paid for less than a perfect shot.
Thousands of trees were planted for the sake of making every older and shorter course demanding, with no regard to angles set up by the original designer. "Corridors of play", as Brian Silva calls them, were dramatically narrowed. Great hole designs were covered up by forests.
At the same time, the triplex mower was destroying the green design. Unable to make sharp turns, greens became rounder and smaller. Over the course of time, they lost their shape and character.
Jack Nicklaus entered the design scene in the '80s. As one of the greatest players, his name was a magnet for big money developers building residential properties. With many of his holes requiring high fades into greens, his early courses were difficult. Recently in preparation for a renovation at the Renegade Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, he reportedly commented, "What was I thinking when I designed this?" It was in reference to the difficulty of some of the shots into greens.
With time, courses were becoming so difficult they were not enjoyable to play. All the trees planted were choking play corridors. Metal headed drivers and newly created golf balls allowed players to drive the ball further but needing more room off the tee. Drive zones started to become wider in response.
Traditional parkland courses, designed by Donald Ross and others, had evolved with fairways 35 yards wide, a few yards of rough, and trees beyond. The corridor of play was narrow. Courses with fairways of 50 yards and corridors of 75 yards and more, started appearing.
How did the designers challenge the player? The green complex design. Greens became much larger with more defined sections and certain areas of the green protected by deep bunkers. Collection areas gathered balls giving fun pitch shots.
With the crash in golf course development after 2000, the few new courses being built were "specialty courses". These are courses built on great sites such as Bandon Dunes and Streamsong. Most have been designed by high profile architects such as Coore-Crenshaw, Tom Fazio or Tom Doak.
The new courses feature wide drive zones and enormous greens. The architect wants the player of today to find their ball off the tee and has realized that golfers would rather putt than chip, thus the big greens.
With the downturn in new course construction restorations of classic courses has, however, increased. At the suggestion of architects, owners of older courses are realizing that architects like Donald Ross and Seth Raynor had good ideas and are wanting to bring them back. Bunkers are being reinstalled, original green shapes restored and trees cut, revealing angles not seen for 50 or more years.
"Both new courses and restorations are evolving into something closer to where they were 60 years ago," said Brian Silva. The restorations will make playing the courses more interesting and enjoyable.
As the saying goes "everything old is new again" in A Life In Golf.
