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Golf courses – classic, modern and the best of both worlds.
Text: John Botha.
Source: This article is taken from the September 2011 issue Compleat Golfer Magazine.
At the risk of stating the obvious, John Botha explains that golfers mostly go to golf clubs to play the game, but he does point out that a great golfing experience is not purely dependent on the quality of the course’s design, and that several other factors come into the reckoning.
There was a time when finding the land on which to build a golf course was relatively easy – and with the minimum amount of manual labour and a few horses or oxen spanned into service, the earliest architects would cast their eyes over the land and set to work.
Before the era of major earth-moving machinery began, soon after the Second World War, shallow scoops or drag-pans would be used to shape the terrain, and if a particularly large mound or dune was in the way, the golfers were expected to play around or over these hazards. This is the reason why many of the old classic courses had so many ‘blind’ holes.
It is easy to spot the signs of what was a rather primitive way of building courses – where a green needed to be raised, soil would simply be dug from its surrounds to build the base, and the hollows left behind would be converted into bunkers or run-off areas.
With the use of sophisticated machinery (and nowadays even great computer-aided bulldozers can ‘read’ a plan and move the earth to form desired contours without an operator), there began a period where ever more elaborate designs were dreamed up, and with golf course architecture becoming more of a science than an art, some weird and wonderful courses made their appearance.
There was indeed a period, particularly in the US, when course designers tried to out-do each other, and in an effort to capture that all-important ‘wow’ factor, there seemed to be scant regard for the playability or the maintenance challenges that were posed.
In recent times, with some irony, architects have moved away from the spectacular knock-your- socks-off features, and towards the ‘classic’ look, and now strive to create ‘natural’ layouts. To their credit, even given some very ordinary real estate, they manage this rather well. A very good example of this is Ebotse’s layout in Benoni, where Peter Matkovich was given land that could only be described as ‘derelict’ an old quarry, and fashioned it into a magnificent course that looks as though it had miraculously been transplanted from Scotland or Ireland.
Eagle Canyon is another example where a quarry was transformed into a course that has a style and feel of its own, complete with beautiful lakes and wetland areas, planted with indigenous flora. The work of DDV Design, this course is surrounded by magnificent homes, and must be among the most successful estate developments anywhere – on land that was effectively worthless before, besides being an environmental debacle.
Anyone who has played St Francis Links will agree that Jack Nicklaus and the Golf Data team created a masterpiece here – and sure, they may not have been given an old quarry, but natural dunes that were perfect for the purpose. But by combining timeless fundamentals and common sense, the result is a brilliant course that looks as though it could have been built centuries ago.
Add an unlimited budget into the equation, and a Fancourt Links is born; definitely the finest test of championship golf in the country. Even when played in a gentle breeze, this layout can make a decent golfer look like a novice playing with borrowed clubs.
Of course, many of our classic courses have tried to keep pace with the modern creations, and in most cases, have wisely retained their unique feel while still becoming ‘modern.’ Both courses at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington have in the most part stayed faithful to their original designs, but with state-of-the-art irrigation and drainage systems, as well as sand-based greens and silica-filled bunkers. Similarly, Glendower has kept pace with present-day trends, yet retained its special feel. For most purposes these must be considered classics. The advantages of moving an old course into the 21st century are numerous – having smoother, more consistent greens, tees that have been levelled using a sophisticated laser-guided machine… the list goes on.
“We cannot get away from the reality that golfers love well-conditioned courses, and those that are beautiful, and these two factors can make or break an experience.”
The rarest courses of all are true, timeless beauties that have hardly been tinkered with; they were good 40 or more years ago and remain a pleasure to play.
Hans Merensky springs to mind, as do Sishen and East London, the latter course that was revamped, but so sympathetically that one could never tell. Another coastal classic that has never been spoiled by over-zealous ‘facelifts’ is Southbroom, but the queen of all is Durban Country Club.
Humewood is up there with the best, and particularly after this grand old dame had ‘work’ done on her noble features, she is a delight – until the infamous wind gets up, and she sprouts fangs.
There is still a measure of misconception surrounding the 5-Star Golf Experience Awards and it must be made clear that this is not about ranking a course against great layouts that test every club in the bag, strike a fair balance between holes that demand different shapes of shots to be played, or ones that would be obvious choices to host an important tournament.
The average golfer is oblivious to finer points of architecture, and even those players who do appreciate such nuances such as optical illusion and other tricks that seriously test players, in formulating our system we considered factors that the vast majority of players consider important.
The course section is divided into two parts – the first, making up nine percent of the total rating, evaluates general information provided, ease of movement, signage and other on-course facilities. This includes information in the form of courses guides, distance markers, GPS systems, etc.
The purist will maintain that unless a course can be walked, it should be heavily penalised, and the same traditionalists will declare golf carts to be anathema. Like it or not, driving has become part of the game, and many courses only exist because prime land could be sold for residences, and some of these courses simply cannot be walked in a reasonable amount of time. No golfer would be foolish enough to suggest that courses that are difficult to walk should simply not be built. Imagine not having the Wild Coast Country Club? This is one of the greatest golfing experiences in the land.
In this section, estate courses will, in some cases, be penalised for tricky or illogical routing, yet in the case of the likes of Blair Atholl, where an unusually large and beautiful tract of land was used, the routing is brilliant.
Speed of play is an important issue, and relates not so much to the total time it takes to play 18 holes (some modern courses are more spread out and certainly longer than the more compact classics, so it follows they will take longer to get around), but rather the annoyance of waiting on every other shot. On busy courses, marshals should be in attendance, to either speed up slow players or to ensure they allow those behind to play through.
“The rarest courses of all are true, timeless beauties that have hardly been tinkered with; they were good 40 or more years ago and remain a pleasure to play.”
The second part of this section gets into the meat of the course, and again, a player should never walk off a course feeling as though they have just played in their first US Open (an exciting prospect though that be), spend a lot of time looking for golf balls, or risk a hernia from trying to carry the ball over long hazards or wide lakes. Offer even beginners the challenge of playing over water or a ravine, but allow them to reach their target with a short- to medium-iron, rather than their Sunday best with a 3-wood.
Every great experience is memorable, and courses that have too many ‘cookie cutter’ holes just don’t cut it. Again the purist might cringe, but we cannot get away from the reality that golfers love well-conditioned courses, and those that are beautiful, and these two factors can make or break an experience.
The acid test for the vast majority of players is for them to have played poorly, but still to have thoroughly enjoyed their round.
Courses such as the breathtaking cliff-top Pinnacle Point, with its sea views, or Champagne Sports Resort, with its majestic mountains, certainly pass with flying colours.
We do not deny that there is an element of subjectivity involved in evaluating a course’s aesthetic value, and the courses that excel in this department are not limited to the big-budget, ritzy creations.
Many of the more modest nine-holers rate highly for their sheer natural beauty – Boschhoek, Prince Albert (yes, with its sand greens), Graaff-Reinet, Skukuza and many others deserve a place on this list.
Is this area an exact science? Probably not, but with a knowledgeable and experienced panel doing the rating, we are confident of awarding the most deserving clubs our prestigious 5-Star Golf Experience Awards, and come November, we will be doing the sums, with only the best making the cut.
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