2.3 Water Hazards

Water is not a natural feature in Golf Course Design as it could seem, in the Scotland’s links land water was never in play but for few holes where creeks crossed the course to flow to the sea
From the first decade of the 20th century with “The Golden Age of Golf Design” water started to be dramatically in play even though the architects of that time used it mainly in the way they found it. During this time holes were framed using streams and shorelines and Golf courses started to be built next to the sea. Cypress Point and Pebble Beach in California are good examples of this kind of design.

After World War II water started to be a common feature, due to mainly two reasons: the improvement of the building machinery and golf architect Robert Trent Jones’ influence on golf design. In the following years the use of water became increasingly popular and often touched the edge of exaggeration.

Water features, in my opinion, should be used only where the topography of the site allows it, low points were built by the Nature to allow drainage, the existing shape of the land is dictated by the force of gravity that rules the environment. The duty of a golf architect should be the one to discover those features on the site, when possible, and to empathize them by enlarging and excavating areas that have been already shaped in thousand of years before.