3.0 Golf Projects in harmony with Nature

The following projects by some of the most famous golf architect, Alister MacKenzie, George Crump, Hugh Wilson and William Flynn are going to be described and analyzed in this report: Cypress Point, Pine Valley Golf Club, Merion Golf Club. I chose those projects as, in my opinion, they explain how it is possible to blend all features of golf architecture with the existing site.

3.1 Cypress Point, Monterrey California

The Cypress point Golf Club was built in 1927 on a site facing the Pacific Ocean in California.
This golf course design style along with the early preservation of the Monterey Peninsula allows us today to go back in time and see how the natural beauty of this astonishing tract of land has remained almost untouched.
The ocean views are spectacular, with the golf course set in amongst the ancient Cypress Tree Forest. It is still possible to stand on the holes taking in all this natural backdrop that is the Cypress Point Golf Club, and imagine how it all might have looked a hundred or more years ago.
MacKenzie is known for taking spectacular landscapes and leaving the natural beauty alone as much as possible. As examples of where he has been capable to do this I chose to analyze the holes no. 13, 15, 16, 17.

3.1.1 Hole no. 13, green complex

The hole no. 13 of the Cypress Point has one of the most recognizable green complex in the whole history of golf. Every element of this hole blend perfectly in the landscape, the green, the dunes, the trees and the bunkers form together a singular element framed in the landscape. MacKenzie made functional to play what already existed before his arrival, in fact, pictures of the area taken years before the construction of the golf courses show the dune behind the green existing with this shape.[3]