Golf Course Architeture and Nature

Index

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Golf Architecture

1.2 Understanding the land

2.0 Elements of golf design

2.1 Bunkers

2.2 Slopes and mounds

2.3 Water hazards

2.4 Trees and vegetation

3.0 Golf Projects in harmony with Nature

3.1 Cypress Point, Monterrey California

3.1.1 Hole no. 13, green complex

3.1.2 Hole no. 15, 16, 17

3.2 Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pennsylvania

3.2.1 Hole no.11

3.2.2 Hole no.12

3.3 Pine Valley Golf Course, Pine Valley, New Jersey

3.3.1 Hole no. 3, Green Complex

3.3.2 Hole no.7 The Hell’ Half Acre

4.0 Architectural Projects

4.1 Tournament Player Club, Ponte Vedra, Florida

4.1.1 Hole No. 17

4.1.1 Hole No. 18

5.0 Conclusion



Golf Architecture and Nature

1.0 Introduction

In this report I am going to speak about the importance of nature in the design and in the construction of a golf course. I will analyze the main design elements, such as bunkers, vegetation, water features and the way they can be integrated with the surroundings. I will explain how the great architects of the past used the existing features of the sites to create projects in harmony with nature, and I will give some examples of architectural golf courses.

Nature can give many advantages to designers, not only because some pieces of land are particularly gifted by the modeling of it that Nature has done during thousands of years, but also because its shapes can be of inspiration for the architect’s work. Nature, in fact, can be usefully considered as the model and the context of design. Designing with nature as a model can serve as a strategy for reducing harmful impacts.
A design that allows man-controlled and natural processes to work together has better chances to be sustainable.Using nature as a model the architect would need to take into consideration the present natural elements and in choosing them he would not ignore their natural history and how they adapted to the site during the years.

1.1 Golf Architecture

Golf Architects, in creating courses around the world, have to work with Nature, a co-designer who has had previous experience on the land where the course is planned to then stay for a long time, Nature does not affect just the design, but also the construction and the maintenance of a golf course.

Every site has its own characteristics that the architect should understand and get familiar with before starting the project. With each piece of land comes a multitude of attributes that the architects need to consider. Some of them are positive and some negative for the golf course design: the shape of the land, the presence of water, rock and vegetation. Those are the natural conditions of the site and it is what makes every piece of land unique. Soil also needs careful attention as it allows different kind of grass and plant to grow and live.
Even climate conditions can influence golf course projects, the weather of an area can determine which kind of golf course fits a specific land. [1]

1.2 Understanding the character of the land

Understanding what nature has shaped and left in the site is very important to design and integrate the course in the property land where the golf course is going to be.
The first and one of the most important steps of the design process is the site visit. Visit gives the architect the first contact with what he is going to shape to then create a golf course.
He has the skills to “sensing a site” and looking for the nature’s messages, interpret them and develop golf features in harmony with those messages. The task of the Golf Architect is to underline the natural beauty and try to hide when possible the natural defects of every part of the land, but sometimes Nature is not so generous as we would wish.
One of the most important features of the land is its topography: flat, rolling, or mountainous land gives to the architect different opportunity and constrains and give the first sense of the alignment of holes on the site. The more convoluted the surface of the site is, the more interesting golf features may be provided naturally, but more time and intellect will be required to internalize its character.[2]

The understanding of the messages of the Nature is very important, because if the ground offers combination of ridges, swales or hazards and the architect follows the terrain in routing the course, then the course will take on its own character.[3]
The understanding of the land does not only apply the to the entire golf routing but also to each individual feature of golf holes, like tee, green, hazards.

The naturalness of Golf Courses seems to be something special to achieve in the modern golf architecture, where the massive use of bulldozers in changing dramatically the shape of the site is common use.

The courses that evoke certain emotions and those that maintain what was there before the construction are those where the architect was inspired by the terrain, where, in designing some kind of holes he accentuated what existed beforehand. We have some examples of how this concept has been followed in Cypress Point Golf Club in California designed by Alister MacKenzie, the Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, designed by Hugh Wilson and William Flynn and the Pine Valley Golf Course, New Jersey, designed by George Crump.

Sometimes, as already mentioned before sites, are not so naturally gifted like some others and it is necessary to create features to add an artistic touch to the Golf Course. Those new contours should try to be integrated with the land as if they had always been there. This kind of challenge is becoming every day more important in Golf Architecture, as on one hand the amount of great land for golf purposes is decreasing and on the other the necessity to make profits is pushing golf architects in designing courses in pieces of land that some years ago would have never been taken in consideration.

2.0 Elements of Golf Design

All golf courses have some elements in common that are designed to make the game interesting.
The main elements that golf architects use to add variety and spice to the game are: bunkers, water feature, trees and slopes. The strategic elements of the game should be blended within their natural surroundings providing for an experience far greater than the challenge of the course itself.

2.1 Bunkers

Bunkers are used to add penalty of a misplaced shot in almost all the golf holes around the world. Their ancestors were the eroded patches of sand, formed by animals and enlarged by the wind. Those have evolved in the modern bunkers. They can be of two main design categories: the grass faced bunkers(figure 2.1) and the sand faced bunker(figure2.2).[4]
Grass faced or sod-wall bunkers work well on open sites, such as the links, where their shadows give definition to the landscape, those kind of bunkers work well when the drainage of the soil is good.
Sand faced bunkers work also very well when there are dark backgrounds within the course adding a beautiful contrast that gives a natural look to the landscape. This kind of bunkers needs a lot of care during the design and the construction phases as the contours need to follow the lines that Nature has left on the surface.
When bunkers are near the green their shape should be integrated with the contours of the green itself, so that the whole complex becomes an integrated composition with the surrounding.