MODERN GOLF COURSES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 121, 25 February 1926, Page 8

MODERN GOLF COURSES.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER,

Length and BifTiculty. The following- article is by Harry Vardon (six times Open Champion), contributed to the Christchurch .Floating' in the golfing atmosphere at the present time are signs that players are beginning seriously to consider the question as to where course architects ought to restrain their ingenuity. Of a surety has the architecture of courses improved vastly during the last twenty years, but it happens all too frequently in an age of advancement that the spirit of the times promotes an ambition to improve the ideal, and it is just a question as to whether some such tendency is appearing* in the science of golf-course construction. Every now and again we hear of a club which, after mature consideration of proposed changes, decides to leave its land untouched or which, having had alterations effected with a view to being in the fashion resolves to revert to something like the original mode. With entirely new greens, however, there is no opportunity of mixing old ideals with up-to-date schemes, and so there is a danger of their becoming stereotyped in design and excessive difficulty. Some of the courses which have been opened during the last few seasons have been masterpieces of conception and construction, but it is open to question whether they have been, to moderate golfers, so pleasant in the playing as the courses of an unsophisticated character. Nothing could be more unfortunate than the acceptance of what might be called a standard design for golf courses. The greaest glory of the game is its variety, and the foundation of that variety is the diversity of holes and courses brought about by the hand of Nature. It is difficult to think that there is wisdom in the belittling of that treasure. A VIRTUE UNIQUE. “ What I like about golf is that no two courses are alike,” was the remark of a man who, after havingdabbled in most sports, had come to the conclusion that the game of the links was the best of the lot. In those words he hit upon one of the secrets of the joy of golf—a joy which perhaps is not always appreciated at its true worth by the person who is a trifle blase as a consequence of a lifelong acquaintance with the pastime. One cricket ground is very much like another, and the same hiay be said of football fields, lawn tennis courts and other places devoted to the pursuit of a game. It is left to the players to provide all the variety. In g'olf the proceedings are double-dyed with diversion; individuals supply a lot of it, and the course supplies a lot of it.

Certainly an easy hole (that is to say, a featureless hole) is an abomination which does not please the longhandicap man any more than it inspires the plus three stalwart, and the skill with which the architects convert what nature intended to be dull holes into highly interesting episodes in the round is a dispensation for which the golfing community is doubtless truly grateful.

But there are natural configurations of the ground which are abandoned from time to time because they are

“ not golf,” and it is this tendency towards the inti*oduction of the stereotyped (for any system of belief must lead towards the stereotyped) which seems to imperil that .feature of golf which makes the greatest appeal to humanity—in fact, that it is played in nature’s own circumstances.

I suppose that everybody has an idea as to how he would lay out a course. He would plan it mainly with an eye to affording him satisfaction in his own game. If he chanced to be a short driver, he would provide, perhaps, one hole of 400 yards, and include it near the end of the round, so as to have the chance of avoiding it by winning his matches before it came up for consideration. If he found a peculiar pleasure in the playing of short holes he would have some of the prettiest little masliie pitches and firm half-iron shots from the tee that ever man imagined. The course architect is in a very trying situation, he had to endeavour to please everybody. We know full well that, however devoutly he may hope to- achieve that end, he cannot do it. Often it is surprising how wondrously near he approaches to complete success. Nowadays, he generally gives the lover of short holes three or four of these delicacies all suitable testing. He also provides plenty of opportunities for long hitting without cross bunkers to check it, am] inceJF

tives for long carrying at , :her holes. WHAT OF THE MOL .RATE PLAYER? All this is very well, b . nevertheless has its element o ..>notoiiy. It is excellent for the t mplished golfer, because it tests h. the utmost with nearly every sh aat he is called upon to execute, bu : is apt to become somewhat wearis . to the moderate player. It is i : that if the scheme of making hot lore and more difficult be prosecn for another ten years, handle; mg will have to be revived. The Indifferent player will be worrying his way through a network of hazards, and at some holes will need two strokes in order to halve with the plus man. If ever we come to such a pass, surely the proper balance of the game will have been lost? The fundamental feature of a golf course, the fact that it is split up into eighteen holes, seems to suggest that the limitation of length and difficulties is a matter of paramount impoi-tanee. Otherwise we might have fewer holes, and some of them about 700 yards long-, and positively studded with hazards. Undoubtedly these latter would be splendid sifters of the wheat from the chaff, the crack golfer would generally do them in two strokes fewer than the indifferent player. But that then sadly incomplete individual would have to receive two strokes from the plus man at such holes, and a not altogether happy innovation would be introduced into the game. Perhaps the golf club of the future will always have two courses one very difficult so that the crack players may enjoy the excitement to which their skill entitles them, and the other shorter and easier, so that the remaining people may be happy in spite of their human liability to commit errors. dt is poor fun for a first-class golfer to play round an easy green, and it is in the interests of a high standard of golf that there should be sufficient difficult courses to accommodate the cracks. But the multitudes of long handicap players suffer enough without having courses subjected to everincreasing length and difficulty.