EarthGolf

Golf course architect Graham Marsh recently opened a new course in Australia and gave his thoughts on what some of the problems with the game is as related to design.

“There are probably more golf courses closed here in the United States last year than were actually opened. And the reason is we are pitching golf at a level that is just too difficult. There are so many penal golf courses being developed and to be brutally honest, if you think back on it the TPC (Sawgrass), which was opened 25 years ago, (it) set an absolutely new standard.” Marsh said penal courses like Sawgrass took the fun from golf.

“That is not what the game of golf is about, it’s not what people want to go out and do and play every weekend. And so getting away from penal design, I am much more in favour of strategic design, where a guy has options, where he has got room, where has got a sporting chance where he has a chance to get around the golf course, have an experience and come off the golf course where he is not absolutely distraught and destroyed for the day. “That is what the average guy wants to do, and that is what this game offers for the general public. Sadly design has led away from that, which has also led to people saying ‘I don’t have enough time to put myself through this much misery’, and I think we need to take a very serious look at it.”

 Marsh quickly adds that he is not critical of Dye’s design so much as the aping of his ideas. “I think for a one-off championship, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think it represents the standard of where we are trying to be today. That’s not a criticism of Dye per se, because that is what he was asked to do. That is the brief that he was given, so you cannot criticise Dye for that, but what’s happened there was an extrapolation of what his ideas were that led to various designers saying this is what it takes to produce a great golf course.

“I think they were completely on the wrong track. That is why we are seeing people giving up the game, there are other reasons as well, because of family, because of two-home incomes and all those things as to why it’s happening. But this led largely to a lot of people becoming frustrated with the game.”

Personally, I think his strokes are a little too broad because golf course design is changing and has been changing in the past 5-7 years. I think his comments are dead on for many of the golf courses built in the 1980s and 1990s. Of course, overly penal golf courses are still being built today, but I think their heyday is behind us - for now.

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