Philip Reidon how modern course designs, obsessed with length and thus ever more punishing, are taking much of the fun from the game for the average golfer
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. But, when it comes to designing golf courses that stretch way beyond 7,000 yards and closer to 8,000, is it really the case? Where did this trend start? And who are these courses being built for? Do we need them? We can't all drive the ball 300 yards. We can't all find the middle of the green with an eight-iron in our hands. Not always. We can't all hit the ball like Tiger Woods. Not at all.
Tiger, you see, is currently putting his name to his first golf-course design in Dubai. It will be a par-72 course, measuring 7,700 yards. It's the length of course that would frighten the life out of mere mortals. Yet, here in Ireland, the dominant trend of recent years has been for new courses to be longer than ever, as if extra length somehow makes a course better.
The simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of golfers cannot play monstrously long courses. And, if they do, it is a lesson learned; they don't return. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.
Of course, developers - who can invest anything from €2 million to 14 million to build a modern golf course - are looking at the advances in club and ball technology and asking their designers to make courses longer - for fear time will overtake their investments.
Golf should be fun, but some of the longer modern courses can be punishing. An example. On the eve of the Irish Open over the Montgomerie Course at Carton House in 2005, a particularly horrid day weather-wise, some amateur members of pro-am teams came in off the course battered and bruised by the experience.
It wasn't fun.
One of those amateurs, a broken man who vowed not to go near his golf clubs again for the foreseeable future, afterwards enquired of Darren Clarke if modern-day courses were being built that were "scarcely playable for the average golfer".
It was a fair question. Many "average golfers" now require fairway woods on approach shots to par fours that, in olden days, would have been par fives.
Clarke's reply back then was interesting.
"Don't blame me," he countered, "I didn't design it."
But Clarke, who has recently established himself as a course designer, did provide an addendum by offering his design philosophy: "You don't need 18 tough, tough holes to make a great, great golf course . . . (on) every golf course in the world, you can have a little breather here and there."
Interestingly, Carton House learned from that experience and subsequently widened the fairways and cut back the rough so the Montgomerie Course became more playable for the average player and a more fun experience. The changes also speeded up the pace of play, as players didn't have to spend so much time searching for their precious golf balls.
Yet, year on year, there is further evidence from new courses that such lessons haven't always been heeded. There is an obsession with length, even if it means incorporating tiger tees that may never be used so that the label "championship course" can be applied.
This label, though, is most often misleading. Just making a course over 7,000 yards does not make it a championship course. For that categorisation to apply, the course must play host to a national or international championship.
Indeed, at this time when courses year-on-year seem to get tougher and tougher, it is probably worth recalling the gist of some of Dr Alister Mackenzie's 13 principles of golf-course architecture:
The emphasis should be placed on natural beauty, not on artificial features.
There should always be an alternative route for the weaker player, yet a sufficient number of heroic carries to challenge the stronger player.
There should be a complete absence of annoyance caused by searching for lost balls (meaning, an avoidance of utilising heavy rough in the design).
The beginner should not be continually harassed by losing strokes from playing out of sand bunkers.
You get the message.
Although Mackenzie designed some of the world's great courses - among them Royal Melbourne, Augusta National and, closer to home, Lahinch (Old) - his main principle of design was that the finished article should be playable and fun.
Length wasn't the original factor, although modern tweaking of some of his signature courses have increased the yardages (most obviously at Augusta) come tournament time. For the rest of the year, though, members play the course as Mackenzie envisaged it would be played.
There are many modern golf course architects who believe these ideals of Mackenzie have as important a place as ever to play in the design of courses.
Patrick Merrigan, whose portfolio of designs includes Slieve Russell and Tulfarris, is of the belief that "the purpose of golf is to give fun . . . the object is to give pleasure because the golf course is a beautiful place to be, to escape from reality."
Merrigan's approach is correct, and many fellow-designers would agree with that philosophy. So, why is it that so many new courses are so long?
The reason, it would seem, is that many developers want the indulgence, for that is what it is, of having a course that is capable of playing host to the very best tour professional players - even if tour players might play there only once in a blue moon - or not at all.
And, also, most courses rely on the bread and butter of green fees to come from average players who want to play from forward tees and, quite simply, would not be capable of playing from the very back stakes.
After all, your so-called average golfer (the majority of players) is capable of shooting scores in the 90s and into the 100s. What's the point, so - as Ronan Branigan of Declan Branigan Design and a graduate member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects put it - in providing courses where players "spend all day looking for their ProV1s" and then come in "feeling like they've just come out of 15 rounds with Mike Tyson"?
Of course, for any course architect, the actual site is the most important feature in determining what is possible. Not only is a designer concerned with the actual course, he also has to take into account the space required for clubhouse, parking, practice facilities . . . and boundaries.
For instance, the EIGCA has safety guidelines for boundaries that recommends anywhere between 60 and 100 metres from the middle of the fairway, so space is also eaten up in this way.
"There is a perceived need rather than an actual need (from developers) that a course should be 7,000 yards plus," said Branigan, who points out that the design company he runs with his father, Declan, is currently involved in a project at Kilashee House, outside Naas, Co Kildare, where the maximum length will be 6,700 yards.
"It is not going to kill people," he said.
Branigan added: "We're getting away from this perceived need that a course has to measure over 7,000 yards, which originated in the United States. Length isn't everything. There's nothing wrong with having 490-yard par fives rather than 600-yard holes, putting the emphasis on strategic bunkering and on shot values, where players are not playing the same clubs. The idea is to have a mix of shots."
Indeed, Branigan believes new developments should be more resort courses aimed at providing an enjoyable challenge rather than beating a player up, and he points to Mount Juliet as the perfect example of what can be achieved.
Though it is a championship course in the true sense of the word, having staged the Irish Open and the WGC American Express, the forward tees and the generously wide fairways mean the Thomastown course can be played - and enjoyed - by your average player.
It's a sentiment echoed by Merrigan, who observed: "You don't want to visit a course once, find it too tough and not come back again. You want to enjoy your golf, not spend lots of time looking for lost balls and leading frustration. The purpose of golf is to have fun."
And it is down to the course architect to ensure this primary emotion is present, from first tee-shot to last putt.
Long day's journey . ..
World's longest course
The Pines, Bolton, Massachusetts 8,390 yards
Ireland's longest course
Links
The European 7,460 yards
Parkland
Adare Manor 7,453 yards
World's longest holes
1 Chocolay Downs, Michigan 1,007 yards, Par 6
2 Satsuki, Japan 964 yards, Par 7
3 Meadows Farms,Virginia 841 yards, Par 6
