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How Golf Lost Its Way - Peter Kostis

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Golf 'N Gator

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I found this to be very interesting. It is worth a quick read and some thoughts. From the June 2013 issue of Golf Magazine by Peter Kostis.

If you've ever had young kids at home, then you know what it's like to need to be in two places at once, to have only a few extra dollars in your pocket and to fervently wish for a few extra hours in every day. Unfortunately, the reality of the game today is that it takes too long, costs too much and is generally way too difficult. How did we get here? The common perception is that this is a recent phenomenon brought on by modern equipment and the multi-piece ball, but in reality, this problem is nothing new. In fact, it's been slowly creeping up on us for more than 50 years.

If you want to locate the Original Sin moment in modern course design, you have to go all the way back to 1951. Robert Trent Jones Sr. redesigned Oakland Hills to toughen up the Donald Ross track for the 1951 U.S. Open. After Ben Hogan won the tournament, he said, "I'm glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees." Hogan also said to Jones's wife, Ione, "If your husband had to play this course for a living, you'd be on the breadline." No subtlety there!

By the mid-1960s, golfers began to confuse a course's difficulty with its quality. The lists we have now of the "Greatest Courses" started out as the "Most Difficult Courses." The perception took hold that a course couldn't be great without being hard. Televised golf also played a role by encouraging golfers to revere courses like Augusta National and the U.S. Open tracks they saw on TV. Suddenly, it wasn't enough to play an enjoyable round; people started seeking out the most difficult courses they could find.

Yet another factor that exacerbated this trend was the boom in residential golf development. Sea Pines, the site of Harbour Town, was probably the first golf course real estate development in which the developer controlled everything. From the 1960s until 2000, these residential developers were the dominant force in course construction, and their aim was not to create great tracks. Instead, the primary goal was to sell land. Routings were designed and lengthened to increase perimeter acreage so that more housing lots could be accommodated. Add on monstrous clubhouses that are costly to sustain, and everything about golf became more expensive.

By the 1980s, the "hard equals good" philosophy was in full bloom. At PGA West, Pete Dye was asked to build the most difficult course possible. The developers wanted buzz, and Pete gave it to them. And all this happened before metal woods, graphite shafts, and the multi-piece ball. To blame golf's problems today on technology alone shows a lack of historical perspective. The real issue is that at some point we lost sight of what a course should be -- a fun, contiguous, walkable layout that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.

Sadly, I'm not sure there's a quick fix for this problem. We can't go back and reroute these overly difficult courses. While it's encouraging to see places like Bandon Dunes embrace a return to fun, walkable courses, it's still not the norm. One thing is for certain: The type of courses built in the last half of the 20th century are not sustainable moving forward.This column appeared in the June 2013 issue of Golf Magazine.


Read more: http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/peter-kostis-how-golf-lost-its-way#ixzz2U77W8xRx
 
Pretty interesting read. thanks for sharing.
 
Thank you, interesting read indeed.
 
I kind of agree with him. That being said, my favorite courses tend to be the hard ones
 
There's a lot there I agree with. I don't think golf courses are "too difficult", though.
Making a course insanely hard just for the sake of using the difficulty as a selling point....yeah, that will get some play. I don't think it's sustainable for most, because eventually we want the pain to stop. A constant stream of triples wears you out.

For the pros, go ahead and trick it out. I dont need to see 59s to see good golf, as long as there is a way to score well. I don't much care for the US Open courses that get a bit dry and there is suddenly no chance to put a ball on a green, but go ahead and demand precision to score well.

For the rest of us, design hard courses that offer a "safe" option with lower reward. Bunker the pins, but leave spots you can bump and run to a longer putt. OB on both sides of a fairway? Make it a LOT wider than a bowling alley, or better yet leave some bailout room away from OB on one side. Toss in a few sets of tees, and you should be able to have a course that plays as hard or forgiving as you like.
 
The public courses in my are aren't what I'd consider hard. Some are more challenging than others but that just gives me variety instead of the same old boring layout on every one. I've been to some more expensive courses that I do consider hard, and when I pay for a higher end course, I expect and want it to be that way. That's what makes it fun. If I'm paying over $100 a round, I want to feel like I've been to Disneyland afterwards, not like I went to a local playground.
 
Thanks for sharing, that's a good read and an intriguing perspective.
 
I think he makes some good points. A good example is the Dye redesign of Cog Hill #4. The Jemsek's got caught up in US Open fever and have taken a lot of heat for what they let Rees Jones do to the course.
 
The point that I found very interesting was when he spoke about housing developers. I've never understood why anybody would make golfers walk/ride as far between holes as some of these newer courses do. I mean sometimes if you are walking it can take up to 10 minutes or longer to get to the next hole. Not to sound lazy, but I didn't pay to go for a walk, I paid to play golf.
 
Not to break one of golf's ten commandments, but I sort of wanted to punch Jack in the Adam's Apple after playing his new design at Fyre Lake. Granted, it played much harder because of the wind and cold, but there were holes that I thought were borderline mean.

Then flash forward to the Weibring design at Metamora fields. Long enough that even the longest guys can enjoy it, but doesn't just beat up the average guy like me.
 
Nice read.
 
So what makes a golf course hard? Is it not being able to make easy pars for us average hackers? I'm not sure I understand the problem. I've played on courses where even from the whites I have a hard time making GIR's, and I consider them hard for me. But the only time I'd consider a course too hard for me is if it had forced carries that I just couldn't reach. The goal of golf is to shoot as low a score as possible, not necessarily to shoot par or better. So a hard course simply means I may have a lot higher score than I'm used to on my home course. Is that really such a bad thing? I guess it would be for pace of play issues, but if I'm paying for an expensive round, I don't want it to go by too quick. I'd feel cheated if I could zip around a nice course as fast as I do on my home turf.
 
I tend to like a difficult course every now and then. I like to try to think my way around a course and the more difficult the course, the more thinking that is usually involved. While I like a course that I can go out and easily shoot a career round on, I would rather have a course that is going to challenge my game. I think that's one way to get better at the game.

I don't think the difficulty of the courses is to blame for any kind of decline in the game. I honestly think it's the mindset of the younger generations. Not all of them are like this, but many have the mindset of just giving up if something is too difficult. They've had too many things handed to them and they don't want to work too hard to achieve something. I'm just the opposite. If I play a course that is difficult and kicks my butt the first time I play it, you can bet I'm playing it again and again until I feel like I've beaten it. Then I'm going to play it some more to improve on that score.
 
A very interesting read, thanks for sharing!
 
Really interesting read. I've always maintained that the pros will find a way to make any kind of equipment long and straight - Jack could hit a balata ball 310+ with a wood driver for Pete's sake - so the impossible courses never seemed to be an exclusively modern issue. In fact, it's the layouts from post 1950 where things start to get downright mean. It's really nice to finally see fun courses being built again, without an overemphasis on difficulty.

That being said, some of the most enjoyable tracks I have played are downright nasty - Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT (Johnny Miller designed, a 77.6/145, 7700 yard monster from the tips) comes to mind. There is something about taming a really tough course/hole/shot that gets the adrenaline pumping and is just highly satisfying.
 
Kobey said:
So what makes a golf course hard? Is it not being able to make easy pars for us average hackers? I'm not sure I understand the problem. I've played on courses where even from the whites I have a hard time making GIR's, and I consider them hard for me. But the only time I'd consider a course too hard for me is if it had forced carries that I just couldn't reach. The goal of golf is to shoot as low a score as possible, not necessarily to shoot par or better. So a hard course simply means I may have a lot higher score than I'm used to on my home course. Is that really such a bad thing? I guess it would be for pace of play issues, but if I'm paying for an expensive round, I don't want it to go by too quick. I'd feel cheated if I could zip around a nice course as fast as I do on my home turf.
Click to expand...

There are too many things to mention that can make a golf course hard, but to name a couple would be very tight and penalizing fairways, forced carries, multiple hazards near landing areas, etc. Heck even speeding the greens up to the 10-12 ranges could significantly change a courses complexion.
 
Kobey said:
So what makes a golf course hard? Is it not being able to make easy pars for us average hackers? I'm not sure I understand the problem. I've played on courses where even from the whites I have a hard time making GIR's, and I consider them hard for me. But the only time I'd consider a course too hard for me is if it had forced carries that I just couldn't reach. The goal of golf is to shoot as low a score as possible, not necessarily to shoot par or better. So a hard course simply means I may have a lot higher score than I'm used to on my home course. Is that really such a bad thing? I guess it would be for pace of play issues, but if I'm paying for an expensive round, I don't want it to go by too quick. I'd feel cheated if I could zip around a nice course as fast as I do on my home turf.
Click to expand...

There's a difference between being hard and presenting a good challenge. Holes that allow you to take a shot that carries some risk to give yourself a better chance at par or birdie, yet still give you the ability to take a shot that carries less risk, but may give you a longer club in your hand for an approach shot or a longer putt.

It's not so much building a course that is easy to make par as it is building a course that is playable for varying skill levels. One that doesn't make the average guy play from thick rough all day, or lose a bunch of balls.

I think Arnold Palmer does a good job of that from the limited courses I've played of his.
 
Hawk said:
It's not so much building a course that is easy to make par as it is building a course that is playable for varying skill levels. One that doesn't make the average guy play from thick rough all day, or lose a bunch of balls.
Click to expand...

The average guy is going to cheat a lot anyway, and isn't that why Walmart sells cheap balls?:act-up:
 
Hawk said:
There's a difference between being hard and presenting a good challenge. Holes that allow you to take a shot that carries some risk to give yourself a better chance at par or birdie, yet still give you the ability to take a shot that carries less risk, but may give you a longer club in your hand for an approach shot or a longer putt.

It's not so much building a course that is easy to make par as it is building a course that is playable for varying skill levels. One that doesn't make the average guy play from thick rough all day, or lose a bunch of balls.

I think Arnold Palmer does a good job of that from the limited courses I've played of his.
Click to expand...

I've heard that's what Bobby Jones was after with Augusta National. Playable for amateurs but challenging for professionals.
 
Good read but what is his solution, only thing I really gather is fun walk-able courses?
 
I don't mind difficult courses that are designed to be difficult. What i HATE are the "devloper" courses that are super tight, not to be challenging, but to cram as many houses as possible along the hole. If your ball lands in the fairway, it should not roll into someone's back yard.
 
Thank for posting, this was a well written op. ed. to provoke conversation and (hopefully) generate some ideas for future change. I hadn't thought about that side of the "modern game" equation until now, so thatnk you for posting.
 
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