Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture => Topic started by: Marty Bonnar on December 02, 2021, 06:56:05 PM
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I generally have a terrific memory of golf holes/courses I’ve played. Even after many years, I can usually recall fairly small details of where I’ve been.
I’ve just been playing this year’s BUDA venues through in my mind and am finding I’ve got them amazingly well-detailed in my head, even for my normal level of ‘golf memory’.
The hole order, the slopes, the teeny borrows, the vistas, the vegetation, the trees, the shade and shadows, the elevation changes, the openings and obstructions, the walks from greens to tees, the shapes of individual bunkers, tees and greens, the carries, the lay-up points. All in exceptional detail.
I’m not at all sure what it all says about me, but I’m pretty well convinced what it says about the Architect!
Is it fair to say that great architecture can be about how much it beds itself in your brain?
Jolly Festivus,
F.
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This happened to me at Cruden Bay. I could replay every hole in my mind. Every hole had a memorable feature.
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Welcome back, Dr.
I could say the same re CB.
Memorability embodied.
F.
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Marty,
I’ve thought about this one a lot (I seem to have the same photographic memory although it might be diminishing with age and quantity).
I’m not sure that the premise holds 100% true. I think it’s as much to do with how your brain is attuned on any particular day.
But I do think that variety in golf challenges and landscape help most people remember holes better. And I think where the “style” is not overly noticeable also helps. I usually find the ones I remember least are modern courses where there is a monoculture of vegetation and where the architecture is out-competing the land.
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P.S. Assuming I have read the intent of the thread correctly, you might change the title?
You’re not quite at Pat Mucci levels of subterfuge but you might yet only end up with replies from Cheslett, Carlton, Cheslett, Arble, Cheslett, a handful of BUDA participants and Cheslett.
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Welcome back, Dr.
I could say the same re CB.
Memorability embodied.
F.
Marty. On another thread a few days ago didn’t you forget you’d been to Cruden Bay ;)
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P.S. Assuming I have read the intent of the thread correctly, you might change the title?
You’re not quite at Pat Mucci levels of subterfuge but you might yet only end up with replies from Cheslett, Carlton, Cheslett, Arble, Cheslett, a handful of BUDA participants and Cheslett.
Never in my life have I impersonated a golf course and I'm not about to start now.
FBD
I don't quite have the recall of all the bunkers that you have; does that say something about our respective memories or how we both played ? ;)
Niall
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FBD
My memory is definitely not what it once was, but I never subscribed to the if it can be remembered it must be great theory. I generally think of the land, features and greens to point me toward the highlight holes. That's really what I am hoping for, a few holes which stand out. Then I decide if those holes are enough to make up for the dull stuff.
Ciao
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Sometimes the bad is as haunting as the good
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I think what you're talking about here Marty is 'personality' -- an identifiable 'presence'; a set of characteristics that, taken together, fosters a quality of 'distinctness'. I don't know how architects manage to accomplish this, especially since -- for my tastes -- striving to create too much 'uniqueness' and 'individuality' often defeats the entire enterprise. But I know that the only courses that I can remember well at all were the ones with this charming sense of distinct personality. It may not be coincidental that 2 out of the 4 courses I can remember well were designed by Stanley Thompson (though both lesser known, and barely 'ranked'), 1 was designed by Herbert Strong, and 1 by Dr. Mackenzie.
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Once upon a time I had a memory but since....well not recently.
One of the things I did notice that master router aka Dr M., used the weakest land at each Club for the opening holes.
(Cav 1-3, RV 1-6). They are almost separate parcels, so unless the 9's have been switched it was surely deliberate.
Maybe coincidence as he was just reading the land or can the treehouse recall this elsewhere?
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Tony
In the case of Reddish Vale at least I suspect that the clubhouse site was a given (was the building already there ?) and he had to go from there. That I imagine would be usually the case.
Niall
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Once upon a time I had a memory but since....well not recently.
One of the things I did notice that master router aka Dr M., used the weakest land at each Club for the opening holes.
(Cav 1-3, RV 1-6). They are almost separate parcels, so unless the 9's have been switched it was surely deliberate.
Maybe coincidence as he was just reading the land or can the treehouse recall this elsewhere?
Cavendish 1-3 weakest land?
The start of Reddish Vale weakest land?
No.
Ciao
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I don't remember courses as well as I used to but I played both courses on a trip over ten years ago with Mark Rowlinson. I probably remember 27 of the 36 holes. They were such fun. I'd be a member in a heartbeat if I lived nearby.
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Once upon a time I had a memory but since....well not recently.
One of the things I did notice that master router aka Dr M., used the weakest land at each Club for the opening holes.
(Cav 1-3, RV 1-6). They are almost separate parcels, so unless the 9's have been switched it was surely deliberate.
Maybe coincidence as he was just reading the land or can the treehouse recall this elsewhere?
Cavendish 1-3 weakest land?
The start of Reddish Vale weakest land?
No.
Ciao
I must have played 50 courses where 3 holes go back and forth across a slope, but nothing memorable. At Cavendish the only other feature is a perimeter wall. Yet the greens for 2 and 3 are ...magic. Its the Architecture not the land.
He gets a ton out of that small parcel at the start of RV.
So What part of the courses do you think is the weakest land? 18 RV is not admissible :) .
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Once upon a time I had a memory but since....well not recently.
One of the things I did notice that master router aka Dr M., used the weakest land at each Club for the opening holes.
(Cav 1-3, RV 1-6). They are almost separate parcels, so unless the 9's have been switched it was surely deliberate.
Maybe coincidence as he was just reading the land or can the treehouse recall this elsewhere?
Cavendish 1-3 weakest land?
The start of Reddish Vale weakest land?
No.
Ciao
I must have played 50 courses where 3 holes go back and forth across a slope, but nothing memorable. At Cavendish the only other feature is a perimeter wall. Yet the greens for 2 and 3 are ...magic. Its the Architecture not the land.
He gets a ton out of that small parcel at the start of RV.
So What part of the courses do you think is the weakest land? 18 RV is not admissible :) .
5-7 and 15 are not on land as good as 1-3 at RV.
The dip shy of 2 green makes that green what it is. The downhill nature take advantage of for the 3rd makes this short 4 spicy. 1 should be more cool with the slope left if trees were removed. In fact, if practically every tree was removed on 1-3 they would be better holes.
Ciao