[Sean_A]

Bunker free, grazed and non irrigated is about as natural as it gets even if some soil was pushed around by a shovel. In that regard Minch Old is hard to beat. That said, the price to pay is ropey greens and few people like this, including me. There's a lot to be said for natural golf, but that isn't the be all and end all imo.

Ciao

[Mark Pearce]

Bunker free grazed and non irrigated is about as natural as it gets even if some soil was pushed around by a shovel. In that regard Minch Old is hard to beat. That said, the price to pay is ropey greens and few people like this, including me. There's a lot to be said for natural golf, but that isn't the be all and end all imo.

Ciao

Surprised that Kington hasn't featured in these discussions.  Obviously many made greens.  But aside from that, non-irrigated, grazed, fertilised by sheep.  And excellent greens.

[James Brown]

Has anyone every developed a measure of naturalness?  Something where we could put courses on a spectrum. 


Digesting these comments so far, I would say a 100% natural course with no irrigation and no contouring of any kind and no mowing might be a nice novelty to try out once or twice, but not the kind of place I would really find interesting.

Haven't seen Mulranny have you.

For example, I was just scanning the Mach Dunes website and they were promoting the fact that they utilized goat grazing as a supplement to “some mowing.” 



I have always thought of Brora as the most natural course in the world.  At least in terms of melding natural with an actual constructed work.  Not a lot of electric fences in nature, but I don’t think that’s the point.

You don't find Brora "interesting?"

I haven’t seen Mulranny, but you can see from their website that they some some mowing and mow the greens for sure. 


My point was that we should view naturalness on a spectrum. 


And Brora is certainly interesting, but they also have an extensive maintenance regime there as well.  And many of the tee boxes are constructed not “found.”

[Sean_A]

Bunker free grazed and non irrigated is about as natural as it gets even if some soil was pushed around by a shovel. In that regard Minch Old is hard to beat. That said, the price to pay is ropey greens and few people like this, including me. There's a lot to be said for natural golf, but that isn't the be all and end all imo.

Ciao

Surprised that Kington hasn't featured in these discussions.  Obviously many made greens.  But aside from that, non-irrigated, grazed, fertilised by sheep.  And excellent greens.

Kington definitely waters their greens when necessary, but it makes for a more enjoyable round imo. I know Minch Old is handcuffed, but it's a shame.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Mulranny has greens irrigation. They also have greens where the height-of-cut that is higher than usual. Given their windy location and the severity of their greens contours both are apt.
Kington has greens irrigation.
Minchinhampton Old waters its greens with a tractor and water trailer with the tractor driver sprinkling the greens via a hosepipe.
atb

[MCirba]

Castine in Maine.

[Niall C]

Reading through this thread it seems to me that you could divide naturalness into 2 distinct parts.


1 - how the course was constructed or laid out. Was there much earth moved or vegetation/plants/trees removed to make the course.


2 - how the course is maintained ie. no or little irrigation, native vegetation with minimal mowing etc.


In my experience in the UK the two tend to go together, both due to a lack of money !


Niall

[Adam_Messix]

The course that jumps out most in my mind is Waverley in New Zealand.  The maintenance mostly by local farm animals add to the charm.  The trees that have been added are a concern but it is minimalism in it's purest form otherwise.

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