| BY DESIGN
Changing
Times
Award-winning architect Paul Jansen takes a look at the way technology is helping and hindering golf course construction and maintenance.
Miller Brown (Augusta National); Getty Images (North Berwick)
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The sublime conditioning at Augusta National Golf Club (opposite top) has had a huge influence on other course’s expectations in terms of maintenance procedures; the wild and wooly links at the much-heralded North Berwick in Scotland 42
HK GOLFER・DEC 2014
e live in a world of constant flux. What is deemed as cutting edge today is often seen as outdated tomorrow. This is particularly evident in the golf business. Golfers are much stronger today than at any time in our history, and they’re getting stronger each day. Golf clubs are more and more forgiving and the golf ball continues to go further and further. But what of golf course maintenance and turf grass science? This, I believe, is where the biggest strides have been made in golf. Today golf course superintendents (known as green keepers in some parts of the world) are some of the most highly trained, highly skilled people in the golf business, which is easy to understand when you look at the modern golf course. We have certainly come a long way from the days when golf was played over broken, untamed land and a green keeper was a menial job with limited pay. Back at its inception the golf course would typically take care of itself. Sheep were often used to manage the grass areas, and hazards – bunkers, for instance – would get little if any tender loving care. This is certainly not characteristic of the golf courses we get to see and play today. In fact our modern golf courses are a feat of modern engineering. Think multimillion dollar irrigation systems, thousands of metres of sub-surface drainage, varieties of grass species and modern green construction make for golf in the 21st century … and I am forgetting
the high-tech equipment used to maintain these facilities. Thanks to this progress we are now able to build and maintain golf courses in varied environments and over some of the most challenging parcels of land imaginable. Thanks to this progress the game of golf has grown to the point where just about every major centre across the globe has a golf course. This is a good thing. For the most part I embrace change and this includes change in golf. I drive a modern car, carry a laptop and mobile phone and play with a new set of clubs and balls. But there have been times when I have come to think some change has had a damaging effect on the game. Let me explain. I hear a lot of people in our business lambasting the golf ball as if it is the biggest problem the game faces. Whilst I concur that the golf ball has done us no favours in the way we are having to stretch the play areas – mostly for the better golfer – I can’t help but feel the longer, straighter ball makes a difficult game a little easier for the majority of golfers. Where is the bad in that? If we want to point fingers at any one thing that has had such a drastic impact on golf – for good or bad – then I would be inclined to list the way we maintain and irrigate our courses today versus yesteryear and the resulting effect this has had on the way the game is played and perceived. Lush “green” playing areas, manicured bunkers and immaculate putting surfaces are the norm today and anything opposing this is, for the most part, seen as taboo or even unfair. Many golf HKGOLFER.COM
course superintendents are under pressure to create “Augusta National”-like conditions at their club or fear the wrath of the modern golfer and/or club committee. Clubs will spend millions of dollars each year so that they can look green and play “fair”. Anything brown or tatty is seen as poor maintenance practice and even worse, poor design. Modern construction, equipment and irrigation systems have given us the opportunity to create conditions that potentially would have been admired all those years ago. Some may have scorned these advances of course. I personally embrace what we can do in golf construction today and my feeling is that most of the best golf architects of previous generations would have thought the same. What’s important is that the architect does not get carried away with the tools he has at his disposal. I am much less besotted by the general advance and effect of irrigation. I am very conscious it’s necessary in many climates, and I am grateful for this, but I see all too often it being overused to create playing conditions that are visually very appealing to the eye but that come at a hefty cost. Creating over lush and over green conditions is certainly not cheap and it’s hardly sustainable. Yes, you can kill grass by not irrigating at the right times but too little water is hardly as problematic as putting too much water on the play areas. Speak to any golf course superintendent and they will tell you that turf health and playability are much more threatened when overwatering. Too much watering also softens the playing areas and makes it more receptive – which essentially has an effect on the way we play the HKGOLFER.COM
Lush “green” playing areas, manicured bunkers and immaculate putting surfaces are the norm today and anything opposing this is, for the most part, seen as taboo or even unfair. Many golf course superintendents are under pressure to create “Augusta National”-like conditions at their club or fear the wrath of the club committee. game. In this case golf becomes much less about creative and thoughtful play (using the ground to good effect) and more about hitting archetypical shots that drop and stop. This type of golf is very monotonous and leaves little to discover. In my mind this is an unfortunate thing and it is further encouraged by the way many golf courses are designed today. We have made great strides in golf – most of which has been positive. As we move forward let us continue to embrace this change and development. But let this be measured and just maybe, we need at times to look to the past to plan for the future, so that we don’t lose sight of what has made this game so interesting and fun.
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