Reading Geoff Shackelford's pithy jabs at human foible on his eponymous blog (the digs at PGA Tour suits alone are worth the visit) it's easy to overlook the fact that this is far more than just another voice churning out snapshots of opinion in the blogosphere.
Shackelford has a serious body of work to his name and is one of golf course architecture's great champions among the press pack.
Certainly, if you're looking to get a handle on the subject for the first time, or even if you're just after a refresher course on what's right and what's not in the industry, Grounds for Golf: The History and Fundamentals of Golf Course Design, notwithstanding the slightly forbidding feel of its 300 pages, will ease you into your topic as well as anything else I've read to date.
Beautifully complemented by aerial hole layouts from architect Gil Hanse, the text examines the Old Course's influence on the game, the various schools of design thought and the factors that go into creating a memorable golf hole, with several classic holes and courses examined in detail to support the author's arguments. Not quite sure I share Shackelford's thoughts on the need for 'humour' in course design, mind: I'll grant him 'quirkiness' but it may be that your handicap has to reach a certain level of distinction before you can see the funny side.
It's heartening, however, to see him become the first architecture maven I've come across who's prepared to acknowledge the existence of computer games as a means of enhancing your understanding of what makes good piece of golfing real estate. Like a political candidate with an alcoholic cousin, I've tended to keep fairly quiet about my own collection of 400 courses on three different computers (am I the only person still getting a buzz out of Tiger Woods 2000?) but not any more...
On the subject of of 'buzz', one of the things for which I will remain most indebted to Shackelford's book, is the introduction it has given me to this photograph.
It shows Alister Mackenzie preparing to tee off at the 16th on his masterpiece at Cypress Point and I stared at it for some time, struck by the way in which the creator is so magnificently dwarfed by that which he has created. Did the enormity of his own achievements ever confront Mozart so graphically, I wonder? Was Rembrandt ever wowed like this, no matter how big the canvas on which he worked?
It's hard to know how Mackenzie felt in this picture, whether the artist in him gave him pause over his ball, or whether Scottish pragmatism saw him swing away without a second thought, reflecting merely on one of his better days at the office.
Whatever, when I think of golf course designers from now on and what they might be striving for beyond the pay cheque, this is the image that will forever spring to mind.
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Pic of the Day - Utah's Soldier Hollow Golf Course
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