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The Construction of Courses · The Complete Golfer

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Chapter nineteen of The Complete Golfer. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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visit LibriVox dot org. The Complete Golfer by Harry Varden. The construction of
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courses Many as are the golf courses with which the coast of the country and
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the suburbs of the towns and cities of breat Britain are studded, They will
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no doubt be still more numerous as time goes on, and it is earnestly
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to be desired that in the laying out of links in the future more thought
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and ingenuity may be exercised than has been in the case in far too many
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instances during the past few years, when clubs have been formed and links have
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been made in a hurry. Certainly some are excellent, and I cast not
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the least disparagement upon them. I enjoy them frequently. The hand of the
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master architect of golf is visible where one observes how shrewdly and exactly the hazards
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have been placed, and the peculiarities of the confirmation of the country turned to
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the most utmost account. When useful or cunningly dodged when it has been considered
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that they could be no good to a golfer without a doubt. Generally speaking,
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those courses are the best which have been designed by good players, because
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none know better than they what makes the best golf. A man whose handicap
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is some distance removed from scratch, but who has played golf for many years
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and thinks with good reason that he knows a fine course when he sees one,
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would nevertheless, in designing a new one, be led unconsciously to make
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holes which would be more or less suited to his own style of play.
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He might, indeed, in a most heroic spirit, place a bunker at
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a point which he knew would be more than usually dangerous for him, and
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he would feel a better and a braver man for this act. But a
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hundred of its kind would not prevent the course from being the ideal of the
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long handicap man and not the ideal of the fine player. If plans were
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prepared for a new links over a particular piece of territory by a twelve handicap
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man and a scratch player, it is highly probable that, in the most
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material matters they would differ greatly, and it is fairly certain that of a
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committee of the oldest and most experienced golfers would unanimously pick out the scratch player's
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plans from all the others as being the best and soundest, and that,
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without knowing who had prepared them, time and the aggregate of pleasure given to
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golfers of all degrees would justify the selection. Therefore, when a new club
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is established and a new course is to be laid out, I suggest that
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it is the wiser and the better plan to take time over it and secure
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the best advice. A good links is not made in a day or a
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week. Perhaps the cleverest and most ingenious constructor could not in a whole year
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make one which was, in all respects the best that the land could give.
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Almost every time the course was played over during the first hundred rounds,
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a new thought for its improvement in some small detail would occur. The moving
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of a t twenty yards to the right, the addition of a couple of
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yards to the end of one of the bunkers, the placing of a shallow
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pot bunker some eight or ten yards across at some particular point. All these,
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and many other matters of equal significance will constantly suggest themselves. My experience
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tells me that the perfection of a good course is slowly attained. Like wine,
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it takes time for the richness of its qualities to mature. Therefore,
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when the committee of a new club in the country sits in conference with a
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plan of its newly acquired land laid on the table, and decides unanimously that
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a T should be placed at a point marked A, a bunker along the
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line B, another bunker at C, and the whole at D, and
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so forth, I protest that they are doing poor justice, either to themselves
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or to the game. But are many links made during the past few years
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made in a hurry. The results of such mechanical methods are only too apparent.
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I hope that the few hints that I offer in this chapter may be
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of service to old clubs with improvable courses and new ones with none as yet,
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and to those fortunate individuals who contemplate laying out a course in their private
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grounds for the use of themselves and their friends. Private courses are increasing in
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number, And for my part, though I must obviously be guilty of prejudice,
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I can conceive of no more enjoyable acquisition to a country house than a
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nine whole course, and assuredly the possessor of it will be envied in its
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invitations to week ends much coveted. The question of the amount of land that
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shall be called into service for the fulfillment of a scheme for a new lynx
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is one that is usually outside the control of those who project it. They
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have to cut according to their cloth. I need only say here therefore,
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that in a general way, some thirty or forty acres of land are necessary
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to make such a nine hole course as shall possess a satisfactory amount of variety,
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and not less than seventy acres for a full sized eighteen whole course.
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This is a matter of fact, being the acreage of the South Hearts Club's
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course at Totteridge, with which I am at present associated. By great economy
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of space and the exercise of unlimited ingenuity. Courses might be made from a
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trifle less land, but they are better when they are made for more.
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Two or three hundred acres are sometimes utilized for a good links where land is
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very scarce and there is no possibility of obtaining more of it, I earnestly
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advise private owners and committees to content themselves with a nine whole course which will
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have plenty of length and good sporting quality about it, rather than sacrifice the
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good golf that is thus within their reach and a desire to possess a regulation
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eighteen whole links that could only give complete satisfaction to ladies and children. Too
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many courses with scarcely a brassy shot upon them have been ruined by this greed
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for holes. When the land has been allotted to the purpose, a very
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thorough and careful survey should be made of all its features. This is not
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to be done in one morning. The land, no doubt, is very
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rough, and at the first glance it looks ill adapted to the golfer's purpose.
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Many times I have had the task of making a course from materials which
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at first seem so unpromising as to be hopeless. There should be no hurry
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at this time. Let those who are designing the links walk slowly and meditatively
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over nearly every square yard of the land at least two or three times,
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before coming to any final decision as to where to place a single tea bunker
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or whole an open mind is the best to begin with. After one or
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two of these preliminary surveys, some general idea of the possible formation of the
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lynx will begin to shape itself in the mind. And this having been done,
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it will be practically impossible for an intelligent person to make additional journeys over
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the land without being struck with an idea for a great improvement at one or
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other of the holes which he has fashioned in his mind. If it is
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possible, take two or three weeks over this slow process of creation of the
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lynx, they may be altered afterwards to some extent, but for good or
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ill, their main features will probably remain as at the beginning, and may
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endure for centuries. Having secured to the mind this general and somewhat vague idea
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of the plan of the lynx, it is a good thing to plant a
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stake at each spot where it is proposed to make a hole. And when
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the land is all staked out in this manner, there is, as it
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were, a solid foundation upon which to build up the lynx. The location
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of the stakes can be inspected from a distance and from different points of view,
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and it will constantly happen on these occasions that for the improvement of one
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or other of the holes, its removal to a different place will be suggested.
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Continue your walks, examining the stakes from north, south, east and
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west, and moving them here and there, until you begin to feel a
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trifle weary of the business, and confident that you have planned the best possible
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holes out of the country that you have to deal with. Then you may
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proceed with perhaps the more interesting, but certainly the harder part of the task.
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It is useless to think about fashioning the links from the plan which will
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now have been formed until those natural disadvantages of the land which cannot be allowed
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to remain have been removed. Gorse and rocks may have to be cleared,
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and it is essential that at this stage an effort should be made to rid
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the course of the rabbits and other undesirable vermin if any should infest it.
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Rabbits help to keep the grass nice, in short, but they make too
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many holes in the course, and there is no alternative but to regard them
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as the enemies of golf, and to make out the death warrants of them
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all. Accordingly, the quickest and surest way of getting rid of them is
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to search for every hole, apply to ferrets, stop up the holes afterwards,
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and to keep a watch for any of that return. If only one
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or two are left here and there, they will play much havoc with the
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course in the future. From this point The way in which the work is
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preceded with will naturally depend to a large extent on the length of the schemer's
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purse, and on their optimism or otherwise as to their future prospects. But
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I am sure that it is best to employ as many men as can be
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afforded at the outset, and so grapple with the execution of the plants in
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a thorough and determined manner. In the making of a golf course, it
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is very easy to be a penny wise and pound foolish. The situation of
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the greens having been decided upon, the question as to the length of the
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holes, as to which some general impression will have already been formed, comes
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up for a decision. A proposed teeing ground should be selected for each hole.
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The length of the holes then examined and compared, and the tees move
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nearer or farther back as seems desirable for the improvement of individual holes or the
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increase of variety. If at this stage there is any chance of finding a
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ball afterwards, it is a good thing to drive a few from each tee
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and play them with the brassy cleak irons and mashey up to the green.
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If you drive half a dozen from each tee and play them through the green
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to the place where the holes will be, there will surely be one or
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two that have turned out excellently. If you are a player of any skill
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whatever, and a study of the strokes which have been applied to these one
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or two, the point of pitching and the final lie will reveal the entire
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character of the hole you are making, and tell you plainly how it must
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be bunkeerd. In a nine hole course, I think there should be seven
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medium or long holes and two short ones to break the monotony and test the
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golfer at all points. The situation of these short holes in the round will
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naturally be decided to a large extent by the land in other circumstances, But
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when the power of selection is left to the designer, I incline to the
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belief that numbers three and seven are the best for these dainties. I like
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a short hole to come early in the round, as at number three,
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because then a golfer who has made a bad start is given a chance of
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recovering, for he is hopelessly out of the hunt. He has a better
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prospect of making such a recovery, or thinks he has, which is much
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the same thing at a short hole than at a long one, and being
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put in a good temper again, he will very likely go on very well
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for the next two or three when he will be favored with another short one.
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The plight of the player who has discovered at the beginning of a metal
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round that he is off his drive in brassy and that six or seven holes
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have to be played before a little one is reached, is certainly not pleasant.
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I call a good short hole one that can be reached by good play
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at any time with an iron club, because it fails to be a short
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hole when it is necessary to take wood upon the tea in order to get
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to the green. In an eighteen hole course, you might have three or
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four short holes. I think three are sufficient, and it will be well
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to vary their length so as to test the capacity of the golfer with different
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clubs, and to bring out all of his qualities of resource for a fourth
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hole on the short side, plenty of sporting chants would constantly be afforded by
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one of two hundred yard's length. This could not be called a short hole,
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because under ordinary circumstances and on most days, it would be too far
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for even a good driver to reach from the tee. But he would often
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be tempted to nerve himself to a superior effort, and an occasional strain of
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this kind is advantageous in the long run. Besides, when the wind was
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at his back, he would frequently be successful, and on such occasions he
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would experience more pleasure and satisfaction from this particular tea shot than from any other
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of the whole round. The remainder of the course should be made up of
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a variety of two shot and three shot holes. The lengths should be varied
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as much as possible, and with a limit of three hundred and seventy yards
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and say five hundred and thirty to work between, it should surely not be
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so difficult as it appears to have been in so many cases of inland links
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to get fourteen or fifteen quite different holes those of from two thirty to three
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hundred thirty yards, with which so many courses abound, are not good holes
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in my opinion, because they give an almost equal chance to the man who
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has driven well and a man who was driven badly. Take a common sort
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of hole two hundred eighty yards in length. A player misses his drive and
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his ball travels only four, say a hundred or a hundred twenty yards,
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he may still reach the green with his brassy and should be able to do
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so. Now, the man who drove well at this hole would need to
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make a second stroke with an iron club to reach the green, and with
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this gain nothing from his better play. This is unfair, and what is
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unfair is bad. The good two shot hole is one of the nicest and
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best hoals on a course. When it is really good. Its length is
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about three hundred seventy to two three hundred eighty yards. Thus it will be
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perceived that a first class drive from the team must be followed up by a
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fine second as straight as it is long, if the green is to be
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reached. The good player, who has done all that he ought, is
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thus rewarded by the clear gain of a stroke and the capture of a hole
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in four whilst the man who is a trifle week with either his drive or
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his second, or has faltered to the slightest extent at either stroke, has
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for a certainty to use his mashie before he can call for a putter.
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When a two hole shot is to be adjusted to this nicety of perfection,
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there is plainly not much margin for the variation of its length. But it
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is not necessary, nor is it even desirable, to do man continually such
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unerring skill from the golfer. My idea of a good three shot hole is
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one that stretches for five hundred two five hundred and thirty yards three fine shots
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being wanted for holes of much greater length than this, I have no fancy.
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Perhaps no serious objection can be laid against an occasional hole of five hundred
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fifty yards length, But what is really gained by such long journeys? Certainly
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the true skill of the golfer is not being more severely tested. When we
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come to such monstrosities as holes of six hundred yards in length, it is
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time to call out enough, for by this time we have descended to slogging,
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pure and simple, and the hard field work at which an agricultural laborer
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would have the right to grumble. So I repeat that the best hole for
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golfing is that of a good two shotter, which takes the ball from the
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tee to the green in two well played strokes without any actual pressing. As
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for total length, it should be borne in mind that links over six thousand
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yards long is considered a long one, and that there are championship greens Prestwick
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and mirror Field which are or where. Until quite recently there is a tendency
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to stretch everywhere, since the rubber cored ball become predominant shorter than six thousand
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yards. In making the plan of the course a point of interest and importance
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to decide upon is the direction in which the holes should be played. Some
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golfers prefer that the first and succeeding holes shall lie to the right of the
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starting point, while others like best to go out on the left hand side,
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that is, to play round the course in the same direction as that
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pursued by the hands of a clock. It is largely a matter of fancy,
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but personally my choices for going out to the left because I think in
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this case the holes are generally more difficult and the boundary, usually being near
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to the left, constant precautions must be taken against pulling. Another matter particularly
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to be remembered is that the first tea and the last green should be close
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together, and neither of them more distant from the clubhouse than is necessary.
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A wide separation of these points always seems to be contrary to the proper order
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of things. And now we come to the perplexing problem of bunkers and where
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to place them. And in this connection abdermark that would be well not to
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regard the lengths of the holes as so far arranged, as final and revocable,
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and not to establish permanent teeing grounds accordingly, for it must necessarily happen
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as the bunkers come to be formed on the course and more trial rounds are
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to be played, that one's ideas will undergo considerable change. And it is
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easier to lengthen a hole at this stage of proceedings by simply placing the tee
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further back than it will be afterwards. It has been a great question with
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some committees of newly established clubs or of older ones in search of new courses,
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as to whether, in laying out their greens and settling upon the location
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of all their nice new bunkers, they should keep more particularly in mind the
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excellences of the scratch player, or the trials and troubles of the twelve to
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eighteen handicap men. On the one hand, the scratch player is the experienced
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golfer, the man who plays the true game as it should be played,
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and who finds no real enjoyment in so called golf, wherein he is never
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called upon to do more than tap the ball over an obstacle ninety or one
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hundred yards in front. Such links never put up a fight against him,
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and he finishes his listless round with something as near to the sense of awareness
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as it is possible for the golfer to ever experience. But these scratch players,
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in common with the men with all handicaps up to five or six,
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are any very heavy and hopeless minority. In most clubs to day, the
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book with the membership is made up of players of from six to twenty four,
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with a concentration of forces between twelve and eighteen. These men say,
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or at all events, think that as they run the club, they have
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a right to be considered, and in their hearts the committee believe that they
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are justified. These men with long handicaps, some of whom have not even
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a desire to reduce them to any considerable extent, deriving the utmost pleasure in
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playing the game in their own way, can find no fun in being always
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and inevitably in the same bunkers, and regard driving from a tea when they
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are either obliged to play short deliberately with an iron or rebunkered for a certainty
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with their driver, as the most dismal occupation with which a Saturday or Sunday
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sportsman could ever be afflicted. Therefore, they cried loudly for shorter caries.
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They say the others are not fair, and from their particular point of view,
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the remark is possibly justified. Even the young golfer who is determined to
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be a scratch man some day, though he has eighteen strokes from that pinnacle
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of excellence as of yet, becomes rather tired of the long run of finding
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constant punishment waiting upon his valiant attempts strive his longest ball, and thinks the
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committee should be reminded that there are others in the world besides the immediately coming
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champions. Amidst these conflicting desires, committees, incourse designers appear frequently to have
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attempted a compromise with no particular satisfaction to anybody. It is impossible to lay
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out course to suit all the different players in a club, and my own
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decided opinion is that the bunkers and other hazards should always be placed to test
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the game of the scratch player, and not that of the handicap man.
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A course that is laid out for the latter very often inflicts severe punishment on
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the scratch player, and it is surely hard that the man who has spent
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many years on the most patient and painstaking practice should be deliberately treated in this
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manner when the comparative novice is allowed to go scot free. Moreover, when
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a bunker is so place that a long carry is needed from the tee,
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a handicap man will find his game much improved by playing on the course.
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At first, he finds he cannot carry the hazard, and for a little
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while contents himself with playing short. But he soon tires of this timidity,
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takes more pains with his strokes, braces himself up to bigger efforts, and
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at last the day comes when his ball goes sailing over the obstruction. Afterwards,
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the performance repeated quite easily, and the views of one man as to
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the unfairness of that particular carry have undergone a radical change. It is better
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for the beginner that he should have a hard course to play over than an
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easy one, And much as he may grumble at the beginning, he will
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in the end be thankful to those who impose a severe experience upon him in
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his early days as a golfer. Therefore, if it is decided that there
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must be a bunker in the center of the course, in the line of
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the drive, I suggest that it should be placed at a distance of about
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one hundred and thirty two one hundred and forty five yards from the tee.
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The second bunker, if there is to be another, stretching across the course
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with a view to imposing difficulties on second shots or guarding the green, should
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be rather less than this distance from the first, so that the man who
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has topped his drive and is short of the first hazard should still have a
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chance of clearing this next one with his second shot. Recovery ought never be
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impossible. But really I am no believer at all in bunkers placed across the
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course. Certainly let there be one in front of the tee to catch the
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bad drive and another to guard the green. But generally speaking, the merely
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short ball carries its own punishment with it in the distance that has been lost
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and has to be made good again. The straight driver is not the man
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to be punished. It is the player who slices and pulls, and has
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obviously little command over his club and the ball, and it has taken no
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pains to master the intricate techniques of the drive, for whose careless shots traps
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should be laid. As often as not, the bunker in the center of
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the course lets off the ball with a bad slice or pull on it.
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So I say that bunkers should be placed down both sides of the course,
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and they may be as numerous and as difficult as the controlling authority likes to
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make them. But hazards of any description should be amongst the last feature to
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be added to a newly made golf links. Not until the course has been
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played over many times, under different conditions and particularly in different winds, can
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anyone properly determine which is the true place for a hazard to be made at
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the beginning. It may have been placed elsewhere in a hurry, and it
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may have seemed on a few trials to answer its purpose admirably. But another
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day, under different conditions, it may be made clear that it is in
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the very place where it will catch a thoroughly good shot and allow only a
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bad one to escape. I would not have insisted so much on this need
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for deliberation and patience if it did not so often happen that, as the
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result of placing the hazards on a new course into much haste, they are
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found afterwards to be altogether wrong, and have to be moved with the waste
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of much time and money. There is little, to the point that I
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can say about the making of the putting greens, as so much depends upon
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the natural conditions and opportunities. Sometimes there is nothing to do but to cuss
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the grass short and pass the roller over a few times, and the grain
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is made at a first glass grain too. At other times there is need
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for much digging on the turf with which the carpet is to be relaid,
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may have to be carried to the spot from a considerable distance, particularly when
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so much trouble is being taken over the laying of the greens. Do I
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beg the makers of courses to see that they are not made dead level and
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as much like a billiard table as possible, which often seems to be the
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chief desire. To say that a putting green is like a billiard table is
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one of the worst compliments that you can pay to it. By all means.
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Let it be true in the sense of being smooth and even, and
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presenting no lumps or inequalities of surface that are not plainly visible to the eye,
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and the effect of which cannot be accurately gaged by the golfer has taught
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himself how to make allowances. But on far too many greens, the man
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with the putter has nothing to do but gauge the strength of a stroke and
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aim dead straight at the hole. He derives infinitely less satisfaction from getting way
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down a fifteen euro putt of this sort than does the man who has hold
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out at ten feet and has estimated the rise and fall and the sideway slope
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of an intervening hillock to begin with, and a winding valley to follow his
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ball, first of all, running far away to the right, then trickling
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across to the left, and finally wheeling around again and rolling into the tin.
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Only when there is this much calculation to be done, and it is
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so precisely accomplished, does the golfer practice the real art of putting and taste
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the delights of this delicate part of the game. The other is dull and
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inhibit In comparison, there is the less excuse for making the flat and level
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greens, inasmuch as even the beginners can appreciate the sporting quality of the others
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and enjoy practice upon them from the first day of their play let, there
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be plenty of undulations, and then with the changing positions of the whole,
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a player can practically never come to any particular green upon which he may have
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putted hundreds of times without having any problem set him entirely different from any that
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he has had to work out before. Greens, of course, are of
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all sizes, from fifteen to fifty yard square, and I beg leave to
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remark that large size is at fault in them, inasmuch as the bigger they
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are, the less as the scale required and the approach shot. It is
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perhaps unnecessary for me to point out as a final word that when teas have
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to be specifically prepared and turfed, it is a decided improvement to a course
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to have two at different points for each hole, one nearer and one more
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to the side than the other. Not only do these alternative teas enable each
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of them to be given a periodical rest for recovery from wear and tear,
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but they afford an interesting variation of the play, make it possible to impose
23:03
a severe test than usual upon the players when it is felt desirable to do
23:07
so, as on competition days, and also in some measure to contact the
23:11
effects of wind. Of course, when teas have not to be specially made,
23:15
there is endless variety open. It is obvious that the greater part of
23:19
the foregoing remarks applies chiefly to the construction of inland courses. Seaside links laid
23:25
over the dunes are made by nature herself, and generally, as regards to
23:27
their chief features, they must be taken or left as the golfer desides.
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A new hazard may be thrown up here and there, but usually the part
23:36
of the constructor of a seaside course is to make proper use of those that
23:38
are there ready made for him. And which are frequently better than any that
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could be designed by man. End of chapter nineteen