Our Golfing Heritage

By Ken Moodie, EIGCA Senior Member

Most golfers are aware, to some extent, of the rich history which the game of golf possesses. Many would be able to name the Old Course at St Andrews as the oldest golf course in existence (although Musselburgh Old Links also has a claim to this) and it is remarkable to think that it still provides a challenging test for the top professional golfers. However, they would probably be surprised to hear that very few courses have any statutory protection from inappropriate alteration or development, other than via normal planning legislation, and that their historic value could be completely spoiled by the actions of ill-informed golf clubs or developers.

English Heritage, the government organisation in England responsible for the identification and protection of the nation’s historic properties, commissioned the EIGCA to conduct a study in 2005 focussing on whether significant golf courses should be included on a historic register. English Heritage already operates a Register of Historic Parks & Gardens and is considering adding sporting landscapes to the list of qualifying landscapes.

The Threat

The survival of our historic golf courses is under threat from a number of areas including:

• External development
• Ill-informed course alteration
• Inappropriate planting or poor management of natural areas of vegetation
• Damage to golf course features through play or poor maintenance
• Advances in playing equipment
• Natural forces (coastal or river erosion predominantly)

Pressure from Development

Golf courses frequently come under pressure from development, whether entering within the boundaries of the course, such as new road construction or widening schemes, or occurring adjacent to the course such as new residential development. The historic merit of the golf course has little recognition during the planning process and, all too frequently, fine golf courses are damaged as a result. A register of historic golf courses would therefore perform a very useful function in alerting local authorities to the need to consider the historic merit of the golf course, when determining planning applications, and would do a great deal to protect our golfing heritage.

One of the most common problems created by development is the construction of housing on the boundary of a golf course and adjacent to one or more of the golf holes. While the presence of housing may not directly affect the playing qualities of a hole, the danger which stray golf balls may pose to the neighbouring home-owners can cause them to serve an injunction on the golf club in order to force an alteration to the golf course so that the danger can be mitigated. Often the solution to the problem can have a knock-on effect and several holes may need to be altered as a result. For instance, at Moortown Golf Club, near Leeds, 3 holes required to be relocated as a result of housing construction in two locations on the boundary of the golf course in the 1980’s. This has had a significant detrimental impact one of the finest examples of Alister Mackenzie’s work in England.

Golf Course Alteration

Most of our oldest golf courses have changed significantly during their lifetimes. From early layout changes, such as expansion from 9 to 18 holes, to smaller scale improvements to greens, tees and bunkering. Many golf courses will have undergone 2, 3 or even 4 principal phases of development where significant layout changes were made, usually within the early years of the golf club. The later phases of work have often contributed significantly to their current design value. The trend away from penal design philosophies of hazard placement to strategic design thinking (from around 1900) meant that many golf courses were completely re-bunkered by the leading architects of the day. During this time, the heathland golf courses of Surrey and Berkshire, in particular, became a hotbed for the exchange of ideas in strategic design thinking and the creation of naturalistic golf course features, and the ideas employed on the new courses that were developed during this period were also applied to many of the established courses.

Since these formative years, golf courses have been regularly altered in response to the demands of the club membership for better and more consistent playing conditions, to accommodate continuing advances in playing equipment, or due to other playing, maintenance, or safety issues. Given the impact of technology, particularly in recent years, many golf courses have been updated simply in order to restore the strategic or aesthetic qualities of the original design.

The quality of alteration work varies greatly and will depend on a large number of variables, most important of which is whether the golf club decision makers recognise the value of the historic landscape which they posses and therefore take steps to protect it. A register of historic golf courses would be invaluable in raising awareness amongst golf clubs and the general golfing public, and would require golf courses to plan course alterations so that they were more sensitive to the original design concept.

The involvement of a professional golf course architect will be extremely valuable where any alterations are proposed to the fabric of a golf course since he will be able to provide the golf club with an unbiased and expert opinion. He will also be able to conduct the necessary research required to make a well informed decision regarding the nature of the alterations in relation to the design style of the original architect.

Need for Positive Management

‘A golf course, being a living, breathing creature grows old. It may age gracefully, looking better the older it gets, but after a time it begins to show its age.’ - Geoffrey Cornish, The Architects of Golf

Golf courses are dynamic ‘living entities’ that will change in character over a period of time unless they are positively managed. Since most are quasi-natural landscapes with areas of woodland, shrubs and tall grassland vegetation, changes in the landscape normally occur relatively slowly and often go unnoticed until the changes have an impact on the playing qualities of the golf course. Many former heathland courses have reverted to woodland, for instance, and this has completely altered the character of the landscape and, in many cases, the strategy of the golf holes which the original architect designed. Bunkers have often disappeared, as they become surrounded by trees, and fairways narrowed until the only route for the golfer to take is straight-down-the-middle (the same effect can be achieved through the inappropriate planting of trees and shrubs). The result is the complete antithesis of strategic design which requires choices of play line to be available to the golfer.

However, it is not only vegetation which will require careful management. Golf courses are also at risk of damage through play and maintenance and this is particularly true for bunkers. The shapes of the bunkers on a course are gradually changing as sand-splash builds up on the bunker face and related banks. Sand is also blown by the wind, washed out by the rain, or occasionally raked out of bunkers by golfers, so that the edges are gradually lost. Mechanical bunker rakes can also be responsible for damaging the shape of bunkers during use since they tend to flatten the bases of bunkers, cut into the steeper faces, damage grass noses and cause erosion on entry and exit. When the bunker is re-edged by the greenkeeping staff to redefine the lip, the bunker may gradually increase in dimension. Bunkers can also occasionally shrink when grass is allowed to grow in on the edges.
Advances in maintenance equipment has also seen the mowing heights on greens reduced substantially so that a steep or heavily contoured green, which was perfectly playable when the green speeds were slower, has become unplayable as the golf ball now rolls further and faster. This puts pressure on the golf club to reconstruct the green to make it fairer to play and to ensure that there is sufficient scope to move the pin position for reasons of variety and avoid excessive wear to the putting surface.

The Threat from Technology

Since 1885, and the inaugural Amateur Championship, England’s golf courses have staged and borne witness to some of the most important and historical events within tournament golf, such as the Open Championship, Amateur Championship, Ryder Cup, Walker Cup and Curtis Cup.

The courses used for these championships are as much part of the history of the tournaments as the players themselves, providing not only the theatrical setting over which the events are played out in the present but also ensuring an important level of continuity with the tournaments and golfers of the past. Further, they continue to be played and enjoyed by golfers today - both members and visitors alike - and to play their own significant part in local tourism. Indeed courses such as those used for the Open Championship attract very large numbers of national and international golfing visitors which has a significant positive impact on the local economy over a number of years, before and after a major event, as a recent R & A study has shown.

The advances in the technology of golf equipment has seen the golf ball travel greater distances which has taken fairway bunkers out of play and brought greens into range for a much shorter approach shot than they were originally designed to receive. This has put pressure on golf clubs and tournament organisers to lengthen golf courses, and championship courses in particular, in order to reinstate the challenge afforded by the original design. Sometimes the strategy of the golf hole can be returned, with minimum negative impact, by moving tees back, but often bunkers (and sometimes greens) will need to be re-sited to achieve this objective and this can have a detrimental effect on the historic value of the golf course. However, it would be a great shame if these championship courses were no longer challenging enough to host these major tournaments since they have become so intertwined with their history. Even the most historically important golf course in existence, the Old Course at St Andrews, has had new tees added so that it continues to present a suitable challenge for the world’s top golfers, with minimum impact on the historic design qualities of the course. Between the Open Championships of 2000 and 2005 the length of the course was extended by 164 yards to 7,115 yards in length!

The principal governing bodies of the game, the R & A and USGA have agreed to take a stand on future increased distance achieved via club and ball technology and so, hopefully, we will have reached an apex in the adverse effect this has had on the playing challenge of our older golf courses.

Conclusion

The historic golf courses of England, and elsewhere in the world, are testament to a rich heritage in the development of golf course architectural thinking. The early courses in the heathlands of Surrey and Berkshire, in England, became a hotbed for the exchange of ideas on design philosophy and helped to define strategic design as a method of hazard positioning which revolutionised the game of golf. During this time, many fine courses were built and a rich vein of golf course architectural talent appeared which laid the foundations of the golf course architectural profession.

A case has now been made for providing those golf courses with greatest design merit with a protective designation on a historic register, in order to safeguard the intrinsic value of these unique designed landscapes and so ensure that the valuable cultural heritage survives for the enjoyment and appreciation of future generations. English Heritage are currently considering the report which EIGCA has prepared and will shortly make a decision regarding whether golf courses are to be included on an official register. Regardless of the outcome, the Institute is keen to promote awareness amongst golf clubs with courses of historic value and to encourage them to protect our golfing heritage.

This article first appeared in the Institute's Yearbook for 2006-2007.