Fads come and go, but trends often have more staying power and leave behind a larger footprint. The residential golf course boom in 1980s, for example, saw course after course woven through new communities … many of which have since closed and been redeveloped.
Keith Cutten, Golf Course Architect and principal at Cutten Golf Course Design, has worked on some of golf’s top designs. He shared his thoughts on the idea of certain trends harming the golf industry.
“Trends, to me, are not the issue facing golf course architecture. A design trend happens when a group of people adopt a similar technique or style—usually one they consider novel—until enough people start adopting it that it becomes passé,” Cutten said. “Eventually, market saturation moves people toward the next trend. The current overuse of ragged bunker edges could be an example. While I believe bunkers should be true hazards, and rugged bunkers reflect this principle and the origins of golf as played in Scotland, I believe that variety should be the dominant design principle in the making of all golf features. The best architects both past and present did not force any one style, rugged or not, onto the landscape. Instead, they took their cues from their surroundings and developed site-specific styles to conceal their design decisions. These projects often became the trend setters.”
If not trends … what has hurt the industry?
“Movements, on the other hand, are persistent shifts in the fundamental principles of design,” Cutton explained. “Design movements are a result of larger social or economic variations that force total change. Movements are often reflected in design trends, but their effects on the game are far more all-encompassing and enduring.”
Cutton completed a thesis on the topic in 2017 and worked with Australian writer/editor, Paul Daley, to transfer my research into a book, “The Evolution of Golf Course Design.” In the book he reveals how external influences have shaped the discipline of golf course architecture, over time.
“The first key piece of this research was published in the October 2016 edition of Golf Course Architecturemagazine,” Cutten said. “In the article, I describe the influence of Horace Hutchinson on the early evolution of golf course architecture in England. Specifically, I reference how his time spent studying art and sculpture in 1890, under the tutelage of George Frederick Watts, directly linked golf architecture with the emerging Arts and Crafts movement in London. Editor, Adam Lawrence, called the article, ‘one of the most exciting articles GCAhas ever published.’ He also stated that, ‘Keith’s research, I think, ties together a lot of loose ends in the gestation of golf’s Golden Age.’”
That’s the good, but what about the bad?
“This part of my research clearly only covers the start one of the more beneficial movements in golf course architecture. To fully describe the movement which I believe most ‘hurt’ golf course design, we must once again look at the external influences on the discipline,” Cutten said. “The Golden Age of Golf Course Design, which refers to the ultimate refinement of design skill in North America following WWI, occurred largely due to the deflated British economy offset by rising opportunities in North America. However, this movement actually started before WWI with the opening of Oakmont (Henry Fownes), the National Golf Links of America (C.B. MacDonald), Merion East and West (Hugh Wilson and William Flynn), and Pine Valley (George Crump and Harry Colt) in the United States. In Canada, Colt established the Toronto Golf Club in 1912 and the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in 1914. These projects would set the stage for the many great design achievements following the war.
“With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, coupled with the outbreak of WWII (which didn’t end till 1945), the discipline of golf course architecture entered a tumultuous 15-year period of uncertainty,” he continued. “During this time many of the great designers of golf’s Golden Age would pass away. Further, of the few left standing, most were now seniors who had withdrawn from their practices. H.S. Colt would outlive most of his friends and family and would die deaf and alone in England in 1951. Donald Ross lived out the rest of his days in Pinehurst until he passed in April of 1948. The first meeting of the new ASGCA was held the previous December, in 1947, in Pinehurst. Ross was made the first President but did little to form the society’s bylaws and vision. This task was given to one of the few architects left standing from the inter-war period – Robert Trent Jones. This history is important as it illustrates that following the Second World War the previous design movement had come to an end, as there was a break in the passing of knowledge from mentor to protégée. While this history [is] covered in much more detail in my book, it is the subsequent movement – modernism – which would negatively affect golf course design for the next four decades.
RTJ had a great deal to do with the “Modernism” movement.
“This new movement was primarily brought forward by Robert Trent Jones. It was likely a combination of his post-war successes and studies in design at Cornell, which would have been grounded in the then prevalent ideology of Modernism, which altered design thinking moving forward,” Cutten said. “The Modernist ideology that ‘form follows function’ is relatable to the stylistic changes implemented by Trent Jones. Observing that the golf ball was going further, and players were becoming better athletes, Trent Jones established a design style to protect his courses from the skill of the game’s best. Modernism also encouraged a visual clarity of form. This meant, for golf, that the previous subtleties of the landscape were in direct competition with the ideology of this new movement. Hence, where Modernism prescribed the elimination of “unnecessary detail” in other fields of design, Robert Trent Jones took this same thinking to the design of golf courses. I believe this movement is the catalyst for many of the issues facing golf today.”
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Will this apply to golf design?
“Though some would argue that we are entering, or currently in, a second Golden Age of golf course design [and I would be inclined to agree], my concern is that our knowledge of the history of golf course architecture has focused too much on the great individual architects and their portfolios of work,” Cutten said. “Understanding the relationships between the various design movements and trends, both positive and negative, is key to the advancement of professional practice in golf course architecture. In any other profession, be it art, architecture or landscape architecture, one of the first courses students are required to take is a history of design. From this course, students are exposed to a study of eras and movements which have been heavily scrutinized by the associated academic body. I hope that my book represents a similar examination of professional practice in golf architecture and will help in the understanding of our own design evolution. I believe this work is vitally important because when the current framework of social and economic influences inevitably change we need to have a clear vision of the past to inform our future.”
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