Don’t Decide What it Means to You, Yet. - Walker Simas

All of us interact with something so often that we can more easily judge it against others of its kind. It may be a software, a physical product, or your commute to work. Some of our guests have the chance to see and interact with many different golf courses at the same rate, and I often ask when getting to know them what they look for on a new property.

Before I moved to Florida, I worked for a company that did indoor-outdoor projects for homeowners in the North and South Carolina mountains. After spending so much time up there, I got to see the water cycle at work in all four seasons. That area is classified as a rainforest, so it was tough to miss. Well, unless you live there or work there, it’s impossible to explain the beauty. Same with a golf course!

Having the chance to see an abundance of golf courses in my short life, this is my framework for understanding a golf course you just played for the first time without preconceived judgements.

Know What to Look For 

Though it seems obvious and overly simplistic, a golf course will fall into one of three categories:

• A property that has not been robbed of its natural features & foliage

• A property that has partially lost its sense of place due to surrounding infrastructure

• A property that has been robbed (almost) entirely of what was once its “nature”

Though you may not know what factors are at play, it should be fairly easy to determine which bucket the course you're playing falls into. More on that later. For now, let’s focus on some things you can focus on throughout your walk.

Drainage

Every golf course (from the most egregious course you’ve seen in your life to those with the highest bar for design and maintenance) has to move water through the property. Just like a home, we are incentivised to build in such a way that promotes longevity. Rarely though, do we see corrugated pipes running our front lawns. Functional? Maybe. Aesthetically pleasing? Certainly not. Paying attention to where the water would run in a downpour will tell you so much about how the course was built. 

In any given scenario, the water could be moving one of four places: 

• To a feature that is a “fun feeder” for other holes, AKA “creek game”

• Option A: Creek runs through property into another property

• Option B: Creek runs to irrigation pond which waters the golf course 

• The ole Barry Bonds route, AKA “out of here”- away from the golf course

• Usually on boundary holes or on ridges that pitch away from the irrigation pond. 

• Bernie Drainage

  • An underground network of mainline pipes to collect and redistribute water from one place

• To a wetland

  • Either environmentally protected, or to use a large area of unusable land for golf for good.

It is important not to discriminate based on which types of drainage that you see, but to take notice of how the drainage is baked into the design of the golf course. Is it invisible? That may be a good thing. If it's obvious, is it obstructive or used in an artistic, creative way? The underlying theme here is that there is always an answer (usually a pretty good one) to these questions. You’re not responsible for knowing them. Simply taking notice is what matters.

Key Natural Features

As we know, the best golf courses take advantage of the natural features of the land. But one site’s features are not the same as their neighbors. Look at Shinnecock and National Golf Links as examples. While they share a road between properties and have similar conditioning, the features present totally different tests. So how do we judge them without making poor comparisons?

Take a look at the property you're walking. Where is the most drastic undulation on the golf course? For one property, there might be only one single hill to build into, over, or around. In that example, you’re looking for maximum use of that feature. For another, there might be so many hills, knobs, ruts, creeks, or dunes of interest that some of them occupy the foreground or sit off to the sides. As long as the best features are highlighted, they’ve done a good job. 

Where Human Influence Meets Nature

In many cases, we are not fortunate enough to play on sites that are largely undisturbed and covered with native foliage. We must then judge on the intersection between human influence and the nature of the property. In other words, what WASN’T fuQ’d up? How artistically has nature been imitated? 

This is the time where we talk about loops (allowing you to play a few holes then return to the clubhouse) and meeting zones (where many greens and tees intersect) which are in style, as they should be. To add, if a golf course doesn’t have a ton of features to help it out, “human influence” also can take the form of an architect leaning harder into the routing, angles off of tee boxes, orientation of greens, mowing lines, and more to produce something engaging. 

Not to go full #HouseTheory on you, but those who really care are always finding ways to draw the surrounding area into the character of the golf course. This could mean railroad ties, foot bridges, vintage signs, food items at the turn, or even the art above the pisser. 

Arrive With As Few Expectations As Possible

If you’ve made it here, I have a decent idea what your social feeds look like- golf course after golf course. It can be difficult not to form expectations of a place you can see before you play. Despite this, I challenge you to not undress these courses with your eyes before you see it with your own eyes.  

Sophomore year in college, I took an internship with OCCM (Now OCM, as Mike Clayton has moved on to CDP). Mike took me around St. Andrews Beach, which was where I really fell in love with Doak’s work. I had heard of it, but hadn’t done much research on the place. It absolutely blew my socks off. 

I feel similarly about many courses that others would consider to be nothing to write home about. Considering the (lack of) resources and the circumstances, a few things done well is plenty for me to say it was a worthwhile experience. 

Above all, the goal here is to see a place for what it really is and to appreciate what is truly good about it rather than wanting for features that weren’t there to begin with. 

On the contrary, especially if you’ve seen a ton of good stuff, there is almost always a reason for something NOT making sense, or looking good, or being functional. If the site informs you that the expense may be out of their reach, I challenge you to make peace with that and enjoy what they have done well. 

Do Your Research After

Whether you're waiting for dessert at dinner that evening, on a plane ride home, or bored 3 months later, do some research on the course you played. Rather than trying to make preconceived judgements on the golf course as you're playing, look back on the experience you had with new information. 

Now, find 2-3 similar experiences you’ve had and toss this course in that bucket. Regardless, I find myself grouping all of my golf course experiences into the buckets I referred to at the start, then rank from there inside those buckets: 

• A property that has not been robbed of its natural features & foliage

• A property that has partially lost its sense of place due to surrounding infrastructure

• A property that has been robbed entirely of what was once its “nature”

When Henry and I debrief a round of golf at a new course, it’s become standard to ask the question “if you played 100 rounds split between the viable seasons, would your assessment become more or less true”? And that’s the magic number.

Give a thought to a golf course you may have labeled incorrectly. And if you still hate it, or still love it, that’s ok too. 

Cheers,

WS