What fives courses are ‘must-sees’ for a student of golf course design?
• Pine Valley • The Old Course at St Andrews • Royal Melbourne • Several modern courses • Macrahanish/Lahinch/North Berwick I think they would benefit from a mixture of good and bad. Variety would be important. For the value of strategy and the intricate, interesting and almost ‘unfair’ shaping of greens, St Andrews would be a must. The Old Course would also help to demonstrate the value of chipping and firm, fast surfaces. Without being rude, this would make it particularly appropriate for American students. To see the most beautiful and dramatic bunkering and greensites, and to absorb the values of grandness and scale – Royal Melbourne. Royal Melbourne is also a powerful example of how to merge edges of the bunkers and the wilderness in the roughs to help fit the course into the landscape. It’s important not to carry too much baggage about ‘fairness’, ‘luck’ and ‘rules’ so I would send them to Macrahanish, North Berwick, Lahinch, etc., for the fun of it and to absorb the atmosphere,
