June 21
Golf Course Architecture
I am thankful for golf courses and their design, ie., golf course architecture. I may possibly love this more than the game itself, although you can't have one without the other. My family will affirm that nearly everywhere we go, I will see a place and I remark "This would be a great place for a golf course." And in my mind, I picture a hole or two that would fit perfectly on that spot. I have a great admiration for the masters of golf course architecture: Donald Ross, Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones, Rees Jones, Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and many others. I have nothing but praise for architects who can incorporate beauty, strategy, and challenge into a golf course.
Continuing my series on The Bluffs, this is a photo of the seventeenth hole there, taken from the tee. This course, designed by Arnold Palmer, makes fabulous use of the topography and natural beauty of the land that John James Audubon traversed in creating his Birds of America series. This hole is a par 3 that drops 60 feet from tee to green and plays as long as 231 yards from the championship tee and as short as 128 yards from the red tees. It is a breathtaking hole, which has a large bunker guarding the front and another to the left of the green. Of course, the lake is a prominant feature which wraps around the green in front and around the back. The green is large enough so that one may try to avoid the lake by trying to hit to the left side or aim left with a slight fade. Those that bail out by hitting left and short have to contend with the little stream to the left. But the ultimate difficulty in the hole, for the uninitiated, is trying to determine what club to hit because of the extreme elevation change. The drop in elevation will require less club than would normally be hit for the same distance. I used my 180 yard 3 hybrid for a 200 yard shot but ended up just short of the green in the bunker in front. I like the way Palmer incorporated this extreme elevation change and built a lake into which the green forms a peninsula.
golf course
there’s a golf course
beyond the far horizon
where the holes are all
birdie-able yet fair
silk smooth greens
and undivoted fairways
but there are hazards
if you get in trouble
you’ll languish there
bogies and double bogies
perhaps more
but if you control your shots
and play your game
you’ll rise up and win
on the golf course
of celestial fame.
© rt tulley
i am a golf course
i am a golf course
of beauty and treachery
i eat golf balls
in my solemn reverie
they come to show
their mastery over me
but they leave
bent, broken, and unfree
i catch them with my rough
i swallow them in my water
i bury them in my sand
i make them my fodder
there are those
the pretenders i see
those that come and think
that they will conquer me
i only offer my challenge
then laugh in their faces
for they end up falling
to their eternal disgraces
they bow in humble reverence
to each of my eighteen flags
symbols of the demolished shots
of inept sticks in their bags
i do allow
a few triumphs for these old men
for those minor victories
do keep them coming back again
for more anguish
and more defeat
at my hands
they will soon meet
but on some days
along comes someone
who will jump upon my back
and break me for fun
with control and skill
he’ll play me right
he’ll keep away from my treachery
he’ll not waver in my sight
he will own me
as he precesses around
he will master my lawn
as he preys upon my ground
i celebrate with him
in this great success
for he has conquered me
in this, his greatness.
© rt tulley