The Pleasing Garden

As the player progresses around the course, all his pleasures are not of swing and shot alone. The course itself is a pleasant garden. The course emerges from and submerges into the landscape. The hilly, bubbly greens and sandy-brown fairways and roughs of the seaside links course especially fill the golfer’s eye. Robert Hunter describes the particular variations and pleasures of the seaside links courses and their subtle undulations: At Prince’s and St. Georges one plays in and out of great swales lying between huge dunes, and now and then one is forced to cross the dunes. But at Deal, St. Andrews, Hoylake, and Westward Ho! one has the feeling of playing over comparatively flat land. There is little climbing and yet in the play one rarely finds the ball on an exact level with the feet… To play golf there requires a great variety of strokes, and the placing of one’s second shot amidst such undulations in a manner to make them serve one is a source of never-ending delight. On the links the player has not only to deal with formidable hazards, but also with countless little onesthose beautifully turfed, harmless looking undulations which run through the fairways from tee to green. Terrain of that sort will yield superlative golf anywhere. Club selection on an undulating terrain is challenging. There, roll can be as important as flight. It is anything but mechanical: The player can’t just read a yardage marker (a bush, a bunker, a colored round pad) and shoot away. He must consider how the green is best approached, and whether to miss right or left, short or long. On undulating terrain, he must consider all this in terms of what shot his lie naturally invites, might permit, or absolutely prohibits. For instance, the uphill lie, with the ball lower than the feet, will make a low draw hook almost impossible, even though the green invites that precise shot. Indeed, the lie may force the player to try a great shot because there is no other shot to be played, or, on the contrary, forbid the bold shot he believed his tee shot earned him or that his match requires. On the undulating terrain of the links the player gets pleasure from seeing his desire and reason war over what he wants to do and what can be done. Golf is a continuous test of calculation and judgment. The golfer must, on any given shot, measure and evaluate lie, wind, pin placement, alternative shots, cost of error, likelihood of a good shot, score to present, and winning score needed on the hole and for the round. On the links few compliments equal that of “Clever shot!” or “Well done!” On his round the knowledgeable golfer has the additional pleasure of perceiving the architect’s design of the course. He sees the variety of alternatives the course offers and the excitement, thrills, and suspense which go with that variety. Each well-placed hazard enhances a player’s pleasure, as does the overall variation in the length and shape of its holes. In the words of golf course designer Alister MacKenzie (who de- signed the Masters course at Augusta National, Cypress Point, and the Royal Melbourne), “Variety is everything, or nearly everything.”