I remember a story about a real estate developer who planned to design and build a PGA championship calibre golf course...ball golf course, so as not to be confused with a PDGA championship calibre disc golf course. Anyway, to quell local concerns, he publicly pledged that not a single tree would be cut down without his personal, on-site approval. For weeks after that, he was constantly out of his office, as he was at the golf course site, running through the forest, pointing frantically, saying, "Cut that one, cut that one, cut that one, those over there, and that one and cut that one...."
The first rule of golf course design, be it ball or disc, is that it can't be done on a piece of paper with an aerial photo or some facsimile of the land to be used. That's sort of an unspoken rule, like the first, unspoken rule of the sport is to play it quietly...except in cases of aces. The designer must actually, physically traverse the land, reveling in the variety and versatility of the terrain. It is the first and most important principle of disc golf course design that the specific flora, topography, geology, geography and general lay of the land, which includes other activity areas dictate design, with an ever present eye to aesthetics and to proximity of other activity areas. And that design shall have absolute minimal negative impact on the ecosystem found on the affected property. For example, no living, healthy old growth tree of height taller than the tallest human can reach and/or of circumference around which the longest fingers cannot reach, should ever be cut down, just for the sake of the course. If such trees are harvestable for use, felling may be tolerable.
Following rules include making every hole as long as possible within the constraints and restraints of the first two rules and PDGA design guidelines and parameters, while maintaining a followable flow to the course. The design should flow, one hole following another, with no long, intrepid distances between green and next tee, with a minimum distance greater than that governed by the rules of putting between any basket and tee, or between any two baskets. Ideally, design should be so that number one and ten tees and number nine and eighteen greens are in proximity to one another. Above that, first tee and final basket must be in proximity to one another, as well as to parking and other available amenities, such as rest rooms. Golf courses, whether they be for ball golf, disc golf, or miniature golf should be eighteen holes...nine, if there are insurmountable physical or fiscal limitations. Why did the Scots invent golf as an eighteen hole sport, rather than six, ten, nineteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-four, or fifty, or any other number? Because there's eighteen shots in a fifth of whiskey. Of course, that's a myth, but it sounds sound, considering the Scots.
Other rules include: No basket should be within a distance inside of which the rules of putting apply, to a body of water into which, if thrown, a disc disappears and is lost to the water; No hole should intersect, or cross over any other hole, or other area of other activity within the facility of the course's location. Mandatory points should never be arbitrarily established within the natural lay-out of a course, violating the first rule of design, but they can be established to help facilitate the rule of non-intersection, or to define specifically designed fairways that are within the scope of the first rule.
Lesser rules, that are necessary to flawless design include each hole having the same number of PDGA color coded, specific skill level tees of green (novice), red (recreational), white (intermediate amateur), blue (advanced am or pro), and gold (top rated advanced or pro). Black tees for tournament play may be included within a layout for a specific competitive event. Differing skill levels should never play the same layout, of individual holes, or of the course without a set par for each level in line with the PDGA par guidelines chart. Par on each hole with differing skill level layouts should be set as same for each level, with the rare exception of tremendous difference of distance or difficulty between the skill level layouts. Par for any hole's layout should be set in accordance with that which is customary play for average players of that skill level playing well and in line with the PDGA par guidelines chart. By tradition, no hole should have par set as less than two or greater than six, as those are the limits found in other forms of golf, but non-traditional par can be applied, so long as it is realistically relative to a hole's distance and/or difficulty. There's probably others, of which I'll think and add later.
My credentials consist of being a lead co-designer of Johnson Street in High Point, a contributor for Burlington's Cedarock Alternate, now designated as White/Gold, and Wellspring, and their interconnected eighteen hole layouts of CedarSpring and WellRock, and as primary designer and builder of The Springwood Players' Course, in Burlington. And of course, creator of the long extinct Pinewood Acres that the neighborhood kids and I played with our Wham-O's back in the sixties.
Wish I had had the foresight of potential back then.
No comments:
Post a Comment