Perspectives on Course DesignPerspective of Golf Course Design

1. Roots of Golf

Toshio Iyama has written a book titled "Exploring the Roots of Golf". The book goes through various references and proves the roots of golf. I would like to introduce the roots and history of golf according to his book.

It is said that "golf originated in St. Andrews, Scotland," and that St. Andrews is "the birthplace of golf." If we call today's golf "modern golf," then golf has rules. Modern golf was founded on those rules. If we trace the origin of the rules, we can find the 13 Articles of St. Andrews, which were established in 1754. Therefore, the establishment of the 13 Articles of St. Andrews can be called the birth of modern golf. This is why it is said that the origin of golf is St. Andrews.

What about the roots of golf before modern golf? The idea that "golf came to the east coast of Scotland from somewhere other than Scotland" has been variously asserted in the past, especially as a theory of continental European roots.

Iyama proves that the roots of golf began in the French Middle Ages with the game of crosses. He argues that the game of cross is the root of today's golf. Tracing the propagation of crosses through records from various countries, he traces them to France in 1244, followed by Corben in Belgium in 1360, Corfu in the Netherlands in 1387, and the appearance of the word golf in the minutes of the University of St. Andrews in 1412, which indicates that it came over during this period. Furthermore, from the record of the prohibition of golf by King James II in 1457, we conclude that golf propagated as a transit route through the four bases of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the east coast of Scotland, and that it grew to what it is today in Scotland.

The golf courses on the east coast of Scotland are now called links and have become a textbook for golfers and course designers around the world.

2. Origin of Japanese Course Design and Course Evaluation

Golf in Japan began in 1901 with the opening of the four-hole Kobe Golf Club. 1930 saw the arrival in Japan of Charles Hugh Allison, whose design theories were passed on to numerous Japanese designers, including the brothers Shiro and Rokuro Akahoshi, Kinya Fujita, Mitsuaki Otani, Osamu Ueda, and Seiichi Inoue, and have continued to the present. The design theory has been passed down to the present.

3. Changes in Japanese Golf Courses

The greens on Japanese golf courses were initially made of korai grass. The so-called Western-style turf was first introduced around 1919, when Baron Koyata Iwasaki of the Mitsubishi Group imported several varieties of turf seeds from England and distributed them on a portion of the Komazawa Course. Around 1930, the number of single-bent greens began to increase in Japan, but due to the difficulty of managing greens, such as the destruction of greens by the summer heat, the shift to two-green designs was unavoidable.

The period when 2-green designs were most frequently used was from 1945 to around 1980, when golf course construction was booming, and thereafter, due to improvements in management techniques, 1-green designs have been used overwhelmingly. I checked the 2008 edition of the guidebook and found that of the 2,327 domestic golf courses included in the book, 1,418 were designed with one green and 909 with two greens, accounting for more than 60% of all courses. Of these, 382 of the 457 courses in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Nagano, and Niigata, which are cold regions where bent grass is most suited, had one green, accounting for more than 80% of the total. The fact that most of the courses have two greens in warmer regions indicates how difficult it was to manage bent grass at that time, and it seems to have been a desperate measure. In Japan, there are many prestigious, old, traditional, and excellent courses, and most of them have two greens instead of one.

The quality of a course is almost 80% determined by the routing and terrain, and the remaining 20% by the designer. In major tournaments in Japan, old, traditional 2-green courses are often selected as the host course, and although one-green, relatively newer courses are rarely selected, for some reason, such courses are rarely nominated. Of course, there are other reasons for this, such as traffic conditions and the ease of viewing for galleries, but one of the reasons is the improvement of driving range facilities. When these golf courses were built, it would have been unthinkable to have a course without a driving range. This is because such facilities were commonplace on courses outside of Japan. In this respect, it is unfortunate that courses with a short history have few driving range facilities.

4. Course design in emerging countries (Asia)

Participating in course design projects in Asian countries (China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia), the project team (owner) is mainly asked to consider the course area selection criteria (and reasons), the future potential of the course (10 to 30 years from now), design quality (the designer's claim of design), strategic (the designer's claim of design), richness of strategy, and whether the course can host tournaments, etc. Especially in rapidly developing emerging countries, designers from all over the world are creating tough and strategic courses that originate from links courses, and courses with high evaluation in terms of strategy and design have been selected as one of the top 100 courses in the world within a few years of their opening and are renowned as a tournament course. The advantage of designing courses overseas is that there is a lot of freedom in course design, which allows the designer to be more strategic and artistic, but at the same time, there are harsh opinions about how many best routes to take.

In the past, no one in Japan complained about the location of hazards or the depth of bunkers on golf courses designed according to Allison's blueprints. This is how the Allison bunkers of today were handed down, and similarly, many beautiful and challenging courses have been completed in Asia using Allison's methods. The owners of each project are still in their infancy in terms of rules and golf play, but they have great insight into course design.

Today, you can instantly search and view the world's best courses on the Internet. In addition, there are many TV channels dedicated to golf, and we can obtain information on strategic or penalty courses in Scotland and England, or dynamic, beautiful, and tough courses in the U.S., all from the comfort of our own home, which encourages designers to create strategically beautiful courses.

We believe that unbounded freedom of thought and creating courses that are worth challenging are important requirements for being nominated in the world's top 100.
May 2010. (In cooperation with Ikki Publishing Co.