“Competitive golf is chiefly responsible for the tendency to design courses on principles of absolute and relentless justice” – Tom Simpson
I was recently reminded of the above quote by the former tour player turned golf course architect Mike Clayton. It would be fair to say that Clayton has a foot in both camps – poacher turned gamekeeper.
In a week when Bob MacIntyre declared that the Road Hole at St Andrews “should be blown up”, and having just watched the Solheim and Presidents Cups being played over two courses (Robert Trent Jones and Royal Montreal respectively) that were at best instantly forgettable, Tom Simpson’s words can rarely have rung truer.
Simpson, who is many architects’ favourite architect, worked closely with Molly Gourlay and is entirely or largely responsible for the likes of Cruden Bay, Morfontaine, Ballybunion, County Louth, Rye and Blackwell, to name but a few.
Just like Clayton, Simpson came to golf course design after playing professionally. In fact, he was good enough to finish in the top 10 of two Open Championships in the early 20th century.
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The St Andrews Road Hole tests the ingenuity of the best players
Fortunately, he came to realise that luck and unpredictability – and specifically how the golfer deals with such things – are fundamental to the game.
It sounds counter-intuitive to say that we should leave golf courses not to the professionals but to the amateurs. Or at least it does until you remember that the game is a matter of business for one and of love for the other.
The professional’s lament is that they hate unfairness. By which they mean the blind drive, the shot that runs out 50 yards into a bunker and the approach that kicks away into a hollow that they can’t see.
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In MacIntyre’s case, the frustration derived from running up a six and a five in the final two rounds of the Dunhill Links at the par-4 17th.
Nor did he seem to appreciate having a 4-iron in his hand for his approach on Sunday. The poor soul.
We will offer some mitigation given a) his frustration in the heat of the moment and b) his youth.
To be fair, he apologised within 24 hours. Still, given where he grew up, you would think that he would appreciate more than most of his peers how much quirk and unpredictability add to the richness of the game.
I do understand that professionals play the game for a living. They don’t want variables. For this very reason, we are stuck with a homogenous product on tour. Leave it to the professionals and we can only expect a staple diet of 72 holes of strokeplay (or 54 with a shotgun start in the case of LIV, who haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel) on banal parkland layouts where the surfaces may as well be made from Velcro for all the ball moves after it lands. Great for them, very dull for those of us watching. For much of the time, golf may as well be played indoors.
That is why so many of us relish The Open Championship, testing as it does a golfer’s ingenuity, fortitude and temperament as well as their ball-striking skills. We should guard jealously the individuality of courses and treasure the idea that golf is never the same two days – let alone two weeks – running.
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