Golf Architects Decry Old Course Renovations

Count famed golf architect Tom Doak as among those against the renovations of the Old Course at St. Andrews, Announced last week by the organization that runs the 400-year-old course - the St. Andrews Links Trust, the modifications are intended to address today's longer-hitting players in advance of the 2015 Open Championship.

The Trust hired English architect Martin Hawtree, an esteemed designer whose most recent work is the much-heralded Trump International Golf Links near Aberdeen, Scotland. According to a recent Cybergolf article written by Tony Dear (http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/are_golfs_governing_bodies_really_working_in_the_best_interests_of_the_game3408), the project at the host venue of a record 28 Open Championships involves flattening the 11th green as well as changes to the second, third, fourth, seventh, ninth, and 17th holes.

The plans include the addition, repositioning and removal of several bunkers, and re-contouring several green surrounds. Such extensive changes to the Old Course have not been proposed since John Low oversaw a re-bunkering on the front nine in 1905-08.

Doak, who during his younger days spent several months living in St. Andrews studying the Old Course and serving as a caddie there, told http://www.golfclubatlas.com, "I have felt for many years that the Old Course was sacred ground to golf architects, as it was to Old Tom Morris, CB Macdonald, Harry Colt and Alister MacKenzie before us. It has been untouched architecturally since 1920, and I believe that it should remain so. I don't believe it should be impossible to change the Old Course, or any other historic course.

"But I think it should be a lot harder than it currently is, where only the management of the club and any consulting architect they hire have to agree," added the Michigan native. "I think the default position should be that such an international treasure should be guarded, and that there should be a high burden of proof that changes need to be made, before they can be made."

Robert Cupp, the current president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, was a bit stronger in his opinion. "This is tantamount to redesigning Chartres [cathedral]," said Cupp. "The historic significance of those forms is immense, something that should be preserved at all cost, even if it is some low scores."

Doak has started a petition that's already been signed by other golf architects. He's received support from other designers around the world, including Graham Papworth, current president of the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects.

But New Zealand architect Scott Macpherson, who was profiled in another Dear story (http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/lollygaggers_need_not_apply) and whose book, "St. Andrews: The Evolution of the Old Course," is regarded as one of the most comprehensive accounts of the historic place, cautioned against overreacting. "Preservation is a sticky road," he told http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net. "It's changing anyway - grass is growing, gorse is growing, bunkers are eroding. I'm pretty relaxed about some of the changes to the golf course, but I'm more worried about changing green contours."

Macpherson noted that, despite minor work on the golf course over the past century, this is the first time a name designer has left an imprint. "There is no architect credited for any of the alterations since Old Tom (Morris) built the first and 18th greens in 1870," he said.

"(H.S.) Colt was on (the) greens committee for a long time, but his name isn't attached to any alterations, and I spent a long time looking for such things in the historical papers."

See the original post:
Golf Architects Decry Old Course Renovations