Invasion by ‘target’ golf courses in 1980s

The big new International style courses built in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK followed the television demand for ‘Target’ golf with over-watered greens and lush criss-cross mown fairways.

It seemed that those of us who wanted to play fast running ‘Fine’ golf would be starved of new courses.

New Style ‘Fine Golf’ invasion in 2000s

And then the whisper went round that some Americans, so often the commercial trend setters, were building fast running courses at Bandon, Oregon and Tasmania and they were coming over to Britain to prove that at the home of golf they could create a true links experience.

Sceptical ?  of course

I decided I needed to check out these courses and on our way to Royal Dornoch for the Carnegie week this August, I played Dundonald Links, Spey Valley, Castle Stuart and The Renaissance.

Did they score a high ‘joy to be alive’ fine golf factor?

Click on the links to read their reviews.

The history to this revolution

It is not surprising that the traditionalist, Ben Crenshaw, with Bill Coore, opened the batting for this new trend by designing Sand Hills GC in Nebraska that opened in 1995. Mike Keiser, the American golf entrepreneur, then acquired a stretch of Oregon coastline at Bandon and asked little-known Jimmy Kidd to design Bandon Dunes. The temperate climate supported the fescue seed he used and a fast running linksy course was created.

Keiser next invited Tom Doak, who was already known for his “less-is-more” approach to golf design, to create Pacific Dunes next door, which was opened in 2001. This is the course everybody is talking about as being as close to a British links experience as there is in America.

Keiser also became involved in another coastline stretch of duneland in Tasmania, Australia, and again the temperate climate allowed Tom Doak and Mike Clayton to design Barndongle Dunes, opened in 2004 as a fast running fescues course.

In Scotland Kingsbarns is opened in 2000

by the American golf pathfinder, Mark Parsinen, as the next step to these ‘fine golf’ developments happening around the world. Though not on naturally draining linksland, Parsinen hired Kyle Phillips, the American golf architect, who used modern construction techniques to create artificial drainage to support fine grasses. These combined with the beautiful seascape and traditional pot bunkering, it gained wide acclaim.

In 2003 the Kyle Phillips designed Dundonald Links opened near Troon on the Ayrshire coast. Initially a private Club, it did not gain much publicity but it is now open to the public and attracting much deserved praise for its classic traditional links design.

There are few championship heathland courses in Scotland after Blairgowrie and Ladybank and so on my travels I had to check out the new Dave Thomas designed course  at Spey Valley in Aviemore. His name will ever be associated with the archetypical ‘target’ course, The Belfry, and could he create a true fine heathland course?

The Renaissance is where Tom Doak has been given a canvas on land abutting Muirfield. Unfortunately for the wider golfing public, it is a private Club (opened in 2008), and it is a pity that this astounding architect’s work cannot be more widely appreciated.

Finally, Mark Parsinen has partnered with another American designer, Gil Hanse, to create Castle Stuart along the banks of the Moray Firth, five minutes from Inverness Airport. It opened to the public in July 2009 to broad acclaim, some even suggesting it is of Open Championship standard.

These courses are good news!

Fine Golf is the new trend again.

Now we need to see if Donald Trump will also resist the lure of an International style design and continue the trend towards American money chasing the holy grail of Fine Golf.