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Ingredients of Water Hazards
Nick Stephens, PGA • September 29, 2020
If there is one feature at RSPGL I wish I could change, I think it would be the water hazards. When we are kids and draw golf holes, just about all our favorite creations have a heroic carry over the menacing water. I agree, it is fun to design that, and even more fun to pull it off in real life. But there’s a huge problem when that is applied to actual golf, it’s hard.
Water hazards weren’t put on RSPGL to make it challenging, actually they had nothing to do with golf at all. First off, when you have a relatively flatter site, you need it to drain. By creating lakes, you ensure that surface drainage, makes it’s way to these fabricated low spots. This dries the homesites and playing surfaces. Connecting each of these lakes is either a creek or an underground Weir structure. These structures move water from one lake to the next, that’s why many of them never over flow.
Second reason to make lakes, was to provide a buffer . If houses are to border a golf course, and water is in between the fairway and the homes, it’s reasonable to believe, that balls flying at patios will be reduced. You not only lose your Titleist, your score will inflate. That’s a deterrent.
Third reason is beauty. You can’t deny the view. Whether you are golfer, or a homeowner, people are drawn to the sea. The next closest thing might be a clay lined drainage pond, but it still works. Great wildlife live in and around these lakes, and the property presents better, when you have water.
So now we get back to the golf. Had we not had to do the first three points, this course would not have so many water hazards. Here is my essential problem with water. In our case, you really don’t hit over it much, you essentially play along side of it. Not a problem for good players, but let’s face it, average players don’t always play down the fairway, for some reason they prefer to play along side it. Water is disproportionately harder for the average player.
A Wand For Water Hazards
If I could wave a magic wand, the lakes should have been placed down the middle of the hole corridors. Average players would never have to worry, because they are never in the middle anyway. Good players would have to choose whether to go down the right or the left. They are stimulated enough by the thought, and they have the ability to execute a preferred side. Everyone is happy.
Had we done that, the course would have been out of business in one year, even though it makes perfect sense. The reality is, we are all programmed to see golf a certain way. Anything that deviates from that programming is seen as a problem. Sometimes those deviations would be the best thing for us, but as a herd, we simply cannot accept it.
Take Water In Stride
If I could remove the amount of water hazards I would. Sadly the water actually grows. Erosion takes more and more of the golf course, but I combat that with offering and expanding the widest playing areas in golf , which I told you all about weeks ago. I will paraphrase what Tom Doak said in his Little Red Book, “the purpose of golf is happiness, for those who think it’s about posting a score, I feel sad for them”.
Sure that water takes a few of your golf balls, sure it inflates your score, but there is something about seeing it, playing along side of it, or playing heroically over it that brings happiness. Even as a kid, you knew that’s what it’s all about.
Have you seen how many buildings, parking lots, businesses, multi family developments, storage facilities have popped up in Wrightstown in the last 2-3 years? The Golf Link’s importance only grows, I mean for those that are into greenspace. You love greenspace, maybe you just don’t realize it. It’s part of being human. That’s the beautiful thing about a golf course… it’s vitality important to a community. Of course, no one really feels that way until the city wants to redevelop, or an owner like me decides he’d like to sell to Wal-Mart. All of the sudden there is huge objection. Tense village meetings, angry residents, picketing out front of the golf course, ensues. What the objectors are really saying is “I took the greenspace for granted. I walked, or drove by it every day and just assumed it would always be there. I watched other greenspace disappear, and I didn’t mind because it didn’t affect me. But this can’t happen! My investment, or my quality of life will go down if this becomes more parking lot, I’m going to fight”. Oshkosh showed us a couple years ago what can happen when golf is not supported, when you have a mayor that hates golf, and big money development wants preferred greenspace. I remind people all the time… this thing only works, if it’s supported. So when you say, “Nick what’s the point of this article?” The point is… golf courses do not get the credit they deserve, for the value they bring to a community. Of course I’m here to run a business, but I also believe I SERVE, and PRESERVE a vital part of the community. As Wrightstown becomes increasingly concrete encased, I hope there will still be 151 acres in the middle, dedicated to greenspace happiness. A golf course’s value (in any community) extends way beyond the golfers who play there. If I’m wrong, then the residents of this community might happily walk or drive by the newest Amazon warehouse someday instead. But I’m going to hold out hope, that they would prefer the greenspace we try to preserve.
It’s a question that should arise more often…if St. Andrew’s Old Course is the best course in the world, the place where architects have gotten their inspiration, where golfers make a lifetime pilgrimage, why the hell has no one ever built a course that looks like it? I mean, let’s talk about it… only two par 3’s. All massive double greens. 6 of the first 7 tee shots are blind. Bunkers can’t be seen, and don’t actually frame anything. You could play it backwards. It’s not open on Sundays. You play over a metal garage, two holes criss-cross, you play off a road, do I need to go on? Why do the golf courses you enjoy… look nothing like the supposed best course in the world? It’s a fair question, and I have no idea how to answer it. Somewhere along the line, golf has massively changed. Did the move from match play to stroke play, change issues of fairness and institute the scorecard and pencil mentality? Did the Pro game change the way we play? Did manufacturers change the equipment so much we needed different features to overcome? Did fancy owners think waterfalls and fountains made better golf than flat oddly rumpled terrain? Why do we revere St. Andrews, but no one actually wants to play that every day? Why is pretty, and perfect so important? Why are quirky lies, unfair bounces, and imperfect bunkers such a turn off? I’m not sure that any of us know what real golf actually is. I have to believe that someday, because everything is cyclical, there will be this movement back to discovering why people enjoyed playing the “original game”. Our version seems so different.
I was not here for the Links construction, but I arrived just as it was completed. All of us dream of building and owning our own course, I was no different. The only thing I missed out on was the birth of an idea. That’s sort of where I want to take this, because some course births confuse me. When an individual or group sets out to build a course, I have to imagine it’s 100% about golf. They want a certain course, with certain features, certain tournaments, on certain conditions. They want a certain pro who offers certain amenities. Clubhouse has a certain look, and will only meet certain needs. The investor group sees a certain kind of player, spending a certain amount of money. The entire plan is born with intention of pouring their heart and soul into their sole asset: the GOLF COURSE. Ground is broken. Fast forward… these same courses bombard you with marketing: Haunted Hayrides, Magic Shows, Wine & Cheese Tasting, Foot Golf, Fling Golf, Coloring Contests, Bingo, Lighted Walks, Bar “Sign Ins”, Cross Country Skiing, Father/Daughter Fishing, Simulators, Cooking Class, Live Music, Snowshoeing, Betting Pools. What happened to golf? There is no way when that course was built that people sat around and said “let’s spend millions of dollars on a golf course, in case all our little side show socializing gimmicks don’t work… at least we’ll have a golf option to fall back on”. I think a huge reason why this happens, is because some of the people running golf courses, aren’t that passionate about golf. I mean, would you let the pastor at your church put a new transmission in your car? He’s a great guy, but you still need a car that works. Every course does it their own way. Our way is not better, it’s simply our way. If I had the opportunity to envision and build a course, I’m pretty sure I’d only be dreaming about the golf. Like I said, I missed the opening act, but since arriving, I’ve been all about the golf. I’m content to attract patrons who love the idea that we are passionate about golf. If you are hoping I’m pushing Hot Yoga, you’re out of luck. If you love golf, then you might like the concept that my mind, and my time… are never filled with cute-sie side show stuff. It’s always focused on the reason we exist in the first place…golf.
If I asked you why so many derive pleasure from golf, you might say “proximity to the bar”. Not wrong… but let me take you somewhere else. Pleasure is tied to the landscape golf sits upon. That’s pleasure from playing, and many people find pleasure from living on the edges of a golf course and having it be your backyard. Take a Top 100 list and look at the landscapes those courses sit upon. Now think about every course that has been built in the last 20 years, (Bandons, Streamsongs, Cabots, Erin, Nebraska, Sand Valley type stuff) all of them wildly successful, all of them completely based in experiencing nature and of course, getting the euphoria of enjoying an incredible, often unique landscape. Golf is just better in a natural landscape. But golf also improves a natural landscape, and we don’t need to look any farther than what is being built around the edges of RSPGL. Twenty years ago, if you built a house in this location, or rented an apartment near the Wrightstown exit, you would simply be living in a cornfield. What’s so special about that? Today, you get to pay extra for that same dwelling to enjoy the landscape RSPGL has perfected. Why do developers build next to golf courses? It’s because humans love to look at pretty landscapes. From your kitchen window, you can now appreciate golf’s beautiful layer… as it has enhanced the landscape. Out your front door, its looks like the city, but out the back… it’s like you’ve been transported. Awesome! Sadly, this a one way street. Maybe the golf course will receive increased usage thanks to increased human proximity; merely a theory I’m supposed to accept to make my hardships along the way seem more palatable. It’s sad to me, that developers and homeowners can soon take advantage of the enhanced landscape, while golfers will slowly loose the look of their wild landscape experience, as a fabricated civilization back-drop replaces nature. Bummer. I think about the golfers. Maybe I’m an idiot, but the only thing I care about are the golfers. I like to think golfers appreciate that.
Why do golfers like elevated tees? No this isn’t a dad joke. A study was done, and I’m NOT going to waste my time citing all the sources in this little “tale from the tall grass”, but I thought it was an interesting hypothesis. Let me provide the essence. First… it takes a golf dork having to write some kind of thesis for graduate school, and he decides he is going to ask the question, “do golfers prefer to hit from an elevated tee?” He concludes, through survey and study: that they DO prefer elevated tees. Someone else picks up the thesis, and wants to explain why. Yeah, the ball certainly carries farther, but the answer is found outside of golf. It’s really an environmental psychologist who can best explain why humans enjoy being up high. He says it’s in our DNA, basically our fight or flight mentality. Humans believe getting to a high point is naturally safer, we prefer looking at things from up high. Now a golf hole looks neat from up high, but what looks even better from up high… is an angry pack of lions. Makes sense right!! Now think about something else…when you go to the zoo, the zoo often gives you a high vantage point…but one of the things they are really good at, is giving you a low vantage point. Think about those low caves with the glass. We are naturally afraid to be low, obviously the glass protects us, but we would never choose to be low. Does that mean we are terrified of low tees that require a hit to uphill, who knows? I just thought it was interesting, and though I wasted 45 seconds of your life reading this…maybe it’s something you will ponder and regurgitate to dazzle your foursome.
Walking to my car this weekend, I quietly approached a gentleman pulling a cooler from his car in the RSPGL parking lot. He puts one beer in his golf bag, then two, then three. I thought, I’m just going to stand here, eventually he’ll turn around. Then beer 11,12,13. Ball pouch, buddy’s bag, the beers kept coming. Are we done…. nope…. flavor change, and now they are being wrapped inside a sweatshirt stuck in sweater basket. There were more than 20, when he closed the cooler and turned to see me arms crossed staring at him. You could hear a pin drop, “you know…. (And then I paused)… carry ons are not allowed”. Uh, uh, uh I had no idea, he responded. Taylormade SIM driver, Callaway Apex irons, Cameron putter, first time golfers generally don’t have $2000 worth of equipment, but I thought I’d give him the benefit of doubt. “If you are not aware about rules regarding bringing your own beer, then why are you hiding them like you need to get heroin through a border crossing? I asked. Sometimes this job is quite ironic. He was nice about it and put everything back in his car. I don’t like to spend my time enforcing “rules”, I’m pretty easy going as long as you are respectful. The alcohol stuff is a hot button for me. I have to believe, that when this guy drank all 20 beers, and wrapped his car around a tree on the way home, the family lawsuit would probably blame me. I’m just here for the golf, I don’t need the ancillary theatrics. Let’s just golf and enjoy life… without the 20 beers.
Leaving and locking the RSPGL building yesterday, I thought about the day I just had. I was on a one hour conference call with our software company discussing ramifications of Microsoft ending TLS security; that was over my head. I had to begin installing a new security system; I’m not that techy. I spent an hour walking around another golf course in the snow, they were installing new bridges and I wanted to learn the process; and I’m not an engineer. When I pulled back in the lot, a woman was waiting for me, and she wanted the sales pitch on a baby shower in our building, interesting pivot as my brain was focused on spancrete. A few hours before that, I put the finishing touches on a newsletter, making sure it was more entertaining than the drivel most businesses put out; lots of pressure to keep that going, as I’m not an author. It was also the first day of the month, so I knocked out inventory while eating my lunch. Tried to track down copies for employees who lost w-2’s, didn’t you just get them? Wrote an employment posting for Indeed; how am I ever going to make these jobs sounds great? Finished the negotiation of hail damaged roof, mailed out an outing proposal, and found a little time to repair the hose in our slop sink to prevent a plumbing disaster. Writing about it is therapeutic. Sometimes I beat myself up that I didn’t do a lot of these things perfect, then I see it all on paper and I wonder, there has to be an easier way. Unless you squint real hard when you are reading this, you can hardly tell I’m talking about the golf business. Kids who work here tell me they want to be a business owner when they grow up, but not someone in golf. I guess their “vision” of a successful business owner bears no resemblance to the one they just watched for the last 11 1/2 hours. Good luck.
Cleaning my office this winter, I found an old scrapbook I made. In the first years of Royal St. Patricks; newspaper, phone book, just about any kind of print ad was still the rage. I assembled everything we created in this binder, but I also gathered everything the competition was doing too. It was a way of keeping tabs. When you revisit that 15-20 years later, one thing struck me as pretty funny considering my evolvement into what I think the essence of 200 years of golf really is. Let me humor you with some of the boastful verbiage from these ads. “18 Holes, Watered Fairways, (that one kills me) Fully Stocked Golf Shop, Paved Cart Path, Outdoor Patio, Full Service Bar (still don’t know what that means), Electric Carts, Fountains and Waterfall, Competitors Coupons Honored (way to sell your soul), Lessons Available, Shirt Required (how valuable ad space was spent on that, I’m not sure). When you go through all these ads, there is something remarkable missing. No one ever mentions the golf course. In the end, everyone comes to play golf, but the 80’s, 90’s early 2000’s were all about promoting the fluff. Each course trying to out-do the next… with fluff. Ironically they were all adding the same fluff. Who could be bigger, longer, bolder, cleaner, harder, more decorative, more like a country club, offer more items, more polished, be more welcoming. Why is it that no one actually focused on the reason customers came to the property in the first place? Why has the idea of simply selling “good golf” not been good enough? Why was little to no focus ever placed on the one thing they had that was different than everyone else? The land, the environment, the holes. This past winter, I saw it happening again. The new commodity race… is the installation of a 12 by 12 black fabric box, with a white projection cloth exactly 10 feet in front of you. You can play every course in the world, and eat the biggest plate of chicken wings at the same time. Even though you shouldn’t! Everyone is doing it, and touting their atmosphere is the best. In the end, it’s still a fabric box. Too much following, and too much of the same, can never be good. The game of golf has lasted 200 years+ because the act of playing a fickle game, in varied conditions, on varied courses, over varied land, never gets old. In the end, you want to play the course. The rest is a bonus, or simply background noise.
People often ask me, what makes this a Links style course? It’s easy to point to the lack of trees, the native fescue grasses that border the holes, and the rolly-polly uneven lies in the fairway. Back in the day, we even had the sod wall bunkers. That has proved to be idiotic due to our climate, but it was cool for awhile. Almost a half million rounds played here since inception and no one has ever mentioned one of the most obvious Links characteristics, that you basically don’t see anywhere around here….the greens built at same grade as the fairways so a ball can easily be rolled up. Real Links golf is built on sandy sites. American golf over the last 200 years is often built on very poor soils. Early American architects figured out very quickly, if you are going to drain an American green in poor soils, you better get that thing up in the air. Look around at every course around here, they are almost all “push-up” greens, and that was solely to get the water off. Leave the green at ground level; health of grass and playability would be a huge struggle. It’s a feature that really excites me because it is so different. Our soils are just as poor, so it takes some special engineering to be able to pull it off, and I wish I could get the approaches playing a little faster to make the whole package work better. As you know you have seen us aggressively working on firming up those approaches, and one day we will get there. Next time you are playing, look at all the greens at grade. Compare those to pictures of the old links courses, you’ll see one of our most interesting attributes.
Recently heard a professor discussing populations, relationship formation, mate choice, pro-creation, the whole thing. He cited some stats which I will try to replicate, as I was only half paying attention. Then he got to the end of his discussion and I thought, wow, I wish I had been paying closer attention. He said 20 years ago, 3 out of 5 people who got married, met at work. I met my wife at work, I could get on board with that. He said today, far less people are getting married, and if they are getting married, 1 out of 2 people who get married, met online. The professor thought this is a huge problem. This is where my interest sparked. Why is this a HUGE PROBLEM? He was basically making the case that ugly is going to be driven from the gene pool. In the old days, that person who worked across from you was nothing special, but he/she had a great personality, he/she was kind, and he/she seemed like he/she would be a great spouse and parent. Today, you don’t get to find that out, you simply look at a online picture, pass judgement and move on. Essentially all those good people you would have learned to like, will never find a mate. Only photogenic people will find relationships. Makes sense, doesn’t it? It got me thinking about golf. If that is happening in mate selection, can you not see parallels happening in golf. Maybe all the courses that will survive, are the ones who have the best scenery, take the best pictures, do the best editing, the ones who can really market. If we never really get to know the course’s charm, and we are simply making decisions by their superficial looks, won’t golf courses have trouble finding their mates… I mean customers. I know it’s a bit out there, but that’s why you read.
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