Golf Course Shape:

The Theory of Shape in Golf Design

Golf design is a fairly unrestricted design disciple, and when you come right down to it, there are no hard and fast rules of design. There are "guidelines" but most of these refer to measurements for safety and length.

Most golf architects strive for elements of "naturalness" in their designs, and to that end most follow (in part at least, whether intentionally or by chance) a certain and very definite type of golf course shape.

The shapes produced give golf courses their smooth, attractive, free-flowing appearance. In addition they also allow for several practical functions:

-Ease of mechanised mowing and maintenance

-A certain uneven ball bounce and roll

-Application of design and playing strategies that flow together imperceptibly

-Potential employment of several different playing strategies concurrently on the same piece of land

-Facilitating drainage

-Obvious aesthetic and promotional benefits

The Basis of Golf Course Shape

The shape consists of a long curve that deviates from horizontal and gradually curves upward along its length at an increasing gradient, before reaching a relatively sharp apex.

In this diagram we have made the line representing a cross section of this typical golf course shape appear quite jagged and pixelated. This enables you to clearly see each section of the line at constant height intervals, like contours.

When moving from right to left along the line, each section gets gradually smaller, until just before the apex, where the line sections become a little bigger before suddenly changing direction to form the apex of the shape.

This general golf course shape probably appears quite familiar as it is present in endless places in nature. Some of the places that relate to golf design are the waves of the ocean and in wind-shaped sand dunes, which was where golf began.

The challenge for a golf course architect in utilising this typical golf course shape is first to conceive interesting designs that are possible to be built practically and well, and then communicate them (draw them) accurately to ensure they are built to a high standard.

In our golfcourse design consulting business, plans describing golf course shape hold pride of place and are almost as much a work of art as the final product. This is because if beautiful contours are not present in the design, there's far less chance of creating beautiful shapes in the field.

To the untrained eye, these contour plans can appear quite random, as if someone dropped a bowl of spaghetti. But to the trained eye it is possible to instantly see where a contour design will run into construction problems, simply by looking at the shape of the design contours and the way they fit together.

Building the Shapes

It would be fair to say that a large proportion of golf architects are oblivious to this concept, especially those who rely on their site supervisors to adjust their plans to make their designs work. In this situation, production of good work onsite is fully at the mercy of the personal relationship with the key onsite personnel.

The actual creation of golf course shape does have alot to do with the skill of the onsite personnel. But in our experience, if the design requires that you have to have great personal relationships with site staff of exceptional talent in order to succeed, you are already behind the game.

We have found that the more detailed and refined our design plans are, the better and easier it is for our site staff to create the golf course shape onsite.

If we have a great relationship with talented site staff, then so much the better. Such relationships can be utilised to make the end product absolutely brilliant instead of just great.