Golf

The Open Championship: Good. U.K. Golf Courses: Not So Much.

by Glenn Davis | 10:12 am, July 18th, 2011

The Open Championship (or British Open) ended yesterday, with Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke emerging victorious. Congratulations to Clarke: he joins a select group of golfers to win their first major in their 40s, and he won the tournament convincingly – by three strokes over co-runners-up Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. And congratulations to us, the viewers: we can now go a year without seeing an Open Championship course.

What’s wrong with an Open Championship course, you may ask? The tournament is golf’s only major played in the region that spawned the game as we know it today. You wonder: do I hate the very history of the sport? Not at all. I simply hate that the golf courses over there have seemingly not advanced past the era of the game’s origins. Take a look, for example, at Augusta National, the home of the Masters. Stunning. Hell, look at Congressional Country Club, where Rory McIlroy crushed the field at this year’s U.S. Open. These are nice places, places where you’d want to play a round or even just hang out for a day and watch others play.

This is Royal St. George’s, the location of this year’s Open Championship. Think maybe that’s just one misleading photo? Have another excruciating look. And another. Think the view can’t get any more gloomy?

We beg to differ.

And it doesn’t stop there: here’s St. Andrews, where last year’s Open Championship was contested. The key difference between it and Royal St. George’s? There are nice buildings next to it. The course itself, though, gives off the same “depressing, abandoned farmland” feel. It continues. Here’s Turnberry, the site of the ’09 Open Championship. Royal Birkdale, which hosted the year before. (Well…there’s a tree.) ’07? That was at Carnoustie. The year before that: Royal Liverpool. ’04 was at Troon. You get the idea.

Now, you might think I’m just American swine, crapping on something that’s not American out of an abject fear of any other culture. Well, I don’t know, maybe the American swine thing is true, but even if I didn’t have significant British/Scottish bloodlines, I’d still have a retort. This is Liberty National Golf Club. It is not only in America, it’s in my beloved home state of New Jersey. And it…sucks. It looks JUST like the drab, featureless, treeless, lifeless, charmless U.K. courses…only we have no excuse. The average major American course doesn’t look like this. Why would we go out of our way to create a golf course like this? Plant a tree. Plant a plant. Do anything but make feel like I’m looking at the physical manifestation of The Waste Land, with 18 holes dug into it.

Even though the course designs suggest a desire to make people actively turn away, The Open Championship is worth watching. The majors only come around four times a year, after all, so you won’t get many better chances to see all of the world’s best in one place. And it’s hard to hate on an event that nearly gave us one of the all-time great sports moments just two years ago. But it’s very easy to hate the courses on which these tournaments are played, because come on. And we can hope that someday, a course can break into the Open Championship rotation that looks to the layman like it was, you know, designed. And we can hope that on this side of the Atlantic, we don’t construct any more courses that make it look like we think the U.K. is on to something.

Photo via; power plant photo: Getty (David Cannon), via

Eazimman

Couldn’t disagree more. There aren’t a whole lot of trees or plants in England/Scotland/Ireland to begin with, so an argument about playing on a field or farm is a terrible thesis. The lack of surrounding beauty is something that was fabricated by golf course developers in the last 20 years to get people to pay $200+ for a round of golf when they have no business playing golf to begin with. Any true golfer would love to play any course that hosts The Open Championship.
Anonymous

Don’t get me wrong – not saying they ought to look like Augusta National. But check out this shot of Royal St. George’s: http://0.tqn.com/d/golf/1/0/q/R/1/royal-st-georges-14.jpg - Trees. Just off the course. Why not just a few – or any – ON the course?
Eazimman

If I’m not mistaken many of the The Open course are along the coast, and part of the challenge is dealing with the prevailing winds and the way the weather has shaped the course for hundreds of years. You’re essentially saying that every Open should be played at The K Club (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K5YBwW8ZZgY/SgBR05DjTrI/AAAAAAAAAYM/NpIaNwber9U/s1600/k%2Bclub%2Bsmurift%2Bcourse.jpg) and that you didn’t like Whistling Straights (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/images/WS4.jpg). I assume you already have an article drafted condemning the USGA when they eventually play a U.S. Open at Bandon Dunes (http://www.golfdigest.com/images/magazine/2010/05/maar01-away-game-620.jpg). The idea that golf courses have to be “pretty” or “have trees” is a truly materialistic and short-sighted view of golf course design. There are clearly courses that don’t have trees that are picturesque and have features (bunkers, mounding, waste areas, etc.) that require skill to score well (my favorite being Old Head in Ireland: http://www.visitcorkcounty.com/images/sce/old%20head%20golf%202.jpg)
Shivas

What Liberty National lacks comprises a very short list. What it has is simply incredible. Gorgeous backdrops of Metropolis, The Statue of LIberty, Ellis Island, New York Harbor with it’s constant ferry, barge, sailboat, ship, and light aircraft traffic. A wonderful array of bird life. A very challenging but extremely well kept course that had to be tweaked recently so the cranky tour players wouldn’t find it too punitive and so the crowds can get around better during tournaments. This is a crown jewel. Period.
Kevin T

I’ve some sympathy with your point of view. As a recent arrival in the US, from the UK, many of your courses are beautifully manicured and you make use of the incredible amount of space you have in this country very well.

But. When I play links golf – carrying my own bag – I play the same sport my ancestors play. I face the same challenges they did. I am playing something with heritage and meaning. I understand that history is still happening and I’m part of a longer story than I can really comprehend. I’m often paying only a small amount to do so – and often in an honesty box which simply reinforces the fact that I’m paying a little to the relatively simple and timeless maintenance of what is essentially a natural experience.

When I play on a nicely manicured course in the US, I’m having an enjoyable leisure experience for which I’m paying a lot of money. I’m part of a business that is trying to give the most sanitized and “perfect” experience they can to as many people as possible. I enjoy it. It’s generally easier than links and it’s often a much more pleasant experience, being usually warmer, smoother and usually electrically powered.

But I’m not closer to nature; I’m no closer to life. One day I’m sure there will be stunning courses with artificial turf that regrows divots immediately, fake flowers that are always in season, perfectly adjusted climates to provide the most relaxing and ‘fairest’ golf experience possible. It may be “golf” but it won’t be golf.