The Epic School of Golf Course Design
An Introduction
The 16th at Ballybunion
As with pretty much every aspect of the game, there’s no one right way to design a golf course; in fact the variety experienced by playing a number of courses is a huge part of what makes the sport so enjoyable for every golfer. But over the course of my +/- 20-year infatuation with golf—more so in the last eight of those years than in the previous 12—I’ve developed a fairly well-defined lens through which I view every course I play, and by which I judge the success of the design.
In his seminal work Grounds for Golf, Geoff Shackelford discusses six schools of design: the Natural, the Penal, the Strategic, the Heroic, the Freeway, and the Framing. The goal of this website is to assert and celebrate the existence of a seventh design school: the Epic.
I hope that the following distinctions, each of which will be fleshed out fully in the coming months, will help the reader get a handle on the characteristics of this school:
- Epic Golf IS…
- A Passion
- At Ease with the Amateur and the Anonymous
- Honest and Intimidating
- Muscular, Vigorous, and at Times Raw
- Manifest and Inevitable
- Grand but Intimate
- Adventurous and Thrilling
- Responsive to Course Management
- Concerned with Pacing
- Demanding Off the Tee
- Exhausting and Satisfying
- Partial to the Vintage
- Innately Appealing
- Memorable; Laden with Character
- Epic Golf IS NOT…
- A Business
- Driven by the Professional and the Ego
- Gimmicky or Deliberately Uncomfortable
- Flabby, Anorexic, or Delicate
- Contrived or Conspicuously Cerebral
- Wasteful and Sprawling
- Bland and Insipid
- Defined by Strategy
- Obsessed with Routing
- Charitable with Its Tee Shots
- Soothing and Facile
- Excited by the Contemporary
- Reliant on Scenery
- Spectacularly Ordinary
While I have no formal training in earthmoving, drainage, agronomy, or environmental concerns, neither did many of history’s most successful golf course architects…they simply found people who did have expertise in those areas to help them accomplish their vision.
“The fact that golf courses are interactive–they are built to be played–gives the golfer special license to criticize.”
– Tom Doak, The Anatomy of a Golf Course
What I do have is a passion and an appreciation for architectural history and architectural criticism–and not just for golf courses. (It was almost more than a passion. I went to grad school in architecture for a year before deciding that it wasn’t my field, and I’m still generally disposed to most design topics.)
Architecture and golf architecture similar in that they are both experiential. I couldn’t agree more with Tom Doak’s quote at the left. And I hope Tom will not mind when I inevitably criticize his own work in future articles on this site!
I don’t by any means profess that Epic characteristics comprise the only lens through which to evaluate course design. But it is my firm opinion that the game would be even more addictive for the vast majority of golfers if more architects considered these criteria in their designs.
–David Mihm, September 2009
Leave Your Thoughts about
The Epic School of Golf Course Design:
6 Reader Comments So Far:
Columbia Edgewater CC Reviewed by The Walking Golfer
Rob Rigg, aka "The Walking Golfer" and a good friend of Epic Golf, just posted a very thoughtful review of Columbia Edgewater Country Club here in Portland, with some excellent photos.
Visit the Epic Blog Archive »
Glen Mills Golf Club
Glen Mills, PA
For all the heavy-handed architectural details, the course deserves its due – it is expertly maintained and provides no shortage of challenge, variety and thrills.
Full Review of Glen Mills Golf Club »
Tetherow Golf Club
Bend, OR
The experience of Tetherow is contradictory and enigmatic; both the accolades and criticism the course has received to date are well-deserved.
Full Review of Tetherow Golf Club »
Taconic Golf Club
Williamstown, MA
Few courses can match the character and ambiance of Taconic's intimate routing--or the brilliant pacing of its entire experience.
Full Review of Taconic Golf Club »
The Home Course
DuPont, WA
The Home Course is about as good as modern public golf gets. Everything is super-sized--the fairways, greens, and bunkers are all at massive scale, presumably to allow for the frequent winds off Puget Sound.
Full Review of The Home Course »
Helllo, I would like information about the school (where is located,tuition etc.) thank you
Hi Fernanda, thanks for your comment. The Epic ‘School’ just refers to a philosophy about course design, rather than a physical location to learn about it. I’m not all that familiar with the professional side of architecture but I believe that one of Tom Doak’s legacies at Cornell is an emphasis on course design.
There’s the bones of a great site here, David. I hope content dramatically expands in the near future.
Re: “Epic” –
What NW courses have you played that you feel qualify or approach ‘Epic’? I thought I’d landed in heaven my first trip around Pacific Dunes. What are your thoughts on that golf course?
Love the potential for this site as 1) a destination golf resource, and 2) an educational tool for those of us that would like to learn more about golf architecture and architects. Hope you continue to build it out.
Curt, thanks so much for the kind words. Yes, this blog is SORELY neglected right now but I’m hoping to rectify that to some extent over the winter
Including a post on PacDunes (and hopefully Old Macdonald, which I haven’t yet played) — it approaches Epic but there are a few weaknesses in Pacing that keep it out of the highest echelon, in my opinion. Ballyneal, on the other hand, which I was fortunate enough to play this summer with Jim Colton, truly fits that description. I’m amazed that PacDunes consistently outranks it according to the “experts.”
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