"My brilliant idea is for a golf course built by committee"

Let's hope Larry Olmsted's solution to the Olympic Golf Course design commission puzzle is not adopted. Then again, it would make a fantastic documentary and study of clashing egos!

Two or three like Nicklaus could be appointed as a committee to roughly route the course, but then – check this idea out – the eighteen holes would be pulled out of a hat, ensuring that the committee does not make the routing to give themselves the best land, and puts pressure on them to make the entire course good from the get go. A designer cannot do the master plan and then complain the hole he drew was inferior. You could have 18 architects, or 9 doing two holes each.

The reason this has never really been done is because the result would theoretically lack continuity, but the reality is that most single designer courses, even those by the top architects, lack continuity. On the average Nicklaus, Dye or Fazio course, the layout of the third hole has little to do with your experience on fifteen, and when the course does build to a crescendo of some sort, or feature sections that are thematically different, this is dictated by the natural site, such as an oceanfront finish.

Comments

[Press Agent]

LOL

[jjshaka]

Oh yeah, this is going to end well.

[Melvyn Hunter Morrow]

This is not new, the old clubs in the 19th century tried to use Committees to design their course but in the end they had to appoint one of the professionals. A little bit of knowledge can be very dangerous remembering not all golfers are brilliant designers, not even the past Champions.

We will end up with the same level of satisfaction we have with the Governing Body of Golf

Melvyn

[Pete the Luddite]

I think this will be very exciting. Could be a train wreck, and it could also lead to some very interesting design ideas/execution.

regardless, Geoff is right, I believe. This could make for an excellent documentary.

[East End Fan]

This could be such a winner in the high comedy department.

Look at the results of that collaboration on Long Island with Jack Nicklaus and Michael Doak and if you haven't seen the course, the results of that great parcel were horrific. Little regard for the neighboring courses, disrupting the harmony of the East End. That course has had entire holes changed it was supposed to be so good.

[RM]

"brilliant idea" and "committee" shouldn't even be allowed in the same sentence....whether is golf, business or whatever. nothing good comes from group-think.

[d.b.cooper]

I would bet money Larry is a liberal.

[Eagle]

They would kill each other.

[chicago pt]

this weeks's winner for "stupidest idea"

[Troglodyte]

Unspeakably stupid idea. Then again,so is the chosen format for the Olympic competition and most decisions by the IOC (another committee). So, while stupid, it's in keeping with the theme.

[international]

@d.b.cooper
Surely a liberal wouldn't want to build a golf course in the first place?! Either way, I don't think this is the forum to be offloading your political prejudices.

[phil the author]

How about holding an armchair architect contest among the host country's vast golf architecture junkie population. Have a random drawing of 18 holes which then have to be built regardless of terrain.

Sounds as good an idea as the other one... and may actually come off better!

[rob]

Anytime that I read or hear someone say "check this (idea) out "...well those Cheech and Chong days are behind me.
18 architects designing 18 holes, for miniature golf maybe.
If I didn't know that this was June 24, I would have thought that this was an April Fools post.

[sir real]

Get ready for the groundbreaking on the... OLYMPIC CLUSTER COURSE.

Can you imagine the pomposity and ego jousting that castrophe would entail. For Gods sake, get out the drone and destroy this pathetic notion!

[sir real]

Pardon the typo...catastrophe.

[FWIW]

This is the worst idea I've ever heard. It had to be a joke.

[East End Golfer]

I am skeptical of any idea that is presented to me prefaced by "My brilliant idea."
This one's no different.

[Dan]

Olmsted should change his name to "Ellsworth Toohey" and the name of his column to "One Small Voice".

[Colin MacGillivray]

There is some merit in the following process:
1 Get a number of architects to submit routing plan designs in a limited competition and pay them.
2 Identify the best and weak features of each submission.
3 Appoint the architect with the best overall design to proceed and, if and where possible, incorporate some of the good features of other designs in his/her final design.
This has been done (by me) in building architecture so might work for a golf course. However I expect few prima donna architects are prepared to do this.

[Melvyn Hunter Morrow]

I think we should form a committee to discuss if this is actually a good idea or quite frankly a no runners from the start, perhaps form a sub-committee to discuss forming a committee

Melvyn

[Caperman]

Brings back memories of a past design presentation done before Cad files. After spending a solid week hand drawing a routing plan, a loudmouth in a room full of loudmouths demanded that I change a par 5 into a par 4 and par 3. This started verbal warfare between several loudmouths that resulted in the project never being built.

[Kelly Blake Moran]

"Two or three like Nicklaus..."

Why not just appoint Nicklaus instead of 2 or 3 like Nicklaus. Are English and composition classes required to be a writer for publications and news outlets?

[d.b.cooper]

"I don't think this is a forum to be offloading your political prejudices"

@international,

So the next time someone here makes a crack about the right wing, I'm sure you will quickly admonish them.

Right?

[OWGR Fan]

@East End Fan..... Tom Doak.