Undulating Tees Part Three

Comments from Lorne Rubenstein (used with permission)

"This is a fascinating subject. I'll submit only this comment by the grand old British writer/golfer/architect John Low. He wrote, "Undulation is the soul of golf." Crenshaw is always citing this comment as going to the very heart of the game. I see no reason tees shouldn't undulate. If we're going to encourage pliable, imaginative minds in golf, we need the same in design--tee through green."

He continued in a further email, "I think anything that advances creativity and imagination is healthy. The game is moving in the opposite direction, what with GPS for yardage, mandatory carts (which reduces the likelihood of feeling the ground under one's feet and seeing all around--taking it all in, so to speak), delusional thinking about what equipment can do for a player. I'm far from a Luddite, and I applaud legitimate advances in the game. But I don't think it helps when the emphasis is on, well, minimizing thinking. It's also interesting that most golfers respond to design elements that encourage them to think and feel. Isn't it the same with film, writing, music and art? People can't always say what they like, but they respond when confronted with genuine experience that opens the mind and eyes. There's something in us that wants to be stimulated, to be moved, to feel, to be shocked out of our complacency."


I leave the final comment to another writer who contacted me on the subject, "Is this really the fight you or other architects want to fight - when ideas like shorter holes, width for freedom and central hazards will need to be explained and sold before they become more acceptable?"

To Part 4