Luis Rivero
6 minutes
We know it is a lot of information but we promise you that if you understand them and learn them, the next time you go out to play, you will realize that depending on the Course Design, the strategy has to change, and because you already know the Type of Design, you will know how to strategize your game and attack the Course and beat the Architect!
If you understand the Course Designs and avoid the Penalty shots that the Architects put out there for you to hit, it is very likely that you will lower your Golf Handicap... Of course, you still have to work on your short game as well...
The two schools we have left to study are the Freeway School and the Framing School.
The Freeway School:
This school is very simple. It is the type of school that was thinking about the visual balance and symmetry rather than the Strategy of the game.
Like we said, it is a very simple design where players don't have to think too much and does not inspire great golf, just a straight-forward game and shots.
When the Freeway School started to show in the Golf Courses, a few of the best golfers in the History of the game were playing but it didn't matter, the standards for Course design slipped. There wasn't anyone that really wanted to improve the Golf Courses or even go backwards and built something more attractive and challenging.
It took a while before the great Pete Dye came along and changed radically the Golf Course designs. Some were not happy with Dye's designs and all of the elements he used, but many are glad he came along and changed the path that Golf Courses were following. Dye brought back the thought-provoking original architecture of Golf Courses and even so that many golfers thought that his designs were too "quirky" or too crowded-looking or just very hard to play. His style doesn't have a particular school of design... it was actually a mix of the Traditional designs and some of his artistic style. The good thing was that Golfers didn't care about where his designs fell into, they were just glad that the Freeway School ended.
The Framing School:
The Framing School it is exactly what it stands for, a frame. These Courses or specific Holes, were a mix between Dye's designs, the Penal and the Strategic designs. Sounds a little confusing but just think of a Hole (Dye style) where you have to strategize but not as much because the Hazards, Bunkers, Waters, etc are way out of play, where their purpose is only to "frame" the Hole. The priority of this School is to Frame the Hole, playing goes second.
Of course, nowadays there are many different Golf Course designs and each of them have their own little trick to play it well; knowing the Schools of Design can help you for sure to understand them and strategize correctly depending on the design, but it is always good to have your GPS Golf App where you can see the Hole from above, giving you a better perspective than what you can see from the Tee Box.
All of this information was taken from the Book "Grounds For Golf - The History And Fundamentals Of Golf Course Design" by Geoff Shackelford - Illustrations by Gil Hanse.
Blog posts written by - LadyGrinter
