Minimalist Golf: A New Face on an Old Line

I prefer a man with rugged good looks; you know… the firm jaw, confident sensual mouth, twinkling eyes creased with laugh lines, thick animated brows, and a tanned face sprouting a day-old beard. A man more concerned with what he does than how his hair is combed. A cross between Hugh Jackman and George Clooney, I guess.

What does this have to do with golf, you might ask? LOL! Well, something cool is happening to golf course design these days. Golfers are enjoying a new breed of golf course. I’m talking about unmanicured, rugged and ungroomed courses with roughed up links. Designers are purposely leaving in creased and crinkly surfaces that lead to unexpected bounces and rolls and even seeding their fairways— and greens— to fescues rather than the common blue and bent grasses.
 These natural courses need less water and fertilization and play more firmly. I’m told that high handicappers delight in the way their balls go farther and that water hazards are close to nonexistent; and better players are challenged by strategic considerations and unexpected bounces. And everyone appreciates the more natural setting over trudging in a “suburban park”. In fact, carts are usually banned or at least discouraged in these courses.

This minimalist trend is only a decade old and currently concentrated in the western states of the U.S. according to Jim Sutherland of Westworld Magazine (Summer, 2009). For example, Tetherow Golf Course in Bend, Oregon (about 300 km southeast of Portland) opened in July 2008, and was named by Travel & Leisure Golf the fifth best course to open worldwide in 2008. Tetherow joins several other minimalist courses on the west coast of U.S. and Canada (like Bandon Dunes also in Oregon; Chambers Bay in Tacoma, Washington; Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club near Merritt, B.C.) that are considered “the hottest thing to hit golf since Sansabelt slacks,” according to Sutherland.

Graced with a mosaic of undulating sand dunes, pockets of natural sagebrush and tree stands, Tetherow is one of 50 courses worldwide named as an Audubon International Certified Signature Sanctuary in recognition of its sustainability and habitat-preserving initiatives. Minimalist golf courses are without a doubt the hottest new courses, according to Sutherland. They are “beautiful, challenging, inspiring tracks that are making all the Top 100, ‘Best New’ and ‘Play Before You Die’ lists, and for all the right reasons,” says Sutherland. “They’re more fun to play and easier on the environment.”

Tetherow is the creation of David McLay Kidd, the young Scottish designer responsible for Bandon Dunes, considered by many the most influential course of the late 20th Century. He is working on a course in … well—yes, Margaret—Fernie, British Columbia. Avid golfers will enjoy the avant-garde challenges in this type of course, like Toronto native club pro Martin Chuck found out recently—driving through back trees, watching his approach shots bounce wildly astray or catch gusts of wind, ball landing in scary bunkers and gnarly rough. Minimalist golf compensates its general lack of water hazards with rough-edged hazards “so aesthetically appealing they seem to follow from the Japanese concept of wabi sabi or finding beauty in imperfection,” says Sutherland.

Sutherland goes on to describe Bandon’s “postcard-beautiful” course with something akin to ardor: “holes unfurl across a pastoral landscape that already featured open meadow, stands of picturesque trees and even clumps of gorse.”

The strength of these rolling natural courses lies in achieving a fun-quotient while reducing their eco-footprint. Minimalist golf courses protect wildlife habitats, improve water quality of nearby waterways and rehabilitate degraded landscapes.

Traditional golf courses have a bad reputation for being environmentally unfriendly. Between their high water demand, potential contamination of nearby water courses (e.g., through fertilizers and herbicides), deforestation and mono-cropping, golf courses have been a bad scene for environmentalists. In the Okanagan, a rich fruit growing mecca located in a desert-like ecosystem of British Columbia, golf courses are currently outcompeting the agriculture sector by taking the lion’s share of water in the region. The forty-five golf courses “use about the same amount of water as all the grape-growing areas in the basin,” says Hans Schreier, professor at the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia.

Minimalist golf courses are part of a new wave, heralding in a smarter future, guided by nature and our appreciation of the natural beauty of our planet. They celebrate a healthy ecosystem, provide a smaller ecological footprint, and conserve water. As a golfer, you can join the wave and promote more sustainable golf at your favored course by letting them know that you don’t mind clover or other weeds mixed in with the grass and that you prefer fairways firm and fast—and not overwatered. You do, don’t you? (big alien grin).

Find out more about minimalist golf and the new wave in golf at http://www.golfclubatlas.com/. Here’s a list of some minimalist golf courses to check out:

• Shuksan, Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A.
• King’s Links, Ladner, B.C., Canada
• Wolf Creek and Blackhawk, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• Dakota Dunes, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
• Arthur Vernon Macan courses (Vancouver, Chilliwack, Nanaimo, the Okanagan, B.C.), Canada
• Stanley Thompson & Donald Ross courses (Banff, Jasper, Waterloo, Waskesiu, West Vancouver, Winnipeg) Canada

Photos:
Photo 1: Tetherow Golf Course, Oregon
Photo 2: Bandon Dunes Golf Course, Oregon
Photo 3: Chambers Bay Golf Course, Washington
Photo 4: Sagebrush Golf and Country Club, British Columbia

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.