Number 8
Tinkers

Amateur golf course architects flourish, as do lilies of the field. Their numbers, among the members of all golf clubs, increase steadily. For the most part their many suggestions reveal the propensity to discuss units rather than the faculty of recognizing the proper relation of each of eighteen holes with seventeen others. A truly great course is a happy family living together harmoniously under one roof, and each, from pere to mere down to the little tads, genuinely alive to the duty of preserving the honor of the name.

It must be recognized the nearly any good player may conceive a plan of a fine golf hole, but the artistry of combining the units into a well-balanced collection is acquired only by long experience and a developed vision. Consequently these tap, tap, taps of amateur tinkers may not be altogether fortunate for the kettle. Changing just a feature here or another there may not hurt that particular hole, but it very easily may rob the ensemble of true balance.

However, we are glad to recognize this growing tendency to analyze the holes they play by thinking golfers so generally. It is indicative of a fine appreciation of the golf architects’ best efforts, which can only make for better work. Likewise it carries speedy condemnation of the utterly lamentable features, men of no vision nor ability. This attention of the golfers at large to details of course planning and construction must be welcome indeed to the leaders of their craft, the architects whose greatest reward is the approval of those whom they seek to please.

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