How golf architecture can be good

How can a golf course be good?

During conversations about golf course rankings you will often hear people say, that golf course opinions are completely subjective. Therefore, a golfer's preference is simply a matter of opinion.

This is true in the sense, that pretty much anything you might consider art, is a matter of opinion.

However, at the same time, Sunningdale Old Course is probably considered a better course than the average local municipal golf course by every fair minded golfer.

If everyone holds the same opinion, it cannot be totally subjective. So if it is not totally subjective, how subjective is it? How can a golf course be good?

How art can be good

This leads on to a debate summarised really well in an essay by technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Paul Graham called "How art can be good".

This quote gives a good preview of the article:

"There is no such thing as good taste. Like a lot of things I grew up believing, this turns out to be false, and I'm going to try to explain why."

I agree with Graham, that art and similarly golf course architecture can "be good" and that taste in art and golf courses can also be 'good'. I also agree that it might take a golf course architect such a Tom Doak, to appreciate this 'goodness'.

However, most golfers visit a golf course once, often paying a small fortune for the privilege. They get once chance to be impressed and to have an enjoyable round of golf.

So the more I think about what Golf Lists course rankings should become, the more I think we need to try and represent the one time visitor.

This site is aimed at traveling golfers and list tickers, they will often only get one chance to be impressed.

That will lead to a somewhat radical re-working of our "placeholder" rankings at some point, which might ruffle a few feathers of members of courses who see their course at lot further down the rankings than normal.

But some golf courses need a few, or maybe even a lifetime of rounds to truly understand their greatness. Golf Lists Club members don't actually have time for that, so we will focus on a one time visit "assessment".

If the Golf Lists rankings therefore go on to miss some "Doak-Like" subtlety, I am ok with that. Give me Robbie Williams and a bit of Kingsbarns, and let the GL course rankings slap you in the face. Let's be Top of the Pops and let others debate the greatest artist of all time.

Join the conversation!

If you have any ideas for how we can improve our golf course rankings please share them in the Discord forum!

Thanks very much for reading and happy golfing!

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