An Ode to Weird Golf

I am admittedly in love with the Victorian Era of golf design. I would never argue that it was better than the Golden Era of Golf Design, because it wasn’t - but it was wild, it was weird and it was an adventure.

The Victorian Era of Golf Design was built upon the principle of fairness. Randomness was not welcome in its design (think of a golf course that was built to eliminate luck). Because of this design principle, many of its designs offered dead straight holes with straight line hazards that ran perpendicular to the hole. The only question it asked from the golfer was- “do you have the ability to clear this hazard.”

The Victorian era often utilized unique bunkers. The sand was almost always at ground level vs the concave (sand in a hole) hazard we experience today. Then more often than not, that ground level sand bunker would have a wall built of earth or stone fronting it- a hazard that we call a steeple chase mound.

The Victorian Era ushered in some unique non-natural features. A great example would be the 4th tee box at St Augustine Country Club’s Coquinta Tower. (See below).

Another unique feature was the combination of steeplechase and sand was one of the most unique hazards of the Victorian Era- the Bastion Bunker of Shinnecock Hills. (Notice the cattle that kept the grass low back in the day)

One can assume that due to the manual nature of their upkeep (prior to the invention of irrigation and lawnmowers), many Victorian golf courses utilized smaller footprints, and as a result had very unique layouts. Take the Tampa Golf Links which featured 6 holes with 5 of them criss-crossing. (Can you imagine playing the 5th hole that had 4 different holes crossing its fairway?)

The St Andrew’s Golf Club of New York served as a perfect example of a Victorian adventure. The golfer would have had to traverse roads, the ruins of an old saw mill and several stone walls to play its nine holes.

When you think of America’s greatest golf courses today; courses that have hosted major championships names like Shinnecock, Chicago Golf Club, Baltsurol, Pinehurst, Merion come to mind.

All of these courses were once Victorian Designs!

There are very few Victorian Era Golf Courses that exist in their original form. Most notably, one of the oldest golf courses in the USA, Foxburg CC in Foxburg, PA (1887) is looking to restore their Victorian Design- led by architect Ron Forse of Forse Design. The good news for golf course enthusiasts- Foxburg CC is a public golf course, so you can enjoy the game of golf as our forefathers and foremothers once did.

The game of golf is at its best when we embrace variety and very few golf courses in the world resemble a Victorian designed golf course. Embrace different!

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Yours in Golf History,

Connor T.