34 For golf architect Richard Mandell, National Golf Links of America represents the beginning of the Golden Age of golf course design One early October day back in 1993, I had one of the best times of my life on a golf course. I had trekked to Southampton to walk Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links of America armed only with an old Nikon manual camera. Upon finishing my day under perfectly blue, cool skies buffeted by cottony clouds, I had the pleasure of meeting the golf professional at NGLA. To my surprise, he told me that few ever came to visit NGLA to discover its golf course architecture. In fact, to his knowledge, the only two people he could recall visiting for that sole purpose were Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw. Almost twenty years to the day, I returned to NGLA but this time I was armed with my clubs and a bunch of my golf architecture brethren from around the world. Much to the chagrin of my caddy, I took every daring route that Charles Blair MacDonald afforded me more than 100 years before. I wasn’t interested in taking the safe route anywhere (since just breaking 85 was in doubt anyway, course management was far from my mind). I was more interested in remembering why National Golf Links of America is such a textbook for golf architects (present, past and future). It is no surprise that NGLA would rank so high among golf architects the world over. It stands at the crossroads of our profession, breaking the art from utilitarian to what we all came to understand as the golden age. Charles Blair MacDonald set about to show Americans what great golf was all about with a set of self-imposed rules to accomplish a full eighteen holes “of an exemplary nature”. Through a device known as replication, MacDonald taught us not to over-think in Architects’ Choice Top 100 Golf Courses National Golf Links of America New York, USA Charles Blair Macdonald, 1911 With painstaking attention to the strategic merits of golf holes and drawing on the influences of his trips to the UK, Macdonald created the National and spent 30 years of his life refining it. “CB Macdonald found such a perfect site for the course, exposed yet beautiful, and created an unforgettable golfing experience,” says Kristine Kerr of Kura Golf Design. Richard Mandell adds: “Macdonald showed the world how fun golf can be and how important it is to derive strategy from the ground.” Placed in top ten by 37% of architects Placed at No.1 by 5% of architects Photo: Aidan Bradley ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #6 Placed in top ten by 33% of architects Placed at No.1 by 6% of architects ARCHITECTS’ CHOICE #5 Ushering in the Golden Age
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