Morton hall Golf Club was founded in 1892. Initially the course consisted of 9 holes, this was increased to 18. Willie Park, J H Taylor and James Braid were each involved in the earlier layouts and in 1979 Fred Hawtree not only designed 6 new holes but upgraded the remainder. Therefore, comparing to the Gleneagles Golf Club of James Braid, there are different things. Even on the walkway from club house to hole # 1, I felt different comparing to the original works of James Braid.
- Impressive golf course?
The difference of a good or bad golf course is not depending on the only good strategy. Personally, I believe that the fantastic landscape can be more important than strategy. Planning the impressive golf course will be depending on the value of existing landscape on the site. And then, using the existing valuable landscape as the strategy of each hole will be the most important among the process of design. Therefore, in this article I will focus on the value of view in Morton hall golf course.
When I appraise the view of Morton hall, I will record the high point except several things because Morton hall is surrounding the Braid hill in Edinburgh. Braid hill is a famous hill to show not only the historic geology but also characteristic vegetations of Edinburgh.
Hole # 1, on the fairway(the harmonic background between gorse and rocks).
The view of the first hole is focusing on the braid hills. Even this hole is blinded even on the fairway, which makes golfer be difficult to regard the first hole as golf course. Basically, the first hole has to be easy and opening to the green. But this hole is stimulating golfers’ curiosity by using the natural topography and braid hill. Personally, I like the next second hole. After blind hole, the second hole gives the reward by showing the panoramic view on the tee of high level. The Elf Loch appears on the left, and around the loch some Pine trees was planted. The length of hole is 461 yard from the back tee, which makes a difficult par 4 hole. On the left side fairway, player can get more angle to the green.
Hole # 2, on the tee(the open view)
Hole #3: par 3 - 169yds
Hole #4: par 5 - 559yds=blinded hole (on the ridge on the fairway)
Hole #5: par 4 - 368yds=blinded hole (steep right dogleg)
Hole #6: par 4 - 333yds=blinded hole
Hole #7: par 3 - 161yds
Hole #8: par 5 - 513yds
Hole #9: par 4 - 334yds=blinded hole (steep right dogleg)
Hole #10 : par 3 - 147yds
Hole #11 : par 4 – 392yds
Hole #12 : par 5 – 500yds
Hole #13 : par 4 – 429yds
Hole #14 : par 4 – 389yds
Hole #15 : par 5 – 513yds
Hole #16 : par 4 – 335yds
Hole #17 : par 3 – 148yds
Hole #18 : par 4 - 394yds=blinded hole (steep right dogleg)
After the second shot, the routing of Morton hall is above the same. There are even 5 blind hole from the first hole to the final 18 hole. I think that blinded hole can be used as strong impressive hole. So I am not negative in designing the blind hole. But in Morton hall course, there are many blind holes. If there are affluent reasons such as the panoramic, majestic, and fantastic view of next hole or green, It will be reasonable and can be the good golf course. However, in this golf course, the use of blind holes is very often, and after the blinded shot there is no strong impression in hole [6, 9, and 18hole]. I guess that the reason is why this course was not built by one architect, and after being built, nine holes was added. Therefore, they had to squeeze the routing of hole by designing steep dogleg holes, which gave me awkward and weird impression.
Hole # 5, on the tee
on the green there is no strong impact
Hole #5. on the fairway
Also after the blinded tee shot, there is no strong impact on the green
Except the trace of squeezing the routing, the view of several hole is majestic. In there, some landscape elements such as gorse, wall, and Edinburgh view was used well.
Hole #8. on the tee
The view of Edinburgh city, wall, and vegetation is well harmonized. And the ridge on the fairway makes semi-blind, which stimulates the golfers’ curiosity.
Hole #10. on the tee
The green, angled to the tee, is surrounded by bunkers in which it is preferable to be, rather than down the steep banking on the left. And additionally, background on the green makes open view harmonizing with green well.
Hole#12. on the tee
The drive is from an elevated tee and should be shaped for distance by following the contours of the fairway on the right, which makes the hole look like natural landscape.
Hole#16.on the tee
Usually, in some golf course 11-13hole or 15-17hole was highlighted, which makes golfers impressed. Also, in this course, architects focused on the view of 16-17. The view of the holes is good. But personally, I don’t like the view much. Because on second hole, I already appreciated the view such as pine, pond, and other elements. So I could not be surprised. In addition, the size of pond is not big, which is used only in par 3 to penalize golfers. Therefore, I could not be impressed so much.
When I play golf in any courses, I really enjoy the flow of view. Like that of novel, the view of golf course has to have ‘flow of view’. The flow will repeat ‘strong or weak visual impact’. If the flow is too weak or too strong, the golf course cannot be a memorable golf course. In the case of Morton hall, in some hole, it has a strong visual impact on the tee. But some blind shot or steep doglegged hole was too weak on me. Even the walk way from the green to 18hole tee was too long, which made me exhausted. Contrary to my expectation, the last 18 hole was blinded.
In conclusion, I think that totally the view of Morton hall and its use is well done. But the harmony between original hole and added hole is not natural. Especially the visual impact of last 3holes was not impressing on me. Personally, I think that Morton hall is exemplary golf course that shows the importance of renovation. It means that designing golf course is a systematic process from routing to detail design. Without these process, if some holes are added or redesign, it will be very difficult for architects to renovate it to good golf course.
Next week, I will post the article about Royal Aberdeen or Cruden bay golf course. Personally, I really like the flow of view of above golf courses and also strong visual impact in some hole. I will post about that continuously.
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