Surveying the Green
By Larry Gilland
From time to time, I have an opportunity to “hit the links,” “survey the green,” or, to use the more common term, golf.
Though it's important and valid to unwind and see the opportunity as simply a fun day out in nature, it also gives us home designers and builders a chance to refresh what we learned in school, as many of the same skills apply.
The average golfer will drive the golf ball around 260+ yards. When the tee is elevated, the physics of golf come into play.
“It is easy to see that, in order to produce a path such as that sketched below, in which, (according to estimates sent me from St. Andrews a couple of months ago, when I was unable to procure them myself) (where D is the highest point of the trajectory) the initial speed and the resistance must both be very great. For clearness, the vertical scale is much exaggerated.”
-P.G. Tait, “Some Points in the Physics of Golf,” Nature, 1890
Playing golf is particularly helpful when designing homes along golf courses. How many golf balls are on that new site you just visited? And how far is it from the tee box, or even from a second shot? Designing the home so that it will not be hit – either by having glass break or incurring other damage – is an essential challenge to consider in orienting the home on the site.
The second shot from the drive to the green requires good judgment of distance. A second shot is generally 150 yards, or 450 feet. Many of the custom homes that surround a golf course are around 125-160 feet in size – plus landscaping. Often times when walking a site – golf course or not – it’s good to be able to accurately judge distance for planning a home.
As a home designer walks a site for views and room locations, having that inner compass and sense of distance is incredibly helpful, and playing golf helps hone that skill set.
Golf also teaches us about slopes. When you watch the pros play on a Sunday afternoon, you can see them judging the slope of the golf green and the roll of the ball.
Observing the slope of a home site – like the slope of a green – helps a design professional plan for water to slope AWAY from the home. It also helps us envision the levels of a home. For example, will a site work for a walkout or garden level?
So the next time you hear that your design professional is out “surveying the green” to take a break from the office for a couple hours, consider that they are just honing their skills!
A short time ago, Lain Chappell and Charlie Shea of Shea Chappell Luxury Homes invited me to play 18 holes at Sanctuary Golf Course in Sedalia, along with Mike Regennitter from Colorado Springs Magazine. Sanctuary Golf Course is an exception among courses. It’s located on a 12,500 acre tract of land with NO homes along the course. The fairways are tight, and it’s hard not to be distracted by the incredible views of the Front Range from the elevated tee boxes. It truly is quite the course – the sand traps are made of sand, and the waterfalls aren’t just a trickle.
Thank you to Lain, Charlie, and Mike. It was a beautiful and enjoyable day.