samuel rosenstein
People ask me all the time why i ever wanted to be a landscape architect and why i would ever want to design golf courses, and even though i have taken a different road in the path of my life, my passion for design, the natural environment, and the greatest game ever invented are still as fervent as ever…my father is probably the only person in the world that truly understands how much a picture like this means to me…this is a photograph of the 16th and 17th holes of, in my opinion, the greatest golf course architectural achievement of all time, Cypress Point…designed by the legendary Allister Mckenzie (the same architect that designed Augusta National, home to the Masters), this is without a doubt the most impossible course to be play in the world…i would absolutely kill to play this course and seeing images of it makes me realize how much i miss playing golf, how much i miss that individual connection with mother nature, and how today’s golf courses have been compromised by greed, money, and for the most part a lack of conceptual fortitude and a general loss of the innocence and naturalism that courses such as Cypress Point possess…one day dad, one day This course is so special not only because it is the most remote, raw, and virtually unknown course in the world, or the fact that it never gets played by professionals in a tournament, or that if Obama was to call and want a tee time they would laugh in his face, but because it points to what the game of golf is all about..Its more than Tiger Woods (who i love), its more than the majors, it’s more than a rich man’s game (such an unfair label)…golf is an individual sport that challenges you to get into a mindset that is in a way hypnotic and dreamlike, but it’s a place where when you are in the zone everything else becomes a blur…i have never in my life felt more centered and completely focused and dialed in not only to my body, but my brain than when i am in the midst of a career round.  It is like art in a way, the ability to express what you are thinking in your mind to what you dictate with your hands and the challenge of executing that through the connection of your brain to your arms, legs, and body; the essence of perfect execution is something not felt or experienced too often, but golf is a great sport because I could never play basketball like MJ (as much as I yearn to), but for one hole, one shot, one putt, even for just one moment I can be tiger woods…People can say whatever they want about golf, but if you want to know what it’s really all about don’t ask the wall street prick that has more money than god that retired at age 40 to go out and hack up nice courses all over the coast…ask the kids from the local high school golf team that have to go on the outside of the fences of the shitty driving range to pick up balls in order practice…ask the father who takes his son or daughter out on the putting green for the first time and imagine the smile on his face when his kid sinks his/her first five footer…ask the four distant college friends that get together once every five years to light up stogies and play a $5, $5, $5 ‘nasau’ all weekend at Bandon Dunes and remember how much fun it is to just be with the guys with all the shit life throws at you, ask anyone that has ever been lucky enough to get a hole in one and try not to smile after seeing the jubilation in their face after they tell you the story, you won’t be able to, ask Melvin, the kind soft spoken 82 year old that just got diagnosed with cancer and has a year to live in which he plays golf everyday because that is what he loves, and he no longer has any family, but lives out the remainder of his full and happy life playing the sport that was there for him always and who on the last day of his life is given a gift from the golf gods and shoots his age (ironically his personal best) and who then can go comfortably into his next life knowing full well he went out the way he wanted to… the natural beauty of the worlds landscape is such an incredible forum to play such a beautiful and frustrating sport, and when im out there on the course with my walking bag, drenched in sweat from the setting summer sun, alongside my lifelong golf partner in my father, looking at our shadows that have grown to three times our size as we traverse the green sizing up the task at hand, i feel calm, confident, and connected to the earth..it is these moments when i have religious experiences (the don’t call umm the golf gods for nothing) as whenever i am having a great day, i know its because the big man upstairs took the day off to go play on the course of the gods, Cypress Point..

People ask me all the time why i ever wanted to be a landscape architect and why i would ever want to design golf courses, and even though i have taken a different road in the path of my life, my passion for design, the natural environment, and the greatest game ever invented are still as fervent as ever…my father is probably the only person in the world that truly understands how much a picture like this means to me…this is a photograph of the 16th and 17th holes of, in my opinion, the greatest golf course architectural achievement of all time, Cypress Point…designed by the legendary Allister Mckenzie (the same architect that designed Augusta National, home to the Masters), this is without a doubt the most impossible course to be play in the world…i would absolutely kill to play this course and seeing images of it makes me realize how much i miss playing golf, how much i miss that individual connection with mother nature, and how today’s golf courses have been compromised by greed, money, and for the most part a lack of conceptual fortitude and a general loss of the innocence and naturalism that courses such as Cypress Point possess…one day dad, one day

This course is so special not only because it is the most remote, raw, and virtually unknown course in the world, or the fact that it never gets played by professionals in a tournament, or that if Obama was to call and want a tee time they would laugh in his face, but because it points to what the game of golf is all about..Its more than Tiger Woods (who i love), its more than the majors, it’s more than a rich man’s game (such an unfair label)…golf is an individual sport that challenges you to get into a mindset that is in a way hypnotic and dreamlike, but it’s a place where when you are in the zone everything else becomes a blur…i have never in my life felt more centered and completely focused and dialed in not only to my body, but my brain than when i am in the midst of a career round.  It is like art in a way, the ability to express what you are thinking in your mind to what you dictate with your hands and the challenge of executing that through the connection of your brain to your arms, legs, and body; the essence of perfect execution is something not felt or experienced too often, but golf is a great sport because I could never play basketball like MJ (as much as I yearn to), but for one hole, one shot, one putt, even for just one moment I can be tiger woods…People can say whatever they want about golf, but if you want to know what it’s really all about don’t ask the wall street prick that has more money than god that retired at age 40 to go out and hack up nice courses all over the coast…ask the kids from the local high school golf team that have to go on the outside of the fences of the shitty driving range to pick up balls in order practice…ask the father who takes his son or daughter out on the putting green for the first time and imagine the smile on his face when his kid sinks his/her first five footer…ask the four distant college friends that get together once every five years to light up stogies and play a $5, $5, $5 ‘nasau’ all weekend at Bandon Dunes and remember how much fun it is to just be with the guys with all the shit life throws at you, ask anyone that has ever been lucky enough to get a hole in one and try not to smile after seeing the jubilation in their face after they tell you the story, you won’t be able to, ask Melvin, the kind soft spoken 82 year old that just got diagnosed with cancer and has a year to live in which he plays golf everyday because that is what he loves, and he no longer has any family, but lives out the remainder of his full and happy life playing the sport that was there for him always and who on the last day of his life is given a gift from the golf gods and shoots his age (ironically his personal best) and who then can go comfortably into his next life knowing full well he went out the way he wanted to…

the natural beauty of the worlds landscape is such an incredible forum to play such a beautiful and frustrating sport, and when im out there on the course with my walking bag, drenched in sweat from the setting summer sun, alongside my lifelong golf partner in my father, looking at our shadows that have grown to three times our size as we traverse the green sizing up the task at hand, i feel calm, confident, and connected to the earth..it is these moments when i have religious experiences (the don’t call umm the golf gods for nothing) as whenever i am having a great day, i know its because the big man upstairs took the day off to go play on the course of the gods, Cypress Point..

Posted 2 years ago