Is golf course design architect driven or player driven ?

[Andrew Summerell]

Is golf course design architect driven or player driven ?

What areas favour one more than the other? Is the industry progressing towards the betterment of the game? Who has a true understanding of what is best for the game? (Architects, developers or players)

Please state your opinion and why.

[Tom_Doak]

Andrew:

Your question is a bit vague and I'm not sure I understand it completely.  Architects are also players, although we're generally not at the top of our form!

However, I would say that my designs are based on my own observations about golf, a mix of the tradition of the game which I learned overseas and what I see of how it is being played today.  I'm influenced by golfers, but they're not telling me directly what I should do, and I listen with a grain of salt when they do.

[PjW]

Andrew:

I think that golf design must be driven by the Architect.  However the Architect does have some constraints to design to and the general rules of what a golf course is. What sells is dependent upon the developer and what his golf 'market' is.  Hopefully, the Architect and Developer are in sync as to what that market is and create a sucessful course for the player.  Thats why an architect must gear his design for the end user, wheither it a daily fee player, member player, resort player or tournament player.  I dont think its an either or type of answer.

Phil Wycoff

[cary lichtenstein]

Hopefully it will be driven by the architect.

We used to design fabrics, we knew our customer, but whenever we got too pedestrian, those fabrics never did any good.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Andrew,

I'm going to take the contrary position and say that it's driven by golfers.

Architect's can design all they want, if it doesn't appeal to golfers, it'll be a housing development in 5 years.

[Kyle Harris]

Andrew,

I'm going to take the contrary position and say that it's driven by golfers.

Architect's can design all they want, if it doesn't appeal to golfers, it'll be a housing development in 5 years.

...or Stone Harbor.

[Andrew Summerell]

I apologise for being a bit vague. I believe the industry should be architect driven, but obviously money keeps the industry going. A course that doesn’t attract players doesn’t make money, so I would have to agree with Patrick in that it is player driven.

I was interested to see you reply Tom, as I have now played 2 of your courses & walked one other. They were all wonderful courses, & although 2 of them are new I am sure they will be successful in attracting players. Unfortunately, courses of this quality seem to be in the minority when I think through the new courses I have played of the last 15 years.

My belief is that in general, the average player couldn’t tell the difference between a good course, a great course & an average course if they were all well conditioned. I hope I’m being too harsh, but I think not.

There are many poorly designed courses here in Australia & in America that are doing great business because they concentrate on course conditioning & service to the golfer. Why should a developer care what the course is like as long as it continues to bring in revenue.

There are a few architects out there supporting the idea of an architect driven industry through the work they are doing, but many defer to designing popular courses, which I don’t believe educates the average golfer, or helps the industry for the future.