Feature Interview with Jim Engh is posted...

[Ran Morrissett]

...under Architecture Timeline and the Feature Interview section.

I read this week that Google’s market cap was over $116 billion. In 1999, If I had posted that GCA.com and Google’s combined   market cap would exceed $116B by Christmas 2006, people would have thought I was crazy.

Though Google pre-dates GolfClubAtlas.com by several years, our rise has been equally spectacular. Perhaps the one area that hasn’t gone exactly to plan (other than GCA.com share price trading well below ~$500   ) has been the number of Feature Interviews with architects. Indeed, as GCA.com got going and posting in the Discussion Group became akin to climbing in with the lions in the Roman Coliseum, some architects who had expressed interest in doing a Feature Interview faded away.

Of the architects with whom we have done a Feature Interview, a common denominator has been a sense of conviction – they all have a strong sense of purpose as to what they are trying to accomplish. And Jim Engh certainly falls in this camp. Reading his Feature Interview, one gains an immediate sense of his strong beliefs that he brings to each and every project, be it from bold green sites to the randomness that steep bunker walls can extract on the golfer depending on where in the bunker one’s ball finishes.

Where does this sense of conviction come from? In Jim’s case, it surely has evolved in large part from being in the business for 20 years and seeing what works/doesn’t work with designs all over the world, from Thailand to China to Austria to Ireland to the USA. No substitute for in the field experience!

I didn’t first meet Jim in the field but rather in the bar at Bandon where he was drawing a multiple route hole sketch for Tommy N. and talking about how a bowl green could influence one’s position on a second shot on a par five hole. A few years passed until this year where I watched Jim running around his angled bowl 5th green at Pradera showing how the golfer can always get from point A to point B if he uses enough imagination.  Jim’s enthusiasm for inventing shots reminds one as to what a great game golf is when played on courses where the architect gives the player something to do – courses like the ones Jim has been building for two decades.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving,

[Jay Flemma]

Ran, terrific interview.  Thanks for giving us all some great perspective on a really super guy too.  Well done.

I especially like how you detail both Pradera and its great holes like 10 and 17, and then talk about Fossil Trace too.  That was a long 12 year process and shows how skilled Jim is at turning his former critics into his allies.  Ther head archaeologist at U Denver used to be a staunch opponent and now he's the lead archaeologist at the course! (Dr. Martin lockley for those of you scoring at home.)

Great interview Ran.  Screw what blogshares says, your stock always soars.

Here's an interesting fact I bet alot of people didn't know...not a single CHRISTIAN was fed to the lions in the coliseum.  In fact not one CHRISTIAN was killed in the Coliseum.  The Romans were superstitious.  They played it safe, "ust in case they were wrong." All Christians were killed in the Circus Maximus (or as locals say Circo Massimo) instead - usually by getting run over by chariots.  If you go to the Circo, you'll almost always see priests walking around weeping and lamenting on how they are on the ground where so many "holy martyrs" lost their lives.  Its remarkably powerful.  

I took a couple turns around the Circo when I was a student/soccer player in Italy in the summer of '88.  We even played a team based near the Circo in the shadow opf the ruins.  That was a singular experience, let me tell you!  Standing there in goal, then looking off in the distance and seeing ruined temples, then having to focus back on gifted athletes coming at me in waves, then looking again and seeing my friends in the "stands" with ancient Rome for a backdrop...oh to be young again...

Anyway, back to Jim...he certainly has bravely battled the lions...both here and in the outside world and become stronger for it.  Its good to see that a man who was just misunderstood as "just having pretty canvases" is now being understood as having solid UK design concepts at the core of his work.  Like any great architect, he has his own style, yet it changes  from site to site, from client to client and as he ages.  Like all greats, he keeps the "wheat" and throws some "chaff" aside.

best of all, you show the wonderful young, vibrant and most importantly human side of the man.  Beers with friends, quality time with family, devotion to his North dakota roots...all those things make him well rounded and a fine human being.

Maybe some of it is Colorado, too.  There are three places where the synergy between the locals and the golf just skyrockets as one feeds off the other - Oregon, the carolinas and Colorado

Those are places to call home...and home courses...

[John_Conley]

There's a rumor that Jim Engh lurks here.  Maybe he'll see this!  Congratulations on golf design's 'highest honor' to a great guy.  I better see a Brauer interview soon.  

[Ryan Farrow]

I really like this excerpt from the interview:

"I am a great believer in making every hole with in a course have its own 'very distinct and prominent personality / concept' within each course."



This is one of the most striking features of Oakmont, and something I believe has made the course so great. Unfortunately I haven never seen an Engh course, so for those of you who have, is this something that really jumps out at you? How successful is he at achieving this self proclaimed belief?

[Andy Troeger]

Ryan,
I've only played one Engh course, Tullymore, but Engh's comment that you highlighted really illustrates why I liked the course. There truly was not a dull hole on the course. It was enjoyable to see some concepts and holes that I had not seen before on any other course. I'll be interested as I (hopefully!) play more of his courses whether I'll continue to be surprised!

[Michael Dugger]

My favorite quote:

"I choose to integrate my own interpretation of art with the playing of the game of golf to achieve that goal.  I.E. (the) core belief that golf was invented as a 'pastime' by which to add enjoyment during a walk from the village, through the linksland, to jobs at the seashore."

"Like it or not," Engh states, "those of us in the profession of golf course design are in the business of entertaining."

 

[Adam Clayman]

Jim is as affable in person as he comes off in the interview.

One of the keys is Jim's understanding that people are out there to have fun. He provides it, of that there is no question.

[Mark_Guiniven]

Only read about 3/4 of it. Started to feel sick. Awful awful awful.

[PThomas]

thanks Ran

got to play Jim's Fossil Trace this year...a pretty good course on a very difficult site

[Mike_Sweeney]

Only read about 3/4 of it. Started to feel sick. Awful awful awful.

Hux,

Have you ever played a Jim Engh course?

I have not, but will make a point of doing so because he did an interview here in a forum where he often gets beaten up.

Can you be specific, what was so awful, or more specifically "Awful awful awful"?

[Mike_Sweeney]

Mike,
No.
You're an idiot then.
Yes, but I'm not going to.

Hux,

I come to this website for fun. If you are going to speak to me that way, I will be forced to start hanging out with my wife more.  

By the way, it is a request of the owner that you post with your full name. I have never believed entirerly in this rule of Ran's until now.

[Mike_Sweeney]

Sorry Hux, I captured your comments before you erased them, now if you ask real nice and post with your real name..................

[Dan Kelly]

By the way, it is a request of the owner that you post with your full name. I have never believed entirerly in this rule of Ran's until now.

Agree wholeheartedly.

Who are you, "Hux"?

[Mike_Sweeney]

Mike,
No.
You're an idiot then.
Yes, but I'm not going to.

Hux,

You are a pretty deep guy. First your post is there, then it is gone, now it is back. Thanks for adding to the spirit of Thanksgiving weekend.

[cary lichtenstein]

Jim Engh's website is:

www.enghgolf.com

There is an Engh Golf Trail in Colorado, mostly public with a couple of privates mixed in.

Fly into Denver for:

Sanctuary
Red Hawk Ridge
Fossil Trace
Pradera

Then drive  past Vail and you can knock off 3 more

Lakota Canyon near Glenwood Springs
Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction
Snowmass Club near Aspen


Another way to do is it to fly into Grand Junction and do his courses in the following order:

Redlands Mesa
Lakota Canyon
Snowmass
Fossil Trace
Pradera
Red Hawk
Sanctuary

For a mini version I would recommend his older work:

Redlands Mesa
Lakota Canyon

And his newer work:

Pradera
Fossil Trace

[Gary Daughters]

Where do these clowns keep coming from?

Ekstein?
Hux?

Not to identify with the latter of these two morons, but I found the Engh interview to be rather difficult.  And then the more I pushed through it the more I found it to be one of the more enlightening windows yet on the elusive mind of a golf course creator.  I might encourage "Hux" to do the same, but my advice would be to toss the guy.  

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

This post and "Hux" have done in one second what several threads of badgering by some on this site have not done.  That is move me to go back to my full name again.  Now that is not to say that in a fit of feeling fiesty again someday I might not go back to just plain Turboe, but right now I just dont find myself wanting to be in the same nickname fraternity.

ps  Havent had time to read the interview in its entirety yet, but I can certainly tell you that Jim is as true, passionate about GCA and genuine as he comes across in person.  And he does like to drink a beer.  To any of his critics I would challenge you to discuss GCA over a beer with him someday and I think you might understand him better.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

OK I couldnt completely drop "Turboe" sorry I have to wean myself off of it.

[CHrisB]

Hux appears to be Mark Guiniven of Paraparaumu Beach GC in New Zealand.

He has had plenty to contribute here in the past, and is particularly knowledgeable about Alex Russell, Alister MacKenzie and their contributions to GCA in Australia/New Zealand.

In fact, I thought he delivered one of the best posts on one of the best threads of the year (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=25903;start=msg485405#msg485405) a couple of months ago.

[Gary Daughters]

Chris,

All fine and good, but there's a fairly wide expanse between Tom Paul's "saloon brawl" analogy and an episode of Jerry Springer.

Toss him.

[Mike_Sweeney]

Hux appears to be Mark Guiniven of Paraparaumu Beach GC in New Zealand.

He has had plenty to contribute here in the past, and is particularly knowledgeable about Alex Russell, Alister MacKenzie and their contributions to GCA in Australia/New Zealand.

In fact, I thought he delivered one of the best posts on one of the best threads of the year (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=25903;start=msg485405#msg485405) a couple of months ago.

Chris,

That is all fine and dandy, but Ran invited Jim Engh to "speak" to our little treehouse, and Mark should respect that if not Jim Engh's words since he has not seen Jim Engh's courses. Jim clearly understood the audience and could see the narrow mindness of some posters when Jim stated in the interview, "Sometimes criticism comes from those that have not 'experienced' my work. I find that mindset difficult to understand."

I know David Moriarity has been unkind to Jim's courses in the past, but at least he saw a few.

Now I am an "idiot" for wanting to see Jim Engh's work at Carne one of my favorite places on earth.

Why would you not want to see what a guy with a reputation for shaping and moving dirt will do to this site that has been wildly shaped by wind, waves, storms and the Irish version of Mother Nature.   Oh and it will sit next to 18 holes, arguably his best, by the TRUE minimalist of all time, Eddie Hackett.



Maybe Ran can start a etiquette school before he opens up Cabot Links.

[Mark_Guiniven]

No, look I don't really care. I'm sure there are Lego men out there who really appreciate this back-of-a-third-former's maths book, catch basin style of design. It's Ran's site. He can do whatever he wants and you can justify your spending anyway you want.

[Mike_Sweeney]

It's Ran's site. He can do whatever he wants

Yes it is, and he has requested that we post with our real names, so why don't you be a gentleman and support his request. Hit the profile button and you are on your way.

[Gary Daughters]

hey doctor, since you don't care and you're so friggin smart why not depart the scene and go do something useful?

[Mark_Guiniven]

Ran drops a "NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW" meta tag into the code and I think many of us gladly will. You're not an idiot Mike.