A thread for architects only...

[Michael Dugger]

I thought it might be fun to have a thread dedicated to architects and architects only.  

If and only if we can stick to asking tasteful questions; those which will not drive away Mr. Brauer, Doak, Engh, et al.... or possibly compromise their professional image.

So I offer up the following question:

Can you speak of deriving pleasure or any other emotional response from watching great players in big tournaments play on a course you designed?

[John Kavanaugh]

I thought it might be fun to have a thread dedicated to architects and architects only.  

If and only if we can stick to asking tasteful questions; those which will not drive away Mr. Brauer, Doak, Engh, et al.... or possibly compromise their professional image.

So I offer up the following question:

Can you speak of deriving pleasure or any other emotional response from watching great players in big tournaments play on a course you designed?

Umm, I don't believe Mr. Brauer, Doak, Engh, et al have ever had a big tournament played on one of their courses.  Next question...

[Michael Dugger]

Okay

Does the prospect of having a big tournament played on your course invoke any particular reaction?

In other words, how would you feel watching Tiger and Ernie do battle down the back nine over a course you designed for the PGA Championship?

[Lloyd_Cole]

I thought it might be fun to have a thread dedicated to architects and architects only.  

If and only if we can stick to asking tasteful questions; those which will not drive away Mr. Brauer, Doak, Engh, et al.... or possibly compromise their professional image.

So I offer up the following question:

Can you speak of deriving pleasure or any other emotional response from watching great players in big tournaments play on a course you designed?

Umm, I don't believe Mr. Brauer, Doak, Engh, et al have ever had a big tournament played on one of their courses.  Next question...

The Curtis Cup 2006 Pacific Dunes.

[John Kavanaugh]

I forgot...just like the rest of the world.

[Jeff_Brauer]

They played a senior tourney on Springhouse at Opryland for years.  My first thought was that those mounds were originally meant to be covered in fescues.  The course looks rather monontone on TV.

The Nationwide Tour plays on my Champions in Omaha, and Jason Gore won his battlefield promotion there......My kids saw my name on the TV screen and thought it was cool.

The funniest feeling I ever had was with Kemper Lakes - a Killian and Nugent design, of course, but my first project.  When Mike Reid stubbed that chip on 17, he did it on the first green plan I ever drew.  I recall discussing it with Nugent, and he didn't like that I drew it with the back ten feet sloping to the back and lake but let it go without change.  With the retaining wall, Reid couldn't back up to read the chip, and it may be the only slope you hit into like that, and he came up short.  I had the feeling (rightly or wrongly) that I had some effect on the outcome of the '89 PGA.

[Tom_Doak]

To date, the Curtis Cup is the biggest event that's been played on any of my courses.  I had the pleasure of attending the event and helping Mike Davis set the hole locations for the four rounds.

It was gratifying to see the course played the way you imagined it could be played.  I don't always hit all the shots the way I intended them.  The best shot I saw in the event was a 4-wood from 250 yards, played perfectly to bounce and run up onto the 15th green, by one of the English players who was 3 down with 4 to play in her match.

I love to watch great players come out to tackle our courses and see what kind of shots they can hit, but I don't care much at all whether it's in a tournament setting or just a friendly round.

[Michael Dugger]

wonderful!!  thanks so much, guys.

I guess the impetus for my proposing this question is pondering how cool it must be for history to be made over one of your courses.

Today, on the golf channel, they showed a rerun of Tiger vs May battling at Valhalla.  How significant was that epic battle, considering it fulfilled the 3rd of 4 legs of the Tiger slam?

I think it must be neat to consider one day a course you designed could be a part of golf history, like the entire body of Masters lore, Watson at Pebble, Watson and Nicklaus at Turnberry, Stewart at Pinehurst #2 or even Daly at Crooked Stick.

One day you are the only guy on the face of the earth tilling in some lyme on the fairway, the next the entire golf world is focused on your design efforts.

Tom?  Wasn't the NCAA championship held on The Rawls Course???  

[paul cowley]

Michael....I've had the opportunity twice.

The first was when the Canadian Tour held its opening tournament on the Love Barefoot course one year and the second was/is the PGA tour event that has been held at Forest Oaks CC the past five years.

It was decided that the Forest Oaks course needed a renovation to stay challenging for the Tour players and we were given a ten month window to totally redo all the green complexes, tees, bunkering and shift a few holes to new configurations. I stationed myself their to during this period....a period that also saw 82" of rain, making Greensboro NC the wettest place on the east coast that year.

Somehow we pulled it off and its been great fun to see the players tackle the course. We also have access to all the Shotlink stats that the tour collects.
We have made only a few minor tweaks and the course that has stood up well with the tour players, while still being a good members course the other 51 weeks of the year.

Davis missed the cut the first two years and was injured for the third...and he was starting to receive a little ribbing....so it was immensely gratifying when he won the event on his forth try.

This year he was again injured and couldn't defend.

[Jeff_Mingay]

A few years ago, Blackhawk Golf Club (Edmonton, AB) hosted a friendly event featuring Peter Jacobsen, Craig Stadler, Fred Couples and Stephen Ames.

Blackhawk was my first job working with Rod Whitman.

Whitman and I were inside the ropes following the foursome. When we got up to the first fairway, Rod noticed the flag cut at a very difficult spot back-right -- atop a small plateau, on the heavily contoured green, with a rise in front and a steep fall-off behind.

He says to me, something like: "This is suppose to be a fun day, to showcase the golf course to prospective members... why would they put the hole there?!"

Just then, Stadler stands over about an 80-yarder to the flag. He plays one of the coolest shots I've ever seen -- a head-high screamer that pitches just short of the rise, skips up the slope, then puts the brakes on about 5-6 inches from the cup!

Whitman and I could only look at each other and laugh  

[Jason McNamara]

"Gentlemen, I believe the hole is eminently fair."