Of the 1,500 registered participants to this Discussion Group, how many of us wouldn’t qualify as an armchair architect??
Based on various posts, I wager very few!
Yet, the romanticized version of golf course architecture - the architect is called to build an oceanside course through dunes - is so wildly different from reality as to be thoroughly depressing. Indeed, the more architects with whom I get to speak, the more I admire them for their perseverance and determination than perhaps other qualities normally associated with the profession. A long time ago, my vision/version of a golf course architect was someone who worked on great golf courses. As a totally useless and clueless guess, yet in typical GolflubAtlas.com fashion of not letting facts ruin a good story
, I bet that no more than 10% of today’s living architects get to work on a ‘great’ course during their career. A lot of that depends on how one defines great, of course. For the purpose of my statement, I say a course that doesn’t merit consideration among the world top two hundred.
Having said that, and in an effort to get to the point (or is that Pont?
) I motion Frank Pont for being among the smartest architects period because he gets to do what architects are supposed to – work on great courses! Though a newcomer in the past five years to this profession, Frank has already worked on at least five world class courses - Royal Hague, De Pan, Kennemer, Cruden Bay and Fontainebleau. That resume impresses me to no end.
Meanwhile, the real life of most other golf course architects is the opposite – indifferent land with which to work, no budget, an all-knowing owner, environmental restrictions galore, housing/cart path/road concerns, etc. In sort,
Now I freely admit that Frank has yet to design his own original eighteen hole course (though he has done three nine hole courses). Finding original work in the Netherlands is slow going, and perhaps not but so appealing, as it would be away from the dunes and in the flat interior. Regardless, here is an architect who has made the most of his situation from his base forty minutes southeast of Amsterdam. Importantly, his grasp on the classic elements of golf course design lead me to believe he would make for an excellent candidate for a new eighteen course as well. Until that day comes, hope you enjoy this month’s Feature Interview with someone who is diligently bringing back into focus some of the great gems in continental Europe.
Cheers,