Golf course architects

[Scott Warren]

I've noticed the large volume of members of this site who are golf course architects.

It got me wondering how saturated the market is, and with so many established architects in the industry, how a new architect gets a foothold, or convinces a club/course to choose them over someone with runs on the board?

[Jeff_Mingay]

Scott,

My dad told me years ago, no matter what business you're in, you better be a good salesman. This most definitely applies to golf course design. The most (financially) successful golf architects throughout history haven't necessarily been the most talented designers. But they've certainly been the best salesmen.

As they say, it's often not "what you know", it's "who you know".

[Jeff_Brauer]

Scott,

A few years ago, Toro mentioned that they sent out about 400 product manuals to gca's - worldwide, I presume.  Of course, that was in the boom prior to 2000 when just about every associate decided they could do it on their own, and probably took a nice client or two with them out of the office.

I am sure that number has dropped.  Rumors are that about 30 gca's are giving up the ghost this year.  But, who knows.  Its a cheap business to be in, if you really want.

I just saw the NGF stats for course openings.  In 2004, past the biggest boom, but where there were still about 300 USA based gca's, there were 150.6 equivant 18 hole courses opened - about 1 per every 2 gca's.  In 2008 there were 53.5 new courses and 18.5 expansions for an 18 hole equivalent of 72 new course projects.  Even counting the nine holers, that means 1 new project for every 4 gca's.

Its really worse than that, if you can imagine, because the Fazio, Nicklaus, Jones, Jones, Doak, CC, Norman, TPC Network, etc. all are way busier than average.  For the rest of us, its about a 1 in bazillion chance of landing a new project right now.....if not higher.  A lot of gca's survive on master plans,  2-3 hole remodels, lawsuit testimony, general consulting (old client called me today to offer a half dozen business analysis projects for soon to be bankrupts) etc.  I have also drawn a few plans for clients who want to be ready - so there is some work out there that doesn't show up on the books as new courses.

I am not busy by any stretch, but I opened a revamped nine holer, half a new 18 holer, a new 18 holer and an 18 hole total refurb last year.  That's 4 out of 72 which doesn't seem half bad, presuming the NGF actually picks up all that is on the radar screen.  There is some debate about whether they do.

As to your last question about how do we get work?  Haven't got the foggiest!  Mike Nuzzo seems to have gotten a small foothold and maybe he can answer.  

[TEPaul]

What do you mean you haven't got the foggiest??

It's very simple---YOU ARE THE GREAT Mr Jeffrey Brauer, Sir!!

Matter of fact, you are so famous and stylish and such that you may even suffer from that old "Pretty Girl" syndrome where a good number of people don't even dare ask you out because they think they have no chance in hell of getting you to say yes or even answer their phone call.

[Mike_Young]

As Jeff says......I think the number could be cut in half.....and I don't really know how one can become established in such a time as we have now......if you have been in it awhile you will have small things come along and as Jeff says the banks have much analysis type projects now.....but it ain't pretty......I think I am going to get a small 18 hole public with a weeny machine and  operate it along with designing if it keeps up for a few years....I am also considering fashion design,  an BIG energy bar  for large appetites , a pilates tape for fat guys and the BIGGEST  racket of all..... PUTTER DESIGN.....

[Tom_Doak]

Scott:

Timing is everything, and being in the right place at the right time.  If you were a golf course architect coming of age in 1931, you were cooked.  If you came of age in 1918 or 1960 or 1997, there were tons of opportunties.

The irony is that it's when the business looks bleakest and many drop out, that the young people just starting will probably be in the best position when the next boom happens.  But it's undoubtedly very tough right now.

[paul cowley]

The only thing I have actively under construction is in the remotest part of Texas......The Big Bend of the Rio Bravo Del Norte......and somehow in these times it seems fitting and secure to be in the middle of nowhere.

In fact I'm enjoying it very much.


 

[Forrest Richardson]

It is a very romantic profession. Just ask Brauer.  

(Always wanted to use that icon.)

I do think the profession is saturated as of the 1990s. I saw this coming, but there is nothing to do but stick to your game and, as Jeff M. says, be the best salesman you can be. The golf design business is won and lost by

(a) timing
(b) relationships
(c) talent

Not in that order ... necessarily. Timing in one case can make it, while a relationship in another can easily win the assignment. Talent is an obvious component.

The other variables are salesmanship, perceived talent (see "Monty" thread), and, I suppose, outright cannibalism of one designer going after another. I have seen this too often — it sickens me when the job is awarded due to some back-stabbing antics. But, I suppose that plays itself out in nearly all businesses.

[Scott Warren]

Thanks guys, that kinda meshes up with what I had imagined might be the case.

So to a certain extent there are plenty of "golf course architects" who are no more GCAs than the dudes waiting tables in LA are actors and writers?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Scott,

There are certainly plenty of associates out there no longer in the biz.  I haven't heard of too many firms just going under, but there have been a few.  If you are married to a woman who makes a decent income and can work out of the house, its possible to scrape by.  However, its not in any way the glamour that people associate with the biz.

However, your question is interesting - Brian Silva jokes that he specialized in "Ladies Tee Master Plans."  But, is that kind of design work less valuble to the golf world as a whole than a glitzy new 18 holes? 

My old mentor once chastised me for lamenting him giving the big project to another staff member, while I got a low budget 9 holer in Wisconsin (later expanded to 18 by me)  He told me I was doing more for golf by building a very good, reasonably priced course in the north woods (Lake Arrowhead in Nekoosa, WI) than anyone building an extravaganza somewhere else.

And, to this day, I think he was right!

[Mike_Young]

Thanks guys, that kinda meshes up with what I had imagined might be the case.

So to a certain extent there are plenty of "golf course architects" who are no more GCAs than the dudes waiting tables in LA are actors and writers?

Scott,
I have been trying to figure how to say that for a while re some of the stuff you hear on this site........