After much consternation and after reading the other Proclamtion post...MYDGOLF has issued a public golf proclamation. It's only natural, green and environmentally sensitive since it is all we have ever done. As we all know putting Mercedes on Honda car lots in small American towns and expecting to sell them will not work. The same applies to golf. The concept of thinking a signature designer has a place in regional public golf is no different than the mindset that allows "Johnny Cochran Law Office" franchises to exist throughout the U.S. It works the same way.
MIKE YOUNG DESIGNS ISSUES PUBLIC GOLF PROCLAMATION
We acknowledge that the global golf organizations, associations, and governing bodies, as well as many of the signature golf architecture firms worldwide have finally come to acknowledge that they will need to accept public course work if they are to remain in the golf design business in the future. Most have rarely worked to promote public access to affordable, high-quality golf. Environmentally responsible golf is of little concern except for use in marketing. We acknowledge that the associations and organizations and many architects have only recently advised using less expensive construction methods they condemned in years past. In an effort to cut through the bullshit that is hindering the fostering of the communal spirit of the game we offer the following declaration to golfers and prospective golfers of every nation:
We aspire to:
1. Advise municipalities and other government entities of the pitfalls involved in creating golf courses for their citizens that are over designed and constructed whereby the only people that will ever reap a profit from these facilities are the general contractor and the signature architect.
If we are asked to create great golf courses for their citizens through insightful, integrated master plans specific to each community we will advise the municipalities and other government entities as to how they can endanger and possibly bankrupt their tax paying owners of other public golf courses.
2.We will assist communities in creating programs and initiatives that make the public understand that most public courses are the basis for learning the game and are not intended to be great public courses over designed to the point that the average person cannot learn the game nor can the average owner afford the course.
3. Advise and explain to public golf facilities that building a golf course on degraded sites just because there is a degraded site or unproductive land is not always a good idea. We will diligently try make these owners aware that "sustainability", "eco-sensitive", "green" are buzzwords used mainly by marketing segments of the signature design industry and other golf organizations trying to continue to promote the game in any way they can.
4. Always make sure the client understands that golf has always been a much better protector and enhancer of the environment than the average farm and most of the new hype is nothing more than new hype.
5. Make sure the client knows we have always designed courses that require less earth moving, water, fertilizer, and other resources in an effort to keep investment and operating costs-and therefore green fees-reasonable. And we will make sure the client understands that the larger signature firms did not seek out this segment of the business until they had completely desecrated the the development side of the industry. We will also make sure the owner understands that the larger firms and associations have often in the past not advocated some of the cost saving measures and construction methods that they are now promoting AND that they often scoffed at those that used such measures knowing that it would make their clients course profitable.
6. We will make sure the client understands that statements such as : "Create wider strategic routings and sets of shorter "family tees" to encourage children to take up golf and have fun playing it" are too little too late and actually have nothing to do with encouraging people to take up the game.
7. Advocate for non- innovative, basic practice facilities where young people and newcomers can learn to love golf at a reasonable cost. We want to emphasize to the public that most of the support programs and organizations that introduce new players to the sport are not effective and are extremely heavy on the administrative end. It is also important that the public understand that many of these organizations thrive on large corporations using their support efforts as a "feel-good" promotion to the public.
8. Design facilities that encourage people to play golf as it was meant to be played without all of the additional elements that the recent years have layered on the game.
9. We promise to continue to create public courses that are flexible, fun, and challenging to golfers of a wide range of abilities as we and many other regional designers have done for the last 30 years . we promise to make sure the public understands that the large signature firms do not have the experience to design such courses and that there is no way to justify such.
10. We promise not to be so pompous as to suggest to local golf course owners to support local businesses and take an active role in their communities. We acknowledge that these people are good business people and have been supporting their local communities for years in most cases.
11. We will strive to make the public owner understand that when and if residential golf course design comes back the international signature firms will abandon their efforts toward affordable golf course projects.
12. And lastly we will aspire to ingrain in the public owner the understanding that golf is first a game and secondly a business. Trying to make it something it isn't will fail.