Pete Dye in his Feature Interview on this site notes that ‘variety’ is a key tenet to good design. In judging an architect’s body of work, doesn’t the same yardstick apply?
That’s what screams out from this month’s Feature Interview: the diversity of Bobby Weed’s work. A Dye protégé, you’ll find photographs of Bobby’s original work in a slew of different locales: a quintessential American pastoral setting in the hills of Virginia, in Texas, and TPC courses in Connecticut and Japan. You’ll see restoration work high in the mountains of North Carolina and in the middle of Indiana at my favorite U.S. nine hole course. There is his complete overhaul of Deltona in Florida, as visually transformational as it gets. In between, he built the short course at Olde Farm (see Bart Bradley’s profile of it under In My Opinion) to boot. Two big 'ticks' for geographic dispersion + types of work (short/9 holer/18 holer/restoration/renovation). There is no pigeonholing or stereotyping his portfolio, a laudable attribute for a man who has been in the business for 35 plus years.
A former Green Keeper, you can expect Bobby’s designs to drain well and function properly. Unlike some architects who might be more quixotic than real world, Bobby gets what drives long term sustainability, as found in this answer:
“We have a somewhat trite saying around our office: “The first step to sustainability is profitability.” The essence of that notion is that any operating strategy - for any course - needs to be financially self-sufficient in order to persist for the long term.” That seems self-evident today but back in the mid-2000s, any and everything went, right up until it didn’t!
By my count, the 270 yard 8th is one of eight ½ par holes at Olde Farm. Should the golfer take a swipe at the green/higher right side or lay up down the lower left side? As a member of Olde Farm and Grandfather Mountain where Bobby is working, Bart Bradley (who helped compile this Feature Interview) notes,
‘Bobby’s brings a broad basis of knowledge to every project, from design to drainage, grasses, and land plans. Plus he worked for one of the all-time greats. He has great imagination and is a problem solver. What more could you want? We are lucky to have him.’ Indeed - see what you think of this month’s Feature Interview!
Best,