Did any architect ever get it right to start?

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark,


I don’t know if you have seen St. Patrick’s, but I believe owner Frank Casey, Jr. recently stated he believes Tom and his team got it right from the beginning and other than enlarging a couple tees, Casey didn’t believe any changes would be necessary.


Having seen the course, I think Casey is probably right.

[Jim_Coleman]

Mark,
  I don’t know if you have seen St. Patrick’s, but I believe owner Frank Casey, Jr. recently stated he believes Tom and his team got it right from the beginning and other than enlarging a couple tees, Casey didn’t believe any changes would be necessary.


Having seen the course, I think Casey is probably right.






    If I hired one of the best architects in the world and spent millions of dollars to build a golf course, I would hope that I’d be happy with the result 3 years later. Come back 100 years from now.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark,
  I don’t know if you have seen St. Patrick’s, but I believe owner Frank Casey, Jr. recently stated he believes Tom and his team got it right from the beginning and other than enlarging a couple tees, Casey didn’t believe any changes would be necessary.


Having seen the course, I think Casey is probably right.






    If I hired one of the best architects in the world and spent millions of dollars to build a golf course, I would hope that I’d be happy with the result 3 years later. Come back 100 years from now.

Jim,


What is it about St. Patrick’s that you feel 100 years from now people will feel needs to be changed?


By the way, Ballybunion also hired one of the best architects in the world to build the Cashen and unlike St. Patrick’s, many people, including members, pretty quickly felt many changes were necessary.


IMO, what Tom did at St. Patrick’s, is far different and sustainable, than what Mr. Jones did and I say this as someone who loves Cashen regardless of its faults that were obvious from the beginning.


Tim

[Mark_Fine]

Tim,
St. Patrick’s was not finished the last time I was up that way.  I was just in Ireland again last week but didn’t have time to go as I was touring and working on a private nine hole par three course down in Skibberean.  I have only heard good things about St. Patrick’s and have no doubt it is fantastic.

[Kyle Casella]

Gil Hanse recently completed some updates to Boston Golf Club. As some of you may know, BGC opened in 2004/05 as one of his first original designs. The original model for the club was match play focused with a very small membership. There were (and still are) some very severe greens at BGC that would have been fine with slower green speeds and a limited play, match play focused environment. A few things happened in the ensuing two decades: a) John Mineck tragically passed away and the focus of the club evolved to a different model in order to survive; b) green speeds and maintenance standards changed; c) some settling happened making a couple of slopes even more severe and causing erosion in some bunkers.


As a result, the club worked with Gil to tweak green contours that impacted playability and pace of play. Green contours were softened in a few key places to match current green speed standards (personally, I think the greens at BGC should play slower but most members feel strongly that they should be fast). All of the holes have retained their original character while improving playability and offering more hole locations. I think this is a good example of an existing architect tweaking their work with the benefit of 20 years of additional experience in a changing environment. Were the changes strictly necessary? Not really, but the course is more enjoyable for more people as a result.

[Jim_Coleman]

   I have no reason to believe St. Patrick’s is anything but a great golf course. I am of the belief, however, that other than a piece of art the sole function of which is to be admired, nothing that is built today will not need improvement 100 years later.