Questions for the architect (Mike Dasher)

[John_Conley]

Tomorrow I will have the chance to hear Mike Dasher speak about golf course architecture and his design business.  He is a disciple of Arthur Hills who is featured in John Strawn's Driving the Green.  Solo credits are Highland's Reserve, North Shore, and Eagle Dunes in the Orlando area and he has some projects around his hometown of Atlanta.  His niche appears to be lower-end courses tied to a real estate project. FWIW, his three Orlando courses are all quite good.  Put simply, I think the world needs more courses like what he designs and less of the ambitious projects trying to one-up their neighbors.

What questions would you ask him about design philosophy, marketing his services, or trends in architecture?  Suffice to say he will be addressing the ball/distance issue.

[JakaB]

I never understood why Longaburger Golf Club didn't use baskets instead of flags much like Merion....If given the chance I would love to ask him if he knows who supervised the grow in at Half Moon Bay because it was one of the most professional jobs I have ever seen.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

John, I had the opportnity a few years ago f having an email conversation withMike Dasher about one of his designsin the Palm Desert for US Homes called, Heritage Palms. I was somewhat intrigued by the design of the course,because it was a fun course to play, but had the unfortunate dilemma of too many houses surrounding....make that literally choking the golf course (It was only the back nine at the time because construction hadn't yet begun on the houses around the front.)

There were some very dangerous areas. Very, very  dangerous, and Mike was open to answer my questions in explaination of how US Homes only allows them 300 foot of corridor space to build a golf hole, and designing a golf course under that rule, all of the time, has to be somewhat trying. It was certainly an eye opener.

[A_Clay_Man]

John- Ask him about the arms race you mention and whether the longevity of courses is directly related to how good they are, not great. Does that make sense? It implies fiscal responsibility which is as I understand rather difficult in this industry.

[John_Conley]

Thanks.  I'll pose these questions along with my own, which are mainly marketing-driven.  

Sorry AClayman, but I don't exactly understand what I'm asking!  How good, not great?  You are asking something about how courses hold up over time in resisting longer drives, no?

[John_Conley]

Barney & Tommy:

Mike was in charge of the Southeast for Art Hills and did not work on those projects.  Sorry.

The gist of his talk was that he was in golf construction, wanted to do more, got his Masters degree, and worked for Hills.  He was given an opportunity with some others to eventually take over the Hills brand, but said he, "didn't figure you'd ever done anything in this business until you put your name on it."  (He added that Hills was always very good about giving credit, so it wasn't like he felt slighted in any way.)

A Orlando-area project opened up at Highlands Reserve, where he made good on a promise to build a course for about $1,000,000.  The owners sold out after two years for twice what they had in the project, so a precedent was established and his other two Orlando projects at North Shore and Eagle Dunes follow a similar formula.

A far cry from the scale of projects from Rees Jones, Tom Fazio, or Jack Nicklaus!

I'm not familiar with his Atlanta work, but I can attest that his Orlando courses are all very good.