Feature Interview with Randy Thompson is posted

[Ran Morrissett]

Golf course architect Randy Thompson (www.americangolfcoursedesign.com) is treated – there is no better way to put it – like a rock and roll star in South America. No matter where you go with him, be it hotels, ferries, golf courses, vineyards, people come running up wanting to talk with him.

Based in Santiago, Chile, it is wonderful to see what he, an American by birth, has created for himself. From courses with the Andes as the back drop to ones along the ocean, the range in courses that Randy has been involved in is astonishing. Such varied opportunities must be every architect’s dream when they set out on their own and Randy has accomplished that objective.

A review of Kelly Blake Moran and Randy’s Four Seasons Carmelo is found here http://www.golfclubatlas.com/carmelo1.html. Not only is it considered the best in Uruguay, it was voted in a magazine while Ben and I were there as the best in South America. My one regret is that we don’t have Randy’s best photos in this month’s Feature Interview. His laptop was stolen   as we waited in a long taxi cue in Buenos Aires and the photos he had shown us are gone forever. One day, we’ll get posted photos from his La Serena course with its six to fifteen feet sanddunes set along the sea. Once again, he successfully teamed with Kelly on that project and they made the most of the great opportunity by disturbing the land as little as possible and leaving well enough alone.

Anyway, it’s great to bounce from Japan and last month’s Feature Interview to this one re: golf in South America. The challenges in building great courses in different parts of the world are diverse but common themes emerge including the difficulty in finding good property, a good owner, and skilled labor.

Golf in South America is lucky to have Randy Thompson and his experienced eye and Randy is the first to tell you how lucky he is to live on that great continent – a win for all.

Cheers,

[George Pazin]

Another very interesting interview - no surprise there.

This remark, however, is bordering on shocking to me:

6. Tell us about some hidden gems that you have discovered in South America.

 

One I can't talk about yet but it may be one the best pieces of land left on the  earth for a links type golf course, its so good I am recommending to the owner to hire an architect that has top one hundred experience. We are going through the permitting process but you will hear about it sometime in the near future.

I'm astonished that an architect would recommend bringing in another architect - in many ways, that is integrity at its finest.

Nice to see some KBM mentions - I'm sure I'm not the only one around here that misses his input.

P.S. It's kind of funny to me that in the 7th question, it sounds like he recommends making Big Mouth deeper - yikes, I wonder if he's ever seen it in person?

[Norbert P]

Bump.

[Mark Bourgeois]

If Argentina can join the Tri-Nations, and I say let them, then why can't that country and other Southern Cone nations have good golf?

Ran's reports from down there, a T&L Golf piece on Brazil, and this interview mark this area as the Undiscovered Continent of golf.

But it sounds like the business case is weak and they have to "import" golfers by building development courses.

My questions:
1. Is truly great linksland on offer anywhere down there, or land that could produce a course of Barnbougle Dunes quality?
2. If you could build such a course, could it survive financially?
3. Under what circumstances could anywhere down there attract pilgrim golfers, say from the U.S.? It's hard to imagine them going under any circumstances, although I think you can get to Santiago from Miami in shorter time than you can get from Miami to London. (Or I should say: Santiago airport.  Getting from the airport to the city center takes an unholy amount of time!)

Mark

[Randy Thompson]

Mark,
Nicklaus has two completed projects and like five in different stages in Argentina, now if that falls under the category of good golf, I will let you and other members decide. Most developers have hired him with hopes of attracking the large US pool market that seem to follow him and they have been fairly sucessful to this point in time. The Nicklaus group apparently thinks so because at least one of these projects that is under construction is being partly financed by an investment fund that they are associated with.
The tourism from the States has surged since the de-evaluation that the area experienced during 2001 as well as outside investments.
short answers to your questions:
1. yes there are a few spectacular dunes properties that I have been researching for about three years. I have not seen Barnbougles dunes but were talking about some really dramatic dunes property and that is not just my opinion but several other professionals that have seen them all.
2. Most likely Not if they have to survive on clients from the Southern cone area and if intial investments are high.
3. Not sure when was the last time you were in Santiago but there are two new highways from the airport making it about a fiteen minute drive to downtown on most hours of the day but can take double that under unusual circumstances.

[JMorgan]

Randy,

Welcome to the site, and thanks for the informative interview... we're glad to have you here!  

I get the impression from your interview that like many things in Latin America, building successful golf courses depends largely upon the stability of the local country's economy, in which case Chile should be a better bet than, say, Bolivia.  Is this true in general?  And is there enough of a golf culture to survive as a gca in Central and South America?  Do you see things getting better or staying the same?  Have you noticed if any trends have been linked to the value of the dollar?

[Randy Thompson]

J. Morgan,
Thanks its great to be here. Chile has the most stable economy, Argentina and Brazil seem to always end up in extremes and both are strong in this moment as I write but by the time your read this it could have changed. Chile had a boom from 92-2002 but the market saturated quickly with a golfing public of only something like seven thousand. The last course to open was a public course near the airport and the first in Chile. Argentina also has one public course and Brazil and other countries down here, none! There never have been even public driving ranges, so its hard to form a golfing clientele. How many people are gonna wake up and decide that I want a fifty thousand dollar memebership, two thousand dollars in clubs and start playing golf. In the last five years, two driving ranges have opened here in Chile but the process is going to be slow. Argentina on the other hand has had a number of driving ranges and well over 120,000 golf courses. There are more courses in Argentina then if you add up all the other courses in all the other countries. The English coming in some seventy years ago and building railroads also had an infulence on golf in Argentina. The dollar doesn't seem to have much influence in comparrison to these concepts and others such as security. Security is driving the residential closed neighborhood concept and greenspace helps sell, so why not put a golf course. When I moved back from Carmelo to Santiago, I bought a house in the nicest and safest neighborhood and my home was broken into twice in the first month. And this is the country with the least crime. I still live here and not in a gated community but I now have an electric fence surrounding the house, alarms and a rottweiler that I never feed. You will also see in Ran presentation of the interview that my computor was stolen while we waited in a cab line in Buenos Aires. Still with all these negatives, I am living in what I consider the best place in the world! Hope this gives you more insight.

[Randy Thompson]

Sorry 120,000 golfers!