[Tim Liddy]

Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy today. Is it analogous to Golf Course Architecture in the US?
Convenience (and technology) has made Blockbuster obsolete. I can now watch a movie on my TV without having to go out and rent a DVD. 

On a small to medium remodel project, it is more convenient to work without a golf course architect that it is to work with one. GCA's require more cost, more time and "more everything" that clients do not want to hassle with in these tough times for golf.

2 choices: 

Architects that also do construction offer more value in this regard. Is this the future? Is sitting on a excavator and remodeling 5 bunkers the best way for an architect to focus over the next 5 years?

The other answer is to become a marketing machine, spending 90% of your time and money in marketing endeavors to be able to spend 10% in design. Yes, marketing is talking about sustainability, cost savings, etc.  
 

This is the future as I see it and future GCA's will need to be great at both.

[Brian Phillips]

Tim,

I am seriously thinking of getting my "official" license for the excavator and dozer.  Why?  Well because clubs do not want to ship in "experienced" shapers due to their "high maintenance" and somewhat initial higher costs (hourly rate).  Although I am a huge fan of using experienced shapers I am now moving towards maybe more of the "Do it myself" stage in my career.

I have just finished remodelling a green nearby and the club did not want any outside help and went with a local contractor.  He used a teaspoon to shape (8 ton excavator) and a bathtub on wheels to transport (20 ton MOXY dumper), now that does not make sense to me...

The speed with the excavator was excruciating and the damage caused by the MOXY was tearful.  I KNOW I can do a better job....with my guys from Scotland or by me....

If I had my license and more "official" time on the equipment I know this is the way to go for these types of jobs. 

[Phil McDade]

Tim:

Isn't the analagous industry (to Blockbuster) real estate? Technology -- mainly the web -- has made selling homes much easier without the middle-man (woman?) of real estate agents.

GCA's discussion board is replete with tales of overzealous green committees taking over the role of designers, thinking they know best for the course simply because they play it a lot. I'm struck, in reading the threads contributed to by many of posting architects here, how they see things I never would (mostly very subtle things --like the sightline discussions of the 1st hole at Old Macdonald -- a really neat insight into stuff I hardly ever think about...)

In fact, one might argue that as more work moves toward renovation/restoration than original design, the need for working architects is greater.

[Mike Benham]

Convenience (and technology) has made Blockbuster obsolete. I can now watch a movie on my TV without having to go out and rent a DVD. 
 

Your answer better be no ...

In the Blockbuster analogy, the competition's product (On Demand / NetFlix) is as good or better then the product offered by Blockbuster. 

For golf courses, the inhouse project maybe cheaper and deemed more convenient but the quality of the work is subpar, at best.

[Mike_Young]

Tim,
I have been saying what you say here for years....and I agree that it is the only way to go in the future....guys that just do paper( and there are a fw exceptions) have been trying for years to figure a way to justify what they do....but there just isn't enough business and never has been to justify what would need to be charged....now if one has a landplanning practice and golf design he might can do it....but if a guy is just doing one golf course a year then the fee strcuture is out of line in order for one to make a living...
I have my D5 Hightrack a few Takeuchi rubber trackhoes and some tractors...I would seel my drafting table first....

[Jeff_Mingay]

I was fortunate to learn this business through the construction/shaping route. And, while I'm doing quite a bit of design and consulting work at the moment, I still really enjoy getting on a 'dozer, excavator and other equipment to shape and build. I've promoted my business in this way for a number of years now, and it seems to be paying off. I have never been busier with renovation/restoration work than I am right now (which is relative of course).   

[Ryan Farrow]

The mood is very depressing here of late.....


I don't think the answer is 1,000 1 man do-it-yourself shops around the US, or Europe. The more likely result will be GCA's finding jobs in other careers..... golf is basically dead in the US....  There will always be work, but not enough to sustain the numbers we have now.

Plus, those architects who have no construction experience aren't going to be able to jump on a machine and start learning in this economy. Where are they going to practice?  And how much longer are they going to spend on a machine vs. a shaper who's been running a dozer for 20 years..... I'm sure the client will be getting just as good of a value from the experienced operator and the architects supervision. Time IS money.... and the going rate for shapers is falling, falling, falling.......


American designers are going to have to travel, and travel a lot further then they have before if they want to stay in the business.  






Blockbuster was a monopoly, nobody ever liked Blockbuster.... it was a terrible and overpriced service, mangled with late fees, and memberships, a terrible model that people put up with because it was the only available option. Technology killed Blockbuster..... and the fact that it was still trying to hang on to a failed model while waiting too long to adapt.


I think everyone is forgetting that architects "design". Design can not be replaced....  its a creative process that is undertaken by people who have an information advantage....  There is more value for what you know, then what you can physically do.... Anyone can learn to run a bulldozer, but someone needs to tell them what to do...... Someone needs to give the client a plan, or sell them an idea.

If anyone seriously thinks architects will get replaced by "shapers" I feel bad. If an architect feels they are not valued by a client, I think its time for them to move on. I don't think America is going to sell out to cheap and easy, people here value quality and will pay for it. There will be less projects, of course, and smaller firm. Design-build will have its place, probably a bigger share, but experienced contractors are still valued, as are architects and their DESIGN.

[Michael Huber]

In my opinion, the demise of blockbuster is probably more similar to the demise of the caddie program than the demise of the golf architect.

Both caddies and rental stores were replaced by more effcient, cheaper, and less personable options. 

[Mike_Young]

I think everyone is forgetting that architects "design". Design can not be replaced....  its a creative process that is undertaken by people who have an information advantage....  There is more value for what you know, then what you can physically do.... Anyone can learn to run a bulldozer, but someone needs to tell them what to do...... Someone needs to give the client a plan, or sell them an idea.

If anyone seriously thinks architects will get replaced by "shapers" I feel bad. If an architect feels they are not valued by a client, I think its time for them to move on. I don't think America is going to sell out to cheap and easy, people here value quality and will pay for it. There will be less projects, of course, and smaller firm. Design-build will have its place, probably a bigger share, but experienced contractors are still valued, as are architects and their DESIGN.

Ryan,
I think your views will change as you are around longer....architects have tried for years to convince owners etc that they are needed in the "design only" form...and it is sort of like a guy that wants to paint in oil doing a sketch and then finding a painter to paint his sketch ..or a guy that wishes to sculpt drawing a sketch and then hiring a sculptor....things are changing....it is a great company line to tow the thought that architects bring so much to the table design wise...but I have seen really good shapers that know much more about it than the architect they are working with....the golf architects that have made big money designing did it because of RE marketing ability not golf design skills....things are changing...

[Richard Choi]

There is an interesting parallel to Blockbuster and what happened to the golf course industry.

As Ryan has mentioned, Blockbuster was terrible. While selections were good, prices were exorbitant and punitive. While it thrived during when it had effective monopoly, once other more nimble competitors came about, they were unable to continue. And it is not about technology, Redbox, which rents the DVD's the old fashion way has completely transformed the industry with its limited selection/low price business model. Redbox is growing strongly and is giving Netflix some serious competition. I personally use Redbox almost every week.

Much like Blockbuster, most of the courses built over last couple of decades were for high-end private or daily fee, and because of that it is having a hard time surviving through the economic pull back. However, could there be a golf equivalent of Redbox? Is there a way to provide a low price alternative to golf palaces?

[Mike Nuzzo]

Mike Young

There seem to be many architects that can't "design".
They have left a bad name for our profession - over priced, hardly there and not creative.

Have you ever seen the annual design issues for business or industrial design magazines?

Tim
The profession is wounded because the client values design so little.

[Mike_Young]

Mike Young

There seem to be many architects that can't "design".
They have left a bad name for our profession - over priced, hardly there and not creative.

Have you ever seen the annual design issues for business or industrial design magazines?

Tim
The profession is wounded because the client values design so little.

But Mike design has not been the issue for the majority of clients over the past two decades....marketing via golf architect was all they were after.....if design had been important they would have provided better land in many developments
And when it comes to boards and committees and club champions....turst me..they know more about design than any architect....unless you won a major...

[Mike Nuzzo]

I hear you Mike.

Do the members know how to design a better titanium driver?
I'll say it is way easier to design a set of clubs than a golf hole.
Can they design a better phone than the i-phone?
Can they design a better car than an infiniti FX? 

You have to lay it on them - at a board meeting can you hold up your i-phone and ask them to make improvements.

Maybe I'm over-qualified or under-qualified or over-kill to help a club with a greens regrassing, but I just might come up with a sublime solution to another problem while I'm there that is worth way more than my fee.
Or make the greens better architecturally than they would have been otherwise.

[Brian Phillips]

I hear you Mike.

Do the members know how to design a better titanium driver?
I'll say it is way easier to design a set of clubs than a golf hole.
Can they design a better phone than the i-phone?
Can they design a better car than an infiniti FX? 

You have to lay it on them - at a board meeting can you hold up your i-phone and ask them to make improvements.

Maybe I'm over-qualified or under-qualified or over-kill to help a club with a greens regrassing, but I just might come up with a sublime solution to another problem while I'm there that is worth way more than my fee.
Or make the greens better architecturally than they would have been otherwise.

Mike the big difference with your comparisons is that people (that do not have a clue) have been redesigning golf courses for hundreds of years with and without shapers or experienced personnel.  Most people cannot design clubs or an iphone.

It even happened at my own club two years ago where i begged them not to f**k about with the course anymore and invite the architect back to advise them each year.  He lives 1.5 hours away and drives past the course once a week....but no, the old idiots of the course still think they can do better and continue to mess up the place. So the muppets not only had an architect (who does design and build...me) and the original architect only a car ride away and they STILL mess with it without advisement.

Egos, it all comes down to egos and male hormones...

[Forrest Richardson]

Nice post. After reading I accidentally deposited my overdue DVDs in a handicap box at the local club.

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