The Feature Interview section is meant to be another avenue for exploring and learning about golf course architecture. To that end, our one with Brain Curley triumphs as it contains a wealth of information.
There are great stories (Pete Dye after seeing Brian's talent for drawing, remarking that 'it’s nice to be able to draw but, it’s more important to draw a paycheck'
). There are Brian's viewpoints re: what he was trying to accomplish in various situations (see the before and after photos of Oakmont in California with his handwritten notes).There is more information on golf in China than we have ever posted in one spot including the positive effects of Paspalum. There is a thoughtful description of what makes for a great short par four (in this case the 14th at Southern Dunes in Arizona). There are construction sequences of the Dongguan Property in China that will startle you in terms of what man can accomplish with landforms that are otherwise too abrupt for good golf. The list of topics goes on and on.
As you read this Feature Interview, remember that you are reading the words of a man who along with his partner Lee Schmidt elected to set up an office on China’s Hainan Island in 2007. That's what I call smart!
Given how creative and open Brian has been in forming various partnerships, he has been unusually busy over the past decade. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech - he is the guy out there with dirt under his nails making it happen and thus commands respect. He notes some very interesting things in his Feature Interview re: golf and Asians like how it is posted on some first tees how strong the mobile phone strength is.
Gosh knows I write all the time about using golf to reconnect with nature blah blah blah but Asians are using it as a fundamental underpinning to business. They can take four or five hours on the course because they stay 'connected' through the round, which might likely be a business one anyway. This isn't the traditional golf that many of us know and love but I see what he is saying: Give Asians credit for making the game work for their lifestyle. By doing so, they put golf on a footpath of greater growth than is the case in western civilization at present.
Some of things that Brain says may strike folks in North America as counter-intuitive. For instance, some areas in China thrive on labor intensive maintenance designs
as it helps provide more jobs for the local villagers. You won't ever see that written in regards to courses in North America!
Only by being in the field do you come by such real life stories and it is why Brain's lengthy Feature Interview is thought-provoking from start to finish and well worth your perusal.
Cheers,
PS My apologies for getting behind in posting Feature Interviews but I have been traveling. We will be caught up by Christmas.