Feature Interiew with Adam Lawrence is posted

[Ran Morrissett]

Chronicling golf course architecture isn't exactly a fast way to riches but someone has to do it! Adam Lawrence, this month's Feature Interviewee, needs no introduction to golf architecture fans, many of whom subscribe to either Links where he is a frequent contributor or the European-based Golf Course Architecture magazine, which he edits. In many ways, Golf Course Architecture magazine and the web site GolfClubAtlas are kindred spirits, right down to their initials “GCA". Given his various platforms, Adam is one of the dominant voices in architecture. That’s as it should be, given his writing skills and all the ground he covers thanks to what’s an obvious zest for exploration.

After years of enjoying his writing, I find him impossible to stereotype. Places that he has written about include Askernish (not a lot of people can claim they went there in March!!), Sweetens Cove, Olympia Fields, and Wolf Point, all absolute favorites of mine. After reading his course critiques on Machrie, Machrihanish Dunes, Ardfin,  Aberdovey (seemingly accompanied by his hero Darwin), and the ongoing restoration of Le Touquet,  who doesn't want to beat a path to such places as well?! Of course, Adam has been much farther afield than those traditional places. He lights up talking about getting a drink at the bar in La Mamounia where Winston Churchill used to hang out in Morocco, and about the people in Nicaragua and about returning later this year to Lofoten Links in northern Norway inside    the Arctic Circle.


Adam was the first journalist to sound the alarm over the excellence of Sweetens Cove. It speaks well of him that a man based in Oxford, England is shrewd  enough to beat it to Sweetens and Wolf Point.

Happily, his writings and observations are usually in the public domain. He is now consulting for clubs too though and I would LOVE to see the course policy report he did with Tim Lobb for Woking. Great to see clubs like there and Berkshire getting a true fix on their histories.

We should have done a Feature Interview with Adam long ago and I hope this will be the first in a string of ones. Just thinking about the ground he will be covering between each one is amazing. Thankfully, readers of his work get to hop on for the ride.

Hope you enjoy this month’s Feature Interview.

Best,

[Niall C]

Well done Ran and well said Adam, top notch interview.


One question I'd ask and that is you say you are a believer in growing the game, do you differentiate between growing the game and the health of the game and if so which is more important ?


Niall

[Rob Collins]

Great interview with a great guy! Traveling to Askernish with Adam is at the top of my 'to do' list.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Very good interview!

[Tony_Muldoon]

 You'd think with all that dining at others expense Adam would have gone soft? His drive onto the 17th green at Cleeve hill (420 yards?) is the longest shot I've ever seen.

Fine interview thanks Adam and Ran.

[David Davis]

Adam, TMI....


Only kidding, nice interview, you even somehow managed to bring Tony out of retirement. I've not read or heard anything from him in some time.

[John Mayhugh]

Ran & Adam,
Thanks for this interview.  Through an exchange on Twitter, I managed to meet up with Adam in the Atlanta airport a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed talking to him about golf and travel.

I really enjoy GCA.  Most of the articles are informative without being too difficult for someone like me to process, and I do get a deeper appreciation of some of the nuts and bolts involved in construction and renovation.  It's great hearing from the people working on a project explaining their plans.  I feel like reading GCA makes me a better consumer of golf courses.

The interview also gives me a bit better understanding of magazine publishing. I appreciate Adam's honesty in talking about the need to sometimes publish articles that appeal to advertisers.  It could take some creativity to do that while ensuring there is no puffery, but GCA does a nice job there.  Taking a positive approach also has to help develop & maintain relationships with people throughout the industry, ensuring a good flow of news.

I think my favorite article of Adam's was the Aberdovey one in Links.  It wasn't intended as marketing, but did it ever make want to make that trip.

[Niall C]

Adam

If you will allow me a supplementary question, can you tell us a bit more about the book projects you are working on ?

Niall

[Adam Lawrence]

Hey Niall


I have a long-term goal to do a modern companion to Darwin's Golf Courses of the British Isles; it'd be called Travels with Darwin and it would involve visiting the courses he included in the original and seeing how things had changed. I've been working for a couple of years on a project (self-published) to do a coffee table book about the Surrey heath, and there is a third one that I shouldn't really discuss in public.

[Thomas Dai]

Thank you Ran and Adam.
As mentioned above, particularly nice to get an insight into magazine publishing and related aspects of the business.
Atb

[Joe Sponcia]

Great read.  GCA fills an important niche.  The articles are well-written.  The pictures really jump out to me as many are not your typical golf magazine entries with the clubhouse prominently fighting the individual hole for attention. 


Adam:


I would love to see a future article on drainage from a historical perspective, how the greats seemingly got it right often, and now, how the architects of today use technology...and today battle with environmental restraints, yet still turn out a great product.


Each person reading should be a subscriber!

[Tom_Doak]

I have a long-term goal to do a modern companion to Darwin's Golf Courses of the British Isles; it'd be called Travels with Darwin and it would involve visiting the courses he included in the original and seeing how things had changed.

I actually proposed doing this myself many years ago.  Eventually, I decided that trying to write alongside with Darwin would be an impossible task for me.  It would be a great book if you can pull it off !

[Colin Macqueen]

I have a long-term goal to do a modern companion to Darwin's Golf Courses of the British Isles; it'd be called Travels with Darwin and it would involve visiting the courses he included in the original and seeing how things had changed.

I actually proposed doing this myself many years ago.  Eventually, I decided that trying to write alongside with Darwin would be an impossible task for me.  It would be a great book if you can pull it off !

As Boswell was to Johnson so Lawrence can be to Darwin!


Nice interview, thanks Colin

[Jason Topp]

"Europe is a big place with a lot of different sub-markets in it, and so there’s no one size fits all answer."

This is true in the US as well on so many different levels.