A question for you:
What credit should a golf construction company receive for their contribution to a new to-be-built course?
It seems to me that the quality of golf construction job matters significantly but is often rarely cited whatsoever. I imagine few are better than you to opine on the this, as well as the range of services they provide. I look forward to your reply.
Steve:
Most architects rely on contractors a great deal -- as Mike Young says, sometimes the contractor is driving the bus. If you don't have your own shapers to work with, you are relying on the contractor to provide good people. Also, in my early years I saw a couple of contractors who were just downright shady. If you're going to rely on a contractor, who you get is very important to the quality of the outcome.
My upbringing with Mr. Dye made me generally wary of contractors. Pete felt it was important to put in as much time as necessary to get the product that he wanted on the ground, and a contractor, inherently, was looking to be more efficient than that, to maximize their profit. [I never think about that at all; our motivation to go fast is so we can all get home to our families.] Long Cove had a local earthmoving contractor, an irrigation contractor, and a dozen kids on the crew. Bobby Weed was the oldest guy, running the job at 26.
Pete's focus was on getting good PEOPLE out on site to help him build the course. That's not to say he never worked with contractors, but he didn't want to rely on contractors. He didn't want to rely on anyone but himself.
One of the benefits of minimalism is that the less work you do, the less you need a general contractor to oversee it all. On projects like High Pointe and Barnbougle and The Loop, the only contractor involved was an irrigation contractor . . . we staffed the rest of the project with associates, interns, and locals. And they turned out great, though maybe not as "polished" as a big contractor would do it.
The first job I did with a real golf course contractor was Lost Dunes [which was my 8th or 9th course]. The client was more comfortable with a contractor that would provide a fixed price, and I was spread thin with two other jobs going, so I didn't fight it. Landscapes Unlimited won the bid. I told the client there might be a point where we needed to put our foot down with them, and sure enough, halfway through the project, they wanted to pull out their lead shaper who I'd really clicked with, and move him to another job; we had to tell them if Jerame went, they could go with him. He stayed, they finished the job, and it turned out great. I was told later by the construction foreman on the job that it was the cheapest 18-hole course they built that year [$2.3 million contract], and also the most profitable in terms of percentage.
We work with golf course contractors more often than not these days -- anytime the project is not on sand, or where there's a bunch of clearing and earthmoving involved. Lost Dunes was the only time we did it without my own associates doing the shaping.
Nowadays, my associates do a lot of consulting and restoration work on their own, and they usually have a contractor helping them -- LaBar and Allan MacCurrach, among others. They provide everything but the shaping, they're very reliable, and they do quality finish work so that my associates don't have to spend so much time there.
Pinehurst has worked with LaBar on a couple of past projects, and they came on board on very short notice to build this course very quickly. [It helps a great deal that my associates are well known to work fast, so the contractor isn't afraid we are going to cause them delays.] Angela is also familiar with them, which is great because she'll have her hands full with her added responsibilities. I hope they are as good as everyone says, and they make the job run smoothly; and if they do, I'll be the first to tell you.