16 Nov 2011

CHINA GOLF MAGAZINE - Column by Darius Oliver

I have been coming to China regularly since 2005, and while there is no question that the quality of golf has improved in that time, the sad truth remains that there are still far too many mediocre courses being built in this great nation. I hope to help change this.

One of the chief reasons developers build poor courses, is they rarely choose the most suitable course architect for their projects. I’ve seen more than 1,200 of the world’s best golf courses and the work of more than 140 current golf designers. I’m continually amazed at how often a designer is chosen because of his fee, his fame or his familiarity with the client – and often when their skills simply do not match the challenges that the particular property throws up. My role is to analyse the land, the budget and the ambition of the client to help them select the architect most capable of building them a world-class golf course.

The game of golf has evolved significantly since its father figure, Old Tom Morris of St Andrews, passed away in 1908. The professional game is now big business and the world’s best players generate huge incomes and have become powerful golfing brands of their own. They have also become prominent names in golf course design.

When golf professionals first dabbled in golf course design 100 years ago the game was very different. For a start they only played a handful of professional tournaments each year, and so had to subsidize their income by giving lessons, making clubs, designing courses and running maintenance crews. Unlike today, where professional golfers need only be good at hitting a golf ball, back then it really was a true profession

What’s more, because the professional golfer was the face of the golf club they played with a much wider range of members than the modern player does. They also participated in golfing exhibitions across the land, so got to sample a variety of different courses. Not only did they think deeply about the game, they truly lived and breathed golf and were invested totally in its growth and success.

Compare this to today’s single-minded, somewhat pampered, PGA Tour stars and you’ll start to appreciate why in fact, golf professionals are the last people you should ever want to design your golf course. Those who become champion players do so by being completely focused on their own game and rarely, if ever, considering broader issues facings the sport. Most struggle to truly understand how the average golfer plays the game and why particular design features work better than others. What’s more, professional golfers rarely travel for great golf. Sure they play tour events, but few top professionals have played the world’s truly elite courses – the likes of Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Sand Hills, Ballybunion, Royal Dornoch, National Golf Links of America and Royal County Down. How can you possibly expect to design great golf holes if you haven’t even played or studied the finest layouts on the planet?

Even retired professional golfers who have opened their own design business are a risky prospect for new golf developers. While some are capable of building decent courses, most of the design work is actually done by a junior architect with limited experience, or worse, an experienced architect with limited ambition. Neither is a formula for success. What’s more, the really successful signature design businesses have built hundreds of courses worldwide now, which means that new projects are neither prestigious nor unique.

If you look at the most recent GOLF Magazine (USA edition) Top 100 ranking list, you’ll quickly understand that the recipe for quality golf courses is to engage the best architect, rather than the most famous signature name. The biggest signature design companies in golf - Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones II, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Greg Norman and IMG - have created more than 1,300 golf courses between them, yet just two standalone signature courses appear on this latest Top 100 list. Those are Chambers Bay at 87 and Cabo del Sol at 100. By contrast, the best-credentialed ‘proper’ modern architect has five of his own courses in the Top 100, which is incredible when you think that he has only designed 30 courses in total.

The other courses on the Top 100 ranking list with famous names attached are co-designs, between a ‘proper’ architect and a celebrity golfer and this is a much better model if you want a top quality golf course, as well as one that is world famous. It’s why I set up Planet Golf Design, to represent not only the best golf course architects in the world, but also PGA Tour stars like Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Yani Tseng and Charl Schwartzel so we can offer the clients the best of both worlds. Our model is based on Augusta National, which was designed by the greatest architect of the day, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, in collaboration with the best golfer of the era, Bobby Jones.

The reason Augusta is such a wonderful golf course isn’t because of the flowers and the ponds, but rather because of MacKenzie’s incredible routing and his beautiful design. It’s a recipe that still seems foreign to many Chinese developers, but it hasn’t changed in more than 100 years. If you want to build a great course first you need to pick a decent piece of land and then you need to engage an appropriate quality architect to masterfully route you an interesting, fun and beautiful golf course. If you hire the right architect, then world-class golf isn’t difficult to create. If you appoint the wrong company, however, it becomes impossible.

It’s a genuine privilege to have been asked by GOLF Magazine to contribute a regular column in this fantastic publication. Those interested in raising the standard of golf course design in China are encouraged to continue reading my columns, or to contact my Planet Golf Design business via www.planetgolf.com

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