DEVELOPERS GUIDE
Innovation IN GOLF COURSE CONSTRUCTION
BY HENRY DELOZIER
W
GLOBAL GOLF ADVISORS
here are the next generation of innovative ideas for golf course construction? Innovation that attracts and engages golfers is important on many levels. The answer, perhaps, is a matter of whom you ask. Ron Whitten, the Senior Editor for Architecture at Golf Digest, answers, “If you mean in terms of adapting modern technology to construction, yes, they're innovating. If you mean coming up with new ideas about golf courses, no they are not innovating. Most architects feel the future of golf lies in the past, wider fairways, few trees, square greens, everything that caters to the nostalgia craze. I've seen contractors embrace this on projects because that's their job, to build what the architect prescribes. But innovation? Ain't seeing it. Especially in course remodeling. I famously wrote a few years back that "restoration is the narrow-minded substitute for imagination." If all one plans to do is slavishly follow an original architect's blueprint, the owner doesn't need an architect. he can turn it over to a contractor and get the same result.” The alliance between the golf course designer and the builder is a powerful one, as Whitten notes. For the designer, the work is one of passion and creativity while the job of the builder is to build efficiently what the designer has imagined. Undermining the efficiency of that dynamic is the owner-imposed pressure on costs. Too often, golf course design and
construction become a commoditized process. Usually, such circumstances sacrifice innovation for the low bid. Tommy Sasser, a former GCBAA President and veteran builder, sees it slightly differently, “I think cost of construction and the amount of available work has impacted programming and construction of both renovation and new construction. Owners tend to be much more involved in defining what they want as a golf course rather than direction or budgeting they did in the past. Developing the proforma to determine whether the work is justified is a leading element of work today. Designers and builders have become an integral part in developing plans, methodology, and construction schedules that will meet the financial requirements of owners.” John Strawn, currently a Director at GGA and previously CEO at Robert Trent Jones II and Hills & Forrest Design, notes an example of innovation in golf course construction, “Bunkers have always posed a challenge to designers, builders and superintendents. From the designer’s point of view, as Forrest Richardson discussed at length in Bunkers, Pits & Other Hazards, bunkers have strategic, aesthetic, and psychological functions. Time-consuming to maintain, bunkers are also among the most expensive elements of a golf course. They degrade, change their shapes, and blow and wash out. “ “More than twenty years ago,” Strawn adds, “then Augusta National superintendent Billy Fuller devised
a new approach to bunker building to address these chronic issues. Fuller’s innovation was adapted, modified and then commercialized under the name Better Billy Bunker, led by golf course architect Jerry Lemons. A competitive product called Capillary Concrete also came to market. Between them, these two innovative companies have given owners, designers and builders a new approach to building and maintaining bunkers. They provide a solid, permeable bunker base, so they reduce maintenance costs over the long term.” The challenge appears to be the convergence of creativity (from the course designer), practicality and cost management (the builder), and the source of funds (the owner). With only a few exceptions, the owner lacks expertise and needs gentle-yet-purposeful guidance. As a result, the tandem of the designer and builder must be aligned in vision for the course, congruent in methods to be used, and organized to educate the owner concerning the features, benefits, and costs to be gained from a collaborative approach. Innovation in golf course construction must be purposeful collaboration. Following the example of a three-legged stool, the builder – it seems – is the pragmatic teammate who must balance the budget for the owner and preserve the creative efforts of the designer. What steps do you take to stabilize the threelegged stool vital to your success?
Henry DeLozier is a principal at Global Golf Advisors, the largest international consulting firm that specializes in golf-related businesses. Henry is a friend to GCBAA members and the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Audubon International. Contact Henry at hdelozier@globalgolfadvisors.com.
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