worth reading It's All in the Stars

Golf course design is, like the movie business, a form of celebrity culture. The stars get the primo projects, sign the most lucrative contracts, and draw the most adoring crowds. In both places, what ultimately matters is the box office tally.

Here's an edited version of a newspaper column recently written by Mary Armstrong, a golf course architect formerly of New Hampshire who's now based in New Mexico. In it, she addresses an age-old issue: What is the true role of a golf course designer?

The profession is filled with historic and contemporary quirky characters and entertaining stories. The influx of professional golfers into the ranks has only enforced the perception that golf architects are special. When I arrive at a new project, I sometimes feel the client is disappointed if I'm not eccentric, or at least on the crazy side of normal.

In other words, some entertaining is expected. . . .

It's easy to understand the hype, as golf architects are not only allowed but paid handsomely to play in a 200-acre sandbox, sometimes without interruption or intervention by the client. Media and lore seemingly tie our creations to our personas. In some circles, our creations are admired and “collected” with even more vigor and fanaticism than art collectors pursue a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt.

Where does this notoriety come from in golf course architecture? Was it the public's adoration of [Donald] Ross' creations? [Desmond] Muirhead's unrelenting personal expressionism? Never-ending stories of [A. W.] Tillinghast's adventures? [Tom] Bendelow's 12 stakes on a Sunday afternoon? Or perhaps the globe-trotting persona of Robert Trent Jones?

Whatever the derivation, we as a profession have never discouraged this type of publicity, and many have gone out of their way to encourage it. . . .

Sadly, today we hear all kinds of discussion about what's wrong with golf. More than occasionally that involves “golf is becoming too expensive.” There are lots of reasons that golf is becoming more expensive, most of which are out of the hands of golf architects. . . .

Golf course architecture, perhaps more than any design discipline that I know, requires a strong knowledge in a diverse range of subjects such as civil engineering, landscape architecture, agronomy, and, of course, the game itself. And yet the public's attachment to celebrity results in project after project being designed by a “name” -- one that doesn't have that knowledge or experience. The best-case scenario is [that] the “name” has able assistants that cover for the “name.” The worst case is that the “name” has such an ego that he or she does the “arm-waiving thing” and blows the budget with a golf course that no one can play or maintain.

Believe me, it happens.

Celebrity golf architect or not, we as the designers of the “game boards” must pay closer attention to the everyday player's declining purchasing power. Here are some things that I would like to see golf architects promote to hold the line on costs:

-- Stay within budget. The construction budget should be relatively easy to meet, but the resulting maintenance budget is more elusive and all too often hardly considered.

-- In the last 20 years, the trend has been to opening-day conditions that are perfect. Indeed, most courses built today will never be better than the day they open. The industry needs to retract from this trend and encourage owners to reduce costs by delaying excessive work until the project has proven itself and cash flow can support improving conditions or adding niceties. In the old days, a course had to mature; we should go back to that standard.

-- The enormous earth-moving capability and large construction budgets have reduced the skill required by golf architects in course routing. It has also made horrible golf courses out of undesirable property.

-- Hold the ego in check. There was a time when “signature hole” was usually one of a few holes that were especially dramatic, aesthetic or strategic. Today, many courses have 18 signature holes.

Above all, keep golf courses fun. If the architect is trying to prove something, most often he or she will bring your game to its knees.