talking points Geoff Ogilvy Talks Design

Most touring professionals players who dive into architecture aren't much respected by the cognoscenti in design circles. Typically, they're viewed as carpetbaggers who'd rather cash in on the value of their fame than design a quality course.

Not so with Geoff Ogilvy. The former U.S. Open champion is widely considered to be among the most thoughtful, most dedicated pros in the architecture business. These days he co-designs with a fellow Australian, Michael Clayton, the architect who collaborated with Tom Doak to produce the much-praised first course at Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania. Ogilvy and Clayton are often characterized as “minimalists,” but don't hold that against them.

Ogilvy recently talked about course design with Jay Flemma. Here's a little of what he had to say.

On the influence of television on golf design

TV can be the enemy. Overproduction and over-commenting can be misleading. Look at St. Andrews, for example. It looks strange on TV. It looks kind of funny.

[Royal] St. George's is another where, at least on TV, you don't see the undulations. And also, the brown fairways look motley. But it's the best grass to play on. Grass is naturally supposed to have every shade between green and brown. All perfectly green grass is unnatural.


Additionally, great architecture is about what's on the ground, and you lose that feel on TV. So people gravitate to courses that show well on TV, like Augusta, so everyone wants to emulate it. . . .

On the state of contemporary golf architecture

It's amazing to see some of the best golf courses in the world being built right now. The last 15 to 20 years or so, we've had Coore & Crenshaw, Tom Doak, and Gil Hanse building some golf courses that feel and look like they were built in the Golden Age, rugged and with less earth-moving -- places like Sand Hills and Barnbougle Dunes and Old Sandwich and Boston Golf Club. They're not being built to be difficult or to attract pro tournaments. They're just concentrating on designing great golf courses.

Bandon Dunes is three hours from civilization, and you can't get a tee time. Yet, back when [Mike Keiser] told people he was going to build out there, people laughed at him and said it was crazy. Now there's four courses.

This new crop of designers is building modern courses that look like they were built in the 1930s. . . . They play strategically. . . .

On what makes a strategic golf hole

Few of the best holes in the world are really, really hard, where everyone grinds to make par. Neither are they the really easy ones.

The best example is #13 at Augusta. An 18-handicap golfer can bump it up the fairway, bump it up further to get into position around the corner, get to a place to pitch on, and try to get up and down and have a putt for par every time. If you do that, you can almost never make worse than six.

But the best golfer in the world will make eagle three or double-bogey seven. The more risk you take off the tee, the easier the hole becomes. The more aggressive you are [at] getting around the corner, the easier it is to lay up -- or you can even go for the green. The safer you play, the tougher the second and third shot.

It's thousands of shades of gray. The braver you are, the more talented you are, directly results in your second and third shots [being] easier. The less brave you are, the tougher your approach and layup will be.

But then, even a terrible golfer who gets in trouble out of position can still recover and find a way to save a par. Yet pros will struggle to make birdie. Those are the architectural principles that stand up. . . .

That's where some people get architecture wrong. It's one thing to be hard, but hard doesn't mean good.