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13
Looking
the
future
into
Adam Lawrence speaks with
ASGCA members to find out how
they think their profession will
change between now and 2030.
G
olf course architecture is not,
generally, a business that
changes too rapidly. Aside
from the use of computer-aided
design (CAD) systems to produce
incredibly detailed construction
drawings, today’s business would
not be particularly confusing to the
generation of architects that founded
ASGCA in the 1940s.
But change, when it does come,
comes in spades, and we may be
approaching a tipping point. The
crash of 2007 had a huge impact
on the golf architecture business,
and its full effects have not yet been
felt. Since 2007, because of the
slowdown in new course construction
across the world, design firms have
reconfigured themselves; the big-
name ‘signature’ design firms have
shrunk dramatically, all of them,
and in general the typical golf course
architect has gone from being a
member of a firm with multiple
designers to a one- or two-man band.