By Design – Issue 51, Winter 2020

22 The shared green for the third and fifteenth holes at Baylands Golf Links in Silicon Valley, California the owners, management companies and players are hungry for more. Now is the time. 2. “Less is more” is a longstanding phrase, but in golf design it holds an even more important meaning. The USGA, R&A and others have pointed out that golf will not be sustainable unless we rein in the use of water, labor, fertilizer and other resources. The golf course facility established the amount of resources – inputs – which are required. We are golf course architects. When you put these thoughts together, the realization is that it becomes our job – responsibility – to think smaller. We need to appreciate the 7,000-yard regulation course, but also embrace that golf can happen on much smaller footprints, and as architects of the game, we need to find ways to express our art form in smaller spaces whenever we can. 3. The game has changed a lot in 400-plus years. Jurek Putter, an engraving artist in St. Andrews, once showed me a print of people playing golf in the 1500s. The game back then had no ‘courses’ because ‘holes’ were devised on the spur of the moment. You played across the links [from Scottish: hlincas, meaning the undulating sandy ground along the shore] and there were no set number of holes, or no limit to the length of playing from one spot to a hole or post. One ‘hole’ could be 400 yards or nearly a mile! This makes me think about the game. My question – challenge INTERVIEW “Ahead of the Game” film available online The film developed by ASGCA President Forrest Richardson is a smart, visually appealing look at the golf industry and state of golf course architecture. It has been praised for its production value, and commented on for the questions it raises about the game as we move (hopefully) toward a post-COVID world. “Ahead of the Game” can be found at youtube.com/ watch?v=8s9-qhhT3nQ.