By Design – Issue 51, Winter 2020

23 Photo: Dave Sansom – to golf course architects is that we are best equipped as ‘right- brain’ creatives to consider what golf might become as we plow ahead. For example, is playing with clubs and balls to a hole and flagstick really set in stone? I’d like to challenge all my friends to consider what other formats and ways there may be to use golf courses. To think golf will always be the way it has been for the past 50-100 years is a grave mistake. I’m all for some traditions, but when you take time to seriously study the younger generations, we cannot be stagnant in our view of the game itself. Golf needs to get in step with technology, entertainment and a changing society perhaps faster than ever. You also include several of your fellow ASGCA members in the film. What has your ASGCA membership meant to you in your career? Others have done such great work in the above examples that it was important to showcase their work and creative output. When I sat down to select images for the project, my business partner – and wife – Valerie loaded our server with thousands of photos taken at ASGCA meetings and our Toro Study Tour with European Institute of Golf Course Architects and Society of Australian Golf Course Architects members. It was amazing to relive the good times and friendships. None of those opportunities would have been possible without being introduced to ASGCA. People sometimes assume ASGCA is simply ‘a club’ or ‘the wearing of the Ross Tartan’. Those are only superficial to the deeper connections. We’re artists working on an incredible canvas, and each of us has a different voice and a different approach. When we get together to share stories, become friends and learn from one another, everyone benefits – the organization makes that possible. Being a member is about sharing ideas, learning, absorbing and being a part of the art form. The best math of any group is that multiple viewpoints, when working together, equal more than the sum. We all maintain our individual voices. But the benefit is what we do collectively, and with each other. If someone wanted to play a course or two that is really representative of your design work, where would you send them? Arizona Grand (Phoenix), because it was my first design. Nothing will ever be built like it, which you can take, I suppose, in multiple ways. The Hideout (Utah), because it was a special project that Jack Snyder and I created. Mountain Shadows (Arizona), because it was a re-make of Jack’s circa 1960 ground-breaking “less is more” 18-hole short course. Baylands Golf Links (Silicon Valley), because it demonstrates how we can get the support of Audubon, environmentalists and biologists when we do things right. I’d also invite you into my mind to look at a few new projects in the concept stage, but that would be scary for both of us, so let’s not go there. • “To think golf will always be the way it has been for the past 50-100 years is a grave mistake”