(Design concepts) Worth the expense?

One of the oldest questions in golf is whether to get a pro involved with a golf course design or redesign. From the early days of Scotland, pros such as Old Tom Morris became involved in design as a side job to supplement their incomes. They were the golf experts, as the professions of greenkeeping and golf course design had not yet been established as much as club and ball making.

But now that golf course architecture is a separate profession and PGA Tour pros regularly show up for a half million dollars, perhaps it’s time to revisit the question from a modern perspective.

Because I’m not a Tour pro and my green jacket came straight from the department store, I’m biased against pros involved with design – at least in most cases, knowing that playing golf full time doesn’t allow anyone to study golf course architecture full time. I’m even more biased against the credit they receive for their services, which really amount to marketing in most cases. But it’s a case-by-case decision that I’ve based on my experience designing courses – on my own and in conjunction with well-known Tour pros.

The question for owners is: Can I generate X dollars of free advertising out if this additional design fee? The Wall Street Journal published an article detailing which courses sold the most real estate at the highest prices. The list contained a mix of golf design firms, with some headed by Tour pros and other well know names in the industry. This mix alone suggests a Tour pro doesn’t sell real estate well unless he is a household name. While the article noted which architect’s courses had the highest real-estate values, there was no attempt to prove a causal link between the names and the real-estate values. In other words, did the real estate sell at a higher price because of the golf course architect; or did it sell at a higher price after the developer selected expensive, well-located properties, decided on an upper-end development, and then spent proportionally more on the golf course and other amenities that go with that type of development? In any case, at that point it becomes easy to justify the additional expense of a signature architect because it’s a small piece of the financial picture.

For most projects, the signature designer payoff might not be worth it. The presence of the signature designer hasn’t prevented slow sales or bankruptcy at ill-conceived, poorly located and overbudgeted developments. And, for any medium-level development, the signature becomes an additional expense that might push the resulting housing out of the market.

For the golf component, in 2000, the National Golf Foundation and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America surveyed golfers about why they played the courses they did. The biggest factors were maintenance and proximity. Only 2 percent even knew or cared who the golf course architect was. That statistic casts doubt about whether a signature architect even attracts players the first time, as so often assumed, and also suggests the extra signature fee might be better spent buying better land, landscaping a course well or adding to the irrigation, drainage and/or maintenance equipment budgets to produce the maintenance that attracts golfers long term.

It also mirrors my experience in which I’ve heard playing partners ask why the back tees were called the “Bear” or “General” tees. On a course with the “Shark” tees, one golfer wondered what the tie to the movie “Jaws” was for a course so far from the ocean.

Maybe the real reason not to care about a signature designer is that long term, only a few die-hard architecture fans (and I wish there were more of you) remember who designed the course. Sometimes, they don’t even remember short term, particularly with renovations.

However, forgetting who designed a course also happens in new course work, as I recently experienced. After a press day golf event in which I was introduced, gave a speech and had my name mentioned several times, a participant on the other side of the buffet line nudged his friend, looked at me and said, “There’s ‘Dat Effen’ golf course architect.” Given all the times my name was mentioned, how could he think “Dat Effen” character actually designed the place?

But I started to think about it, and almost every time I’ve played golf, at least one golfer has credited the design to “Dat Effen” or the “A. Hole” golf course architect. How often have I heard the comment, “I’d like to meet ‘Dat Effen’ or the ‘A. Hole’ golf course architect who designed this green.” Yet I know they are involved in all aspects of the business because on occasion I’ve heard people make reference to “Dat Effen” golf course superintendent and the “A. Hole” golf pro almost as often as I’ve heard references to them as golf course architects.

I guess if I wanted a signature-designed course, I would consider using “Mr. Hole” or “Mr. Effen” because their names seemingly are everywhere, even though I checked industry databases and can’t seem to locate either, anyone who knows them, or even a Web page about them or their companies.

If you can’t get “Dat Effen” or the “A. Hole” golf course architect, I recommend you hire a golf course architect with proper credentials, generally with experience with your type of project and in your area. You also should get one you like personally because you’ll be working with him for a year, or in the case of a long-term renovation, several years.

Perhaps the biggest criterion is to retain a golf course architect who has the time to devote to your project. Assuming you’re considering only those with respected credentials, there’s no formula to good architecture except to spend a lot of time on your project, which should be the most important project in the world to you and your golf course architect.

And should you, Mr. Green Chairman, decide to try to design yourself, steel yourself for the inevitable criticism that comes with being a golf course architect. Because your fellow members will be nice to your face, you won’t get the scathing critiques we do as professionals, but expect faint praise with double entendre phrases such as: “You’ll be lucky to enjoy this course” (it would depend on something besides design); “Best of its kind” (the bad kind); “Never seen anything like it” (and hope not to again); “Now, that’s some kind of golf hole/course” (what kind?); “I had a hard time believing what I saw” and “It redefines the meaning of a place to golf.”

Have fun designing. GCN

Jeffrey D. Brauer is a licensed golf course architect and president of GolfScapes, a golf course design firm in Arlington, Texas. Brauer, a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, can be reached at jeff@jeffreydbrauer.com.