A man with two loves

GCN interviews Peter Jacobsen, golf professional and golf course designer, about architecture and the game of golf.

What and when was the first course to which your name was attached?
I was involved with Genoa (Nev.) Lakes. I did a co-design with John Harbottle. It was in 1988 or 1989.

PGA Tour player Peter Jacobsen has designed more than a dozen courses.

Did your interest in design date back further than that?
Oh yeah, all the way back to grade school. When I was a kid, I always used to draw little mock, imaginary golf courses on my homework. There wasn’t a paper I turned in that didn’t have a golf course design on the back. The teachers probably didn’t know what it was. I was taking a lot of creative license with some of those holes.

How did you become partners with architect Jim Hardy?
I met Jim in 1984 when we were doing pro-ams together. He was a PGA Tour player at that time, and I had just started my tour career. We both shared a love of golf design. We’re close friends and have a close working relationship. We talk to each other probably three or four times a day about everything from golf course design, to golf swings, to golf shots, to family, to all types of business.

What specific talent do you bring to a project?
I’m a golfer. Jim’s an engineer and the architect. I don’t want anybody to get the opinion that I’m the architect because I’m not. Many times when a player puts his name on a design people think the player is the architect. The player is not. The player is basically a designer or consultant. I just bring golf experience. As many pro-ams I’ve played in and amateurs I’ve played with, I think I know what an amateur wants and what they’re looking for in terms of a playing experience.

What do you say to critics who claim professional golfers lend their names to a project only for marketing purposes?
For the most part, that’s true. But in my case it’s not true. Jim and I challenge each other. We get out on the site together. We work hard to bring a variety of golf holes to the experience. I don’t just throw my name on there. I know there are many architects who’ve never seen the course before. That isn’t true in my case. I’m very involved. I’ve worn out my share of boots and ruined my share of shoes when I make an unscheduled visit.

How many courses have you been involved with from a design perspective?
We’re getting up to 13 or 14 now. We try to do about three a year, because if you’re doing more than three a year – at least with my playing schedule – you’re compromising your future because you’re not spending enough time on site with the developer and doing the job. There are a lot of architects who have 20, 30, 40 jobs going, but they can’t honestly say they’ve done the work.

What has been your favorite project?
I can’t say I’ve had a favorite project. A couple come to mind. The Oregon Golf Club, which was the first course I worked on with Jim Hardy, ended up hosting a tournament that I did in Portland called the Fred Meyer Challenge for about six years. That was fun because we knew we were building it for a tournament course.

And the other one that’s been fantastic has been the Redstone Golf Club in Houston, which is the home of the Shell Houston Open PGA Tour event. So, from a competitive standpoint, from an ego standpoint, having those two courses with my name on them has been great fun because I knew the best players in the world played on them.

What has been your most challenging project?
The Oregon Golf Club was the most challenging because I was so young when I worked on it. I didn’t know it would be such a learning experience for me. Working with Jim Hardy, obviously our design team knew what they were doing, but I was new to the team, so I was learning. It was probably the only time in my life that I listened more than I talked because I was learning so much. That was a humbling, overwhelming and challenging experience for me to take all that in at one time.

What do you have going on now?
We’ve got one in Seattle at a development called Suncadia. We’ve got one in my birth state of Oregon, in Redmond, called Brasada. And then we’ve got one down on the North Shore in California in Truckee called Gray’s Crossing. Jack Nicklaus did the first course at Gray’s Crossing, Old Greenwood, and we’re doing the second one.

Any place you’d like to design a golf course?
I’d love to design a course on the coast of Ireland or Scotland. That would be a dream come true.

So you’re interested in designing a links course?
You can’t set out to design a certain course. The land dictates the kind of course you’re going to build. If you’re on a flat piece of property, like in the desert, you’re probably going to have a low-lying golf course without much movement. But if you build a golf course in the mountains with a lot of terrain change, a lot of elevation change, that’s the kind of course you’re going to have. It’s hard to build a links course up in the mountains with a lot of trees. That would be a problem.

Peter Jacobsen says the biggest problem with golf is that there are too many difficult courses, which cost the average golfer time and money.

Have you taken any design features from courses you’ve enjoyed playing?
I’ve taken design features from about every golf course I’ve played because I have some holes I love and some holes I don’t like, some bunkering I like, some green shapes I like. Again, the land is going to dictate, for the most part, what you’re going to put on the golf course.

What makes a project attractive to you?
The land – that’s where it all begins and ends – and the group you’re working with. I find getting to know the design team to be a particularly cool part of the process.

We always insist on having someone from the ownership team walking along with us because I like to incorporate all aspects of it. I want it to be inclusive of everybody on the project. We’re not the type of architecture firm that says ‘just write us a check, and we’ll see you on the first tee opening day.’ We like to have as many people as possible involved.

Where do you see design heading in the next 10 years?
You’re going to see more golf courses renovated, especially because the players in golf are bigger and stronger. Many times fairway bunkers are too short. Maybe a golf course built in the ’50s, ’60s or ’70s has fairway bunkers where many players – not just the pros, but the average member – can knock that ball right over the them.

You’re going to see specific renovations and redesigns, but with a purpose. We’ve redone a few courses, and you do it with a sense of purpose. Instead of blowing out the bunkers that exist, it’s OK to add a bunker behind that in what we call the new landing zone that matches what’s already there. You can renovate and redesign with a sense of purpose and a good plan.

Do Jacobsen-Hardy designs have a signature feature?
No. One of the things I’m most proud of is if you play a Jacobsen Hardy golf course, somebody cannot tell who did it. That’s one of the worst things you can have is when somebody says ‘This is an X or this is a Johnson or this is a Thomas course,’ or something. Again, the land is going to be the most important factor, and that’s going to dictate the kind of design you’re going to have.

Any differentiation between your loves – golf and design?
Well, I love playing. Playing in golf tournaments is the greatest thing. You can play golf for a long time. You might not play at the top level. You might not continue playing at the PGA Tour level, but that doesn’t mean your love of the game diminishes at all. So what’s first and foremost for me is playing and competing; but I love the art of golf course design. I love the whole aspect of that.

Do you have any plans regarding how much longer you’re going to play the Champions Tour?
I’d like to play the senior tour for 15 years. I’d like to play until I’m 65. I love to play competitive golf.

What do you want to achieve designwise that you haven’t?
Just to build good, quality golf courses that are fun. We see many golf courses that aren’t fun. They’re too hard. I want golf courses that people can enjoy. We don’t try to kick the amateur golfers in the shins. We let them go out and make some birdies. What’s wrong with a 36 handicapper making two birdies in an 18-hole round of golf? There’s nothing wrong with that.

What makes a well-designed golf course?
Variety. Some short holes, some medium-length holes and some long, hard holes. Variety is an important thing. One of the things we see, especially on tour with many designers, is they’re redesigning their courses to where it’s like playing 18 finishing holes. You know you want your 18th hole to be as tough as possible, but you don’t need your first, second, third … 17th to be hard, too. Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, is a great combination. That’s a great golf course because it’s got variety – a lot of different changes. You can make birdies, you can make eagles, and you can make double bogies.

What is golf’s biggest problem?
It has to do with design. As I said earlier, we’ve got golf courses that are way too hard. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ll be playing somewhere, and someone will say they just played this new course the other day and it was done by a name golf course architect, and they say: ‘I hated it. It was too hard. I shot the highest score I’ve ever shot in golf because I had water, I had bunkers, etc.’

Architects make the mistake nowadays of using bunkers and water whenever they don’t know what to do. When they’re stuck with what to do in a certain area, they put in a bunker or water, and that’s where the average player will go. Many times, golfers don’t achieve the success they want, and architects end up costing golfers a lot of money because golfers hit balls in the water and end up losing them. It also takes a long time to play because golfers are always looking for their balls.

When presented with that open spot, what is your tendency?
Grass. What’s wrong with grass? Nothing wrong with that. GCN