Where to now? The Future of golf course design - by Alain Prat

The influence of modern golf club technology is having an undeniable effect on the game

Golf is today becoming a world-wide phenomenon thanks to its exponential growth and the corresponding economic benefits.

It is the most played individual sport in the world, with 65 million golfers and 32,000 golf courses. Following in the footsteps of the English speaking countries, European golf now boasts 20% of the golf courses. At the same time, the gap grows ever wider between the standard of professional players, both men and women, and those ordinary golfers whose average handicap remains between 24 and 36. At the same time golf courses themselves are changing.

So called ‘championship courses' are being toughened in order to challenge the improving professionals while average players, who do not show the same rate of improvement, struggle to find such courses playable.

Since the 1940s there has been a steady escalation in golf course design and construction that now appears without limit. The bulldozers have cleared millions of cubic metres of earth, and the golf course architect has shaken off his amateur status for that of a professional.

Golf course design has been completely transformed. Pot bunkers have been replaced with bunkers wider than a Punta-Cana beach. Robert Trent Jones introduced artificial water hazards in the 1950's and now the "Venice syndrome" has spread throughout the entire golfing world.

We have surely reached the stage in golf course design when important questions now need to be answered. The answers will determine the future of golf course architecture and what role the architect should play. What criteria should determine golf course architecture: strategy, power or precision play? Is it the golfer's equipment that should dictate the design rules or is it the other way around?

The influence of the equipment on the game is undeniable. Annika Sorenstam is on the heels of the men with drives of 250 metres; Michelle Wie, at 13 years old, drives over 260 metres whilst Phil Mickelson averages 277 metres. Around 80% of club players drive the ball between 180 to 210 metres.

What does the future hold for golf course architecture, and what role has the architect to play in the face of these huge recent changes in the way the game is played?

So what road must the architect follow? Pepper the golf course with bunkers; increase the length of courses to 7000 metres or more. Should we design golf courses for the "poor" (the ordinary golfers) or for the "rich" (the professionals)? What place is there left for feelings, strategy or harmony with nature when "the unlimited budget has been overrun" and profit has taken the place of the ordinary golfer's pleasure? What does the future hold for golf course architecture, and what role has the architect to play in the face of these huge recent changes in the way the game is played?

Perhaps we should re-examine the history of golf course architecture and the “old courses” of 6000 metres or less, of which twenty or so still rate among the best and most technically challenging courses in the world. In the following articles three writers give their views on the development of the game, recent changes in golf equipment and their impact on golf course architecture. We hope that their comments will stimulate debate amongst all those who are interested in the future of the sport.