A Career in Designing Golf Courses?
By offering a qualification in Golf Course Architecture the Institute is responding to the strong demand for formal training in designing golf courses and for an introduction to a profession which requires an ever wider range of skills and technical knowledge. However, like other professions in the industry, Golf Course Architecture is a career which is unpredictable in terms of long term security.

While the Institute recognises that the market will dictate the demand for new golf courses and the size of the profession, it realises that it has a duty to train new golf course architects in order to achieve and maintain a high standard of design and professional expertise.

With new markets appearing in countries around the world, where golf is being discovered, there is no reason why the profession should not continue to expand. The principal aim of the course is to teach the fundamental skills and knowledge required for a career in golf course architecture, although it may also appeal to individuals who are simply pursuing an interest in the subject. It is designed to be as specific and comprehensive as possible in covering the normal roles of the Golf Course Architect but the course will require a certain degree of background research to be carried out by the students in their own time to fill in particular gaps in their own knowledge. Some individual course tutoring will be available to help with this aspect as well as a work placement scheme.

The Course
The Course will be run by the European Institute of Golf Course Architects. It will utilise the wealth of experience of the membership of the Institute in specific areas of golf course architecture and the excellent facilities and allied expertise of five of Europe’s best and most experienced turfgrass education centres and their staff. The programme will be run as a distance learning course over a period of two years with ten weeks of intensive tuition at the five centres.

Student numbers will be restricted to maintain a high quality of learning. The teaching will take the form of five modules of lectures, field studies, and design workshops, the last of which will include the final presentation and assessment of course work. It is envisaged that students will gain practical experience with work placements in a design practice during the two years of the programme.

Lecturing will be in the hands of professional architects from EIGCA, experts from industry and experienced college personnel.

The Programme
The subjects to be taught include:

• conceptual design and masterplanning
• course layout and safety
• detailed design of golf course features
• drawing and CAD skills
• specifications, quantification
• contract law and documentation
• contract administration
• agronomy and turf science
• construction, irrigation and water management
• golf course maintenance
• landscape design
• ecological and environmental science
• health and safety
• planning
• professional practice
  

The Teaching Centres
The five centres will be:

• Merrist Wood College, Surrey, England


• Myerscough College, Lancashire, England


• Deula, Kempen, Germany


• Boavista, Algarve, Portugal


• Elmwood College, Fife, Scotland

Click here to view the latest Course Prospectus