10 Questions for ... Achim Reinmuth MEIGCA

The latest in the popular series of Member Profiles where you can get to know our members better.

1. Why did you want to be a golf course architect?

I love to explore landscapes, play golf passionately and enjoy dealing with shapes. For this reason, I have already dealt with the topic golf course architecture in school.

2. Which golf course architects do you admire and why?

I admire those golf course architects who manage to skilfully design different game strategy options so that the golf course blends into the landscape.

3. What is your proudest design achievement?

When the owner and the golf players enjoy the golf course and their own game, the landscape is enjoyed and after the construction nobody can imagine where most of the earth movements have taken place

4. What are your favourite three golf courses in the World from a design perspective, and why?

• Ocean Dunes Golf Course, King Island, Australia - for me, a golf course with an extraordinary spectacular scenery, but also very different holes, which always offer different playing options without being unfair.
• National Golf Links of America, Long Island, USA - this course is an interesting mix of different designs. I especially remember the bizarre bunkers on holes 6 and 17.
• Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, Kent, UK - the two green complexes 6 and 12 are magnificent. The green 6 is simple but very effectively defended whereas the green 12 is simply fun.

5. What are the greatest challenges you face as a golf course architect?

The biggest challenge is to create a golf course on a limited area with an often limited budget, which is safe, sporty and scenic.

6. What environmental or sustainable initiatives have you incorporated into your designs?

I try to integrate golfing features into ecologically valuable areas with due respect for nature. Working with land that is unsuitable for farming, I have a knack of planning and forming the various holes so that special features or shapes of the landscape enhance their character. Another aspect I focus on during designing and construction is the future cost of maintaining the golf course.

7. How do you see the golf course design industry changing in the next 20 years?

In the future there will be, with a few exceptions, only economically sustainable golf projects that can be maintained with little effort and still provide a lot of fun.

8. What makes a golf course great rather than just good?

From my point of view this is more the background or the scenic setting of the golf course, which is decisive for this.

9. What advice would you give to an aspiring golf course architect?

Try not only to learn all aspects of golf course architecture but also to develop a feeling for landscape structures

10. What do you enjoy about being a golf course architect?

In the construction of golf courses, I love to realize the previously drawn visions and play the golf courses after completion. Positive comments from customers are then the reward for the work. But I think this is just human...

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