From an early age I have always been fascinated by the game of Golf, but I have developed an even more keen interest in the actual architecture and design of golf courses over the years. Therefore designing and constructing single golf holes became one of my favourite spare time activities. I really wanted to get closer to this profession in some way. Therefore I am very thankfully to have had the chance for a 2-week visit at EGD.

At the office of EGD I felt very comfortable the second I entered it the first time. This was certainly due to the friendly welcome of the team but also because I was positively surprised in a way that this kind of work, the architecture and design of golf courses, really existed the way I imagined it would. As this was my first visit at a golf course architecture company my entire image of this profession was based on research and theory. People also have always deflected me from this profession before, who doubted the existence of this profession, and when I finally could convince myself of the contrary this made me even happier.

At EGD I was learned about the whole processes happening in the build up of a golf course. By designing my own golf course project I was learning about fundamental skills and techniques a designer encompasses. The first of many things I have learned was, the appropriate line up of golf holes to form an 18-hole golf course appropriate to the given landscape. Movement of contours/earth to form a difficult but fair golf course for every golfer belonged to the more challenging and exciting tasks. Another important aspect I was taught is that there is not just this sporting challenge, consisting of a combination of fun and creativity; there also is responsibility to and awareness of Nature to care about.

Apart of working on my project, I was also able to have a look around inside the office and get some views on the work of the designers. A range of little conversations gave me a deeper understanding and made me gain vivid impressions of golf design and the individual tasks everybody has in the office. It was especially exciting to see how plans get implemented into reality and how the individual steps are undertaken until the actual golf course is ready to be played. To get an idea of the periods of time the individual work stages take was equally impressive.

The designers of EGD were working on projects in different countries all over the world. I noticed that the design has to adapt to the individual conditions according to the location. The atmosphere within the team was easygoing, relaxed but truly serious and professional. I felt well-integrated in the office and with all those details and empirical values I could pick up here, I was given the inspiration to continue working on my dream of becoming a golf course architect one day to come true.

Additionally being invited to trips to social events like cricket matches or rounds of golf for building site inspection, made me feel being part of this unit during my stay and provided me a closer look into the work of a golf course design company.

It has really been a great time at EGD. There was a great atmosphere in the office which I really enjoyed, sharpened through the FIFA World Cup on television with myself as a German surrounded by a crowd of England supporters…

Tim-Ole Michel.

Tim playing out of a bunker at Princes Golf Club during his visit to European Golf Design

Having done the normal chores at home before leaving for work (well some of them -actually not many of them) I made my way into work.

On a good run I can do door to door in 12 minutes.

What a result – forgot the schools were on holiday so my journey through Chobham was a breeze.

Arrived at work in 12 minutes and what a result found a parking space straight away. No double parking. Then remembered how few of us would be at work today. No not because it was just a Monday morning – this was going to unusually quiet…just Matt, Stan, Gary and myself.

Matt is already here “Morning Matt”, Stan follows shortly and then Gary wanders past my desk eating his obligatory bowl of cereal. I finish my blueberries in the hope they will make me feel healthier!

Now for tea. I offer to make it -what a result. Gary doesn’t drink tea. Stan always makes his own coffee so it’s only Matt and I. Tea no sugar for Matt and a rather large mug of green tea and nettle for me (in the hopes that this too will make me feel healthier)!

Now to check the bank and see who has paid……………… to be continued……………

It’s amazing what a few good weeks of weather can do. The previous visit was pretty much a damp squib, very similar to the conditions encountered during the whole of late May and early June, and construction progress was slow and very stop-start.

However, the middle of June has seemed like a defining date where glorious sunshine and unseasonably high temperatures have dried the site substantially and allowed for quick and quality progress to be made. So much so that the project is now ready to ‘sow its first seeds’!

The topsoil has been replaced on four holes and seedbed preparation is virtually complete on two of them. The irrigation system is up and running, sand is being spread in the bunkers and the heather has been planted around them. A few final tweaks to the seedbed prep and grassing will be ready to commence next week……. something we have all be striving towards.

Long may the good weather continue!

The short par 4, 10th Hole at the PGA National

Cart golf is rubbish! You can keep your GPS tracking, complimentary tees, iced water and towels. I prefer to walk. That is the pace at which the game is supposed to be played. You have time to appraise your next shot, take in the scenery and chat to your playing partners. Golf in a cart is an impersonal and hurried affair and heaven forbid you have to stick to the paths, requiring you to haul an armful of clubs on the inevitable trudge to the rough at the far side of the fairway, only to find when you get there that you don’t have the right one! Carts? Not if I can help it.

However, I have a guilty secret. I actually enjoy the design challenge of routing and specifying the cart roads. Does that make me a hypocrite? When I was a young kid I used to scribble down made up grand prix tracks on paper and repeatedly do laps with my stubby HB pencil until I had worn a hole in the paper. I guess laying out cart paths is my outlet for these juvenile doodles. Single or double track? Where should we put the kerbs and parking bays? How about a turning circle, or a nicely cambered corner? How are we going to snake down that steep hill? What should we make it with? Asphalt, concrete, block paving? All these decisions and more are part of the design process. Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, carts are here to stay and its our responsibility as architects to make the cart tracks work as best as we can.

The reasons for having a formal path are numerous, but they will include several of the following. If the site topography is quite severe, a cart is going to be a big help in getting you up, down and around the inclines. There are now plenty of sites that have only been developed for golf because golf carts exist. Whether courses should be developed for that reason is a discussion for another time. Climate can play a big factor. Having worked on a course in Bahrain, it is very much the exception to see somebody walking. It is uncomfortably hot for golf and the cart minimises the physical strain. Resort and real estate courses can be quite strung out between holes and a cart undoubtedly speeds up the transit times between holes. Transit times are one of the main reasons why golf takes longer now. If you average only 3 minutes between putting out and teeing off, you add an hour to the round. Often, it is quite a bit longer than that. Finally, and most pertinently, is the commercial aspects of having carts. Operators will charge you for having a cart and it is a lucrative add-on for them. Taking the above factors into consideration, it is also clear that access to a cart extends the time span and the variety of courses that a golfer with restricted physical movement can play. For that, they are a good thing.

On both projects that I have completed for European Golf Design, we have built a partial cart track system. That is where the path alongside the fairways on par 4’s and 5’s is omitted, ostensibly because the carts will run down the fairways all the time, so there was little point in going to the extra expense of building the road. The first one, in the Czech Republic, was on a course with such limited play that turf wear was never going to be a problem, and the second, in Bahrain, was on a course where the carts were fitted with GPS systems, so they too would be on the grass generally.

Cart tracks never add positively to the landscape, so it is a matter of trying to minimise the detrimental aesthetic impact whilst maximising the functional demands. This isn’t so easy to achieve, as generally the path will be running directly in the line of sight from the tee, where it will be closest to the point of play. I try to route the path to the outside of a doglegged hole, even if this means that the path has to cross the line of play, as it is far easier to obscure and less of a factor in play on the far side of play. Clearly, on straight holes other factor come into play, such as the direction of slope and how the path links in from the previous and to the next holes.

The surface and width of the paths is very important. I used to prefer concrete to tarmac, but a well made tarmac path is usually more visually discrete, unless you’re tying the path into the desert. Our path in the Czech Republic was formed of block paving. It looks great, but having seen it recently, is very susceptible to weed infestation between the blocks. The path should be a minimum of 8-feet (2.4m wide). Less than this and cart drivers will tend to nip across the corners and wear the turf away. Passing bays and two-way traffic requires a 12-foot (3.65m wide path). Paths are also really useful for the maintenance crew, so a good, wide track will contain most, if not all of their vehicles. We’ll put kerbs in on the inside of some corners, or where we want to contain the carts on the path, such as besides tees. One has to be careful with kerbing, because they can easily act as dams if surface water is allowed to collect on the path. It doesn’t even have to be raining. Overspray from the irrigation system can quickly turn a path into a muddy mess if the drainage is wrong.

Golf is a walking game and so it must remain. Whilst I strive to accommodate cart traffic as best as possible, my focus will always be on trying to make the course as user-friendly as possible for the golfer prepared to sling a bag over their shoulder and burn some calories whilst they feel the design under their feet. That is how we want you to experience our work.

Brick paver cart path in construction at Casa Serena

We found a left handed 9-iron by the 10th green, so we went onto the 11th fairway and found the most difficult approach shot possible to the 11th green. This is Scott Warren from the Daily Mail playing, who’d just won the media day tournament. You can hear Adam and Stuart Burridge, the course superintendent. We all went in the drink and then we went for a drink!