Having spent a large part of the past month visiting and speaking at conferences, I’ve learned a few things:
Observation 1 – Golf Inc. Conference, Florida USA
If you think things are bad where you are, go to the US. It might be an exaggeration to suggest that nothing is happening in the golf development world at the moment, but there doesn’t appear to be much happening at all. There are a lot of gloomy faces. And Gary Player, at 73, has more energy than people more than half his age. Remarkable.
Observation 2 – International Golf Conference, Denmark
The Danes are a clever lot. They managed to get the whole of the golf business together and spent a day discussing the challenges that they all face and how to deal with them. It was fascinating to hear how the national Federation, golf course owners, operators, professionals and suppliers plan to work together to grow and develop the game.
Observation 3 – Golf and the Environment Conference, Spain
No matter how much talk about “the environment” and “sustainability” there might be, there is still an incredible amount of head-in-the-sand thinking about golf’s wider impact and the need for the golf industry as a whole to stand up for itself when there is a good story to be told, but equally to stand up to bad practice when necessary. Remaining silent when it’s clear that rules/guidelines are being ignored does the industry no favours at all. We MUST speak up.
Observation 4 – Golf Environment Organisation – European Industry Forum, Scotland
The Golf Environment Organisation (GEO) is dragging us, in some cases not as willingly as we should be, into the right frame of mind for the future of the industry. They DO speak out when they see bad practice. They are giving the industry the tools to demonstrate future sustainability, through the Certification programme and the Development Guidelines, both of which are soon to be launched. But, as with every other not-for-profit organisation, funding is a constant source of concern. We cannot allow that to limit the work that they can do for the betterment of the game, and the environment, in the future.
As a toffee I have been starved of trips to Wembley for many years. 1995 was the last time the blue half of Merseyside made the trip. Sunday saw a repeat of that years final.
The day got off to a good start, I managed to convince Alaina (my girlfriend) that a pre game trip to Ikea wasn’t a good idea. After being dropped off at the ground, my brother, his colleagues and I headed in for some food and drink. A few glasses and bets later (most of which were on a first goal scorer!) we headed to our seats for Kick Off. The wine helped with the nerves and seeing a under strength Man Utd team I felt quietly confident. The fans were as loud as I have experienced, my ears are still ringing two days later.
The first half was tight with chances few and far between. Getting to half time with it goalless I felt that Everton would not have better opportunity to get to the Final of the FA Cup for many years to come. The blues started well in the 2nd half and the fans were making themselves heard. Utd slowly took control after 60 minutes or so, Vidic and Ferdinand winning the aerial battle with Evertons 6’3” (6’7” including hair) Fellaini, the Reds were looking the more likely to break the deadlock. Mid way through the second half they were denied a clear penalty and I’ve never seen a man more angry than Alex Ferguson at the moment, his face was a new, undiscovered, shade of red.
With it still goalless after 90 minutes the game headed for extra time. Again not much action, but, Cahill was stopped in his tracks when through on goal having been adjudged to have fouled Vidic, another suspect decision from the ref! A few minutes later the final whistle went and penalties were to decide who would play Chelsea in the final. After Cahills rugby conversion my head was in my hands, however, Berbatov and Ferdinand both missed allowing Phil Jagielka to score the winning spot kick. A blue day it was, The red half of the stadium emptied very quickly!
It’s become a tradition at European Golf Design that whenever travelling to new countries or cities we bring back a national or local beverage to the office. From projects across the world we have a very comprehensive selection! Each and every experience has its own memory or story, from happy times spent with the client to a hard days work spent on site with the Contractor. From construction and course opening to meeting up with old aquaintences and hosting tournaments the friendship never ends.
The collection even has artefacts that have been found during construction like at Worsley Park in England. The site was an old Victorian dump site and many 19th century bottles were found during excavation work.
A toast is for celebration and what better way to celebrate completing a project or job well done than to raise a glass (or two) amongst friends.
Cheers!
Fresh from playing in his 500th European Tour event the week before last, Colin Montgomerie came into the office earlier in the week for a design session for the projects we’re working on with him in Denmark and Egypt. Having discussed the elements of detailed design for the former project, we then went through the progress to date on the initial master planning for the Egypt site.
As well as going through these two projects, we also spent some time talking about our work on the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor, venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup, which Colin visited recently in his capacity as European Team Captain. Colin said he was very impressed with the way the course is maturing, particularly the new holes, and gave special mention to the viewing areas that have been created over the last four holes that will allow the vast majority of the 40,000+ crowd to watch golf over the closing stretch, as well as seeing up to twelve of the other holes during the early stages of play.
Following that, Monty was interviewed by two writers from Bad Halo Golf (www.badhalogolf.com) with whom we are collaborating on a new book to be published later in the summer on golf course design.
