It’s nice for me, on some days, to just go, ‘What have I got to do?’ My only priority might be to go and walk the dogs. That’s nice, because when I’m busy, I’m busy.
We’ve also got more involved with the community. I’m an ambassador for a great club called Crazy Mountain over Livingston way.
I love it over that side. That’s the old Marlboro cigarette ranch. We’ve got our own – they call it town. We’ve got a genuine cowboy town, with the saloon, the jailhouse, the fire station, the brothel.
It’s very cool. It’s genuine – over a 100-year-old wooden building. We’re amongst 3,000 acres of gorgeous mountains. You’ve got rivers, you’ve got golf. Everyone enjoys the good things in life, which is nice.
What’s your design philosophy?
I’ve got a good eye and a good strategy – that was the way I played. I’ve seen all the great golf courses, and I’ve got a very good photographic memory.
I can visualise the [Alister] Mackenzie’s and the George Thomas’s. I love Colts and, in modern day, Pete Dye. You look at those and go, ‘Would I do that?’ That sort of thing – or you might be inspired by it.
I’m a big fan of trying to make it fit as naturally as possible.
How much of a challenge is that?
It’s tough sometimes. In Cambodia, for example, we had a thousand acres with four feet of movement. You’ve got to do a lot of dreaming and a lot of pumping sand. Or we get the opposite. In Vietnam, we had to blow up rock to create golf holes. You’ve got to have a good engineer who can understand it.
You can get all this dirt and rock. Where do you push it all? Or where do you get it all when it’s flat? It’s really an engineering feat. Luckily, I’ve got smart people who know how to do that!
Tell us about your new project in Madeira…
Madeira is one that we’re very excited about, what with the views in this little corner of the island. It’s very undulating. We’re going to make a lovely golf course with a little boutique hotel, about 100 rooms, so not huge.
Are there any specific projects you’re particularly fond of?
Laguna in Vietnam is a great site because of its variety. I guess the ultimate is to have as much variety as you can. Here, you start off through meadowlands, then rice fields, a bit of jungle, beach, down the river, through the rocks, back in the jungle, and then you finish the last four or five holes with huge blowouts of sand. You get a little bit of everything, which is very cool.
We always consider the history of the site. Putting something in is a bit of a trademark. For example, in Cambodia we’ve got buddhas and temples, a miniature scaled-down version of Angkor Wat on the golf course. We were inspired by that. This is the fun bit.
I always enjoy having no preconceived ideas when I go to a golf course, because you want to be inspired by what’s there. I think that’s important. We’ve got a few other ideas up our sleeve. It’s going to be fun. The design business is going very well.
What are some key trends you’re seeing in the golf course design industry?
The blowout look on bunkers is something they’re going heavily on. They can look fabulous, but for the average golfer who goes left and right, you’re making life more difficult.
If they hit a poor shot, they’re going to leave themselves 60-yard bunker shots all day long. There’s a fine balance between building a resort golf course and a pro golf course. That’s something we’re always mindful of.
How has the evolution of golf equipment impacted your designs?
Distance has exploded over the last ten years. The best example is Firestone, which we used to play in the World Series.
We would be hitting 2-, 3- and 4-irons into the par 4s. The 9th was a good drive, and you’d end up on the top of the hill. You’d have a 2-iron into this little green that was 210 yards out. Now they smash it over the hill and have a gap wedge.
I’d come back and tell my architects. It used to be 300 yards through the air – that was impressive. Then it went to 320. Now we’ve got quite a few guys who can do 340 through the air. When you design, you start thinking, ‘Where’s the golf ball going to end up?’ Making a strategy is very difficult.
If a drive goes 340, and pros can hit 240 with their 4 -iron, that’s 580. It has changed the game dramatically for course design.
How much different has it been designing the new short course at Chart Hills?
I’m very proud of it. I’ve been beating this drum for years. So many hotels don’t have room.
You say, how about 12, but they want a championship golf course. That drives me up the wall. People are recognising the fun playing short courses.
Building a 12 -hole golf course ticks all the environmental boxes: the water, construction costs, time. Time is the big thing now, where people must try and please everybody.
You’ve got a family but you want to disappear and play some golf. Eighteen is a long day, so I’m really pushing the 12 -hole concept as much as I can.
Your six-hole ‘Loop’ at Chart Hills is proof that golf can be fun in a shorter format…
Absolutely. I was able to draw inspiration from many of the great places and holes I’ve played at the likes of St Andrews, Muirfield Village, and Augusta.
It’s a great challenge for golfers of all abilities. We have our very own ‘Valley of Sin
It’s fantastic, unique. I think golf courses of this nature are only going to get more popular, and what we have at Chart Hills is very special. I’d encourage anyone to go and play it.
Are you working on other short course projects?
We’ve got a great project up at Big Sky. We’d like to do six holes for kids, and we’d like to do a nine-hole par-3 course.
Hopefully we can cart that one because you’re at 8,000 feet plus! Then maybe there’s a 12-hole course which could be serious. It’s quite a challenging project, but I think it could be ground breaking.
We’ve also got a little company I’m forming with Paul Jansen and my architects called ‘Golf in Small Spaces’. People love to have anything from a single green in their back garden all the way up to three, five, ten, 30 acres.
As we’ve seen, the popularity of them is fantastic.
The skill is to design where, if you’re brand new to golf you can roll it along the ground, and if you’re a decent golfer you can cut the corners and getting the ball to stop is a great challenge.
So I’m very excited about trying to build that side of golf.
What was it like to take on the role of host for the British Masters?
It’s a nice honour since I won that one. It’s something America has done so well over the years, with celebrities and the likes of Arnold [Palmer], Jack [Nicklaus] and Tiger [Woods].
I think our tour should do more of that. Seve would be a great one to honour, and probably Rory in the future.
All I’m trying to do is build awareness of the event, make it more British. I think that’s a fun thing.
I’ve requested that all the music to be played should be British bands. There should be no problem with a playlist on that! Little touches like that.
What’s been the most rewarding part?
Well I’m not playing. I’m there all week. I’m quite happy to give it time, get it to grow as best as
I can and make the fan experience as good as possible.
I’ve got some great ideas for the fans’ village. So we will see how we can just keep expanding it. I have my own pavilion, which is very cool, wonderful food. I love hosting people up there.
What do you think makes the British Masters stand out from other tournaments on the DP World Tour calendar?
The Belfry has a great central location. We can get good fans and create a very good atmosphere.
As I said, we can make it as British as possible. We have a good date, and in the future, we can encourage a few more top names to come and play.
It’s always a great challenge to play The Belfry, especially when you get a little bit of weather, a little bit of wind in there, and then the tricky finish. It’s always going to get a great champion.
The Faldo Series is also still going strong…
Well, that week we also host our Faldo Futures event. We have our grand final, which was a great success the first year.
We had about 1,600 participants, which was whittled down to about 120 youngsters. They loved it. We want to expand that, make that bigger and better.
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