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Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Undercover Newsletter, where we grant anonymity to those in the golf community who have something to say.This newsletter comes from a renowned curriculum architect, accepted Architecture Editor Derek Duncan.To receive undercover communications, you can Register through Golf Digest+.
I recently got some hard news. One club I consulted with hired another architect to renovate their stadium. I worked at this Southeastern club for over 15 years and undertook a complete renovation to return the course to the appearance and playability of its original 1920s design. My team put a lot of time into research, had good documentation, and thought we were doing it right. The same goes for clubs. At least that’s what they did at the time.
Now, people tell me that the new work there has seriously changed the character of the course, and it’s not even based on its architectural history. When you hear something like this it makes your neck warm and I had trouble falling asleep a few nights.When you invest so much of yourself and the club’s resources Renovation of golf courses It starts to feel like your child.
Unfortunately, working as a consulting architect can be tenuous. Renovation work is often based on informal arrangements rather than contractual commitments. Some of my closest friends are people I met while serving on boards or committees, but one day you show up at the club and realize that from the time you started, you’ve been two or three directors or general managers. Those who loved me are no longer alive, and may not even be alive anymore. The search committee has changed, and the current one may be more enthusiastic about the idea of working with someone else.
This may be what happened to the South East club in question, although I don’t know as they didn’t tell me they were leaving. It’s hard to accept after being together for so long, but it happens and I’m better at dealing with this kind of stuff than I was before.
Although I feel stabbed in the back, I can’t blame the architect who took the job. The club has certainly contacted him, just as the club has contacted me regularly. When I become new, will I call my coworkers to let them know? Never once. In all the time I’ve been doing this, I’ve had an architect call me and tell me that a club where I worked hired him. Ultimately, it is the club’s responsibility and they should generously inform their former advisers when they leave.
Still, if the architect knew that the club wanted to change the design of a historically intentional restoration, I hope he would have had enough respect for the stadium and history and not take the job. But then again, the club will just find someone else to do it.
It pays to stay close to the club, especially if it has an interesting or important history. I am honored and humbled to work on courses that were touched by Donald Ross, A. W. Tillinghast and Seth Leno, and the best case scenario is that you can help restore these clubs to their original architectural glory.
The thing is, people always want to leave their mark on the course, whether as an advisor or as a club committee member. If Ross, Reno, and Tilly’s classes could be redone, then so could my decor. And there is always an architect willing to do it. Whatever success I’ve had in this career has been because someone fixed a golf course and someone else wanted it changed back. Someone will follow me and make a living putting the pieces back together however they see fit. This is the business we are in.
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