Master Planning for New Golf Courses:

Set the Basis for a Quality Golf Course

This level of quality is not simply about the size of the development budget. Even the cheapest of low cost golf courses will benefit from being well planned at the outset. This facilitates a balance of the best possible product for the lowest overall price, ensuring that every dollar is well spent along the way.

Because of this, a Master Layout Plan for a new golf course should not only encompass the best 18, 27, 36, or however many hole layout, it should also deeply consider the logistics of actually building such holes, and the staging of their construction. And that includes consideration of developments that are linked to the the golf course.

Too often in the past, golf courses have been developed with good intentions, only to struggle before or soon after completion due to unrealistic implementation and maintenance requirements, or lack of integration with adjacent land uses.

The primary question that should be in the mind of the architect as he undertakes master planning for new golf courses is therefore a proactive one:

"Where should each golf hole be located for its maximum, overall benefit and effect to the golf development and its adjacent land uses?"

- Ease of construction with minimal site disturbance

- Interesting and varied playing conditions

- Ease of maintenance for the future

- Fit well into the natural (or naturally appearing) environment

- Generally not "fighting" the terrain. Refer design principles for more on this.

- Scope for future lengthening if desired

- Approporiate levels of integration with surrounding areas

This sounds logical enough, but believe me it is rare to find a Golf Architect that truly takes into consideration the requirements of more than whats inside the boundaries of the golf course site. In order to be truly efficient and productive it is necessary for the Golf Architect to have an understanding of how other non-golf elements of a golf development project need to relate to the golf course. After all, it is usually these elements that are funding the golf course.

Nowadays it is a luxury for a client to present you with a large piece of land for the sole purpose of master planning the best new golf course, with little thought for the area consumed, or what is beyond the site boundary.

The plain hard fact of life is that the vast majority of all golf courses in existance are on somewhat confined, fairly uninteresting sites, and if we were only ever able to develop courses in the idylic locales that fill the pages of most golf magazines, then I doubt that most of us would ever have heard of the game of golf, much less played it!

From a Golf Architecture viewpoint, master planning for new golf courses it is a heck of a lot more difficult on barren, confined sites than it is to do so on large, pristine sites. Most golf developments, especially golf/real estate developments near big cities need to optimise their space allocations to maximise returns on what is usually very expensive land.

In these situations, the approach to master planning for new golf courses usually conforms more closely to the buffer guidelines outlined previously.

This does not mean that these courses are in any way substandard. On the contrary, some of our best designs have also been the most compact. In master planning for new golf courses, a good golf course architect will be able to obtain the best of both worlds, and a very good balance between:

A) Golf frontage to real estate (more frontage usually means more land consumed for the golf course)

and:

B) Compact layouts without having to "manufacture" large portions of naturally appearing golf holes

whilst achieving:

C) Good variation in playing strategies and experiences

Layout design by Nigel B Douglas

Note that this layout has:

- A mix between "core" (many holes close together) and "fingered" (holes stretched out in single or dual formation) routing styles, which gives a reasonable amount of real estate frontage to golf without consuming too much land.

- A good mix of play directions. Even though there are eight holes which play close to east-west, they are generally in the mid section of each 9-hole loop, avoiding most evening and morning sun issues.

- A good mix of hole lengths, changes of elevation and playing directions.

- A good mix of both left and right dogleg directions.

- An enclosed practice area (no need for large nets).

- Very little wasted space, as can be seen by the absence of any large vacant areas onsite.

- A fairly central maintenance facility, with service access via a back lane

- Incorporation of water storage areas into playzones without too many intimidating forced water carries, which can be a negative influence to higher handicappers.

This layout plan has many virtues and encompasses a good many of the general layout design principles that are pertinent to any members or resort golf course. More background information on this site and layout can be found in the book Golf Course Design - Modern Day Issues and Experiences. As a golf course architect, the greatest challenge in master planning for new golf courses is always to create something from nothing. It is easy to create a great golf course on a pristine site. But with enough talent and the right approach it is also possible to create a great golf course on almost any old site.

To rehabilitate a barren or degraded site, to design a classy course within tight constraints or to successfully upgrade a golf course that is crowded and dangerous, showcases the best skills an architect has to offer. Master planning for new golf courses is the first and possibly the most vital step in the process, and is an opportunity to avoid a myriad of later issues that can, and often do prevent most golf courses from becoming truly great.