THE HOLE MOVES?By Richard A. Baril
The planting season was drawing to a close and we needed to make any necessary improvements quickly. We needed to plant grass. It was a typical visit with the client, shaper, construction superintendent and assorted interested and disinterested parties in tow, and I was guiding the delegation in search of unwelcome incongruities before providing planting approval. I don’t recall early details of the visit but we must have been successful in quest to find things that needed tweaking because when we arrived at the 12 green – a chill wind blew.
I was giving the shaper instructions to ensure a good pin location on the front right of #12 green (see diagram below) near the water. This pin location demands a resolute spirit and finesse.
Midway through my instructions to the shaper, the client, apparently annoyed be all the “changes”, impatiently inserted himself into the discussion:
Owner: “Why is this place in the green so important?”
Me: “Well, it’s truly an excellent pin location that will provide great challenge and an excellent difficult pin placement”.
Owner: “But the pin is way over there. (pointing to the stake in the center of the green) How could this area possibly be important? Besides, we need to get this hole planted.”
Me: “Yes, but this front right pin location will provide a particularly delicate challenge, when we put the flag here.”
… at this point in the exchange, I am sure there was a pregnant pause…
Owner: “You mean the flag (and hole) could be moved to here?”
I am sure at this point I began to fear there was something seriously wrong. It is also important to mention, for those not familiar with developing golf course; by this time in a project, the architect and client have spent more than a year (in this case 2 years) in detailed discussions about golf, design philosophy, construction issues, permitting, agronomy, marketing, membership structure – the list goes on and on. Of course, the most deep and meaningful discussions are related to design and how we are going to instill a new level of sophistication into this particular golf course.
Me: (tentatively) “You do understand that the hole is regularly moved to different locations on the green? We discussed this – on more than one occasion.”
Owner: “The hole is in the center of the green.”The planting season was drawing to a close and we needed to make any necessary improvements quickly. We needed to plant grass. It was a typical visit with the client, shaper, construction superintendent and assorted interested and disinterested parties in tow, and I was guiding the delegation in search of unwelcome incongruities before providing planting approval. I don’t recall early details of the visit but we must have been successful in quest to find things that needed tweaking because when we arrived at the 12 green – a chill wind blew.
I was giving the shaper instructions to ensure a good pin location on the front right of #12 green (see diagram below) near the water. This pin location demands a resolute spirit and finesse.
Midway through my instructions to the shaper, the client, apparently annoyed be all the “changes”, impatiently inserted himself into the discussion:
Owner: “Why is this place in the green so important?”
Me: “Well, it’s truly an excellent pin location that will provide great challenge and an excellent difficult pin placement”.
Owner: “But the pin is way over there. (pointing to the stake in the center of the green) How could this area possibly be important? Besides, we need to get this hole planted.”
Me: “Yes, but this front right pin location will provide a particularly delicate challenge, when we put the flag here.”
… at this point in the exchange, I am sure there was a pregnant pause…
Owner: “You mean the flag (and hole) could be moved to here?”
I am sure at this point I began to fear there was something seriously wrong. It is also important to mention, for those not familiar with developing golf course; by this time in a project, the architect and client have spent more than a year (in this case 2 years) in detailed discussions about golf, design philosophy, construction issues, permitting, agronomy, marketing, membership structure – the list goes on and on. Of course, the most deep and meaningful discussions are related to design and how we are going to instill a new level of sophistication into this particular golf course.
Me: (tentatively) “You do understand that the hole is regularly moved to different locations on the green? We discussed this – on more than one occasion.”
Me: “Yes, the hole can be in the center of the green, but it will be moved to different locations.”
Owner: “You mean the hole moves around the green!!??”
And, this is the question that continues to echo in my mind still today –
“You mean the hole moves around the green?”
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