COURSE DESIGN

1. Philosophy

Golf course design is an area of the game that has become increasingly of more interest to me as my career progresses. I have been fortunate in that I am playing the very best golf courses in the world on Tour and have formed a view on how courses should play and look not just for professionals but also for amateurs. It is an area that I have very strong opinions on and love nothing more than discussing golf course architecture with various people from fellow players to tour staff and architects.

My views are very classical and traditional, my favourite designer is Harry Colt and I don’t feel it is a coincidence that a lot of my best performances have been on Harry Colt designed courses.

I am a very visual player and I feel that it’s important to frame a shot well. I particularly like bunkering which shows a very large slow sweeping curve and my views on green designs again are very classical with very slow gentle moving slopes to run off areas and bunkers but big enough to hold a well executed shot, and standard shots that a handicap golfer may hit.

I feel many of the modern golf courses designs are too difficult and any work I do on golf course design will be to entice and not to intimidate golfers. I want the golfer to feel that he can get the better of the course, just as many times as the course will get the better of him.

2. Past Projects

I was involved in the project at Macreddin in County Wicklow, just south of Dublin in Ireland. I started at the very beginning with fields that had cows and sheep in them and not fairways and greens. It was a very steep learning curve for me and one from which I gained great experience. I had the pleasure of working with Bob Knott who has gone on to help Greg Norman design the Earth course in Dubai where the Race to Dubai final was held in 2009, and Joe Bedford a friend of mine since my schooldays and former president of the European Greenkeepers Association who will also be working with me on any future projects. The site was a very difficult one with vast changes of elevation and some very difficult engineering involved. Click on the link to see the Macreddin website along with various photos. www.macreddingolfclub.com

Unfortunately like many new golf projects in Ireland, it ran into financial difficulty towards the end of construction and some notable components were not completed, particularly the cart paths which I do feel are essential to ones enjoyment of playing the course as the severe undulation of the terrain makes walking extremely difficult. Presently carts are only allowed in dry conditions.

I really do feel that I accomplished a lot at Macreddin but feel that I have a lot of unfinished business. I liken it to making a very nice cake without the opportunity of putting any icing on it!

3. Current Projects

In early November I was asked to travel to Bulgaria with the view to redesigning St Sofia Golf Club, the only course in Sofia the capital city. The landscaping on the course is very barren but the routing quite good. I gave my views and at the moment I am in the process of drawing up plans and ideas for a redesign of the golf course. This is presently a 'work in progress' and I hope to update you over the coming months on my plans for the course. Photographs will be shown on this website as the project progresses, a project that I am very excited about as I have a strong picture of what the course can look like.

The course is now coming on quite well as you will see from the images below:

3rd tee 5th tee