When
the subject is golf course architecture, school is always in session for Ben
Crenshaw and Davis Love III. When the Crenshaws and Loves go out to dinner,
Julie and Robin talk between themselves, knowing Ben will have photos of his
latest designs to show Davis. Once, Crenshaw and Love were paired
together during the Barclays Classic, played on Westchester Country Club’s West
Course, regarded as one of the best on tour. Waiting to putt on the second hole,
Crenshaw began dissecting the green contours for Love and the two became so
involved in the impromptu lesson that the third player in the group had to walk
up to them and ask, “Aren’t you going to putt out?”
Architecture
style and understanding, like the game itself, have been passed down through
generations of professionals since the mid-19th century, from St. Andrews pro Allan Robertson to Old Tom Morris to
today’s best players. When Crenshaw, the current dean of the school of hands-on
player-architects, talks, Love is not the only student.
“I
think Crenshaw and [partner] Bill Coore are probably the best designers in the
business today,” says Phil Mickelson, who authored the acclaimed Lower Course at
Whisper Rock Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I look to Ben for how bunkering
should be, how to utilize the natural environment and how to make a golf course
look like it’s been there for many, many years.”
Besides
Love and Mickelson, Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon and Nick Faldo are emerging as the
next generation of player-architects who are avid students of great courses,
determined to leave a legacy of thought-provoking layouts that truly carry their
imprint rather than simply their names for marketing purposes.For this new breed
of player-architects, quality over quantity is the rule, and they’re as
intimately familiar with the topography of their designs as they are with the
launch angles of their tee shots. Like Crenshaw, the passion they bring to their
second careers can match or even exceed their love of playing the game.
For
some, that passion had been building even before reaching the PGA Tour. Love,
for example, developed an interest in design at the feet of another mentor, his
late father, renowned instructor Davis Love Jr. “My dad was always interested in
the design of the course where he was the pro,” Love recalls. “I had graph-paper
sketchbooks that I would draw my holes on, and I would copy pictures of old
design drawings.”
Like
Love, Lehman doodled holes as early as his grade-school years. In college, he
then contemplated a different type of architecture. “I sat down with the dean of
the architecture school at the University of Minnesota and we were talking about my
plans,” says Lehman. “He asked what I was going to do besides study. I told him,
‘play golf.’” Lehman wound up making a good career move, but he is gradually
returning to his first calling as he devotes more time, Ryder Cup captaincy
duties notwithstanding, to his design business—again, in the tradition of
Crenshaw, whose time-intensive, hands-on approach doesn’t permit him to build
more than one or two courses a year. “If there’s someone who thinks they can do
this sitting in their office, they’re wrong,” says Faxon. “Fifteen years ago it
was very easy to sign on to a project, lend your name, show up for opening day
or groundbreaking and paste your name onto something without doing much work.
Those days are long gone.”
If
you’re looking to check out an architect’s credentials, don’t bother with his
list of projects or his plans. Look at his feet.
