Real course re-creations and my own designs

Yesterday I talked a little bit about the various swing methods in Links but also a little bit about how playing the game might make people feel. If you'd like people to be spending their precious leisure time playing your course rather than someone elses (and let's face it - who doesn't!), what do we need to do in order to make it as attractive a proposition as possible?

Well it's no secret that a real course re-creation is generally a more popular choice, especially if that course holds a tournament or even a major in real life. Who doesn't want to walk in the footsteps of the greats? Links gives you the opportunity to do just that.
The courses with a great enough stature to hold a major championship are some of the finest golfing grounds ever created. Their design and architecture are of the highest standard and you can be sure that if the course is an accurate re-creation, that it will surely be fun and challenging to play.

This is one of the reasons I agreed to be a part of the Augusta team which re-created the famous master's course for all Linksters to play. I, as much as anyone else wanted to tread those hallowed grounds around Amen Corner which in real life I may never get a chance to do.
Although I'm best known for my own designs and creations in the Links community, in fact, creating and re-creating real courses is something I do virtually every day. My 'day' job of making vizualizations for real architects and developers has kept me busy for the past few years and some of those courses and 'virtual photos' I've done, probably rank amongst my best work. It is, however a very different ballgame to work towards someone elses vision rather than your own, even if their skills as a golf architect far oustrip your own as is invariably the case. Working with some of these highly skilled fellows (sometimes even on site with them)is a privelage I enjoy enormously.

While often working from their very detailed drawn and CAD plans to make sure the accuracy is there right down to the last inch - I'm sometimes asked to 'fill in the blanks' to create the desired final result they are looking for. This does give me a little leeway to shape the bunkers, move grassing lines etc and on more than one occasion I've been told by the architects involved, the actual shapers on the real construction site have been handed my visualization pics and asked to 'make it like that!'

More than ever though, I feel the need to try out my new found knowledge on my own designs rather than simply copy what has been done in the past. While it's no doubt fantastic to have some of the best courses in the world now available to play in Links - I wanted to carve out a little area of my own - a place that I wanted to design, own and play. After all, one of the great joys of golf is that no matter how much you may like one particular golf course you will never tire of finding a new gem to play.

So this new course will be my own design. Over the last few blogs you will know what style I want it to be, it's general location and a few initial thoughts on how it should play. Now all I need is a plan for my new golfing retreat!