The fried egg requires a different technique. What you need to do is actually square the face so they'll dig down underneath that bad lie and propel that ball right out onto the green.
Here's the thing. Playing out of a buried lion of bunker is completely different than playing out of a night clean lion of greenside bunker. You need to be aggressive on any show.
Weather it's sitting cleanly for its fried egg.
Well, we've all faithd it.
The dreaded fried egg not to be feared, though, it's actually a pretty easy shot to hit. Welcome to the School of Golf Architecture, Episode four collaboration. So the first three episodes of the School of Golf Architecture covered the relationship between a course and its sight. The discussion often wandered into philosophical territory, and I'm into that kind of thing obviously, But for this installment, I wanted to get practical.
How exactly do golf courses get built. There's a tendency when discussing the stories behind golf courses to focus on the individual architect. We lionize figures like Harry Colt, Seth Rayner, Donald Ross, and Pete Dye, and we see the projects they work on as essentially theirs. We speak of Mackenzie's Cypress Point or Doak's Pacific Dunes on the flip side. When a course doesn't turn out well, we know who to blame, but the truth is that it takes many
more people than the lead architect to create a golf course. First, they are the owners. These may include a developer, or a general manager, or a green committee chair, or all the above. Usually a superintendent will be in the mix too. The owners may initiate the project and their vision may animate it, but their role is often behind the scenes and not very well understood. Then there are the builders.
Among them are skilled shapers, some of whom travel the world with architects like Bill Corr, Tom Doak and Gil Hants laboring over bunker edges and green contours. Less celebrated are the construction companies that do grading, drainage, irrigation, grassing, and other unromantic tasks. Some design firms use these contractors for more specialized shaping work, others make a point of
not doing so. In the middle of it all is the architect who appeases the owners and manages the builders while making sure that the course doesn't feel like it was designed by committee, even if it was. In other words, to be good at golf architecture, you have to be good at collaboration. I didn't know much about the collaborative aspects of golf course construction, so I called up Andy Staples. Andy is uniquely thoughtful about the practical side of the business.
He's done excellent work at courses as different as Sandhollow Resort, Meadowbrook country Club, and rock Wind Community Links. Right now, he's working on a master plan for Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago. In talking to Andy, I discovered how broad a topic collaboration and golf course design is. We discussed how he works with owners, contractors, and shapers. We discussed what design build means and how people often misunderstand it.
We discussed whether architects get too much credit. In fact, we discussed much more than I was able to include in this episode. You can find some extras from our conversation on the Frida Egg dot com.
And so, to me, that collaboration around around the three equal parts of owner, architect and contractor is so important.
So you would say that there's kind of like a triangle of collaboration.
Yeah, I see that exactly because without you know, without the architect building himself, there's the need to have him there. So, yeah, the owner is on he's the one that he kind of puts this all together, and generally it's his vision, but he needs an architect, he needs a contractor to see that vision too.
Fruition, let's start with the ownership side of it. Working with clients of various kinds, could you describe a typical relationship that you might have with an owner. I know they're a variety of owners, but what is that relationship and back and forth?
Usually, like, generally speaking, I'm not dealing with just one quote unquote owner. I have done that and that Those are great when you just have one point of contact and one guy cut in the checks. But you know, typically there's committees, there's multiple people that I report to, whether it's a master planing committee or green chairman or a general manager superintendent. So typically it's kind of a revolving door. And it's actually funny.
You know.
One of the conversations I just had today is, Okay, I have a conversation with the superintendent. I'm got to hang up and I'm gonna say Okay, let's reach out to the general manager and have the same conversation, the same sub matter, but in a different way. You know, Okay, mister general managers, here's here's what's going on. So let me just you know, nothing's nothing's wrong. Just I just want to keep you updated. And so it's really a it's a dance of personalities.
Is really what it is.
So I nine times out of ten, I'm dealing with multiple people, and that that's really indicative of how we're chosen. I mean when we first hear of jobs, you know, whether you're on a list of two or three or you I was selected out of fifteen people on a project as well, So you know, there's always multiple people that when the project gets serious, they want to get involved and so typically that will dwindle to you know,
three or five people. But there's always multiple people, I would say, on every project.
So you mentioned the kind of architect selection process. How does that usually go for you? This is something of a mystery to me, actually, how architects really go about getting jobs. Maybe it's even mysterious to a few architects out there.
You know that we're all still trying to figure that out. You know, you can't do enough good work and have enough of a reputation at all in your in your in your profession. So what we all work to is just to get some form of a of a name recognition so that when a project comes up in an area, or a type of project by maybe an old architect or a sustainability project, so that they think of me.
And so it's arranged from being on a list where I'll get a call from a superintendent or a committee member saying, hey, we're compiling a list of guys, want to check and see you know if you are available. Are you interested? This is you know, ask me some questions and I'll let you know. What we're trying to do is see if you're interested. So I would say that's probably half of my projects are are now kind of inbound, and then there's others that are just flat
out coal calls. I got a job here in Phoenix not too long ago, where you know, I have a guy that helps me call here in my office, I say, here's a list. Call these guys, see if there's an interest in Sure enough, they were just putting together an RFP for architects, and you know, we just happened to grab them and we ended up getting the job.
Yeah, obviously the golf construction industry has contracted in recent years. There are just fewer big new build projects. How do you think that general kind of contraction of the industry or the decline in new projects has changed the way that architects connect with jobs.
You kind of got to understand when we go back and we talk about how we got here, the construction technology and construction industry really started to explode when the certain things like USGA greens and irrigation systems. You know, coming out of the fifties and the sixties, golf got real complicated and now you needed it wasn't just pushing up greens, and it wasn't just doing things that maybe
maybe rudimentally you were doing before. And so when the golf boom happened, not only was there a lot of projects, there was a lot of complexities that we had to really worry about. Who was actually installing these Like a USGA green was new for a lot of years. You know, irrigation systems are knew. We want to have somebody that understood how to do those things. And so now with the contraction we've had a chance to just sit back and breathe and say, Okay, well there are less projects.
Now I get to spend the time in the job, in the field, on the job, working to craft the project. And I would say there's definitely a greater appreciation for understanding the architect needs. You can spend more time in the field and be able to find the guys they want to work on their projects.
So you get to spend more time in the field when there are fewer projects. I would imagine you also get to spend more time communicating with these different points of contact at the club or or who are associated with the development project. Do you see a big part of your job as not only being able to communicate with those folks, but trying to influence them in some way or even educate them about what you're trying to do on the golf course or what the golf course could be.
For the most part, this is their first project, probably going to be their last project, and they don't have any idea, So they're actually selecting an architect in part to help them through that process. So they want to know what it is that you think needs to be done. We want to know how much that costs. You know, they don't know much of anything going into it. So a lot of what it is that you do through the whole process is actually living up to the things
you said. From the very beginning. We talked a little bit about how you're what's typical in the selection process. More times now than ever, you're giving owners a general idea of how much time it's going to take. You're going to talk about general ideas of costs. You're going to give them ideas. I mean, my gosh, we're going through process now where you actually do full on renderings and before and after images to just get the job. And so then you get the job, and now you
have to actually live up to what you said. So now, if you told them that you could get your project done, you know from August fifteenth to November first, you better
armwell be ready to do that. So when you're actually out there building now, now you're living up to the actually doing what you said you wanted you know you were going to do, and managing all those pieces and making sure the contractor is the right contractor and is staying on budget, on schedule, and then you know, updating the owner along the way.
Yeah, it seems like the really thorough planning that you need to do for a job today in the one way. In one way, it kind of shackles you to executing that plan, but also it gives you something to fall back on to say, hey, you know, this is the idea that we've had from the beginning, and it allows you to kind of get your design ideas out there right from the beginning.
Yeah, I mean, there's it's certainly a balance of first impressions and what you're thinking that the creative aspects of what we're doing.
Often, I think with a lot.
Of us, we have those creative ideas the moment we step out on the golf course for the first time or how many times you've been there. And then let's say you get hired and you go through a design plan, almost always you come back to some of the very first things that you thought. Certain vistas certain tweak the routing or a different type of bunker strategy or style.
So generally speaking, I think, you know, I try, I personally try to keep the planning work on a on a top level, like, Okay, we're going to generally have this style of greens, the bunkers are going to be grass faced, they're going to be generally about sixty of them, and they're going to be about a thousand square feet apiece, and you know exactly where they're going to be. We're going to massage them in the field. But here's a rendering that kind of gives you the reasons for why
we're doing it. And I always leave room for that kind of interpretation in the field because that's that's where a lot of that creative magic, if you will, happens, and you know, that's where this idea of design build really starts to you know, it's there's a whole process
to tee up the project. Probably eighty percent of the project is all office and presentation and buying, and then a good portion of you know, twenty percent of the actual work ends up getting out in the field, but it's almost one hundred percent of what everyone sees at that point. And so I always leave open for that type of massaging and that type of ad living, if you will.
Well, that gives us a good opening to talk about in a little more detail the process in the field. What does design build mean to you?
In the truest sense, To me, design build means that an owner is open to not knowing all of the questions, answers to all the questions. They have a general budget, they have a general timeline. But you've got a group of guys that know how to do certain things that you need done. And you begin and we all participate in the construction, and then we work for as long as we need to and we're done, and we make the adjustments along the way. We're not focused on absolutely
having to have everything done at a certain time. You know, to me, the construction industry went very wrong when we started to focus on cheap, fast, and good. You know, cheap and fast, but it's generally not going to be good. If it's good and it's fast, it's not going to be cheap. You can have two of those three. But our industry has done a really good job of trying to do all three, and so contractors race to that. I mean, I talked earlier about the fact that the
construction technology advanced so quickly. These contractors were there to do it, and they they could do it for generally a reasonable number, and they could do it quickly, and for the most part. You know, when I say good architecturally, probably not very good, but at least it was structurally sound. And now design build eliminates all of that. And I think once you eliminate a schedule, everybody has a budget.
But once you eliminate the schedule and we realize that the creative aspects are meant to be an art form. Golf architecture is an art form and not a schedule, and it's not a budget, then that's where the truest sense of design build comes in.
Sure. Now, what do you think people often misunderstand about design build.
Well, they assume that there is only one way and that if you're not on the architect is not on the bulldozer, then it must not be design build and when in fact, a lot of these guys that are on their own dozers are working right alongside some of these major contractors, and so you know, it all now is a matter of perception of what it actually is. Let's be honest, at the end of the day, I don't think anyone really cares whether it's design build or
design bid or through a contractor drawing plans. They would want to know if it's a good project, and if it's a good golf course, then you know, obviously you're doing something right.
Yeah, And that's such an interesting answer because there's this tendency and you know, I'll raise my hand and say that I've thought kind of lazily in this way myself before that there is a dichotomy between design build and design bid that anytime you involve a contractor, you're kind of violating the purity of the design build process. And it sounds like it's it's much more gray than that. So what does it mean to involve a contractor? How
do you work with contractors? And again, what do you think people misunderstand about the involvement of contractors in golf course projects.
I'd be hard pressed to understand any golf course project today it doesn't have some form of a golf course contractor involved with it. So to me, unless it's as smallest a projects, a small green complex or some bunkers or some te's, there's going to be a contractor involved.
And the biggest pivot that's happened in our industry now is that there are more and more people coming that understand the game of golf, and one of the biggest miss numbers I think that has happened with golf course contractors is that they all of a sudden they don't care about golfer. They're They're not somebody that ends up, you know, appreciating what you're now. Granted, there's a lot of golf course contractors that have no idea what a bunker is or what a green is.
They're just on a piece of equipment.
But now more than ever, there's guys that are coming into this field that understand that these guys are passionate about the game of golf and are setting out to build golf courses. And I think one of the things that is probably pretty true in the past and not so much anymore, is that these golf course builders just looked like it, you know, they looked at as an assembly line and once they once the train started moving, every train car had its role and it just went
until it was done. It was really hard to get that train going, But once that train was moving, it is really hard to slow it down. And the architect's job is to actually slow that train down, to stop and say, hey, listen, this is a golf course we're building. We need to do some tinkering here. This isn't quite right, and I don't care if your schedule says it's going
that fastest screen is not right yet. And that's why I've always tried to manage my projects is to allow the contractor to do the heavy lifting, the high liability work, the irrigation work, the grading, the drainage, and then have at least one, if not multiple guys in there that are there with the right amount of time doing the specialty work, the feature work, the actual creative work, the artistic work, the stuff that people love to play and what makes golf courses good.
Do you think that contractors have adjusted recently in the same way that architects have to a smaller industry, Our contractor is starting to operate more along a kind of Each project is unique model, and let's spend the time to get it right.
You know.
That's a that's a great question, and I would tell you that that the industry is segmented. The aspect that has gotten the architecture and has understood that architecture matters. These old clubs matter. These are guys that have aligned themselves with the top architects and the top clubs. They charge a good fair wage for it, and they set the schedule and celebrate the architecture celebrate the quality and
they get paid to do that. Whereas you know, post recession, you have an entire group of other people because you know, the bigger a lot of contractors have gone by the wayside, and the bigger contractors have gotten bigger, and now those guys are numbers games and they're just yeah, they understand that the architecture part of this is not has not gone away, so they're appreciative of it, and they now
more so than ever. When I first started selecting my own shapers, they were like, no, we don't do that, No, we don't do that. But now you it's hard pressed to find another contractor that doesn't allow an architect to bring his own shaper. So that's a little bit of a tweak, but it's still numbers game.
Do you find yourself often working with the same set of shapers to do some of that finished work that you're talking about, Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. There's nothing like being able to go up to a particular bunker or a concept and just say, hey, listen, this green angles from right to left. There's a bunker front, left, there's maybe a roll off in the back, and a couple of bunkers. I'm thinking of this hole at Royal Melbourne, or you know, I did this at San Holo and then they go build it. That to me is the truest sense of the freedom that you get when you
get some familiarity with the guys you're working with. It's so frustrating when you get a contractor and you say, hey, have you ever been to the old course at Saint Andrews. Have you ever been to Shinnecock?
What's that? You know? So you know?
And those are real conversations you have with shapers are like, well, yeah, you know, I've been in that bunker, actually made par from that bunker and it's okay, perfect, not quite as deep, but go ahead and go with that concept.
How do you go about collaborating with people in the field old who maybe don't have the reference points that you would expect or haven't worked on one of your projects before. Does it just mean that you're more involved on a granular level with the work that they're doing out there? You know, what's your approach?
Yeah?
I think if you're we know when it's right and we know when it's wrong. And you know, if you've got something started and it's just not going in the right direction. The only way to do it is to actually, in some cases get on the piece of equipment and do it yourself, or just stand there and wait for them to get it right. And I think that's where the time of this new mentality, this opportunity to spend
more time, really is important. You know, a good side visits to me is anywhere from two to three days. And you know, I find too that if you're there, there's certain parts of the golf course that you can be there. You don't need to be there, there's some work that needs to be done. You don't need to be there all the time. But you know, when we were actually into the detailed work of bunker edging and green slopes, I'm there the entire day, finishing it off hand, raking, shoveling,
and actually showing them exactly what we're talking about. Pictures are very very handy. I'll be texting pictures, I'll be sketching the iPad and the field work of around GPS and the ability to just kind of monitor and communicate that way is at an all time high.
You know what part of what fascinates me about golf course architects is that they're at the center of this mailstream of owners, of contractors, of shapers, of just you know, all sorts of different people with their own interests and their own perspectives and personalities, and the golf course architect has to somehow impose some kind of order on that chaos and turn it into collaboration, to take this all these different people and somehow unify them around a project.
What kind of interpersonal skills do you think architects need to have in order to do that?
Well?
That that's a great question, and it's also one that's really hard for me to kind of answer across the board. I can I can answer for my own sake, and I learned really early on that we spend so much time and passion into this creation that the people we work with we want to have fun with them, we want to be friends with them, we want we want to have some We have to understand that this is the game of golf. We have the common purpose of
what we're creating. And from my standpoint, the personality for me is just the understand that the passion comes.
Through with my work.
We're here to build the best golf course that we possibly can, and that ultimately is going to be a He's something that lives far greater than our lives, and it's going to be something that they can be proud of as owners. I mean, at the end of the day, we're we're reflecting our owners and intentions. So to me, that the interpersonal skills of understanding how to connect with our owners and our contractors. I've always worked hard on that and we think we can always be better at it.
But once I started figuring out that if I'm spending my owners like it was his own, I know that I was going to go I was going to drive some consensus with him, and that's what I try to do in all my project.
Do you think that those skills are even more important for golf course architects now than they used to be?
Well, but I used to be.
If you're if you're referring to maybe twenty thirty years ago, I think you're probably right.
You know.
That's I still get over some of the some of the preconceived notions of oh, really, Andy, you're you're gonna be here every week? I thought you guys only come like every three weeks, you know, And it's like, uh no, I'll be here every week, you know. And I certainly don't want to broad brush everyone, but the ego of golf architecture run amok is certainly something I've had to to kind of get over. It's like this, this kind of celebrity, this, hey, don't touch them? Can I come out and talk?
You know? All that stuff is like.
And I don't know if that's just societal or if that's you know, I'm not sure, but I do know that we as a as a as an industry of still trying to get past that. And I think ultimately, when you get out on a really good project, you realize that all these guys are there having fun. A lot of times, they're they're living together or they're close together. There's barbecues every Friday after dooon, and there's things that you just get a sense that it's a family.
And so to me, that's that's what makes great projects.
So you think, like the kind of community vibe on a project, is it shows itself in the work.
Without a doubt, without a doubt.
That's interesting. So how do you see that coming through?
I think there's a certain there's definitely a certain expectation or a personal pressure that they put on to perform certainly as you kind of get into the design shapers and people that understand game of golf, they're already looking at it from a golf perspective, so they realize, like, you know what this means something, you know, I want, I want this golf course to be talked, you know, right next to some of the greatest golf courses in history.
And so a really good example would be a typical workday is start at seven, and you're off by four thirty or five, and you see when the trucks, you know, everyone get golf course and they get in the trucks
and they go. And some of the best times that I've had is creating those details right at sunset when everyone's gone and we're out there, just as the shadows are creating, we go back to the tea so it's not quite right, and we go back and forth and those types of kind of interactions that you will only see at that particular time during the day of which every single golfer that golf for the rest of the life of that course is going to see that course
at that time because it's still the daylight, there's still golfing. So that kind of buy in and that kind of passion around creation, I have no doubt only happens when people understand the the pressure to perform and the interest to perform, and the context of what it is that.
We're doing, and maybe they want to be there.
They have no other place to go.
Absolutely yeah, they're like, yeah, this is better than watching TV in my hotel room. I like being around these people in this place. I think I'll stay yeah.
Yeah.
And so the rental companies have a fifty hour limit on your renal equipment, and so you know, the best thing that we know that we what we're doing is when we're blowing through the fifty hours a week on the running the dose or running a sampro, running an excavator, because that means you're either behind schedule or you're just building great stuff, got nothing else to do?
Is that your favorite thing to do?
As an architect, there is nothing better than watching things happen in the dirt and making some Actually, I'd take that one step further. There's nothing better than seeing some things come together not only as you've planned it, but somewhat The happy mistakes that we talk about in the business that only happened in the field and watching that come together, I can't imagine doing anything else.
Yeah, I got I mean that sounds awesome, It sounds appealing right now, especially I've been inside a lot lately.
Well, and I think I think one of the empty you know, I think one of the best things that's happening with the Tom and the Bill and the Gill kind of movement is this new understanding that the architects aren't the only ones that come up with the ideas, that it doesn't.
All run through one person.
There is some community about golf architecture that is unlike anything else. There's a certain how hollowness that if you're only there doing it yourself, that it has to be experienced with other people because quite honestly, they're the only one that's the joy of this business is understanding that you're able to share.
This and that it isn't all about you.
And I think that that lack of ego amongst all of us that try to work together that way. Now it's started a little bit of a snobbery, because we certainly think that there's a certain level that we all need to achieve to.
I think, but the end of the end of the day, it's for the right reasons.
It's because we love what we're doing and we love how we're doing it.
So we've kind of completed the circle here. We've talked about a little bit about the bid process, about relationships with points of contact at a Cloudborough course owners, and we've talked about some of the in the field work and working with contractors and the actual construction or build process.
So if I can ask you to put your historians hat on for a second, the way that we all understand the history of golf architecture is that there have been a series of architects who have built great things and have made innovations and done things in new ways to push the discipline in new directions. And that's how change happens over time. It's pushed forward by these great architects.
In talking to you about collaborating with all these different people, I'm actually somewhat in a state of ambivalence about whether we give too much credit to the lead architect or not enough credit to the lead architect, because on the one hand, there are all these other people involved and the quality of their work is key to the quality of the final product, and yet the lead architect is overseeing the whole process, and there has to be an
enormous expertise brought to bear on that. So I don't know, what do you think. Do we overrate individual architects as kind of agents of historical change? Is there another way for us to see how how great courses come to be?
I believe so.
I still have yet to have a project that I have, any project that I'm proud of that somebody hasn't had as much or more of a role in its creation than I did. And I look at Meadowbrook, Medlebrook would not be what Meadowbrook is if it wasn't for Scott Clem, the shaping shaper that I had on the job. You know, rock Wind was Scott Clem and Jim Haley among other guys. Dona Haffey was a part of that as well. And then I just did some bunkers here in Phoenix, and
then I'm working in projects southern California. Sterling Gardner's been on that fortunately, been the same shaper, on the same contractor, and he's have an incredible input, and so it goes on and on, and I think we hear a lot of that from a lot of the other guys that talk about what they do that they know that the golf courses wouldn't be what they are without this collaboration from other people and a lot of respects. The other guys should get more credit than the guys that do.
And I think you know you're seeing that today, and I think that we're certain happened in years past, especially given that we know that you know, for McKenzie, for example, going down to the sand Belt, he wasn't spending much time there. He was in and out, and you know that you left behind his ideas, so somebody, you know, Morkham, had to implement those. So you know right there that that entire sand belt it looks for the way it does because at least two people, if not more so I believe.
I believe that.
But I'll tell you though I use this, I use this as a as an example. Like when I first started my own business, somebody must have told me. It has always been in my mind. If you got into an elevator and an owner of a possible golf course project got in the elevator and you had one one floor to make an impression, and that's all you had, and you had to leave him with something him or her with something before he got off, what was that going to be? And I think that's kind of what
golf design is. You have to boil it that you can't say that it was designed by five people.
It's just the.
Marketing, the media, all of those things that go along with it that people just don't have the bandwidth for that wanted to us sign it to one person. And I think there's some positive that obviously if you're if you're the one person, there's positive, but there's no doubt that that's unfair to everybody that's created those projects. Just it's just impossible to think of all the details that we do and have one person come up with those details.
Yeah, I sort of. I think about the career that I've started to you know, I like to make analogies
between writers and architects quite a bit. But the fun thing that you have as a writer is that you're completely in control of everything You're You're not really working with anybody else unless you're working with an editor or publisher, and you know the people at the Friday We collaborate a lot, and we we work together a lot, but it's very simple, and I know that you know, when something doesn't turn out right, it's just my fault alone,
and nobody's going to come in and alter it. But yeah, golf architecture is just such a different version of artistry.
Yeah yeah, Well it brings up a perfect question about what happens if something went wrong, What happens if an owner didn't want to pay for a certain aspect, or the contractor did something short changed, we didn't catch it. Should that go into this conversation of what went into the golf course? And is almost impossible to actually document and explain all of those pieces because you could go every single hole and have some some different reason for
why things happened they how they happened. And that's one of the things that I feel like I've been insessive about is being involved to make sure those things don't happen.
And should it matter?
Should I explain to you as a as a golfer or as a raider or something like that about oh, well, you didn't realize that we had the wetland here and then there was a storm drain. No, you as a golfer, you don't care about that, So I need to make sure that it's still a good golf course. If it can't be a good golf course, I got to figure out how not to be involved with it, or if I am going to be involved with it, it better be good.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a heavy responsibility because I think we all do understand the ways in which a golf course might go wrong outside of the control of the lead architect. But you're right, and that's where I've come down on that question often too. It is often something that architects bring up as a subject matter that golfers and especially golf course critics don't understand. You don't understand what my
client asked me to do here. My client asked me to prepare this course for the US Open, So I went ahead and prepared the course for the US Open. Why are you critiquing my work if that was the objective of the work, and you know that makes sense, Like I think that at least if you're going to criticize the course, you should know the process that was
behind the creation of the course. At the same time, you play the golf course and you have your reaction to it, and that's really you know, what is the intention of putting effort into the design of goog golf course if not to create a good experience for the golfer when the golfer plays it. So isn't that what really matters?
Yeah, and make an experience something that somebody wants to come back and play again and again and again. So yeah, to me, I've heard those excuses. I've some respects. I've been a part of some of those excuses. I understand it. Hope to never make those mistakes again, but it's just an excuse for putting out average or below average work. Yeah,
And that's really what it comes down to. And I think that's where one of the things that's happened now with the reduction of large build new build projects and more renovations, is that those misses are going to become less and less.
Those misses are going to become less and less. Let's really think about what Andy's saying here, what he said throughout that interview. Yes, his industry has shrunk, it may shrink more. There are very few new build projects and most of them go to a handful of the top design firms. That's worrisome, but not a reason to despair. In fact, there's an upside here. Everyone from owners to builders to architects has been forced to slow down. And when you slow down, you can do good work. You
can even do good work cheaply. This is what hard times can do. They can remind us to take a minute and focus on what actually matters. In the COVID nineteen era, golf has changed. More of us are walking, more of us are playing alone, and I like to think that more of us are appreciating the simple pleasure of being outdoors. In other words, we've all slowed down, not in our pace of play, I hope, but in
our perceptions, if that makes sense. We have more time to take in what's around us, see the details of the golf course, enjoy the craftsmanship of the architecture. In today's best golf course builds and renovations, they're all about details and craftsmanship. The best owners, builders and architects know the value of taking their time. They slowly learn how to collaborate with each other, and they slowly craft every bunker lip, every grassing line, and every hummock and hollow
of every green. They have this time because the industry at large has given it to them, and they're taking advantage of it. My hope is that golfers today can do something similar. If golf becomes quieter and more reflective, Let's take the opportunity to study the landscape around us, and when that landscape is crafted particularly well, let's give thanks to the time, artistry, hard work and collaboration that
made it possible. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, I've put together a post on it for the Frida egg dot com. You can also find us on Twitter at the fried Egg with underscores between each word, and you can find Andy Staples at build Smarter Golf Smarter with no EA. Let's keep the discussion going