Architect’s Corner – Tom Doak

Award-winning architect Tom Doak admits that he’s a “moving target.” He might as well be crossing the land playing in a traveling band. The month of September alone took him to Detroit, Long Island, Cape Cod and the Dominican Republic. Old MacDonald, his follow-up to celebrated Pacific Dunes, opened for play this year to approving reviews. He’s also lending his time and energy to create a practice facility for the inspirational Midnight Golf program in Detroit.

First accepted by MIT to pursue an engineering degree, Doak elected to study Landscape Architecture at Cornell. Just your ho hum undergraduate experience, right? We caught up with Doak via email during his travels. He’s a very astute man, and he had a lot of interesting thoughts on current happenings in design and golf. Take it away Tom.

Q & A with Course Designer Tom Doak

1. Take me back to your first solo design project when you're 26 years old. You've studied under Pete Dye, visited the great links courses of Great Britain and Ireland...Are you nervous, overwhelmed or has all of the preparation instilled a great sense of confidence within you?

In truth, I was probably overconfident.  I knew I could get the course built, and I knew that I had plenty of design ideas to go with that. But I tried to do too much of it by myself.  Today, I might ask for a slightly bigger budget, and I would recruit more help to make it even better.  Still, I'm very proud of High Pointe because it helped me to understand how I could set myself apart from what most everyone else was building in those days.  It's a unique golf course, and in my spare time I'm trying to figure out how to get it back open again.  [It closed last spring, after my client Mr. Hayden passed away.]

2. In the aftermath of the Dustin Johnson controversy at Whistling Straits, volumes of opinions were written condemning the PGA of America, the golf course and rules of the game? What's your take on the situation?

I've been concerned for several years that the naturalized bunkering we like to build creates a grey area in the rules.  When you just have open sand, is it a bunker, or through the green?  The Rules demand legal consistency, so the PGA tried to adopt a blanket rule, but the best golf courses often present similar conundrums that would be better addressed by common sense and equity, as you and I would do if we were playing a match ... in this case, as long as you don't do anything to improve your lie, no penalty.  On the other hand, I understand that they don't want to allow the guys to take practice swings in the greenside bunkers. That it came to a head on the 72nd hole of a major championship was a shame.  Dustin Johnson has been criticized for not having read the local rule, but I am sure with all the people standing around his ball that it never occurred to him many of them were standing in the bunker. I hope they get it figured out before they hold the Women's Open at Sebonack in 2013, because there are a lot of great modern courses which have open sandy areas just like that.

3. Mr. Dye has been no stranger to criticism throughout his career. When people look back on his work 50 or 100 years from now, what do you imagine his legacy will be?

I think the legacy of Mr. Dye will be that he brought interest and controversy back to golf and golf course design after many years in the doldrums.  I'm sure his best courses will stand the test of time ...perhaps better than my own courses, because his are built to handle today's professionals, so they are kind of technology-proof.  He has also done a lot for the profession by teaching a whole generation of young designers how to build golf courses; I'm just one of many who owe their career to Pete and Alice Dye.

4. I've really enjoyed reading the essays on your website. You've published three books already. If you weren't an architect, would you be a full-time writer?

I enjoy writing, but it is a very tough way to make a living -- I'd have to write 100 or 200 articles to make as much as I make designing one golf course.  I enjoy it more because it's just a hobby and I can write when I am inspired, instead of having to write every day.  For that matter, I've always treated golf course design pretty much the same way.  I told my son years ago when we were on a trip that I would design courses for free, but that people have to pay me a lot to do all the traveling it requires.

5. You wrote that you don't build signature holes, you build moments that a golfer can autograph himself? Can you elaborate on this idea?

Did I really write that?  It sounds pretty cheesy, but so is the whole marketing concept of "signature holes".  A good designer doesn't want one hole to stand out above all the others.  We hope to build 18 holes that give people lots of chances to hit a shot they will remember, instead of just going along making birdies and bogeys and adding up their score.  I don't really care what you shoot, as long as you have fun doing it.

6. It's a sportswriting tradition to ask an athlete about "pressure," but it's not a question posed to golf course designers very often? Considering the critical acclaim of Pacific Dunes, was there pressure to deliver with Old MacDonald?

I've been asked about "pressure" more than most architects, because we've worked on so many beautiful sites, and worked right next door to some of the best golf courses on earth.  The only pressure I ever really feel is the self-induced pressure to do my best work every time out; but I'm grateful for the opportunity.  At Old Macdonald, no one really expected us to build the best course at the resort; we always just said if the course eventually got more than 1/4 of the play at Bandon Dunes, that would be a home run, because the other courses were so good.  The feedback so far has been much stronger than I ever thought it would, but I know that's partly just the fact that people are excited to have something new to talk about.  There aren't many new projects opening up these days.

7. Now I just labeled you as an architect and designer in the span of two questions...do you have a professional preference?

I really don't make any distinction between the two; actually, when people ask me what I do, I tell them "I build golf courses."  Mr. Dye always said that labeling yourself an architect sounded like it could get you in more trouble.

8. Bandon Dunes - People must walk to play. The natural topography creates a variety of stances in the fairways. These are true links courses. Best place to play golf in America?

There are lots of great places to play golf in America, and people will have their own preferences.  But if you love the kind of golf you find in Scotland and Ireland, I don't think there is much dispute that Bandon Dunes is the closest thing America has to that, and I'm very proud to have been a part of that.

9. Speaking of C.B. MacDonald, Stuart Appleby shot a 59 this summer on his layout at The Greenbrier. Do you cringe when the pros shred a classic course like that?

I didn't see the round, but if a great player can go low, more power to him.  I don't cringe, but I do worry that rounds like that convince many people watching that every course needs to be lengthened and toughened, even though 98 percent of the people who play them have never broken par in their lives.

10. Sebonack will host the 2013 U.S. Women's Open. Hosting a major championship often means significant tinkering? Does this apply to women's golf?

I've talked a bit with Mike Davis and he has told me he doesn't think Sebonack needs any tinkering to host the Women's Open.  However, both of us have to convince the owner, Mr. Pascucci, not to do anything more.  Since the course opened he has made several changes ... he is just the kind of guy who is always going to think that some hole or other is the weakest and needs to be fixed.

11. You've said that even the best designers become preoccupied with standards of fairness, which leads to repetitive holes and courses. Does the fear of being labeled "gimmicky" play into this problem?

Absolutely.  One man's fun is another man's gimmick, and the better players who feel most qualified to speak about architecture are often the guys with the least tolerance for anything they believe to be unfair. But really, a lot of the repetition in golf architecture over the past 20 years was just a function of a handful of architects getting so busy that they didn't have time to noodle out a new design for every hole they were building.  That shouldn't be a problem in the next few years.

12. What effect will a prolonged recession have on the golf industry, and your profession?

My only concern is that the recession will be so long that it will drive out a bunch of talented young people who were poised to be the next generation of designers, who will seek greener pastures in other fields because they can't make a decent living doing what they love.

13. China just surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy. Will that country see a course construction boom similar to what we had in the U.S. or do they lack a middle class to drive demand?

If you take the long view, it seems extremely likely that there will be a lot of golf courses developed in China over the next 50 years; they just have to be careful not to get the number of courses too far ahead of the number of players, and not to make some of the same mistakes we've made.  The one thing that worries me about what I've seen in China are the gigantic clubhouses ... those will be difficult to pay for out of the proceeds of golf.  The exciting part is that China is really a new frontier.  It's a big diverse country with lots of beautiful land, and up until now no one has really searched for cool settings in which to build golf courses.  We may find some places that allow us to build a course that's different than anything in the US or the UK.

14. I'm headed to New Zealand to play Cape Kidnappers in February. Where does that site rank in terms of sheer beauty for you?

Cape Kidnappers was an awesome place to go to work every day. You may think you know what it's like, but I guarantee you that you have underestimated the scale of it.  The entire sheep station is 5,000 acres and there are loads of beautiful picnic spots away from the golf course. In fact, there is a valley out beyond the first course that is big enough for another 18 holes, with a deep river cut snaking through it, completely different than the first 18.  We did a routing for it a couple of years back, but for now there's not enough traffic to justify the expense, even for a relatively "primitive" course where the livestock roam freely.  I would love to get back there someday to build that one.

15. Royal County Down or St. Andrews if you were at the point of a bayonet and had to choose?

County Down is the most beautiful course in the world, and one of the hardest.  St. Andrews is the most interesting.  For one round, maybe I'd pick County Down.  But if I was going to retire someplace, it would be St. Andrews, especially since everyone in the world of golf stops through to visit on a regular basis.  Not as many people come up to see me in Traverse City and go play at Crystal Downs.

16. Do you think Tiger Woods' real life complications will derail his design business before it really gets off the ground?

Tiger Woods is a lucky guy; he's been so successful at golf that he will always have the opportunity to design golf courses if that's what he wants to do.  The only problem he has is that his business model will have to change if he wants to stay busy at design.  No one really gets paid millions of dollars to design a golf course ... the few that did were only making that much because their fees were being paid out of the marketing budget for huge housing developments. But there aren't many huge golf developments being built nowadays, so there won't be any huge design fees, either.  If Tiger is okay with that, and just wants to design courses because he loves to do it, then he will put a few other guys out of business.

17. Most effective strategy the golf industry could adopt to grow the game in the next 10-15 years?

In America, I think the biggest thing would be if instead of closing so many courses, we could figure out how to turn derelict courses into low-cost facilities that cater to juniors and people just learning to play.  It's not like we need that land for more condos or shopping malls, in the short term, anyway. The game is too expensive for newcomers, and long term, that's a huge problem.  Worldwide, the most important thing is to introduce golf to China in a more sustainable form, so they don't make all the same mistakes we did. To be honest, though, "the golf industry" has been part of the problem, instead of the solution.  Every segment of the industry has driven up the cost of the game as they found ways to profit from golf, to the point where it wasn't sustainable anymore.  By contrast, golf is as healthy as it ever was in Scotland, because they don't make any decisions there about what's good for the golf industry ... they run the game based on what's good for the golfers.

18. Cornell had a magical run to the Sweet 16 in last year's NCAA tournament. Were you glued to your a television for every game?

Unfortunately, I was traveling in Europe, so I didn't get to see any of the games.  But, it was a great team with a bunch of guys who played and hung out together like a family, so they were certainly easy to root for.  So was Butler! I do wish the bottom half of the tournament draw was just at random ...it seems like the seeding stacks the deck for the top-ranked big-conference teams, so the only way a smaller school can make it through is to beat 3-4 top twenty teams. Whereas the top ranked schools just get a free pass in the first round, and often get a second round game against a fourth-place team from one of the big conferences.

Editor's Note: This article was first published in the inaugural issue of Golfer's Guide Lifestyles. To get a copy of the new full-size magazine, visit your local Golf Galaxy.