Why Accept Costly Old Norms?

We should be encouraging... organizations that understand their missions, “know” the people they serve, and excite the ones they employ; we should be encouraging “thick” management, deep knowledge, healthy competition... We need to get back to our basic senses, to feel genuine commitment, to use informal intuition,... Only in these ways,…shall we find our way back from the frozen wastes... Mintzberg on Management, Henry Mintzberg

Building golf courses is a people business. It is about communication and regardless of technology that makes planning easier, a project still requires leadership... just as the best did 100-years ago.

In the old days construction was slow. Horses, mules and manpower. With a visit every few days or week, the architect could see the painstaking transition and adjust accordingly.

Today construction is lightening fast. What once took weeks only takes a few hours today, but the method of oversight hasn't changed with the times. The "site-visits" reflect 50 to 100-year old standards.

Paper plans are merely a tool for nailing down engineering solutions, and getting bids on predicted work and materials. After that, plans are subject to interpretation and alteration. To get the most from your land and budget, you require "genuine commitment", more than ever before... an architect leading construction.

Old norms, architects visiting the construction site infrequently is defended and bandied about as acceptable because it is the way things have been done for decades. You'll often hear the name Donald Ross used as a defense. History though, shows the architects of the great courses employed far higher standards. They were built with men leading construction.

Even Ross realized the errors of his ways:

The greatest collection of Donald Ross golf courses is right here (in Pinehurst)…

That’s because (Donald Ross) was here.

When my dad once asked him what he might do differently if he were starting over, Ross told him, ‘I would only build as many courses as I could be at the site.’

He lived here (in Pinehurst) and spent time here, and obviously courses are going to be more true to the designs when the architect is there.

Interview with Dan Maples

Pilot.com

You don't have to settle for costly old norms, and the latest planning technology doesn't change matters either. In the end it is still a set of plans the builders have to interpret... plans that cannot speak, or hold every detail and possible improvement.

Plans are not on a mission, people are. Without leadership... there is no mission... only submission.

Old norms... they'll either cost you in cash, in quality... or both.

It's your money. You can demand far more.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+1(909) 581 0080