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

The Brain

"...to encode the human brain. It would take at least a 30, five story main university libraries to hold this many books." The Physics of Immortality, Dr. Frank Tipler
The brain is the most versatile super computer there is. The problem is we can't read minds.

With that much capacity, being so complex, and with everyone seeing different things from the same experience, we will never have two identical visions for the same plans. The only way to know someone's vision with all modifications included is to have it personally explained to you, with daily monitoring to ensure it's going as discussed, and to seize any unforeseen opportunities.

Isn't it interesting, with all that brain power, our memories are so faulty? That our memory of certain events drops dramatically after a few hours, a day and then a few days it's reduced to mere ashes! So what was said during a "site-visit" can not only be misinterpreted, but forgotten altogether. That's why it's best to have "the source", the architect explaining his vision, and monitoring the work daily. He is influenced by what happens, can see opportunities, implement them with the help of the individual worker, and check that things are going as discussed.

Interesting fact: The capacity of the human brain ? We can have between 2,0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000 and 2,0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000.0000000000 memories (that's 2:10:10 and 2:10:17).

The human mind, most powerful and versatile super computer, yet forgetful, all in one.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com+49 (0)173 450 4552
+1(909) 581 0080

Talent and "dogged endurance"

"I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas." Albert Einstein

"Obsession" can be defined as a focus on either quantity or quality. As an investor, would you prefer an architect obsessed with your project or numerous projects? Quality of course... so that's what an investor should look for. Someone obsessed with making the most of your property and budget.

Simple Math Department
With only three projects concurrently, the architect could possibly visit your project once a week. Added to the three projects is travel , and with multiple projects the architect most likely is looking at future work and has staff churning out plans that need review. These future jobs chew at the clock... eating at the most valuable asset your architect can bring to your project... his time.

To get the most from your architect's talent he has to possess "dogged endurance". The commitment of Time and thought... in a quest for excellence. Spending 90 to 95% of his time with other ventures does yours no good. How can it? His talent and focus is elsewhere.

Quality isn't a talent, it's a pursuit. 100-years of golf architecture history clearly shows the best courses have an architect taking control of construction on a daily basis.

"Dogged endurance". "Obsession". "Curiosity". "Self criticism." = Hard Work, and the investment of the most valuable resource, time. That's how you get the most from the architect's talent... and your budget.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+49 (0)173 450 4552
+1(909) 581 0080

Plans, Laws & Facts

"One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts." Albert Einstein

Golf course plans are mathematical solutions to artistic problems and are therefore insufficient.

Plans may work perfectly for a structure, who’s angles are known and easily measured. The same for roads, with their measurable curves, planes, and grades. Golf courses though, are works of art combined with engineering. It's subject to interpretation of the builder (remember... 10 different builders with the same plans will produce 10 different golf courses).

The last thing you want is a golf course to turn out exactly like it was designed on paper; like a computer model. Back at the turn of the century some architect's complained that the use of clay models resulted in features and courses that looked foreign to their native environment. Computer models, and an architect absent during construction have produced similar results... right down to the mowing lines. Ugh!

"Newly discovered facts" are unforeseen opportunities to better the project. Those the architect could never have conceived at the drafting table... which "overthrow" the original concepts, creating a whole new and better reality. Just one change on a hole can elicit a whole host of changes on other holes because you don't want holes to look or play similar.

The moral: Plans are not "absolutely certain and indisputable". We are humans after all, and to err is human. Therefore plans can only serve as a starting point for an expansive and expensive work of art, strategy and engineering. Only in the field can the architect make the swift and necessary adjustments to get the most from your site, budget and workers. You can't see opportunity from the next county or country, and you can't simply call in cutting-edge design changes.

The more time the architect spends leading construction, the better his decisions, the more opportunities seized, the more up to date are the workers... with new and critical "facts". All this added together improves the project drastically.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+49 (0)173 450 4552
+1(909) 581 0080

"Great and Inspiring" Freedom

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." Albert Einstein

Time = Freedom.

Limited time... limited freedom.

An architect on-site daily has maximum freedom, maximum flexibility. He is not in a hurry. He can view the work from all angles, in different conditions, and can make refinements as the work is being created... in real-time. Workers can ask for help at any time. Communication is free flowing and vibrant. Opportunities abound and are seized (remember... not even the most detailed plans can include every nuance).

Visiting the site every week, month or quarter, the "Typical Method", provides limited communication, oversight, and... flexibility. After all, how much communication can one deliver and emphasize in a handful of hours? Because time is limited, the architect is focused on putting out the hottest fires and will miss opportunities. Every day he is not present, he misses opportunities.

Limited time is limited freedom, and lost opportunities for the investor. It's why part-time involvement during construction, the most expensive and permanent design phase, rarely produces "great and inspiring" golf courses.

Tony Ristola

agolfarchitect.com

agolfarchitect@yahoo.com

+49 (0)173 450 4552
+1(909) 581 0080

Einstein on Plans and Planning

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." Albert Einstein

No golf architect has or ever will draw a perfect set of plans. It's impossible. Fact is, some things you just don't want to draw in detail. Greens for example. Now some will be screaming (especially some of my competitors)... "Say What!?"



















Nice and tidy green plan. But will the best possible solution be found by someone drawing lines on paper half a country away from the golf course, months before a single shovel of dirt is moved? Will the builder see this drawing as the architect does? No chance, as we are all influenced by our experiences.

What happens when a builder follows the eye of the plan and builds those dome like mounds as they are drawn? What happens when the architect doesn't like what is built and makes some suggestions, then leaves the site for weeks as the machine operator works in his absence. Will he do the job as the absent architect envisioned the second time? Is this the best way to build a greensite? No. But it is the standard method of building greens all over the world. Standard does not mean best; not by miles.

Hear me out... this is the short version...

If there isn't a natural green in the landscape, or one requiring just a bit of obvious alteration, an architect has to design one. What I prefer to do is estimate the amount of material required for the hole at hand, and draw concepts. Lots of concepts.

If need be, I'll keep drawing right up to the day the green is to be built. These drawing are ideas, general guidelines. By the time the day comes to shape the subgrade of the green, I have settled on a concept and set to work. Usually when tooling around, shaping the green I'll hit on something that alters it. This is a good thing, like sculpting clay. I get the best out of what is there, and detail I could never have drawn on paper, or imagined at the drawing board.

The problem with planning a green out inch by inch are multiple:

1. Architects are not omnipotent...

2. It takes longer to build.

3. Some just don't fit into the landscape as well as they should and because someone is creating the product absent of the architect they don't want to deviate because it could cost them and their company. Maybe the architect was looking for something special to him... and the builder just doesn't get it. How would the builder know?

4. What happens when an alteration is made to one green, one which should require an alteration to another green or greens so the holes or greens don't look or play similar? Those plans start to look less and less important.

The ability to change direction on a dime, to be flexible, to seek the best solution is not only faster... it produces a better product.

Not everything should be planned if it can be worked out in the field... or according to the great golf architect Einstein, "not everything that counts can be counted."

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Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.com
+49 (0)173 450 4552
+1(909) 581 0080