Demosthenes,.. and being "over-optimistic"

"...five centuries before Christ Demosthenes noted that: "What a man wishes, he will believe." And in self appraisals of prospects and talents it is the norm, as Demosthenes predicted, for people to be ridiculously over-optimistic. For instance, a careful survey in Sweden showed that 90% of automobile drivers considered themselves above average. And people who are successfully selling something, as investment counselors do, make Swedish drivers sound like depressives. Virtually every investment expert’s public assessment is that he is above average, no matter what is the evidence to the contrary." Speech by Charlie Munger on Institutional Funds Management

Usually an optimist... when it comes to building golf courses... I'm a pessimist. It's why I'm on-site daily during construction.

Visiting and playing courses around the globe, I've seen too many good properties fall short. It wouldn't have cost more money to achieve excellence at most of these places, it only required more leadership during construction. More communication... more time... more attention to detail.

All the optimism and good vibes during the sales meeting and all the grand visions during planning won't ensure an excellent golf course unless an architect invests a lot of time explaining it to the builders and monitoring their work in real-time.

The 'typical' method of designing and building golf courses resembles those Swedish drivers. I'll refer you to the following as an example of a "signature" architect's detailed plans and 2% involvement during construction going awry: http://www.agolfarchitect.com/theterribletruth.htm

Evidence, 100-years worth, shows the best golf courses are produced by an architect leading construction daily, and lucky for some investors, there is barely a handful of us in the world working this way...

... so, if you want to be overly optimistic... hire someone who's not. Someone who knows how much work it takes, who is willing to "go the extra mile" to create excellence.

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