Looking Out at March … and April

Spring Brook 1991 - I have much older ones too

This will be the last quiet month, so I’m using it to get some preparation work done.  

I’m scheduled to be in New Jersey in early April, so the year will begin right away. I’ll start the work on Spring Brook’s Master Plan and work full time on that project until Cedar Brae’s construction work starts up or I can get to Pennhills. I have already prepared a digital base plan for Spring Brook and I’ll add in the original bunker locations for reference this week.

I’ll get to Pennhills in northern Pennsylvania later in April as soon as the weather allows. I was working on the club history last week collecting interesting information with the help of two members. The club has a full set of Travis drawings including green plans, hole plans and an overall plan. This treasure of information gives me lots to work on this month. What will be interesting about Pennhils is the back nine was done by Dick Wilson and I’ll be able to see what choices he made different from Travis and the impact they had. I’ll get the base done, with notations from the plans this week ready for the course walk.

2nd green

Next week I interview in Miami with a golf course with a rich history. I’ve been collecting historical information to make a set of recommendations outside of the architecture. The architecture is mostly intact and the previous work to the course is solid, so my interest is more along the edges than in the interior.

There is a possibility that I’ll have another interview on the following week. I’m down to the final two on a course that I dearly love.  I went to visit the club socially a number of years ago and thought about the incredible potential the course held. I was asked to submit a proposal this year and the process has got us down to the final two. I hope to get this opportunity.

The final week brings the USGA Seminar on 26^th in Boston. I’m the last speaker of the day talking about the Future of Golf Architecture which might as well be Future of Golf. I touch on the usual suspects like access to water, pesticide and fertility, legislation, economics, growing the game through design, growing environments, perimeters in Melbourne, maintenance in the UK and finish with architecture changing to facilitate change.

That week I’ll also walk a Ross course that has expressed some interest, spend a day with Plymouth Country Club reviewing work we’ve done over the last few years and talking about what work will get done next and see a few Bruins games.

I thought I was going to have a quiet year, but things have picked up. I won’t have a super busy year like the last two, but I have far more potential for this one to be a lot of fun than I did in November.