AP Design
Why the Palmer Approach makes for great golf
AAndy Warhol once said that “land is really the best art.” There’s a potential paradox there in that, untouched, landscapes remain largely consistent over time and no two landscapes are identical. In contrast, Warhol worked in pop art, a genre enamored with fleeting trends and explorations of mass reproduction and repetition. One wonders what Warhol would have made of golf course architecture, then, a field in which modern trends influence unique projects shaped on ancient landscapes. Of course, architects seek to avoid repetition even if there is a certain consistency to their approaches—they’re not unlike most artists in that, though golf course designers are as much engineers as they are creatives. Among designers, Arnold Palmer brought a legendary perspective to the courses on which he worked, more than 300 around the world. Two of the men who worked with Palmer, Thad Layton and Brandon Johnson, continue to use Palmer’s approach to great effect, evolving and building on its foundation as they bring their own vision and modern technologies to projects. Here, they help to outline the 5 Guides by which APDC works to design the future of the game. At its core an approach handed down to Layton and Johnson, to us this list offers a peek inside the mind of a legend.
Strategy — Risk-Reward
Though he could smash the ball (see: Cherry Hills, 1960) Arnold Palmer famously championed strategic design and play, shot-shaping and decision-making versus a tech-driven pursuit for distance above all. In this his vision as a player is well presented in his work as a course designer, with APDC architects asking two critical questions during planning: (1) Does the course grow more interesting the more you play it? (2) If a person could only play one course for the rest of his or her life, does this offer enough? And in the final design the architects invite golfers to ask questions of themselves as well, such as “Do I have the skill (or guts) to go for it?” More than simply introducing bunkers or moving earth to accommodate design, APDC architects utilize a site’s natural landscape to maximize its strategic potential, ultimately blurring the line between the two to create a natural experience that enthralls players while honoring a site. Pure Scene Golf Club in Kunming, China, is a good reference, while more recent examples include Fazenda Boa Vista in Brazil and the NCSU/Lonnie Poole facility in North Carolina.
Environmental Stewardship (Sustainability)
In addition to being a key tenet of the Palmer Approach, environmental stewardship is an inherent part of golf, which began as a game played on an existing landscape, and often a “leftover” landscape at that; the land in-between the sea and a town, for example (linksland) or pastures not in use. APDC is sensitive to every environment’s unique and diverse aspects and to how the course will evolve within the landscape. This means a sense of responsibility to the site that extends far into the future and a “light touch” approach to design that will help to preserve natural features and balances. Old Tabby Links at Spring Island, South Carolina, was a pioneering course in what eventually became the “green” movement in design today. Its commitment to environmental stewardship and its low-density, low-impact development philosophy still resonates, while more recent APDC projects such as Las Piedras in Uruguay continue to draw the future for responsible design.
“When I am playing or when I am looking to build a golf course, it’s the same thing all the time. There are times when I see 100 or 200 acres of land that I think, ‘My goodness, what a golf course that could be!’ I almost see the holes, and then I get into the details of where I want to put sand traps and what kind of greens I’d like to build. There’s a never-ending desire to create. You try to create something that is fun for people, environmentally correct, and aesthetically the kind of thing people will go out and enjoy.” Arnold Palmer
Concern for the land goes hand-in-hand with concern for the quality of the golf course
Fun/Variety
As critical a component of the Palmer Approach as strategic design and environmental stewardship, “fun” is the entire point of the game. From its earliest course designs ADPC has endeavored to ensure that golf courses offer something for everyone and as much fun and variety in play as one could possibly pack into 18 holes. Fun and variety over frustration and futility is a guiding principle that’s well on display on courses such as Wexford Plantation, which offers as many ways to get the ball to the cup as there are styles of play. More recently, APDC’s Lakewood National in Florida is a strong enough challenge for the PGA’s Web.com Tour but it offers tremendous fun for the residents and guests of the Sarasota neighborhood in which it sits. Another great example is Royal Golf Club in Minnesota, a fantastic modern track co-designed with another legend, Annika Sorenstam.
History/Preservation/Growth of the Game
Few professions beyond golf course architecture offer such a big and interactive opportunity to address a vocation’s past while simultaneously building its future. Arnold Palmer learned golf ’s history and traditions at a young age and they were important to him in all aspects of his career. Similarly, Layton and Johnson take their responsibility to their mentor and craft very seriously, honoring legends of the past while constantly pushing design to help grow the game’s future. Whether it’s being inspired by specific design theories and ideas from the past or simply working to the incredibly high standard established by Palmer, APDC uses cutting-edge technology to shape an ancient game. They believe in golf ’s truest origins even as they seek to lessen their impact and to increase their efficiency (and cost to owners) by utilizing the profession’s latest advances. Consider The Saticoy Club in California, a recent restoration of a modern classic course that came with serious innovations benefitting players, owners and the land itself. Likewise, the firm’s home course at Bay Hill in Orlando serves as a kind of testing ground, a traditional course and PGA Tour venue on which subtle innovations yield big results (and a world-class practice facility in recent years). Lastly, APDC’s legacy of opening up emerging markets remains intact, with a catalog of courses in such locations as China (the first modern course in mainland China is an APDC course), Kazakhstan and Uruguay, among other places.
Beauty
It’s argued that a course’s true beauty and authenticity derive from its context, the region and site presented, and the best examples are testament to this. But whether a site is a Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica or a Tralee in Ireland, for example—APDC designs often lauded for their stunning aesthetic impacts—or something less obvious, it is up to a course architect to see potential in every site and to reveal a site’s greatest possibilities. APDC architects are committed to improving the planet and the lives of the people on it with beautiful, responsible fields of play, and part of that includes ensuring that APDC designs are as aesthetically pleasing as possible, showcasing nature’s incredible beauty in inspiring environments that speak to the heart even as they appeal to the athlete. Saticoy Club with its ocean and farmland views, Tradition Golf Club (Arnold Palmer’s California home) with its floral displays (created in honor of Palmer’s longtime first wife, Winnie), Shingle Creek, the courses in South and Central America, Spring Island, Teton Pines… The list goes on, all of them worthy of a picture book. And now, the course at Aviara in Carlsbad, California, a Palmer design that’s set to be revisited by APDC in the next few years, one more example of the evolving Palmer Approach and a project that exemplifies beauty, environmental sustainability, strategic design, respect for history and a commitment to fun and variety—in other words, another fantastic APDC course.
APDC architects can reveal any site’s best potential, no matter the landscape