My route in to course design
He is England’s premier course designer, working on the large majority of The Open venues. This is Martin Ebert’s story...
My first memory of the game may have been watching the Masters, around 1978 I imagine. But it is very hazy! I do think watching the Masters at Augusta made quite an impression on me, whether it was my first memory or not. The Masters gets a bad press for giving golfers false expectations of how perfect their own courses should be, but I believe the tournament and course have inspired a lot of people to start playing the game.
I started playing by going to Colnbrook driving range near Heathrow. My mum worked at the airport, so I would be dropped off there and hit balls. That led to playing the par 3 course in the middle of Sandown Park racecourse, and at nearby Moore Place. Mum and Dad bought me a second-hand half set for around £10, but did not expect the fad to last that long. However, I then graduated to paying a green fee at Laleham Golf Club to sample its full 18hole course. I also started to watch the game on television and became a great fan of Seve and Bernhard Langer in particular.
I didn’t ever decide I wanted to become an architect, and, by the way, I prefer to refer to myself as a golf course designer rather than an architect as I have no qualifications as an architect. I did decide that I wanted to have a career in golf in some form, though, but I did not think that I could design courses.
My entry in to the industry came about through a lucky break. I had organised the Cambridge University tour of the United States in 1989, in order to celebrate the playing of the 100th Varsity Match against Oxford. That led me to want to do something in golf. A good friend from the Cambridge team, Andy Mackenzie, knew Donald Steel, and Andy’s brother Tom had started working for Donald a year before and needed some help. I did not know what I was going to an interview for when I went to meet Donald. I knew him more as a journalist than a golf course designer so I thought it could be to help him research his books, but it turned out to be to work within the design side of his activities. After all, this was the new course boom time. Tom had been working for Donald for a year already and was snowed under with projects. So I went in at the deep end!
At the time I was about to sign up for accountancy as I had been struggling to get anywhere in the golf world after finishing at Cambridge. I did have an offer from one or two accountancy firms, but Donald said that I could have a trial for six months and always go back to the accountancy as the firms said they would keep the offers open.
Do I look back in horror at some fledgling work I did? Yes and no. You learn so much over the years, of course, but in general I’ve been pleased with going back to projects which I worked on at the very start of my career. I have certainly been pleased by some of the green shapes I come across. Perhaps there is an argument that my earlier work was less constrained.
The one piece of design work I would still like to do is to design a new course on a flat piece of land which is pure sand. Reshaping the sand could produce a course which is Old Course in character. That would be a fascinating challenge of producing man-made nature.
I often try to imitate features or shapes of old courses in my work, but there is some great work being produced by some of the modern-day designers and that can provide ideas too. However, the old courses often provide the very best inspiration.
I am very critical of my own work, constantly reviewing whether I have got it right. It does give me concerns and worries, though, when I do feel as though the result should have been better.
As far as other people being critical, everyone has a right to their own opinion and there really are no rules when it comes to course design, so opinions are likely to vary dramatically. If a client has a criticism of a design, it is best to talk through the design process. When it comes to illinformed criticism, however, that is rather disappointing and often unhelpful.
I still love the game of golf, how courses can produce a beautiful landscape and, hopefully, an improvement on what was there before (but that is a tough one to judge and on what parameters should it be judged). I also love meeting the people who play the game and who love their courses or projects, and the continual fostering of friendships.
As for playing golf, I detest playing badly. That seems to be happening more and more as time goes on and I play less and less.
However, I do have my annual sequence of events which I really enjoy, consisting of the President’s Putter at Rye in January, the Spring Meeting of The R&A at St Andrews, the Askernish Open in the Outer Hebrides in August (the scene of perhaps my greatest round, when I shot 78 with two full submersions in the Atlantic!), and the Autumn Meeting of The R&A in September.
In recent years I have also played a few matches against the current Cambridge University team as my son, Elliot, is playing for them at the moment. We have had some great matches going either way.