How technology, sustainability and data reshaped golf course design

I’ve been reminiscing lately. The golf business is in the middle of this post-COVID boom, and it’s incredible how golf course design and maintenance is evolving. As many of us remember, the golf industry wasn’t always this active. So, what have we learned over the past 18-plus years?

I started out on my own in 2004. Within a year, we secured a contract to plan, design and build Sand Hollow Resort in southern Utah. I was designing a brand-new course on my own, and my new venture was off to the races.

The 27-hole resort course opened in 2008, right as the financial crisis and historic banking failures hit. What had looked like prosperous times ahead suddenly came to a screeching halt. In 2009, I posted a goose egg for revenue — zero, nada. No one was hiring golf course architects, and the profession itself felt like it was fading into the past.

After the meltdown, I secured a three-year contract with a Southern California utility company promoting energy and water efficiency. At the time, the golf industry had very little understanding of tracking water usage or power consumption. Utility bills were buried in accounting offices, and conversations about sustainability often felt awkward, as if I were the “resource police.” Today, that information is front and center. It’s hard to find a club that doesn’t know those numbers off the top of its head.

One of the ways I stayed active in design work was through turf and bunker reduction planning. It was a period of adaptation. Water and energy costs were rising, play was declining and courses were closing at an alarming rate. Our planning process was our own experience combined with gut instinct to predict how players used the golf course.

Today, planning has become far more sophisticated. GPS tracking on carts and players now helps determine turf footprints, while shot data defines carry distances for golfers of all skill levels. Advances in bunker liners, sand technology and irrigation efficiency have made larger bunker programs financially viable again. 

I remember back then making sales calls encouraging clubs to plan for the future. Projects that once seemed enormous — a $1 million irrigation system, a $500,000 bunker renovation or a $250,000 turf replacement — are now modest by comparison. Fast forward to today, many full-course renovations are regularly exceeding $20 million. 

What a turnaround.

As I think back, the industry was just beginning to confront another major issue: labor shortages and rising operating costs.

Recently, I’ve worked on incredible projects that re-imagine their properties — far removed from the low-maintenance concepts that dominated after the recession. The “less is more” philosophy has clearly shifted back toward creating strategic challenge, restoring architectural intent and honoring many original designs that had been lost over time. But, we still have work to do regarding quality labor. 

As I reflect on the past 18 years, I give tremendous credit to superintendents. This community not only survived one of the most difficult periods in the industry’s history but evolved because of it. Superintendents expanded their expertise in architecture and how it relates to long-term maintenance. You’re fluent in construction practices, resource management and environmental stewardship while embracing new technologies in irrigation, robotic mowing and even artificial intelligence. At the same time, you’ve continued managing teams and operations in an era when working with people may be harder than ever.

Looking around today, it’s remarkable to witness the rebound we’re in the middle of.