Golf Course Architecture - Issue 62: October 2020

55 important that the characteristics of the houses are not alien to the character of the golf course. Hide a little bit, glimpse the properties,” he says. “Then there is the safety issue – the obvious answer is mounds alongside the holes, but house buyers want to see the course. House buyers don’t want balls in their gardens, but they still want to live next to a golf course. Yet it must be safe. If you are working for a developer of properties, his focus will be to build houses – the right number, in the right place, for the maximum return. And sometimes safety takes a back seat. You can get a premium price for the best views, but the best views are the ones most likely to have a safety problem.” “When integrating golf and residential it is essential that all the safety setbacks are adhered to and wherever possible increased, especially in risky areas like the inside of dog- legs,” says Gary Johnston, a designer at European Golf Design. “We generally try to supplement this with physical elements such as water or trees that dissuade golfers from playing too close to property boundaries. “At Dubai Hills, the developer was keen to maximise the amount of golf frontage but maintain a degree of privacy for the homeowners. Being desert there were no natural lakes and very few trees. The solution was to supplement the safety setbacks with a significant change in elevation created by lowering the golf course and using the resulting material to raise the residential platforms. The result is a golf course that averages five- to-six metres below the housing, and can be as much as eight-to-ten metres, but has a genuine feeling of separation for both golfers and homeowners alike. An additional benefit is the increased safety that the elevation change creates as stray shots need to be much higher and longer to reach the housing.” Craig says: “By now we can hopefully all agree that narrow corridors with housing on both sides, make for weak designs. Having out of bounds on both sides of the golf hole makes for a claustrophobic feel and takes all enjoyment away from the game. The Old course, however, has out of bounds on almost every hole, but because there is the width of at least two golf holes before the other property line it creates a great playing experience.” Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan says that development golf is a double-edged sword. “There are conflicting players in this question,” he stresses. “On the one side you have a developer that wants to minimise risk and maximise revenue and potential profit – more houses, tighter corridors. On the other you have the golfer, who wants the quality of the experience – natural and pure golf – and a homeowner that wants a beautiful setting, most golf course homeowners are not golfers, and want a home that will hold or Golf at Dubai Hills is in places 10 metres lower than housing, adding to the feeling of separation for both golfers and homeowners Photo: GCA “When integrating golf and residential it is essential that all the safety setbacks are adhered to and wherever possible increased”