Golf Course Architecture - Issue 63, January 2021

54 slow to retire!). Jan Bel Jan, one of the industry’s few long-established women, and recently president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, notes the importance of this factor. “As with most professions with relatively few practitioners, if there is not awareness that the profession exists, there is little likelihood that there would be many aspirants to said profession,” she says. “For years, male- to-female golfers has hovered around 80/20 (in the US). So it makes sense that most golf content is about and by men, including stories involving golf course architecture.” Minneapolis-based architect Kari Haug, who is leading the European Institute of Golf Course Architects’ efforts to open the business up to women, says: “While little boys grow up watching and learning from fathers or other male role models who might participate on greens committees, work as superintendents or even golf course architects, little girls usually don’t have this same experience.” Haug says the absence of a mentor can create a “generational gap” in professional knowledge for women golf course architects: “Most architects learn the art while working with a mentor or as an apprentice. Skill development is facilitated through this relationship and further, mentees are introduced to the mentor’s network of professional colleagues. When there are not women to mentor other women or men who are willing to step up, there are few shoulders for young women to stand upon to facilitate career development.” Haug, whose mentor was American architect Garrett Gill, also emphasises the importance of role models. Hers was Alice Dye. “One of my biggest business disappointments is that I never got to meet her before her passing,” says Haug. “One of my In the field, clockwise from top left, golf course architects Angela Moser, Kari Haug, Kristine Kerr, Giulia Ferroni and Jan Bel Jan Photo: Daniel McEvoy WOMEN IN GOL F DES IGN Photo: Joann Dost