37 The cover story of the latest issue of By Design magazine – produced for the American Society of Golf Course Architects by the team responsible for GCA – considers how collaboration has helped to address some of golf’s biggest challenges. “People are very willing to share – I do, because it’s validating,” says architect Jan Bel Jan. “Sharing ideas makes it a lot easier for club governors to accept a proposal. When you say this was successful at this club and made that club money, the option is definitely more persuasive.” The Summer issue of By Design also includes insight from Jeff Brauer and some of the designs submitted to ‘The Great Junior Golf Design Challenge of 2022’. To download the latest issue and subscribe to By Design, visit www.asgca.org “Sharing ideas is validating” GOOD READ BY DESIGN Excellence in Golf Design from the American Society of Golf Course Arch itects ISSUE 58 // SUMMER 2022 COLLABORATION How working together helped golf course architects address some of the industry’s major challenges ALSO: // Design prodigies // RainDance National // Red Rocks CC REACHING OUT Jeff Brauer provides insight into plans for his new role as Director of Outreach of the ASGCA section drawings and notes tell us exactly how to construct them!” Straka adds that the work on greens has been akin to an archaeological dig. “Here and elsewhere, we would excavate a green complex and find not one set of old drainage but two or three – all piled on top of each other!” he says. “The inverted-saucer green, such a staple of the so-called ‘Ross style’, is a bit of a fallacy. Those putting surfaces became that way through multiple rebuilds and decades of top-dressing. Ross’s original plans for Belleair make that very clear. They show all but two of these greens were originally designed and built with entries at zero grade. “It’s a pretty rich irony: Ross returned here in 1924 with the intention to make the West course much more difficult, and I’m sure he succeeded there. However, in restoring that design in 2022, almost to the letter, we are making the course far more user-friendly. Yes, we are re-exposing ravines and streams that had been filled in over the years. However, by following the Ross plans, these greens won’t be playing six feet in the air, and we’ll be expanding all the fairways back to their intended width – a full 50 per cent wider.” Belleair is planning to reopen the West course by mid-November 2022. Clockwise from far left, an original Ross drawing of the eighteenth; Ross, who returned to redesign the West course in 1924; The Belleview hotel was located next to the layout before it was torn down in 2017 (a portion was restored as the Belleview Inn); and the fourth green following the redesign
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